James Green, Texas

Collected by the Federal Writers Project, Works Progress Administration

Publishing Information

James Green
Nixon
February 8, 1938
(Yes)
James Green is half American Indian and half Negro, who
believes in Fate, and indeed his nearly half century of life has
been so crowded with the unexpected that there is little wonder
he considers himself a victim of destiny. He was born a slave,
then became a "free boy", only to be kidnapped and sold in
Virginia slave market to a Texas ranchman. His mind is
remarkably clear and his reminiscences are interesting, not only
because of his own eventful experiences, but because they shed
colorful light upon the moral conditions that existed in Texas
slave colonies.
1. This old ex-slave is a strange appearing black Redskin with an intense
expression, piercing eyes, and long white hair the texture of cotton. A
research worker discovered him sitting on the porch of a comfortable
San Antonio house at 323 North Olive Street, chatting away like a
youngster to his wife. He is ninety-seven and his wife, Lizzie, is eightysix. During the Civil War they slaved on adjoining ranches in
Columbus, Texas. But thereby hangs a tale which can best be told in the
old man's own words:
2. "I never knew my age until after de Civil War when I was set free for
de second time. Then my marster gets out a great big book and it
showed dat I was twenty-five years old. It shows more too: It shows I
was twelve when I was bought and $800 was paid for me. Dat $800
was stolen money, cose I was kidnapped. Dis is about how it come:
3. "My mother was owned by John Williams of Petersburg, Virginia. I
come born to her on a plantation, and den my father went about getting
me free. He was a full blooded Indian, and had done some big favor for
a big man high up in de courts, and by and bye Mr. Williams comes to
my mother and says I am a 'free boy'. I never knowd what was mixed
up in it, but Mr. Williams used to laugh and call me 'free boy, Jim'. I
never had to do much work for nobody but my mother.

4. "Then, one day, along comes a Friday. Friday is my unlucky star and it
is my lucky star day, too. I was playin' around de house, Mr. Williams
comes up and says:
5. "'Delia, will you let Jim walk down the street with me?'
6. "'All right, moster,' says my mother. 'And, Jim, you be a good boy.
7. "Dat was de last time I ever heard my mother speak, or ever see her. We
walks down where de houses grows close together, and pretty soon we
comes to de slave market. I ain't ever seed one before and didn't knowd
what it was. Mr. Williams says to me to get up on de block. It was
about so high --(three feet). I gets up like I was told. As soon as I stood
straight I got a funny feelin'. I knows somehow what was happenin'.
But I just stood there. In a few minutes they told me to get down and
turned me over to a man named John Pinchback.
8. "Pinchback was my new master. He had St. Vitus dance. It seems he
likes to make niggers suffer to make up for his own squirmin' and
twistin'. He was the biggest devil on earth.
9. "We starts to leave right away for Texas. My master lives there on a
ranch in Columbus. It was a part plantation and part wild country, and it
was owned by two men, Pinchback and Wright. I was put to work when
we got there without eating. I was told to carry de water for de stock.
10."Dat night I makes up my mind to run away. But de next day they
drives me and some other new slaves over to look at the dogs. The dogs
lived in a fine house with a fence around it. Den they chooses me to
train de dogs with. I was told I had to play the part of a runnin' away
slave. Before I start they tells me to run any direction I want and after I
had run five miles to climb up in a tree. I didn't know what it meant, but
one of the nigger drivers tells me kind of nice to climb up as high in de
tree as I could if I didn't want my body to be tore off my legs. So I runs
a good five miles and climbs up in a tree where the branches was gettin'
small.
11. "I sits there a long time. Den I sees the dogs comin'. They had their
heads down not lookin' where they was runnin'. When they gets under
my tree they stops and runs around. Den they looks up and sees me and
starts to bark. After dat I never got thinkin' of runnin' away, and I don't
believe no slave ever escaped from Texas in spite of all de stories de
niggers tells.

12."Time goes on and de war comes along. Half of it must have been over
before I knows about it. Everythin' goes on just like it did. No change
come in our life at all. Sometimes slaves die and get put in a box. De
driver would go and tell Pinchback and he would come out and tell
someone to dig a hole. He'd say: 'De rest of you niggers get out on de
field and go to work.' It didn't make no difference if it was a mother or
what dat died. De chillen had to go out and work and not even see
where the hole was dug.
13."But more slaves was gettin' born dan dies--old Pinchback would see to
dat himself. He breeds de niggers as quick as he can, like cattle, cause
dat means money for him. He chooses de wife for every man on the
place. No one had no say as to who he was goin' to get for a wife. All
de weddin' ceremony we had was with Pinchback's finger pointin' out
who was whos' wife. If a woman wern't a good breeder she had to do
work with de men, but Pinchback tried to get rid of women who didn't
have chillen. He would sell her and tell de man who baught her dat she
was all right to own.
14."But de nigger husbands wern't the only ones dat keeps up havin'
chillen. De mosters and the drivers takes all de nigger girls day want.
One slave had four chillen right after the other with a white moster.
Their chillen was brown, but one of 'em was white as you is. But dey
was all slaves just de same, and de niggers dat had chillen with de
white men didn't get treated no better. She got no more away from work
dan de rest of 'em.
15."One day I sees Lizzie (his second wife shown in the photograph)
[Editor's note: We have not located the photograph referred to here.]
workin' in de field when she was a girl. She was owned by Pinchback's
brother. But dat William Pinchback was a kind master. Well, I likes her
and she likes me. But nobody could marry any one dat didn't belong to
de same moster. It was many years before Fate fixes things so we
comes together and marries. But my first wife was a good woman too.
Her name was Mary Hardy. I never had no chillen by her. She dies of
pneumonia two years after I marries her.
16."After a while de end of de war came. We didn't know nothin' about it.
They was about 125 niggers workin' out in the field when old
Pinchback come limpin' along. All he says to us was:
17."'You niggers come on in. Don't do nothin', but be around, and in the
mornin all of you comes to de big house.'

18."Well we gets talkin' and figurin' and we decides dat maybe we was
free. It was on a Friday again, and I tells 'en the war was sure over and
we was goin' to get freed. Saturday mornin' comes and we all stands
around waitin'. Den out comes Pinchback carrin' a great big book. He
tells us:
19."'All you niggers is free--just as damn free as I am.'
20."Den he opens his book and gives us all a name. I had my own name
dat was give to me by my father. He tells us all about ourself--where we
come from and how old we was. After he got dun with this he says he
will pay any of us niggers forty cents a day to work for him. He says
that those niggers who don't want to stay can get out by sundown.
About half the niggers stays on and about half of 'en starts scattering in
different directions. I stayed on for some over a year and got my forty
cents like he promises.
21."No great change come about in de way we went on. We had de same
houses, only we all got credit from de store and baught our own food.
We got shoes and what clothes we wanted, too. Some of us got whipped
just de same but nobody got nailed to a tree by his ears. De white men
in de habit of havin' Negro girls still goes on havin' them. I don't know
how much dey paid 'em for it, but they got treated better. But after de
war folks, white and black folks, looks down on white men and black
women who had children together. Before we was free nobody thought
nothin' about it.
22."It wasn't long before old Pinchback dies himself. And what do you
think? When he was buried de lightnin' came and split de grave and de
coffin wide open.
23."Well times goes on some more. Den comes along another Friday. On
dat Friday Lizzie here she comes along over. She looks just like she did
when I seed her in the field. We gets together and we marries regular
with a real weddin'. And today is Friday, and my son-in-law, is gettin on
good."
24.The old ex-slave seemed to think that this was a very fitting place to
end his narrative and he settled back in his chair, thoroughly pleased
with his efforts. However, the old man was pressed further and was
asked if he could remember any songs the Negroes sang in Civil War
days. This was the only one he could recall:
25."Old moster eats beef and sucks on de bone,
And gives us de gristle --

To make, to make, to make, to make,

To make de nigger whistle."
26.The song ended, accompanied by gay laughter from Lizzie, and then
the researcher turned to Mollie Huff, the aged couples daughter. She
was asked what she thought about her father's story. "Right fair
enough", she thought it was, but she took exception to her father's claim
that he was half Indian. It was fortunate, however, that she was present
for she remembered an old Negro song that her mother sang to her
when she was a child:
"I goes to church in de early morn,
De birds just a-sittin' on de tree-Sometimes my clothes gets very much worn,
Caus I wears dem out at de knee.
I sings an' I shouts wid all my might
To drive away de cold-An' de bells keep a-ringin' in de gospel light,
Till de story of de Lamb is told."