A Texas History Lesson

This is an excerpt taken from "The Texas Slave Narratives." My family on my mother's side has an interesting history. And because they were able to keep some records I'll be able to share that history with my children. Below is a transcription taken from my great-great grandfather Rev. Almont Moore Sr.

Enjoy - Lady Richardson



A. M. "Mount " Moore, an aged Negro preacher and school teacher of Harrison County, was born in 1846 as a slave of W. R. Sherrad, who, in the early 1830's, settled a large plantation 8 miles northeast of Marshall. His father died during the Civil War, and his mother and family continued to work for the Sherrads until three years after Emancipation was declared. He remained with his mother until he was grown, when he left home to work as a day laborer on adjoining farms. Mount later received four years college training at Bishop and Wiley Universities in Marshall, and was awarded a teacher's certificate by the County School Board. The major portion of his life has been devoted to teaching and preaching professions. He is now retired from active service and owns his own farm, where he resides, about eight miles east of Marshall on land that was once a part of his original Master's plantation. Since his retirement about six years ago, he has been supported entirely from the earnings of his farm.

"My name is Almont M. Moore. I was bo'n right here in Harrison County in 1846, and belonged to Master W. R. Sherrad. My Master was one of the first settlers in these parts and owned a big plantation, eight miles northeast of Marshall. My father was Jiles D. Moore. He was born in Alabama. My mother was Anna K. Moore and was born in Mississippi. They came to Texas as slaves. I remember my grandmother on my mother's side.

Her name was Cherry and she belonged to the Sherrads. She said her original owners in the old states give her and all his slaves a field of ground to work for their own. They had free access to it and could work it and have what it made, or sell it and have the money. She said the slaves where she come from were not punished and prosecuted like we was. In my time in slavery we only knowed the way to the field and back to the house. Granny Cherry used to tell how her old Master give his slaves teams to work their land with and gardens and tools and hogs and most everything. In my time, everything belonged to the Master. The slaves didn't have anything of their own. My grandmother Cherry said the Indians give them a hot time when they first come to Texas. Finally they become friendly and you never heard of raids on the white folks. Sometimes the Indians and the white folks would have a falling out and the Indians would have to leave. The most of the Indians had a name of being good people. Sometimes they would steal produce and stuff. My Mistress was Lucinda Sherrad. She had a world of children. Master's folks lived in a big log house that had a upstairs and down stairs. I remember they had some kind of contrivance they sawed all the lumber with. They burnt their brick there on the place. You couldn't tell it was a log house less you went up in the attic where it wasn't cealed. Master had some slaves that was good mechanics that help build the house. His quarters look like a town with the houses all in lines. Master whipped his slaves when they disobeyed. They had laws for the slaves to be governed by. If you violated them, they whipped you. Those that done real bad crimes were whipped severely. Ordinarily Master didn't have to whip his slaves so much. My Mother and the older folks told us about the traders yard at New Orleans. The traders brought the Negroes there from North Carolina, South Carolina and other States, and men from Texas bought them like cattle. I've known some owners that let their slaves that were industrious enough to work make hats, shoes and other things and sell them to the neighbors to get a little money with. Some owners would let them raise potatoes and produce and sell it to get a dime or two. Lots of them through here wouldn't let them have nothing. Some of the owners let the slaves read and write, but the majority didn't allow them to look at a book. I've known courts in Harrison County to fine slave owners for not clothing and feeding their slaves right. I thought that was right cause lots of them was too stingy to treat them right less they was made to do it. It used to be a law in Harrison County that the owners had to give their slaves so much clothes or they would fine them. Corn-shucking was the big sport for the Negroes and whites too in slavery time. Some of the owners give a big dance when they was through with the cornshucking, but my Master's folks were religious and always had a religious service at the close of the cornshuckings. I went to a Methodist Church in slavery times. It was up the road just a mile from where I live now. It had two floors, one for the whites and one for the slaves. Most of the preaching was done by white preachers. Just before the war they begin to let the Negroes preach, and allowed them to have books, especially hymn books and the Bible. During the Civil War the children were reading anything they could find to read. I remember that the Civil War went on four years in Harrison County. After Emancipation and the war subsided, the young white men that returned from the war treated the slaves nice in this part of the country. Down in Louisiana lots of the owners divided syrup, meat, and other things with the slaves. Through here, the industrious ones learned to save money and buy homes. It was their own fault if they never had anything. My brother and me bought and paid for 500 acres of land after emancipation. We kept posted on the war all the time. White soldiers were drafted and lots of them went without being drafted. I remember Mistress reading letters from our folks that was in the war. She would read it and say, They had a big battle yesterday. Sometimes they would say when they would be home on a visit. Sometimes they got to come and sometime they didn't. Lots of the white soldiers from this county took one, two, three and four slaves with them to wait on them. When the Master would go to war he left the place in charge of the Mistress and trusted slaves. I was a pretty big boy when surrender come. Master called all the slaves up to the house after supper and told them they was free. It was our understanding that he did not want to free us, but he had to. He told us just what he would give us if we would stay on and help get the crop out that year. Lots of his hands stayed right on there a long time after the freedom. They soon put soldiers at Marshall and Shreveport and the owners that didn't free the slaves was arrested. They didn't have much trouble through here. My father died during the war, and my mother stayed on with Master Sherrad for most three years after surrender. The emancipation called for a new chapter on the part of the colored people. During slavery when they went to sell you if you had a wife, they sell you from her anyhow. If you had brothers and sisters they sold you from them.

Generally the colored people had a chance to get back with their folks after emancipation. I stayed with my mother till I was grown then I left and hired out on the farm. Farm hands was paid from $10.00 to $15.00 a month then, depending on the accuracy and industry of the hand. I remember the Ku Klux being in the country but never had any contact with them. The colored folks had a big school turnout and dinner one summer. I was interested in hearing them talk about the Ku Klux might come round. I didn't particularly want to see them, but if they come round I knowed I would. There was so many tales about them that we thought they was robbers. The white folks didn't understand the Negroes and the Negroes didn't understand the white folks. Lots of the white folks was ambitious and started the Ku Klux. They come to Negro gatherings and take what they wanted. That was lawlessness. In the midst of that lots of conservative white men tried to prevent it. I first made a living from farming. Then I went to school at Wiley and Bishop Colleges here in Marshall four years. I holds a county teachers certificate. I have taught school in Harrison and Gregg Counties and Caddo Parish, Louisiana. I had been to school and taught school several years before I married. I first professed religion in the Baptist Church when I was about twelve years old. I started preaching in 1880 and for seven or eight years was District Missionary for the Texas-Louisiana Missionary Baptist Association. I have preached and organized churches all over East Texas. I raised six children. Two boys and two girls are still living. The girls are married and live in Longview, Texas. One of the boys farms and the other is a preacher here in Harrison County. I have voted in the county and president elections. I think it is wrong that the Negroes can't vote like the white folks. Instead of hindering them, they ought to instruct them. The young Negroes now have a better foundation for knowledge than I had. They have their own schools, churches and preachers and teachers. They ought to have better judgment than I had, but I doubt many of them having it. Today we have many real educated teachers, preachers and leaders that we are not ashamed of. I think that the most of the churches of the Negro race of today are as substantial in their doctrine as any of the white peoples' churches. We believe that the Bible is God given, God sent and God revealed."



Taken from the "Texas Slaves Narratives" and transcribed by Eleanor Wyatt