The following is from The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
Supllement, Series 1, Vol 1, Alabama Narratives. This was a federal writers
project that interviewed former slaves. I found it in the Virginia Library in
Richmond. Molly Ammonds, the former slave, talks about her "Marse Lee Cato",
but it is obviously Lewis Lewellen Cato. His wife was named Martha and his
house in Eufaula is on College Hill.
Ammonds, Molly Federal
Writers Project
Baldwin County, Alabama
Aunt Molly said she was the mother of "thirty children". She said, "
Honey,
you aint gwinder bleve dis, but Jesus,got em counted and so is me". She was
born in a log cabin with a loft to it on Marse Lee Cato's plantation five
miles on the west side of Eufaula. Her "Pa" was named Tobe Cato and her
"Ma"
Sophia. she had one sister, Marthy and two brothers, Bong and Toge. She said
she remembers well her "Pa" made all their furniture and her "Ma"
cooked in
the fire place. Their favorite bread was "ash cake". She said, "Hit et
alright
for dem times, but I don't like em now". Ash cakes were made out of meal,
water and a little pinch of lard; on Sundays they were made from flour,
buttermilk and lard, her "Ma" would rake all the ashes out clean then
"kiver
de ash cake up wid hot ashes til hit was done."
Aunt Molly says as well as she can "recollect" she was about twelve or
fourteen when freedom came, "cause she married Pastor Ammonds, dey walked over
to Georgetown and hit was de first time she ebber had any shoes, and he got
dem for her from his old Marster". Aunt Molly's life on the "quarter"
was not
as happy as others, "Cause Marse Lee lived in town". She married in a calico
stripped dress (her Sunday dress). The slaves all wore clothes made of
osanburg. She said, "Marse Lee's plantation was about two and a half miles
long and three miles wide, and she remembers two overseers, they were both "po
white trash", and mean, one was named "Lee" but "Marse Lee
wouldn't 'low dem
to be whipped"; she says the overseer worked her Ma and Pa so hard, but when
Marse Lee and Mistis Marthy would ride out to the plantation in their carriage
with their high stepping black horses, then that"mean low down po white trash
Lee would act lack he was good."
Her "Pa" could not hunt, had to work too hard, but her "Ma" had a
garden,
"little patch behind the cabin and raised lots of chickens, didn't have no
cows or pigs, got their milk from the milk house. The only work she ever did
during slavery time was to nurse the little niggers on the plantation while
their parents were in the fields.
She never saw any cruelty, never saw any slaves in chains. "Marse Lee" had a
church built called a "brush house", had a floor and seats, and the top was
covered with pine boughs, and Old Man Cato would preach every Sunday, "Marse
Lee's Pa". "Her "Ma's" favorite song was "I heard de
voice ob Jesus say" and
her Pa's "I's guine home to die no more". They were baptized in the
creek when
they "got religion". None of them were ever taught to read or write. No slaves
ever ran away, "Marse Lee" was good and they had plenty to eat. After they
came home from the fields at night, "they wuz most always so tired they went
right to bed except when they had barbecues. Marse Lee had two or three a year
for them. Christmas was their big time, they would have several days rest, but
Aunt Molly said, "All dem no count niggers would get drunk."
When any of the slaves were sick "Marse Lee" would send Dr. Thornton from
Eufaula to doctor them, and give them medicine.
All her children are dead or wandered away, her husband, Pastor Ammonds, has
been dead, "going on twenty years", she lives in a little rose-covered cottage
that she owns. I asked Aunt Molly what she thought of Abraham Lincoln,
Jefferson Davis, and Booker T. Washington. She said, "Honey, I aint nebber met
any of dem gentlemens."
The Southern planters were rich because the land they owned was of virgin soil
of great fertility and the slaves who did all the work contented and happy.
The "mean" overseer was few ands far between. The products of the plantations
satisfied all the wants of the planter and his slaves and the sale of the
cotton crop gave them ample means for all else that was necessary, therefore
they dispensed their hospitality in princely style. Aunt Molly's "Marse Lee
Cato" was one of these and his mansion is standing today on College Hill in
Eufaula.
I don't know who she was talking about when she said old man Cato, "Marse
Lee's Pa". Lewis Lewellen Cato's father, Green Cato, had died in Ga. in
1837.
The Dr. Thornton she talks about was Dr. William H. Thornton of Eufaula. He
was married to Mary Butler Shorter, a younger sister of John Gill and Eli Sims
Shorter.
Tom
--------------------------------
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CATO-D Digest Volume 98 : Issue 117
Today's Topics:
#1 [CATO-L] Lockett Mitchell's parent [Tomtilton(a)aol.com]
#2 [CATO-L] Slave Narrative [Tomtilton(a)aol.com]
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