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Gus Brown, Age 90
Birmingham, Alabama
Gus Saw Massa's
Hat Shot
Off.
Interviewer: Alexander B. Johnson
"They is all
gone, scattered, and old massa and missus have died." That was
the sequence of the tragic tale of "Uncle" Gus Brown, the body
servant of William Brown; who fought beside him in the War
between the States and who knew Stonewall
Jackson.
"Uncle Gus" recalled happenings on the old
plantation where he was reared. His master was a "king" man,
he said on whose plantation in Richmond, Virginia, Uncle Gus
waited on tables at large feasts and functions of the spacious
days before the War. He was entrusted to go with the master's
boys down to the old swimming hole and go in "washin." They
would take off their clothes, hide in the bushes on the side
of the bank, put a big plank by the side of the old water hole
and go in diving, swimming and have all the fun that
youngsters would want, he said.
Apparently his master's
home was a plantation home with large columns and with all the
glitter and glamour that the homes around Richmond have to
offer. About it were large grain storage places, for the
master was a grain dealer and men on the plantation produced
and ground large quantities into flour.
Gus worked
around the house, and he remembers well the corn shuckings as
he called them on which occasions the Negroes gave vent to
emotion in the form of dancing and music. "On those occasions
we all got together and had a regular good time." he
said.
"Uncle," he was asked, "do you remember any of
the old superstitions on the plantation? Did they have any
black cat stories?"
"No sir boss, we was educated
Negroes on our plantation. The old bossman taught his Negroes
not to believe in that sort of thing."
"I well remember
when de war came. Old massa had told his folks befo' de war
began dat it was comin', so we was ready for
it."
Beforehand the master called all the servants he
could trust and told them to get together all of the silver
and other things of value. They did that, he exclaimed and
afterward they took the box of treasures and carried it out in
the forest and hid it under the trunk of a tree which was
marked. None of the Negroes ever told the Yankees where it was
so when the war ended the master had his silver back. Of
course the war left him without some of the things which he
used to have but he never suffered.
"Then de war came
and we all went to fight the Yankees. I was a body servant to
the master, and once a bullet took off his hat. We all thought
he was shot but he wasn't, and I was standin' by his side all
the time."
"I remember Stonewall Jackson. He was a big
man with long whiskers, and very brave. We all fought with him
until his death."
"We wan't beaten, we wuz starved out!
Sometimes we had parched corn to eat and sometimes we didn't
have a bit o' nothin', because the Union mens come and tuck
all the food for their selves. I can still remember part of my
ninety years. I remembers we fought all de way from Virginia
and winded up in Manassah's Gap."
"When time came for
freedom most of us wuz glad. We liked the Yankees. They wuz
good to us. "You is all now free." 'You can stay on the
plantation or you can go.' We alled stayed there until old
massa died. Den I worked on de Seaboard Airline when it come
to Birmingham. I have been here ever since."
"In all de
years since de war I cannot forget old massa. He was good and
kind. He never believed in slavery but his money was tied up
in slaves and he didn't want to lose all he had."
"I
knows I will see him in heaven and even though I have to walk
ten miles for a bite of bread I can still be happy to think
about the good times we had then. I am a Confederate veteran
but my house burned up wid de medals and I don't get a
pension."
"Thank you, mister bossman for the quarter.
It will buy me a little grub. I'se too old to work but I has
to."
The reporter left him sitting with his little pack
and a long fork in his hands; in his eyes, dimmed with age, a
faroff look and a tear of longing for the Old
Plantation.
Copy
5/5/37 |
