Interview with Aunt Hannah Allen, Fredericktown, Missouri. God Got A Hold On Her One of the oldest ex-slaves encountered in Missouri is Aunt Hannah Allen of Fredericktown, who claims she is 107 years old. According to Madison County records, Aunt Hannah gave her age as 82 when she made application for a marriage license in Fredericktown in 1912. In spite of her extreme age, Aunt Hannah is able to do all of the work around her house and she frequently walks up town and back, a distance of several blocks. Her eyesight is very good and even at her advanced age she does not have to wear glasses. She claims her grandfather was a white man and she attributes her unusual health to several causes. She was well treated as a slave during her younger years when she was under the ownership of a family named Bollinger. She is childless and has been content to live on the same spot during the last 71 years. Being a Negro, she naturally does not take life seriously but as she expresses it jes lives it like it comes. In reviewing the incidents which she was able to recall on the occasion of the writers recent visit to her home, she outlined her story as follows: Down in Pocahontas, Arkansas, a man had 400 slaves and de boss would allow an old colored man to have meetins every Saturday night and of a Friday night dey would have a class meeting. Several of dem got religion right out in de field and would kneel down in de cornfield. De boss went home and told his wife he thought de slaves was losin their minds cause dey was all kneeling down in de field. De boss daughter also got religion and went down to de mourners bench. De colored church finally made de boss and his whole family get religion. De old white mistress would sing and pray while she washed dishes, milked de cows, and made biscuits. So dey called de doctor and he come and said dat God had got a hold on her. One of de darkies had a baby out in de field about eleven oclock one morning. De doctor come out there to her. She was sick a long time cause she got too hot before de chile was born. After dis happened de boss got to be a better man. Dis old boss at first would not let the darkies have any church meetins. On Sunday dere at home de colored folks could get all de water dat ran from de maple trees. De slaves would get through their work for de boss and den dere would sometimes be three days when dey could work for themselves. Den dey would get paid for working for others and den buy clothes. Dey had de finest boots. Dey did not want de mistress to tell me when we was free cause dere was only two of us slaves left there. De other slaves already done run off. I did not want to leave. When I was a slave I learned to do a job right or do it over. I learned to sew, cook, and spin. We set by de fireside and picked a shoe full of cotton and den we could go to bed. But you did a lot before you got dat shoe full of cotton when it was pressed down. Dis was almost enough to pad a quilt with. De white children would be getting their lessons den and dey used a pine torch for a light to see by. I was paid nothin after slavery but just stayed with de boss and dey gave me things like a calf, clothes, and I got to go to church with dem and to camp meetings and picnics. Dey would have big basket meetings with pies, hogs, sheep and de like. Dey did not allow me to go with other colored girls if dey had no character. We all set down and ate at de same table with de white folks and tended de sick together. Today if de parents would make their children do like dey did in slavery, den we would have a better race. I was better off dan de free people. I think dat slavery taught me a lot. In Fredericktown I worked for my mistress sister and made $10 a month. My father told me to always keep myself clean and nice and to comb my hair. When I lived in Fredericktown de people I worked for always tried to keep me from going out with de low class. After I washed de supper dishes, I would have to go upstairs and cut out quilts and I did not like it but it was good for me. My first husband gave $50 for dis lot I am living on. Dat was just at de end of de war. He hauled de logs and chinked and white-washed dem and we had two rooms and a hall. It was a good, nice, warm house. He was a carpenter. About twenty-five years later my husband built him a frame house here and dug him a well. He had 4 dozen chickens, 15 head of hogs, 2 horses, 2 wagons, and a buggy to go back and forth to de church at Libertyville, New Tennessee, or Pilot Knob. We lived together fifty years before he died. He left me dis home, three horses, 3 milk cows and three hogs. We had no children but dopted a little boy. He was my husbands sisters child. De boys mother took a notion that she wanted to work out and she was just a young girl so we took de boy at about de age of three and he was with us about six years. He went to a colored school den but a white teacher taught him. We adopted a girl too from Marquand. De girls father was a colored man and de mother was a white woman. De woman den married a white man in Marquand and her husband did not want de child so we took her at about three years old. We did not have her no time til she died. We have helped to raise about a dozen children. But I have quit doing dat now. I now has my second husband; he always liked to have children around but we aint had none of our own. When my first husband died, he did not owe fifteen cents. He just would not go in debt to nobody. He attended de Masonic lodge. After he died I went to work. I brought wood, washed, ironed, and cooked. I have made as high as $15 a week and keep. I took care of a mans children after him and his wife separated. We have had two houses burn down right here. One of our houses was a little too close to Saline Creek and it was condemned and we tore it down and built de one we have now, thirteen years ago. Harry Newberry has a mill and he give us de lumber to build dis house. We have a lot in de colored graveyard. I have no insurance but Mr. Allen has some kind of insurance, so if he gets hurt traveling he will get something. We is getting, together, $25 in pensions a month and we is living pretty well right now. Some months we spend from seven to eight dollars on food. Almost everything is cash for us. I been going barefoot about ten years. I come mighty near going barefoot in de winter time. We been getting a pension about two years and we was on relief for two or three years before dat. Our biggest debt is a doctor bill of about $60. Some of de colored folks is better off now and some is worser. De young race says we who was slaves is ten times worse off den dey cause we had bosses and couldnt read or write. But I say de young race is got all dis to go by and dey ought to be much better off dan dey is. We is better off in one sense dan de young race cause about half of dem dont know how to raise their children and dey dont know how to do nothing. I think our folks has just as good a chance now as de white folks but dey dont get cultivated. Dey say today dat I dont know nothing cause I was a slave and all I learned was what de master learnt me. But I know enough to keep out of devilment. I think all dis speed shows dat people aint got no sense at all.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:00:01 +0000