IN 1862, Spring Place was a wealthy little town. Mr. Edmondson, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Seay were very good to their negroes. Some of them around were regular speculators. I knew a preacher by the name of Selvidge who preached around Spring Place to the negroes, and his text was "Servant obey your master." And he would have the negroes washed and dressed then he would put them on the block and bid them off like a group of horses or mules.
My master always said that his negroes did not pay him anything; what he had, he had made in the Legislature. He used to own a large plantation in Tennessee, and he allowed the negroes to run an account there, and when they did not or could not pay up he would let them work on Sunday at a sawmill, paying them one dollar a day, until they paid up their debts.
Some negroes had good masters and some had bad ones, but I think I had a good master.
Miss Carrie Henry, now Mrs. Carrie Cole, of Spring Place, was a student of Mrs. Edmondson and she was mighty good to the colored people at that time, and she is at this time, also. Sometimes I go over there and sit and talk with her and Mr. John Cole for a whole afternoon. There can't be found any better people than Mr. and Mrs. John Cole, of Spring Place, Georgia.
When I was a boy living in the Chief Vann or Edmondson house, my work was to mind the calves, carry water, churn and pull the fly bush, but some times I would give them the dodge. Up in the garret in the Chief Vann house Mr. Edmondson kept all of his sugar and it was my job to go up every morning and bring down enough sugar for breakfast and while I was up there, I would always fill my pockets with sugar, and go around all day eating sugar when I got ready. My pocket would get so stiff sometimes it felt like it had been starched.
One day when I was a boy one of my young masters came home and said that Breckenridge, Douglas and Abe Lincoln were running for president, and that if Mr. Abe Lincoln was elected that the negroes would be free. Then he asked me if I wanted to be free and I told him "yes."
I have four boys and they are all farmers. I always tried to teach them to work and make an honest living and stay away from town as much as possible.
When I was a boy there wasn't any railroads, telephones, electric lights or even steam saw-mills in Murray county, but we now have electric lights and power, telephone, telegraph wires, railroads, and automobiles to ride, air ships and many other useful things. Spring Place was a beautiful and healthful little town, but many of the dwellings and business houses have been burned and several of the wooden structures torn down; and some have decayed.
Mrs. Mary Black was born August 3, 1825 and died June 3,1860. We having been slaves of Mrs. Black before Mr. Edmondson purchased us, were permitted by Mr. Edmondson to attend the funeral. That was the first funeral I remember attending. She was buried in the Seay cemetery, which is now known as the Treadwell cemetery. Mrs. Black's name was Gima, but all of the children, both black and white, called her Miss Mary, even her own children called her Miss Mary. There was an old colored lady on the place whom we called Mammy.
Mr. Smith Treadwell, the old man, was known by me in 1864. He was a prosperous farmer and a very good business man. When I first knew him, he lived in Terrell county. He owned a lots of property and slaves.
In 1889 Mr. Treadwell told me that he had distilled whisky and brandy nearly all his life, but he had never been arrested in his life. If any one wanted to buy whiskey from him he would tell them if they wanted to buy whisky from him they would have to carry it from his premises. I suppose that accounted for his not being arrested.
Mr. Treadwell was a regular builder. He built a mill which is now known as Treadwell's mill. He built many bridges also. It seems that he was prosperous in everything he undertook.
I helped bury Mr. Treadwell, but I did not help put the tomb to his grave. I was there a few days after his tomb was put up, but I never saw any sign of the picture, which resembles a man. Within a year I noticed the picture. I think it resembles him very much. It seems to me that the picture becomes plainer every day. Several persons have asked me why that picture came on this tomb, but I was not able to tell them. One man asked me if the picture came there because Mr. Treadwell was a good man, or did it come because he was a bad man. I told him that the picture must have come because Mr. Treadwell was a good man. I said to him I had been acquainted with Mr. Tread-well for a long time before his death and always found him to be an honest man. He attended to his own business and let other folks' business alone. That's what it takes to be a good man.
Before Mr. Treadwell's death he told me that he asked an old colored man to prepare his cane for the syrup mill. This was immediately after the surrender at the close of the Civil War. In those days the mill got half and the land owner got half. The old man could not understand what he was going to get because Mr. Treadwell had promised him half to carry it to and from the mill. Mr. Treadwell said he had to hire some one else to prepare his, cane for the mill.
I am always thinking of the old Chief Vann house. I left there the latter part of 1863 and had not been inside the house since then until about three weeks ago. Mrs. Cox, the lady who now lives there seemed to take great pleasure in showing me the different rooms in the house after I told her that I lived there in my boyhood with Mr. Edmondson. It seems that the house has been changed a great deal since I was there. The plastered walls seem to be falling, and when I was a boy that old house seemed like Heaven to me. It resembled Hardwick's bank in Dalton that, it seemed too good for a fly to light upon.
In speaking of Hardwick's bank, I must say that I was there about a year ago and saw Mr. Jim Steed count about eight or nine thousand dollars. A few days ago I was there and the people seemed to be coming in that bank like bees. It kept two men and a woman busy taking in the money that the people were bringing in. While in the bank I was reminded of an old saying in the Bible. God said: "The poor we would always have with us." I am poor and have been poor all my life. I expect to remain poor all my life.
I imagine if everybody was put on equal basis about two thirds of them would soon own everything and the other third would not have anything.
Memoirs Of A Slave