"Slaveholders depended on slaves to reproduce their labor force. While most masters were content to let nature take its course and allow slaves to choose their own partners, a few intervened to promote relationships they believed would be most remunerative to them, pairing men and women as they might pair breeding stock. Such meddling created powerful dilemmas for slaves, particularly for young women. Rose Williams was little more than a child at age sixteen when her owner forced her into a relationship with an unwanted partner. ("Remembering Slavery," 1998)
excerpt from book "The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925"
Herbert G. Gutman, 1976
Chapter 2: Because She Was My Cousin
Blind and over ninety when interviewed, Rose Williams still hated her former owner and the slave "husband" imposed upon her. She and her parents had been sold from one Texan to another. Her new owner, Hall Hawkins, had kept her family together and did not "force 'em to work too hard," but she never forgave him for forcing upon her a "husband":
Dere am one thing Masa Hawkins does to me what I can't shunt from my mind. I knows he don't do i for meanness, but I allus holds it 'gainst him. What he done am force me to live with dat nigger, Rufus, 'gainst my wants.
After I been at he place 'bout a year, de massa come to me and say, "You gwine live with Rufus in dat cabin over yonder. Go fix it for livin'." I's 'bout sixteen year old and has no larnin', and I's jus' igno'mus chile. I's thought dat him mean for me to tend de cabin for Rufus and some other niggers. Well, dat am start de pestigation for me.
I's took charge of de cabin after work am done and fixes supper. Now, I don't like dat Rufus, 'cause he a bully. He am big and 'cause he so, he think everybody do what him say. We'uns has supper, den I goes here and dere talkin', till I's ready for sleep and den I gits in de bunk. After I's in, dat niggeer come and crawl in de bunk with me 'fore I knows it. I says, "What you means, you fool nigger?" He says for me to hush de mouth. "Dis my bunk, too," he say.
"You's teched in de head. Git out," I's told him, and I puts de feet 'gainst him and give him a shove and out he go on de floor 'fore he knew what I's doin'. Dat nigger jump up and he mad. He look like de wild bear. Hetarts for de bunk and I jumps quick for de poker. It am 'bout three feet long and when he comes at me I lets him have it over de head. Did dat nigger stop in he tracks? I's say he did. He looks at me steady for a minute and you could tell he thinkin' hard. Den he go and set on de benchg and say, "Jus' wait. You thinks it am smart, but you's am foolish in de head. Dey's gwine larn you somethin'."
"Hush you big mouth and stay 'way from dis nigger, dat all I wants," I say, and jus' sets and hold dat poker in de hand. He jus' sets, lookin' like de bull. Dere we'uns sets and sets for 'bout an hour and den he go out and I bars de door.
De nex' day I goes to de missy and tells her what Rufus wants and missy say dat am de massa's wishes. She say, "Yous am de portly gal and Rufus am de portly man. De massa wants yu-uns fer to bring forth portly chillen.
I's thinkin' 'bout what de missy say, but say to myse'f, "I's not gwine live with dat Rufus." Dat night when he come in de cabin, I grabs de poker and sits on de bench and says, "Git 'way from me, nigger, 'fore I busts yous brains out and stomp on dem." He say nothing and git out.
De nex' day de massa call me and tell me, "Woman, I's pay big money for you and I's done dat for de cause I wants yous to raise me chillens. I's put yous to live with Rufus for dat purpose. Now, if you doesn't want whippin' at de stake, yous do what I wants.
I thinks 'bout massa buyin' me offen de block and savin' me from bein' sep'rated from my folks and 'bout being' whipped at de stake. Dere it am. What am I's to do? So I 'cides to do de massa wish and so I yields.
When we'uns am given freedom, Massa Hawkins tells us we can stay and work for wages or share crop de land. Some stays and some goes. My folks and me stays. We works de land on shares for three years, den moved to other land near by. I stays with my folks till they dies.
Although she had two children by him, Rose Williams quit her "husband." "I never marries," she explained, " 'cause one 'sperience am 'nough for this nigger. After what I done for de massa, I's never wants no truck with any man. De lawd forgive dis cullud woman, but he have to 'scuse me and look for some others for to 'plenish de earth." Another ex-slave, her daughter, then pregnant, had made a different decision. "I used to have one [baby] every Christmas," she explained to the Yankee schoolteacher Lucy Chase, "but when I had six, I put a stop to it, and had only one every other year." "I think they have too many children here," she said of the refugee Virginia slave women in 1863, adding wryly that "the business better kind uh dry up till things is more settled."
Such evidence shows that slaves made limited but highly significant choices affecting their social and sexual being.
The oral history of a formerly enslaved woman named Rose Williams was recorded in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP)
. She was a Texas native who, as an elderly woman, reflected on her experience of being separated from her parents as a child and her life in bondage. Her narrative is part of the extensive "Born in Slavery" collection at the Library of Congress. Overview of Rose Williams's narrative
- Early separation from family: Williams was born in Chatfield, Texas, around 1847. In her interview, she recalls being stripped naked and sold on an auction block while she was still nursing. The sale separated her from her mother, whom she never saw again. Her mother's new owner reportedly sold her "way south," while her father was whipped to death.
- Enslavement in Bell County, Texas: At about 12 years old, Williams and her parents were purchased by Hall Hawkins of Bell County in 1860. The narrative includes her account of being forced to have children with a man named Rufus when she was 16.
- Emancipation: In her interview, Williams recalled the moment of emancipation. "Some stays, and some goes," she noted, referencing how some formerly enslaved people remained with their old owners while others scattered. She married Ike Williams after the war, though their initial marriage was not legally recognized. After their legal marriage, Ike died, and their only child passed away in infancy.
- A difficult freedom: Williams's freedom was difficult, and she faced poverty and hardship. After the war, she and her husband spent a winter hungry because they didn't know how to save money. She concluded her narrative by saying she had no living relatives that she knew of.
The WPA Slave Narratives project
Rose Williams's narrative is part of the larger Slave Narrative Collection recorded by the FWP and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1936 and 1938.
- This New Deal program employed writers to interview over 2,300 formerly enslaved people in 17 states.
- The narratives provide a crucial first-person perspective on the lives of those who experienced slavery, describing the brutality of the system and the challenges of freedom.
- The collection, now digitized by the Library of Congress, includes the transcripts of these interviews and was groundbreaking for providing an invaluable "history from the bottom up".
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