Dortch, Charles Green
804 Victory Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age 81
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor
"I was born June 18, 1857. The reason I don't show my age
is because I got Scotch-Irish, Indian, and Negro mixed up in
me. I was born in Princeton---that is, near Princeton---in
Dallas County. Princeton is near Fordyce. I was born on Hays' farm.
Hays was my second master---Archie Hays. Dortch was my first
master. He brought my parents from Richmond, Virginia, and
he settled right in Princeton.
"My father's name was Reuben Rainey Dortch. He was an octoroon
I guess. He looked more like a Cuban than a Negro. He had beautiful
wavy hair, naturally wavy. He was tall, way over six feet,
closer to seven. His father was Dortch. Some say Rainey. But he must
have been a Dortch; he called himself Dortch, and we go in
the name of Dortch. Rainey was a white man employed on Dortch's plantation.
Rainey's name was Wilson Rainey. My name has always been Dortch.
"My mother was named Martha Dortch. I am trying to think
what her maiden name was. My sister can tell you all the details
of it. She is five years older than I am. She can tell you
all the old man's folks and my mother's too more easily than I can.
"My father had, as nearly as I can remember---lemme see---Cordelia,
Adrianna, Mary, Jennie, Emma, and Dortch. Emma and Dortch were
children by his first wife. Cordelia was his stepdaughter.
My brothers were Alec and Gabe. There is probably some I have overlooked.
"The Indian blood in me came through my mother's father.
He was a full-blooded red Indian. I can't think of his name
now. Her mother was a dark woman.
"My father was a carpenter, chair maker, and a farmer too.
All the work he did after peace was declared was carpentry
and chair and basket making. He made coffins too just after peace
was declared. They didn't have no undertakers then. He made
the bottoms to chairs too. He could put a roof on a house beautifully
and better than any one I know. Nobody could beat him putting
shingles on a house.
"My mother was reared to work in the house. She was cook,
housekeeper. She was a weaver too. She worked the loom and
the spinning wheal. She gardened a little. But her work was mostly
in the house as cook and weaver. She never went out in the
field as a hand. My father didn't either.
Kind Masters
"My father seemed to have been more of a pet than a slave.
He was a kind of boss more than anything else. He had
his way. Nobody was allowed to mistreat him in any way. My mother was
the same way. I don't think she was ever mistreated
in any way by the white folks---not that I ever saw.
Attitude of Slaves toward Father
"There wasn't any unfriendliness of the other slaves toward
my father. My oldest sister can tell you with clearness,
but I don't think he ever had any trouble with the other slaves
any more than he had with the white folks. He was well liked, and
then too he was able to take care of himself. Then
again, he had a good master. Hays was a good man. We made a trip down
there just a short while ago. We hadn't been there since the Civil
War.They made it so pleasant for us! We all set
down to the same table and ate together. Frank was down
there. He was my young master.
Thirty Acres-Not Forty
"They gave us thirty acres of land when we came out of slavery.
They didn't give it to us right then, but they
did later. I am going down there again sometime. My young master is the postmaster
down there now. He thinks the world and all
of me and my oldest sister.
"I don't mind telling people anything about myself. I was
born in June. They ain't nothing slipping up
on me. I understand when to talk. There are two of us, Adrianna Kern---that's
her married name. She and I are the ones Mr. Frank
gave the thirty acres to. I have a younger sister.
Slave Work
"I don't know how much cotton a slave was expected to pick
in a day. The least I ever heard of was
one hundred fifty pounds. Some would pick as high as three and four hundred pounds.
"My father was not a field hand. He was what they called
the first man 'round there. He was a regular
leader on the plantation---boss of the tool room. He was next to the master of
them, you might say. He was a kind of boss.
"I never heard of his working for other men besides his
master. I believe he drove the stage for
a time from Arkadelphia to Camden or Princeton. I don't know just how that come
about. My sister though has a more exact remembrance than
I have, and she can probably tell you the details of it.
Boyhood Experiences
"My father used to take me to the mill with him when I was
a kid. That was in slavery time. He
went in a wagon and took me with him.
"The biggest thing I did was to play with the other kids.
They had me do such work as pick berries,
hunt up the stock, drive the sheep home from the pasture. And as near as I can
remember it seems like they had me more picking berries
or gathering peaches or something like that.
Food, Houses, Clothes
"Corn bread, buttermilk and bacon and all such as that and
game---that was the principal food.
The people on our place were fed pretty well. We lived off of esh cakes and biscuits.
"The slaves lived in old log houses. I can almost see them
now. Let's see---they usually had
just one window. The slaves slept on pallets mostly and wore long cotton shirts.
Patrollers
"I have heard a great deal of talk about the pateroles---how
they tied ropes across the
road and trapped them. Sometimes they would be knocked off their horses and crippled
up so that they had to be carried off from there. Of course, that
was sometimes. They was always halting the slaves and questioning
them and whipping them if they didn't have passes.
How Freedom Came
"The way I understand it there came a rumor all at once
that the Negroes were free.
It seems that they throwed up their hands. They had a great fight at Pine Bluff
and Helena and De Valls Bluff. Then came peace. The rumor came from Helena. Meade
and Thomas winded the thing
up some way.
Sherman made his march
somewhere. The colored
soldiers and the white
soldiers came pouring in
from Little Rock. They
come in a rush and said,
'Tell them niggers they're free.'
They run into the masters' and notified
them they were going to take all
the Negroes to Little Rock. It wasn't
no time afterwards before here come
the teams and the wagons to take
us to Little Rock.
"When they brought us here, they put us in soldiers' camps
in a row of houses up just
west of where the Arch street graveyard is now. They put us all there in the
soldiers' buildings. They called them camps. They seemed to be getting us
ready for freedom. It wasn't long before they had us
in school and in church. The Freedmen's Bureau visited us and gave us rations
just like the Government has been doing these last years. They
gave us food and clothes and books and put us in school.
That was all done right here in Little Rock.
Schooling
"My first teacher was Miss Sarah Henley. I could
show you the home she used to live in. It's right up the
street. It's on Third Street between Izard and State
right in the middle of the block---next to the building on
the corner of Izard on the south side of Third Street. There
is a brick building there on the corner and her house is a
very pretty one right next to it. She was a white woman and
was my first teacher. She taught me, as near as I can remember,
one session. My next teacher was Mrs. Hunt. She was from Ohio.
My first teacher was from Ohio too. Mrs. Hunt taught me about
two sessions. Lemme see, Mrs. Clapp came after her. She was
from Pennsylvania. Mrs. Clapp taught me one session. I am trying
to think of that other teacher. We went over to Union School
then.
Charlotte Andrews taught us there for
a while. That was her maiden name. Her
married name is Stephens. She was the
first colored teacher in the city. Mrs.
Hubbard teached us a while, too. Mrs.
Scull taught us right here on Gaines
and Seventh Streets where this church
is now. They moved us a long time ago
down to the Mess House at the Rock Island
for a while but we didn't stay there
long. We came back to the Methodist church---the
one on Eighth and Broadway, not the Bethel
Church on Ninth and Broadway. There was a colored church
on Eighth and Broadway then. They kept sweeping us
'round because the schools were all crowded. Woods,
a colored man, was one of the teachers at Capitol Hill
Public School. We were there when it first opened.
That was the last school I went to. I finished eight
grades. Me and Scipio Jones went to school together
and were in the same class. I left him in schpol and
went to work to take care of my folks.
Occupational Experiences
"Right after the Civil War, I went to school. I did no work
except to sell papers and black boots on the corner
of Main and Markham on Sunday. After I stopped school I went to work as assistant
porter in the railroad office at the Union Station
for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, Southern Railway and Cairo and Fulton.
That was one road or system. I stayed with them
from 1873 till 1882 in the office as office porter. From that I went train
porter out of the office in 1882. I stayed as train porter till 1892.
Then right back from 1892 I went in the general
superintendent's private car. Then from there I went to the shop here in North
Little Rock---the Missouri Pacific Shops---as a
straw boss of the storeroom gang. That was in 1893. I stayed in the shop until
1894. Then I was transferred back on this side
as coach cleaner. That was in 1895. I stayed as coach cleaner till 1915.
From that I went to the State Capitol and stayed
there as janitor of the Supreme Court
for three years. In 1917. I went back to the coach cleaning
department. That was during the war. I stayed there
till 1922. I come out on the strike and have been out ever
since. Since then I have done house cleaning all over the
city. That brings me up to about two
years ago. Now I pick up something here and something there.
I have been knocking around sick most of the time
and supported by the Relief and the Welfare principally.
Ku Klux Klan
"I don't remember much about the Ku Klux Klan. They never
bothered me, and never bothered any one connected
with me.
Powell Clayton
"I have stood at the bar and drank with Powell Clayton.
He had been 'round here ever since we had. He was
a very particular friend of my boss'---the bosses of my work after the war and
freedom. They were all Yankees together. They would
all meet at the office. That was while I was working my way through
school and afterwards too. He was strictly a 'Negroes' Friend'. He
was a straight out and out Yankee.
A Broken Thumb in a Political Fight
"I got this thumb broken beating a white man up. No, I'll
tell the truth. He was beating me up and I thought
he was going to kill me. It was when Benjamin Harrison had been elected
President. I was in Sol Joe's saloon and I said, 'Hurrah for Harrison.'
A white man standing at the bar there said to me,
'What do you mean, nigger, insulting the guests here?' And before I knew what
he was going to do---bop!---he knocked me up on
the side of the head and put me flat on the floor. He started to stamp me.
My head was roaring, but I grabbed his legs
and held them tight against me and then we
was both on the floor fighting it out. I butted
him in the face with my head and beat him in
the face with my fists until he yelled for
some one to come and stop me. There was plenty
of white people 'round but none of them interfered. A great
commotion set up and I slipped out the back door and went
home during the excitement.
"When I went back to the saloon again after about a week
or so, the fellow had left two dollars for me to
drink up. Sol Joe told me that he showed the man he was wrong, that I was one
of his best customers. To make Sol and me feel
better, he left the two dollars. When I got there and found the money waiting
for me, I just called everybody in the house up
to the bar and treated it out.
"They claimed I had hit him with brass knucks, but when
I showed them my hand---it was swollen double---and
then showed them how the thumb was broken, they agreed on what caused the
damage. That thumb never did set properly. You
see, it's out of shape right now.
Domestic Life
"I met my wife going home. I was a train porter between
here and Memphis. She was put in my care to see
that she took her train all right out of Memphis, Tennessee, going on farther.
I fell in love with her and commenced courting
her right from there. She was so white in color that you couldn't tell she
was colored by looking at her. After I married her, I was bringing
her home, and three white men from another town
got on the train and followed us, thinking she was white. Every once in a while
they would come back and peep in the Negro coach.
Sometimes they would come in and sit down and smoke and watch us. My sister
notice it and called my attention to it. I went
to the conductor and complained. He called their hand.
"It seems that they were just buying mileage from time to
time and staying on the train to be able to get
off where I got off. The conductor told them that if they went into Little Rock
with the train there would be a delegation of white
people there to meet them and that the reception wouldn't be a pleasant one,
that I worked on the road, and that all the officials
knew me and knew my wife, and that if I just sent a wire ahead they'd
find themselves in deep. They got off the train
at the next stop, but they gave me plenty of eye, and it looked like they didn't
believe what had been told them.
"We were married only three and a half years when she died.
Her name was Lillie Love Douglass before she married
me. She was a perfect angel. White folks tried to say that she was
white. We had two children. Both of them are dead. One died while
giving birth to a child and the other died at the age of thirty-three.
"I married the second time. I met my second wife the same
way I met the first. I was working on the railroad
and she was traveling. I was a coach cleaner. We lived together three years
and were separated over foolishness. She had long
beautiful hair and an old friend of hers stopped by once and said that he ought
to have a lock of her hair to braid into a watch
chain. She said, 'I'll give you a lock.' I said, 'You and your hair both belong
to me; how are you going to give it away without
asking me.' She might have been joking, and I was not altogether serious.
But it went on from there in to a deep quarrel.
One day, I had been drinking heavily, and we had an argument over the matter.
I don't remember what it was all about. Anyway,
she called me a liar and I slapped her before I thought.
"For two or three weeks after that we stayed together just
as though nothing had happened, except that she
never had anything more to say to me. She would lie beside me at night but wouldn't
say a word. One day I gave her a hundred dollars
to buy some supplies for the store. She was a wonderful hat maker, and
we had put up a store which she operated while I was out on the
road working. When I came back that evening, the
store was wide open and she was gone. She had slipped off and gone home from
the station across the river. I didn't find that
out till the next day. She hid during part of the night at the home of one
of my friends. And another of my friends carried
her across the river and put her on the train. I was out with a shotgun watching.
I am glad I did not meet them. She is living in
Chicago now, married to the man she wanted to give the lock of hair to and
doing well the last I heard from her. She was a
good woman, just marked with a high tamper. There was no reason why we should
not have lived together and gotten along well.
We loved each other and were making money hand over fist when we separated.
Opinions
"The young people are too much for me. Women are awful now.
The young
ones are too wild for me. The old ones allow them too much freedom. They are
not given proper instruction and training by their elders."
Interviewer's Comment
Dortch's
grandfather
on the father's side
was a white men and either
his master or someone
closely connected with
his master---his first
master.
His last master was the father of his half-sister, Cordelia,
born before any of the
other members of his family. These facts account largely for the
good treatment accorded his mother and father in slave time
and for the friendly attitude toward them
subsequent to slavery.
Dortch's whole sister, Adrianna, is living
next door to him, and is eighty-five years
old going on eighty-six. She has a clearer
memory than Dortch, and has also a clear vigorous
mentality. She never went to school but uses
excellent English and thinks straight. I have
not made Dortch's interview any longer because
I am spending the rest of this period on his
sister's, and there was no need of taking some
material which would be common to both and
more clearly stated by her. I have already
finished ten pages of her story.
Source Information:
Works Project Administration. Federal Writers Project. Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. Washington, D.C.: n.p.