Eliza Elsey & The Freedom War Biographical Sketch & PSI The Master ration out the
The Master ration out the food by the week, and should anybody eat too much they most likely
Mrs. Eliza Elsey was interviewed by Works Progress Administration field worker Ethel Wolfe
Garrison in late 1937 or early 1938. She was age 77 at the time. She tells about the
recollections of her slave life, and it is the only published biographical information about her.
There are also no known photos of her. Tom Smith, referred to in the narrative was listed as a
planter in Grimes County in the 1860 census. This slaveholder, master for Eliza Elsey, owned
fifty-three slaves, valued at $60,000 according to the 1860 census.
I ain’t sure how old I is, but mamma says I was born during the middle of the War, in fodder time.
That means in August, ‘cause that’s when fodder pulling was done, and how come I was born is
this way:
Old Master Tom Smith, he the one who own that big plantation, maybe 600 acres, down south in
Plantersville, Grimes County, Texas, treated his slaves like animals. He take the strongest men and
women, put them together in a cabin so’s they raise him some more husky children. That’s the
kind of a child I is, and that’s why I is so big and so healthy at my old age. I weighs about 250
pounds, and I’m ‘most 78.
I don’t know about my pappy, ‘cept mamma say his name was Tom McGowan. My mamma come
from North Carolina and work in the fields for old Tom Smith who raised lots of figs and cane and
some kind of grapes they call “cut throats.” Soon as I is born she go back to the field work, and
sometime she feel so bad they whipped her for not working hard enough. She had scars on her
back until she died; I see them lots of times and feel sorry that she lived in slave times.
After the War a man named Harrison Sheppard married my mamma and she change her name to
Jane Smith Sheppard. They give me three half brothers; Cicero, Jim and George, and four half
sisters; Alice, Nessie, Manda, and Friona. They are all dead.
The only white child on the plantation was Molly, and she the daughter of Tom Smith and his wife,
who lived in a big, fine white plank house, with two chimneys, double. The field hands was never
allowed to come into the Master’s house, and I don’t know how it was fix up.
I know about the slave cabins; they was all set in a long row, and seems like they be a mile long
and made of logs. There was a fireplace made of mud, and the dirt floor was rock hard from all the
feets that tramp over it all the time. The cabins all alike, one room with a door, but no windows,
and mamma say the room was horrible hot in the summer.
All the clothes was made of cotton cloth, even in the winter. That alright for it don’t stay cold long,
not down south were the sugar cane grow. When a “norther” come the slaves maybe find some
old pieces of shoes or wrap up the feets in sacks; if they couldn’t find nothing to wear they would
work anyways, building a fire with the brush to keep warm by, but they couldn’t stay by that fire
too much else they get flogged by the overseer that mamma said was the worse one she ever
heard of.
starve before next ration day. Else they steals from each other, or the Master would lose a hog
some night when it be darkest. Like the story my mamma told me about the slave who got caught
under a hog.
The colored man he got hungry, and his little girl Caroline got hungry too, so he takes her with him
one night to watch out for the Master while he steal a hog. He kill the hog alright and put him on
his back to carry to his cabin, but somehow he stumble in the dark and the dead hog so heavy the
girl can’t get him off her pappy. Caroline got scared and yell, louder all the time, till the Master
come to see about the trouble. He whipped the slave for stealing and the man went hungry
waiting for the next rations.
Mamma told me about another time when two men went out to kill a hog. The hogs root around
and sleep under the barn, so one man was to chase them out and the other man was to knock one
in the head when he scoot out from under the barn. The hogs run out the other side of the barn,
but the Negro come back out the same way he went in and when he stick his heat out the man
waiting for a hog crack him between the eyes and lay him out. The man died and Master sold the
other one to some far off plantation.
Mother always said that stealing in slave days made a birthmark on the younger generation—
that’s why colored boys and girls steal today.
The Master kept a doctor around most of the time to look after the slaves. He dose out castor oil
and turpentine, calomel and blue-mass pills. The children had some little sacks tied around their
necks; I know now it was asafetida, and it keep off the disease.
When the Negro babies cry with the stomach ache they give them hen feathers tea, and when
they break out with the hives, there was nothing better than sheep wool tea.
Some of the slaves didn’t believe it when they was freed, and they didn’t want to leave the
plantation. Whole lots of them kept on working just the same, but they was treated better. They
didn’t know how to sell cattle or hogs, or sugar cane, and the Master sell part of the crops and give
the Negroes some of the money.
After mamma married Harrison Sheppard they move up here to Fort Gibson and I been here since
then. I been married three times. First to Bill White, then to Dennis Beck and then to Robert Elsey.
They all dead now, and my three children was from my first husband. Two girls and a boy;
Armanda, who I lives with, Bessie and George. There is four grandchildren; Hazel Blaine, Leonard
Vann, Odell Little and L.V. Little.
That all I can tell about the slave days, but I is proud we all get out of slavery and I is glad that
Lincoln is the one that freed us.
Name________________________Homeroom_______________________ Date_______________ Name________________________Homeroom_______________________ Date_______________

Primary Source Investigation: Eliza Elsey Primary Source Investigation: Eliza Elsey
Your Response: Your Response:
Where & When Where & When
was this source was this source
written? written?
Historical Context Historical Context
What else was What else was
going on at the going on at the
time? time?
Who was this Who was this
source meant for? source meant for?
Who wrote this Who wrote this
source? source?
Audience & How does his/her Audience & How does his/her
Author age, gender, job, Author age, gender, job,
nationality, race, nationality, race,
religion, etc., religion, etc.,
impact this impact this
source? source?
What is the point What is the point
of view of the of view of the
author? author?
Point of View Point of View
What did this What did this
person think/feel/ person think/feel/
believe/know? believe/know?
Why was this Why was this
Purpose Purpose
source created? source created?
What does this What does this
document help us document help us
Y is this Y is this
understand? understand?
important? important?
What makes this What makes this
an important text? an important text?
1. Why do you think that she’s not sure how old she is? How could this have happened? 1. Why do you think that she’s not sure how old she is? How could this have happened?

2. What is the most surprising aspect of slave life that you learned about in her narrative? 2. What is the most surprising aspect of slave life that you learned about in her narrative?

3. What do you notice about the dialect she speaks in? Why do you think it’s different from how 3. What do you notice about the dialect she speaks in? Why do you think it’s different from how
we speak today? we speak today?

4. Complete the hashtag based on what you’ve learned about the slavery and the Civil War: 4. Complete the hashtag based on what you’ve learned about the slavery and the Civil War:
#TexansAre__________________ #TexansAre__________________