The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-10-29
OLD SLAVERY TIMES.
Bill Arp Tells the Children Story.
atlanta Constitution.

Bill Arp Tells the Children Story.
.Atlanta Constitution.
"Papa, please tells us story. Tell us
something about runaway niggers."
I had almost forgotten that there ever
was a runaway niger. Good gracious |!
what long time ago it was. Here is
whole generation of people under thirty
years of age who know nothing about
slavery. It is seldom that we old folks
talk about it to our children. We tell
them frequently of our frolics with the
little darkies, and how good old Aunt
Peggy was to US and how we used to hunt
with Big Ben and Virgil and Uncle Sam,
and we repeat some of the ghost stories
they used to tell us, and all that, but the
idea of slavery hardly ever comes in.
These dark!es all belonged to the family
and just lived with US. That is all. We
were all bunged together, and it Was
understood that when one of the boys
got married and set up for himself he
was to have little Dave and Buck and
black Dan and Aunt Sally, for he had
always claimed these and they had
always claimed him. And Miss Tavy
had picked out her vassals in her early
childhood and nobody need lay any
claim or expectation to Tip or Sinda or
Beck for they were to be hers aud they
knew it and were proud of it and took
peculiar interest in the young men
who "come flying around Miss Tavy."
They even dared to venture their coln-
sci and were loud in their praise of their
favorite. This was right, and it was
natural, for while she was choosing her
lord they were choosing a master, anc q
harmonius choice was good thing all
round Old Aunt Peggy was an oracle
in her way. She was little and old and
wrinkled, and smoked her pipe in the
chimney corner and never talked much.
But she sat and swayed backward and
forward and listened to the children-the
black and the white. She called them
all children if they were under fifty.
But ever and anon she would give grunt
or shake her head and say "dat won't do,
my chile. Better mine how you talk,
now; better mine. / hear de screech
owl last night and he talk to me he did,"
and she would make up some mysterious
words that the screech owl said. Aunt
Peggy believed in frogs and Lizards
and owls and bats and cats and snakes
and jack o'lanterns and charms and con-
turing. There were secret mysteries
about them all, and they had to be pro-
pitiated and kept amiable or some great
harm would come upon the household.
Where tho old negroes got all this super
stitutious lore nobody knows exactly, but
it is not confined to them. There have
been Just such superstitions in all ages
and countries. Macbeth consulted the
witches and they made their charms BY
seething that horrible cruel made of
frogs and Lizards and owls and bats and
adders' tongues and goats gall and
Turks nose and tartar's lips and other
unpalatable things, and then cooled it
down and settled it with barboon's
blood. Those old time negroes would
have made splendid witches if there hae!
been any with school to 60 to. 1t suited
their nature and suits it yet. AS race
they delight in the marvellous when it 10
mixed up with the horrible. Old Uncle
Sam was good old darkey and the chill.
dren loved him. He was familiar with
spirits and graveyards and had shook
hands with rawhead and bloodybones
and, whom freedom came, he gave full
play to his fancies and got him little
long cared donkey and pair of specta'
cles and rode from cabin to cabin by day
and by night, calling himself doctor
SAM" and protesting to cure all diseases
of his race by the mysterious art OF
conjuring. He carried his professional
outfit in an old greasy sack before him,
and he was the most ludicrous burlesque
upon the medical profession ever seen, l
reckon. l would give FIVE dollars for a
photograph of the whole concern as it
used to slowly perambulate the Chatta-
hoochee region Of old Gwinnett some
twenty years ago. l prevailed on the old
gentleman once to let me see the inside
of that bag and take an inventory.
Besides nearly everything that Shake.
speare named, he had every curious bug
be could find. Betty bugs and June bugs
and tumble bugs and the deYil's riding
horse and the devePs darning needle and
green snake and a thousandleg and
lot of herbs, such as hemlock and jimpson
weed and snake root. He assured me
that he had to use all these things in the
very bad cases he came across in his ex-
tensive practice.
But the children wanted story about
runaway niggers. Well. l never saw
runaway niger. That is, while he was
runaway. [ have seen them after they
were caught or come in of their own
accord. We boys and girls used to be
awfully afraid of them. They wore
classed among our very worst boogers,
such as bears and panthers and Indians
and ghosts. Children were always on
the lookout for one when they were going
through lonely woods Sometimes we
found hogbed where an old SOW had
Uttered her pigs and we pronounced it
runaway's bed and got away from there
with celerity. They were very scarce IN
that region. l do not remember but one
and he was suddenly cured of his pro-
pensity, for when he came back home
his master run him offagain and made him
stay in the woods until he was properly
humbled and begged to stay at home. l
never thought that | should have runa,
away niger, but | did. Our colored
household we're, as l thought, devoted to
us and knew that we were devoted to
them. Our maid servant, Mary, had
nursed all of our first children and they
loved her. A neighboring gentleman
owned her husband and as he was
high strung darkey they did not get along
harmoniously. One night he took to
the woods, or somewhere else unknown
and he stayed there. In course Of time
his master got tired of this and offered