Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-02-03
READS LIKE A ROMANCE.
Negro Boy Sold as Slave at Ander-
son Now Living in Texas.
(From the Anderson Mail.)

tfTom the ANDERSON Mall
When my grandfather Fretwell
died l was a little girl, or not more
than four years Of age; consequently
] do not remember him at all. Nev-
ertheless l have been told that he
was very fond of me-so much so
that ! was the only grandchild men,
toned in his WILL All of his lands
and slaves in families were willed to
his two sons and daughter. There
was one little boy, Ike, about ten
years old, who was an orphan, and he
was wflled to me. He did not seem
to develop in very promising man
ner, and my parents discussed the
wisdom OF selling him and reinvest-
ing the money in a girl, who might
make me rich.
When Ike was about fifteen years
old, think 1t was in the summer of
'55, the peach-drying season, as a
crowd of women and children, head
ed by my father and mother, were
out under the shade of the trees,
washing, cutting and laying the fruit
on drying planks, a stranger drove
up to the gate, alighted and came to
where we were. He introduced him
self, telling that he was slave
trader, and asked my father If he
had anything to sell. Ike was off in
the orchard gathering peaches. A
hurried consultation was held by my
father and mother, and it was decid-
ed to let him go. When he came up
the trader looked him over, and the
price-$S00-was agreed upon, and
the poor little darkey was sent to get
his belongings, which were tied in a
little budget, and, with sobs, he fol-
lowed the trader to his buggy, and
that was the last seen of poor little
Ike. If the earth had opened and
swallowed him his disappearance
could not have been more complete.
AS the trader had about completed
his drove" he went West with them.
A few months after, DR.. Sam
jones, who was presiding elder,
and lived where Will Watson re-
sides, on the Pendleton road, had
the misfortune to lose his wife, who
was sister of the late Bishop Ca
pers. 1t seems that their slaves
were inherited from her father, who
was also bishop, and were for some
reason sold at auction. At that sale
my father bought a "likely" girl,
sixteen years old, for 500, to take
the place of my little niger boy. Be-
fore freedom and since, she was the
mother of nineteen children, raising
the most Of them, and having now
scores of grandchildren, which shows
how rich might have been.
But l digress. About two years
ago one of our Anderson girls, Miss
Lucille Brown, went to visit her bro
ther in Texas, and last year was mar
ried to Mr.. Hughes, and lives in
Dallas. A few days ago received a
letter from her, in which she men,
toned having gone out in search of
hand" to stack lot Of wood. She
soon met nice looking old darkey,
and addressing him as uncle" in
quired If he would like the job. He
readily assented. When she asked
his name he replied Isaac Fretwell,"
and Immediately asked "Missey,
didn't You come from back in the
States?' She replied, "Yes, from
South Carolina, and l know some
Fretwells." She said, his eXcIama-
ton of joy and delight at hearing of
us, specially Miss Calline," to whom
he belonged, was pathetic, and beg
ged her to write to me and ask If I
knew his age, or anything about his
mother, which do not, as my grand
father might have picked him up at
SALE" as often happened.
This is true story, that seems al
most incredible, after a lapse of
more than half century.
Tune Of bard, or story told
Testing faiths conviction,
But confirms the adage old,
Truth is stranger than fiction"
Mrs. Carrie McCully.
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