Life of the Rev. Elisha W. Green

p. 1WAS born in Bourbon County, near Paris, Ky., six miles to the right of that place, on the Georgetown turnpike. The date of ^

my birth I am not prepared to mention, because the book that had the ages in it was burned. I lived in Bourbon County until I was ten years old; then I came to Mason County, where I now reside. Some instances which took place in Bourbon while I was there I have forgotten, and a few I remember yet. For instance, the following: The name of the man I lived with in Bourbon was Judge Brown. My mother, sisters Charlotte and Harriet and the balance of the children were then divided among the heirs of Dobbyns — sister Evaline to Silas Devaush; brother Marshall to the same man; brother Alvin to Thomas Perry ; brother Henry to Thomas Dobbyns ; brother Elijah to Enoch Pepper. I might say here, so far as to the incidents of slavery and the other acts of this time, I have no knowledge to present in this sketch that in my estimation would be of interest to any one.

In 1828, as near as I can remember, I went to Mayslick, Ky., a small town distant about twelve miles from Maysville, in the same county. Mayslick is one among the oldest towns in the State. I think it has been noted for a Baptist Church since the year 1792. I went to that place and lived with J. L. Kirk, who married my young mistress, lane P. Dobbyns. While with him, of course, as usual where slavery existed, I saw very rough times. While there I cooked, washed, spun flax and yarn, and did all the house-work the same as a woman. Here was where a man became a woman if such ever were possible in the history of the world. I lived here about four years — from 1828 to 1832. When Mr. Dobbvns had been dead awhile, mv old mistress married Mr. Weaker Warder. My sister and four children and myself were sold in Washington, Mason County, Ky., at a sheriff's sale. When we were put up to be sold, .Mr. Oliver Kale refused to "cry" us off, and a man by the name of Charlie Ward supplied the place, .\fter the selling, we then broke up at our old home and my mistress rented p. 2a place on the Lexington turnpike, where she remained three or four years. She then married the Rev. Waher Warder, as I have stated elsewhere. This act of selling colored people was considered by many as being of a low character, while there were those who thought it right, and to sell a negro was nothing more than selling a mule. After my mistress had married Mr. Warder, we then moved near the North Fork, on a farm that formerly belonged to Benjamin Fitzgerald. I remained with Mr. Warder some time, until his death.

p. 2I will mention an instance which occurred before I left Bourbon. It should have been mentioned before this, but I happen to think of it since. I well remember that at one time before leaving Bourbon County 1 attempted to attend Sabbath school — well, in fact, I did attend a kind of Sabbath school, gotten up by some of the blacks on the place and in different portions of the neighborhood. 1, with some others, went and about the time we had gotten in a good way enjoying ourselves, the Patrollers came and whipped all of the grown persons in the schoolhouse. But, being very small, when they came in I ran out, passing under the arms of one that was standing in the door. Having escaped 1 then had about a mile to go and I ran so terribly fast that when I reached home I was well nigh out of breath. I often look back at that time and now, whenever I pass that place, I draw the scene fresh in mind. About this time the colored people had meetings out in some place to themselves, and would prepare for the Patrollers. If it were near a road, they would go to each side of the road and stretch a grapevine across it about as high as a horse, so as to strike a man about his breast. Those in the house would come out, sometimes with chunks of fire to make the men get from the door. The men, of course, not seeing the grapevine, would run into it and thus were thrown from their horses and the jmrty would get clear. The object of the slaveholders was not to have the l)lacks gather in meetings or anything else, because, .said they, when together that way, they (the negroes) would make plots to run off.

Another horrible crime I must mention here. About this time slave-traders would go to Virginia and buy up the negroes. Upon one Sabbath morning, I saw one with twenty-five or thirty colored men handcuffed and chained. There were three or four wagons within which were a host of women and children. Lawyer Payne, who was not then a member of any church and who owned slaves himself, said that a colored person should never again be brought through the city in that fix on Sabbath morning. And on another occasion I saw in Mayslick p. 3another company of forty or fifty men, chained in the same manner as those mentioned before. There were some five or six wagons loaded w ith women and children. The foremost man looked to be about seventy years old, and he was singing: "Hark from the tomb.'' Mrs. Ann Anderson, a white woman who was sitting at the window, could not help crying. Indeed it was enough to have moved a heart of stone. It would, in my estimation, have moved the feelings of the most treacherous man or woman in the cause of slavery. It was a scene upon which I looked with horror, the objects of the scene being my brethren, according to divine creation, the same blood running in their veins as in mine, and, being under the same yoke of bondage, I felt for them deeply in my soul. Puit I was unable to assist them in the least. 1 cannot picture the scene as it of right deserves, because my language is such that it will not permit. But indeed the scene was horrible to behold. I believe that the stain of slavery and its degrading impressions will long linger in the minds of generations yet unborn.