Interview with Adeline Blakeley
Interview with Adeline Blakeley, Fayetteville, AR, Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936
Transcript Excerpt
…Mrs. Blakely taught her children at home. Her teaching was almost all they had before they entered the University. When I was little I wanted to learn, learn all I could, but there was a law against teaching a slave to read and write. One woman–she was from the North did it anyway. But when folks can read and write its going to be found out. It was made pretty hard for that woman….
I remember well when the war started. Mr. Blakely, he was a cabinet maker and not very well, was not considered strong enough to go. But if the war had kept up much longer they would have called him. Mr. Parks didn’t believe in seceding. He held out as long as it was safe to do so. If you didn’t go with the popular side they called you ‘abolitionist’ or maybe ‘submissionist.’ But when Arkansas did go over he was loyal. He had two sons and a son-in-law in the Confederate army. ONe fought at Richmond and one was killed at Gettysburg….
Just before the Battle of Prairie Grove the Federal men came thru. Some officers stopped and wanted us to cook for them. Paid us well, too. One man took little Nora on his lap and almost cried. He said she reminded him of his own little girl he’d maybe never see again. He gave her a cute little ivory handled pen knife. He asked Mrs. Blakeley if he couldn’t leave his pistols with her until he came back thru Fayetteville. She told him it was asking too much, what would happen to her and her family if they found those weapons in her possession? But he argued that it was only for a few days. She hid them under a tub in the basement and after waiting a year gave them to her brother when he came through. The Yankees met the Southerners at Prairie Grove. The shots sounded just like popcorn from here in Fayetteville. We always thought the man got killed there…
The soldiers camped all around everywhere. Lots of them were in tents and some of the officers were in houses…
We had a terrible time getting along during those years. I don’t believe we could have done it except for the Northern soldiers. You might say the Confederacy was kept up by private subscription, but the Yankees had the whole Federal government back of them. They had good rations which were issued uncooked. They could get them prepared anywhere they liked. We were good cooks so that is the way we got our food—preparing it for soldiers and eating it with them…
Questions
Adeline Blakeley was enslaved in Fayetteville before the war. How does she remember life before and during the Civil War?
Citations
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. Typewritten Records Prepared by the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938, Volume II Arkansas Narratives Part 1. Washington: Library of Congress, 1941. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/mesn/mesn-021/mesn-021.pdf