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CHAPTER IV.
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CHAPTER IV. Corn Songs in Harvest-time—Conversion. In harvest-time, thirty or forty years ago, it was customary to give the slaves a good deal of grog, the masters thinking that the slaves could not do the hard work without the spirits. A great change has taken place now in this respect; many of the planters during harvest give their slaves sixpence a day instead of the whiskey. The consequence is there is not a fifth of the sickness there was some years ago. The country is intensely hot in the harvest-time, and those who drank grog would then want water; and, having got water, they would want grog again; consequently, they soon either were sick or drunk. All round where I dwelt the sixpence was generally substituted for the spirits; the slaves are looking better, and there are fewer outbreaks in the fields. In the autumn, about the 1st of November , the slaves commence gathering the Indian-corn, pulling it off the stalk, and throwing it into heaps. Then it is carted home, and thrown into heaps sixty or seventy yards long, seven or eight feet high, and about six or seven feet wide. Some of the masters make their slaves shuck the corn. All the slaves stand on one side of the heap, and throw the ears over, which are then cribbed. This is the time when the whole country far and wide resounds with the corn-songs. When they commence shucking the corn, the master will say, “Ain’t you going to sing any to-night?” The slaves say, “Yers, Sir.” One slave will begin:— “Fare you well, Miss Lucy. ALL. John come down de hollow.” ( ) Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky The next song will be:— “Fare you well, fare you well. ALL. Weell ho. Weell ho. CAPTAIN. Fare you well, young ladies all. ALL. Weell. ho. Weell ho. CAPTAIN. Fare you well, I’m going away. ALL. Weell ho. Weell ho. CAPTAIN. I’m going away to Canada. ALL. Weell ho. Weell ho.” One night Mr. Taylor, a large planter,36 had a corn shucking, a Bee it is called.37 The corn pile was 180 yards long. He sent his slaves on horseback with letters to the other planters around to ask them to allow their slaves to come and help. On a Thursday night, about 8 o’clock, the slaves were heard coming, the corn-songs ringing through the plantations. “Oh, they are coming, they are coming!” exclaimed Mr. Taylor, who had been anxiously listening some time for the songs. The slaves marched up in companies, headed by captains, who had in the crowns of their hats a short stick, with feathers tied to it, like a cockade. I myself was in one of the companies. Mr. Taylor shook hands with each captain as the companies arrived, and said the men were to have some brandy if they wished, a large jug of which was ready for them. Mr. Taylor ordered the corn36 . The 1850 and 1860 census and slave schedules for Kentucky list a Jesse Taylor as a farmer and owner of a large estate (valued in 1850 at $13,000) in Mason County. 37. For a similar description of a Kentucky corn-husking bee employing two competing teams, see Harry Smith, Fifty Years in Slavery in the United States of America (Grand Rapids: West Michigan Printing Co., 1891), 62. See also The Autobiography of Elder Madison Campbell, Pastor of the United Colored Baptist Church, Richmond, Kentucky (Richmond , Ky.: Pantagraph Job Rooms, 1895). Campbell recalls the corn songs heard at Kentucky corn-shucking bees during his youth. He describes how the slaves chose a “general of the corn pile” who lined out songs as the men shucked a long row of corn. The general sang that he Got a letter from Tennessee That the Queen of Morocco had wrote to me That the Negroes were all going to be free. (69–70) [44.200.39.110] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:12 GMT) Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky pile to be divided into two by a large pole laid across. Two men were chosen as captains; and the men, to the number of 300 or 400, were told off to each captain. One of the captains got Mr. Taylor on his side, who said he should not like his party to be beaten. “Don’t throw the corn too far. Let some of it drop just over, and...