ger gal most to death fer fergiting to put onions in the
stew. The next day she went down to the river and fer nine days they
searched fer her and her body finally washed upon the shore. The master
could never live in that house again as when he would go to sleep he
would see the nigger standing over his bed. Then he moved to Richmond
and there he stayed until a little later when he hung himself.
"Our clothes wuz made from cotton and linsey. Cotton wuz used in the
summer and linsey fer the winter. Sometimes our clothes wuz yeller
checked and most time red. Our stockings wuz made of coarse yarn fer
winter to wear with coarse shoes. We had high topped shoes fer Sunday.
"I've seed ten thousand of the Union Soldiers and a great many of the
rebel soldiers. The Rebel soldiers would take everything they could get
their hands on but I never did know of the Union Soldier taking
anything. The rebels have stole my masters cows and horses and we would
have to hide the meat in a box and bury it in the ground."
BOYD CO.
(Carl F. Hall)
The Commonwealth of Kentucky, having for a northern boundary the Ohio
River--the dividing line between the northern free states and the
southern slave states has always been regarded as a southern state. As
in the other states of the old south, slavery was an institution until
the Thirteenth Ammendment to the Constitution of the United States gave
the negro freedom in 1865.
Kentucky did not, as other southern states, secede from the Union, but
attempted to be neutral during the Civil War. The people, however, were
divided in their allegience, furnishing recruits for both the Federal
and Confederate armies. The president of the Union, Abraham Lincoln, and
the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, both were born in
this state.
Boyd County was formed in 1860 from parts of Lawrence, Greenup and
Carter Counties, and we are unable to find any records, in Boyd County,
as to slave holders and their slaves, though it is known that many well
to do families the Catletts, Davis, Poages, Williams and others were
slave holders.
Slaves were not regarded as persons, had no civil rights and were owned
just as any other chattel property, were bought and sold like horses and
cattle, and knew no law but the will of their white masters and like
other domestic animals could be, and were, acquired and disposed of
without regard to family ties or other consideration.
Usually, as each slave re
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