ook the name of Green Johnson and says he often
remarked that he surely was green to adopt such a name. His grandson in
Gary is an exact double for Clark Gable, except he is brown, and Gable
is white.

Many slave owners gave their slaves small tracts of land which they
could tend after working hours. Anything raised belonged to them and
they could even sell the products and the money was theirs. Many slaves
were able to save enough from these tracts to purchase their freedom
long before the Emancipation.

Another condition that confronted the negro in the north was that they
were not understood like they were by the southern people. In the south
they were trusted and considered trustworthy by their owners. Even
during the Civil War, they were trusted with the family jewels, silver,
etc., when the northern army came marching by, whereas in the north,
even though they freed the slaves, they would not trust them. For that
reason, many of the slaves did not like the northern people and remained
or returned to the southern plantations.

The slave owners thought that slavery was right and nothing was wrong
about selling and buying human beings if they were colored, much as a
person would purchase a horse or automobile today. The owners who
whipped their slaves usually stripped them to the waist and lashed them
with a long leather whip, commonly called a blacksnake.

Mrs. Hockaday is a large, pleasant, middle-aged woman and does not like
to discuss the cruel side of slavery and only recalls in a general way
what she had heard old slaves discuss.

Federal Writers' Project
of the W.P.A.
District #6
Marion County
Anna Pritchett
1200 Kentucky Avenue

FOLKLORE
ROBERT HOWARD--EX-SLAVE
1840 Boulevard Place

Robert Howard, an ex-slave, was born in 1852, in Clara County, Kentucky.

His master, Chelton Howard, was very kind to him.

The mother, with her five children, lived on the Howard farm in peace
and harmony.

His father, Beverly Howard, was owned by Bill Anderson, who kept a
saloon on the river front.

Beverly was "hired out" in the house of Bill Anderson. He was allowed to
go to the Howard farm every Saturday night to visit with his wife and
children. This visit was always looked forward to with great joy, as
they were devoted to the father.

The Howard family was sold only once, being owned first by Dr. Page in
Henry County, Kentucky. The family was not separated; the entire family
was bought and kep