til it is
time to pass on to the next world. He has six children and seventeen
grandchildren living.

As the Reverend remembered the south, none of the white people worked at
manual labor, but usually sat under a shade tree. They were usually
clerks, bookkeepers or tradesmen.

Ex-Slave Stories
5th District
Vanderburgh County
Lauana Creel
1415 S. Barker Avenue, Evansville, Indiana

THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHILD BORN IN SLAVERY
SAMUEL WATSON
[HW: Personal Interview]

Samuel Watson, a citizen of Evansville, Indiana, was born in Webster
County, Kentucky, February 14, 1862. His master's home was located two
and one half miles from Clay, Kentucky on Craborchard Creek.

"Uncle Sammy" as the negro children living near his home on South East
Fifth Street call the old man, possesses an unusually clear memory. In
fact he remembers seeing the soldiers and hearing the report of cannon
while he was yet an infant.

One story told by the old negro relates how; "old missus" saved "old
massa's horses". The story follows:

The mistress accompanied by a number of slaves was walking out one
morning and all were startled by the sound of hurrying horses. Soon many
mounted soldiers could be seen coming over a hill in the distance. The
child Samuel was later told that the soldiers were making their way to
Fort Donelson and were pressing horses into service. They were also
enlisting negroes into service whenever possible.

Old master, Thomas Watson, owned many good able-bodied slaves and many
splendid horses. The mistress realised the danger of loss and opening
the "big gate" that separated the corral from the forest lands, Mrs.
Watson ran into the midst of the horses shouting and frailing them. The
frightened horses ran into the forest off the highway and toward the
river.

When the soldiers stopped at the Watson plantation they found only a few
old work horses standing under a tree and not desiring these they want
on their way.

The little negro boy ran and hid himself in the corner made by a great
outside chimney, where he was found later, by his frightened mother.
Uncle Samuel remembers that the horses came home the following
afternoon, none missing.

Uncle Samuel remembers when the war ended and the slaves were
emancipated. "Some were happy! and some were sad!" Many dreaded leaving
their old homes and their masters' families.

Uncle Samuel's mother and three children were told that they were free
people and the maste