107 Year Old Ex-Slave
Recalls Civil War
By Maude Smith
Aunt Hester Pearsall was my
“Black Mammy” so I am very in-
terested in her. She has lived a
long and interesting life. I decided
to visit her so I could write a story
about her. I feel that not only peo-
ple in Duplin County, but people
all over the State would be interes-
ted in her.
Aunt Hester Pearsall, born 1884 *, will be 107 years next Oct. [*Transcriber’s note: This article was written in 1957, making Hester’s birth year 1850. Census records give her birth year as 1853-1854. So her birth should be placed somewhere between 1850 and 1854, and not 1884.] She is
the oldest living ex-slave in Duplin
County. She doesn’t remember
where she was born, but remem-
bers that she belonged to a Bishop
family near Kinston. Her mother’s
name was Carol Bishop, but she
doesn’t remember her father’s full
name because she doesn’t know the
people’s name that owned him. His
first name was Sainty. After her
mother and father were married,
they had to keep their own names
because they belonged to different
people. Her husband was Essie
Pearsall.
Aunt Hester’s mother died when
she was real young and left her
and a small baby. Jessie Howard’s
mother fed and card for them be-
cause the Bishops only gave them
a small amount to eat. Jessie How-
ard was from Magnolia and died
several years ago.
When she was five years old she
was sold for the first time at the
Kenansville Court House from the
Bishops to the Millers. She lived
with the Millers until she was
about ten years old. Mr. Parott (sic)
gave a house, lot, and a thousand
dollars for her. She said she re-
membered that after Mr. Parrott
bought her and started home he
sang “Old Bob Riddley” all the
way. When they arrived at the
plantation Mr. Parrott gave her to
his baby daughter Mary. She and
Mary were the same age.
Her job as a slave was to keep
the parlor, her room and the chil-
dren’s rooms clean and she had
to look after the white children.
Her pay for doing this work was
her food and clothing. She had to
stay in the “greathouse” yard and
was not allowed to go in the col-
ored slave’s yards.
She remembers the Civil War
when the Yankees came through.
When they heard that the Yank-
ees were coming, they were told to
go to their other plantation four
miles away. While on their way
to the other plantation she ran
away from her mistress because
she didn’t want to lead her master’s
blind nurse. She ran back to the plantation they were leaving, but
when she got on top of the hill so
she could see the “greathouse”, two Yankee soldiers stopped her. She
turned and ran and they shot at
her twice. She fell in the canal and
hid under the bridge, where she
stayed until she saw her mistress
coming back to look for her. She
knew the soldiers were waiting to
catch them so she ran out to warn
her mistress. When she did the sol-
diers came out, took the horse from
the buggy and made them walk
back to the “greathouse” where the
yard and house was full of sol-
diers. When they got there her
mistress fainted. They took her in
the bedroom and called a doctor.
They made Aunt Hester and the
white children go on the porch and
dared them in the house. She said,
“ I wuz scared to death cuz I just knowed they wuz going ta’ kill us
all, and since they had taken ma
mistress from us, we thought fo
sure they wuz going to kill her.”
Late that afternoon they took her
and the children up stairs and shut
them up in a room and told them
that if they holored(sic) they would shoot them. Late the next after-
noon they carried them back down-
stairs where she saw wounded men
lying all around on the parlor
floor. She still thought her mistress
was dead until they carried her
to the bedroom where Mrs. Par-
rott was. She said: “And there was
ma mistress with a tiny baby boy
and they were both getting along
fine.” After they looked at the ba-
by the doctor fed them. They stay-
ed there until the white flag was
raised two weeks later.
Liza and John Parrott have grand children living in Mt. Olive but
Aunt Hester doesn’t know their
names.
She was about twenty years old
when she was freed and she was
the only slave to stay with her own-
er, because that was all she knew
to do. She stayed there until her grandmother found her and
brought her to Duplin County.
Aunt Hester had nine children
but only seven are living now. They
are Richard of Wilmington, Rosa
Robinson of Durham, Mary Bethea,
Lou Robinson, Lizzie Pigford, Jim
and Henry of Magnolia. She lives
with Mary. The dead are Will and
Liza.
Aunt Hester has great-great-
great-grandchildren. She said she
could not begin to count all the grandchildren, etc. because there
are so many.
Aunt Hester helped Dr. Wessel
of Wilmington deliver over five
hundred babies and has helped a-
round a hundred other doctors de-
liver babies. She said, “I’s just as
proud to see ma white chilluns as anything. I loves them all.”
She has been a member of the
Baptist church for eighty years.
Her favorite saying is: “Honor
thy Father and thy Mother that
thy days shall be longer upon the
land which the Lord Thy God giv-
est thee.”
She has never traveled further
than Durham, Lumberton and the
North River. She traveled to Dur-
ham and Wilmington on the bus
by herself until she was almost a hundred and one years old.
She likes to sew quilts and cro-
chet and she does not wear glass-
es.
She said if she could get around
good now she would be alright.
She fell down the steps a few
weeks ago and now her back hurts
her a lot, which makes it more
difficult to get around.
She liked the Duplin Story very
much. She said “Oh, it was so good
and so pretty.” She hated to get
up in front of the audience at the
Duplin Story because she was af-
raid people would laugh at her be-
cause she was so old.
When she worked with a doc-
tor in Wilmington she lived next
door to the Kenan family.
The county gives her fifteen dol-
lars a month which she said was
not even enough to pay for her
medicine. The daughter she lives
with is sixty-eight years old and
is unable to do much outside work because she can’t leave Aunt Hes-
ter at home by her self.
She said “I thinks doctors can
help you, but I puts all by (sic) faith in the Master above because doctors
have to learn and God already
knows.”
She said, “The good Lord has let
me live to be this old for a pur-
pose. I don’t know what purpose
but I will before I die. I am rea-
dy anytime the dear Master wants
me.”
Aunt Hester already has her tombstone. Mr. Jack Nichols of Wilmington told her years ago that
of (sic) she would stay and nurse a child for him, that he would buy her tombstone. Aunt Hester was ill a
while back so Mr. Nichols sent the
tombstone. She has it stored away
in the barn loft. She is very proud
of it. She said, “When Mr. Nich-
ols sent me the tombstone he must have though (sic) I was going to die, but I reckons I fooled him.”
(Edit. Note) Aunt Hester is not begging and did not ask us to print
this note but she would appreciate
any gifts, especially money, any-
one wishes to send her. JRG
[Transcribed 06 August 2007 by
Susan Strickland Russell.]