Tyler-Area Freedwoman Shares Stories Of Slave Dungeons, Lynchings, Starved Slaves, & Wishing To Be White
Towns in Hagar’s story | Tyler, TX, the county seat, is marked with a star and can be found in the bottom middle of this Smith County map by Woldert. Garden Valley is in the top left. Starrville can be found on the top right.
Meet Hagar Lewis, Age 82.
She Was Born A Slave Near Tyler, Texas. Photo Credit: Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-38 | Photo Restored & Colorized By DG Montalvo.
The following account was taken from work produced by the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938. The work was called the Slave Narrative Collection. It was a set of 2,300 first-hand interviews of former slaves and included more than 500 black and white photos of the interviewees. I have made slight changes to make the narrative more legible and fill in some blanks. The story retains Ms Lewis’ language and tone. Some offensive words have been slightly changed.
SHORT BIO - Hagar Lewis, tall and erect at 82 years of age, now lives at 4313 Rosa St., El Paso, Texas. She was born a slave in 1855 near Tyler, TX to the William Martin family. William's daughter Mary married John M. McFarland on Feb 21, 1856. Hagar and her mother were given to Mary as a gift. The Rev. Joshua Starr performed the ceremony. Starr helped found Marvin Methodist Church.
The McFarlands lived in Garden Valley, near Tyler. After the Civil War, Hagar remained with the McFarland family until she married A. Lewis. They both moved to San Antonio, Texas. Widowed early, Hagar raised two sons. One son became a chief electrical engineer with the U.S. government; he lives in New York City. He provides for his aged mother.
HAGAR'S FEDERAL WRITERS PROJECT INTERVIEW (1937) - I was born Jan. 12th, 1855. My first owners was the Martins, and when their daughter, Mary, married, I was give to her. My mama lived to 112 years old. She had sixteen children. I was the baby.
Missus Mary McFarland, my mother's missus and mine, taught us children with her own; learned us how to read and write. She treated us just like we were her children. We had very strict leaders, my mother and Missus Mary. She'd say, "Mammy Lize (my mother), you'll have to come and whoop Oscar and Hagar, they's fightin!'' Mammy Lize would say, "No, I won't whoop 'em, I'll just punish 'em." And we'd have to stand with our backs to each other. My missus never did much whoopin'.
We lived in cabins made of logs and chinked with mud mortar. We had beds that had only one leg; they fit in each corner of the walls. They was strong, stout. We could jump on 'em and have lots of fun. We didn't stay in quarters much. The cabins was near a creek where willows grew and we'd make stick horses out of 'em. We called it our horse lot. On the farm was a spring that threw water high, and we'd go fishing in a big lake on one corner of the farm. Marster owned half a league [i.e. 2,214 acres], maybe more.
I was 12 years old when freed. I can remember the way my marster come home from the (Civil) War. The oldest son, Oscar, and I was out in the yard, and I saw marster first, coming down the road, and I hollered and screamed, "O, Oscar, Marse John's a-comin! Marse John's a-comin home!' We stayed on with them till they all died off but Oscar."
We never changed our name till after the Civil War. Then Marse John (McFarland) said, "Mammy Lize, you gotta choose a name." He carried us into Tyler to a bureau or something. Mammy Liz say, "I'm going to keep the name McFarland. I ain't got no other name.'"
My father was a slave from another farm. My mother was the cook. She cooked it all in the same place for white folks and us. We ate the same, when the white folks was finished. They's a big light bread oven in the yard of the big house and in front of the quarters, under a big tree. That one baked the pies. The cabins had a big fireplace wider than that piano there. They'd hang meat and sausage and dry them in the fireplace. Cut holes in ham and hang them there. Had big hogsheads filled up with flour, corn, and wheat.
Some pore ni>>ers were half starved. They belonged to other people. Missus Mary would call them in to feed 'em, see 'em outside the fence picking up scraps. They'd call out at night, "Marse John, Marse John." They's afraid to come in daytime. Marse John'd say, "What's the matter now?" They'd say, "I'se hongry." He'd say, "Come in and git it." He'd cure lots of meat, for we'd hear 'em hollering at night when they'd beat the pore ni>>ers for beggin' or stealin', or some crime.
Marse John would saddle up Old Charlie and go see. He had a big shotgun across his lap. We'd hear that ole bullwhip just a poppin'. They'd turn 'em loose when Marse John got after 'em. He prosecuted some marsters for beatin' the slaves. He knew they was half feedin' 'em.
One time he let us go see where they'd drag two ni>>ers to death with oxen. For stealin' or somethin'. I can't say we were treated bad, cause I'd tell a story. I've always been treated good by whites, but many of the ni>>ers was killed. They'd say bad words to the bosses and they'd shoot 'em. We'd ask Miss Mary, "Why did they kill old Uncle so and so?" and Miss Mary would say; "I don't know. It's not right to say when you don't."
I'm glad to see slavery over. When I was turned loose Miss Mary was training me and mister to do handwork, knittin', and such. Mama wouldn't let us dance, didn't 'want any rough children. Miss Mary'd say, when I'd get sleepy, "Owl eyes ain't you sleepy?" I'd say, "No, ma'am, anything you want us to do?" I cried to sleep in the big house with Miss Mary and the children, 'cause my sister Belle did. Said she's goin' to turn white 'cause she stayed with the white folks, and I wanted to turn white too.
Watch HBO’s Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. With Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L Jackson, & many more.
Miss Mary'd make our Sunday dresses. My mother put colored thread in woven material and they was pretty. We had plenty of clothes. Miss Mary saw to that. They paid my mother for every child she had that was big enough to work, and Marse John saw that others did the same.
Some Whites had a dark hole in the ground, a dungeon they called it, to put their slaves in. They'd carry 'em bread and water once a day. I'm afraid of that hole, they'd tell me the devil was in that hole.
We set traps for possums, coons and squirrels. We used to have big sport ridin' goats. One near busted me wide open. Miss Mary's brother put me on it, and they punished him good for it. He didn't get to play for long. And we had an old buck sheep. He'd keep Oscar and I up on the oak patch fence all the time.
We'd watch the doodle bugs build their houses. We'd sing, "Doodle, doodle your house burned down." Those things would come up out of their holes just a shakin'. One game I remember was, "Skip frog, skip frog, answer your mother, she's callin' you, you, you." We'd stand in a circle and one would be skip frog. We'd slap our hands and skip frog would be hoppin' just like frogs do. Oh, I wish I could call them times back again. I'd go back tomorrow. But I'm trying to live so I can meet 'em once again.
WHO "OWNED" HAGAR - John Iverson McFarland, born Oct. 29, 1833, was a native of Talbot County Georgia. His father Robert T. McFarland was of the planter class. The McFarlands became a prominent Smith County family. They were considered chivalrous old Southern stock. That is code for wealthy, polished aristocratic slave owners.
In 1855, he joined his family and moved to Starrville, Texas. That same year, John married Miss Mary Martin. She entered the marriage with two slaves, Hagar Lewis, and her mother. The couple had three children - Oscar, Lizzie, and Iva.
In 1861, John enlisted in Confederate Capt. W. S. Herndon's Company then served on the coast of Texas. The McFarland family believed "the principles they fought for were right in the sight of God and mankind." After the Civil War, he dismissed his slaves, but Hagar stayed on until she married. His son Oscar became a leading merchant. He married Miss Belle Fielder, daughter of another influential Smith County family. Oscar went on to become chairman of the Smith County Democratic Party. Belle Fielder McFarland helped lead the Smith County Equal Franchise League (Suffragist Movement) when Tyler was "dead to suffrage." One of the goals of the local suffragist movement was to "enormously increase the white supremacy of Texas and give an impetus towards the best ideals of American democracy.
Sources:
SLAVE NARRATIVES, A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, 1936-1938
ROBERT T. McFARLAND AND FAMILY. "Some Biographies of Old Settlers." Historical, Personal and Reminiscent. Volume I by Sid S. Johnson, 1900, Sid S. Johnson, Publisher, Tyler, Texas. Chapter LXI pages 256 - 261
Texans Who Wore the Gray, Volume I; by Sid S. Johnson
