W. Solomon Debnam
701 Smith Street
Worker: T. Pat Matthews

"Yes, I remember the Yankees coming to Raleigh. I don't know very much about those times, I was so young, but I remember the Yankees all right in their blue clothes; their horses and so on. I'll be 78 years old on the 8th of this comin' September an' I've heard mother and father talk about slavery time a whole lot. We belonged to T.R. Debnam at Eagle Rock, Wake County. His wife was named Priscilla Debnam. My father was named Daniel Debnam an' my mother was named Liza Debnam. My master had several plantations an' a lot of slaves. I don't know how many, but I know he had 'em. He fed us well; we had a good place to sleep. We had wove clothes, enough to keep us warm. He treated me just like he had been my father. I didn't know the difference. Marster an' missus never hit me a lick in their lives. My mother was the house girl. Father tended business around the house an' worked in the field sometimes. Our houses were in marster's yard. The slave quarters were in the yard of the great house. I don't remember going to church until after the surrender.

"I remember the corn shuckin's, but not the Christmas and the fourth of July holidays. They had a lot of whiskey at corn shuckin's and good things to eat.

"I heard pappy talk of patterollers, ut I do not know what they were. Pappy said he had to have a pass to visit on, or they would whip him if they could ketch him. Sometimes they could not ketch a nigger they were after. Yes, they taught us to say pappy an' mammy tn them days.

"I remember the coon and possum hunts an' the rabbits we caught in gums. I remember killin' birds at night with thorn brush. When bird blindin' we hunt 'em at night with lights from big splinters. We went to grass patches, briars, and vines along the creeks an' low groun's where they roosted, an' blinded 'em an' killed 'em when they come out. We cooked 'em on coals and I remember making a stew and having dumplings cooked with 'em. We'd flustrate the birds in their roostin' place an' when they come out blinded by the light we hit 'em an' killed 'em with thorn brush we carried in our han's.

"Marster had a gran'son, the son of Alonza Hodge an' Arabella Hodge, 'bout my age an' I stayed with him most of the time. When Alonza Hodge bought his son anything he bought for me too. He treated us alike. He bought each of us a pony. We could ride good, when we were small. He let us follow him. He let us go huntin' squirrels with him. when he shot an' killed a squirrel he let us race to see which could get him first, while he laughed at us.

"I didn't sleep in the great house. I stayed with this white boy till bed time then my mammy cane en' got me an' carried me home. When marster wanted us boys to go with him he would say, 'let's go boys,' an' we would follow him. We were like brothers. I ate with him at the table. What they et, I et. He made the house girl wait on me just like he an' his son was waited on.

"My father stayed with marster till he died, when he was 63 and I was 21; we both stayed right there. My white playmate's name was Richard Hodge. I stayed there till I was married. When I got 25 years old I married Ida Rawlson. Richard Hodge became a medical doctor, but he died young, just before I was married.

"They taught me to rean an' write. After the surrender I went to free school. when I didn't know a word I went to old marster an' he told me.

"During my entire life no man can touch my morals, I was brought up by my white folks not to lie, steal or do things immoral. I have lived a pure life. There is nothing against me.

"I remember the Yankees, yes sir, an' some things they done. Well, I remember the yeller gobler they couldn't ketch. He riz an' flew an' they shot him an' killed him. They went down to marster's store an' busted the head outen a barrel o' molases an' after they busted the head out I got a tin bucket an' got it full o' molasses an' started to the house. Then they shoved me down in the molasses. I set the bucket down an' hit a Yankee on the leg with a dogwood stick. He tried to hit me. The Yankees ganged around him, an' made him leave me alone, give me my bucket o' molases, an' I carried it on to the house. They went down to the lot, turned out all the horses and tuck two o' the big mules, Kentucky mules, an' carried 'em off. One of the mules would gnaw every line in two you tied him with, an' the other could not be rode. So next morning after the Yankees carried 'em off they both come back home with pieces o' line on 'em. The mules was named, one was named Bill, an' the other Charles. You could ride old Charles, but you couldn't ride old Bill. He would throw you off as fast as you got on 'im.

"After I was married when I was 25 years old I lived there 10 years, right there; but old marster had died an' missus had died. I stayed with his son Nathaniel; his wife was named Drusilla.

"I had five brothers, Richard, Daniel, Rogene, Lorenzo, Lumus and myself. There wont places here for us all, an' then I left. When I left down there I moved to Raleigh. The first man I worked for here was George Marsh Company, then W.A. Myatt Company an' no one else. I worked with the Myatt Company twenty -six years; 'till I got shot.
"It was about half past twelve o'clock. I was on my way home to dinner on the 20th of December 1935. When I was passing Patterson's Alley entering Lenoir Street near the colored park in the 500 block something hit me. I looked around an' heard a shot.

from The American Slave Volume 14: North Carolina Narratives, Part 1; Edited by George P. Rawick, Prepared by the Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Carolina