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REMINISCENCE OF A NEGRO
PREACHER
(Georgia)
In talking to the owner of a tourist
camp one day, I asked the whereabouts of a negro by the name of Lonnie
Pondly. The owner replied, "Yes, he lives the third house down that lane.
You know he is a preacher?"
I answered that I didn't and then added that I would be glad to have the
chance to talk to a colored preacher.
I went down the white sandy lane and found a two room house. It had no
front yard at all, no grass or trees for shade and no porch. I knocked on
the door and a man answered.
"Who do you want to see?" he asked. I told him that I wanted to see Lonnie
Pondly. In a short time I heard a door shut and I looked around and saw an
old man walking around the house. "Yes Ma'am, this is Lonnie Pondly." He
volunteered. "Good morning!" Good morning Uncle!" I said. "Do you have a
little time to spare this morning?" "Yes Ma'am, he said, with a broad
smile.
It was a cool day although the sun was shining very bright. I asked him to
sit in the sun so we could talk better. I found that Uncle Lonnie had a
very good education for a negro of his type and that his English was
fairly good. He seemed to know what I came for because he said:
"Well, I was born in Madison County, six miles from Danielsville about
eighty years ago in 1859. I was a slave, Miss, but a happy one. My young
Mistess and Marster's names were Nancy and John Lester. My father's
Marster's name was Jimmie Nunn. He lived on the Danielsville Road. My
father would have to get a pass from Mr. Jimmie to come to see my mother.
You see they were on different plantations. He got to come to see my
mother twice a week. If he slipped out without the pass the patterollers
got after him and if he out run them and got back to his Marster he was
safe, but if he didn't he got a whipping. Twenty-five licks was what he
would get.
"As far back as I can remember is when us little niggers was just big
enough to run around. Mistess would be so good to us. She would always pay
us in some way to help her. She would say, 'Bring me some water; git me
some on the north side of the spring so it will be cool' or 'pick up some
bark for me and I will make some candy for my little niggers.' Lawd Miss,
you ought to have seen us little niggers scramble after that water and
pick up those chips. My Mistess would not let anyone whip us, not even my
mother or father. Sometimes her daughter, Miss Sallie, would get mad with
us for a trifle and start to whip us. You ought to have heard us yell, Old
Mistess, Old Mistess. Out she would come. Her curse word was 'drat your
infernal soul. You just want to beat my little niggers to death.' she
would say. Then Miss Sallie would leave arunning.
"Oh, we were the happiest little souls in the world. Old Miss would never
consult a doctor. She was as good as any of them. When we got sick we
didn't say stomach. We would holler Old Mistess and she would come a
running and ask, 'What is the matter with my little niggers now?' My belly
hurts, I'd day. She always kept some medicine made of chinaberry roots.
'Now take this and Mistess will give you some candy.'
"My grandma was the cook she would throw on a ten foot pole and let it
burn to ashes and then make pones of bread. She would then put them in the
ashes and when they cooked a while she took the shovel and throw ashes
over them. When they were done she taken 'em out washed them and greased
them. Yes Ma'am, they was good. We would go to the bottoms and find mussel
shells. That is where we got our spoons that we ate with. We had plenty to
eat; you see, Mistess and young Marster wanted their niggers to grow up
healthy like our father. He was a big healthy nigger. They would say it
aint no trouble for a big healthy nigger to get married.
"I remember one time they was sending us out to hoe cotton. I decided I
didn't want to go, so I pitched a big fit. Instead of hoeing the cotton I
laid down and started grabbing it with my teeth. Marster came out and sent
me to the house. He said I never would amount to nothing. He didn't let me
go to the field no more that year. He thought I was sick.
"There was plenty of potatoes, corn, wheat and everything else that is
raised on a farm, but Marster would never raise over one bale of cotton.
We had ox carts in those days. I can remember when it taken two weeks to
go to Augusta and back with that bale of cotton. Shoes were brought back
for us all. Mistess got a dress and the rest was brought back in money. I
remember when we didn't have no gins, us little niggers would pick out the
seed with our hands. My mother would card it; my grandma would spin it.
She put it on brooches and made a bank, everytime it filled it would
click, then she started another one. Young Mistess was the weaver and she
made all our clothes. That reminds me, Miss, we just wore one garment, a
long dress. The only way I could tell the difference in my sister's
clothes and mine was mine had a little yoke on it.
"We used to all go to the same church, colored and white. We would sit on
one side. I would always go with my grandma. She would put her shoes in
her pockets and when we got in a mile of the church she put her shoes on.
When we left she would pull them off and go on home bare-footed.
"The preacher made my uncle Harry a deacon and when they served bread and
wine Uncle Harry would come down the aisle and pass it around. You know,
Miss, they had to break the ice to baptise. Uncle Harry's churches was not
up to date like they are now. Us niggers had to have a pass anywhere we
went, church and all. They never kept you from going anywhere, but you had
to have that pass and it read pass and re-pass. There would be twenty-five
white men who were called patterollers, as I have told you before, and
they would watch and could tell when one of the negroes didn't have a
pass; his feet just would not stay on the ground, cause he was so nervous.
"When we had big dances the patterollers would be in the middle, us slaves
would be on each end, and if the patterollers made a start to arrest one
of the negroes for disobedience we would always have a fire and one of us
would dip up a shovel of hot coals and throw it at them. By the time they
got through dodging the hot coals we would be gone home to our white
folks.
"Some of out happy days was when we hauled up the corn and we could swing
on the wagons. They was sho happy days. You know, Miss, in slavery time if
any of the slaves was disobedient their owner's would hold them 'till the
speculators came around. Then they was sold. If the women had children it
made no difference - they had to leave them - or if the man had a wife he
had to go just the same. I remember when the Yankees came through, one big
Yankee come up to my pa and said, 'I will give you my horse and blanket if
you will show me all the old rich bugs.' Pa said, 'wait let me get my
shoes.' Instead of putting on his shoes he run through the house and
yelled, 'Everybody turn loose the horses.' All the Yankees horses were old
broke down horses and they would take ours.
"If a man wore a vest the Yankees
thought he had a watch. One big Yankee walked up to Uncle Harry and said,
'take off that vest.' Another one said, 'Let the dam fool alone, can't you
see he has no watch.' All the time Uncle Harry had it hid under the wood
pile. Just as soon as Uncle Harry got a chance he threw his vest in the
swamp. One Yankee walked up to Mistess and said, 'How come you got such a
big bosom, give me all that money.' Mistess said, 'I haven't got any
money.' The Yankee took his knife and cut Mistess' dress open and gold and
silver went everywhere. It was awful.
"Mr. Franklin was my Marster's older brother. The Yankees got him and hung
him up by his toes. He would not tell where his money was. Then they hung
him up by his neck; he could hardly whisper, still he would not tell them
where his money was. The Yankees yelled at one of his men to bring him the
auger. He got poor old Mr. Franklin down and started boring in his head.
Mr. Franklin said, 'Please don't kill me, I will tell, it is under a pile
of rocks in he garden in an old trunk.' They got all of poor old Mr.
Franklin's money.
"Yes Ma'am, Miss, we stuck to our Marster and Mistess. When they trusted
their niggers they would give them all their valuables to keep or hide for
them. I can see one of the niggers on the place now. Marster gave him his
watch to keep form him. He put it in his vest pocket. The chain stretched
across his stomach. He walked out where the other niggers was, pretending
they was Yankee's. He rared back and put his fingers on his vest and said,
'Now take it away from me like you would old Marster.' He was so proud to
get to wear his Marster's watch.
"The Yankees made my mother cook fifteen bushels of peas and three
middlins of meat. They didn't wait for them to get done. The peas just got
hot and swelled. They taken them and left with all the good horses they
could catch of ours and all the money they could find.
"If our Marster and Mistess saw a big healthy nigger it won't no trouble
to get him married for they would urge it on, Yes Ma'am, I know you have
heard about when people got married - a saying of jump the broom. I will
tell you about that. It didn't make no difference, white or colored, if
there was a wedding you could hear it all around. 'Are you going to the
broom jumping tonight?' Everybody would go. You see, Miss, we had straw
brooms back in those days. One was fixed about the size around my arm, and
five feet long. It was laid down on the floor. Everybody would gather
around. The man and woman that was going to marry would stand by the
broom. The preacher would say to the man, 'do you take this woman to be
your wife.' He says, 'Yes.' 'Well jump the broom,' After he jumped the
preacher would say the same to the woman. When she jumped the preacher
said, 'I pronounce you man and wife.' That's how all marriage ceremonies
were then.
"My young Marster went to war to substitute for Mr. Franklin. Miss, it
seems as if I can see him now. He called me, Ding. He said, 'Here Ding,
take this big red apple and if you don't ever see Marster again remember
me by it. I never did see him no more. He got killed fighting. Mistess got
forty dollars, but it was no good because we lost young Marster.
"They called old John in to pray for Marster, he was a big nigger. His
prayer was, 'God bless young Marster in the war and give them their
victory and bless old Marster and Mistess at home.'
"Going home, his wife Mary said, 'John, how in the devil do you ever
expect to be set free and you praying like that?' Old John looked at Mary
and said 'God knows what I mean.'"
Uncle Lonnie sat very quiet for a moment as if he were seeing everything
over again. He took a long breath and smiled.
"Lord Miss, them was some days.
"How old were you Uncle Lonnie at the time of the surrender," I asked.
"Thats where I began another life, Miss. I was ten years old. My father
sent me to several different schools. We stayed on at the old plantation
though, my father and mother could stay together now and they worked and
we had plenty. Lots of the old niggers were left without anything. My
father would raise a bunch of hogs and put them in the cellar and sell
them at a very high price. I can remember him selling wheat at sixty
dollars a bushel. He made a pair of raw hide shoes one time and sold them
for one hundred dollars to Mr. Ledbetter. This is something else I want to
tell you. My father cut down maple trees and let them dry. Then he made
little pegs and used them for nails to make his shoes. He was a very smart
man.
"I kept going to school walking fourteen miles every day, but I liked it
and I finally got my liscence and taught for several years.
"I met a girl than and fell in love with her. Mr. Bob Yerby married Julia
Johnson and me. We lived at New Grove, Georgia. I decided that I wanted to
give my work and soul to God. So I worked in the field by myself and
picked three hundred pounds of cotton every day. I could chop three acres
a day and made twelve bales of cotton and all the food I needed for my
mule and cows. I taken this and went to see about my studies for a
preacher.
"I studied Theologey under Dr. Lions and Dr. Clark. I can't remember when
I joined the church, but it was over fifty years ago. I have lived in
Clarke County all my life except ten years and have been a pastor for over
twenty churches: Atlanta, Green, Oglethorpe, Madison, Oconee, Jackson,
Banks, Gwinett Counties. I have baptised over three thousand people. God
help me how many knots have I tied.
"I lived on at New Grove. Julia and me had fourteen children - all good
healthy children. I stayed on 'till all the children died but five and
when Julia died I left New Grove. The children was grown anyway. I come to
Athens, but I was pastor at Homer, Georgia. Willie, Sue, and Ophelis went
to Richmond, Virginia. My oldest some died in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
during the World War."
"Uncle Lonnie, how about your other son. Where is he?" I asked.
"He lives here with me. He is a preacher, too. His church is at
Allensville. Even though he is my son, Miss, I don't want to brag, but he
is a very intelligent boy. As I have said I am still pastor at Homer. I
failed in health some and I asked them to get another preacher, but they
never have. I still go and preach when I can. I preached yesterday and my
text was the Eighth Chapter - the Psalm of David.
"Yes Ma'am, Miss, I have been a great man. When I walk in a church now men
draw up in knots. God breathed life in nostrils of man so we could do
great things for Him.
"Yes Ma'am, Miss, I used to go to Mr. Walter Jones' home on Milledge
Avenue one time a year and preach him a sermon as long as he lived. I am
going there Christmas and preach a sermon for his son if I am living. All
his kin folks from Baltimore are coming.
"I train all the bird dogs for them. You know they like to hunt and I do,
too. Young Mr. Jones takes me now to the plantation for a week to hunt and
train his dogs. He always pays my board to some of the tenants out there.
I have a time with them dogs.
"Sometimes Mr. Jones's friend comes out on week-ends and hunts. This
friend always brings his dogs with him. He had one great big dog. One of
ours was small. These two dogs got to fighting one day and ours whipped.
This man said, 'How is it your little dog can always whip my big dog?' I
told him it wasn't always the size that whipped.
"Not long ago I was preaching in Green County. After the meeting was over
the boys all wanted to go hunting. They insisted that I go with them.
Well, I thought it would be good sport so I went. We hunted all around and
finally spotted a 'possom on a limb way out over a river. Well, it was
night and you know, Miss, how scary it looks out on a river bank at night.
Everybody wanted to know who was going out after the possom. The big
nigger said he would go, so he gave a big jump and caught the limb."
Uncle Lonnie was holding his hands up to show me how he did and laughing
so he could hardly tell me.
"Well, he hung on there and saw he could not get down without falling in
the water. He began to yell for some of us to come out and help him. We
told him it was impossible for we could not go out there. 'Please come out
and help me,' he cried. No we can't. 'Well,' he said, 'tell Nancy to meet
me in heaven' - that's his wife. He began to pray, 'Oh Lord, please save
me.' About that time the limb broke and he grabbed the one below. He kept
on praying, 'Lord, have mercy.' The limb he was holding broke then, and
into the water he went. It struck him just above the waist, he looked all
around and said, 'Hell, it wasn't as deep as I thought it was.' It is all
through life like that, Miss. I am old now, but the white folks are good
to me though. God bless you.
REMINISCENSE OF A NEGRO
PREACHER
Written By:
Mrs. Ina B. Hawkes
Research Field Worker
Georgia Writers' Project
Athens -
Edited By:
Mrs. Maggie B. Freeman
Editor
Georgia Writers' Project
Athens -
WPA Area - 6
November 7, 1939
October 31, 1939
Alonzo Power (Negro)
Danielsville, Road
Route # 1
Athens, Georgia
Preacher
I. B. Hawkes
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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