. He was good to
me. Yes'm he was better to me than my father was. He was a preacher and
a painter. My mother died. When my father, (step-father) went off to
preach, me and my sister stayed in the house.

I stayed home all my life. I just wasn't 'llowed to run around like most
girls. I never been out of Wilmington but one year in my life. That year
I went to Augusta. No'm I don't likes to go away. I don't like the
trains, nor the automobiles. But I rides in 'em (meaning the latter).

I remember when the 4th Street bridge was built. I was married over
there in St. Stephen's Church, 5th and Red Cross. Yes M'am my auntie she
gib me a big weddin'. I was 22 and my husband was 22 too not quite 23.
Not a year older than I was. He was a cooper. Yes Ma'm I had a big
weddin'. The church was all decorated with flowers. I had six
attendants. Four big ones and two little ones. My husband he had the
same number I did four big ones and two little ones. I had on a white
dress. Carried flowers. Had carriages and everything. My husband was
good to me. I didn't stay home with my father but about a month. We
wanted to go to ourselves.

We went in our own home and stayed there until I got a "sickness." (She
looked shy) I didn't know what was the matter with me. My father told me
I better come home. So I went home to my father and stayed there about
two years.

I have had five children. Three are livin'. Two are dead.

I never worked until after he died. He left me with five little children
to raise.

He was the only man I ever 'knowed' in all my life from girlhood up.

[Footnote 8: The Synagogue has no clock on the exterior, but Isabell
persisted with her name of "Clock Church."]

N. C. District: No. 2 [320017]
Worker: Mary A. Hicks
No. Words: 738
Subject: Ex-Slave Story
Story Teller: Essex Henry
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt

[TR: Date Stamp "JUN 26 1937"]

ESSEX HENRY

Ex-Slave Story

An interview with Essex Henry 83 of 713 S. East Street, Raleigh, N. C.

I wus borned five miles north of Raleigh on de Wendell Road, 83 years
ago. My mammy wus Nancy an' my pappy wus Louis. I had one sister, Mary,
an' one bruder, Louis.

We 'longed ter Mr. Jake Mordecai, an' we lived on his six hundert acres
plantation 'bout a mile from Millbrook. Right atter de war he sold dis
lan' ter Doctor Miller an' bought de Betsy Hinton tract at Milburnie.
Mr. Jake had four or five hundert nigg