Thomas McIntire

[Thomas McIntire was interviewed at his residence in Springfield, Ohio.  He is a 90 year old tall, thin, African-American whose father was brought from the African jungles by slave traders.  He is bald and wears a long moustache, and his physical condition is above average for his age.]

I was born in Bath County, Kentucky, January 17, 1847. My parents were Bryant and Sally McIntire. There were ten children in my family. 

My father, Bryant McIntire, was taken by slave traders from Africa and brought to Norfolk, Virginia. He was sold to Jim Lane of Bath County, Kentucky. Jim Lane and my mother’s owners were friends. Between the two families, they gave my parents an order so they could be married. You see, in those days, all they did was give an order in writing for a man and woman to be husband and wife. Lane was a nice slave owner, in those times, and allowed my mother and father to go by the name of McIntire as their married name. My grandmother was a weaver along with several others and my mother was a cook and a midwife. 

Jim Lane owned 550 slaves and about 2,000 acres of good land. He was very rich for those days. He had a big, red brick house with 24 rooms. He had 16 children.

The slave quarters were close to the big house. Every family had their own cabin and eight acres of land for their gardens and vegetables. They raised their own chickens and turkeys. But, butchered hogs and cattle and milk was shared with all of the slave families. 

I remember my parents talking that food wasn’t all they wanted. They wanted to be free and teach their children so they could grow up and have something for themselves like Jim Lane’s children. I would hear my parents saying, "Never mind children, for your aunt is coming." That was just a saying for "Freedom’s coming." We soon learned what it meant, but the white folks never knew. 

We wore jeans, and heavy shirts, and big hard shoes made by the shoemakers on the plantation. We had only one pair of shoes a year so my mother sewed moccasins for us to protect our feet before it was time to wear our shoes. Most of the time, it was almost Christmas before we wore our shoes. 

Lane didn’t whip his slaves or treat them badly. He would buy whole families at the selling block so that they could stay together. That is why he had so many slaves. 

There was a log church on our plantation for us to attend. Other slaves from other plantations came there too for church and meetings. 

Jim Lane and some of his friends had a little church they built for themselves. They walked from our plantation because he was very religious and didn’t allow any work on Sundays. Horses weren’t hitched up for them and only the cows were milked on Sundays. Cooking was done on Friday and Saturday. But, one or two slaves had to work on Sundays setting the tables. They got to go home in time for their meetings. 

I remember all of the slaves that could get out of the quarters coming to the meetings in the woods to talk about a way to get their freedom or going off to war. Everyone knew about the underground railroad through the country because a lot of Quakers had come and bought property in those areas. They were teaching the slaves not to be afraid of their rights. 

The Bigstaff family owned a plantation next to ours. They were not nice to their slaves. The Bigstaff boys would help catch slaves and whip them if they couldn’t show a pass from their masters. 

I would see them marching slaves chained together, with the little ones up on an ox cart, and many men on horseback with long whips slashing them and making them move along the road. 

The slave traders took them to a halfway house on the Tennessee highway close to us, owned by Billy Wurtz. He had a big cellar where they put the slaves until the day they were going to sell them and take them further south. They had a big sale day at Mt. Sterling and auctioned off the slaves. They would whip them on the selling block to make them yell. I have seen all of that and even more. 

When the war came, a lot of the Lane slaves went to war. My father and brother went. My brother was in the battle at Mt. Sterling. When the war was over, my father and brother came home. 

Jim Lane freed us before the war was over. He gave us all a little money or paid some to stay on until after the war. He gave 10 acres of land and built a place for the families to live until the war was over. 

We went to Nicholasville. Father worked as a blacksmith and mother saved money from selling chickens and eggs. Pretty soon, we had enough money to buy and build a nice six-room house. That was right after the war.

I lived in Springfield, Ohio for 55 years and I have seen a lot of changes. I married both of my wives here, but they are both dead now. There are three of my family members left, two brothers living in Cincinnati, Ohio and me here. 

I have always been Methodist and Wiley is my church. I thank the Lord for all of the blessings he has allowed me to have.

I knew Ben Arnett personally and heard him speak a lot of times. I also have heard Booker T. Washington and Douglas, all of them big among Negro folks. I read a little and I have read a lot about most of the ones I haven’t heard speak.

Permission to use portions of the Thomas McIntire narrative has been provided by the Ohio Historical Society. For the full account and 26 others, look for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Ex-Slave Narratives in the African American Experience in Ohio, part of the Society’s website at www.ohiohistory.org.

 

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