I have received a few requests for information/data contained in a narrative taken from Simuel Riddick in the 1930s. I thought it might be worthwhile to share this information with the Discussion Group. The information I have was taken from manuscripts produced in the 1930s and published in 1984 under the title "My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk About Slavery" edited by Belinda Hurmence and published by John F. Blair, Publisher, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. First, a little background information: during the depression years the Federal Government initiated the Federal Writers Project...primarily to create work for writers without jobs. An important focus of this initiate was to interview as many former slaves as possible - an important but long-neglected soure of information about the institution of slavery in the United States. As you can appreciate, by the mid 1930s, there were considerably fewer ex-slaves from whom oral histories could be taken. Hence, the importance of the interviews. Among those interviewed was a former slave living in Raleigh, but from Perquimans County. He was 95 when he was interviewed. The essence of his interview is as follow: His name was Simuel Riddick. He was born on Feb. 4th, 1841 in Perquimans County. His mother was Nancy Riddick and his father was Elisha Riddick. Simuel Riddick's master and mistress were Elisha and Sarah Riddick. They had three daughters: Sarah, Christine, and Mary; and one son named Asbury Riddick. Simuel Riddick reports he had good food and clothes and was well treated by his master, who owned about 25 slaves. Simuel Riddic was foreman of the plantation and "looked after things in general. I had charge of everything at the lots and in the fields. They trusted me." Although Elishas Riddick treated his slaves well, his son, Ashbury was described as a "rangtang" who loved liquor and "colored women". Asbury Riddick married Mary Marmaduke from Gates County. "I have seen lots of pattyrollers. They were my friends. I had friends among them because I had a young missus they run with. That's why they let me alone. I went with her to cotton-picking night. They came but they didn't touch me. My young missus married Dr. Perry from the same neighborhood in Pequimans County. Bill Simpson married her sister. He was from the same place. Watson White married the other one. He was from Perquimans County". Simuel does not identify in his narrative which daughter was married to which man. When the Civil War broke out, Simuel Riddick reports, "I remember Marster's brother's son Tommy going off to war. Marster's brother was named Willis Riddick. He never came back." When the wark broke out, Simuel left his marster (runaway?) and went to Portsmouth, Virginia. He says General Miles captured him and put him in uniform and Simuel waited on him as a body servant and private in the U.S. Army. He stayed with General Miles until Gen. Lee surrendered. After the war, he stayed on with Gen. Miles as a servant. He broke service with General Miles when the General was ordered to the plains in the west. At the end of his narrative, Simuel reports that after he moved to Raleigh, he received a letter from his missus (Sarah Riddick). He does not say what was in the letter, only that she was a fine woman and always good to him. The above information has been taken directly from Simuel's interview. I can not vouche for the accuracy of it, but assume it is correct. The narrative is a good source of genealogical information and gives a rare, first hand description of a Perquimans County family during the ante-bellum period by a former slave. Gordon Trueblood