I never would hear much about the war that my father was in, but I know he fought for the North. His master Daniel Nave, was Cherokee. Of course, all slaves were officially freed during the Civil War. Dey come to de house one time when he was gone to Fort Smith and us children told dem he was at Honey Springs, but they knowed better and when he got home he said somebody shot at him and bushwhacked him all the way from Wilson's Rock to dem Wildhorse Mountains, but he run his horse like de devil was sitting on his tail and dey never did hit him. I lost my land trying to live honest and pay my debts. My uncle used to baptize 'em. They make pens out in the shallow water with poles every little ways from the river banks. 5, Special Issue: American Culture and the American Frontier (Winter, 1981), pp. Lord it was terible. There was Mr. Jim Collins, and Mr. Bell, and Mr. Dave Franklin, and Mr. Jim Sutton and Mr. Blackburn that lived around close to us and dey all had slaves. I always pick a whole passel of muscadines for old Master and he make up sour wine, and dat helps out when we git the bowel complaint from eating dat fresh pork. There'd be a whole wagon-load of things come and be put on the tree. Snow on the ground and the water was muddy and all full of pieces of ice. Christmas morning marster and missus come out on the porch and all the colored folks gather around. She turned the key to the commissary too. That was sort of vault, where the family valuables was kept. James Vann had several other wives and children. When they wanted something put away they say, "Clarinda, come put this in the vault." Different friends would come and they'd show that arm. I don't remember old Mistress name. We all come back to de old place and find de negro cabins and barns burned down and de fences all gone and de field in crab grass and cockleburs. De clothes wasn't no worry neither. I had on my old clothes for the wedding, and I ain't had any good clothes since I was a little slave girl. That was where all the food was kept. The Chief Vann House, . Owned by the Cherokee Chief James Vann, the Vann House is a Georgia Historic Site on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the oldest remaining structures in the northern third of the state of Georgia. Soon as you come out of the water you go over there and change clothes. Dey would come in de night and hamstring de horses and maybe set fire to de barn, and two of em named Joab Scarrel, and Tom Starr killed my pappy one night just before the War broke out. My mother, grandmother, aunt Maria and cousin Clara, all worked in the big house. My marster and missus buried their money and valuables everywhere. The participants in this near slave revolt received physical punishments, but none were killed. Sometimes I eat my bread this morning none this evening. They had fine furniture that Marster Vann had brought home in a steamboat from far away. Joseph Harold Vann, born 31 May 1920 in Canton Texas, passed away on 24 December 2003 in Fort Worth Texas. In the master's yard was the slave cabin, one room long, dirt floor, no windows. The big House was a double log wid a big hall and a stone chimney but no porches, wid two rooms at each end, one top side of de other. He and Master took race horses down the river, away off and they'd come back with sacks of money that them horses won in the races. He wouldn' take us way off, but just for a ride. Chief Crazy James Vann James Clement Vann) Vann, Ii, <<Private>> Vann, Ii. I wouldn't go, so he sent Isaac and Joe Vann dat had been two of Old Captain Joe's negroes to talk to me. There was big parties and dances. Indians wouldn't allow their slaves to take their husband's name. James (Chief of Vann's Old Town) Vannhad 1child. Oh the news traveled up and down the river. I always think of my old Master as de one dat freed me, and anyways Abraham Lincoln and none of his North people didn't look after me and buy my crop right after I was free like old Master did. They didn't go away, they stayed, but they tell us colored folks to go if we wanted to. Isaac had been Young Joe's driver and he told me all about how rich Master Joe was and how he would look after us negroes. Every dollar she make on the track, I give it to Lucy." Young Master Vann never very hard on us and he never whupped us, and ole Mistress was a widow woman and a good Christian and always kind. The fugitive slaves killed the two bounty hunters and the slaves they had been returning joined those attempting to reach Mexico. Dey kept after me about a year, but I didn't go anyways. There was Mr. Jim Collins, and Mr. Bell, and Mr. Dave Franklin . We take a big pot to fry fish in and we'd all eat till we nearly bust. Then the preacher put you under water three times. Her master was white, but he had married into de Nation and so she got a freedmen's allotment too. He would sing for us, and I'd like to hear them old songs again! We left de furniture and only took grub and tools and bedding and clothes, cause they wasn't very big wagons and was only single-yoke. I don't know how old I is; some folks say I'se ninety-two and some say I must be a hundred. 29 November 2015. http://www.accessgenealogy.com/black-genealogy/slave-narrative-of-b - Last updated on Aug 24th, 2012, VANN SLAVES REMEMBER 2003 By Herman McDaniel Murray County Museum. Half brother of James Fields; Lucy Hicks; Isabel Wolf; Delila Fields; Charles Timberlake and 8 others; Jesse Vann; Delilah Amelia McNair; Joseph Vann; James Vann; Sarah 'Sally' Nicholson (Vann); John Hon John Vann; Robert B. We went down to the river for baptizings. There wasn't nothing left. The most terrible thing that ever happen was when the Lucy Walker busted and Joe got blew up. My missus name was Doublehead before she married Jim Vann. Everybody, white folks and colored folks, having a good time. Young, Mary., "The Cherokee Nation: Mirror of the Republic", (American Quarterly), Vol. We had a smoke house full of hams and bacon. http://www.timcdfw.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I7805&tree= Joseph Vann removed to the West in 1836. The last one was named for Hubbard Ross; he was related to Chief John Ross and was some kin to Daniel Nave, my father's master. I raised eleven children just on de sweat of my hands and none of dem ever tasted anything dat was stole. They got on the horses behind the men and went off. I had on my old clothes for the wedding, and I aint had any good clothes since I was a little slave girl. Although Lucinda Vann was owned by Jim Vann, she told about the death of "Rich Joe" Vann and the recovery of one of his arms, following the deadly explosion on his steamboat, the Lucy Walker. That house was on the place my papa said he bought from Billy Jones in 1895. I'se born across the river in the plantation of old Jim Vann in Webbers Falls. Old Master Joe had a big steam boat he called the Lucy Walker, and he run it up and down the Arkansas and the Mississippi and the Ohio river, old Mistress say. I been a good Christian ever since I was baptized, but I keep a little charm here on my neck anyways to keep me from having the nose bleed. Eventually the Cherokee council granted Joseph the inheritance in line with his father's wish; this included 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land, trading posts, river ferries, and the Vann House in Spring Place, Georgia. Others were returned to their owners. Everybody laugh and was happy. Mistress say old Master and my pappy on the boat somewhere close to Louisville and the boiler bust and tear the boat up. Web. Then up come de man from Texas with de hounds and wid him was young Mr. Joe Vann and my uncle that belong to young Joe. We had bonnets that had long silk tassels for ties. De furniture is all gone, and some said de soldiers burned it up for firewood. Everybody had plenty to eat and plenty to throw away. Everything was fine, Lord have mercy on me, yes. . Then we all have big dinner, white folks in the big house, colored folks in their cabins. Young Joseph was his father's favorite child and primary recipient of his father's estate and wealth. It look lots of clothes for all them slaves. . I'm gonna give Lucy this black mare. They put white cloths on the shelves and laid the good on it. Marster had a little race horse called "Black Hock" She was all jet black, excepting three white feet and her stump of a tail. Cal Robertson was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years ago, right on this porch. Its got a buokeys and a lead bullet in it. Oh they was good. They could have anything they wanted. The beautiful brick house was surrounded by kitchens, slave quarters and mills, with apple and peach orchards covering the adjacent hills. I never did see my daddy excepting when I was a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him. https://web.archive.org/web/20071026072208/http://www.cherokeebyblo https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5977809/joseph-vann, Webbers Falls, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States of America. Pretty soon everybody commenced a singing and a prayin'. Vinita was the closeset town to where I was born; when I get older seem like they call it "the junction" on account the rails cross there, but I never ride on the trains, just stay at home. She come up and put her nose on your just like this---nibble nibble, nibble. The people conducting the interviews from 1936-1938 were instructed to write the material gleaned from the interviews as closely as possible to the speech patterns of the former slaves they interviewed. I dont know, but that was before my time. That sure was a tough time for the soldiers, for father said they fought and fought before the "Seesesh" soldiers finally took off to the south and the northern troops went back to Fort Gibson. When we wanted to go anywhere we always got a horse, we never walked. Before he was killed, James Vann was a powerful chief in the Cherokee Nation and wanted Joseph to inherit the wealth that he had built instead of his wives, but Cherokee law stipulated that the home go to his wife, Peggy, while his possessions and property were to be divided among his children. When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptized. My pappy was a kind of a boss of the Negroes that run the boat, and they all belong to old Master Joe. He would tell em plain before hand, "Now no trouble." In summer when it was hot, the slaves would sit in the shade evening's and make wooden spoons out of maple. Yes Lord, it was, havy mercy on me yes. They wasnt very big either, but one day two Cherokees rode up and talked a long time, then young Master came to the cabin and said they were sold because mammy couldnt make them mind him. A few years of her life were also quite possibly spent among Seminoles during part of that time, although her memory of the death of Joseph "Rich Joe" Vann is clearly a part of Cherokee history. I found your family in the 1880/1900 census. I remember when the steamboats went up and down the river. Bornin Cherokee Nationon 27 Aug 1767to Joseph Vannand War-Li(MaryPolly) Cherokee-Clan-Blind-Savannah. This was before the war. Chief Joseph did not live to see again the land he'd known as a child and young warrior. He had black eyes and mustache but his hair was iron gray, and everybody like him because he was so good natured and kind. Sometimes the sleep was too deep and somebody would be late, but the master never punish anybody, and I never see anybody whipped and only one slave sold. John Joseph Vann: The Chowan Indians _ Native Heritage Project (PDF) John Washington Vann . He was a traveler, didn't stay home much. Joseph Vann, the son of Chief James Vann and his wife Margaret Scott Vann, was a lad of 12 when his father was killed, in 1809. I got my allotment as a Cherokee Freedman, and so did Cal, but we lived here at this place because we was too old to work the land ourselves. The comfort accorded house slaves is in stark contrast to the lives of the field slaves described in other interviews. She come up and put her nose on your just like this---nibble nibble, nibble. The man put dem on a block and sold em to a man dat had come in on a steamboat, and he took dem off on it when de freshet come down and de boat could go back to Fort Smith. We had bonnets that had long silk tassels for ties. There was seats all around for folks to watch them dance. Lord yes su-er. Yes, my dear Lord yes. Pappy is buried in the church yard on Four Mile Branch. Up at five o'clock and back in sometimes about de middle of de evening long before sundown, unless they was a crop to git in before it rain or something like dat. Master Joe was sure a good provider, and we always had plenty of corn pone, sow belly and greens, sweet potatoes, cowpeas and cane molasses. When meal time come, someone ring that bell and all the slaves know its time to eat and stop their work. Them Pins was after Master all de time for a while at de first of de War, and he was afraid to ride into Ft. Smith much. Dey was all wid the south, but dey was a lot of dem Pin Indians all up on de Illinois River and dey was wid de North and dey taken it out on de slave owners a lot before de War and during it too. It made my Master mad, but dey didn't belong to him no more and he couldn't say nothing. He died on September 21, 1904, and was buried in the Colville Indian Cemetery on the Colville Reservation. The engineer's name was Jim Vann. Just 'bout two weeks before the coming of Christmas Day in 1853, I was born on a plantation somewheres eight miles east of Bellview, Rusk County, Texas. Every dollar she make on the track, I give it to Lucy." Lord yes, su-er. They spun the cottons and wool, weaved it and made cloth. but it sunk and him and old Master died. I got all my money and fine clothes from the marster and the missus. I remember when the steamboats went up and down the river. I had the money Black Hock had won on the track. After it was wove they dyed it all colors, blue, brown, purple, red, yellow. Do you know what I am going to do? I've seen em. Young Master Joe let us have singing and be baptised if we want to, but I wasnt baptized till after the war. 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