[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 134 (Friday, November 19, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S11630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            GRAND MA'S STORY

 Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I recently received a letter from 
Iva D. Fesler Johnson. In it, she recalls what her grandmother, whom 
she called ``Grand Ma,'' told her about slavery. I would like to thank 
her for sharing this with me. Grand Ma's story is one of strength and 
perseverance--a story that took place during one of the darkest points 
in our Nation's history. The following is the story contained in the 
letter:

       On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the 
     Emancipation Proclamation declaring ``All Slaves Free.''
       I, Iva D. Jones, was born the daughter of Richard and 
     Lottie Foster Jones. My father's mother was Cicly Belle 
     Graham, the daughter of Henry and Fanny Graham. She was my 
     grandmother. She was a slave.
       ``Grand Ma,'' as we called her, was brought to this country 
     from Africa by ship. Grand Ma was sold three times by auction 
     on the auction block at Washington, Kentucky. She was sold to 
     the highest bidder. She was given the name of her slave 
     master. So, she was Cicly Marshall at one time, another time, 
     Cicly Smith.
       Grand Ma plowed the fields with oxen. She was the mother of 
     nine children. She birthed some of the children in the field 
     that she was plowing. Her slave master did not allow her to 
     return to the cabin in which she lived until the day's work 
     was done. She worked from sun up to dark. She was not paid 
     any money for this work.
       She was married three times by jumping across a broomstick.
       The slaves would sometimes try to escape from the ``Life of 
     Slavery'' to Canada. Grand Ma tried to escape. She was caught 
     by ``Blood Hounds'' and ``Slave Catchers.'' She was punished 
     by being whipped, and salt and pepper was put on the cuts 
     made by the whip to help healing.
       Grand Ma developed the gift of mid-wife. She delivered two 
     sets of twins for her daughter, Margaret O'Banion, and her 
     husband, Lucian O'Banion.
       The slaves could not read or write. No one in the slave 
     owner's family was allowed to teach the slaves because it was 
     against the law. Some taught the slaves to read and write in 
     secret. There were no schools for the slaves until after they 
     were free.
       Grand Ma said she saw President George Washington and 
     President Abraham Lincoln.
       Grand Ma lived through the Civil War. She said she prayed 
     we would one day have a place to worship God under our own 
     vine and fig tree and the slave master's whip would no longer 
     be stained with African blood. God has answered her prayers. 
     God has given us places to worship.
       One writer states, slavery lasted 250 years in the United 
     States. Millions of people were sold into bondage so that 
     their owners could grow rich, selling sugar, tobacco, rice, 
     and cotton grown by their slave laborers. The slaves loved to 
     sing as they worked--such songs as ``Steal Away to Jesus,'' 
     ``Go Down Moses,'' and ``Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.''
       At dawn, the slaves would awake every morning except Sunday 
     to the sound of the overseer's horn. Men, women, and children 
     would scramble out of a pile of straw, piled high on the mud 
     floor of their hut, with hoe in hand to the field. Mid-
     morning, they were told to fix their breakfast, which was 
     cornmeal put in a pot of boiling water to make hoe-cakes. The 
     hoe-cakes were cooked on the blade of their hoe over the 
     fire. Once a week, they were given a little piece of salt 
     pork and fish.
       Sometimes the slaves would drop little pieces of grains in 
     the boiling water.
       The slaves did not have shoes to wear and their clothes 
     were ragged.
       The slave master would ride a horse to the slave auction. 
     The slaves were chained together, barefoot and raggedy. They 
     were taken to the auction block.
       As they worked in the field, the overseer would ride a 
     horse to watch the slaves work. If he thought the slaves were 
     not working hard enough, he would flog them with a cowhide 
     whip.
       After slavery, Grand Ma worked for pay because she had to 
     find a home. The master's wife told Grand Ma to leave Grand 
     Ma's daughter, whose name was Ellen, with her while she 
     looked for a home. Grad Ma said on Sunday morning a man 
     riding a horse told Grand Ma, Ellen is dead and buried. 
     Little Ellen was nine years of age. The man told Grand Ma 
     that the missus said Ellen wasn't washing the hearth right. 
     So the missus hit Ellen in the head with a sick of wood and 
     Ellen died.
       Other slaves were sold at auction, and members of a family 
     were separated. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and 
     children did not know the whereabouts of others.
       Grand Ma was finally able to get a home of three rooms on a 
     one acre lot in Lewisburg, Kentucky. She lived there many 
     years and died in her home on June 26, 1926. The House has 
     been modernized. It stands there today. I was 15 years of age 
     when Grand Ma died.
       Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch 
     like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but 
     now I see.
       Written by Mrs. Iva Johnson
       These are things my grandmother told me about 
     slavery.

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