John Harrison, Interview WPA Slave Narratives
John Harrison answered the questions asked and volunteered the following information.
I was born in 1857 on a plantation owned by Moses Perryman. This plantation was located near the present inland town of Clarkesville, Oklahoma or about eight miles east of the present town of Haskell, Oklahoma and is known as the Choski bottoms.
Perryman was a Creek Indian and later his brother Joe Perryman became a Creek chief of the Creek Nation. I now live near the present east city limits of Haskell, Oklahoma on the Haskell-Porter Oklahoma highway.
Mother - Katie Harrison was born in Georgia and was moved to Indian Territory as a slave in 1837, was sold on the block at a place unknown to me, shortly after her arrival from the old country (meaning Georgia). Moses Perryman bought mother. She is buried at Yahola, Oklahoma.
Father - Harry Harrison was born in Georgia and came same time as mother in 1837. Perryman bought him and later sold him to a slave buyer just before the Civil War - took him away - and no one ever knew what become of him.
I don't know much about things before the War, only what Mother told me. She said she did not have to worry about food, clothing, medicines, etc., because her master cared well for all of them.
There was game of all kinds, squirrel, rabbits, wild turkeys, o'possum, coon, quails, deer, etc.
The cabins on the plantation were constructed of logs-stood on end and some were laid horizontally with clap board roofs, puncheon floors, shuttle windows and large stone fire places.
The slaves were made to card the wool and cotton and would spin it on the spinning wheel into thread and then reel it and run it through the loom and make their own cloth. The thread was usually dyed before it was woven. The dye was made with sumac, and copperas which would make a very good tan.
Indigo was purchased at trading posts and all shades of blue could be made. Sycamore and Red Oak bark would make a pink or red.
They made their own shoes on the plantation. A cow hide would be freed from hair by ashes and would be tanned with bark and from these cow hides shoes were made as well as pieces of harness. As there was no shoe nails, shoe pegs were whittled out and the soles were put on with these pegs. The rest of the shoes were sewed together with waxed thread attached to hog bristles and drawn through the hole that was made by the pegging awl.
The provisions for the plantation was hauled from Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory, Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and Coffeyville, Kansas, by freight wagons owned by Moses Perryman, who owned the plantation.
The cooking of their food was done in the fire place with pots, skillets, dutch ovens, etc. Other instruments about the fire place were fire dog, hooks, and tongs. Master Perryman had a cook stove in his home at this time, but like the slaves cooked their food in the fire place a long time before the day of his cook stove.
There were all kinds of wild fruit and berries. Blackberries, dewberries, gooseberries, strawberries, mulberries, grapes, cherries, and wild plum.
Wild game was in abundance. Wild turkey, quail, rabbit, squirrel, mink, muskrat, deer, wild pigeon, and some bear, and buffalo. The streams were full of fish.
There were plenty of nuts in the fall of the year. Hickory nuts, walnuts, and pecans.
Mother has told me that before the War that the people as a whole were living very comfortably and satisfied. The Indians, Creek Indians had intermarried with the white and colored and became citizens of the tribe and that they, too, were satisfied with the full-blood in this new land of theirs.