I know he is right, too. Some 70 years after "the War," during America's Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration assigned numerous people to interview former slaves and record their recollections of slavery. They'd bring whole wagon loads of hams, chickens and cake and pie. Hams cakes, pies, dresses, beads, everything. How did they hear about it at home? My mother Betsy Vann, worked in the big house for the missus. People all a visitin'. And dishes, they had rows and rows of china dishes; big blue platters that would hold a whole turkey. Joseph Vann took the rebel slaves belonging to him out of the Cherokee Nation and permanently assigned them to work on his steamboats. Any information would be valuable. Although he was born after slavery had ended, Nave's remembrances of what his father had told him about slavery days include some interesting details. My mother was seamstress. It was in the Grand River close to the ford, and winter time. Joseph Vann was born February 11, 1798 near Springplace in the Cherokee Nation (now Georgia) the son of James Vann and Nancy Brown. Pappy worked around the farms and fiddled for the Cherokee dances. Mistress say old Master and my pappy on the boat somewhere close to Louisville and the boiler bust and tear the boat up. Sometimes Joe bring other wife to visit Missus Jennie. Old mistress was small and mighty pretty too, and she was only half Cherokee. She was weavin when the case came up so quick, missus Jennie put her in her own bed and took care of her. However, the following narrative by the ex-slave, Cornelius Neely Nave, contains correct family relationships. Joe had two wives, one was named Missus Jennie. They spun the cottons and wool, weaved it and made cloth. Young Master Joe let us have singing and be baptised if we want to, but I wasnt baptized till after the war. He was a Cherokee leader who owned Diamond Hill (now known as the Chief Vann House), many slaves, taverns, and steamboats that he operated on the Arkansas, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers. Lucinda Vann tells an unusual story of plantation life from the perspective of a house slave who was born with privileges. Rich Joe Vann died in Oct. 1844 when the boiler exploded on his steamboat, the "Lucy Walker" during a race with another vessel near New Albany, Ind. We settled down a little ways above Fort Gibson. And we learned some things about religion from an old colored preacher named Tom Vann. When I left Mrs. McGee's I worked about three years for Mr. Sterling Scott and Mr. Roddy Reese. If somebody bad sick he git de doctor right quick, and he don't let no negroes mess around wid no poultices and teas and sech things, like cupping-horns neither! Marster Jim and Missus Jennie wouoldn't let his house slaves to with no common dress out. In winter white folks danced in the parlor of the big house; in summer they danced on a platform under a great big brush arbor. We camp at dat place a while and old Mistress stay in de town wid some kinfolks. My father he say, "Now chillun, don't get smart; you just be still and listen, rich folks tryin tell us something" They come and call you, say so much money buried, tell you where it is, say it's yours, you come and get it. She bossed all the other colored women and see that they sew it right. Smoeone call our names and everybody get a present. The colored folks did most of the fiddlin'. Geni requires JavaScript! After being evicted from his father's mansion home "Diamond Hill" in 1834, Joseph moved his large family (he had two wives) and business operations to Tennessee, where he established a large plantation on the Tennessee River near the mouth of Ooltewah Creek that became the center of a settlement called Vann's Town (later the site of Harrison, Tennessee). Yes I was! I lost my land trying to live honest and pay my debts. In slavery time the Cherokee Negroes do like anybody else when they is a death, jest listen to a chapter in the Bible and all cry. The low class work in the fields. The Chief Vann House, . Mammy had the wagon and two oxen, and we worked a good size patch there until she died, and then I git married to Cal Robertson to have somebody to take care of me. Snow on the ground and the water was muddy and all full of pieces of ice. on the Ohio River. Bornin Cherokee Nationon 27 Aug 1767to Joseph Vannand War-Li(MaryPolly) Cherokee-Clan-Blind-Savannah. Pappy was the shoe-maker and he used wooden pegs of maple to fashion the shoes. He come from across the water when he was a little boy, and was grown when old Master Joseph Vann bought him, so he never did learn to talk much Cherokee. He sold one of my brothers and one sister because they kept running off. She holler, "Easter, you go right now and make dat big buck of a boy some britches!". She was raised up at dat mill, but she was borned in Tennessee before dey come out to de nation. 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. Joseph and his sister Mary were children of James Vann and Nannie Brown, both Cherokee of mixed-blood, with partial European ancestry. We git three or four crops of different things out of dat farm every ear, and something growing on dat place winter and summer. Run it to the bank!" It look lots of clothes for all them slaves. 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. Person Interviewed: Betty Robertson Location: Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Age: 93 I was born close to Webbers Falls, in the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, in the same year that my pappy was blowed up and killed in the big boat accident that killed my old Master. Yes Sa. He would start at de crack of daylight and not git home till way after dark. Because mamma was sick then he brought her sister Sucky Pea and her husband, Charley Pea, to help around wid him. He born at Spring Place, Georgia on February 11, 1798. When they gave a party in the big house, everything was fine. There was five hundred slaves on that plantation and nobody ever lacked for nothing. There is no mention of Joseph Vann in the article. Missus Jenni lived in a big house in Webbers Falls. When they gave a party in the big house, everything was fine. During their pursuit of the escaped Negroes, the Cherokee Militia discovered the bodies of the two slave bounty hunters. He done already sold 'em to a man and it was dat man was waiting for de trader. When the last of the Cherokees were forcibly moved west in 1838, government records indicate that 1,592 black slaves were moved to Indian Territory with their owners. We had bonnets that had long silk tassels for ties. Joseph and his sister Mary were children of James Vann and Nannie Brown, both mixed-blood Cherokees. My pappy run away one time, four or five years before I was born, mammy tell me, and at that time a whole lot of Cherokee slaves run off at once. I dunno her other name. Mammy and pappy belong to W.P. 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. Chief Joseph David VANNfamily tree Parents John Joseph 'Indian Trader' Cherokee Vann 1735- 1815 Waw Li Otterlifter 1750- 1835 Wrong Chief Joseph David VANN? Used to go up and down the river in his steamboat. Chief Joseph Rich Joe Vann was born on February 11 1798, in Spring Place, GA, to Chief James Vann, II and Nancy Timberlake. They are the progenitors of the Cherokee Ward family. Correction Note: The preceding comments by the interviewer incorrectly depicts the relationship between the family members. The place was all woods, and the Cherokees and the soldiers all come down to see the baptizing. Everybody had plenty to eat and plenty to throw away. In Georgia, during the early 1800s, slaves owned by the Vann Family made the bricks and milled the lumber used to build the Vann House in Spring Place. My uncle belong to old Captain Joe nearly all his life. Some of the Indian families was Joe Dirt Eater, Six Killer (some of the Six Killers live a few miles SE of Afton at this time, 1938), Chewey Noi, and Gus Buffington. He would tell em plain before hand, "Now no trouble." Everything was fine, Lord have mercy on me, yes. But about the home--it was a double-room log house with a cooling-off space between the rooms, all covered with a roof, but no porch, and the beds was made of planks, the table of pine boards, and there was never enough boxes for the chairs so the littlest children eat out of a tin pan off the floor. My mother was seamstress. Oh Lord, no. My mother, grandmother, aunt Maria and cousin Clara, all worked in the big house. My missus name was Doublehead before she married Jim Vann. They'd come to the door like this, "sh.." and go out quick again. Yes, Lord Yes. We made money and kept it in a sack. Christmas morning marster and missus come out on the porch and all the colored folks gather around. Young, Mary., "The Cherokee Nation: Mirror of the Republic", (American Quarterly), Vol. I never forget when they sold off some more negroes at de same time, too and put dem all in a pen for de trader to come and look at. 5 May 1910, d. 2002, Illinois. I dont know what he done after that. Born in Spring Place, Murray, Georgia, United States on 11 Feb 1765 to John Joseph 'Indian Trader' Cherokee Vann and WahLi Wa-Wli aka Polly Otterlifter Mary Christiana Otterlifter Wolf Clan. We went on a place in de Red River Bottoms close to Shawneetown and not far from de place where all de wagons crossed over to go into Texas. This valuable property became a prize for the white man when the laws of Georgia were extended over the Cherokee Nation. She was weavin when the case came up so quick, missus Jennie put her in her own bed and took care of her. We settled down a little ways above Fort Gibson. Dey didn't let us have much enjoyment. He had apparently been attending the horse races at Louisville, KY. Vann, Joseph H., Cherokee Rose: On Rivers of Golden Tears, 1st Books Library (2001), ISBN 0-75965-139-6. The married folks lived in little houses and there was big long houses for all the single men. I remember when the steamboats went up and down the river. Soon as you come out of the water you go over there and change clothes. Yes, my dear Lord yes. You know just what day you have to be back too. They spun the cottons and wool, weaved it and made cloth. Us slaves lived in log cabins dat only had one room and no windows so we kept de doors open most of de time. 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 don't know how old I is; some folks say I'se ninety-two and some say I must be a hundred. We had a good song I remember. Our marshal made us all sign up like this; who are you, where you come from, where you go to. Some of us had money. When de War come old Master seen he was going into trouble and he sold off most of de slaves. Everything was kept covered and every hogshead had a lock. Had to sign up all over again and tell who we was. Joseph H. Vann was born on February 11, 1798, at Spring Place in Georgia. When father was young he would go hunting the fox with his master, and fishing in the streams for the big fish. He tell us for we start, what we must say and what to do. One day young Master come to the cabins and say we all free and cant' stay there lessn we want to go on working for him just like we'd been for our feed, an clothes. People just go and help themselves, till they couldn't eat no mo! Poor old master and mistress only lived a few years after de War. We had fine satin dresses, great big combs for our hair, great big gold locket, double earrings we never wore cotton except when we worked. Wife belong to de church and all de children too, and I think all should look after saving their souls so as to drive de nail in, and den go about de earth spreading kindness and hoeing de row clean so as to clinch dat nail and make dem safe for Glory. After it was wove they dyed it all colors, blue, brown, purple, red, yellow. Cal Robertson was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years ago, right on this porch. He never seen them neither. Oh they was good. but it sunk and him and old Master died. Snow on the ground and the water was muddy and all full of pieces of ice. Maybe old Master Joe Vann was harder. One day young Master come to the cabins and say we all free and cant stay there lessn we want to go on working for him just like wed been, for our feed and clothes. They'd sell 'em to folks at picnics and barbecues. . When the Cherokees discovered that so many of their slaves had fled, they organized a search party to pursue them. I am searching, primarily, for Louis, his father and mother, Anthony (Antonio, Tony) and Maria. Many Creeks joined the Cherokee searchers. At least twenty-five of Vann's slaves participated in the Cherokee slave revolt of 1842. The second time I married a cousin, Rela Brewer. Didn't you never see one of them slidin' beds? I got all the clothes I need from old Mistress, and in winter I had high top shoes with brass caps on the toe. Hams cakes, pies, dresses, beads, everything. When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of Negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptised. When Marster Jim and Missus Jennie went away, the slaves would have a big dance in the arbor. Had sacks and sacks of money. We had meat, bread, rice, potatoes and plenty of fish and chicken. Do you know what I am going to do? De hog killing mean we gots lots of spare-ribs and chitlings and somebody always git sick eating to much of dat fresh pork. He used to take us to where Hyge Park is and we'd all go fishin'. Everybody had a good time on old Jim Vann's plantation. The comfort accorded house slaves is in stark contrast to the lives of the field slaves described in other interviews. We had to get up early and comb our hair first thing. She won me lots of money, Black Hock did, and I kept it in the Savings Bank in Tahlequah. There was music, fine music. My uncle Joe was de slave boss and he tell us what de Master say do. We had home-made wooden beds wid rope springs, and de little ones slept on trundle beds dat was home made too. sse Vann, James Clement Jr. Vann, Mary Vann, Delila Copeland (born Vann), John Vann, John Vann, Joseph Vann, John Vann, Mary Vann, Robert sse Vann, James Clement Jr. Vann, Mary Vann, Delila Copeland (born Vann), John Vann, John Vann, Joseph H Vann, John Vann, Mary Vann, Robe James (Ti-ka-lo-hi) (James Wahli Vann Etc. Indians made us keep our master's name. Old Master bought de cotton in Ft. Smith, because he didn't raise no cotton, but he had a few sheep and we had wool mix for winter. His parents Peggy Scott Vann and James Vann were both Cherokee of mixed-blood. Cal Robertson was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years age, right on this porch. He wouldn't take us way off, but just for a ride. Lord it was terible. We was married at my home in Coffeyville, and she bore me eleven children right. Some had been in a big run-away and had been brung back, and wasn't so good, so he keep them on the boat all the time mostly. Everything was kept covered and every hogshead had a lock. It was "Don't Call the Roll, Jesus Because I'm Coming Home." When they get it they take it back to their cabin. The Cherokees living in the southeastern United States copied many of the traditions and practices of their white neighborsincluding the ownership of fellow humans as slaves. My brothers was name Sone and Frank. Born on February 11, 1798, in Murray County in northwest Georgia, Vann was the son of Chief James Vann and Margaret "Peggy" Scott. He would sing for us, and I'd like to hear them old songs again! I remember when the steamboats went up and down the river. He was a slave on the Chism plantation, but came to Vann's all the time on account of the horses. 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