20. GEORGE WASHINGTON BUCKNER

Yes, the Road Has Been Long

George Washington Buckner
(Collection of the Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences)

The fieldworker had several interviews with George Washington Buckner but provided mainly a summary of George’s narrative, with only a few quotes. She also talked to Rudolph D. O’Hara (q.v.), a black attorney in Evansville, about George. Since George was a practicing physician at the time, the interviews with him often were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell or telephone. The fieldworker described George as tall, lean, white-headed, genial, and alert.

George was born December 1, 1852, “in fox hunting time.” One brother, George said, was born in “persimmon time,” one in “sweet potato time,” and another in “planting time.” His parents were slaves held by a man named Buckner, who was not wealthy enough to provide adequately for them. Slaveholder Buckner, along with several of his relatives, had purchased a large tract of land in Green County, Kentucky. George said that at that time landowners who owned no slaves were considered “poor white trash” and scarcely were recognized as citizens of Kentucky.

George’s first recollections were of a slave cabin in Kentucky. The cabin was the home of his stepfather, his invalid mother, and several children. His mother had become disabled from bearing children each year without proper medical attention. The crude cabin had no real windows, only holes in the walls with bark shutters to keep out the rain and snow. His parents slept on a wooden bedstead covered with a straw mattress and patchwork quilts. The children slept on a straw bed that was pushed under the bedstead during the day and pulled into the middle of the cabin at night.

According to George, some slave children were given to the slaveholder’s young sons and daughters and, even in childhood, became their property. Thus, young George served Dickie Buckner, although the two children were nearly the same age. George cared for Dickie’s clothing, polished his boots, and put away his toys. George became Dickie’s friend and playmate, though, as well as his slave, and was grief-stricken at Dickie’s untimely death. George said that after Dickie’s death, he could not bear the sight of Dickie’s toys, books, and clothing.

George recalled an eerie experience after the death of Dickie. George’s grandmother, a housekeeper and kitchen maid for the Buckner family, was in the kitchen one late afternoon preparing the evening meal, while the slaveholder and his family were visiting a neighbor. From the veranda where he was sitting, George looked through a window into the bedroom where Dickie had lain in bed just before his death. When he placed his face near the window pane, he thought he saw Dickie’s face looking out at him. He ran to his grandmother, screaming that he had seen Dickie’s ghost. George firmly believed he had seen a ghost and never really convinced himself otherwise until he reached adulthood, when he speculated that he had mistaken evening shadows of trees and vines for Dickie’s ghost. He recalled how the story reached the ears of the other slaves and how they were terrorized at the suggestion of a ghost being in the slaveholder’s home. George reflected, “That is the way superstitions always started. Some nervous person received a wrong impression, and there were always others ready to embrace the error.”

George remembered that when one of the slaveholder’s daughters married, George’s sister was given to her as a bridal gift and had to leave her family to live in the young bride’s new home. George said, “It always filled us with sorrow when we were separated either by circumstances of marriage or death. Although we were not properly housed, properly nourished, or properly clothed, we loved each other and loved our cabin homes and were unhappy when compelled to part.”

George retained fond memories of his boyhood home: “Yes, the road has been long. Memory brings back those days, and the love of my mother is still real to me, God bless her! There are many beautiful spots near the Green River, and our home was situated near Greensburg, the county seat of Green County. The area occupied by Mr. Buckner and his relatives is located near the river, and the meanderings of the stream almost formed a peninsula covered with rich soil. Buckner’s Hill relieved the landscape, and clear springs bubbled through crevices, affording much water for household use; and near those springs, white and Negro children met to enjoy themselves. Forty years after I left Greensburg, I went back to visit the springs and try to meet my old friends. The friends had passed away. Only a few merchants and salespeople remembered my ancestors.”

George remembered very little about the Civil War, but did recall an evening at the beginning of the war: “I had heard my parents talk of the war, but it did not seem real to me until one night when Mother came to the pallet where we slept and called to us to get up and tell our uncles good-bye. Then four startled little children arose. Mother was standing in the room with a candle, or a sort of torch made from grease drippings and old pieces of cloth. These rude candles were in common use and afforded but poor light. And there stood her four brothers—Jacob, John, Bill, and Isaac—all with the light of adventure shining upon their faces. They were starting away to fight for their liberties, and we were greatly impressed.”

Only two of George’s uncles served in the Union Army, though. Officials thought that his Uncle Jacob, though a brawny man, was too old to enter the service, since he had a few white hairs. His Uncle Isaac, on the other hand, was considered too young to enlist. One of the uncles who served was killed in battle, but the other uncle fought throughout the war without being wounded. George said that white men were indignant because blacks were allowed to enlist. He recalled that slaveholder Stanton Buckner was forced to hide out in the woods for several months because he had tried to kill a slave, Frank Buckner. Frank, however, forgave the slaveholder and stated that he was at fault. Stanton then returned to active service.

George valued education and hoped that every American youth, black and white, would strive for higher education. His recollection of his own earliest educational experience was reciting the ABCs from McGuffy’s blue speller to his sister, who served as his first teacher. In later years he attended a school conducted by the Freemen’s Association [Freedmen’s Bureau?]. He bought a grammar book from a white boy and studied it at home. When he was sixteen, he was employed to teach other black children and regretted how limited his ability must have been. George said, “When I taught those children, I boarded with an old man whose cabin was filled with his own family. I climbed a ladder leading from the cabin into a dark, uncomfortable loft, where a comfort and a straw bed were my only conveniences.”

When George left Greensburg, he went to Indianapolis, where he became acquainted with the first educated black he had ever met: Robert Bruce Bagby, then principal of the only school for blacks in Indianapolis. George said, “The same old building is standing there today that housed Bagby’s institution then.” George recalled that when he left Bagby’s school, he had so little money that he had to work in a private residence as a houseman. Later he also waited tables in hotels and restaurants. While waiting tables, he met Colonel Albert lohnson and his wife, both natives of Arkansas. They were pleased to learn that he wanted an education and advised him to enter Indiana State Normal School [now Indiana State University] in Terre Haute. The thought of attending Indiana State appealed to George, but he felt he might have trouble succeeding in advanced courses because of his limited background. Mrs. Johnson, however, assured him that he could do the work, so he left Indianapolis for Terre Haute.

After studying two years at Indiana State, George felt that at last he was prepared to teach, so he taught for a time at schools in Vincennes, Washington, and other Indiana communities. George said, “I was interested in the young people and anxious for their advancement, but the suffering endured by my invalid mother, who had passed into the great beyond, and the memory of little Dickie’s lingering illness and untimely death would not desert my consciousness. I was determined to take up the study of medical practice and surgery, which I did.” Accordingly, George entered the Indiana Eclectic Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1890. Since his services were needed in Indianapolis, he practiced medicine there for a year before finally locating in Evansville. According to George, “When I came to Evansville, there were seventy white physicians practicing in the area. They are now among the departed. Their task was strenuous. Roads were almost impossible to travel. Striding a horse and setting out through all kinds of weather, those brave men soon sacrificed their lives for the good of suffering humanity.”

On the advice of influential citizens of Evansville, through the influence of Evansville businessman and civic leader John W. Boehne, Sr., and on the recommendation of Secretary of State Bryan, George was appointed minister to Liberia during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency in 1913. George appreciated the confidence of his friends in recommending his appointment to this position and cherished the experience that he gained abroad. Leaving his family to fill his appointment in Liberia was a big sacrifice for George, for his wife remained in Evansville with their four children. She thought the long voyage to Liberia and the hot climate there would be unsafe. At that time his daughters, Stella and Helen, were fifteen and eight years old; his sons, George and Zachariah, were six and four.

George returned from Liberia with many concerns for blacks living there. He hoped for improvements in sanitation, which he said was virtually nonexistent in Monrovia and other Liberian cities. Many houses were built of brick and corrugated iron, and because the climate was so hot, many people spent most of their time outdoors or on verandas. George said that educational facilities also should be improved: “Schools and colleges are constructed of corrugated iron and are too hot for the comfort of students.”

In addition, he said, “The colonists have neglected gardening and have developed slothful habits. At home, men wear only loincloths and women only the scantiest attire. Men follow the professions of fishermen and boatmen. Some few are painters, smiths, and carpenters, but the majority of the men and women despise labor. Being sons and daughters of slaves, they desire freedom from toil and desire only to loll in comfortable idleness—eating and drinking upon their verandas and not leaving their homes for days together. The emancipated slaves have always been gentlemen of leisure in Liberia. They aspire to serve in church or affairs of state. Their most appreciated attire consists of black suits made from cool cloth, a high collar, and a cane—much like their parents described owners of some southern plantations. May God bless them and protect them and give them knowledge!” George held Liberians as dear as the blacks he knew and administered to in Indiana. “I’m glad they were not all deported to Liberia,” he said. “I believe they are much better off here.”

George said that the citizens of Liberia were grateful for American aid and showed their appreciation by presenting him with gifts, such as mangoes and palm oil. He added, though, that at that time “a thoroughly civilized Negro state does not exist in Liberia nor do I believe in any part of West Africa. Superstition is the interpretation of their religion. Their political views are a hodgepodge of unconnected ideas. Strength overrules knowledge, and jealousy crowds out almost all hope of sympathetic achievement and adjustment. The most treacherous impulse of the human nature and the one to be most dreaded is jealousy. Jealousy protrudes itself into politics and religion and prevents educational achievement.”

George said that jealousy was found not only in West Africa, for he observed it as well in Europe and Evansville. While traveling to Spain on board a Spanish ship, he saw a very refined and polite Jewish woman reduced to tears by a Spanish officer’s remarks concerning her nationality. He gave the following example of what he called “jealousy” in Evansville: “During a political campaign I was compelled to pay a robust Negro man to follow me about my professional visits and my social evenings with my friends and family to prevent meeting physical violence to myself or family when political factions were virtually at war within the area of Evansville. The influence of political captains had brought about the dreadful condition, and ignorant Negroes responded to their political graft without realizing who had befriended them in need. The Negro youths are especially subject to propaganda of the four-flusher, for their home influence is, to say the least, negative. Their opportunities limited, their education neglected, they are easily aroused by the meddling influence of the vote-getter and the traitor. I would to God that their eyes might be opened to the light. Receivers of emancipation from slavery and enjoyers of emancipation from sin through the sacrifice of Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ, why should not the Negroes be exalted and happy?”

Asked about his own views on religion and politics, George responded: “I believe almost every story in the Bible is an allegory composed to illustrate some fundamental truth that could otherwise never have been clearly presented as only through the medium of an allegory.” George said he was an ardent follower of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he spoke of Woodrow Wilson with bated breath. “I’m a Democrat,” George said.

According to the interviewer, George was a veritable encyclopedia of black lore, and during an interview he often told a story to illustrate a point. As one story George said he heard near the end of the Civil War goes, “Andrew Jackson owned an old Negro slave, Sammy, who stayed on at the old home when his beloved master went into politics ... became an American soldier and statesman and finally the seventh president of the United States. The good slave still remained through the several years of the quiet, uneventful last years of his master and witnessed his death, which occurred at his home near Nashville, Tennessee. After the master had been placed under the sod, Uncle Sammy was seen each day visiting Jackson’s grave. ‘Do you think President Jackson is in heaven?’ an acquaintance asked Uncle Sammy. ‘If he wanted to go there, he’s there now,’ said the old man. ‘If Mr. Andy wanted to do anything, all hell couldn’t keep him from doing it.’“

George said that he enjoyed living with his family in Evansville: “It has been a sweet home to me.”