Joseph William Carter was born into slavery prior to 1836. Though born and reared in bondage, Joseph said that he had lived a long and a happy life. His mother, Malvina Gardner, was a slave in the home of a man named Gardner until D. B. Smith saw her. Admiring Malvina’s good looks, Smith purchased her from Gardner. Malvina was distressed at having to leave her old home and her young mistress, Puss Gardner, who was fond of Malvina.
Both the Gardner and Smith families lived near Gallatin, Tennessee, in Sumner County. The Smith plantation was situated on the Cumberland River. Although the view of the river and valley from the Smith plantation was beautiful, Malvina was very unhappy. She did not like the Smith family and longed for her old friends back at the Gardner home.
One night Malvina gathered her few personal belongings and started back to her old home. Afraid to travel the highway, she followed a familiar path through the forest. Near the path, an Indian hunting party was camped on the side of the Cumberland Mountains, and a young Native American named Buck captured Malvina and made her his property. She lived for almost a year with Buck, and during that time learned much about Indian customs.
When Malvina was missed from her new home, Mr. Smith went to the Gardner plantation to report his loss. When he did not find her there, a wide search was made for her, but the Indians kept her thoroughly hidden. Puss Gardner, however, kept up the search. She knew the Indians were camped on the mountain and believed she would find the girl with them. When the Indians finally broke camp, the Gardners watched them start on their journey, and Puss Gardner saw Malvina among the women.
The men of the Gardner plantation, both white and black, overtook the Indians and demanded that the girl be given to them. After the Indians reluctantly returned Malvina, Mr. Gardner paid Mr. Smith the original purchase price, and Malvina once more was established in her old home with Puss Gardner.
Malvina was not yet twelve when she was captured by the Indians, and she was scarcely thirteen when she gave birth to Buck’s son, Joseph. Joseph was born in the Gardner home and remained there with his mother. Joseph and his mother were treated very well by the Gardner family. When Joseph was a young man, he met many Indians from the tribe that had held his mother captive. From them he learned many things about his father that his mother had never told him. Though he was a Gardner slave and could have been named Joseph Gardner, he took the name of Carter from a stepfather.
Puss Gardner married a man named Mooney, and Mr. Gardner allowed her to take Joseph to her new home. Joseph’s most vivid memories of slavery came from this period of his life on the Mooney plantation: “The Civil War changed things at the Mooney plantation. Before the War Mr. Mooney never had been cruel to me. I was Missus Puss’s property, and she would never have allowed me to be abused, but some of the other slaves endured the cruelest treatment and were worked nearly to death. When I was a little bitsy child and still lived with Mr. Gardner, I saw many of the slaves beaten to death. Marse Gardner didn’t do any of the whippin’, but every few months he sent to Mississippi for slave whippers to come to the plantation and whip all the slaves that hadn’t obeyed the overseers. A big barrel lay near the barn, and that was always the whippin’ place.”
Joseph remembered two or three professional slave whippers and recalled the death of two of the Mississippi whippers: “Marse Gardner had one of the finest blacksmiths that I ever saw. His arms were strong; his muscles stood out on his breast and shoulders; and his legs were never tired. He stood there and shoed horses and repaired tools day after day, and there was no work ever made him tired. I don’t know what he had done to rile up Marse Gardner, but all of us knew that the blacksmith was going to be flogged when the whippers from Mississippi got to the plantation. The blacksmith worked on day and night. All day he was shoein’ horses, and all the spare time he had he was making a knife. When the whippers got there, all of us were brought out to watch the whippin’, but the blacksmith, Jim Gardner, didn’t wait to feel the lash. He jumped right into the bunch of overseers and slave whippers and knifed two whippers and one overseer to death. Then he stuck the sharp knife into his arm and bled to death.”
Joseph recalled the beginning of the Civil War: “When the war started, we kept hearing about the soldiers, and finally they set up their camp in the forest near us. The corn was ready to bring into the barn, and the soldiers told Mr. Mooney to let the slaves gather it and put it into the barns. Some of the soldiers helped gather and crib the corn. I wanted to help, but Puss Gardner was afraid they would press me into service and made me hide in the cellar. There was a big keg of apple cider in the cellar, and every day Puss Gardner handed down a big plate of fresh gingersnaps right out of the oven, so I was well fixed.”
Joseph said that after the corn was in the crib, the soldiers turned in their horses to eat what had fallen to the ground. Before the soldiers camped at the Mooney plantation, they had camped upon a hill, and some skirmishing had occurred. Joseph remembered seeing cannonballs come over the fields. The cannonballs were chained together, and the slave children would run after them. Sometimes the chains would cut down trees as the balls rolled through the forest.
One story that Joseph related was of an encounter with an eagle: “George Irish, a white boy near my own age, was the son of the miller. His father operated a sawmill on Bledsoe Creek near where it empties into the Cumberland River. George and I often went fishing together and had a good dog called Hector. Hector was as good a coon dog as there was to be found in that part of the country. That day we boys climbed up on the mill shed to watch the swans in Bledsoe Creek, and we soon noticed a great big fish hawk catching the goslings. It made us mad, and we decided to kill the hawk. I went back to the house and got an old flintlock rifle Marse Mooney had let me carry when we went hunting. When I got back where George was, the big bird was still busy catching goslings. The first shot fired broke its wing, and I decided I would catch it and take it home with me. The bird put up a terrible fight, cutting me with its bill and talons. Hector came running and tried to help me, but the bird cut him until his howls brought help from the field. Mr. Jacob Greene was passing along and came to us. He tore me away from the bird, but I couldn’t walk, and the blood was running from my body in dozens of places. Poor old Hector was crippled and bleeding, for the bird was a big eagle and would have killed both of us if help had not come.” Joseph still showed signs of his encounter with the eagle. He said it was captured and lived about four months in captivity, but its wing never healed. The body of the eagle was stuffed with wheat bran by Greene Harris and placed in the courtyard in Sumner County.
Joseph said he did not believe in witchcraft but once had assisted his cousin, who claimed he was a folk healer: “I had a cousin that was a full-blooded Indian and a voodoo doctor. He got me to help him with his voodoo work. A lot of people, both white and black, sent for the Indian when they were sick. I told him I would do the best I could if it would help sick people to get well. A woman was sick with rheumatism, and he was going to see her. He sent me into the woods to dig up poke roots to boil. He then took the brew to the house where the sick woman lived and had her to put both feet in a tub filled with warm water, into which he had placed the poke root brew. He told the woman she had lizards in her body, and he was going to wring them out of her. He covered the woman with a heavy blanket and made her sit for a long time, possibly an hour, with her feet in the tub of poke root brew and water. He had me slip a good many lizards into the tub, and when the woman removed her feet, there were the lizards. She was soon well and believed the lizards had come out of her legs. I was disgusted and wouldn’t practice with my cousin again.”
When asked if he had served in the Civil War, Joseph responded, “Of course I did. When I got old enough, I entered the service and barbecued meat until the war closed.” Barbecuing had been Joseph’s specialty during slavery days, so he followed the same work during his service with the Federal army. He was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, and soon met and married Sadie Scott, former slave of Mr. Scott, a Tennessee planter. Sadie lived only a short time after her marriage. He later married Amy Doolins, whose father was a blacksmith named Carmuel. After Carmuel was free, some countrymen pursued him and shot him nine times, but he finally killed himself to prevent meeting death at the hands of the hangman.
Joseph was disabled. In 1933 he had fallen and broken his right thigh bone, and since then he had walked with a crutch. When he celebrated his 100th birthday, a large cake decorated with 100 candles was presented to him. The party was attended by children and grandchildren, friends and neighbors. Joseph said his “politics is my love for my country. I vote for the man, not the party.” His religion, he said, was the religion of decency and virtue: “I don’t want to be hard in my judgment, but I wish the whole world would be decent. When I was a young man, women wore more clothes in bed than they now wear on the street.” He also stressed the value of work and was glad that his children were industrious citizens.
Joseph had seven daughters, who also recounted tales they had learned from their grandmother about her Indian captivity. One of his daughters, Delia Smith, who was interviewed along with Joseph, said of her father, “Papa had no gray hairs until after Mama died [seven years before the interview]. His hair turned gray from grief at her loss.” Another daughter reported, “Papa has always been a lover of horses, but he doesn’t care for automobiles or aeroplanes.”