Ira Jones was interviewed about his father, Ben Franklin Jones, who for eight years had been a slave on the Tandy farm in Kentucky, almost directly across the river from Ira’s home in Hanover Township, Jefferson County.
When Union soldiers were marching through Kentucky, Tandy was so frightened that he hid in a dense thicket, and no one knew what had become of him. A few days after his disappearance, Ben was working in a field, and when he reached the end of a row, he thought he heard a voice saying, “Ben! Oh, Ben!” Ben continued his plowing, but again he heard the voice in a stage whisper, calling, “Ben! Ben!” Finally he decided to investigate the sound, and peering into the thicket he saw his master, who asked Ben to tell Mrs. Tandy where he was and fetch some food. Mrs. Tandy prepared a large package of food, and, concealing it within his shirt, Ben took it to his master, who was eagerly awaiting him.
One time some of the slaves were to be taken away to join the rebel army. Ben was among the group, but he escaped and ran barefooted over frozen ground. When he reached his home, his feet were so sore that he could hardly move. When freedom was declared, Ben crossed the Ohio and settled near Brooksburg, where he worked for a while before moving to Hanover Township, where Ira still resided at the time of the interview.
Ira said that his family was mistreated by white people. They punished his aunt by making her place her hands palms down on a barrel, and then they drove nails into her hands. As a result, she got lockjaw, causing her death. Another aunt was told that she was to be shipped west. Instead she was placed on a boat and, with her small baby, sent to Mississippi. On the long journey, her constant prayer was “Don’t take my baby away from me.” She did not lose her child, and later she found her relatives in Kentucky by writing to her former church.
Ira’s cousin Eliza Hotchkiss was whipped so hard that she carried a deep scar across her chest all her life; another cousin, Bill Hotchkiss, however, had such a good master that he was never much good at shifting for himself after receiving his freedom.
There was one young slave who always had an easy job as his owner’s barber; but after the plantation failed, he was forced to do heavy farm work. A friend, Ike Williams, was so badly cowed by mistreatment that he was almost afraid to speak. One time a number of slaves were having a tussle with some heavy logs; after watching a while, Ike offered to move them into position with a team of oxen. When the logs seemed to go in place as if by magic, Ike’s master said, “Ike, you should speak up when you know something.”
Ira said that sometimes when slaves who had different owners married, they were forced to live apart. When his father was freed, he was turned out with nothing to start a new life on, but proved himself a good friend and neighbor to both white and black people in the community.
Ira mentioned the prejudices that some white people held against blacks, and he thought that blacks should receive much more consideration. As an example, he mentioned a ball game in which he was called safe on a close call. The baseman objected to a “damn black” getting a break in preference to a white person.