There are two reports of interviews with Billy Slaughter—the longer one focusing on personal experiences and local history, and the shorter one dealing with the “patty roll” [patrol]. From Billy Slaughter, George Thomas (q.v.), George Morrison (q.v.), and Colonel Lucien Beckner (Assistant State Director of the Federal Writers’ Project in Louisville, Kentucky) the fieldworker obtained the following information about “patty roll”: The term was derived from “patrol” and means the same thing. “Patty rolls” consisted of white men, usually slaveholders, whose duty it was to see that all black slaves were in their quarters by nine o’clock. Slaves who wished to remain out of their quarters later than the curfew had to get a pass or permit from their owners. Otherwise, the “patty roll” would chase them to their quarters, sometimes fastening wires across a road at about the same height as the escapees’ chins. When blacks were caught without a pass, they were whipped. In some sections of the South, “patty rolls” even wore the same type of dress—white boots, black shirts, broad-brimmed white hats, and black breeches. The “patty roll” created a reign of terror among the slaves, though apparently some blacks enjoyed the thrill of being chased and of escaping.
Billy Slaughter was born on September 15, 1858, on the Lincoln farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. When interviewed, he was living at 1123 Watt Street in Jeffersonville. At that time, descendants of the Slaughter family who had once owned him were still living near Hodgenville. According to the interviewer, they “lived between the Dixie Highway and Hodgenville on the right of the road driving toward Hodgenville about four miles off the state highway.” Billy was sold once and was given away once before he was given his freedom.
Billy maintained that from a cliff on the Lincoln farm Indians threw settlers’ children into a spring below. Unless the children could swim or the settlers rescued them, they drowned. Then the Indians gathered around the scene of the tragedy and rejoiced. Billy said he was thrown in the pool when he was a baby, but was rescued by white people. He remembered seeing several Indians, though not many. Abraham Lincoln was his hero, and he planned another trip to the Lincoln farm to once again see the cabin in which Lincoln was born.
Though ordinarily believed to have been fought over slavery, the Civil War, he maintained, really was not. He said the real reason for the war was that the South withdrew from the Union and elected Jefferson Davis president of the Confederacy. Southerners, or Democrats, he said, were called “rebels” and “secess,” and Republicans were called “abolitionists.” He said that firing on Harpers Ferry was firing on the United States, and there, through John Brown’s raid, war was virtually declared. Billy explained that Brown was an abolitionist who was captured there and later killed. While Billy respected the federal government, he regarded John Brown as a martyr for the cause of freedom and included him among his heroes. Among his prized possessions was an old book written about John Brown’s raid.
Another problem facing the North at that time was that the men taken from farms and factories to serve in the army could not be replaced by slaves. Not all blacks who wanted to join the Union forces were able to do so, because they were closely watched by their owners. Some slaves were made to fight in the Southern army whether they wanted to or not. This reduced the number of free blacks in the Northern army. As a result, he claimed, Lincoln decided to free all slaves. Billy recalled reading that Lincoln was walking the White House floor one night during the Civil War with a black man named Douglas, and that was when Lincoln made his decision to free the slaves. These events, according to Billy, led to the Emancipation Proclamation. The slaves were freed during the Civil War, but that was not why the war was fought.
At the beginning of the war, blacks who enlisted in the Union Army were given freedom, as were their wives and unmarried children. Billy’s father joined the Union Army at the Taylor Barracks near Louisville, Kentucky, which was Camp Taylor during World War I; consequently, Billy’s father and mother and their unmarried children were freed. Billy still had the papers declaring his freedom. He believed that black soldiers never fought in any decisive battles. He said there always had to be someone to clean and polish harness, care for horses, dig ditches, and construct parapets. Billy’s father, however, was at Memphis during the battle there.
The Slaughter family migrated to Jeffersonville in 1865, when Billy was seven years old. At that time there was only one depot there—a freight and passenger depot at Court and Wall streets. What is now Eleventh Street was then a hickory grove, a paradise for squirrel hunters. On the ridge beginning at Seventh and Mechanic streets were persimmon trees. This was a favorite hunting ground of blacks for possum, and today the ridge is known as “Possum Ridge.” The section east of St. Anthony’s Cemetery was covered in woods. Since there were a number of beechnuts, many pigeons frequented the woods, and it was faster to catch pigeons there than to shoot them.
At this time there were two shipyards in Jeffersonville, Barmore’s and Howard’s. Barmore’s shipyard was located on the site of a meatpacking company, which Billy called a “pork house.” He had seen several boats launched from these yards, and large crowds gathered for the event. After the hull was completed in the docks, the boat was ready to launch. Several men were employed to launch the boat. Blocks serving as props were knocked down one at a time, with one man knocking down each prop. On its way to the river, the boat was christened with a bottle of champagne.
In his earlier days, Billy himself worked on a steamboat that traveled from Louisville to New Orleans. People then traveled on the river, for there were few railroads. First Billy cleaned the decks; then he cleaned the inside of the boat, including mopping the floors, and making the berths. Next he was ladies’ cabin man, and later he took care of the quarters where the officials of the boat slept. Billy also worked as a second pantry man, which involved waiting on tables in the dining room. Since clothing had to be spotless, he sometimes had to change his shirt three times a day.
The meat on the boat’s menu included pigeon, duck, turkey, chicken, quail, beef, pork, and mutton. Vegetables of the season were served, as well as desserts. It was nothing unusual for a half-dollar to be left under a plate as a tip for the waiter. Those who worked in the cabins never set a price for a shoe shine, but fifteen cents was the lowest they ever received.
During a yellow fever epidemic, before a quarantine could be declared, a boatload of three hundred people left Louisville at night to go to Memphis, Tennessee. The boat then went to New Orleans, where yellow fever was raging, and the captain warned them of it. Billy recalled how he had seen people fall over dead on two narrow streets. The streets were crowded, and there were no sidewalks, just room for a wagon. Here the victims sat in the doorways sleeping and falling over dead. When the boat returned, one of the crew was stricken with this disease, and Billy nursed him until they reached his home at Cairo, Illinois. No one else contracted yellow fever, and this man recovered.
Another job Billy held was helping to make the brick used in the U.S. Quartermaster Depot. Colonel James Keigwin operated a brick kiln in what is now a black settlement between Tenth and Fourteenth and Watt and Spring streets. The clay was obtained from this field. Billy’s job was to off-bear the bricks after they were taken from the molds and to place them in the kilns to be burned. Wood was used as fuel.
Billy said he sometimes wondered why he was still left on earth when all his brothers, sisters, and friends were gone. Billy read the Bible quite often, and “the Bible,” he said, “says that two shall be working in the field together, and one shall be taken, and the other left. I am the one who is left.” He believed that he was still living because there must be someone left to tell about old times.