LETTERS: ONE FAMILY'S STORY OF FREED SLAVES

To the editor:

Donald Kaul's column on treatment of slaves was not completely true, according to the history of my family.

My grandfather, James Francis Brooks, operated a farm near Jackson just before the Civil War on which he used black slaves to do most of the mechanical work, because as a civil engineer he had many other jobs to accomplish.

When President Abraham Lincoln issued an order releasing the slaves throughout the country, my grandfather immediately released them. Later he joined the Union Army in which he attained the rank of major. He did such a good job in the Army that Lincoln sent him a handwritten letter complimenting him on what he had done.

As my grandfather returned to the Jackson area after the war, his former slaves came to him, besieging him to hire them for no hourly pay. They said, "Just give us a place to sleep and food to eat just like you used to do. We don't want any pay."

My grandfather brought them back to his farm, fed and clothed them and paid them hourly wages. This black family stayed with his family doing farm work and washing and taking care of the house for at least two or three generations. I can vividly remember in the 1920s the women, some of whom lived in a separate house and took care of all family chores that their mothers and grandmothers once did. They lived with my family, ate their food and were paid for it.

So as Mr. Kaul portrayed, not all slaves were mistreated by whites after they were freed. Many were hired and paid by whites like my grandfather to do the only thing they knew how to do. They became a part of the white family, receiving the money poor whites made plus housing, food and medical treatment whenever needed.

I am sure some blacks were badly treated after the Civil War, just as some people, black or white, are today. But many of the former slaves returned to their previous work and had lives that were somewhat better than when they served as bought-and-paid-for slaves. They became part of a caring family.

I know that all slaves did not get the treatment that the Brooks' slaves did, but around here caring, Christian families took them in and made their lives quite all right.

CHARLES E. STIVER

Cape Girardeau