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MSGenWeb Library Slave Narrative Project - Louis J. Piernas - Harrison County
http://msgw.org/slaves/piemas-xslave.htm
parents died, and he came back to his kinfolks over here. My mother's people came from San Domingo, that is where we got the mixed blood. My father's name was also Louis Piernas and we lived right there in the north end of Bay St. Louis, near where the Peerless Factory now stands. My grandmother owned all that land at one time. There was a little settlement of free mulattos there, Piernas, La Bat, Barabino, Lassassare - we all spoke French. We kept ourselves seprate from the real negroes, and had our own frolics and dances to which the white folks would come sometimes. We went to church with the white folks at Our Lady of the Gulf Church. I was christened there had my first communion there and was married there.
Father Le Due, the good priest, had a private school for colored children in the church yard, we all went together, the free mulattos and the ex-slave children. That was in 1868 when I went to school to Father Le Due. We studied both English and French. Later the school was moved from the Beach to Necaise Avenue near Estabrooke St. and now there is a big church, school and convent there for the colored. (St. Rose de Lima with 4 yr. accredited high school)
I went to New Orleans when quite young and went to the public schools there, and then to night classes at Straight University, while learning the barber trade. I never did get very far on in school, but I have continued to educate myself all my life. I have always been a great reader, and educated myself through reading.
(What are some of the books you have read?)
Well, among others, I read Gibbons Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, some of Victor Hugo's novels, some of Shakespeare, Longfellow poems, and the like. I cannot see to read much now, so I only keep up with the newpapers. I have given my books away, some to St. Rose's school, some to the public library and other places.
In my younger days I also used to play and organized the Promot Brass Band.
But more important, I organized the first colored Benevolent Association here, 59 years ago, and am the only living charter member. There are now 20 such Associations in Bay St. Louis, and every colored person here, men, women and children belongs to one. The Benefits pay for a doctor and medicine in sickness, small weekly pensions in distress, and bury the dead. In my Association the dues are 50 cents a month, with $2.00 additional per year for doctor bills. In this way we are much better off than the poor white people, who often have no way to meet these expenses. Nearly all our people in some way or the other manage to keep up these dues.
Yes, I have a faint remembrance of the Civil War. (Negroes always say Civil War) I was ten years old at the close. One thing I remember very distinctly. A Federal boat went up the Jourdan River - you know I said that we lived near the Beach in north part of Bay St. Louis, and not far from the mouth of the Jourdan. The Yankees were after cattle, they wanted some fresh beef. There were some Confederate cavalry men guarding the Coast. The boat slipped up before they knew it, but they said it should not come out. All of us colored children and grown folks too, got out on the Beach to see what happened. But the Confederates ordered us to get back and into our houses, for they said, "There is going to be a fight when that boat starts out, and you may get killed." But I wanted to see what was going on, so I hid out where I could see. There were four white men hiding in the loft of our house then, hiding from the Confederate
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