RECOLLECTIONS OF SLAVERY TIMES,
BY ALLEN PARKER.
WORCESTER, MASS.: CHAS. W. BURBANK & CO., PRINTERS 34 FRONT STREET.
1895
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Allen Parker (1838-1906), was born enslaved at the plantation named Martinique, in a community called Rockyhock, in Chowan County, North Carolina. For the first 24 years of his life he was hired out making money for his enslaver to different local white men for a year at a time.

When Mr. Parker was young, enslaved Black people were the majority of Chowan County’s population.
Allen Parker’s Recollections is one of only two known narratives that gives details about being enslaved in Chowan County.

His narrative covers the years from his birth until the Civil War, when he self emancipated and made his way to the Chowan River and escaped on a Union gunboat.

He enrolled immediately in the U.S. Navy and served aboard vessels active on the North Carolina coast.

After the Civil War, Parker settled in Worcester, Mass. where he one way that he made his living was as a popcorn and candy peddler. At this time, Recollections of Slavery Times was published in 1895.

Enslaved Black people on plantations near coastal areas learned the land well and used their knowledge of the coastal environment to their advantage for survival

In chapter six of Parker’s book he discusses the enslaved men and women that he had known on the North Carolina coast when he was young:

"Being out of doors a great deal of the time, and having no books, they learned many things from the book of Nature, which were unknown to white people, notwithstanding their knowledge of books.

And it often happened that the master would be guided by the slave as to the proper time to plant his corn, sow his grain, or harvest his crops, and many things of this kind, which were to the master a source of care and anxiety, seemed to come to the slave as it were by instinct and not often did they made mistake in their prophecies."
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Note: Below is a portion of Mr. Allen Parker's writings from his book. -End note-

TO
My Mother
WHOSE EYES WERE NOT PERMITTED TO SEE THE
EMANCIPATION OF HER RACE, BUT WHO DIED A
SLAVE AND NOW LIES BURIED IN AN UNMARKED
AND NEGLECTED GRAVE ON THE OLD PLANTATION
IN THE SUNNY SOUTH, NEAR
WHERE SHE SPENT HER LIFE IN UNPAID TOIL FOR OTHERS,
THIS LITTLE BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

CHAPTER I.
I WAS born in the town of Chowan on the Chowan River, in the northeastern part of North Carolina, only a short distance south of the Virginia line. My mother, whose name was Millie, was a slave formerly owned by one Peter Parker; and as children born in slavery followed the condition of their mother, I was of course claimed as Peter Parker's property, and have always gone by the name of Allen Parker.
@IrememberOurHistory®

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My father's name was Jeff, and being owned by one William Ellick, he went by the name of Jeff Ellick, but as he had the misfortune to have been born without ears, he was often called "no-eared Jeff." He did not live with my mother, as his master's plantation was some ten miles from the Parker plantation, but he generally came home Saturday nights and now and then would come to us in the night during the week, as a slave did not mind a walk of ten miles after his day's work if he could have a chance to see his loved ones.

I do not know exactly when I was born, for slaves keep no family records, and if any records of the ages of the slaves was kept by the Parker family I never knew of it. I suppose however that I must have been born sometime between 1835 and 1840. I do not remember my old master as his death occured when I was only a few months old. While he lived my mother was what was known as

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a field hand. About two weeks after my birth, my mistress gave birth to a little girl whom she named Annie, and I have been told that my mistress often nursed me at her breast, in order that my mother might not be kept from her work in the field. When Mr. Parker died both my mother and myself became the property of the daughter Annie, in accordance with his last will and testement. In his will my master provided that none of the slaves left by him should be sold but might be hired out, that is let to some person by the year.

Annie and her property were under the guardianship of Mr Parker's brother who was named James Skinner.

It was customary in those days for those having slaves to let, to take them to some prominent place, such as a point where two roads crossed, on the first day of the New Year, and at a given hour of the day the slaves would be put up at auction, and let to the highest bidders If the roof did leak a little there was no danger of spoiling any nice furniture for the very good reason the slaves did not have any.

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for one year; there was generally quite a gathering on these occasions, both of slaves and of white people. It was always understood that a person hiring a slave must furnish board and clothes in addition to paying a certain sum of money per year, and also agreeing not to misuse the slave in any way that would injure his or her value. It was also understood that if a slave was not treated properly the person owning or having charge of the slave could take it away, in which case the money paid for the slave's hire for the year would be forfeited.

In acordance with this custom my mother was let out to a poor white, that is a farmer who did not own any slaves, and I being only a baby, went with her, and it was upon this farm which was near the Parker Plantation that my first experience of slave life began.
The country around Chowan was not very thickly settled, the land being

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devided up into farms or plantations, upon which was raised wheat, indian corn, rye, oats, peanuts, sweet-potatoes and sometimes rice. Vegatables enough for home use were also raised. Most of the farmers owned hogs which were allowed to run wild in the woods where they fed upon acorns, nuts and roots. There were also horses, mules and some horned cattle all of which received full as good care as the slaves did.

The farm work was done by slaves, women working in the field as well as the men. Boys and girls were required to work as soon as they were able to do anything.

The slaves lived in log cabins. Single slaves who did not belong to slave families, lived in common with others and were fed from the main kitchen. Those who had families generally lived in small one-story log cabins. The walls of these cabins were made of rough logs, the spaces between the logs being filled

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with clay; the roof was made of thin strips of wood split from clear, straight grained logs; these strips extended from the eaves to the ridge pole, and were laid over each other in such a manner as to make a fairly tight roof. If the roof did leak a little there was no danger of spoiling any nice furniture for the very good reason the slaves did not have any.
-End excerpt-
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To read more of Mr. Allen Parker's autobiography,
click this link:

https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/parker/parker.html