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“…a horn on a spot of misery…”

Narrative of Reuben Fitzpatrick.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Alabama Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 122.

Reuben Fitzpatrick

“…two lightning bugs…”

Narrative of Vinnie Brunson.

Rawick, G. P., Hillegas, J., & Lawrence, K. (1978). The American slave: A composite autobiography: supplement, series 2. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Pub, Vol. 3, Texas, p. 513.

Vinnie Brunson

“…the head of a land turle…”

Narrative of Mattie Logan.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Oklahoma Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 190.

Mattie Logan

“…they threw cold water…”

Narrative of Julia Henderson.

Rawick, G. P., Hillegas, J., & Lawrence, K. (1978). The American slave: A composite autobiography: supplement, series 1. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Pub, Vol. ??, Georgia, p. 325.

Julia Henderson

“…burned a piece of clothing…”

Narrative of Rebecca Hooks.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Florida Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 176.

Rebecca Hooks

“…sticks of fat pine…”

Narrative of Sarah Byrd. (In some cases, when the original manuscript pages of the narratives have been so degraded as to be illegible in reproduction, the original text has been replaced with duplicate transcriptions.)

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Georgia Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 175.

Sarah Byrd

“…jump over the sticks…”

Narrative of Rebecca Jane Grant.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., South Carolina Narratives, Vol. 2, p. 180.

Rebecca Jane Grant

“Lots of things were signs that someone was going to die…”

Narratives of Jeff Davis (screen owl, lowing cows), Camilia Jackson (bird), Casie Jones Brown (woodpecker), and Julia Brown (owl, shovel).

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Arkansas Narratives, Vol. 2, p. 120 (Davis), Vol. 1, p. 270 (C.J. Brown); Georgia Narratives, Vol. 4, p. 254 (Jackson), Vol. 1, p. 252 (J. Brown).

“…people with blue gums…”

Narrative of Bell Childress.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Kentucky Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 106.

Bell Childress

“…caught in a graveyard…”

Narrative of Reuben Fox.

Rawick, G. P., Hillegas, J., & Lawrence, K. (1978). The American slave: A composite autobiography: supplement, series 1. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Pub, Vol. 7, Mississippi, p. 770.

“Cross two pieces of straw…”

Source unidentified. This narrative compiled many accounts collected by the interviewer.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Georgia Narratives, Vol. 4, p. 285.

Unidentified

“…tie knotted string…”

Source unidentified. This narrative compiled many accounts collected by the interviewer.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Georgia Narratives, Vol. 4, p. 285.

Unidentified

“…a fresh-laid egg…”

Narrative of Dellie Lewis.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Alabama Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 256.

Dellie Lewis

“The master had a cousin…”

From a document copied from the Birmingham Age-Herald, April 10, 1892. The document is titled “Murmur of the World,” unsigned, and is held at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Alabama, p. 2.

“…a big house called Bright Spot.”

Some Doctors, Drugs, Druggists and Dentists of Montgomery, 1820-1920, Lela Irwin Legare, 1961, p. 87, an unpublished book of medical history in Alabama, held at the UAB Archives, University of Alabama, Birmingham, in Birmingham, Alabama. I found disagreement in the sources as to the exact nature of the relationship between Charles and Henry Lucas, and opted for cousins.

“…white people got malaria.”

An inference drawn from the fact Dr. Lucas was called when Sims came down with malaria in Mount Meigs. Sims goes on to describe several other sufferers, all white.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 171.

“…right about white doctors.”

Pheriba’s claims about white doctors here is drawn from multiple sources. As is described later in the book, what we would now call “traditional” doctors were competing with individuals practicing herbal medicine (“botanical doctors”), and homeopathists.

“…he mostly stayed outside the nursery…”

Narrative of Jennie Butler.

Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Arkansas Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 344.

Jennie Butler

“…the master had a son…”

Sims’s autobiography details the death of James Lucas in Philadelphia, and later documents that Henry and Charles Lucas were important contacts to him when he first arrived in Alabama. But Sims never acknowledged that the James Lucas in Philadelphia was related to the Lucases he came to know in Alabama. This document proves that James Lucas was related to the Alabama Lucases, likely the son of Henry Lucas, and is held in the special collections of Scott Memorial Library at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“…died of a disease in medical school.”

Lucas’s death plays a bigger role later in the book.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 133.