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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 67/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

sung or hummed were “seasoned with African melodies,” and a
common dance was called “cut the pigeon wing.” Sometimes the
young men would slip away at night to visit girls on nearby
plantations, although a whipping was in store for any slave caught
off the plantation at night.12
Dorsey remembered the coming of his freedom when he was
fourteen years old. He was told to have the driver assemble all of
the slaves in the big house. The Colonel’s son was visibly moved as
he told the group that they were free and could go where they
chose. If they decided to stay they were offered half of what they
produced. None stayed. Dorsey said the slaves were hardly aware
that a war was on, but there was great joy upon hearing the news
of freedom. After the war, Dorsey’s father worked for Judge
Carraway of Suwannee County and later homesteaded the forty
acres of land he received from the government.13
Mary Minus Biddle, born in Pensacola in 1833, but raised in
the southern part of Columbia County, related slave life on a much
smaller operation than the plantation of Lewis Mattair. Indeed,
Biddle’s family of five were the only slaves of her master Lancaster
Jamison. Mary and her brother and sister called their master “Pa,”
which Jamison did not resent, and their own father “Pappy.”
Jamison ran a boarding house on the road to Newnansville and
used his small farm primarily for produce to supply the needs of
his lodgers. The house had regular boarders and handled travelers
as well. Mary’s mother did the cooking while her father tended
the farm and smoke house. Twice a year her father and master
went to the coast around Cedar Key to get salt obtained by boiling
seawater. They always returned with about three barrels of salt.
Mary and her brother and sister did the chores about the place.14
Cooking was done in the fireplace which had rods so that pots
l2lbid., pp. 96-97.
™Ibid., pp. 98-99.
ulbid., pp. 32-33.

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