The Childhood of Ida B.

Wells

The Childhood of Ida B. Wells: Learning to Stand Her Ground

A Drawing Book for Self Expression

Compiled & Edited By Leon Dixon (Based on the book A Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, edited by Alfreda M. Duster)

CONTENTS
1. Hello 2. Holly Springs, Mississippi 3. The Civil War's End 4. About My Father 5. About My Mother 6. My Father Goes Out On His Own/A> 7. My Father's Political Interest 8. Our Schooling 9. My Mother's Teachings 10. My Grandmother's Visit 11. The Yellow Fever Outbreak 12. Receiving Horrible News 13. My Decision to go Home 14. Arriving Home 15. Of My Father's Last Days 16. Head of the Family 17. The Masons Offer of Help 18. Keeping My Family Together 19. Adjusting to my New Responsibilities 20. Moving to Memphis 21. Editorial Comments

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The Childhood of Ida B. Wells

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Hello

Ida B. Wells: Greetings. First of all, let me say how happy I am to share how I learned early the necessity of taking responsibility.
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Holly Springs, Mississippi

I was born on July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi. The Civil War was still raging. Holly Springs started off as a small cotton plantation community. But by the time of the War, it had developed into a small architectural paradise. There was not much fighting there, although the town did change hands many times. During one period while the Union forces controlled the town, some confederate soldiers entered and were met with little resistance, surprising the Union soldiers. They burn and destroyed the business section of town, the armory, and all of the federal supplies. They also destroyed many homes.
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The Civil War's End

After the war was over, there was a lot of rebuilding work to do. The former slaves had little or no trouble finding work in those days. After all, they performed most of the labor during slavery and had acquired many worthwhile skills. My father had been taught carpentry and built the home that we owned. My mother became famous as a cook. They were married while they were enslaved and remarried again when freedom came.
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About My Father

My father was called Jim, and was the son of Mr. Wells, his master. His mother was one of his father's slaves. Her name was Peggy. Mr. Wells did not have any children by his wife. My father never experienced any of the cruelties of slavery, like whipping. He lived on the plantation and became a comfort to Mr. Wells during his old age. When my father was about eighteen, Mr. Wells took him to Holly Springs to become a carpenter's apprentice. He planned on using him on the plantation.
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About My Mother

My mother was named Elizabeth Warrington. She was a cook for Mr. Bolling, the contractor and builder that my father was an apprentice under. She was one of ten children, and was born in Virginia. She and two of here sisters were sold to slave traders when they were young. They were taken to Mississippi and sold again. She used to tell us that her father was half Indian, and that his father was full blooded. She often wrote back to Virginia, trying to find our about her people, but she was unsuccessful. We were too young at the time to realize the significance of what she was trying to do.
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My Father Goes Out On His Own

After the war was over, Mr. Bolling wanted my father to on stay with him. Which he did do until election time came around. Mr. Bolling wanted him to vote the Democratic ticket. But my father refused to do so. And when he got back from voting, he found the shop locked. He didn't say one word. He just went downtown, bought himself a new set of tools, rented another house, and moved his family off of the Bolling place. When Mr. Bolling came back, he found himself without a workman as well as a tenant.
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My Father's Political Interest

I was the oldest of eight children, and I had to shoulder the duties and responsibilities that went along that. I don't remember exactly where or when I started school. One of my earliest things that I do remember is reading the newspaper to my father and his friends. My father was interested in politics, and I had heard about the Ku Klux Klan, long before I knew what it was all about. I did know it was something to be fearful of, however. My mother would often pace the floor in worry whenever my father was away at some political meeting.
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Our Schooling

The Freedman's Aid had set up a school called Shaw University. It was named after one of the Civil War generals that commanded Black soldiers. The school is now called Rust College. My father was one of the trustees. As children, we were expected to go to school and learn all that we could. My mother would come along to school with us for a time. She continued attending until she learned how to read the Bible. After that she would visit on a regular basis to see how well we were doing.
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My Mother's Teachings

My mother was a very religious person. There were six of us at one time, and I remember her taking us all to nine o'clock Sunday school. She even won a prize regular attendance. Mother would also teach us to do work at home. We all had regular tasks besides our schoolwork. My mother was a strict disciplinarian. She was tougher on us than many of the mothers who had a better educational advantage than she had. I remember her telling us how hard the times were during slavery. She would tell us how slave owners often beat her. But I can only recall one incident of slavery times that my father talked about.
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My Grandmother's Visit

Grandma Peggy, my father's mother, use to visit him on an annual basis after slavery ended. She and her husband owned a lot of land on which they tilled cotton and corn. Every fall they would bring it to the market in town. They also brought us many souvenirs from hog-killing time. On one such visit she told my father that Miss Polly, her former mistress and wife of his father, wanted him to visit her. "I never want to see that old woman as long as I live." He said. "I'll never forger how she had you stripped and whipped the day the old man died." He added that, "I guess it is all right for you to take care of her and forgive her for what she did to you, but she could have starved to death if I'd had my say-so. She surely would have, if it hadn't been for you."
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The Yellow Fever Outbreak

There was one day I was visiting Grandma Peggy's farm that I will never forget. It really brought the reality of life home to me. Word had come after I left home that yellow fever was raging in Memphis, Tennessee. The mayor of Holly Springs refused to quarantine the Memphis citizens. He kept the doors of our town open to them, and eventually the fever set in there. We felt confident that my father would take our family away to the country. That day I was sweating off a malarial fever that was common in that area. Grandma Peggy and my aunt and uncle were out in the field picking the first fall's cotton. I was aroused to go to the door when three horsemen who were friends of my parents came by.
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Receiving Horrible News

I thought they had come for a social call. Then one of them, who was a neighbor, gave me a letter that he had just received. I read through the first page of the letter, which told about the progress of the fever. Then these words leapt out at me: "Jim and Lizzie Wells have both died of the fever. They died within twenty-four hours of each other. The children are all at home and the Howard Association has put a woman there to take care of them. Send word to Ida." That was all that I read. The next thing I knew, Grandma Peggy and my aunt and uncle were in the house. It had now become a house of mourning.
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My Decision to go Home

I wanted to go home immediately, but they would not let me. About three days later, we received a letter from a doctor advising me to come home. It was then that they were willing to let me go. When my uncle took me to the next railroad town, the people at the station urged me not to go. They said that no home doctor would have advised me to go there. They thought that I, who was coming from the country, would fall victim to the fever. They said that I should stay until the epidemic was over. It must have been a stranger doctor sending for me because he would soon leave. At first I agreed to stay and to write home. Then I thought about my crippled sister and the smaller children, including my nine-month old baby brother. I thought to myself that my place was at home with them.
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Arriving Home

I had to ride a freight train because there was no passenger train. The conductor thought that I was making a mistake going home. I asked him, "Why was he working on a train carrying sick people back and forth." He said, "it's my duty, someone has to do it." I told him, "That was why I was going home. It was my duty." When I got there, the family doctor scolded me for coming. But my sister Eugenia was glad I came. She told me that father had gone about his business. He had been making caskets for the deceased and helping when he could with the sick. Then mother took sick. An Irish lady was sent by the Howard Association to care for her. My baby brother Stanley was removed from my mother, who was nursing him at the time. However, mother became even sicker. Father came home to look after her, but he caught the fever and died the day before my mother did.

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Arriving Home

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Of My Father's Last Days

My sister, Genie, saw father's nurse going through his pockets. So she asked Dr. Gray, who came by every day, to take his money and put it in a safe place. When I came back she gave me the receipt to go and get it. Dr. Gray told me that we had a wonderful father. He told me that he was helpful with the sick and was always cheerful and inspired confidence. He said that when father passed a man who was sick out of his head, he would stop and quiet him. If he came across a man who was dying he would stop and pray with him. After Dr. Gray left, the old nurse from New Orleans told me that he sent her to look after my family after my parents had died. We both agreed that he was one good white man!
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Head of the Family

My sister Genie was the next oldest to me. When she was about two years old she developed a small knot in the middle of her back. It caused her spinal chord to start bending outward. It grew until she became paralyzed in the lower part of her body. She was almost bent over double and could not walk. Next to her were my two brothers James and George. I had another brother Eddie who died of spinal meningitis. My last two sisters Annie and Lily were five and two years old. My baby brother Stanley died before I got home. There were six of us left. It was 1878 and I was only sixteen years old. After being a happy carefree schoolgirl, I now found myself the head of a family.
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The Masons Offer of Help

My father had been a Mason. Therefore his Masonic brothers were our natural protectors. So when the epidemic was over, they held a meeting at our house to decide what to do with us. One Sunday evening, after a long discussion, they had decided on provisions for all of us except Eugenia and myself. Two of the Masons' wives wanted a little girl. So my sisters were to go with them. There were two men who wanted to apprentice my brothers to learn our fathers trade. One of them was a white man who knew my father's work. He felt that his sons had inherited his ability. No one wanted Eugenia, so she was to go to the poorhouse. And they all felt I was old enough to make it on my own.
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Keeping My Family Together

I sat silently while all of this was being discussed. I was not even consulted. When they finished, I calmly announced that they were not going to put any of us anywhere. I stated that my parents would turn over in their graves if their children were scattered about that way. I told them that we owned our house and if they would help me find work, I would take care of them. At first they scoffed at the idea of a butterfly teenager taking on the responsibility that it took both of my parents to handle. But I stood my ground and they seemed relieved that they no longer had to worry over us. Two of the Masons advised me to apply for a job at a country school. I took the examination for a country schoolteacher and had my dress lengthened. I got assigned to a school six miles out of town with a generous salary of twenty-five dollars a month.
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Keeping My Family Together

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Adjusting to my New Responsibilities

We were able to live off of the money that my father had left until school started. Grandma Peggy came from her country home to stay with us. She was about seventy years old then, but she still tried to help out by doing day work. After a hard day's work on day she fell down with a paralytic stroke. My aunt, who was her only daughter, came and got her. She stayed with her until she died a few years later. After that I found an old lady who was one of my mother's friends to come and stay with in the home while I was away teaching. Every Friday I would ride the six miles home on the back of a mule. I spent Saturday and Sunday washing and ironing and cooking for the children. And I rode back Sunday evenings.
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Moving to Memphis

A few years later, after the end of the school term, Aunt Fannie, my father's sister in Memphis, invited me to live with her. She had three little kids and had been widowed by the same fever that took my parents. My Aunt Belle said that she would take care of Eugenia, and the two boys were put to work on their farm. I took the two little girls with me to Memphis. At Memphis, I was able to secure a school in Shelby County, Tennessee that paid an even better salary. I immediately began studying for a teacher's job in the city. When I secured an assignment in Memphis I received another increase in salary. It seemed as though things were finally beginning to look up.
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