Sam Aleckson
Williams quotes Shakespeare to readers of his autobiography by drawing from Othello: "I will a plain unvarnished tale deliver," a line often used in slave narratives but powerful here.
While his memoir was actually published in 1929, Williams claims to have composed it in 1914 during a time when he feared he might go blind and wanted to document his life before that occurred.
[1] During his early childhood, his mother and older brother worked with her owners while he remained in his grandmother's care because he was too young for any practical use.
Williams held some good memories of his early years, saying that of the family that enslaved him and his relatives, they were "of all slave holders, the very best.
In addition, Williams describes the popular use of slates for his lessons, as well as his fascination with fable illustrations that instructed what was moral and what was not: "...such as that of the man who prayed to Hercules to take his wagon out of the mire; of the two men who stole a piece of meat; of the lazy maids and of the kindhearted man who took a half frozen serpent into his house.
[11] Williams never became a formal jockey, however, and of this he says the following: "Possibly Mr. Dane had 'views', concerning me for he owned several fast horses, but before I was old enough to be of practical service, 'Sherman came marching through Georgia.
'"[12] Williams recounts his arriving in Charleston one day to find that "men were going about the streets wearing blue cockades on the lapels of their coats.
"[13] This was his first realization that there was a war going on, though the effects (amazingly high prices for everything and the disappearance of many of the young men to go fight) had been felt for a while.
Williams recounts the conversations between other enslaved men and women at this time regarding the impending war and their support of the Union officer General Robert Anderson's defense of Fort Sumter.
Williams' account of this era includes reflections about the "Black Code" or laws passed to restrict civil and social rights of freedmen.
Williams chose not to vote in the election at all, even though he heard the General speak: "Our only desire he said, was to save our dear old state from utter ruin.
"[1] Williams also noted that many of the promises that General Hampton made did not come to fruition and that, in fact, acts of disenfranchisement and Jim Crow laws were being enacted against blacks during this era.
While not much is known about his life in Vermont, he and his eldest daughter Susan show up in the 1910 census, living in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where they worked as servants for the Carter family.
Some reason for this may be found in the fact that those fathers hated to harrow the minds of their children by the recital of their cruel experiences of those dark days....
For example, the Ward, Bale, and Dane families he discusses in his memoir are likely fake names, just as Williams himself used a pseudonym in order to author his work.
