[The following is an excerpt from an interview with a man who claimed to have known ‘Uncle Bob’ Wilson in his old age. In short, Uncle Bob was a former African-American slave who was forced into the practice of slave breeding (more information about this practice will be linked below).]
Winters’ time with Uncle Bob had taken place around 1928 or 1930 when he was between the ages of eight and ten. He and his cousin Bill had uncles that lived in Shawneetown and they often spent part of their summers in the sleepy river town. There they spent time with an elderly Black couple, though Winters couldn’t remember the exact relationship between the old woman and Uncle Bob who would have been in his mid 90s at that point. At one point in the interview George asked if Uncle Bob “was a pretty good size guy.”
WINTERS: Yeah.
GEORGE: Pretty good size, yeah.
WINTERS: Yeah. He was pretty heavy. He was stout looking.
GEORGE: Stout looking.
WINTERS: But he said that’s why he said he had to do what he had to do. If he hadn’t been real stout and real healthy and take care of himself good he said, he’s never probably have done what he had done, because he didn’t do it because he wanted to.
GEORGE: Didn’t you guys kid him and ask him, “well, I think that’s the thing do so.” Yeah. What did he say?
WINTERS (in agreement): [Remembering his childhood remarks to Uncle Bob] Shoot. Looks to me like you had a job and a half.
GEORGE: Yeah, yeah.
WINTERS: That, that really got him, cause he…
GEORGE: He didn’t like that.
WINTERS: He said, ‘You just don’t know what that is. They’d bring you a girl or have one called to where you were at and you had to take her in a room and everything. If she cries and screams, and whatever, you didn’t have any choice.’
George asked him if he ever mentioned the Old Slave House. At first Winters said he didn’t remember, then immediately made the connection.
WINTERS: …of course, he was always talking about the Slave House and the room he stayed in, and he’d…
GOERGE: Yeah, oh! He was talking… He did mention the room he stayed in?
WINTERS: Oh yeah,, he’d talk about the room he’d stayed in, and…
GEORGE: I’ll be dog gone.
WINTERS: …and about the girl and about he didn’t have any choice when they brought one in, and he had to take care of her he said and that was just, ‘I hated it.’
GEORGE: He said he hated it?
WINTERS nodded affirmatively.
GEORGE: Well, my goodness.
tl;dr:
Essentially, the Old Slave House they are referring to is one in Illinois that was allegedly involved in forced breeding of African slaves (in an attempt to produce offspring with traits that were desirable to the slave owners). Winters, a man who had known Uncle Bob (a former slave forced into this practice), is being interviewed by the author, with George.
When they say ‘didn’t you guys kid him,’ he’s asking if Winters, and his friends (all young at the time) had joked with Uncle Bob about how he slept with a lot of women (‘you had a job and a half’). They had meant it light-heartedly, but Uncle Bob became visibly upset, and made it clear that he was forced to rape all of those women, that he hated it, and that it certainly wasn’t funny.
Bonus:
From Robert Wilson’s obituary:
"Uncle Bob" was said to have been a stud slave on seven different plantations, including the "Old Slave House" in Equality, and had fathered over 200 children. Uncle Bob was the oldest living Illinois veteran in the state when he died at the age of 112.
Source:
Musgrave, Jon. “ ‘Uncle Bob’ Wilson.” Slaves, Salt, Sex & Mr. Crenshaw: The Real Story of the Old Slave House and America's Reverse Underground R.R. Marion, IL: IllinoisHistory.com, 2004. 446-48. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Jon Musgrave. June 18, 2002. Videotaped interview with Leonard Winters and George Sisk.
Further Reading:
Robert “Uncle Bob” Wilson (FindAGrave
Crenshaw House / Crenshaw Mansion / Hickory Hill / The Old Slave House
Did you make a post a while ago that involved a woman writing about slave owner's wives turning a blind eye to the children some of the female slaves were giving birth to (who quite clearly had white fathers)?
This post reminded me of it and I can't remember if it was one of your posts or if it was from somewhere else. IIRC there was a derogatory name given to the children but I can't remember it.