Frank Menefee was born into slavery about 1852 in Alabama. His parents were Monroe and Susan Menefee. He recalled his father was a shoemaker. Frank had six siblings: Patsy, Sally, Lula, Mary, Melvina, and Philmore. Their slave owner was Willis Menefee. Frank stated in his interview that his mother's father and mother were Muton and Patsy Footman from Meridian, Mississippi.
Frank was a Freedman living in Opelika, Alabama when interviewed at the age of 84 in 1936 by the Federal Writers' Project for their Slave Narrative Project. All quotes are from that interview as transcribed by the interviewer, and are in the Public Domain.[1][2] In his interview he recalls life growing up as a slave.
He recalled that his owners were Willis and Hannah Menefee, who had two children - Willis and Willie. Willis Menefee had seven or eight hundred acres in a plantation but Frank did not know the number of slaves he had. Mr. Sadler was the overseer.
He recalled being awakened in the mornings by someone blowing a cockle shell, then working in the fields.
On Sunday mornings, Hannah Menefee taught the slaves from the Bible, then they went to church. The white people sat up front and the black people in the back.
Once the proclamation came that the slaves were freedmen, Willis Menefee gave each freed slave a suit of clothes, some money, a mule, a cow, wagon, hog and corn to help them start their new lives as freedmen. Frank's family moved to Dr. Lawrence Smith's near Louisiana.
Frank also mentioned his first wife was named Drake, and his second wife Phobe Ethen.
Thus far no grave sites have been found for any of the names mentioned in this profile.
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