Q: This is Saturday February 8, 2003 and I’m now interviewing Mr. Horace Seaborne, who attended
Ebenezer, which was a two-room school. What area did you grow up in Mr. Seaborne?
A. Close to the Isle of Wight Courthouse. Our house was right there at the Courthouse, the old red house. Right there on Courthouse Farm.
Q: How many sisters and brothers did you have?
A: I have 7 sisters living at that time and 1 dead. It was 4 boys.
Q: Did they attend Ebenezer School or did they go to some other school?
A: Some of them finished attending Ebenezer. I think it was Lydia, Bertha, Clarence, Emma and me.
Q. Where did your sisters and brothers attend school?
A. They attend school at Southampton at Mars Hill, a little over side Capron.
Q. Did any of them attend Ebenezer?
A. Nobody but Lydia, Emma, Sarah Jane, Clarence, Bertha, and Ollie.
Q. How many classrooms were in the school?
A: Two rooms.
Q. How many teachers did you have?
A: The two teachers were Ms. Valentine at that time and Ms. Ricks. They would stay a certain length of time and later on another year Rev. Reid and Ms. Wrenn came. Then we moved. I went to IWT (Isle of Wight Training School).
Q: So you went there maybe from 1st grade to…?
A: I went the 2nd to the 4th.
Q: When you went to Ebenezer how did you get to school?
A: Walked. Walked. We didn’t have any other way.
Q: How many miles do you think you walked a day?
A: About 6 miles a day.
Q: Three miles going and three miles coming back. What jobs did you do before and after school? Maybe jobs you did at home.
A: We had to tote water in for our mother to wash and get wood if the wood would be go that we got at night. Get up and get wood early that morning and make a fire. Everybody had a week to get up in the morning time: make fire, milk the cows, feed the mule and feed the chickens. We had to do all that before we go to school.
Q: So in the afternoon what did you have to do?
A: A lot of the time we had to milk the cow again. Mama would say you get out here and milk that cow again. Then we would get wood for the night so it would last all night. Then they’d go feed the mule--twice a day. We did not feed the chicken anymore.
Q: Before your school day began were there some chores you had to do at school?
A: Yes. A lot of time, in the afternoon before you go home, you had to sweep floors. But in the morning time--you make the fire. She would pick one or two boys to make the fire in the class. Then one would go get the wood. A whole lot of time before you could make the fire, it would be so cold!
Q: When you got to school in the morning, after you made the fire and I guess everybody was sort of warming up, before you started taking your lesson, did you have devotion or anything?
A: Yeah! We had devotion in the morning time; then we had prayer and each one would have to say a Bible verse. Then you have to wash your hands and clean up before you started. They asked who cleaned their teeth this morning. Then you have a little card and if you cleaned your teeth you put a star. If you made stars all the way across, you would get a bar of soap, “Life” bar soap. Everybody tried to get that “Life” bar soap. The country did that for you at that time.
Q: Can you remember what subjects you had while you were in school?
A. We had Reading, History and Spelling. I think that was about all. We did not have Science and all that stuff at that time. A lot of days you could not get through all that little bit they had.
Q: Do you remember any one book that you had while you were in school? One book.
A: Reading and Math…they didn’t call it math then…Arithmetic.
Q: How long were your school days? Do you remember about what time you went in the morning and what time you left in the afternoon?
A: We had to be there by 9. It was 3-4 when school closed. I can’t remember that to good now.
Q: Can you remember how long the school year was? Mostly every school year started in September and ended at a certain time…do you remember?
A: I think it started at September and at that time it ended in May I believe because now they go to June. I remember we use to have May Day. We would go to another school sometimes to have May Day cause we could not make it. A lot of days we couldn’t make it because our parents would have you on that farm working.
Q: How long was lunch break at school? Do you remember?
A: I think it was a half hour if I’m not mistaken.
Q: What did you do at recess time?
A: Go outside play ball. I use to love to play ball. I never forget first year I went to Ebenezer. Remember that crossroad where that telephone thing up there is now, I would play.
Q: Can you remember what your classroom looked like? What did they have in your classroom, what was on the wall?
A: _______on the wall.
Q: Did you have a chalkboard or blackboard?
A: They had a blackboard. Ms. Ricks would put pictures on the wall.
Q: Can you remember what your desk was like?
A: Little small desks. One large desk, two or three could sit in there. Then they had a little small desk, just one could sit in, so the teacher could walk up and down the isle.
Q: Did your desk have anywhere that you could put your book?
A: Yes. You could put your books and your lunch inside your desk. You better put your lunch in there if you put it somewhere else somebody would take it. I never forget they use to put their lunch in a little closet back there. You go back there to get it somebody stole your lunch, ate your lunch up. In those days, a lot of parents had so many children they didn’t have lunch to feed the children.
Q: So that made everybody bring their lunch from home?
A: They did not serve lunch at school in those days.
Q: How was the school heated?
A: We had that old coal round heater then you would use the coal when you had coal. A lot of time you need hot water, put the water on the stove, so you could have hot water to wash your face and hands. We had a washbasin and everybody used the same washbasin. You would have to bring your rag from home. Most of the time your parents would give everybody a piece of a bed sheet so you would have a rag to take to school. Some had book bags and some were not able to have book bags. There were so many of us we didn’t have no book bags. My mother would make a bag. My parents use to buy flour in these bags.
Q: The sacks?
A: Yes. She would make a bag out and put a rag in there. Then when it got old she would ask us did we need another one. The teacher would give us a little bit of water and from one to another wash your face and hands. That’s the way they did all of us. During school you would get your hands dirty.
Q: So the teachers not only just taught you, they had to check you for hygiene and everything?
A: Yes. Check your for hygiene and your teeth. They had a big job.
Q: What about your bathrooms at the school?
A: They were on the outside. They use to ask us, ‘Do your parents have any Spiegel books, Sears and
Roebuck and Montgomery Ward bring them to school so you could use them for toilet tissue…and we would carry it to school and they would tie them up in the closet. A lot of them would bring catalogs. That’s what you used for toilet tissue and used newspaper. I never saw toilet paper when I was going to school.
Q: How did you get your water at school?
A: They had a well outside and a pump between Ebenezer Church and the school. And then when that went bad, we had a spring down the other side of the church. We would go down to the spring and get water. We had two ways to get water. The spring was on this hill. The water would be running down, it was nice and cold. One day I said I’m going to go back there to see if that spring is still there.
Q: How would you describe the teacher’s desk? Do you know what that looked like?
A: No. Not really. I have forgotten that. I think it was something like iron.
Q: At that time did everybody have to have their own school supplies or could you get the supplies from the teachers?
A: You had to have your own supplies. Nobody gave you anything. County didn’t give you nothing. The only thing I remember they give us was that little fruit. When that ran out you didn’t get anything.
Q: Did the building have windows for light or did you have electric lights?
A: You didn’t have electric lights. You had windows for lights. And when they had PTA meetings they had lamps that run with gas or whatever. It had a funny little wick on it. They had a tank out in the yard that could turn this thing up and this little light would burn. They had a great big old tank in the yard, I don’t know if it was gas or not at that time. They had this little wick they would turn it up and it would burn. That wasn’t a good light. It was dim. The oil lamp was better than they was to me.
Q: Do you remember if your school had a coatroom?
A: Yes. They had a room back there that they called a closet.
Q: Can you tell me about the discipline? If somebody did something wrong what was discipline at that time like at Ebenezer?
A: It was rough I tell you. Ms. Ricks she won’t too bad. The only one that I had who was really bad was Rev. Reid. He was something else. He would take that paddle, I know you have seen these paddles with little balls and he would cut three holes in it. He would hold your hand either he would get that rule. Then he would turn to the back of your hand if he felt he wasn’t hurting you he would turn the back of your hand and beat you with that rule and get that paddle. Then he would put it on your hind pots too. Rev. Reid was rough. Girls or anybody, he would beat you. Rev. Reid was so mean. I was glad to leave. He stayed about two or three years after I left.
Q: Was there anything else that happened at school you experienced that you would like to tell me about?
A: We would have a game like when Ms. Georgia Tyler came. I loved to see Ms. Tyler come to school because she always would bring something for the children. She would bring us oranges, cake or something. We were not use to getting oranges. She was real good on that. I knew we would get some goodies. I think she would come once a month.
Q: What kind of activities did you have during the year at school?
A: The only activity we had was playing ball. They did not have any other kinds of games.
Q: Did the school ever have anything special?
A: We had plays and magicians would pull a rabbit out of the hat and that kind of stuff. Then we played the grab bag, put the stuff in the bag and reach down and get it out.
Q: I thought you said something about May Day?
A: Yeah, we had May Day but most of the time it was at another school. Like my father was working on the farm, everyday May Day came that would be the day my father had to work. So I could not go to school that day. At that time the older people living on those white folks farm. Most the time you would go to school on the rainy days except in the wintertime. The boys would be on the farm working and could not go to school like the girls. We had to help specially to break up land in the spring of the year. Boys had a hard time. Neavy knows how the old folks was, his father was better than my father on that deal.
Q: Since you have been grown, how much change have you seen in schools now and jobs then and jobs now?
A: There have been a lot of changes. It’s been so much changes I can’t tell you. I know that working black folks would have water spigot for “Negro’. They did not have “Black”. When you go to the drug store you could not stop at the front. The man would say, ‘Come on back in the back. Go to the back.’ You can’t stand up there where the white folks stood. You’d stand on the outside until you got waited on. They had a log cabin at the foot of the bridge, where Griffin Oil place is now. If you wanted anything there and you would go around the back, reach your hands through the window. You couldn’t go in the inside. You tell them what you wanted, then wait. In the country store if a white man came in the store they would tell you to stand outside. ’I’m going take care of him”. Even if you were in a hurry you had to wait if you wanted to get anything. Even right here at the Isle of Wight Courthouse there was a store-- that when a white man came in you had to stand outside and wait till they take care of him.
Q. So these are some of the changes you have seen?
A: Yeah!
Q: Is there anything else you want to tell me about Ebenezer?
A: I have said enough.
Q: Thank you for the interview.