Elijah Pierce: biography as he tells it in the film "Sermons in the Wood"
- I was born in Mississippi in 1892, on a farm down near the delta. Well, since I was a little boy, I guess seven or eight years old, when I was down on the farm I use to get me a pocket knife and I'd get out and carve on trees. Anything that's smooth like beech, buck alder, hoja, sycamore, I'd carve a picture on it. A horse, a cow, Indians. Anything that I could think of that I could carve I'd put it on a tree. My little girl's names, school girls. A heart, and the Indians shooting, bow and arrow shooting at it. I was eight, nine, 10 years old. From then I started to fool with walking sticks. I'd find a nice walking cane, and make a walking stick out of it. And I'd use that walking stick until I got older, I started carving something else. Something a little more complicated. Making little furniture doll wagons and doll beds.
Mother use to use the wash-rub board. She'd rub out clothes and fold anything like a washing machine. I use to make her one of those. Cut across, cut it out, she used it in washing our clothing. Anything that was wood, that I could cut on, I enjoy doin' it. On the farm, where I was raised, we had cows, and hogs, and chickens, and ducks, and turkeys, and geese. We had a mule that was kinda gray and black spot, and I just thought about his name was Kit. And how I was, be plowing that mule, out there on the farm. Never dreamed that I'd ever be in a city, I thought that's home, that's every place I'd ever be. We just had, he got on my mind, and I just carved him. I left the farm because I didn't like it. It was too long between pay days. They pay all of once a year.
Now the other two brothers, they liked the farm. But I just didn't like to wait all year for to get some money. We had a plenty to eat on the farm, my father was a very good farmer. Plenty to wear, nice. We went to school. But I was a black sheep of the family. Kind of like the prodigal son, I left home when I was, early. Young age. And went away, sickened, what I heard about the bright lights of the city. I missed a many meal, I longed for that long table at home. But I wouldn't go back, because I left. Course my father told me, said if you don't like it, that the world is wide. I got out there and I had to tough it out. I was 'fraid to steal, and didn't have sense enough to gamble. I didn't know nothin else but to work.
And after I stayed in the barber business for awhile, I got to carving again. Every chance I got when I wasn't cuttin hair, I cut on some wood. I was at home down here on Natchez Street, in 24, 1924. I had some wood out in the backyard, we were burning coal and we had a lot of kindling, and I saw a piece of two by four, so, I started cutting on it. And I just pictured the, I could see I had, it looked like could see a little elephant in there, and I just carved him out. And I gave it to my wife, and she liked it so well she tied a ribbon round its neck, and put it up on the mantel. I said if you like that thing that well, I'll just carve you a zoo. And every kind of animal that I can think of that picture in the paper, or in the shows or any place, I tried to carve it. Boys used to come in the shops and say, "Pierce, here's a horse, here's a tiger, you can't carve this." And they would bet me I couldn't carve it. So I'd do everything I could to carve it. Finally, I got more interested in carving animals, than fooling with walking canes.
From then on, I went to carving everything I could think of. I never dreamed that it ever amount to anything much, but I just like to do it. I never get lonesome if I got a piece wood in my hand. After I joined the church and became religious, I gets more joy out of carving religious pictures, than any other type. Seem like I get better revelation on it, after reading the Bible and reading the story of different types of characters in the Bible. So I enjoy it better. Course some times some of the customers tell me a very interesting story. And as they tell it, a picture form in my mind about that story, and I carve it. Just like one day a man is talking about his troubles that he have in life, how thing breaks with him. In my mind, run back to the spider web. When I was a young man in nature, I use to play with spiders, I'd find a big web from one bush to another. And he had a special place that he sit himself. And when something would hit in his web, he'd run out and he'd do something with one of his feet, and tie such as a gnat or bug, or a wasp, I've seen him tie up a wasp. In his web, then he go on back and watch him, and if he act like it bout to get loose, he'd go back in, put some more web on it. And that reminded me how in our lives, sometimes we get into spider webs, just get all tied up in something, and we're powerless and can't help ourselves. So that picture formed just like you see it there. The spider web, how we go through life sometimes, and get into spider web, and they ain't no way for us to get out. That spider web it represent the devil, in my mind.
Almost all those animals was round my home. There was a woods, they called Twenty Mile Bottom. There were woods that were so tall and so thick, until you couldn't see the sun till at noon. Out there in those woods, canes and underbrush were so thick, you could had looked straight up to see the sun. And you saw all kind a animals. There was some bears out in those woods, and coons be laying up on limbs in the day time. Wild turkeys, and ducks, hawks, owls, all type. I'd be out there in them woods every chance I got. I just love to be out there with those things.
My father was a slave, and he used to tell us about the days that he would, while he was in slavery. And, I got a lotta eyes from what he would say. And I'd read a lot of the books of slavery. And he said he was sold three times, because he wouldn't stand for those seriously whoopin. And they said if we don't get rid of this negro, he'd ruin all the rest of em. So he'd sell to somebody else. Finally, the last man that owned him, he'd take them for his boy. His , take care of his horse, and carriage, and work around the house. So they got along alright. My father said that he wanted him still with him after the Emancipation. But said he just didn't feel like he was free unless he left that place. He told him if you stay with me, said I'll take care of you, as long as I live. But he just had to leave there because he wouldn't feel like he was free.
And down in this picture the woman, and the man and the little girl are asking Uncle Sam for what they promised, that they would give em a mule, and $50, and 40 acres of land. And out there on the left ups corner, that's picture of us when where they was pickin cotton in the cotton fields. And up here on the right was overseer's house. That's where the, he stayed. And that's where they were put up on the auction block, rolled up on his left trousers, and the right sleeve, and auctioned off to the highest bidder. And down there at the right corner the log cabin, where they had to live, and one man staked out with his hand tied to some kind of beam, where he whipped him when they disobeyed.
This picture in my young days when I was playing ball. I loved that sport, one of my best games. We were playing ball, in a town about 18 miles from my home on a Saturday evening. And in the meantime, after the game was over, I don't know whether it was won or lost, but anyway we was fixin to go back home on the train, about five o'clock that evening. It was 18 miles from my home to this town, Tupelo, Mississippi. And a boy, a colored boy, had killed a white man that morning. Bout my height, my size, my weight, my color. And he had two gold teeth in his front , gold crown teeth. One on the right and one on the left. And the mob on the left corner here was looking for this boy all over town, every place they said he was dangerous cause he had a gun. And in the meantime, while we were down at the station, waiting on the train, this little detective came up and arrested me. And he just knew he had the boy that had killed this white man. I wouldn't know was in trouble, he didn't even handcuff me. But, one of the boys on the team hand a gun, and he said, "Slim you keep this gun because you got a coat on." And I wasn't thinkin, I just take it and stuck it in my pocket. And after this detective arrested me, he patted me down and found this gun, he jumped back and drawed his gun, and reached in there and snatched it out. And he marched me down to jail, just like this fella, marched me down to jail. Locked me up. I didn't know what is all about. So finally they sent for a man to come by identify me. And he came and looked, I was back there in the cell. "Come here nigger." I went up to the window and looked out, he asked me questions, turned around, and he looked, talked to me, and asked me to open my mouth. I opened my mouth and he saw those two crowned teeth. He looked, and he said, "Turn around again." I turned around. And he said, "He ain't the one. But he sure could pass for his twin brother." And I didn't know what is all about. So I asked him what was it? He said, "Nigger look just like you killed a white man this morning." And after he said, "Nigger, it's a good thing that mob didn't see you before you was locked up. We been killed you on the spot." And he said, "Now the best thing I can tell you to get out of town." And I turn on the fan, and I knew I couldn't go to the road cause they was looking everywhere for this boy. I had to go through the kind of bi-ways. And a rabbit jumped up in front of me, and I didn't tell him, but the rabbit had to get out of my way cause I was going home! I didn't wait on no train, it wasn't but 18 miles to my home. And wasn't too long 'fore I was at home. So that's bout the best I know about that picture. One thing I can say that it was in the Lord's plan to lock me up! I was led after I thought over it. Cause if they had a found me really, they would have killed me before I could've had myself identified.
Mother and I used to read in the evenings after I'd get through my work. She and I would read the Bible. And we had got a catalog from Sears Roebuck, one of those big thick catalogs like they send out that day. And when I went in to the house, my mind told me to read, I think it's 16th chapter of Matthew. And I went in there, and she was sitting down with her Bible in her lap. And I sit down side the table, and I reached over my Bible, it was right on the corner, I reached over my Bible, and picked up this magazine and began to thumb through it. And when I did that, a higher power laid the hands on my head. And when they did that, I fell out of the chair just like somebody had shock me with electric or something. On the floor, Mother saw me fall, she jumped up and grabbed me and asked me what's the matter. She and my sister drug me in the bedroom, and put me in the bed. And when I was going away I went out just like a sun going behind a cloud. And I heard the voice say, "I told you to read the Bible and you disobeyed. And I'm just showing you my power." And I went on away. And I stayed in that condition long enough for them to 'cide that I was dead, cause I didn't have no pulse, no heartbeat, no breath, or nothin. And some old timers came and examined, and said, "He's dead." And they called the undertaker, and the doctor, and before they got there, they heard this screaming and hollerin of my mother and sister, neighbors round there. House was full of people. And I heard the voice. I came back just like sun coming from behind the cloud. Layin there on the bed, I said "Hush, mother. I know what's the matter." I say, "God told me to read the Bible, and I reached over it lookin at that catalog. And he laid his hands on my head."
I was called to preach when I was a young man, but I never wanted to preach. I didn't feel like I was fit. And I didn't think that I knew enough, and I didn't feel like I could be obedient enough to preach the gospel to the people. Cause I was a bad young boy. I did everything that a young man could do, but kill somebody. And I thought I killed a man once. My people use to say when I was small, I never live to be 21 years old. I would die with my shoes on my feet. But they were mistaken, God had a plan for me. He had some wood for me to carve.
