"personalities" With Chuck Anderson

For over 100 years, Hazel Mahone carried her grandparents' memories of surviving pre-civil war slavery. These stories provoked emotions associated with brutality, inhumanity, and an overwhelming hope for a better life. In 1992, Chuck Anderson sat down with Mahone to discuss these rare, second-hand stories that filled her childhood and inspired her lifetime as a humanitarian and cosmetologist in Huron, South Dakota. To begin the interview, Anderson asked Mahone a few questions concerning terminology. Mahone went on to explain the different types of slaves that existed in the deep South, and how her grandmother fit into the equation. With her grandparents as part of the slave trade, tracing Mahone’s genealogy back farther than three generations would be difficult due to serial numbers used in place of names. In addition, those enslaved would often take the last name of their owners, increasing the struggle to find family ties. Mahone went on to explain how her grandfather escaped slavery