Joe High

Joe High was one of Raleigh's best-known independent gardeners when he was interviewed in May 1937 at 527 South Haywood Street. Before talking, he wanted to make sure the interview wouldn't cost him anything, then fetched his Bible to be "on the square." He had spent 35 years trying to learn his exact age, and a cousin finally found it in the old slave books: born April 10, 1857. His mother, Sarah High, was born October 24, 1824. They were enslaved by Green High, two miles north of Zebulon in Wake County, on a place with fifty or more enslaved people. His brothers were Taylor and Ruffin; a sister died very young.

Too young for field work, he rode behind his mistress when she went visiting, kept chickens out of the garden and fanned flies from the table. Once he dug up a sweet potato that had cracked the ground and showed it to the white cook, who marched him to the big house to accuse him of stealing. The mistress said, "Joe belongs to me, the potato belongs to me, take it back and cook it for him." The cook then asked for half, and he later understood she had been trying to get him whipped.

He went in only a shirt until years after slavery, and the children ate from one bowl with mussel shells for spoons. He saw people sold from the mounting block in the yard, among them George High, who was later bought back. His brother Taylor ran away.