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(Baldwin County, AL. Gertha Courie, John Morgan Smith, Federal Writers Project)
Aunt Matilda Daniel, ninety-six years old, was owned by Senator James L. Pugh, United States Senator. She owns her home, a nice cottage on the Bluff, with flowers and a vegetable garden. Her eyes are bad but she is still active and straight as an arrow. Her grand-children from Detroit send her money, and with occasional aid from the city of Eufaula she gets along nicely.
Her mind is unimpaired for past events, her recollections of slavery good, but for the present she doesn't seem to grasp things. Senator Pugh married Sara Serena, a daughter of General John Linguard Hunter, and historians say, "No one surpassed them, the Pughs, in hospitality." On the Pugh place, Aunt Matilda was born, and later was married to Joe Daniel in "de parler."
"De general, my Mistis Par married us out de pray' book...Missey, de dress I married in was one of her party dresses, hit sho was fine, made out ob white tarelton, wid a pink ribbon tied round my head, den all de niggers come from de plantation and we had a supper and a soiree in de back yard. My Marster and my Mistis was de best Marster and Mistis in de land. Us moved to de "quarter," me and my old man, but I still worked at de house, my Mistis wouldn't let no body but me polish her silver and wash dem mint julip glasses but 'dis nigger.'
"Durin' de war us warn't bothered much, but atter de surrender, some po' white trash tried to make us take some lan'. Some of 'em come to de slave quarters, an' talk to us. Dey say 'Niggers, you is jus' as good as de white folks. You is 'titled to vote in de 'lections an' to have money same as dey,' but most of us didn't pay no 'tention to 'em.
"When Marse James and my Mistis moved to Washington, my Mistis (Miss Sara) wanted me to go with her and be her house maid, but I could not leave my old man (he died that same year) with de consumption, and left me with four little chillun.
"Us stayed on de plantation, us were free niggers but my Marster paid us good wages and we never left him until de big house burned and crops got pore, den we moved to town (Eufaula) and I bought dis house with de money I had saved dat Marster and Mistis give me."
Aunt Matilda was a "highbrow" then, and is a "highbrow" now. She "don't 'sociate with trash."
(Wash. Copy, 5/13/37, L. H.)
