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(Archive of Folk Song, Library of Congress, C7. 12/31/40. Alabama F.E.C., John Proctor Mills, 4/29/37)
Aunt Laura Hill does not know her exact age, but thinks that she was about eleven at the beginning of the War Between the States. She was born in Florida, and with her mother and two others was sold to Mr. Press Keys of Montgomery, AL For many years she has lived at 210 South Union Street in Montgomery, AL She has two highly respected daughters, one of them, Mary, is a house maid in the home of Judge Walter B. Jones (son of Alabama's former greatly beloved Governor Thomas G. Jones); the other daughter, Lizzie Hill, is a valued teacher in the Loveless School one of Montgomery's foremost school for negroes.
"Good mawnin' Mahse White Folks, yew sho'll have ter 'scuse me faw 'pearing foe ya'll dis away, ah means dat ah's done bare-fested. Dis heah wahm spring mawnin' is kase ya'll done cotch me dis away."
"Yass suh ah 'stinctly 'membahs dat mah Mammy an' huh three chillun, ah bein' one uv um, was done sole ter Mahse Press Keys uv Mungumbry; yew see's us was livin' in Flurrdy at dat tahm, an' he tuck an' buy'd us an' den 'range faw us ter be fotch ter dis place."
"Mahse Press Keys wid his fambly was all sure good ter us all der tahm; he buy'd us foe tergetthah so dat Mammy would be bettah satterfahd wid us bein' wid huh, so she mout raise us'.
"Man! yew sho oughtah see'd us niggahs run! Dey done tole us niggahs dat der Yankee's was er comin', an' ef dey cotch us whut dey'd dew ter us was mohn plenty.
"Us was daown in Lowndes county when dem Yankees done 'rive, an' dey done rush up a lane fum de pastuh lot lack a swaum a bee's gwine tew der gum. Yas us fool niggahs didn' know nuthin' but ter run, faw all dem Yankee's call dey wuzn't gwine ter hahm nairy haih in uses haid: 'An' dey didn'.'
"Ah membahs mighty well when dey was 'parin' faw wah in dis City uv Mungumbry, dare sho was er heap uv 'citement 'mongst boff der white folks an' der niggahs. An' awn Mad'son Avenue we chillun uster watch der sodjers go bah in droves".
"Yew knows Mizz Emmer and Mizz Lydia? Dey Pappy made unerfohms faw der 'Federate Sodjers, and dey Mammy had er miller-nairy stoe. An' dey sho was fine folks!
