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818 E. Fifteenth, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 87
"I was born in Virginia. Dr. Jenkins bought my mother from a man named Norman. Brought us here on the boat. I
know I was walkin' and talkin'. I don't remember about the trip, but I remember they said they had to keep me out
from fallin' in the river. I was too playified to remember anything about it.
"Durin' the War I was a girl six or seven years old. Big enough to nuss my mother's next chile, and she was walkin'
and talkin' 'fore surrender.
"My mother was pushin' a hundred when she died. I was her oldest chile. Sold with her.
"Dr. Jenkins had three women and all of 'em had girls. Raised up in the house. Dr. Jenkins said, 'Doggone it, I want
my darkies right back of my chair.' He never did 'buse his colored folks. He was a 'cepted (exceptional) man--so
different. I never saw the inside of the quarters.
"Dr. Jenkins' house wasn't far from the river. You could hear the boats goin' up and down all night.
"I was scared of the Yankees 'cause they always p'inted a gun at me to see me run. They'd come in the yard and take
anything they wanted, too.
"After surrender mama went and cooked for a men named Hardin.
"Hardest time I ever had was when I got grown and had to take care of my mother and sister. Worked in the field.
"I was married out from behind a plow. Never farmed no more.
"My fust husband was a railroad man, I tried to keep up with him but he went too fast; I couldn't keep up. He got so
bad they finally blackballed him from the road.
"I tell you nobody knows what it is till you go through with it. I've had my bitters with the sweet.
"Been married four times and I've buried two husbands. I just raised one chile and now she's dead. But I got
great-grandchillun--third generation--in Houston, Texas, but I never hear from 'em.
"I get along all right. The Welfare helps me and I try to live right."
Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
Gray, Neely -- Additional Interview
821 E. 18th Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 84 Occupation Does a little quilting
"Yes ma'm, I was sold from Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Jenkins bought my mother when I was a little girl walkin' and
talkin'. Put me up on the block and sold me too. I was bout three years old.
"Dr. Jenkins was mighty good to his hands. Say he was goin' to raise his little darkies up back of his chair. He
thought lots of his colored folks.
"I member seein' the Rebels ridin' horses, three double, down the road time of the war. I used to run off from mama
to the county bend -- right where the roundhouse is now. Mama used to have to come after me. You know I wasn't
no baby when I shed all my teeth durin' slavery days.
"Yankee soldiers? Oh Lord -- seed en by fifties and hundreds. Used to pint the gun at me jest to hear me holler and
cry. I was scared of em. They come in and went in Dr. Jenkins' dairy and got what they wanted. And every morning
they'd blow that bugle, bugle as long as a broom handle. Heard em blow 'Glory, Glory Hallelujah'. I liked to hear
em blow it.
"Yankees marched all up and down the river road. They'd eat them navy beans. I used to see where they throwed em
in the fence corner. Saw so many I don't like em now. They called em navy beans and I called em soldier beans.
"I member it well. I'm a person can remember. Heap a folks tell what other folks see but I tell what I see. Don't tell
what nobody told me and what I heard.
"I member when they had the battle in Pine Bluff. We was bout three miles from here when they fit up here. I
member all of it.
"They started to send us to Texas and we got as far as the ravine when they heard the Yankees wasn't comin' so we
went back home.
"I stayed round the house with the white folks and didn't know what nothin' was till after surrender. We stayed with
Dr. Jenkins for a week or two after surrender, then a man come and took my mother down in the country. I don't
know what she was paid -- she never did tell us her business.
"I was mama's onliest girl and she worked me day and night. Hood and picked cotton and sewed at night. Mama
learned me to knit and I used to crochet a lot. She sure learned me to work and I ain't sorry.
"I worked in the field till I come out to marry a railroad man. I never went to school but two or three months in my
life directly after freedom. My husband was a good scholar and he learned me how to read and write. I learned my
daughter how to read and write so when she started to school they didn't have to put her in the chart class. When she
was six years old she could put down a figger as quick as you can.
"Been married four times and they's all dead now. Ain't got nobody but myself. If it wasn't for the white folks don't
know what I'd do.
"I used to cook for Dr. Higginbotham when she had company. She couldn't do without old Nely. One time she sent
for me to cook some hens. I soaked em in soda water bout an hour and fried am and you couldn't tell em from friers.
"I'm weak in my limbs now but I believe in stirrin'. Welfare helps me but I quilts for people. Yes'm, I stirs -- if I
didn't I just couldn't stand it.
"This here younger generation is gone. They ain't goin' -- they's gone. Books ain't done no good. I used to teach the
Bible lesson once a week, but I don't fool with em now. Ain't got no manners -- chews gum and whispers.
"I got great grand children lives in Houston and they don't give me a penny. I don't know what I'd do if twasn't for
the Welfare.
"Used to wash and iron. I've ironed twenty shirts in one-half a day."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
