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Madison, Arkansas
Age 84
"I was born a slave, born in Nashville, Tennessee. I was sold twice. I don't recollect my mother; I was so small
when I was parted from her. I had two sisters and I recollect them. One of my sisters was sold the same day I was
sold and I recollect my other sister was named Rebecca. I never seen her no more after I was sold. I was the
youngest.
"Mother belong to Captain Walker. That was before the Civil War so I know he wasn't an officer in it. His daughter
married a man named Mr. Foster. Captain Walker had give me to his daughter when she married. They lived in
Nashville, Tennessee too. Mr. Foster sold me and Captain Walker sold my sister Ann and Mr. Bill Steel Henderson
at Columbia, Tennessee bought us both and give my sister to his widowed sister for a house girl and nurse and he
kept me.
"They lived close to us and my sister stayed at our house nearly all the time. My sister and me was sold for the same
price, $100 a piece. She could count and knew a dollar. She had some learning then. I never went to school a day in
my life.
"The first block was a big tree and stumps sawed off for steps by the side of it. The big tree had been sawed off up
high. The man cried me off standing on the next stump step. My sister told me our mother was a cook at Captain
Walker's. She told me my father was a Foster. It was my understanding that he was a white men. My sister was
darker than I was.
Mr. Foster sold me for a nurse. Mr. Henderson's sister was name Mrs. McGaha (?). My sister nursed and cooked. I
nursed three children at Mr. Henderson's. He was good to me. I loved the children and they was crazy about me. He
sold me to Mr. Field Mathis. I nursed four children for then. I never did know why I was sold. Mr. Henderson was
heap the best. Mr. Henderson never hit me a lick in his life.
"Mathis was cruel. He drunk all the time. He got mad and stamped my hand. I nearly lost the use of my hand. It was
swollen way up and hurt and stayed riz up till his cousin noticed it. He was a doctor. He lived in the other end of the
house--the same house. He found some bones was broke loose in my hand (right hand). Dr. Mathis (Dr. Mathis or
Dr. Mathews who died at Forrest City, Arkansas) set his brother out about treating little nurse thater way. Told him
he oughter be ashamed of himself. Dr. Mathis splintered my hand and doctored it till it got well.
"Mr. Field Mathis was a merchant. They moved to Colt, Arkansas at the beginning of the War, Dr. and Mr. Field
Mathis both. We come on the train and steamboats. It was so new to me I had a fine time but that is all I can tell
about it. Mr. Field was cross with his wife. She was fairly good to me. I had all the cooking, washing and ironing to
do before I left there.
"After we come to Arkansas I never got to see my sister. My husband was a good scholar. He could write. He wrote
and wrote back to find my sister and mother but they never answered my letters. I asked everybody that come from
there about my sisters and mother but never have heard a word. I slept on a pallet on the floor nearly all my life. I
had a little bed at Mr. Henderson's.
"I didn't know it was freedom till one day when I was about fourteen or fifteen years old--judging from my size and
what I done. I want off to a spring to wash. I had one pot of clothes to boil and another just out of the pot to rub and
rinse. A girl come to tell me Mrs. Field had company and wanted me to come cook dinner. I didn't go but I told her I
would be on and cook dinner soon as I could turn loose the washing. There was two colored girls and a white girl
could done the cooking but I was a good cook. The girl put on the water for me to scald the chickens soon as she
went to the house. When I got there Mrs. Field Mathis had a handful of switches corded together to beat me. I
picked up the pan of boiling water to scald the chickens in. She got scared of me, told me to put the pan down. I
didn't do it. I didn't aim to hurt her. I wouldn't throwed that boiling water on nothing. She sent to the store for her
husband. He come and I told him how it was about the clothes and three girls there could cook without me. He got
mad at her and said: 'Mary Agnes, she is as free as you are or I am. I'm not going to ever hurt her again and you
better not. That is the first I ever heard about freedom. It had been freedom a long time. I don't know how long then.
"I stayed on, washed out the clothes and strung them up that evening. I ironed all the clothes and cooked the rest of
the week. Mr. Field got me a good home with some colored folks. He told me if I would go there he never would let
nobody bother me and he never would mistreat me no more. I worked some for them but they paid me. She ought to
thought a heap of me the way I cooked and worked for her. That was my freedom. I was sold on a platform to Mr.
Mathis.
"After freedom I done field work. I never seen a Ku Klux in my life. I cooked out some and I married. I still cooked
out. I was married once and married in a church. I have seven children living and seven dead.
"I live with my daughter and her family and I get $6 and commodities. I'm mighty thankful for that. It helps me a
whole lots.
"I recken young folks do the best they know to do. Seems like folks are kinder hearted than they used to be. Times
have changed a heap every way. Times is harder for poor folks than the others. It is a true saying that poor folks
have hard ways and rich folks have mean ways. They are more selfish. I always had to work hard. Both times I was
sold for $100."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
