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1320 Pulaski Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age 78
"I was born in Gallatin, Tennessee, twenty-six miles north of Nashville, September 18, 1859. Willard Blue and
Mary Blue were my master and my mistress.
"I wanted to put in for a pension and didn't want to tell a story about my age. In reading the Gazette, I found out that
William Blue got shot by an insurance man in Dallas, Texas over a stenographer. I found out where my young
master was and after allowing him time to get over his grief, I wrote to him about my age. He wrote me that Andrew
was the oldest and he didn't know, so he sent my letter to Tacoma, Tennessee to Henry Blue. Henry wrote to him
and told him to look in the bottom of the wardrobe in the old family Bible. He looked there and found the Bible and
sent my age to me. They wrote to me and sent me some money and were awful nice to me. They said that I was the
only one of the slaves living.
"Our masters were awful good to us. They didn't treat us like we were slaves. My mother carried the keys to
everything on the place. They lived in the city. They didn't live in the country. I came here in 1859.
"My mother married a Thompson. Her married name was Margaret Thompson and her name before she married was
Margaret Berth.
Her master before she married was Berth. Her last master was Blue. Har mother's name was Cordelia Lowe. Her
maiden name was Berth. When the old man Berth died, he made his will and Bullard Berth didn't want any slaves
because he wanted to train his children to work. Willard, my mother's master, should have been a Berth because he
was old man Berth's son, but he called himself Blue. It might have been that old man Berth was his stepfather.
Anyway he went by the name of Willard Blue. He was an undertaker.
"My father's name was Oliver Thompson. I don't remember any of my father's people. His people were in Nashville,
Tennessee, and my mother's people were in Gallatin, Tennessee. We were separated in slavery.
"I don't know how my mother and father happened to get together. They didn't belong to the same master. My father
belonged to Thompson and lived in Nashville and my mother belonged to Blue in Gallatin. They were not together
when freedom came and never did get together after freedom. They only had one child to my knowledge. I don't
know how they happened to be separated. It was when I was too small. Nashville is twenty-six miles from Gallatin,
Perhaps one family or the other moved away.
"I have heard my mother speak about the pateroles. I don't know whether they were pateroles or not. They had
guards out to see if the slaves had passes and they would stop them when they would be going out for anything.
They would stop my mother when she would be going out to get the cows to see if she had a pass.
"I never heard my mother speak of jayhawkers, but I have heard her say that they used to catch the slaves when they
were out. I don't know whether it was jayhawkers or not. I don't know what they done with them after they caught
them. I have heard other people speak of jayhawkers. My people were very good to us. They never bothered my
mother. She could go and come when she pleased and they would give her a pass any time she told them she wanted
one.
"I know one thing my ma told me. When the soldiers came through, there was an old rebel eating breakfast at our
place. He was a man that used to handcuff slaves and carry them off and sell them. He must have stolen them. When
he heard that the Yankees were marching into town with all than bayonets shining, it scared him to death. He sat
right there at the breakfast table and died. I don't know his name, but he lived in Tennessee.
"My mother was a cook and she knitted. She molded candles and milked the cows, and washed and ironed. She and
her children were the only slaves they owned. They never whipped my mother at all. I stayed in the house. They
kept me there. I never had to do anything but keep the flies off the table when they were eating.
"My grandfather gave ma my schooling after I came here. I had come here in 1869. I went to school in Capitol Hill
and Union Schools.
Mrs. Hoover (white) was one of the teachers at Union School when I was there. She was a good teacher. Miss Lottie
Andrews--she is a Stephens now--was another one of my teachers.
"My master came right on the back porch and called my mother out and told her she was free, that he wasn't going
in no war. That was at the beginning when they were mustering in the soldiers to fight the War. And he didn't go
neither. She stayed with him till after emancipation. She was as free as she could be and he treated her as nice as
anybody could be treated. She had the keys to everything.
"My mother had a little house back in the yard joined to the back porch and connected with the kitchen. It had one
room. She did all cooking in his kitchen. Her room was just a bedroom.
"The furniture was a bed with high posters. It didn't have slats, it had ropes. It was a corded bed. They had boxes for
everything else--for bureaus, chairs, and things.
"I went to school as far as the eighth grade. Professor Hale, Professor Mason, and Professor Kimball were some of
the teachers that taught me. They all said I was one of the brightest scholars they had.
"I married Cado Haney in 1882. He is dead now. He's been dead nearly forty years. We didn't live together but
fifteen years before he died.
We never had no children. After he died I laundried for a living until I got too old to work. Now I get old age
assistance."
A mighty sweet old lady to talk to.
Interviewer Pernella M. Anderson"
