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Holly Grove, Arkansas
Age 77
"My ma and pa belong to the same white folks. I was born in North Carolina. Ma and pa had six children. I don't
know how many owners they ever had in North Carolina. Ma and pa was named Sarah and Jad Nelson.
"When I was a baby Rubin Harriett bought me and mama. His wife was Becky Harriett. Ma was too old to sell
without me. They didn't want to sell me but they couldn't sell her widout me. I am the baby of our family. Papa
didn't get to come to Arkansas. That parted them. After freedom her other children come. I heard ma say how they
kept papa dodged round from the Yankees. The white folks kept him dodged round. He was a field hand. Ma was a
cook and house girl. She never did work in the field till she come out here. She said white folks didn't whoop him;
he wouldn't take it. I don't know why they thought he wouldn't be whooped.
"I could walk when I first seed the Yankees. I run out to see em good. Then I run back and told Miss Becky. I said,
'What is they?' She told ma to put all us under the bed to hide us from the soldiers. One big Yankee stepped inside
and says to Miss Becky, 'You own any niggers?' She say, 'No.' Here I come outen under the bed and ask her fer
bread. Then the Yankee lieutenant cursed her. He made the other four come outen under the bed. They all
commenced to cryin' and I commenced to cry. We never seed nobody lack him fore. We was scared to deaf of him.
He talked so loud and bad.
He loaded us in a wagon. Mama too went wid him straight to Helena. He put us in a camp and kept us. Mama
cooked fer the Yankees six or seven months. She heard em -- the white soldiers -- whisperin' round bout freedom.
She told em, 'You ain't goiner keep me here no longer.' She took us walkin' back to her old master and ax him for us
a home. Than she married man on the place. He was real old. I had five half brothers and sisters then. I was a good
size girl then.
"They had run him and some more men to Texas. They went in a wagon and walked. They made one crop there. He
said fifteen or sixteen families what belong to different owners went out there. They heard some people talking --
overheard it was free times. They picked up and left there at night. They dodged round in the woods and traveled at
night. When he got back he made terms to work as a share cropper.
"Master, he didn't give us nuthin'. I didn't hear they would give am anything. Truth of it was they didn't have much
to keep less givin' the niggers something. We all had little to eat and wear and a plenty wood to burn and a house to
shelter us. The work didn't slack up none. The fences down, the outhouses had to have more boards tack on. No
stock cept a scrub or so. We had no garden seed cept what be borrowed round and raised. Times was hard. We had
biscuits bout once a week, lucky if we got that.
"The Ku Klux got after our papa. They fixin' to kill him. He hid in the gullies. They come to our house once or
twice but I never seed em. Papa come once or twice and took us all and hid us fore sundown. They quit huntin' him.
"We farmed wid Mr. Hess. Mr. Herrin wouldn't let nobody bother his hands.
"We had good times. I danced. We had candy pullings bout at the houses. We had something every week. I used to
dance in the courthouse at Clarendon -- upstairs. Paul Wiley was head music man. All colored folks -- colored
fiddlers.
"I was married over fifty years. Bunt Sutton's mother helped bout my weddin' supper. (Bunt Sutton's mother was a
white woman.) She and her family all was there. She had then two boys and two girls. Mama bought me a pure
white veil. I was dressed all in white. We had a colored preacher to marry us. We married at night, borrowed lamps
and had em settin' about. There was a large crowd. Ann Branch was the regular cake-cooker over the country. She
cooked all my cakes. They had roast pork and goose and all sorter pies. Then I went on to my new home on another
man's place bout one-fourth mile from mama's house. Bunt Sutton's mama was a widow woman.
"My husband voted some but I don't pay no tention to votin'.
"I own a place but it don't do no good. My son is cripple and I can't work. I done passed hard work now. My
husband bought this place before he died. I don't get help from nowhere.
"This is hardest times in my life. Well, education doin' a heap of good. The papers tell you how to do more things. It
makes folks happier if they can read.
"Now I don't be bothered much wid young folks. You heard em say flies don't bother boilin' pots ain't you? I does
nough to keep me going all the time and the young folks shuns work all they can cept jes' what it takes for em to
live on right now. Their new ways ain't no good to me."
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
