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228 N. Oak Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 94 Occupation None--blind
"I was born in Mississippi and emigrated to Arkansas. Born on the Peacock place. Old John Patterson was my old
master.
"My first goin' out was to the cow pen, then to the kitchen, and then they moved me to Mrs. Patterson's
dining-room.
"I helped weave cloth. Dyed it? I wish you'd hush! My missis went to the woods and got it. All I know is, she said it
was indigo. She had a great big kittle and she put her thread in that. No Lord, she never bought her indigo--she
raised it.
"Oh, Miss Fannie could do most anything. Made the prettiest counterpanes I ever saw. Yes ma'am, she could do it
and did do it.
"She had a loom half as big as this house. Lord a mercy, a many a time I went dancin' from that old spinnin'-wheel.
"They made all the clothes for the colored folks. They'd be sewin' for weeks and months.
"Miss Fannie and Miss Frances--that was her daughter--they wove such pretty cloth for the colored. You know, they
went and made themselves dresses and the white and colored had the same kind of dresses.
"Yes Lord, they had some folks.
"Miss Frances wore hoops but Miss Fannie didn't.
"During of the War them Yankees come down the river; but to tall the truth, we run and hid and never seen 'em no
more.
"They took Mars John's fine saddle horse named Silver Heels. Yes ma'am, took saddle and bridle and the horse on
top of 'em. And he had a mare named Buchanan and they took her too. He had done moved out of the big house
down into the woods. Called hisself hidin' I reckon. And he had his horses tied down by the river and the Yankees
slipped up on him and took the horses.
"Yankees burned his house and gin house too and set fire to the cotton. Oh Lord, I don't like to talk about it. Them
Yankees was rough.
"Right after freedom our white folks left this country and went to Missouri and the last account I heard of 'em they
was all dead.
"After freedom, folks scattered out just like sheep.
"I'm tryin' to study 'bout some songs but I can't think of nothin' but Dixie."
Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
Jones, Lidia -- Additional Interview
"Do I believe in signs" Well, I've heard 'em say if you break a lookin'-glass somebody will either die or it will bring
you bad luck. I know I broke a small one and I lost my sister. And another thing---I had a lookin'-glass in my trunk
and quilts on top of it at another woman's house, and it got broke and she lost her mother-in-law.
"And the old folks say if you sneeze at the table with victuals in your mouth, they say somebody goin' to die. Now
that's the truth. Somebody goin' out of that house or close around. That's happened right in this house.
"And if that death owl come around your house, look out.
"I ain't gwine 'spute none of 'em. You just watch it and see for yourself.
"Virginia---that was my daughter---her rooster jumped up on the gallery and crowed and she taken sick on Tuesday
and in four days left here. Yes Lord.
"And if a dog howls---just continue howlin'---somebody goin' away. Yes Lord, they ain't gwine stay here.
"Oh, lady, we is warned by many signs. The Lord done said he's gwine warn us by many signs. Folks in this world
is so wicked, so wicked."
This information given by Lidia Jones; Place of residence 228 N. Oak Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Occupation -
none---blind; Age -94.
Name of Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
Jones, Lidia -- Additional Interview
228 North Oak Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 93
"My name's Lydia -- Lydia Jones. Oh my God I'se born in Mississippi. I wish you'd hush -- I know all about
slavery.
"I never had but one master. That was old John Patterson. No he want good to me. I wish you'd hush! I had two
young masters -- Marse John and Marse Edward. Marse John go off to war and say he gwine whip them Yankees
with his pocket knife, but he didn't do it. They said the war was to keep the colored folks slaves. I tell you I've heard
them bull whips a ringin' from sun to sun.
"After the war when they told us we is free, they said to hire ourselves out. They didn't give us a nickel when we
left.
"I heered talk of the Ku Klux and they come close enough for us to be skeered but I never seen none of 'em. We
never had no slave uprisin's on our plantation -- old John Patterson would a shot 'em down. I tell you he was a rabid
man.
"I used to pick cotton and chop cotton and help weave the cloth. My old mistress -- Miss Fannie -- used to go to the
woods and get things to dye the cloth. She would dye some blue and some red.
"Only song I 'member is Dixie. I heered talk of some others but God knows I never fooled with 'em.
"Yes'm I believes in hants. Let me tell you something. My mama seen my daddy after he been dead a long time. He
come right up through the crack by the fireplace and he said 'Don't you be afraid Emmaline' but she was agoin'.
They had to sing and pray in the house 'fore my mama would go back but she never seen him again.
"I'se been blind now for three years and I lives with my grand-daughter but lady, I'll tell you the truth -- I been
around. Yes, madam, I is."
Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
