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Helena, Arkansas
Age______
"Mother come to Helena, Arkansas from Lake Charles, Louisiana. I was born here since freedom. She had twelve
children, raised us two. She jus' raised me on my sister. She lives down the street on the corner. She was a teacher
here in Helena years and years. I married a doctor. I never had to teach long as he lived, then I was too old. I never
keered 'bout readin' and books. I rather tomboy about. Then I set up housekeepin'. I don't know nothin' 'bout slavery.
I know how they come here. Two boats named Tyler and Bragg. The Yankees took 'em up and brought 'em up to
their camps to pay them to wait on them. They come. Before 'mancipation my memmy and daddy owned by the
very same old fellar, Thomas Henry McNeil. He had a big two-story stone house and big plantation. Mother said
she was a field hand. She ploughed. He treated 'em awful bad. He overworked 'em. Mother said she had to work
when she was pregnant same as other times. She said the Yankees took the Lantry house and cleaned it up. They
broke in it. I'm so glad the Yankees come. They so pretty. I love 'em. Whah me? I can tell 'em by the way they talk
and acts. You ain't none. You don't talk like 'em. You don't act like 'em. I watched you yeste'd'y. You don't walk like
'em. You act like the rest of these southern women to me.
"Mother said a gang of Yankees come to the quarters to haul the children off and they said, 'We are going to free
you all. Come on.' She said, 'My husband in the field.' They sont fer 'im. He come hard as he could.
They loaded men and all on them two gunboats. The boat was anchored south of Tom Henry McNeill's plantation.
He didn't know they was gone. When they got here old General Hindman had forty thousand back here in the hills.
They fired in. The Yankees fired! The Yankees said they was goin' to drive 'em back and they seared 'em out of here
end give folks that brought in them gunboat houses to live in. Manny went to helping the Yankees. They paid her.
That was 'fore freedom. I loves the Yankees. General Hindman's house was tore down up there to build that
schoolhouse (high school). The Yankees said they was goin' to water their horses in the Mississippi River by twelve
o'clock or take hell. I know my mammy and daddy wasn't skeered 'cause the Yankees taking keer of 'em and they
was the ones had the cannons and gunboats too. I jus' love the Yankees fer freeing us. They run white folks outer
the houses and put colored folks in 'em. Yankees had tents here. They fed the colored folks till little after
'mancipation. When the Yankees went off they been left to root hog er die. White folks been free all der lives. They
got no need to be poor. I went to school to white teachers. They left here, folks didn't do 'em right. They set 'em off
to theirselves. Wouldn't keep 'em, wouldn't walk 'bout wid 'em. They wouldn't talk to 'em. The Yankees sont 'em
down here to egercate us up wid you white folks. Colored folks do best anyhow wid black folks' children. I went to
Miss Carted and to Mrs. Mason. They was a gang of 'em. They bo'ded at the hotel, one of the hotels kept 'em all.
They stayed 'bout to theirselves. 'Course the white folks had schools, their own schools.
"Ku Klux--They dressed up and come in at night, beat up the men 'bout here in Helena. Mammy washed and ironed
here in Helena till she died. I never did do much of that kinder work. I been housekeeping purty near all my days.
"Mammy was Fannie Thompson in Richmond, Virginia. She was took to New Orleans on a boat and sold. Sold in
New Orleans. She took up wid Edmond Clark. Long as you been going to school don't you know folks didn't have
no marryin' in slavery times? I knowed that. They never did marry and lived together all their lives. Preacher
married me--colored preacher. My daddy, Edmond Clark, said McNeil got him at Kentucky.
"I done told you 'nough. Now what are you going to give me? The gover'ment got so many folks doin' so much you
can't tell what they after. Wish I was one of 'em.
"The present times is tough. We ain't had no good times since dem banks broke her. Three of 'em. Folks can't get no
credit. Times ain't lack day used to be. No use talking 'bout this young generation. One day I come in my house
from out of my flower garden. I fell to sleep an' I had $17.50 in little glass on the table to pay my insurance. It was
gone when I got up. I put it in there when I lay down. I know it was there. It was broad open daytime. Folks steals
and drinks whiskey and lives from hand to mouth now all the time. I sports my own self. Ain't nobody give me
nothin' since the day I come here. I rents my houses and sells flowers."
This old woman lives in among the white population and rents the house next to her own to a white family. The lady
down at the corner store said she tells white people, the younger ones, to call her Mrs. Krump. She didn't pull that
on me. She once told this white lady storekeeper to call her Mrs. No one told me about her, because the lady said
they all know she is impudent talking. She is old, black, wealthy, and arrogant. I passed her house and spied her.
Name of Interviewer Mrs. W. M. Ball
Subject Folk Tales,
Story:
One of the favorite folk songs sung to the children of a half contury age was "Run Nigger Run, or the Patty Roll
Will Get You." Few of the children of today have ever heard this humorous ditty, and would, perhaps, be ignorant
of its meaning. To the errant negro youths of slave times, however, this tune had a significant, and sometimes tragic,
meaning. The "patty rolls" were guards hired by the plantations to keep the slaves from running away. The
following story is told by an ex-slave:
"When I wux a boy, dere was lotsa Indians livin' about six miles frum de plantation on which I was a slave. De
Indians allus held a big dance ever' few months, an' all de niggers would try to attend. On one ob dese osten'tious
occasions about 50 of us niggers conceived do idea of goin', without gettin' permits frum de Mahster. As soon as it
gets dark, we quietly slips outen de quarters, one by one, so as not to disturb de guards. Arrivin' at de dance, we
jined de festivities wid a will. Late dat nite one ob de boys was goin' down to de spring fo' to get a drink ob water
when he notice somethin' movin' in de bushes. Gettin' up closah, he look' again when - Lawd hab mercy! Patty
rollers! A whole bunch ob 'em! Breathless, de nigger comes rushin' back, and broke de sad news. Dem niggers was
scared 'mos' to death, 'cause dey knew it would mean 100 lashes fer evah las' one ob dem effen dey got caught.
After a hasty consultation, Sammy, de leader, suggested a plan which was agreed on. Goin' into de woods, we cuts
several pieces of grape vine, and stretches it across de pathway, where we knowed de patty rollers would hab to
come, tien' it to trees on both sides. One ob de niggers den starts down de trail whistlin' so as to 'tract de patty rollers
'tention, which he she did, fo' here dey all cum, runnin' jus' as hard as dey could to keep
Name of Interviewer Mrs. W. M, Ball
Subject Folk Tales.
Story: (Centinued)
dem niggers ffum gettin' away. As de patty rollers hit de grape vine, stretched across de trail, dey jus' piles up in one
big heap. While all dis commotion wus goin' on, us niggers makes fo' de cotton fiel' nearby, and wends our way
home. We hadn' no more'n got in bed, when de mahster begin knockin' on de door. "Jim", he yell, "Jim, open up de
deah!" Jim gets up, and opens de doah, an de mahster, wid several more men, comes in de house. "Wheres all de
niggers?" he asks. "Dey's all heah," Jim says. De boss walks slowly through de house, countin' de niggers, an' sho'
nuf dey was all dere. "Mus' hab been Jim Dixon's negroes," he says finally.
"Yes, suh, Cap'n, dey was a lot happen in dem times dat de mahsters didn't know nuthin' about."
Information given by Preston Kyles
Place of Residence 800 Bleck, Laurel St., Terafkana, Ark.
Occupation Minister, (Age) 81
Name of Interviewer Cecil Copeland
Subject Apparition and Will-o'-the-Wisp.
Story Information:
The negro race is peculiarly susceptible to hallucinations. Most any old negro can recall having had several
experiences with "de spirits." Some of these apperitions were doubtless real, as the citizens during Reconstruction
Days employed various methods in keeping the negro in subjection. The organizers of the Ku Klux Klan, shortly
after the Civil War, recognized and capitalized on the superstitions nature of the negro. This weakness in their
character doubtless prevented much bloodahad during this hestie period.
The following is a story as told by a venerable ermslave in regard to the "spirits":
"One day, when I was a young man, me an' a nigger, by de name ov Henry, was huntin' in an' old field. In de days
bear, deer, turkey, and squirrels was plentiful an' 'twant long befo' we had kilt all we could carry. As we was startin'
home some monstrous thing riz up right smack dab in front ov us, not more'n 100 feet away. I asked Henry: "Black
Boy, does yo see whut I see?" an' Henry say, "Nigger I hopes ye' don't see whut I see, 'cause dey ain't no such man."
But dere it stood, wid its sleeves gently flappin' in de wind. Ovah 8 feet tall, it was, an' all dressed in white. I yells at
it, "Whut does yo' want?" but it didn't say nuthin'. I yells some me' but it jus' stands there, not movin' a finger.
Grabbin' de gun, I takes careful aim as' cracks down on 'em, but still he don't move. Henry, thinkin' maybe I was too
seared to shoot straight, say: "Nigger, gib me dat gun!" I gibs Henry de gun but it don't take but one shot to
convince him dat he ain't shootin' at any mortal bein'. Throwin' down de gun, Henry say, "Nigger, lots get away
frum dis place," which it sho' didn't take us long to do."
Information given by&Preston Eyles / Occupation: Minister
Place of Residence 800 Block, Laurel St., Texarkana. Ark.(Age)81
Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
