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25th and Texas Streets, Pine Bluff, Ark.
Age 79
"I don't know exactly how old I am but I know I was here at surrender. I was born in Mississippi. I seen the soldiers
after they come home. They camped right there at our gate.
"I think -- now I don't know, but I think I was bout six or seven when they surrendered. I went down to the gate
with Miss Sally and the children. Old mistress' name was Sally Stanton. She was a widow woman.
"I learned to knit durin' the war. They'd give me a task to do, so much to do a day, and then I'd have all evenin' to
play.
"My father was a mechanic. He laid brick and plaster. You know in them days they plastered the houses. He
belonged to old man Frank Scott. He was such a good worker Mr. Scott would give him all the work he could after
he was free. That was in Mississippi.
"I went to school right smart after freedom. Fore freedom the white folks learned me my ABC's. My mistress was
good and kind to me.
"When we went down to the gate to see the soldiers, I heard Miss Judy say (she was old mistress' sister). I heard her
say, 'Well, you let em beat you' and started cryin'. I cried too and mama said, 'What you cryin' for?' I said, 'Miss
Judy's cryin'.' Mama said, 'You fool, you is free!' I didn't know what freedom was, but I know the soldiers did a lot
of devilment. Had guards but they just run over them guards.
"I think Abraham Lincoln wanted to give the people some land after they was free, but they didn't give em nothin' --
just turned em loose.
"Course we ought to be free -- you know privilege is worth everything.
"After surrender my mother stayed with old mistress till next year. She thought there wasn't nobody like my mother.
When she got sick old mistress come six miles every day to see her and brought her things till she died.
"My mother learned to weave and spin and after we was free the white folks give her the com. I know I made a
many a yard of cloth after surrender. My mother was a seamstress and she learned me how to sew.
"I never did hire out -- just worked at home. My mother had six boys and six girls and they're all dead but me and
my sister.
"Somebody told me I was twenty-five when I married. Had three children -- all livin'.
"I used to see the white folks lookin' at a map to see where the soldiers was fightin' and I used to wonder how they
could tell just lookin' at that paper.
"Old mistress said after freedom, 'Now, Susa, I don't want you to suffer for nothin.' I used to go up there and stay
for weeks at a time.
"I just got down with rheumatism here bout three or four years ago, and you know it goes hard with me -- I always
been used to workin' all my life."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
