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812 Spruce Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 79
"Yes'm, I was born in slavery times in Mississippi. Now, the only thing I remember was some soldiers come along
on some mules. I remember my mother and father was sittin' on the gallery and they say, 'Look a there, them's
soldiers.'
"And I remember when my parents run off. I was with 'em and I cried for 'em to tote me.
"My mother's first owner was named Armstrong. She said she was about eleven years old when he bought her. I
heard her say they just changed around a lot.
"Freedom was comin' and her last owners had carried her to a state where it hadn't come yet. That's right---it was
Texas.
"Her first owners was good. She said they wouldn't 'low the overseer to 'buke the women at all.
"But her last owners was cruel. She said one day old missis was out in the yard and backed up and fell into a pen of
hot water and when her husband come she told him and he tried to 'buke my mother. You know if somebody tryin'
to get the best of you and you can help yourself, you gwine do it. So name throwed up her arm and old master hit it
with a stick and cut it bed. So my parents run off. That was in Texas.
"She said we was a year comin' back and I know they stopped at the Dillard place and made a crop. And they lost
one child on the way---that was Kittie.
"I heard mama say they got back here to Arkansas and got to the bureau and they freed 'em. I know the War wasn't
over yet 'cause I know I heard mama say, 'Just listen to them gune at Vicksburg.'
"When I was little, I was so sickly. I took down with the whoopin' cough and I was sick so long. But mama say to
the old woman what stayed with me, 'This gal gwine be here to see many a winter 'cause she so stout in the jaws I
can't give her no medicine.'
"When I commenced to remember anything, I heered 'em talkin' 'bout Grant and Colfax. Used to wear buttons with
Grant and Colfax.
"But I was livin' in Abraham Lincoln's time. Chillun them days didn't know nothin'. Why, woman, I was twelve
years old 'fore I knowed babies didn't come out a holler log. I used to go 'round lookin' in logs for a baby.
"I had seven sisters and three brothers and they all dead but me. Had three younger than me. They was what they
called freeborn chillun.
"After freedom my parents worked for Major Ross. I know when mama fixed us up to go to Sunday-school we'd go
by Major Ross for him to see us. I know we'd go so early, sometimes he'd still be in his drawers.
"I know one thing---when I was about sixteen years old things was good here. Ever'body had a good living."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
