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Clarksville, Arkansas
Age 83
"My mammie died when I was a little girl. She had three children and our white folks took us in their house and
raised us. Two of us had fever and would have died if they hadn't got us a good doctor. The doctor they had first
was a quack and we were getting worse until they called the other doctor, then we commence to get well. I don't
know how old I am. Our birthdays was down in the mistress' Bible and when the old war come up, the house was
burned and lost everything but I know I am at least 83 or 84 years old. Our white folks was so good to us. They
never whipped us, and we eat what they eat and when they eat. I was born in White County, Tennessee and moved
to Missouri but the folks did not like it there so we come to Benton County, Arkansas. One side of the road was
Benton County and the other side was Washington County but we always had to go to Bentonville, the county seat,
to tend to business. I was a little tod of a girl when the war come up. One day word come that the 'Feds' ware
coming through and kill all of the old man and take all the boys with them, so master took my brother and a
grandson of his and started South. I was so scared. I followed them about a half mile before they found me and I
begged so hard they took me with them. We went to Texas and was there about one year when the Feds gave the
woman on our place orders to leave their home. Said they owned it nov. They had just got to Texas where we was
when the South surrendered and us all come back home.
"We stayed with our white folks for about twenty years after the war. They shore was good to me. I worked for
them in the house but never worked in the field. I came across the mountain to Clarksville with a Methodist
preacher and his family and married here. My husband worked in a livery stable until he died, then I worked for the
white folks until I fell and hurt my knee and got too old. I draws my old age pension.
"I do not know about the young generation. I am old and crippled and don't go out none."
Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
