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Marvall and Palestine, Arkansas
Age 67
"I was born close to Macon, Georgia. Mama's old mistress, Miss Mari (Maree) Beth Woods, brung her there from
fifteen miles outer Atlanta.
"After emancipation Miss Mari Beth's husband got killed. A horse kicked him to death. It shyed at something and it
run in front of the horse. He held the horse so it couldn't run. It kicked the foot board clean off, kicked him in the
stomach. His boy crawled out of the buggy. That's the way we knowed how it happened. She didn't hurt the boy.
His name was Benjamin Woods.
"Pa went to war with his master and he never come back to mame. She never heard from him after freedom. He got
captured and got to be a soldier and went 'way off. She didn't never know if he got killed or lost his way back home.
"Mama cooked and kept up the house. Miss Mari Beth kept a boarding house in Macon till way after I was a big
girl. I stood on a box and washed dishes and dried them for mama.
"Mr. Ben was grown when we come to Arkansas. He got his ma to go to Kentucky with him and I heard about
Arkansas. Me and mama come to Palestine. We come in a crowd. A man give us tickets and we come by our lone
salves till we got to Tennessee. A big crowd come from Dyersburg. Tennessee. Ma got to talking and found out we
was headed fo' the same place in Arkansas.
"Ma talked a whole heap at times more 'an others (times) about slavery times. Her master didn't take on over her
much when he found out she was a barran woman. The old man Crumpton give her to his youngest daughter, Miss
Mari Beth. She always had to do all kinds of work and house turns.
"After mama's slavery husband didn't come back and she was living in Macon, she fell in love with another man and
I was a picked-up baby. Mama said Miss Mari Beth lost faith in her when I was born but she needed her and kept
her on. Said seem like she thought she was too old to start up when she never had children when her papa owned
her. They didn't like me. She said she could trust mama but she didn't know my stock. He was a black men. Mama
was black as I is.
"Miss Mari Beth had a round double table. The top table turned with the victuals on it. I knocked flies three times a
day over that table.
"I never had a store-bought dress in my life till mama bought me one at Madison, Arkansas. I wanted a pure white
dress. She said if we made a good crop she was going to give me a dress. All the dresses I over had was made out of
Miss Mari Beth's dresses but I never had a pure white one. I never had one bought for me till I was nearly grown. I
was so proud of it. When I would go and come back, I would pull it off and put it away. I wore it one summer white
and the next summer I blued it and had a new dress. I had a white dress nearly every year till I got too old to dress
up gay now. I got a white bonnet and apron I wears right now.
"Mama said Master Crumpton bought up babies to raise. She was taken away from her folks so soon she never
heard of them. Aunt Mat raised her up in Atlanta and out on his place. He had a place in town but kept them on a
place in the country. He had a drove of them. He hired them out.
He hired mama once to a doctor, Dr. Willbanks. Mama said old master thought she would learn how to have
children from him the reason he sent her there so much. When they had big to-dos old master sent mama over there.
She never seen no money till about freedom. She loved to get hired out to be off from him. They all had young
babies about but her. He was cross and her husband was cross. She had pleasure hired out. She said he didn't whoop
much. He stamped his foot. They left right now.
"I hab three girls living; one here (Palestine), one at Marvell, and one in St. Louis. My youngest girl teaches music
at a big colored school. She sends me my money and I lives with these girls. I been up there and I sure don't aim to
live in no city old as I is. It's too dangerous slow as I got to be and so much racket I never slept a night I was there. I
was there a month. She brung me home and I didn't go back.
"I cooked and washed and ironed and worked in the field. I do some work yet. I helps out where I am.
"The times is better I think from accounts I hear. This generation all living too fast er lives. They don't never be still
a minute."
(Pine Bluff District)
Name of Interviewer Martin & Barker
Subject Ex-Slaves - Slavery Times
My folks lived in S. Carolina and belonged to Col. Bob Baty and his family.
If I should lay down tonight I could tell when my folks were going to die, because the Lawd would tell me in a
vision.
Just before my grandmother died, I got up one morning and told my aunt that granma was dead. Aunt said she did
not want me telling lies.
Then I saw another aunt laying on the bed, and she had her hand under her jaw. She was smiling. The house was
full of people. After awhile they heard that her aunt was dead too, and after that they paid attention to me when I
told them somebody was going to die.
I'se a member of the Holiness Church. I believes step up right and keep the faith.
I seen my aunt walking up and down on a glass. The Lawd tells me in a vision to step right up and see the faith.
I am living in Jesus. He is coming to Pine Bluff soon. He is going to separate the lions from the sheep.
I was born in slavery times. I member folks riding around on horses.
This Information given by Maggie Perkins
Place of Residence W. 6th. St.
Them days I used to wash my mistis feet and legs, and sometimes I would fall asleep against my mistis knees. I tells
the young fry to give honor to the white folks, and my preacher tell'em to obey the white folks, dat dey are our best
friends, dey is our dependence and it would be hard getting on if we didn't have em to help us.
Spirits - Me and my husband moved into a house that a man, "uncle Bill" Hearn died in, and we wanted dat house
so bad we moved right in as soon as he was taken out, we ate supper and went to bed.
By the time we got to sleep we heard sounds like someone was emptying shelled corn, and I hunched up under my
husband scared to death and then moved out the next day. The dead haven't gone to Heaven. When death comes, he
comes to your heart. He has your number and knows where to find you. He won't let you off, he has the key.
Death comes and unlocks the heart and twists the breath out of that heart and carries it back to God.
Nobody has gone to Heaven, no one can get pass Jesus until the day of his redemption, which is judgement day.
We can't pass the door without being judged. On the day of ressurection the trumpet will sound and us will wake up
out of he graveyard, and come forth to be judged. The sea shall give up its dead. Every nation will have to appear
before God and be judged in a twinklin of an eye. If you aren't prepared before Jesus comes, it will be too late. God
is everywhere, he is the almight. God is a nice God, he is a clean God, he is a good God. I would be afraid to tell
you a lie for God would strike me down.
Eight years ago I couldn't see, I wore specs 3 years. I forgot my specs one morning. I prayed for my eyesight and it
was restored that morning.
Our marster was a good man. De overseers sometimes was bad, but dey did not let marsters know how dey treated
their girl slaves.
My grandmother was whipped by de overseers one time, it made welts on her back. My sister Mary had a child by a
white man.
To get joy in de morning, get up and pray and ask Him to bless you. God will feed all alike, he is no respector of
persons. He shows no extra favors twixt de rich and de poor.
Interviewer Bernice Bowden"
