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1320 W. Twentieth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age About 82
"I never saw nothing between white folks and colored folks. My white folks were good to us. My daddy's white
folks were named Jordan---Jim Jordan---and my mama's folks were Jim Underwood. And they were good. My
mama's and father's folks both were good to the colored folks. As the song goes, 'I can tell it everywhere I go.' And
thank the Lord, I'm here to tell it too. I raised children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren you see there. That is
my great-grandson playing there. He is having the time of his life. I raised him right too. You see how good he
minds me. He better not do nothin' different. He's about two years old.
"I was born in Union Parish, Louisiana way up yonder in them hills, me and my folks, and they come down here.
"Jim Jordan married one of the Taylor girls---Jim Taylor's daughter. The old folks gave mama to them to do their
housework. My father and mama didn't belong to the same masters. He died the first year of the surrender. He was a
wonderful man. He was a Jackson. On Saturday night he would stay with us till Sunday. On Sunday night he would
go home. He would play with us. Now he and mama both are dead. They are gone home and I am waiting to go.
They're waiting for me in the kingdom there. As the song says, 'I am waiting on the promises of God.'
"My mama did housework in slave time. I don't know what my father did. In them days you done some working
from plantation to plantation. Them folks is all gone in now near about. Guess mine will be the next time.
"First thing I remember is staying at the house. We et at the white folks' house. We would go there in the evening
before sundown and git our supper. One time Jim Underwood made me mad. Mama said something he didn't like.
And he tied her thumbs together and tied them to a limb. Her feet could touch the ground---they weren't off the
ground. He said she could stay there till she thought better of it.
"Before the surrender I didn't do nothing in the line of work 'cept 'tend to my mother's children. I didn't do no work
at all 'cept that. My white folks were good to me. All my folks 'cept me are gone. My grandmas and uncles and
things all settin' up yonder. All my children what is dead, they're up yonder. I ain't got but three living, and they're
on their way. Minnie and Mamie and Annie, that is all I got. Mamie's the youngest and she's got grandchildren.
"The way we learned that freedom had come, my uncle come to the fence and told my mama we were free and I
went with her. Sure he'd been to the War. He come back with his budget. Don't you know what a budget is? You
ain't never been to war, have you? Well, you oughter know what a budget is. That's a knapsack. It had a pocket on
each side and a water can on each shoulder. He come home with his budget on his back, and he come to the fence
and told mama we was free and I heered him.
"Right after freedom my mama and them stayed with the same people they had been with. The rest of the people
scattered wherever they wanted to go. But my uncle come there and got mama. They moved back to the Taylors
then where my grandma was. Wouldn't care if I had some of that good old spring water now where my grandma
lived!
"None of my people were ever bothered by the pateroles or the Ku Klux.
"We come to Arkansas because we had kinfolks down here. Just picked up and come on. I been here a long time. I
don't know how long, I don't keep up with nothing like that. When my husband was living I just followed him. He
said that this was a good place and we could make a good living. So I just come on. When he died, those
gravediggers dug his grave deep enough to put another man on top of him. But that don't hurt him none. He's settin'
in the kingdom. He was a deacon in the church and his word went. The whole plantation would listen to him and do
what he said. Everybody respected him because he was right. I was just married once and no man can take his place.
He was the first one and the best one and the last one. He was heaven bound and he went on there. I don't know just
how long I was married. It is in the Bible. It is in there in big letters. I can't get that right now. It's so big and heavy.
But it's in there. I think we left it in Detroit when I was there, and it ain't come back here yet. But I know we lived
together a long time.
"I remember the old slave-time songs but I can't think of them just now. 'Come to Jesus' is one of them. 'Where shall
I be when the first trumpet sounds?', that's another one. Another one is: 'If I could, I surely would; Set on the rock
where Moses stood---first verse or stanza. All of my sins been taken away, taken away---chorus. Mary wept and
Martha moaned, Mary's gone to a world unknown---second verse or stanza. All of my sins are taken away, taken
away---chorus."
"I don't think nothing 'bout these young folks. When they was turned loose a lot of them went wild and the young
folks followed their leaders. But mine followed me and my daddy.
"My grandmother had a big old bay horse and she was midwife for the white and the colored folks. She would put
her side saddle on the old horse and get up and go, bless her heart; and me and my cousin had to stay there and take
care of things. She's gone now. The Lord left me here for some reason. And I'm enjoyin' it too. I have got my first
cussin' to do. I don't like to hear nobody cuss. I belong to the church. I belong to the Baptist church and I go to the
Arch Street Church."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
