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Forrest City, Arkansas
Age 70 plus
"I was born in Poplar Grove, Arkansas on Col. Bibbs' place. Mama was sold twice. Once she was sold in Georgia,
once in Alabama, and brought to Tennessee, later to Arkansas. Master Ben Hode brought her to Arkansas. She had
ten children and I'm the only one living. Mama was a dancing woman. She could dance any figure. They danced in
the cabins and out in the yards.
"The Yankees come one day to our house and I crawled under the house. I was scared to death. They called me out.
I was scared not to obey and seared to come on out. I come out. They didn't hurt me. Mr. Ben Hode hid a small
trunk of money away. He got it after the War. The slaves never did know where it was hid. They said the hair was
on the trunk he hid his money in. It was made out of green hide for that purpose.
"Mama had a slave husband. He was a field hand and all kind of a hand when he was needed. Mama done the
sewing for white and black on the place. She was a maid. She could cook some in case they needed her. She died
first. Papa's foot got hurt some way and it et off. He was so old they couldn't cure it. He was named Alfred Hode.
Mama was Viney Hode. She said they had good white folks. They lived on Ben Hode's place two or three years
after freedom.
"I farmed, cooked, and ironed all my life. I don't know how to do nothing else.
"I live with my daughter. I got a son."
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
