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3704 W. Twelfth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age 83
"I was born in october 1844, in hashville, Arkansas. I don't remember the exact day. I have want through thick and
thin. I was a small girl when my mother died. I got the rhoumatism so bad I can't hardly walk. It hurts me now. My
oldest brother. Henry Briggs, was five years older than me, and my youngest brother, Isaac Briggs, was five years
younger than me. I was born October, but he was born at Christmas Eve just after surrender. My oldest brother died
lest year. My youngest brother is in Galveston, Texas. If he is living, he is there. My name was Briggs before I
married. I was just studying about my sister-in-law when you come up. If I could get the money, I would go to see
her. She was my oldest brother's wife. Her name was Frances Briggs after she married. She lives in Emmet,
Arkansas, where he married her. I just had two brothers, no sisters.
"My husband's name was Henry Thompson. He has been dead about twelve or thirteen years. I have had so much
sickness I can't remember exactly. I married him a long time ago. I got it put down in the Bible. I married yonder in
Emmet, Arkansas. I ain't got the Bible nor nothing. My brother had it and he is dead.
"My father's name was Daniel Briggs. He died in Hot Springs. We were small children when he and my mother was
seperated. He was in one place and we were in another. He tried to get us children when he died, but we was little
and couldn't get to him. My mother was dead than.
"My mother's name was Susanna Briggs. Her father's name was Isaac Betz. The children left him in South Carolina.
The white folks sold them away from him. My mother just had three children: me, and my two brothers. I don't
know how many my grandfather had. There were four sisters that I know besides my mother and two boys: Aunt
Melissa, and Aunt Jane, and Annt Annie, and Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Albert Mitchell, and Uncle Ben. My
grandmother's name was Betsy. I never got to see her but they told me about her.
"I have heard them say that their white folks didn't whip them. My Master was a good man. My young master, when
it come to the surrender, slipped back home and told them they was going to be free as ever he was. is name was Joe
Mitchell. I never seed my white folks whip anybody in my life. They just never whipped anybody. They never
whipped me. I have seen he white folks next to us whip their Negroes and I asked grandma about it. He said that
those were their Negroes and she would explain what they was being whipped for. They was on another farm. I
don't remember what they was being whipped for.
"My young master told the slaves when he notified them they was free that if they didn't want to stay with him, he
would give them enough to go till they could make it, you know, to keep them from starving. He was a od man.
"The old man, Joe's father, was named Thomas Mitchell. He died before was born. I never seed him, just knowed
his name. Joe's mother was named Isabel Mitchell. I came to be named Briggs because her husband's name was
Briggs. He belonged to a Briggs. I don't know what his name was else. Dey didn't belong to the same master. They
used to let them marry.
They would fix great big tables. Sometimes they would marry in the house; that was in the winter. Then sometimes
they would marry outdoors. Then they would set a long table for all their associates to eat just like you would fix a
table for your friends. Looked like they would be so glad to see their boys and girls marry. They would have regular
preacher and marry just like they do now.
"There wasn't no breeders on our place. But I have heard of people who did keep a woman just for that purpose.
They never whipped her nor nothing. They just let her have children. As soon as she had one, they would take it
away from her so that she could have another one right away.
"When my young master was gone to the War and the jayhawkers would come around, my young master's mother
would take all the colored women and children and lock them up and she would take a big heavy gun and go out to
let them. The jayhawkers were white people who would steal corn and horses and even slaves if they could get
them. But colored folks was sharp. They would do things to break their horses' legs and they would run and hids.
My uncle was a young boy. He saw the jayhawkers coming once. And he ran and pressed himself under the crib.
The space was so small he nearly broke his ribs. His mistress had to get him out and take him to the house.
"My grandmother used to take me with her after dark when she'd go out to pray. She wouldn't go anywhere without
me. One time when she was out praying, I touched her and said to her that I heard something in the corn crib. She
cut her prayer off right now and went and told it to her old nistress, and to the young master, who was in the house
just then telling the Negroes they were all going to be free. The jayhawkers spied us and they got out and went on
their way. My young master crawled out and at back to the Confederate army. He had to crawl out because he
wanted to stop anybody from seeing him and capturing him.
"I never seed but one or two soldiers. That was after the surrender. suppose they were Union soldiers. They had on
their blue jackets. There never was any fighting in Nashville, while I was living there.
"About all that I knew about the War was that the man went off to fight. None of the colored men went---just the
white men. The colored men stayed back and worked in the field. Isabel Mitchell and her boys were bosses. What
they said goed.
"The slaves lived in old log houses. Some of them were plank houses. Some of the slaves chinked 'em up with dirt.
They had these big wooden windows in the houses. Sometimes they would be two, sometimes they would be three
windows---one to each room. There would be two or three or four rooms the house. That would be according to the
family. My mother had three girls besides her own children. She had a four-room house. Her house was built right
in the white folks' yard. My grandmother didn't work in the ld. She tended to the children. She worked in the big
house. My mother boss of the whole thing. She would go and work in the field but grand??her would see after the
children. She wouldn't let me go from her to the gate without her. I just had to follow her everywhere she want.
"Grandmother besides taking care of us used to make clothes. She cooked the white folks. But she sure had to see
after us children. I seed after myself. I was all the girl-child there and I just did what I wanted to.
"The country was kind of wild in those days. The deer used to come loping down and we would be scared and run
and hide. Some people would set the dogs on them and some people would kill them no matter who they belonged.
You see, some people had them as pets.
"I never seed nothing in the way of amnsements except people going to church and going to parties and all such as
that. They believed in going to church. They would have parties at night. The white folks didn't care what they had.
They would help prepare for it. They would let 'em have anything they wanted to have and let 'em go to church
whenever they wanted to go. And if they took a notion they would have a supper. When they would have a party
they would do just like they do now. They would have dancing. I never seed any playing cards. When they danced,
somebody would play the fiddle for them. When they had a supper, they would usually sell the things. Then the
white folks would come and buy from then. There would be nice looking things on the table.
"They had meetings at Center Point, and at Arkadelphia. And they would let us go to them or anywhere else we
wanted. We had to have passes, of course. They had colored preachers. Sometimes the slaves would go to the white
people's church. They wouldn't go often, just every once in awhile. White ladies would get after the colored to come
and go with them sometimes. Sometimes, too, when they would have a dinner or something, they would take Aunt
Sue or mother to cook for them. They wouldn't let nobody meddle with them or bother them---none of the other
white folks. And they would let them fix a table for their own friends that they would want to have along.
"I used to work in the field or in the house or anything I could get to I would even go out and saw these big rails
when my husband would have a job and couldn't get a chance to do it. It has been a good while since I have been
able to do any good work. My husband has been dead fifteen years I had to quit work long before he died.
"Right after the War my folks worked in the field, washed, cooked, or thing they could do. They left the old place
and came down about Washington, Arkansas. I don't know just how long they stayed in Washington. From
Washington, my mother went to Prescott and settled there at a little place they called Sweet Home, just outside of
Prescott. That is where my daughter was born and that is where my mother died. I came here about nine years ago.
"I came here to stay with my daughter. But now she doesn't have any help herself. She has three small children and
she's their only support now. She's not working either. She just come in from the Urban League looking for a job.
They say that they don't have a thing and that the people don't want any women now. They just want these young
girls because they make them work cheaper. We have both applied for help from the Welfare but neither of us has
gotten anything yet."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
