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1021 E. 11th Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 80?
"I was here in slavery times but I don't know what year I was born. War? I was in it!
"I member old master and old mistis too. I member I didn't know nothin' bout my mother and father cause it was
night when they want to work and night when they come in and we chilluns would be under the bed asleep.
"I know the white folks had a kitchen full of we chilluns. We want over to the kitchen to eat.
"My mother belonged to the Cockrills and my father belonged to the Armstrongs. They were cousins and their
plantations joined.
"I was large enough to know when they took my parents to Texas, but I didn't know how serious it was till they was
gone. I member peepin' through the crack of the fence but I didn't know they was takin' an off.
"They left me with the old doctor woman. She doctored both white and colored. I stayed there till I was fourteen
years old.
"I know we had our meals off a big wooden tray but we had wooden spoons to eat with.
"I member when they was fightin' here at Pine Bluff. I was standin' at the overseer's bell house waitin' for a doll
dress a girl had promised me and the guns was goin' just like pop guns. We didn't know what it was to take off our
shoes and clothes for six months. We was ready to run if they broke in on us.
"The Yankees had their headquarters at the big house near the river. All this was in woods till I growed up. We used
to have our picnic here.
"I was standin' right at the post when they rung the bell in the bell house when peace declared. I heered the old folks
sayin, 'We is free, we is free!'
"I know before freedom they wouldn't let us burn a speck of light at night. Had these Little iron lamps. They'd twist
wicks and put em in tallow. I don't know whether it was beef or sheep tallow but they had plenty of sheeps on the
place.
"Colonel Cockrill would have us come up to the big house every Sunday mornin' and he'd give us a apple or a stick
of candy. But them that was big enough to work wouldn't get any. They worked on Sunday too---did the washin'
every Sunday evenin'.
"Oh Lord, they had a big plantation.
"After the War I went to school some. We had white teachers from the North. I didn't get to go much except on
rainy days. Other times I had to work. I got so I could read print but I can't read writin'. I used to could but since I
been sick seems like my mind just hops off.
"After freedom my parents rented land and farmed. I stayed with the old doctor woman till I was fourteen then I
went to my parents.
"I married when I was eighteen and had five chillun. When I worked for my father he'd let us quit when we got tired
and sit under the shade bushes. But when I married I had to work harder than over. My husband was just a
run-around. He'd put in a crop and than go and leave it. Sometimes he was a constable. Finally he went off and took
up with another woman.
"I been here in Arkansas all my life except eight months I lived in St. Louis, but I didn't like it. When I was in St.
Louis I know it started to snow. I thought it was somebody pickin' geese. I said, 'What is that?' and my
granddaughter said, 'Gal, that's snow.'
"I don't know what to think of the younger generation. I think they is just goin' out to nothin'. They say they are
gettin' weaker and wiser but I think they are weaker and foolish---they are not wise in the right way. Some are very
good to their parents and some are not.
"Honey, I don't know how things is goin'---all I know is they is mighty tight right now."
Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
