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Holly Grove, Arkansas
Age 80
"I was raised in Pulaski, Tennessee, Giles County. The post office was at one end of the town, bout half mile was
the church down at the other end. Yes'm, that way Pulaski looked when I lived there. My father's master was Peter
or Jerry Garn -- I don't know which. They brothers? Yes'm.
"My mother's master was John Wilks and Miss Betty. Mama's name was Callie Wilks and papa's name was
Freeman. Mama had seven children. She was a field hand. She said all on their place could do nearly anything. They
took turns cooking. Seems like it was a week about they took milkin', doin' house work, field work, and she said
sometimes they sewed.
"Father told my mother one day he was going to the Yankees. She didn't want him to go much. He went. They
mustered out drilling one day. He had to squat right smart. He saw some cattle in the distance looked like army way
off. He fell dead. They said it was heart disease. They brought him home and some of dem stood close to him
drillin' told her that was way it happened.
"The man what owned my mother was sorter of a Yankee hisself. We all stayed till he round up the crop. He sold
his place and went to Collyoka on the L. and N. Railway. He give us two and one-half bushels corn, three bushels
wheat, and some meat at the very first of freedom. When it played out we went and he give us more long as he
stayed there.
"When mama left she went to a new sorter mill town and cooked there till 1869. She carried me to a young woman
to nurse for her what she nursed at Mostor Wilks befo freedom. I stayed wid her till 1876. I sure does remember
dem dates. (laughed)
"Yes'm, I was nursin' for Dr. Rothrock when that Ku Klux scare was all bout. They come to our house huntin' a boy.
They didn't find him. I cover up my head when they come bout our house. Some folks they scared nearly to death. I
bein' in a strange place don't know much bout what all I heard they done.
"I don't vote. I don't know who to vote for, let people vote know how.
"I get bout $8 and some commodities. It sure do help me out too. I tell you it sure do."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
