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Wheatley, Arkansas
Age 56
"I was born a few miles from Martin, Tennessee. Kama was born in Virginia. She and her sister was carried off
from the Witherspoon place and sold. She was Betty and her sister was named Addie.
"Their mama had died and some folks said they would raise them and then they sold them. She said they never did
know who it was that carried them off in a big carriage. They brought them to Nashville, Tennessee and sold them
under a big oak tree. They was tied with a home string to a hitching ring. Addie wanted to set down and couldn't.
She said, 'Betty, wouldn't our mama cry if she could see us off like this?' Mama said they both cried and cried and
when the man come to look at them he said he would buy them. They felt better and quit crying. He was such a kind
looking young man.
"They lived out from Nashville a piece then. He took them home with him, on a plank across the wagon bed. He
was Master Davy Fuller. He had a young wife and a little baby. Her name was Mistress Maude end the baby was
Carrie. She was proud of Betty and Addie. They told her their mama died. Mama said she was good to them. She
died the year of the surrender and Master Davy took them all to his mother's and his papa put them out to live with a
family that worked on his place.
"They went to see Carrie and played with her till Addie married and mama come close to Martin to live with them.
Addie took consumption and died, then mama married Frank Bane and he died and I was born.
"My pa was a white man. He was a bachelor, had a little store, and he overcome mama. She never did marry no
more. I was her only child. I don't remember the man but mama told me how she got tripped up and nearly died and
for me never to lot nobody trip me up that way. I sorter recollect the store. It burned down one night. We lived
around over there till I was sixteen years old. We moved to a few miles of Corinth, Mississippi on a farm. Mr. Cat
Medford was the manager. I got married. I married Will Bratton. We had a home wedding on Sunday evening. It
was cold and freezing and the freeze lasted over a week. Will Bratton was black as night. I had one little boy. After
mama died Will Bratton went off with another woman. He come back but the place was mine. Mama left it to me. I
wouldn't 1st him stay there. I let him go on where he pleased.
"Times been growing slacker for a long time. People live slack. Young folks coming on slacker and slacker every
day. Don't know how to do, don't want to know. They get by better 'en I did. I work in the field and I can't hardly
get by. I see folks do nothing all the time. Seem like they happy. Times is hard for some, easy for some. I want to
live in the country like I is 'cause I belongs there. I can work and be satisfied! I did own my home. I reckon I still
do. I got a little cow and some chickens."
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
