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Clarksville, Arkansas
Age 83
"I was born in North Carolina and come South with my white folks. They was trying to git out of the war and run
right into it. My mother died when I was a baby. I don't remember my mother no more than you do. I left my white
folks. When I was 14 years old, we lived out in the country. They was willing to keep me but after the war they was
so poor. The girls told me if I could come to town and find work I had botter do it. Two of them come nearly to
town with me. They told me I was free to come to town and live with the colored folks. I didn't know what it meant
to be free. I was just as free as I wanted to be with my white folks. When I got to town I stayed with your aunt while
then she sent me down to stay with your grandma. A white girl who lived with them, like one of the family, learned
me how to cook and iron. I knew how to wash.
"I don't know anything about the present generation. I ain't been able to git out for the last year or two. I think I
broke my foot, for I had to go on cutches a long time.
"The white folks always sung but I don't know what they sung. I didn't pay no tention to it than."
Interviewer Mies Irese Robertson"
