|
|
Hazen, Arkansas
(Very very black Negro woman)
Age 61
"My mother was Hulda Williams. Grandpa was Jack Williams. Her mistress was a widow woman in slavery times.
They lived in Louisiana. I was born close to Bastrop in Morehouse Parich. My father died when I was ten years old.
He was old. I was a child. Things look different to you then you know. Grandys was Hannsen Terry, grandon Aggie
Terry. They called pa Major Terry but he belong to Bill Talbet. Hansan Terry was a free man. He molded his own
money. He died in South Carolina. Pa come from Edgefield, South Carolina to Alabama. Stayed there while then
cows on to Louisiana. He slipped off from his master. Between South Carolina and Louisiana he walked forty miles.
He rode all the other time. My folks always farmed.
"Times have been getting some better all along since I was a chile. Times is a heap better now then I ever seen in
my life. The young man depends on their wives to cook and make a living. They don't work much --- none of em.
We old niggars doin' the washin' and the young woman doin' cookin' and easy jobs. None of the man ain't workin' to
do no good. A few months in the year ain't no workin'.
"I get commodities. I owns this house now. I bout paid it out. I washes three washin's a week. The rest of the time I
pieces up quilts for myself. I need cover."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
