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1216 Oak Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 76
"Good morning. I don't know anybody 'round here that was born in slavery times 'cept me. I don't know exactly
when I was born in Georgia but I can remember my mama said her old master, Mat Fields, sent my father and all the
other man folks to Arkansas the second year of the war. After the war, I remember there was a colored man named
Mose come from Mississippi to Georgia and told the colored folks they could shake money off the trees in
Mississippi. Of course they was just ignorant as cattle and they believed him. I know I thought what a good time I
would have. I can remember seeing old master crying cause his colored folks all leaving, but Mose emigrated all of
us to Mississippi.
"He kept emigrating folks over there till he like to got killed. The white people give him a stayaway and told him
not to come back, but he sure did get some colored folks out of Georgia.
"I 'member they said the war was to free the niggers. They called it the Civil War. I never did know why they called
it that. I can't 'member things like I used to.
"My mother's old master's granddaughter, Miss Anne, had a baby that was six months old when I was born end
mama said old master come in and tell Miss Ann, 'I've got a new little nigger for Mary Lou.' He said he was goin' to
give her ten and that I was her first little nigger. When we was both grown Mary Lou used to write to me once a
year and say 'I claim you yet, Mary.'
"I 'member when Garfield was shot. That was the first time I ever heard of gangrene.
"Yes'm I have worked hard all my life. When I was in Mississippi I used to make as much as ten dollars a week
washin' and ironin'. But I'm not able to work now. The Welfare helps me some."
(Mrs. Mildred Thompson, El Dorado Division, Federal Writers' Project, Union County, Arkansas., (COPY), 6 Nov
1936, FOLXLORE SUBJECTS (Ex-Slave))
Ellen Crowley an old Negross of Jefferson county, known as "old Aunt Ellen" to both white and colored people.
She was quite a character; a slave during Civil War and lived in Mississippi. She later married and moved to
Arkansas.
Aunt Ellen was much feared and also respected by the colored race owing to the fact that she could foretell the
future and cast a spell on those she didn't like. This unusual talent "come about" while on a white plantation as a
nurse. She foretold of a great sorrow that would fall on her white folks and in the year two children passed away.
One day soon after she was being teased by a small negro boy to whom she promptly put the 'curse' on and in later
years he was subject to "fits."
She said she was "purty nigh" 200 when asked her age, always slept in the nude, and on arising she would say: "I
didn't sleep well last night, the debil sit at my feet and worried my soul" or vice versa "I had a good rest the Lord sit
at my head and brought me peace."
She was immaculate about her person and clothes and always wore a red bandana around her head.
Her mania was to clean the yard. When asked about her marriage she would say: "I been married seven times but
Jones, Brown and Crowley were the only husbands she could remember by name. She said the other "four no count
Negroes wasn't worth remembering."
She was ever faithful to those she worked for, and was known to walk ten and twelve miles to see her white folks
with whom she had work. Would come in and say: "Howdy, I'se come to stay awhile. I'll clean the yard for my
victuals and I can sleep on the floor." She would go on her way in a few days leaving behind a clean yard and
pleasant memories of a faithful servant.
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
