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Hazen, Arkansas
Age 66
"I can tell you all about my kin folks. My mama's owners was Mare John Moore and Miss Molly Moore. They come
from Virginia and brought Grandma Mahaley and Grandpa Tom.
"Mr. Daniel Johnson went to North Carolina and bought Alice and John and their family. When he brought them to
Mississippi, they come in a hack. It was snowing and cold. It took em so long to come they take turns walkin'.
Grandma was walking long wid the hack and somewhere she cut through and climbed over a railin' fence. She lost
her baby outer her quilts and went on a mile fore she knowed bout it. She say, 'Lawd, Master Daniel, if I ain't lost
my baby.' They stopped the hack and she went back to see where her baby could be. She knowed where she got out
the back and she knowed she had the baby then. Fore she got to the fence she clum over, she seed her baby on the
snow. She said the sun was warm and he was well wrop up. That all what saved em. She shuck him round till she
woke him up. She was so seared he be froze. When he let out cryin' she knowed he be all right. She put him in the
foot of the hack mong jugs of hot water what they had to keep em warm. She say he never had a cold from it. Well,
that was John, my papa. What she lost in de snow. Grandma used to set and tell us that and way I can member it was
my own papa she be talkin' bout.
"Papa was raised up by the Johnson family and mama by the Moore family. Den Alice Moore had em marry her and
John Johnson. Their plantations joined, and joined Judge Reid's (or Reed's) place. We all had a big time on them
three farms. They was good to their niggars but Mr. ____ they said shooped his niggers awful heep.
"Ed Amick was Mars Daniel Johnson's overseer. He told him he wanted his slaves treated mighty good and they
was good. Yes ma'am, they was good to sell We had a plenty to eat. Every Saturday they killed a lamb, a goat or a
yearlin' and divided up mong his folks and the niggers. Us childen would kill a peafowl and they lot us eat ex.
White folks didn't sat em. They was tender seem like round the head.
"Miss Evaline was Mars Daniel's sister. She was a old maid. Miss Ivaline, Aunt Selie old nigger woman and Brittain
old nigger man done nothin' but raise chickens, geese, guineas, ducks, pigeons. They had a few turkeys and
peafowls all the time. When they stewed chicken it was stewed in a big black pot they kept to cook fowls in. They
fry chicken in a pot or grease then turn drap sweet biscuit broad in. They put eggs in it, too. They call it marble
cakes. Then they pour sweet milk in the bottom grease and make good gravy. When they rendered up lard they
always made marble cakes. They cut marble cakes all kind or shapes and twisted on round like knots and rings.
They take on up in big pans big as dish pens.
"We had plenty to cat and plenty flannel and cotton check dresses. Regular woman done our quiltin' and made our
dresses. She made our dresses plain waist, full gathered skirt and buttons down the backs on our waist.
"I was named for Miss Betty Johnson. Mars Daniel bought me books. I slip and tear ABC's outen every book he buy
for me. Miss Betty say A-B-C-D; I say after her. She say, 'Betty, you ain't lookin' on the book.' I say, 'Miss Betty, I
hear Miss Cornelia's baby woke up. Agin Miss Betty --- she was my young mistress --- ABC's me sayin' em long
wid her. I say, 'Miss Betty, I small ginger bread, can't I go git a piece?' She say, 'Betty --- I'm so sorry I name you
for me. I wish I named Eary.' I say, 'Then you name Mary Betty an' give me nother name.' Miss Betty git me down
agin to sayin' the ABC's, I be lookin' off. She say, 'Betty, you goin' to be a idiot.' I say, 'That what I wanter be ---
zactly what I wanter ha.' I didn't know what a idiot was then.
"I took up crocheting. Hiss Cornalia cut me some quilt pieces. She say 'Betty that's her talant' bout us. Miss Betty
say, 'If she goin' to be mine I want her to be smart.' Miss Mary lernt my sister Mary fast.
"When I was bout fifteen I was goiner to the nigger school. I wanted to go to the white school wid Miss Mag. Miss
Betty say, 'Betty, that white woman would whoop you every day.' I take my dinner in a bucket and go on wid Mary.
I'd leave fore the teacher have time to have my lesson and git in late. The teacher said, 'Betty, Miss Cornalia and
Miss Betty say they want you to be smart and you up an' run off and come in late, and do all sorts or ways. Ain't you
shamed?"
"They had a big entertainment. Miss Betty learned me a piece to say --- poetry. I could lern it from sayin' it over wid
Miss Betty. They bought me and Mary our fust calico dresses. I lack to walked myself to death. I was so proud. It
had two ruffles on the bottom of the skirt and a sash tied at the waist behind. We had red hats wid streamers hanging
down the back. The dresses was red and black small checks. Mary lernt her piece at school. We had singing and
speeches and a big dinner at the school closin".
"Mr. John Moore want to war and was killed at the beginnin' of the first battle soon as he got there. They had a
sayin, 'You won't last as long as John Moore when he want to war.' "Mr. Criss Moore was kickin' a nigger boy. Old
Miss say, 'Criss, quit kickin' him, you hurt him.' He say, 'I ain't hurtin' him, I'm playin' wid him!' White boys played
wid nigger boys when they come round the house. Glad to meet up to get to play.
"Mr. Criss Moore, Jr. (John Moore's grandson) is a doctor way up North and so is Mr. Daniel Johnson, Jr. One of
em in Washington I think. I could ask Miss Betty Carter when I go back to Mississippi.
"When I left Mississippi Mr. Criss hated to see me go. Mr. Johnson say, 'I wanted all our niggars buried on our
place.' He say to Jim, my husband, 'Now when she die you let me know and I'll help bring her back and bury her in
the old graveyard.' When my papa died Mr. Johnson had the hearse come out and get him and take him in it to the
graveyard. He was buried by name and nearly all the Johnson, Moore, and Reed (or Reid) niggers buried there. My
husband is buried here (Hazan, Arkansas) but he was a Curlett.
"Papa set out apple trees on the old Johnson place, still bearin' apples. The old farm place is forty-eight miles from
Tupelo and three miles from Houlka, Mississippi.
"My mother had eighteen children and I had sixteen but all mine dead now but three. Mama's ma and grandpapa
Haley had twenty-two children. Yes ma'am, they she did have plenty to eat. Mars Daniel say to his wife, 'Cornalia,
feed my niggers.' That bout last he said when he went off to war. Mars Green, Daniel, and Jimmie three brothers.
Three Johnson brothers buried their gold money in stone jars and iron cookin' pots fore they left and want to war.
"When the fightin' stopped, people was se glad they rung and rung the bells and blowed horns --- big old cow horns.
When Mama Daniel come home he want to my papa's house and says, 'John, you free.' He says, 'I been free as I
wanter be what I is.' He went on to my grandpa's house and says, 'Toby, you are free!' He raised up and says, 'You
brought me here frum Africa and North Carolina and I goiner stay wid you long as ever I get sumpin to eat. You
gotter look after me!' Mars Daniel say, 'Well, I ain't runnin' anybody off my place long as they behave.' Purtnigh
every nigger set tight till he died of the old sets. Mars Daniel say to grandpa, 'Toby, you ain't my nigger." Grandpa
raise up an' say, 'I is, too.'
"They had to work but they had plenty that made on content. We had good times. On moonlight nights somebody
ask Mars Daniel if they could have a cotton pile, then they go tell Mars Moore and Judge Heid (or Reed). They
come, when the soon peep up they start pickin'. Pick out four or five bales. Then Mars Daniel say you come to the
house. Ring the bell. Then we have a big supper --- pot of chicken, stew and sweet potatoes roasted. Have a wash
pot full of molasses candy to pull and all the goobers we could eat.
"Then we had three banjos. The musicians was William Word, Uncle Dan Porter, and Miles Porter. Did we dance?
Square dance. Then if somebody been wantin' to marry they step over the broom and it be nounced they married.
You can't get nobody --- colored folks I mean --- to step over a broom; they say it bad luck. If it fall and they step
over they step back. They say if somebody sweep under your feet you won't marry that year. Folks didn't visit round
much. They had some place to go they went but they had to work. They work together and done mighty little --- idle
visitin'. Folks took the knitting long visting lest it be Sunday.
"White women wouldn't nurse their own babies cause it would make their breast fall. They would bring a healthy
woman and a clean woman up to the house.
They had a house close by. She would nurse her baby and the white baby, too. They would feed her everything she
wanted. She didn't have to work cause the milk would be hot to give the babies. Dannie and my brother Bradford,
and Mary my sister and Miss Maggie nursed my name. Rich woman didn't nurse their babies, never did, cause it
would cause their breast to be flat.
"My papa was the last slave to die. Mama died twelve months fore he died. I was born after freedom but times
changed mighty little name and papa said. Grandma learned me to cut doll dresses and Miss Cornelia learned me to
sew and learned Aunt Joe (a ex-slave Negro here in town) to play Miss Betty's plane. She was their house girl. Yes
ma'ex, when I was small girl she was bout grown. Aunt Joe is a fine cook. Miss Cornelia learnt her how. I could
learned to played too but I didn't want to. I wanted to knit and crochet and saw. Miss Cornalia said that was my
talent. I made wrist warmers and lace. Sister Mary would spin. She spun yarn and cotton thread. They made feather
beds. Picked the geese and sheared the sheep. I got my big feather bed now.
"When I married, Miss Betty made my weddin' dress. We had a preacher marry us at my home. My mama give me
to Miss Betty and they raised me. I was the weaslingest one of her children. She give me to Miss Betty. Now she
wants me to come back. I think I go back Christmas and stay. Miss Betty is old and feeble now. I got three children
living here in Hazen now. All I got left.
"The man folks did all go off, white and black, and vote. I don't know how they voted. Now, honey, you know I
don't know nothing bout votings.
"Times is so changed. Conditions so changed that I don't know if the young generation is improved much. They
learn better but it don't do em no more good.
It seems like it is the management that counts. That is the reason my grandpa didn't want to leave Mars Daniel
Johnson's. He was a good manager and Miss Betty is a good manager. We don't know how to manage and ain't got
much to manage wid. That the way it looks to me. Some folks is luckier than others."
Curlett, Betty -- Additional Interview
Name of Interviewer Irene Robertson
Subject History - Slavery Days
"My mother said during the war and in slavery times they ate out of wooden spoons and bowls they made." They
cooked a washpot full of peas for a meal or two and roasted potatoes around the pot in the ashes. They always
cooked hams and greens of all kinds in the big iron pots for there were so many of then to eat and in slavery times
the cook, cooked for her family in with what she cooked for the Master. They made banks of dirt, send, leaves and
plank and never washed the sweet potatoes till they went to cook them. They had rows of banks in the garden or out
behind some of the houses, and had potatoes like that all winter and in the spring to bed.
They saved the ashes and put them in a barrel and poured water over them and saved the drip - lye- and made soap
or corn hominy - made big pots of soap and cooked pots full of lye hominy. They carried corn to the mill and had it
ground into meal and flour made like that too. The women spun, wove, and knitted. The men would hunt between
crop times. If the slaves were caught stealing, the Patty Row would catch him and his master whip him.
My Grandpas and Grandmas and Mamma's Master was John Moore. Mr. John said before his daughter and wife
should go to the washtub he would wade blood saddle-skirt deep. He set out to war. Went to Vicksburg and was
killed.
This information given by Betty Curlett
Place of Residence Hazen, Arkansas
Occupation Washwoman,AGE 67
His wifes name was Mrs. Elizabeth and his daughters name was Miss Inas. They say thats where the saying "He
won't last longer than John Moore did when he went to war" sprang up but I don't know about that part of it for
sure.
Grandma Becky said when the Yankees came to Mrs. Moores house and to Judge Rieds place they demanded
money but they told them they didn't have none. They stole and wasted all the food clothes; beds. Just tore up what
they didn't carry with then and burned it in a pile. They tock two legs of the chickens and tore them apart and threw
them down on the ground, leaving piles of them to waste.
Song her Mother and Grandmother sanges
Old Cow died in the fork of the branch
Baby, Ba, Ba.
Dock held the light, Kimbo skinned it.
Ba, Ba, Ba.
Old cow lived no more on the rench and frank no more from branch, Kinba a pair of shoes, he sewed from the old
cows hide he had tanned.
Baby, Ba, Ba.
(Little Bock District, Ark., 11-14-36)
Name of Interviewer Inex Robertson
Subject Musical Instrument
"The only musical instrument we had was a banjo. Some made their banjos. Take a bucket or pan a long strip of
wood. 3 horse hairs twisted made the base string. 2 horsehairs twisted made the second string. 1 horse hair twisted
made the fourth and the fifth string was the fine one, it was not twisted at all but drawn tight. They were all bees
waxed.
This information given by "
Curlett, Betty -- Additional Interview
Place of Residence Hazen, Arkansas
Occupation Washwoman
