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1223 W. Eleventh Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age 74, or over
"I was born in North Carolina, in Halifax County, in the country near Scotland Nexk. My mother's name was Nellie
Doggett. Her name was Hale before she married. My father's name was Tom Doggett. I never did see any of my
grand people.
"My mother's master was named Lewis Hale. He was a farmer. He was fairly good himself but the overseers wasn't.
They have mistreated my mother. All I know is what I heard, of course; I wasn't old enough to see for myself. My
mother was a field hand. She worked on the farm. My father did the same thing.
"My father and mother belonged to different masters. I forgot now who my father said he belonged to. My father
didn't live on the same plantation with my mother. He just came and visited her from time to time.
"Sometimes they didn't have any food to eat. The old missis sometimes saw that my mother's children were fed. My
mother's master was pretty good to her and her children, but my father's master was note Food was issued every
week. They give molasses, meal, a little flour, a little rice and along like that.
"My mother and father lived in old weatherboard houses. I don't know whether all of the slaves lived in
weatherboarded houses or not, But I nursed the children and had to go from one house to the other and I know
several of them lived in weatherboarded houses. Most of the houses had two rooms. The food that was kept by the
slaves, that is the rations given then, was kept in the kitchen part of the house.
"I don't know of any cases where slaves were compelled to breed but I have heard of them. I don't know the names
of the people. Just remember hearing talk about them.
"My mother and father never found out they were free till April 1865. Some of them were freed before then. I don't
know how they found it out, but I heard then talking about it.
"Right after freedom, my father and mother worked right on in the same place just like they always did. I reckon
they paid them, I don't know. They did what they wanted to.
"I remember the Ku Klux, They used to come and whip the niggars that didn't have a pass. I think them was
pataroles though. There was some people too who used to steal slaves if they found them away from home, and than
they would sell them. I don't know what they called them. I just remember the Ku Klux and the pateroles.
"The Ku Klux were the ones that whipped the niggers that they caught out without a pass. I don't remember any Ku
Klux whipping niggers after the War because they were in politics.
"I have heard of Negroes voting and holding office after the War. I wasn't acquainted with any of them except a
man named Kane Gibbs and another named Cicero Barnes. I heard the old people talking about them. I don't know
what offices they held. They lived in another county somewhere.
"I went from North Carolina to Louisiana, and from Louisiana here. They had it that you could shake trees out in
Louisiana and the money would fall off. They had some good land out there too. One acre would make all you
wanted---corn or anything else. That was a rich land. But I don't know---I don't care what you had or what you
owned when you left there, you had to leave it there. Never would give you no direct settlement or pay you
anything; that is, pay you anything definite. Just gave you something from time to time. Whatever you had you had
to leave it there.
"I used to work in the field when I was able. That was when I was in the country. When I came to the city I usually
did washing and ironing.
How I can't do anything. All the people I used to work for is dead. There was one woman in particular. She was a
good woman, too. I don't have any help at all now, except my son. He has a family of his own---wife and seven
children. Right now, he is cut off and ain't making nothing for himself nor nobody else. But I thank God for what I
have because things could be much worse."
Here again, there is a confusion of patrollers with Ku Klux. It seems to point to a use of the word Ku Klux before
the War. Of course, it is clear that the Ku Klux Klan operated after the War.
Ella Deniels' age is given as seventy-four on her insurance policy, and I have placed that age on the first page of this
story in the heading. But three children were born after her and before the close of the War. She says they were born
two years apart. Allowing that the youngest was born in 1864, the one next to her would have been born in 1860,
and she would have been born in 1858. This seems likely too because she speaks of nursing the children and going
from house to house (page two) and must have been quite a child to have been able to do that. Born in 1858, she
would have been seven years old in 1865 and would have been able to have been doing such nursing as would have
been required of her for two years probably. So it appears to me that her age is eighty, but I have recorded in the
heading the same age decided upon for insurance.
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
