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1908 W. Sixth Street, Pine Hluff, Arkansas
Age 90?
"Yes, honey, this is old Fannie. I'se just a poor old migger waitin' for Jesus to come and take me to Heaven.
"I was just a young strip of a girl when the war come. Dr. M. C. Comer was my owner. His wife was Elizabeth
Comer. I said Marse and Mistis in them days and when old mistress called me I went runnin' like a turkey. They
called her Miss Betsy. Yes Lord, I was in slavery days. Master and mistress was bossin' me then. We all come under
the rules. We lived in Monticelle --- right in the city of Monticelle.
"All I can tell you is just what I remember. I seed the Yankees. I remember a whole host of 'em come to our house
and wanted something to eat. They got it tool They cooked it them selves and then they burned everything they
could get their hands on. They said plenty to me. they said so much I don't know what they said. I know one thing
they said I belonged to the Yankees. Yes Lord, they wanted me to tell 'em if I was free. I told 'em I was free indeed
and that I belonged to Miss Betsy. I didn't know what else to say. We had plenty to eat, plenty of hog meat and
buttermilk and cornbread. Yes ma'm --- don't talk about that new.
"Don't tell me 'bout old Jeff Davis --- he oughts been killed. Abraham Lincoln thought what was right was right and
what was wrong was wrong. Abraham was a great man canse he was the President. When the rebels esded from the
Union he made 'em fight the North. Abraham Lincoln studied that and he had it all in his mind. He wasn't no fighter
but he carried his own and the North give 'em the devil. Grant was a good man too. They tried to kill him but he was
just wrapped up in silver and gold.
"I remember when the stars fell. Yes, honey, I know I was ironin' and it got so dark I had to light the lamp. Yes, I
did!
"It's been a long time and my mind's not so good now but I remember old Comer put us through. Good-bye and God
bless you!"
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor
Subject Ex-slavery
Story. Birth, Parents, Master.
"I was born in South Carolina, Waterloo, in [Lawrence] Lawrence Co. County, in 1861, April 5th. Waterloo is a
little town in South Carolina. I believe that fellow shot the first gun of the war when I was born. I knew then I was
going to be free. Of course that is just a lie. I made that up. Anyway I was born in 1861.
"Colonel Rice was cur master. He was in the war too. The name parker came in by intermarringe, you see. My
mother belonged to Rice. She could have been a Simms before she married. My father's name was Edmund Parker.
He belonged to the Rices also. That was his master; Colonel Rice and him were boys together. He went down there
to Charleston, South Carolina to build breastworks. While down there, he slipped off and brought a hundred men
away from Charleston back to Lawrence County where the man was that owned them. He was a business man,
father was. Brought 'em all through the swamps. They were slaves and he brought 'em all back home. They all
followed his advice.
"My mother's name was Rowena Parker after she married."
