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1 Ancestry. Negro
2 Place and date of birth. Chattanooga, Tenn.
3 Family. Two
4 Places lived in, with dates. Chattanooga-Center, Tenn. 1884 to 1889; [since then] in Lincoln, Nebraska.
5 Education, with dates. No education
6 Occupations and accomplishments, with dates. House-keeping
7 Special skills and interests. Quilting
8 Community and religious activities. Baptist
9 Description of informant. Little, thin, whitehaired and copper colored.
10 Other points gained in interview. Her family was the first colored in Lincoln, Nebraska. She says that Mr. George Holmes (of the First National Bank) his mother, was the only white person that would give her family shelter when they came here. Mrs. Holmes later sold her father the place where she now resides.
NAME OF WORKER Albert J. Burks ADDRESS 239 So. 20th St. DATE October 5, 1938 SUBJECT American Folklore NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Fanny Sellers, 2221 U Street Lincoln, Nebraska
"My mother and father married the yeah they sait the cull'ed f'ks free. They jumped over a broom stick, an' that married 'em. That was the custom of cull'ed marriages in them days. I was bo'n the incomin' March. I don' know jes how 'ol that makes me, but I have my gran'son to count it up ever so of'en. My grandmother had two children, Mary and Anna. Mary was my mother. Their daddy was the boss-man of the plantation and awful good tuh' them. When I was a little girl my mama tol' me that their daddy was goin' to town one day an' tol' my mutter an' aunt that they could go along. My mama wasn't fas' 'nough in gettin' ready, so he took my aunt an' drove off. When they came back they couldn' fin' my mother 'til they heard someone groanin' in the basement. It was my mother with her head kinda crushed. The boss-man's wife had whipped her and she fell down the steps. They took her to the doctor's office in town an' he put a silver plate in her head. The doctor said when she got married and had chill'un she wouldn' be bothered no more, an' whe wasn't. I was the oldes' child, and I had four brothers, two sisters.
When I was a chil' at home we never had no time to play. When we came in from the cotton fields we'd have to start quiltin'. Those two quilts hangin' up there I jes' finished. When ever I kin' git any rags to use I quilt an' sell 'em. Some times the fo'ks are pretty poor pay. Some owe me for quilts now.
I believe in the ol' time religion, "treat your neighbor as you'd wan'ta be treated," an' if your right don' let nobody run over you, even if y're in the court-house. Die firs'. Tha's what my daddy an' mammy always taught me. My daddy's favorite hymn was:
Amaze in Grace,
How sweet they sound,
I once was blind but now I see.
The wind blows east,
The wind blows west,
The wind blows shady way.
NAME OF WORKER Albert Burks ADDRESS 239 South 20th DATE October 8, 1939 SUBJECT American Folklore NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Mrs. Gussie Shelby, 824 C St Lincoln, Nebraska"
