|
|
Mrs. Sarah Fuller 2004 Leona St., Austin
My name is Sarah Henderson Fuller, and I was bawn about 78 years ago, at Rivers' Springs, Texas.
My mawther---who was Georgia Anne Johnson---often tol' me that I was bawn on the fus' day of a camp meetin' the
white folks was holdin' at Rivers' Springs.
My maw, I think, said that she was bawn in Tennessee. My father was Jim Henderson, and he was bawn in Texas.
I was too young durin' the war to do much field-work. I helped nuss the chillun, washed the dishes and swept.
We was on Mawster Rivers' plantation at Rivers' Springs. The mawster was his own overseer. He didn't believe in
beatin' and knockin' us all about the time. He wouldn't allow no overseer on his place.
I never seen a book to read till after I was freed. I never seen a school or chu'ch durin' those days. I never heard no
preacher till I was freed. To this day, I kain't read or write. When I sign somethin', I has to make a cross-mark. I
kain't even tell the difference of a dollar and a five dollar bill---always have to have somebody to go along wid me
to the store.
If we would've got sick on the plantation the mawster would've sent fo' a doctah. But I never remembah of the
mawster havin' to git no doctor.
But I remembah how people used the Blue Mass Pills---slavery-time pills is whut I called 'em. I remembah how the
people took the pills, and then was given a dose of oil. They wasn't allowed to eat fo' several days after.
Then there was the poke-weed of which we made a salad. We took the poke-weeds---got 'em while they was
tender---and biled 'em, and then throwed the water away. Then we squeezed the weeds out in cool water, put 'em in
a skillet and fried 'em in lawd. I can remembah how we used to fry bacon wid it, too. The doctah always tol' us that
a meal of poke-weeds was as good as a dose of medicine.
We had the good ole pot-likker. We took mustard greens and other greens, cooked 'em wid bacon, and we had
pot-likker. The real way to eat it ... the best way to eat it ... was to put salt and pepper in it, and then crumple yo'
cawnpones and ash-cakes in it, and staht eatin'.
We baked those ash-cakes right in the hot ashes. I kin still hear the mawster sayin' to Ca'oline, the cook:
"Ca'oline, did yo' cook enny ash-cakes fo' dinner? ... Then bring 'em in."
Another good eatin' was to cook cawnmeal grits and then drop 'em into hot grease. This was good eatin' to me.
I don' remembah ennythin' about the day when I was freed. All I kin remembah is that I went with mothah to
Austin, whah she stathed out as a cook.
I was married to Gilbert Fuller, a preacher, heah in Austin, and I kain't remembah exactly whut year it was. I
remembah how a preacher married us. I drank my wine and ate my cake; but there was no dancin', 'cause I was a
Christian even at that time.
We had three chillun---Berta, Albert and a baby girl that soon died. All the chillun is dead. There is two
grandchillun, both livin'. One is in Austin, and the other is in Oklahoma.
B. E. Davis Madisonville, Texas District #8 (January 19, 1938 (No))
