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Interviewer: Miss Bailie C. Miller
Person interviewed: Mag Brown, Clarksville, Arkansas
Age: 85

"I was born in North Carolina and come South with my white folks. They
was trying to git out of the war and run right into it. My mother died
when I was a baby. I don't remember my mother no more than you do. I
left my white folks. When I was 14 years old, we lived out in the
country. They was willing to keep me but after the war they was so poor.
The girls told me if I could come to town and find work I had better do
it. Two of them come nearly to town with me. They told me I was free to
come to town and live with the colored folks. I didn't know what it
meant to be free. I was just as free as I wanted to be with my white
folks. When I got to town I stayed with your aunt awhile then she sent
me down to stay with your grandma. A white girl who lived with them,
like one of the family, learned me how to cook and iron. I knew how to
wash.

"I don't know anything about the present generation. I ain't been able
to git out for the last year or two. I think I broke my foot, for I had
to go on crutches a long time.

"The white folks always sung but I don't know what they sung. I didn't
pay no tention to it then."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Mary Brown, Clarendon, Arkansas
Age: Born in 1860

"Mama was born in slavery but never sold. Grandma and her husband was
sold and brung eleven children to Crystal Springs. They was sold to Mr.
Munkilwell. I was born there. Grandma was born in Virginia. Her back was
cut all to pieces where she had been beat by her master. Both of them
was whooped. He was a hostler and blacksmith.

"When grandma was a young woman she didn't have no children, so her
master thought sure she was barren. He sold her to Taylors. Here come
'long eleven children. Taylor sold them. After freedom she had another.
He was her onliest boy. That was so funny to hear her tell it. I never
could forgit it long as I ever know a thing. Grandma's baby child was
seventy-four years old, 'cepting that boy what was a stole child. She
died not long ago at Carpendale, Mississippi. I got the letter two weeks
ago. But she had been dead a while 'fore they writ to me. Her name was
Aunt Miny. She didn't have no children.

"Grandma said the first time she was sold--the first day of July--they
put her in a trader yard in Virginia. She was crying and says, 'Take me
back to my mama.' An old woman said, 'You are up to be sold.'

"Aunt Helen, her sister, was taking her husband something in the field.
They fooled her away from her five little children. Grandma said she
never was seen no more. She was much older than grandma. Grandma stayed
with her slavery husband till he died.

"Since freedom some people tried to steal my mama. She was a fast runner
and could dance. They wanted to make money out of her. They would bet on
her races. At Lernet School they took about thirty-six children off in
wagons. Never could get trace of them. Never seen nor heard of a one of
them again. That was in this state at Lernet School years ago but since
freedom.

"I was born during the War soon after Master Munkilwell took mama over.
He didn't ever buy her. Mama died young but grandma lived to be over a
hundred years old. She told me all I know about real olden times.

"I just looks on in 'mazement at this young generation. They is happy
all right. Times not hard for them glib and well as they seems. Times
have changed a sight since I was born in this world and still changing.
Sometimes it seems like they are all right. Ag'in times is tough on old
folks like me. This is all in the Bible--about the times and folks
changing." 

 Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Mattie Brown. Helena. Arkansas
Age: 75

"I heard mother say time and ag'in I was a year and two months old the
year of the surrender. I was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Mother was a
milker and a house woman. Father died when I was a baby. Mother never
married. There was three of us to raise. I'm the youngest.

"Sister was the regular little nurse girl for mother's mistress. I don't
recollect her name. The baby was sickly and fretful. My sister set and
rocked that baby all night long in a homemade cradle. Mother said she'd
nod and go on. Mother thought she was too young to have to do that way.
Mother stole her away the first year of the Civil War and let her go
with some acquaintances of hers. They was colored folks. Mother said she
had good owners. They was so good it didn't seem like slavery. The
plantation belong to the woman. He was a preacher. He rode a circuit and
was gone. They had a colored overseer or foreman like. She wanted a
overseer just to be said she had one but he never agreed to it. He was a
good man.

"Mother said over in sight on a joining farm the overseers whooped
somebody every day and more than that sometimes. She said some of the
white men overseers was cruel.

"Mother quilted for people and washed and ironed to raise us. After
freedom mother sent for my sister. I don't recollect this but mother
said when she heard of freedom she took me in her arms and left. The
first I can recollect she was cooking for soldiers at the camps at
Montgomery, Alabama. They had several cooks. We lived in our own house
and mother washed and ironed for them some too. They paid her well for
her work.

"I recollect some of the good eating. We had big white rice and big soda
crackers and the best meat I ever et. It was pickled pork. It was
preserved in brine and shipped to the soldiers in hogheads (barrels). We
lived there till mother died and I can recollect that much. When mother
died we had a hard time. I look back now and don't see how we made it
through. We washed and ironed mostly and had a mighty little bit to eat
and nearly nothing to wear. It was hard times for us three children. I
was the baby child. My brother hired out when he could. We stuck
together till we all married off."