"The soldiers come and I knowed it was the Yankees I hated. They took
all they could find and wasted a lot of it. I was scared. I kept hid
about. The slaves put their beds and clothes up on the wagons and went
off behind them and some clumb up in the wagons. I heard Miss Betty say,
'They need not follow them off, they are already free.' The way she said
it, like she was heart broken, made me nearly cry and I remember her
very words till this day. She was a good woman.
"Mama come and got me long time after that and I didn't want to go nor
stay neither. It was like taking me off from my own home. Papa was
freeborn and freedom I couldn't understand till I was long grown. I
never got a whooping in my life. I was taught politeness.
"During slavery we bought mighty little. Flour in barrels, salt. We had
Maple sugar and sorghum molasses in bounty. We was happy and had plenty
to eat and wear.
"I learned to make the fine cakes from a Jew woman (Jewess), Mrs. Isaac.
I've been called a cook here in Forrest City. I was taught by Mrs. Isaac
to make angel food, coffee cake, white bread and white cakes. From that
I made the other kinds my own self."