8. Community and religious activities--Member of Palestine Baptist
Church.
9. Description of informant--Medium height, plump, light complexion and
gray hair.
10. Other points gained in interview--Injured in auto wreck seven years
ago.
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Roberta Shaver, West Memphis, Arkansas
Age: 50
"I was born close to Natchez, Mississippi. Grandma was sold at Wickerson
County, Mississippi. They took her in a wagon to Jackson, Tennessee. She
was mother of two children. They took them. She was part Indian. She was
a farm woman. Her name was Dicy Jackson. They sold her away from the
Jacksons to Dobbins. She was a house woman in Jackson, Tennessee. She
said they was good to her in Tennessee. Grandma never was hit a lick in
slavery. Grandpa was whooped a time or two. He run off to the woods for
weeks and come back starved. He tended to the stock and drove Master
Clayton around. He was carriage driver when they wanted to go places.
"After freedom grandma set out to get back to grandpa. Walked and rode
too I reckon. She brought her children back. After a absence of
five years she and grandpa went back together. They met at Natchez,
Mississippi. Mama was born after freedom.
"The way grandma said she was sold was, a strange man come there one day
and the master had certain ones he would sell stand in a line and
this strange man picked out the ones he wanted and had them get their
belongings and put them in the wagon and took them on off. She never
seen grandpa for five years."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Mary Shaw
1118 Palm Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 77
Occupation: Laundry work
"I was born in Bolivar County, Mississippi. My mother didn't know how
old I was but after freedom I went by Miss Ann Blanchet's--that was my
mother's old missis--and she said I was born in 1861.
"But I don't know nothin' 'bout slavery or the War. I was born and bred
in the desert and my mother said it was a long time after freedom 'fore
she knowed anything about it. She said there was just lots of the folks
said, to their knowin', they had been free three years 'fore they knowed
anything about it.
"My husband brought me to Arkansas when I was 35 and I been workin' in
the same family, Captain Jeter's family, ever since-forty odd years.
"I always have worked hard. I've had the flu only reason I'm sittin'
here now. If I had to sit and hold my hands very long, they'd have to
take me to Little Rock.
"I been married twice. My last husband was Sam Shaw. He was a great
whiskey man and when whiskey went out, he went to bootleggin' and they
got behind him and he left.
"He wrote me once and said if I'd borrow some money on my home and send
it to him, he'd come back. I wrote and told him just like I'm tellin'
you that after I had worked night and day to pay for this house while
he was off tellin' some other woman lies just like he told me, I wasn't
goin' to send him money. So I ain't seen him since.
"I ain't never been to school much. When schools got numerous in
Mississippi they had me behind a plow handle.
"Mrs. Jeter made me mad once and I quit. My first husband was a porter
on the railroad and I got on the train and went to Memphis with him.
"One time he come back from a trip to Pine Bluff and handed me a little
package. I opened it and it was a note from Mrs. Jeter and a piece of
corn bread. She said, 'Now, Mary, you see what I've had to eat. I want
you to come back.' So I went back and stayed 'til she died. And now I'm
workin' for her daughter, Mrs. McEwen. Mrs. Jeter used to say, 'Mary,
I know you're not a Arkansas woman 'cause you ain't got a lazy bone in
your body.'"
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Violet Shaw, West Memphis, Arkansas
Age: 50
"I heard Grandma Katie Williams say she was put up on a high stump and
auctioned off. She told how great-grandma cried and cried and never
seen her no more. Grandma come from Oakland, Tennessee to Mississippi.
Grandma took the two young children and left the other two with
great-grandma. They took her from her husband. She never seen none of
them again.
"After freedom she didn't know how to find them. She never could get
trace of them. She tried. She never married no more. I was born at
Clarksdale, Mississippi. I have seen Tom Pernell (white), the young
master, come and spend the night with Henry Pernell. Henry had once been
Tom's father's slave and carriage driver. I was too small to know the
cause but I remember that several times mighty well. They fixed him up a
clean bed by hisself. Henry lived in town. But he might have been drunk.
I never seen no misbehavior out of him. It was strange to me to see
that.
"Freedom--Aunt Mariah Jackson was freed at Dublin, Mississippi. She said
she was out in the field working. A great big white man come, jumped
up on a log and shouted, 'Freedom! Freedom!' They let the log they was
toting down; six, three on a side, had holt of a hand stick toting a
long heavy log. They was clearing up new ground. He told them they was
free. They went to the house. They cooked and et and thanked God. Some
got down and prayed, some sung. They had a time that day. They got the
banjo and fiddle and set out playing. Some got in the big road just
walking. She said they had a time that day."
Texarkana District
FOLKLORE SUBJECTS
Name of Interviewer: Cecil Copeland
Subject: Ex-Slave
This information given by: Frederick Shelton
Place of Residence: Dump Section, Texarkana, Arkansas
Occupation: None
Age: 81
[TR: Information moved from bottom of first page.]
In an humble cabin on the outskirts of the city lives a venerable old
negro ex-slave. Although bent with rheumatism and age, he still retains
his mental faculties to a remarkable degree.
An inquiry as to his health elicited the following reply: "I'se a
willful mind but a weak body. Just like an old tree--de limbs are
withered and almost dead. I'se been here a long tins, ovah 81 years, and
am ready to go any time de good Lawd says de word. Dat's de trouble wid
de people nowadays--dey ain't prepared. Back when I wuz a young man,
dey wuzn 't so much meaness, and such goings on as dey are nowadays. De
young-peple know as much as de old folks. Yas, suh, de worl' am goin' to
de dogs."
Asked about life in pioneer days, the old negro replied; "We had lots
ob good times in dem days. Log rollings wuz lots ob fun to me as I wuz
strong den, an' I could "show off" befo' de odder niggers. Dey wuzn't
much rollin' to it, mostly carrying. I mind de time when I lifted de end
ob a log, an' four men tried at different times to lift de odder, but
dey couldn't do it. Three of dese men went to an early grave from trying
to lift dis log--all tore up inside. Maybe dat's whut ails me.
"You had to be careful den, when traveling through de woods, or de
varmints would git you, especially at night. I mind de time when a negro
wuz comin' through de woods one nite, when he seed a panther about to
spring on him.
"Dis nigger dropped in his tracks lack he wuz dead. De panther came up to
him and smelled ob him, but de nigger held his breath, and de panther
thought he wuz dead. De panther covered him wid leaves an' went about
one hundred yards into de woods to call his friends to de feast. No
sooner had he left when de nigger jumped up and climbed a tree, first
rutting an old chunk of wood in de place where he wuz buried. De nigger
could hear de panther out in de woods as he called for his friends, and
pretty soon, here dey come, about five of 'em. Slowly circling aroun' de
place where de nigger had been, all of a sudden dey all jumped. Findin'
nothin' but de old chunk of wood, dem panthers got real mad. Wid angry
growls, dey jumped on de one whut had called dem, and ate him up."
This old negro reserves all of the heroic roles for others. Asked if he
had had any experience with the "varmints", as he termed them he said:
"Yas, suh. De worst scared I ever got wuz frum a wolf. Walkin' down a
trail one day, I spied a wolf not more than ten feet away. Man, I wuz so
scared dat I seemed to freeze in my tracks, and couldn't move. I tried
to holler but all I could do wuz croak. Den I tried to whistle but de
only sound I could make wuz a hiss. After standing for whut seemed
hours, wid his ears sticking straight up, de wolf finally turned around
and trotted away."
The conversation drifted to other topics, and finally to ghosts and
spirits. The old negro said he had never seen a ghost, and didn't
believe in those things. No sooner had he said this when his wife, who
had been listening in on the conversation from the inside of the door
exclaimed: "I does! Seein' is believin' aint it? Well suh, about two
years ago de negro dat lived next door died. A few weeks after he died I
wuz settin' out on de porch when I see dis negro come out of de house,
and walk slowly to de corner of mah yard where he vanished into de air.
A few nights later de same thing happened again. No suh, dat nigger
didn't go to Heaven and he didn't go to Hell. He's still around heah. He
wuz a wicked negro and wuz scared to go."
Circumstances of interview
STATE--Arkansas
NAME OF WORKER--Samuel S. Taylor
ADDRESS--Little Rock, Arkansas
DATE--December, 1938
SUBJECT--Ex-slave
[TR: Repetitive information deleted from subsequent pages.]
1. Name and address of informant--Laura Shelton, 1518 Pulaski Street,
Little Rock, Arkansas.