"I am told my mother cooked for one family for forty-two years. Her
maiden name was Haria Harris. She was three-fourths white. She come from
the Indian tribe--old Catawba Indians. Her own daddy was a white man,
but her Grand daddy on her mother's side was an Indian.
"I am told that the old fellow bought my mother when she was fifteen
years old. Finally he got hold of both my father and my mother. Both of
them put together didn't have half colored blood. He must have loved
them a lot to work so hard to get them together. My father was half
white, but his mother was a mulatto woman (Interpreter's comment--This
should make him a quadroon)[TR: sentence lined out.]; and my mother's
great-grandmother was a colored woman.
"I never knew much about race troubles. The best friend I ever had was
an old white grandmother. I was carefully shielded from all unpleasant
things.