*Interview with Clara McNeely Harrell,*
*Cape Girardeau, Missouri.*
"We libbed way off 'en de backwoods, six mile tuther side o' Jackson,
near Fruitland, and Ah's feared dey ain't much Ah ken tell yuh. My ole
Massa wuz John McNeely. Ah don' rightly member mah ole Missus McNeely
but when she die, ole Massa marry young Missie Harries fum down tow'ds
de ribber. De white folks has a fine big white house an we'ens had a
little log house. Dey wuz lotsa nut trees roun' dere an in de fall o' de
year we'ens usta gather lotsa nuts--hicker' nuts, walnuts, an' dey wuz
hazel nuts too.
"My Mammy's name?--les' see now--dey calls her Minnie--yes dat's it,
Minnie. Youh see mah mind ain't so clear but when Ah talks 'bout 'em dey
kinda comes back tuh me. Mah pappy's name wuz John Mitchell and he
belong to a neighbor. I'se little and didn't hab much work to do. Jes
chores, like heppin' to carry in wood and sech like, but mos'ly I'se
jes' playin' an' tom-boyin' aroun'.
"Ole Massa had three boys at went off to war--Dey wuz Ab, an' Bob' an'
Jack. We nebber seed no fightin' roun' our way but sometime we heard de
cannon fum Cape. One time dey wuz lotsa sojers cum pass our place an dey
had lotsa wagons an' things. Ah ain't nebber seed so many men an' I'se
plum scared to death, but dey nebber bother none.
"We had big fields o' wheat an cahn an sich, but mah mammy didden work
in de fiel', she spin an she weave. Ah could spin too. Ah's fill de
quills and Ah'd hep her thread de loom. De loom stood out on de big
porch and Ah kin jes see her sittin dar. She'd push de thread through
tuh me an' den Ah'd ketch it and pull it through an han it back tuh her.
"When de war wuz over, Ole Massa call tuh me an' he say 'Clara, you know
de war is over'--an Ah say 'Whar wuz it?' Ah nebber know'd nuthin 'bout
de war.
"No'm, Ah don' know nuthin 'bout ghosts an sich like, but when Ah dies
Ah specks to go to Hebbin an' Lawd! Ah's gonna sit all day an' shout an'
sing, and clap mah han's an' stomp mah feet! Oh! Lawd! Dat's gonna be a
happy time."
Clara McNeely Harrell, probably 80 or 82 years old lives in hollow--no
street number west from Washington School, Cape Girardeau, Mo.