Dortch's grandfather on the father's side was a white man and either his
master or someone closely connected with his master--his first master.
His last master was the father of his half-sister, Cordelia, born before
any of the other members of his family. These facts account largely for
the good treatment accorded his mother and father in slave time and for
the friendly attitude toward them subsequent to slavery.
Dortch's whole sister, Adrianna, is living next door to him, and is
eighty-five years old going on eighty-six. She has a clearer memory than
Dortch, and has also a clear vigorous mentality. She never went to
school but uses excellent English and thinks straight. I have not made
Dortch's interview any longer because I am spending the rest of this
period on his sister's, and there was no need of taking some material
which would be common to both and more clearly stated by her. I have
already finished ten pages of her story.
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Fannie Dorum
423 W. Twenty-Fourth Street
North Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 94
[TR: Some word pronunciation was marked in this interview. Letters
surrounded by [] represent long vowels, and by () short vowels.]
[HW: Church Holds Old Age Contest]
"I was here in slavery time. Know the years I plowed. Ginned cotton in
slavery time. My daddy was the ginner. His name was Hamp High. Stayed
down in Lonoke County.
"I was here in slavery time. The third year of the surrender (1868), I
married--married Burton Dorum.
"I was born in Franklin, North Carolina. My old master's name was Jack
Green, Franklin County. He had five boys--Henry, John, James, Robert,
and William Henry. And he had a daughter named Mary. My old mistress'
name was Jennie Green. They all came from North Carolina and I think
they are still there.