Witnesses: Charles Baylor
Sumet Mussett"
Jinney, wife of Doc Flowers, is the daughter of the said Celia. "Yes'm,"
said Jinney, "Miss Liza, my old Missy, always had my mother right by her
side all the time to wait on her. She were always good to all her
colored folks. No'm she'd never let anybody be mean to her colored
folks."
Jinney must have learned the art of house keeping from Miss Liza, for
her little three-room home that she and Doc rent for $4 a month is
spotless. Maybe the "path is growed up with weeds," but one just can't
blame that on Jinney.
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Frances Fluker, Edmondson, Arkansas
Age: 77
[May 11 1938]
"I was born the 25th day of December 1860 in Marshall County,
Mississippi. Our owners was Dr. George Wilson and Mistress Mary. They
had one son I knowed, Dr. Wilson at Coldwater, Mississippi. My parents
was Viney Perry and Dock Bradley.
"I never seen my pa. I heard about him since I been grown. He left when
the War was going on and never went back. Mama had ten children and I am
all that's living now. Old mistress set my name and age down in her
Bible. I sent back and my niece just cut it out and sent it to me so I
could get my pension. I pasted it in the front of my Bible. I was never
sold. It was freedom when I first recollect.
"Ma was the cook for the white folks. Grandma Perry come from North
Carolina I heard 'em say. She was a widow woman. When company come they
would send us out to play. They never talked to us children, no ma'am,
not 'fore us neither. I come a woman 'fore I knowed what it was. My
sisters knowed better than tell me. They didn't tell me nothin'.
"When it wasn't company at ma's they was at work and singing. At night
we was all tired and went to bed 'cause we had to be up by
daybreak--children and all. They said it caused children's j'ints to be
stiff sleeping up in the day. All old folks could tell you that.
"This young set ain't got no strength neither. Ma cooked and washed and
raised five children up grown. The slaves didn't get nary thing give 'em
in the way of land nor stock. They got what clothes they had and some
provisions.
"Ma was ginger cake. They said pa was black. I don't know. Grandma was
reddish and lighter still than ma. They said she was part Cherokee
Indian. Her hair was smooth and pretty. She combed her hair with the
fine comb to bring the oil out on it and make it slick. I recollect her
combing her hair. It was long about on her shoulders.
"I heard about the Ku Klux but I never seed none of 'em. Ma said her
owners was good to her. Ma never had but one husband.
"I come to Arkansas 1921. Mr. Passler in Coldwater, Mississippi had
bought a farm at Onida. We had worked for him at Lula, Mississippi. Me
and my husband come here. My husband died the first year. I cooked some
in my younger days but field work and washing was my work mostly. I
like' field work long as I was able to go.
"My first husband cleared up eighty acres of land. He and myself done
it, we had help. We got in debt and lost it. He bought the place. That
was in Pinola County close to Sardis. I had four children. One daughter
living.
"What I think it was give me rheumatism was I picked cotton, broke it
off frozen two weeks on the sleet. I picked two hundred pounds a day. I
got numb and fell and they come by and got a doctor. He said it was from
overwork. I got over that but I had rheumatism ever since.
"I learned to read. I went to Shiloah School--and church too--several
terms. Mr. Will Dunlap was my first teacher. He was a white man. He run
the school a good while but I don't know how long. My name is Frances
Christiana Fluker. I been farming all my life, nothin' but farmin'.
Never thought 'bout gettin' sick 'cause I knowed I couldn't.
"I jus' get $6 and that is all. It cost more to send get the commodities
than it do to buy them. We don't get much of them. I needs
clothes--union suits. 'Course I wears 'em all summer. If they would give
me yarn and needles I could knit my socks. 'Course I can see and ain't
doing nothing else. I needs a dress. I ain't got but this one dress."
NOTE: The two old beds were filthy with slick dirt. They had two chairs
and a short bench around the stove and a trunk in which she kept the
little yellow torn to pieces Bible tied around the back with a string.
The large board door was kept wide open for light I suppose. There were
no windows to the room.
I heard the reason she gets only $6 was because her daughter lives there
and keeps two of her son's children and they try to get the young
grandson work and help out and support his children and mother at least.
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Ida May Fluker
Route 6, Box 80, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 83
"I was born in slavery times in Clark County, Alabama. Clover Hill was
the county seat.
"Elias Campbell was old master. I know the first time I ever saw any
plums, old master brought 'em. I 'member that same as yesterday.
"I 'member the same as if 'twas yesterday when the Yankees come. We
chillun would hide behind the door. Had on blue suits with brass
buttons. So you see I'm no baby.
"I 'member my mother and the other folks would go up to the big house
and help make molasses. Didn't 'low us chillun to go but we'd slip up
there anyway.
"Old missis' name Miss Annis. She was good to us.
"I didn't do nothin' but play around in the yard and tote wood. Used to
tote water from the Wood Spring. Had a spring called Wood Spring.
"My mother was the cook and my grandma was the spinner. I used to weave
after freedom.
"I know the Yankees come in there and got a lot of fodder. They was
drivin' a lot of cows. We chillun would be scared of 'em--mama would be
at the big house.
"Mama belonged to the Campbells and papa belonged to Davis Solomon, and
I know every Christmas they let him come to see mama, and he'd bring me
and my sister a red dress buttoned in the back. I 'member it same as if
'twas yesterday 'cause I was crazy 'bout them red dresses.
"I used to hear the folks talkin' 'bout patrollers. Yes ma'am, I heered
that song
'Run nigger run
Paddyrollers will ketch you
Jes' 'fore day.'