Steal away home to Jesus
I ain't got long to stay here.
2
There'll I'll meet my mother,
My good old christian mother,
Mother, how do you do;
Thank God I belong to the band.
I can't remember the music. But that's on old song we used to sing 'way
back yonder. I can't remember any more of the verses. You got enough
anyhow."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Emma Foster
1200 N. Magnolia, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 80
"Yes'm, I was born in time of slavery--seven years before surrender.
No'm, I wasn't born in Arkansas. Born in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana.
"I remember hearin' the big guns shoot. I was small and I didn't know
what it was only by what they told me.
"My parents belonged to the Harts. My mother run off and left me, a
year-old baby.
"I remember better when I was young than I do now.
"After I got big enough--you know, a little old nasty somethin' runnin'
around in the yard--after I got big enough, they took me in the house to
rock the cradle, and I stayed there till I was twenty-three. I would a
stayed longer but they was so cruel to me.
"I didn't know nothin'. I run off and stayed with a colored preacher and
his family not far away. You know I was crazy. One day the preacher said
some of his members was objectin' to me stayin' there and he was goin'
to tell my white folks where I was. And sure enough, he did, and one
morning I was out in the field and I saw the son-in-law comin'. So I
went back and worked for him and his wife.
"Me? All I did do was farmin' when I was young.
"Oh, I been in Arkansas 'bout fifty years. My oldest boy was fourteen
when I come here and he is sixty-four now.
"No, honey, I can't cook now. I'd burn it up. I used to cook. It's a
poor dog that won't wag its own tail.
"All I know is I had a hard time, I been married three times. My last
husband was a preacher and he was so mean I left him. I told him if all
preachers was like him, hell was full of 'em.
"I went to Chicago and lived with my son a while but I didn't like it,
so I come back here and I been here right in the yard with Mrs. O'Neal
eight years washin' and ironin'--anything come to hand.
"Now if there's goin' to be a death in my family, I can see that 'fore
it happens. I was out in the potato patch one day and it started to rain
and I come in and somethin' just bore down on me and I started to cry. I
didn't know why. I thought, 'Oh, Lord, is somethin' goin' to happen to
my son?' But instead it was my grandson. He got killed that evenin'."
Name of interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Subject: Birthmarks
Story:--Information
This information given by: Emma Foster (C)
Place of residence: 1200 N. Magnolia Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Occupation: Laundress
Age: 80
[TR: Personal information moved from bottom of first page.]
"I know I marked one of my babies with beer. It was 'cause I wanted some
beer and couldn't get it. And when it was born it had a place on the
back of its neck looked like beer and she just foamed at the mouth. And
when she was about a week old I got some beer and give it to her with a
teaspoon and she quit foamin'.
"And another time there was a boy on the place had a finger that the
doctor had done took the bone out. He and I used to love to rassle
(wrestle) and one day he said, 'Oh, Emma, you hurt my finger.' And like
a fool, you know I took his hand and just rubbed that finger. And do you
know, when my baby was born it had six fingers on each hand."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Ira Foster
2000 W. Eureka Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 76
"I was born in slavery because when the people come back from the War I
was a pretty good sized yellin' boy when freedom come.
"I heerd 'em tellin' 'bout my young master comin' back from the War.
"Yes ma'am, I was sure born in Arkansas; I won't tell no lie 'bout that.
"My mother's old master was named Foster and after she married she
belonged to Hezekiah Bursey.
"She was born in Alabama and she said she was pretty badly treated.
"She was the cook and then she was the weaver and the spinner.
"I never have been to school. Never did learn nothin'. My father put me
to work soon as I was big enough.
"I always done farm work all my life till 'bout twenty years ago as near
as I can come at it. I went to saw millin' and I didn't do nothin' but
manufacture lumber. I worked for the Camden Lumber Company eighteen
years and never caused 'em a minute's trouble.
"If I just had enough to live on I wouldn't do a thing but just sit
around 'cause I think I done worked my share. Why, some of the white
folks say, 'Foster, you ought to have a pension of thirty or forty
dollars a month.' And I say, 'Why?' And they say, 'Cause you look just
like a darky that has worked hard in this world.'
"I suffers with the rheumatism in my right leg clear up and down. Seems
like sometimes I can't hardly get around."
FOLKLORE SUBJECTS
Name of interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Subject: Songs of Pre-War Days
Story:--Information
This information given by: Ira Foster
Place of residence: 2000 W. Eureka, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Occupation: None
Age: 76
[TR: Personal information moved from bottom of first page.]
"'You may call me Raggedy Pat
'Cause I wear this raggedy hat,
And you may think I'm a workin'
But I ain't.'