"My mama said I was six years old when the War ended and that I was
born on the first day of October. During the War, I run up and down
the yard and played, and run up and down the street and played; and
when I would make too much noise, they'd whip me and send me back to
my mother and tell her not to whip me no more, because they had
already done it. I would help look after my mother's children. There
were five children younger than I was. Everywhere she went, the white
people would want me to nurse their children, because they said, 'That
little rawboneded one is goin' to be the smartest one you got. I want
her.' And my ma would say:
"'You ain't goin' to git 'er.' She had two other girls--Martha and
Sarah. They was older than me, and she would hire them out to do
nursing. They worked for their master during slave time, and they
worked for money after slavery.
"My mama's first husband was killed in a rasslin' (wrestling) match.
It used to be that one man would walk up to another and say, 'You
ain't no good.' And the other one would say, 'All right, le's see.'
And they would rassle.
"My mother's first husband was pretty old. His name was Myers. A young
man come up to him one Sunday morning when they were gettin'
commodities. They got sorghum, meat, meal, and flour; if what they got
wasn't enough, then they would go out and steal a hog. Sometime they'd
steal it anyhow; they got tired of eatin' the same thing all the time.
Hurt would whip them for it. Wouldn't let the overseer whip them. Whip
them hisself. 'Fraid the overseer wouldn't give them enough. They
never could find my grandfather's meat. That was Grandfather William
Down. They couldn't find his meat because he kept it hidden in a hole
in the ground. It was under the floor of the cabin.
"Old Myers made this young man rassle with him. The young fellow
didn't want to rassle with him; he said Myers was too old. Myers
wasn't my father; he was my mother's first husband. The young man
threw him. Myers wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted to rassle
again. The young man didn't want to rassle again. But Myers made him.
And the second time, the young man threw him so hard that he broke his
collar-bone. My mother was in a family way at the time. He lived about
a week after that, and died before the baby was born.
"My mother's second husband was named Fred Williams, and he was my
father. All this was in slavery times. I am his oldest child. He
raised all his children and all his stepchildren too. He and my mother
lived together for over forty years, until she was more than seventy.
He was much younger than she was--just eighteen years old when he
married her. And she was a woman with five children. But she was a
real wife to him. Him and her would fight, too. She was jealous of
him. Wouldn't be none of that with me. Honey, when you hit me once,
I'm gone. Ain't no beatin' on me and then sleepin' in the same bed
with you. But they fit and then they lived together right on. No
matter what happened, his clean clothes were ready whenever he got
ready to go out of the house--even if it was just to go to work. His
meals were ready whenever he got ready to eat. They were happy
together till she died.
"But when she died, he killed hisself courtin'. He was a young
preacher. He died of pneumonia. He was visiting his daughter and got
exposed to the weather and didn't take care of hisself.
"Right after the War, I was hired as a half-a-hand. After that I got
larger and was hired as a whole hand, me and the oldest girl. I worked
on one farm and then another for years. I married the first time when
I was fifteen years old. That was almost right after slave time. Four
couples of us were married at the same time. They lived close to me. I
didn't want my husband to git in the bed with me when I married the
first time. I didn't have no sense. I was a Christian girl.
"Frank Sampson was his name. It rained the day we married. I got my
feet wet. My husband brought me home and then he turned 'round and
went back to where the wedding was. They had a reception, and they
danced and had a good time. Sampson could dance, too, but I didn't. A
little before day, he come back and said to me--I was layin' in the
middle of the bed--'Git over.' I called to mother and told her he
wanted to git in the bed with me. She said, 'Well, let him git in.
He's yo'r husband now.'
"Frank Sampson and me lived together about twenty years before he got
killed, and then I married Andrew Jackson. He had children and
grandchildren. I don't know what was the matter with old man Jackson.
He was head deacon of the church. We only stayed together a year or
more.
"I have been single ever since 1923, jus' bumming 'round white folks
and tryin' to work for them and makin' them give me somethin' to eat.
I ain't been tryin' to fin' no man. When I can't fin' no cookin' and
washin' and ironin' to do, I used to farm. I can't farm now, and
'course I can't git no work to do to amount to nothin'. They say I'm
too old to work.
"The Welfare helps me. Don't know what I'd do if it wasn't for them. I
git some commodities too, but I don't git any wood. Some people says
they pay house rent, but they never paid none of mine. I had to go to
Marianna and git my application straight before I could git any help.
They charged me half a dollar to fix out the application. The Welfare
wanted to know how I got the money to pay for the application if I
didn't have money to live on. I had to git it, and I had to git the
money to go to Marianna, too. If I hadn't, I never would have got no
help.