Little Rock District
Name of Interviewer: Irene Robertson
Subject: Spells--Voodoo--
Story--Information (If not enough space on this page add page)
I asked her if she believed anyone could harm her and she said not not
unless they could get her to eat or drink something. Then they might.
She said a Gypsy was feeling her and slipped a dollar and a quarter tied
up in her handkerchief from her and she never did know when or how she
got it. Said she never believed their tales or had her fortune told. She
didn't believe anyone could put anything under the door and because you
walked over it you would get a "spell". She said some people did. She
didn't know what they put under the doors. She never was conjured that
she knew of and she doesn't believe in it. Said she had to work too hard
to tell tales to her children but she used to sing. She can't remember
the songs she sang. She can't read or write.
The old woman is blind and gray, wears a cap. Her Mistress was Mrs. Mary
and her Master was Mr. Hardy Sellers in Chesterfield County, South
Carolina. Her husband died and left her with six children. Her brother
came with a lot of other fellows to Arkansas. "Everybody was coming
either here or to Texas". Mr. David Gates at DeValls Bluff sent her a
ticket to come to his farm. Her brother was working for Mr. Gates
Wattensaw plantation and that is where she has been till a few years ago
she moved to Hazen and lives with her son and his wife. She remembered
when the Civil War soldiers took all their food, mules and hitched Mrs.
Sellers driving horses to the surry and drove off. Her Mistress cried
and cried. She said she had a hard time after she left Mr. and Mrs.
Sellers, they was sure good to them and always had more than she had
ever had since. She wanted to go back to South Carolina to see the ones
she left but never did have the money. Said they lived on Mr. Dick
Small's place and he was so good to her and her children but he is dead
too now.
This information given by: Hannah Hancock
Place of Residence: Hazen, Arkansas
Occupation: Work in the cotton field--Cook and wash.
Age: 90
She is blind. She gets $8.00 pension, she is proud to tell.
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Julia E. Haney
1320 Pulaski Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 78
"I was born in Gallatin, Tennessee, twenty-six miles north of Nashville,
September 18, 1859. Willard Blue and Mary Blue were my master and my
mistress.
"I wanted to put in for a pension and didn't want to tell a story about
my age. In reading the Gazette, I found out that William Blue got shot
by an insurance man in Dallas, Texas over a stenographer. I found out
where my young master was and after allowing him time to get over his
grief, I wrote to him about my age. He wrote me that Andrew was the
oldest and he didn't know, so he sent my letter to Tacoma, Tennessee, to
Henry Blue. Henry wrote to him and told him to look in the bottom of the
wardrobe in the old family Bible. He looked there and found the Bible
and sent my age to me. They wrote to me and sent me some money and were
awful nice to me. They said that I was the only one of the slaves
living."