Large, medium black.
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Elizabeth Hines
1117 W. Fourteenth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 70
"I was born January 10, 1868, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I came here. I
can't read or write. My brother-in-law told me that I was born three
years after the War on January tenth.
"My mother's name was Sara Cloady. My father's name was Square Cloady. I
don't remember the names of any of my grand people. Yes I do; my
father's mother was named Bertha because I called my daughter after her.
She must have been in the Square family because that was his name.
"I had four brothers and sisters. Three of them I don't know anything
about. I have never seen them. My sister, Rachael Fortune, suckled me on
her breast. That is her married name. Before she was married her name
was Rachael Bennett. Her father and mine was not the same. We was just
half-sisters. We have the same mother though. My father was half Indian
and hers was pure-blooded Indian. They are all mean folks. People say I
am mean too, but I am not mean--unless they lie on me or something. My
mother died when I was three years old. Children three years old didn't
have as much sense then as they do now. I didn't know my mother was laid
out until I got to be a woman. I didn't have sense enough to know she
was dead. My sister was crying and we asked her what she was crying
about.
"I don't know the name of my mother's old master. Yes I do, my mother's
old master was named Laycock. He had a great big farm. He was building
a gas house so that he could have a light all night and work niggers day
and night, but peace came before he could get it finished and use it.
God took a hand in that thing. I have seen the gas house myself. I used
to tote water home from there in a bucket. It was cool as ice-water. The
gas house was as big 'round as that market there (about a half block).
"My father served in the army three years and died at the age of one
hundred ten years about twenty years ago as near as I can remember. That
is the reason I left home because he died. He served in the War three
years. He was with the Yankees. Plenty of these old white folks will
know him by the name of Square Cloady. The name of his company was
Company E. I don't know the name of his regiment. He got his pension as
long as he lived. His last pension came just before he died. I turned it
back to the courthouse because it is bad to fool with Uncle Sam. They
wrote for my name but when I told them I was married they wouldn't send
me anything. I didn't know to tell them that my husband was dead.
"I was married when I was about twenty-seven and my husband died more
than three years before my father did. My father lived to see me the
mother of my last child; my husband didn't. When my husband was dying, I
couldn't see my toes. I was pregnant. My husband died in the year of the
great tornado. The time all the churches were blown down. I think it was
about 1915. (Storm time in Louisiana.)
"I don't know what my mother did in slavery. I don't think she did
anything but cook. She was fine in children and they buys women like
that you know. My sister was a water toter. My father raised cotton and
corn and hogs and turkeys. His trade was farming before the War. I don't
know how he happened to get in the army but he was in it three years."
[HW: cf. p. 3]