*Interview with Josephine*
--_Gertha Couric, Eufaula, Alabama_
_WHEN SHERMAN PASSED THROUGH_
Aunt Josephine claims to be the oldest Negro in Eufaula. She says she
was born ninety-four years ago in North Georgia on a plantation above
Atlanta. She lives now in Eufaula, Alabama with a great-granddaughter.
"I used to belong to Marse Rogers," she said. "After surrender, Marse
Rogers moved to dis country, and bought a plantation 'twixt Marse Josiah
Flourney's and General Toney's. He said his plantation j'ined theirs."
She was a nurse-maid all of her life, even in Slave days, and never was
a "field nigger." Asked if she saw any soldiers during the war she said
she saw "thousands."
"I and my Mistis and her baby hid in de swamps three days while Sherman
and his army was passin' through," she explained. "Marse Rogers was in
Virginny and when he got back home, there wasn't nothin' left but a
well. Everything had been burned up. His house was gone and so was de
smoke house; everything." She added that the well was a "dry well" where
melons and butter and milk and meats were placed, in Summer, to keep
them cool.
"Those three days my little brother hid in this well, while the soldiers
were passin'," she said.
"'Fore God, Missy," she exclaimed, "when we got dat little nigger out ob
dat well, he had almost turned white!"
Aunt Josephine is still a "nurse maid." She rocks her
great-great-great-grandchildren.