*Interview with Mary Rice*
--_Gertha Couric, [HW: Eufaula]_
_DESE UPPITY NIGGERS_
Few of the ex-slaves will readily admit that they were mere field hands
in the old days. Generally they prefer to leave the impression that they
were house servants, or at least stable boys or dairy hands.
But "aunt" Mary Rice, age 92, who lives in Eufaula, holds no such view
about the superior social position of house servants. She was a "big
missy gal" ('teen age) during the War, and about her duties on the
plantation of Dr. Cullen Battle near Tuskegee, where she was born, she
said:
"Honey, I lived in de quahter. I was a fiel' nigger, but when I was a
lil' gal, I helped around de milk-house, churnin', washing de pails and
de lak, and den give all de little niggers milk.
[Illustration: _Mary Rice, Eufaula, Alabama_]
"Massa Cullen and Mistis' Ma'y Jane was de bes' Marster and Mistis' in
de worl'. Once when I was awful sick, Mistis' Ma'y Jane had me brung in
de Big House and put me in a room dat sot on de 'tother side of the
kitchen so she could take kere of me herself 'cause it was a right fur
piece to de quahter and I had to be nussed day and night.
"Yassum, I was jes' as happy bein' a fiel' han' as I would'er been at de
Big House; mebbe mo' so. De fiel' han's had a long spell when de crops
was laid by in de summer and dat's when Massa Cullen 'lowed us to
'jubilate' (several days of idle celebration). I was happy all de time
in slavery days, but dere ain't much to git happy over now, 'cep'n I's
livin'--thank de Lawd. Massa Cullen was a rich man, and owned all de
worl' from Chestnut Hill to de ribers, and us always had eberything us
needed.
"Niggers dese days ain't neber knowed whut good times is. Mebbe dat's
why dey ain't no 'count. And dey is so uppity, too, callin' dereselves
'cullud folks and havin' gold teeth. Dey sez de mo' gold teeth dey has,
de higher up in chu'ch dey sets. Huh!"