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Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Mary Williams
409 North Hickory, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 82

"Yes mam, I sure would be glad to talk to you 'bout slavery times. I can
sure tell about it--I certainly can, lady.

"I am so proud 'bout my white folks 'cause they learned me how to work
and tell the truth. I had a good master and mistress. Yes'm, I sure did.

"I was borned in middle Georgia and I just love the name of Georgia. I
was the second born of 'leven children and they is all dead 'cept
me--I'm the only one left to tell the tale.

"When the ginnin' started I was always glad 'cause I could ride the
crank they had the mules hitched to. And then after the cotton was
ginned they took it to the press and you could hear that screw go
z-m-m-m and dreckly that 'block and tickle' come down. Yes mam, I sure
did have good times.

"You ain't never seen a spinnin' wheel has you? Well, I used to card and
spin. I never did weave but I hope dye the hanks. They weaved it into
cloth and called it muslin.

"I can 'member all I want to 'bout the war. I 'member when the Yankees
come through Georgia. I walked out in the yard with 'em and my white
people just as scared of 'em as they could be. I heered the horses feet,
then the drums, and then 'bout twenty-five or thirty bugles. I was so
amazed when the Yankees come. I heered their songs but I couldn't
'member 'em.

"One thing I 'member jest as well as if 'twas this mornin'. That was the
day young master Henry Lee went off to war. Elisha Pearman hired him to
go and told him that when the war ceasted he would give him two or three
darkies and let him marry his daughter. Young master Henry (he was just
eighteen) he say he goin' to take old Lincoln the first thing and swing
him to a limb and let him play around awhile and then shoot his head
off. But I 'member the morning old mistress got a letter that told how
young master Henry was in a pit with the soldiers and they begged him
not to stick his head up but he did anyway and they shot it off. Old
mistress jest cry so.

"One thing I know, the Yankees took a lot of things. I 'member they took
Mrs. Fuller to the well and said they goin' hang her by the thumbs--but
they just done it for mischievous you know. They didn't take nothin'
from my white people 'cept some chickens and a hog, and cut down the
hams. They put the old rooster in the sack and he went to squawki