cooked
and was a spinner. When I was a girl she had her spinning-wheel and
she taught me to spin and knit. She spun thread for caps, mittens,
stockings, socks, suspenders, and coats. We knit all those things when
I was a girl. Grandmother said the white folks never whooped her.
Grandmother was her old master's own girl and she nursed with one of his
white wife's children. She was real light.

"My father's mother was a squaw. I don't know her name. She was sold
from grandpa and he went to Master Snow. He never seen her any more.
He took another wife and jumped over the broom on the Snow place. He
thought some of his owners was terrible. He had been whooped till he
couldn't wear clothes. He said they stuck so bad.

"My own father whipped me once till my clothes stuck to my back. I
told you I had seen a pretty hard time in my own life. I was born in
Starkville, Mississippi.

"Since I was a girl there has been many changes. I was married by Rev.
Bell December 14, 1902. My husband is living and still my husband. I can
see big changes taking place all the time. I was married at De Valls
Bluff."

Interviewer's Comment

This woman could give me some comparative views on the present
generation but she didn't. It is one of the Saturday gathering halls.
She depends on it somewhat for a living and didn't say a word either pro
or con for the present generation.

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Ellen Briggs Thompson
3704 W. Twelfth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 83

Birth and Relatives

"I was born in October 1844, in Nashville, Arkansas. I don't remember
the exact day. I have went through thick and thin. I was a small girl
when my mother died. I got the rheumatism so bad I can't hardly walk. It
hurts me now. My oldest brother, Henry Briggs, was five years older than
me, and my youngest brother, Isaac Briggs, was five years younger than
me. I was born October, but he was born at Christmas Eve just after
surrender. My oldest brother died last year. My youngest brother is
in Galveston, Texas. If he is living, he is there. My name was Briggs
before I married. I was just studying about my sister-in-law when you
come up. If I could get the money, I would go to see her. She was my
oldest brother's wife. Her name was Frances Briggs after she married.
She lives in Emmet, Arkansas, where he married her. I just had two
brothers, no sisters.

"My husband's name was Henry Thompson