s. And they would let them fix a table for their own friends
that they would want to have along.

Personal Occupations

"I used to work in the field or in the house or anything I could get to
do. I would even go out and saw these big rails when my husband would
have a job and couldn't get a chance to do it. It has been a good while
since I have been able to do any good work. My husband has been dead
fifteen years and I had to quit work long before he died.

Right after the War

"Right after the War my folks worked in the field, washed, cooked, or
anything they could do. They left the old place and came down about
Washington, Arkansas. I don't know just how long they stayed in
Washington. From Washington, my mother went to Prescott and settled
there at a little place they called Sweet Home, just outside of
Prescott. That is where my daughter was born and that is where my mother
died. I came here about nine years ago.

Present Support

I came here to stay with my daughter. But now she doesn't have any help
herself. She has three small children and she's their only support now.
She's not working either. She just come in from the Urban League looking
for a job. They say that they don't have a thing and that the people
don't want any women now. They just want these young girls because they
make them work cheaper. We have both applied for help from the Welfare
but neither of us has gotten anything yet."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Hattie Thompson, Widener, Arkansas
Age: 72

"I was born the second year after the surrender. I was born close to
Arlington, Tennessee. My parents was Mariah Thermon and Johnson Mayo.
They had eight children. They belong to different owners. I heard mama
say in slavery time she'd clean her house good Saturday and clean up her
children and start cooking dinner fore pa come. They looked forward to
pa coming. Now that was at our own house.

"Mama was heired. She was the house woman and cook for her young
mistress, Miss Sallie Thermon. She married Mr. John Thermon. She was
Miss Sallie Royster till she married. I heard her say she raised Miss
Sallie's children with her own. She was a wet nurse. I know Miss Sallie
was good to her. I don't think she was sold but her mother was sold.
She would spin and weave and the larger children did too. They made
bed spreads in colors and solid white. They called the colored ones
coverlets. They was pretty. Mama helped