ura Thornton
1215 W. Twenty-Fourth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 105?

"My native home is Alabama. I was born not far from Midway, Alabama,
about twelve miles from Clayton. Midway, Clayton, and Barber are all
nearby towns. We used to go to all of them.

"My master was Tom Eford. When he died, I fell to Polly Eford. Polly
Eford was the old lady. I don't know where they is and they don't know
nothing about where I is. It's been so long. Because I done lef' Alabama
fifty years. I don't know whether any of them is living or not. It's
been so long.

"Their baby boy was named Giles Eford. His mother was Miami Eford and my
father's name was Perry Eford. That is the name he went in. My mother
went in that name too. My father died the second year of the surrender.
My mother was a widow a long time. I was a grown-up woman and had
children when my father died.

"I married during slavery time. I don't remember just how old I was
then. My old man knows my age, but I can't remember it. But he's
been dead this year makes thirteen years. I had one child before the
surrender. I was just married to the one man. I was married after the
surrender. I don't want to be married again. I never seed a man I would
give a thought to since he died. Lord knows how long we'd been married
before he died.

"We came here and stayed four years and we bought a home down on Arch
Street Pike about ten miles from here. I lived there sixty years. I've
got the tax receipts for sixty years back. I ain't never counted the
ones I paid since he's been dead.

"I was the mother of three children and none of them are living. All of
them dead but me.

"They made like they was goin' to give old slave folks a pension. They
ain't gimme none yit. I'm just livin' on the mercy of the people. I
can't keep up the taxes now. I wish I could git a pension. It would help
keep me up till I died. They won't even as much as give me nothin' on
the relief. They say these grandchildren ought to keep me up. I have to
depend on them and they can't hardly keep up theirselves.

"When the Civil War broke out, my baby was about seven years old. My
mother was here when the stars fell. She had one child then.

"I remember a war before the Civil War. I heard the white folks talking
about it. They wouldn't tell colored folks nothing. They'd work them to
death and beat them to death. They'd sell them just like you sell hogs.
My mother was sold from me when I