She was a brown girl.
They was going out on a scout trip--to hunt and ravage over the
country. They told her to get up her clothes, they would be by for
her. She was grandma's and grandpa's owners' nurse girl. She told them
and they sent her on to tell the white folks. They sent her clear off.
She didn't want to leave. She said her master was plumb good to her
and them all. They kept her hid out. The Yankees come slipping back to
tole her off. They couldn't find her nowhere. They didn't ax about
her. They was stealing her for a cook she thought. She couldn't cook
to do no good she said. She wasn't married for a long time after then.
She said she was scared nearly to death till they took her off and hid
her.

"I have voted but not for a long time. I'm too old to get about and
keep too sick to go to the polls to vote. I got high blood pressure.

"Times is fair. If I was a young man I would go to work. I can't
grumble. Folks mighty nice to me. I keeps in line with my kin folks
and men my age.

"The young age folks don't understand me and I don't know their ways
neither. They may be all right, but I don't know."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Lucy Key,
Forrest City, Arkansas
Age: 70 plus

"I was born in Marshall County, Mississippi. I seen Yankees go by in
droves. I was big enough to recollect that. Old mis', Ellis Marshall's
mother, named all the colored children on the place. All the white and
colored children was named for somebody else in the family. Aunt Mary
Marshall stayed in the house wid old mis'.

"Old mis' had a polly parrot. That thing got bad 'bout telling on us.
Old mis' give us a brushing. Her son was a bachelor. He lived there.
He married a girl fourteen or fifteen years old and Lawrence Marshall
is their son. His sister was in Texas. They said old man Marshall was
so stingy he would cut a pea in two. Every time we'd go in the orchard
old polly parrot tell on us. We'd eat the turning fruit. One day Aunt
Mary (colored) scared polly with her dress and apron till he took bad
off sick and died. Mr. Marshall was rough. If he'd found that out he'd
'bout whooped Aunt Mary to death. He didn't find it out. He'd have
crazy spells and they couldn't handle him. They would send for Wallace
and Tite Marshall (colored men on his place). They was all could do
anything wid 'em. He had plenty money and a big room full of meat all
the time.

"I recollect what we ca