t finish somehow dat de folks was
pushin her for dey clothes. I say, 'Well, dat you, ain' me.' I go dere
on Sunday mornin en cook breakfast en clean up en put wood in de
kitchen. Den I would go to church en left dem to cook what dinner dey
get. Dat de reason I won' cook for none dese white folks dis day en time
cause when dey pays you dat little bit of money, dey wants every bit
your time. I been proud when dat lady move from here cause I was tired
walkin de road back en forth. People come here en beg me to cook for
dem, but I tell dem I gwine stay right here en do my bit of washin.
Gwine get along somehow wid it."

"Bethel, down dere on de other side de jail, de only church I ever been
a member of. We got to fix us church twixt now en next year. It need
fixin bad. You see, it right on de Main street gwine down en does be
right public out to de people. I was fixin to go to church Sunday gone,
but my child never come after me. My son, Sammie, never show up, but he
come Sunday evenin laughin. Say, 'Ma, I know if I come by your house,
you would want to go wid me.' No, I ain' been so I able to go in four
Sundays."

"Child, you ought to had brought your parasol wid you cause you been
settin here so long, you gwine be late gettin whe' you started. Dis here
another hot day we got come here."

"Well, good-day, child. Speak bout how you is find Maggie Black to me
when you pass back long dat street dere."

_Source_: Mom Jessie Sparrow, ex-slave, 83 years, Marion, S.C.
Personal interview by Annie Ruth Davis, October, 1937.

=Project #1655=
=W.W. Dixon=
=Winnsboro, S.C.=

=ROSA STARKE=
=_EX-SLAVE 83 YEARS OLD._=

Rosa's grandfather was a slave of Solicitor Starke. Although she has had
two husbands since slavery, she has thrown their names into the discard
and goes by the name of Rosa Starke. She lives in a three-room frame
house with her son, John Harrison, two miles south of Winnsboro, S.C.,
on the plantation of Mrs. Rebecca V. Woodward. She still does farm work,
hoeing and picking cotton.

"They say I was six years old when de war commence poppin' in
Charleston. Mammy and pappy say dat I was born on de Graham place, one
of de nineteen plantations of my old marster, Nick Peay, in 1854. My
pappy was name Bob and my mammy name Salina. They had b'longed to old
Marse Tom Starke befo' old Marse Nick bought them. My brudders was name
Bob and John. I had a sister name Carrie. They was all older than me.

"My m