SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

,-0487 & I'M
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed Cora Seroggina* Clarendon* Arkansas
Age 48 or 50
"My mother was born in Spring Hill, Tennessee and brought to Arkansas
by her master* Her name was Margaret. Br* and Mrs* Porter brought my
mother to Batesville, Arkansas when she was eight years old and raised
her. She was very light* She had long straight hair but was mixed with
white* She never knew imich about her parents or people•
*Mr» William Brook (white) case to De Vails Bluff from Tennessee and
brought her sister soon after the War* She was a very black woman*
"Br* Porter had a family 0 One of their daughters was Mrs* Mat tie Long,
another Mrs* Willie Bowens* There were others*, They were all fine to my
mother* She married in Dr* Porter 1 s home* Mrs* Porter had leamft her to
sew* My father was a mechanic* My mother sewed for both black and white*
She was a fine dressmaker* She had eight children and raised six of us up
grown*
"My father was a tall rawbony brown man* His mother was an Indian
squaw* She lived to be one hundred seven years old* She lived about with
ker children* The white folks all called her f Aunt lfatlldy f flacker* She
was a small woman, long hair and high cheek bones* She wore a shawl big as
a sheet purty nigh all time and smoked a pipe* I was born in Batesville*
n My mother spoke of her one long journey on the steamboat and stage*
coach* That was when she was brought to Arkansas* It made a memorable
Picture in her mind*