SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

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Interviewer Mrs, Beraioe Bowdsn
■ > m m iip i
Person interviewed Mary Shaw
1118 Palm Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
^e e 77 Occupation Laundry work
"I was horn in Bolivar County, Mississippi* My mother didn f t know how
old I was but after freedom I went by Miss Ann Blanchet f s—that was lay
mother's old missis-—and she said I was born in 1861#
"But I don't know no thin 1 f bout slavery or the War* I was born and
bred in the desert and my mpther said it was a long time after freedom f fore
she knowed anything about it* She said ttiere was just lots of the folks
said, to their knowin f , they had been free three years f fore they knowed
anything about it*
"My husband brought me to Arkansas when I was 35 and I been workin f
in the same family, Captain Jeter's family, ever since—*forty odd years*
"I always have worked hard* I f ve had the flu only reason I f m sittin 1
here now* If I had to sit and hold my hands very long, they'd have to take
me to Little Bock#
"I been married twice* My last husband was Sam Shaw* He was a great
whiskey man and when whiskey went out, he went to bootleggin 1 and they got
behind him and he left*
"He wrote me once and said if I f d borrow some money on my home and send
it to him, he f d come back* I wrote and told him just like I f m tellin* you
that after I had worked night and day to pay for this house while he was off
tellin 1 some other woman lies just like he told me, I wasn't goin f to send
hiia money. So I ain f t seen him since*
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