SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Obi: ( KJ>
Interviewer Mias Irene Robertson
Person interviewed Bnma Hulett Staith; Hazen. Arkansas
Age 66
vV
I was the first colored baby born here or very near here* There
was only three houses in this town (Hazen) • I think they master been
log houses*
v\ My folks belong to Dr. Hazen# He brought families from Tennessee*
When the war broke out he took em to Texas* Then he brought em back
here* When they was freed I heard my mother say they worked on for him
and his boys (Alex and Jim Hazen) and they paid them* He was good to
them. They had er plenty always* After the war they lived in good log
houses and he give em land and lumber for the church* Same church we
got cept a storm tore it down and this one built in place of it* He let
em have a school* Same place it stands now* My mother (Mandy Huiett)
got a Union pension till she died* She cooked at the first hotel in
Hazen for John Lane* She washed and ironed till she died* We girls
helped and we wash and iron all we can get now* None of us not on
relief (Fannie nor Emma)* I can't wash no more. My hands and arms
swell up with rheumatism* I still iron all I can get*
vv The present conditions seems awful unsettled; wages low, prices
high and work scarce at times* Men can get work in the hay two
months and bout two months* work in the rice or pickin cotton, either
oae* Then the work has played clean out till hay time next year*