SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Interviewer Samuel S» Taylor
Person interviewed Henrietta Evelina Smith
1714 Pine Street* Little Rock, Arkansas
Age
"I was born in Louisiana in East Felicia Parish near Baton Rouge on the
twenty-eighth day of December* My mother 1 s name was Delia White♦ Her
maiden name was Delia Early* My father 9 s name was Henry White. My mother 1 s
father was named Amos Early* My mother 1 s mother's name was Julia* Ity
father's father was named Tom White and his mother was named Susan*
"My father and mother both belonged to the Eason's* I don't know how
they spelled it* Bason's daughter married Munday and my uncle bought this
white man's place years after freedom* That is not far from Clinton-—about
four or five miles. It is three miles from Ethelf Louisiana*
"Amos, my grandfather, was the wagoneer on the old place* Father, he
used to drive the wagon too* He'd haul cotton to Baton Rouge and things
like that* He would run off and stay five or six months* I have heard them
talk about how he used to come back and bring hogs and one thing and another
that he had found out in the woods* He would run off because the overseer
would whip him* But he was such a good working man that once or twice, the
boss man turned off his overseer on account of him* There wasn't nothing
against his work* He just wouldn't take a blow* Most of the times after he
had been out a while the boss man would tell the hands to tell -Amos that if
to would come on home they wouldn't whip him for running off*
"My grandmother's mother on my father's side was named Melissa* I
think that was her name* My father's mother was named Susan like I told you*
#*¥ 193