SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Marriage
"I married in 1879* My father and mother married each other too
after freedom* I remember that* It was when the government was making all
those that had been slaves marry* I have been married just the one time*
My wife died in April 1927.
Present Condition
?T I am not able to do anything now* I don f t even tote a chair across
the room, or spade up the ground for a garden, or hoe up the weeds in it*
I an ruptured and the doctor says it is the funniest rupture he ever seen.
He says that there f s a rupture and fat hanging down in the rupture* They
have to keep me packed with ice all the time* The least little thing
brings it down* I can f t hold myself nor nothing. Have to wear something
under my clothes*
"I don't get a pension."
Interviewer's Comnient
Staith is sensitive about his first name—doesn f t like to give it—
and about his condition* He doesn't like to mention it or to have it
referred to.
He has an excellent memory for some things and a rather poor one for
30113 others. He got angry when his granddaughter supplied data about his
ffife which he apparently could not recall.
His physical condition is deplorable and his circumstances extremely
straitened*
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