SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

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Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed Robert Solomon, Des Are, Arkansas
Age_73_
My father was African. JE was born in Atlanta. My mother was
a Cherokee Indian. Her name was Alice Gemage. I was born in 1864.
I don't know where I was born - think it was in the Territory - my
father stole my mother one night. He couldn't understand them and
he was afraid of her people. He went back to Savannah after so long
a time and they was in Florida when I first seen any of her people•
When I got up any size I asked my father all about him and my mother
marrying. He said he knowed her bout two year fore they married.
They sorter courted by signs - my mother learned me her language and
it was natural fur me to speak my father's tongue. I talked for them.
She was bout fifteen when she run away. I don't know if a preacher
ever did marry em or not. My father said she was just so pretty he
couldn't help lovih her. He kept makii^ signs and she made signs. I
liked my Gramma Gemage. She couldn't understand much. We all went to
the Indian Territory from Florida and Georgia. That's how I come out
hare.
I don't remember the Kii KLux. I remember hearing ma and gramma
talk bout the way they tried to get way from em. My father was a
farmer till freedom. He farmed around here and at Pine Bluff* He
died at West Point. My mother and step-mother both died at Pine Bluff*
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