SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Interviewer . Mrs* Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed Kittie Stanford
A
309 Missouri Street; Pine Bluff, Arkansas
k Age 104
n Yes f mt I used to be a slave* My mother belonged to Mrs* Lindsey*
One day when I was ten years old, my old mistress take me over to her
daughter and say f I brought you a little nigger gal to rock de cradle. 1
I f se one hundred and four years old now. Miss Etta done^it it down in
the book for me#
ft 0ne time a lady from up North ask me did I ever get whipped.
Honey, I ain f t goin 1 tell you no lie* The overseer whipped us* Old
mistress used to send me to her mother to keep the Judge from whippin*
me. Old Judge say 'Nigged need whippin 1 whether he do anything or not**
"Some of the hands run away* Old Henry run away and hide in the
swamp and say he goin f stay till he bones turn white* But he come back
when he get hongry and then he run away again*
"When the war come some of the slaves steal the Judge's hosses and
run away to Pine Bluff and he didn f t never find f em* The Judge think
the Yankees goin f get everything he got so we all left Arkansas and went
to Texas* We in Texas when freedom come* We come back to Arkansas and
I stay with my white folks awhile but I didn't get no pay so I got a job
cookin 1 for a colored woman*
"I been married fo f times* I left my las f husband. I didn't leave
him cause he beat me* I lef f him cause he want too many*
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