SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

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Interviewer Mrs» Beraiee Bowden
Person interviewed Millie Tfrylor
1418 Texas Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 78
"Yes'm, I was bom in slavery times in Calhoun County, Mississippi•
"Bill Armstrong was my owaer. He's been dead a long time*
"My folks stayed on there a good while •
"Pa said they was good to him but they wasn't good to my ma* I heered
pa say they beat her till she died. I don't remember a thing 'bout my ma*
n I heered f em talk 'bout the Ku KLuac* They kep' that in my hearin f so
much that I kep f that in my remembrance.
"I know when we stayed on the place pa said was old master's. Yes f m, I
sure 'members dat. I know we stayed there till pa married again.
"Bill Armstrong's wife made our clothes* I know we stayed right in the
yard with some more colored folks o
n Pa worked on the shares and rented too.
"I was twenty-four when I come from Mississippi here. I was married
then and had three chillun. But they all dead now. I stays here with my
grandson. I don't know what I'd do if it wasn't for himu I reckon I'd just
be knockin* around—no tellin'.
"I got another grandson lives in Marvell. I went there to visit and I
got so I couldn't walk, so my grandson carried me to the doctor. And he
just looked at me—he had been know in' me so long. I said, 'Don't you know
me?' And he said, 'If you'd take off your hat I think I'd know you* 1 And he
said, 'Well, for the Lawd, if it ain't Millie Taylor!'
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