SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

and we never did get nothin'* USy flather married a second time before he
died* When he died, oy stepmother tried to get the pension* They writ baok
and asked her if he had axqr kin* and she answered them and said no* She hid
the papers and wouldn't let us have 'emp—took and locked 'em up somewheres
where we couldn't find 'em* She was so mean that if she couldn't get no
pension, she didn't want nobody else to get none*
"I don't know just when 1 was born* nor how old I am* When 1 come to
remember anything, I was free* But I don't Imow how old 1 am, nor when it
was*
11 1 heard ay father speak of pateroles* Just said that they'd ketch
you* He used to scare vis by telling us that the pateroles would ketch us*
We thought that was something dreadful*
w I r^ever heard nothin' about jay hawkers* X heard something about Eu
ELux, but I don't know what it was*
"Iftr father married my mother just after the War*
,f I been married twice* Vfy first husband got killed on the levee* And
the second is down in the country somewheres* We are separated*
n I don't get no help from the Welfare, wish I did* I ain't had no money
to get to the doctor with sy eyes* 11
Interviewer's Comment*
The old lacjy sat with her eyes nearly closed while I questioned her and
listened to her stoxy* Those eyes ran and looked as though they needed
attention badly* The interview was conducted entirely on the porch as
was that of Axmie Barks* Traffic interrupted) friends interrupted}
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