SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

£;
..'30893 MO
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed Hattie Thompson^ Widener» Arkansas
Age 72
••I was born the second year after the surrender* I was born close to
Arlington, Tennessee* My parents was Mariah Thermon and Johnson Mayo*
They had eight children* They belong to different owners. I heard mama
say in slavery time she f d clean her house good Saturday and clean up her
children and start cooking dinner fore pa come* They looked forward to pa
coming* Now that was at our own house*
"Mama was heired* She was the house woman and cook for her young /'
mistress, Miss Sallie Thermon* She married Mr* John Thermon. She was
Miss Sallie Hoyster till she married. I heard her say she raised Miss
Sallie f s children with her own* She was a wet nurse* I know Miss Sallie
was good to her* I don't think she was sold but her mother was sold* She
would spin and weave and the larger children did too* They made bed
spreads in colors and solid white. They called the colored ones coverlets*
They was pretty* Mama helped quilt* She was a good hand at that* They
made awful close stitches and backstitched every now and then to make it
hold* They would wax the thread to keep it from rolling up and tangling*
n Thread was in balls* They rolled it from skeins to balls. They
rolled it from shuck broches to the balls* Put shucks around the spindle
to slip it off easy* I have seen big balls this big (2 ft. in diameter)
down on the floor and mama knitting off of it right on* When the feet wore
out on socks and stockings, they would unravel them, save the good thread,
and reknit the foot or toe or heel*