SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"When I was a child, patching and darning was stylish* Soon as the
washing was brung in the clothes had to be sorted out and every snag place
patched nice* Folks had better made clothes and had to take care of em*
Clothes don't last no time now* White folks had fine clothes but they
didn't have nigh as many as white folks do now#
"Mama was a pretty good hand at doing mighty nigh what she took a
notion to do about the house* She never was no count in the field—jess
couldn't hold out it seem like* She worked in the field lots* Pa was a
shoemaker* He made all our shoes and had his tools, lasts, etc* He
learned his trade in slavery* He farmed*
"It has been so long ago I tell you I don't recollect things straight*
I don't know how they found out about freedom but they left I think* They
got all they could take, their clothes and a little to eat* They started
share cropping* They was out from Holly Springs when I come to knowledge*
Mama was a nice hand at cooking and hand sewing* She said Miss Sallie
learnt her* She never could read*
"I come to Arkansas fifty year ago this spring with one little girl—
all the little girl I ever had* I never had no boys* I come here to get
work* I always got work. It was a new country and it was being cleared
out* In the spring we could get wild polk greens to cook* You can't get
none now*
"Times is sider'bly changed since then* Hogs run wild* Plenty game
here then* Something to. eat was not hard to get then as it is now* We
raise a hog in a pen nearly every year but it takes plenty to feed it that
way*
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