SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Freedom
♦•The soldiers come and I knowed it was the Yankees I hated* They took
all they could find and wasted a lot of it* I was scared* I kept hid
about* The slaves put their beds and clothes up on the wagons and went off
behind them and some dumb up in the wagons* I heard Miss Betty say* f They
need not follow them off, they are already free* 1 The way she said it,
like she was heart broken, made me nearly cry and I remember her very words
till this day* She was a good woman*
"Mama come and got me long time after that and I didn't want to go
nor stay neither* It was like taking me off from my own home* Papa was
freeborn and freedom I couldn't understand till I was long grown* I never
got a whooping in my life* I was taught politeness*
"Daring slavery we bought mighty little* Hour in barrels, salt* We
had waple sugar and sorghum molasses in bounty* We was happy and had plenty
to eat and wear©
"I learned to make the fine cakes from a Jew woman (Jewess), Mrs*
Isaac. I f ve been called a cook here in Forrest City* I was taught by Mrs*
Isaac to make angel food, coffee cake, white bread and white cakes* From
that I made the other kinds my own self **
Interviewer 1 s Comment
People in Forrest City send for Ida and keep her a week or two baking
Christmas and wedding cakes*
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