all disappointed because they thought she would be a good breeder. Miss
Sallie Ann took her and cured her and when Miss Sallie Ann was going to
marry, her folks didn't want to give her Minerva. She tended (contended)
out and got her and Agnes both. Agnes died at about emancipation.

"I'm named for my mother. I'm her youngest child.

"I recollect my grandmother and what she told, and papa's mind went back
to olden times the older he got to be. When folks would run down slavery
he would say it wasn't so bad with them--him and mama. He never seen
times bad as times is got to be now. Then he sure would wanted slavery
back some more. He was a strong hard laboring man. He was a provider for
his family till he got so no 'count.

"Times is changing up fast. Folks is worse about cutting up and
carousing than they was thirty years ago to my own knowledge. I ain't
old so speaking."




Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Rosetta Davis, Marianna, Arkansas
Age: 55


"I was born in Phillips County, Arkansas. My folks' master was named Dr.
Jack Spivy. Grandma belong to him. She was a field woman. I don't know
if he was a good master er not. They didn't know it was freedom till
three or four months. They was at work and some man come along and said