Interviewer: Pernella M. Anderson
Person interviewed: Sarah Douglas
Route 2, Box 19-A, El Dorado, Arkansas
Age: 82?

[Illustration: Sarah and Sam Douglas]
[TR: The Library of Congress photo archive notes "'Tom' written in
pencil above 'Sam' in title."]


"I was born in Alabama. I don't know when though. I did not find out
when I was born because old miss never told me. My ma died when I was
real small and my old miss raised me. I had a hard time of my life. I
slept on the floor just like a cat--anywhere I laid down I slept. In
winter I slept on rags. If I got sick old miss would give me plenty of
medicine because she wanted me to stay well in order to work. My old
master was name John Buffett and old misses name was Eddie Buffett. She
would fix my bread and licker in a tin lid and shove it to me on the
floor. I never ate at the table until I was twelve and that was after
freedom.

"To whip me she put my head between the two fence rails and she taken
the cow hide whip and beat me until I couldn't sit down for a week.
Sometimes she tied our hands around a tree and tie our neck to the tree
with our face to the tree and they would get behind us with that cow
hide whip with a piece of lead tied to the end and lord have mercy!