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Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Arkansas Narratives, Part 2 by Work Projects Administration
page 98 of 341 (28%)



Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Alice Davis
1700 Vaugine Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 81


"I was born in Mississippi. My mistress was Jane Davis. She raised me.
She owned my mother too.

"When Miss Jane's husband died, he willed the niggers to his childun and
Mandy Paine owned me then. When I was one month old they said I was so
white Mandy Paine thought her brother was my father, so she got me and
carried me to the meat block and was goin' to cut my head off. When the
childun heard, they run and cried, 'Mama's goin' to kill Harriet's
baby.' Old mistress, Jane Davis, heard about it and she come and paid
Miss Jane forty dollars for me and carried me to her home, and I slep
right in the bed with her till the war ceasted."

"Her childun was grown and they used to come by and say, 'Ma, why don't
you take that nigger out of your bed?' and she'd reach over and pat me
and say, 'This the only nigger I got.'

"I stayed there two or three years after freedom. I didn't know what
free meant. Big childun all laugh and say, 'All niggers free, all
niggers free.' And I'd say, 'What is free?' I was lookin' for a man to
come.

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