[HW: Dist. 5
E.F. Driskell
12/30/36

JULIA RUSH, Ex-Slave
109 years old]

[TR: The beginning of each line on the original typewritten pages for
this interview is very faint, and some words have been reconstructed
from context. Questionable entries are followed by [??]; words that
could not be deciphered are indicated by [--].]


Mrs. Julia Rush was born in 1826 on Saint Simons Island, Georgia. Mrs.
Rush, her mother, and three sisters were the property of a Frenchman
named Colonel De Binien, a very wealthy land owner. Mrs. Rush does not
remember her father as he was sold away from his family when she was a
baby.

As a child Mrs. Rush served as playmate to one of the Colonel's
daughters and so all that she had to do was to play from morning till
night. When she grew older she started working in the kitchen in the
master's house. Later she was sent to the fields where she worked side
by side with her mother and three sisters from sunup until sundown.
Mrs. Rush says that she has plowed so much that she believes she can
"outplow" any man.