Bearing Witness: Memories of Arkansas Slavery

Addendum to Bearing Witness

Addendum to Bearing Witness Contents Ashley County Judia Fortenberry 409 Chicot County Lucretia Alexander 411 Desha County Callie Washington 416 Jefferson County Mary Ann Brooks 420 Ellen Frazier 421 Virginia Sims 423 Liza Smith 424 Johnson County Ann May 426 Ouachita County Mittie Freeman 427 Pulaski County Louis Davis 431 407 Lankfordtext:Lankford / Final Pages 7/14/09 10:06 AM Page 407 Lankfordtext:Lankford / Final Pages 7/14/09 10:06 AM Page 408 Ashley County Fortenberry, Judia Age: 75 712 Arch Street Little Rock, Arkansas Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor [M8: pt. 2: 328-30] “I was born three miles west of Hamburg in Ashley County,Arkansas, in the year 1859, in the month of October. I don’t know just what day of the month it was. “My mother was named Indiana Simms and my father was named Burrell Simms. My father’s mother was named Ony Simms, and my mother’s mother was named Maria Young. I don’t know what the names of their parents was. “My mother’s master was named Robert Tucker. My father’s master was named Hartwell Simms. Their plantations were pretty close together, but don’t know how my father and my mother got together. I guess they just happened to meet up with each other. The slaves from the two plantations were allowed to visit one another.After their marriage,the two continued to belong to different masters. Every Sunday, they would visit one another. My father used to come to visit his wife every Sunday and through the week at night. “My mother had ten children. Houses “I was born in a log house with one room. It was built with a stick and dirt chimney. It had plank floors. They didn’t have nothin’ much in the way of furniture—homemade beds, stools, tables. We had common pans and tin plates and tin cans to use for dishes.The cabin had one window and one door. Patrollers “I have heard my mother and father tell many a story of the pateroles.But I can’t remember them. My father said they used to go into the slave cabins and take folks out and whip them. They’d go at night and get ’em out and whip ’em. How Freedom Came “I was so little that I don’t know much about how freedom came. I just know he took us all and went somewheres and made him a crop. Went to Ashley County 409 Lankfordtext:Lankford / Final Pages 7/14/09 10:06 AM Page 409 another man. Didn’t stay on the place where he was a slave. He never got anything when he was freed. I never heard of any of the slaves getting anything. Schooling “I went to free school after the War. I just went along during the vacation when they weren’t doing any farming. That is all the education I got. I can’t tell how many seasons I went—four or five, I reckon. I never did go any whole season. I never had much chance to go to school. People didn’t send their children to school much in those days. I went to school in Monticello, but most of my schooling was in country schools. Occupation “When I first went to work, I picked cotton. That is at a place out near Hamburg. I picked cotton about ten or fifteen years. Then I went to town— Monticello. I washed and ironed. About forty-five years ago, I came to Little Rock, and have been here every since.Washing and ironing has been my support . I have sometimes cooked. Opinions “I don’t know what I think about the young people. Seems to me they coming to nothing. Lot of them do wrong just because they got a chance to do it. I’m a christian. I belong to the A. M. E.’s. You know how they do. Song 1 I belong to the band That good old christian band Thank God I belong to the band. Chorus Steal away home to Jesus I ain’t got long to stay here. 2 There’ll I’ll meet my mother, My good old christian mother, Mother, how do you do; Thank God I belong to the band. I can’t remember the music. But that’s an old song we used to sing ’way back yonder. I can...