Times been changing ever since I come in this
world. It is the people cause the times to change. I wouldn't know how
to start to vote."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Nettie Van Buren, Clarendon, Arkansas
Ex school-teacher
Age: 62
"My mother was named Isabel Porter Smith. She come from Springville.
Rev. Porter brought her to Mississippi close to Holly Springs. Then she
come to Batesville, Arkansas. He owned her. He was a circuit rider. I
think he was a Presbyterian minister. I heard her say they brought her
to Arkansas when she was a small girl. She nursed and cooked all the
time. After freedom she went with Reverend Porter's relatives to work
for them. I know so very little about what she said about slavery.
"My father was raised in North Carolina. His name was Jerry Smith and
his master he called Judge Smith. My father made all he ever had
farmin'. He knew how to raise cotton. He owned a home. This is his home
(a nice home on River Street in Clarendon) and 80 acres. He sold this
farm two miles from here after he had paralysis, to live on.
"My parents had two girls and two boys. They all dead but me. My
mother's favorite song was "Oh How I Love Jesus Because He First Loved
Me." They come here because my mother had a brother down here and she
heard it was such fine farmin' land.
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