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"Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Arkansas Narratives, Part 7"

My second wife was just part
Indian. I have seen spirits of friends just as they were put away. I
shore believe in ghosts. Their language is different from ours. I knew
my wife's voice cause she called me "Tommy".


Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Alice Wise
1112 Indiana Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 79

"I was born in South Carolina, and I sent and got my age and the man
sent me my age. He said he remembered me. He said, 'You married Marcus
Wise. I know you is seventy-nine 'cause I'm seventy-four and you're
older'n me. Why, I got a boy fifty-three years old.
"We belonged to Daniel Draft. His wife was named Maud. And my father's
people was named Wesley Caughman and his wife was Catherine Caughman.
"I can recollect hearin' the folks hollerin' when the Yankees come
through and singin' this old cornfield song
'I'm a goin' away tomorrow
Hoodle do, hoodle do.'
That's all I can recollect.
"I can recollect when we moved from the white folks. My father driv' a
wagon and hauled lumber to Columbia from Lexington.
"I don't know how old I was when I come here. My age got away from me,
that's how come I had to write home for it, but I had three chillun when
I come to this country; I know that.
"I went to school a little, but chillun in them days had to work.


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