other started twice to get my father's pension, but he never was
able to do anything about it. They made away with the papers somehow
and we never did get nothin'. My father married a second time before he
died. When he died, my stepmother tried to get the pension. They writ
back and asked her if he had any kin, and she answered them and said no.
She hid the papers and wouldn't let us have 'em--took and locked 'em
up somewheres where we couldn't find 'em. She was so mean that if she
couldn't get no pension, she didn't want nobody else to get none.

"I don't know just when I was born, nor how old I am. When I come to
remember anything, I was free. But I don't know how old I am, nor when
it was.

"I heard my father speak of pateroles. Just said that they'd ketch you.
He used to scare us by telling us that the pateroles would ketch us. We
thought that was something dreadful.

"I never heard nothin' about jayhawkers. I heard something about Ku Klux
but I don't know what it was.

"My father married my mother just after the War.

"I been married twice. My first husband got killed on the levee. And the
second is down in the country somewheres. We are separated.

"I don't get no help from the Welfare, wish I did. I ain't had no money
to get to the doctor with my eyes."

Interviewer's Comments

The old lady sat with her eyes nearly closed while I questioned her and
listened to her story. Those eyes ran and looked as though they needed
attention badly. The interview was conducted entirely on the porch as
that of Annie Parks. Traffic interrupted; friends interrupted; and a
daughter interrupted from time to time. But this daughter, while a
little suspicious, was in no degree hostile. The two of them referred
me to J.T. Tims, who, they said, knew a lot about slavery. His story is
given along with this one.

I got the impression that the old lady was born before the War, but
I accepted her statement and put her down as born since the War and
guessed her age as near seventy. She was evidently quite reserved about
some details. Her father's marriage to her mother after the War would
not necessarily mean that he was not married to her slave fashion before
the War. She didn't care so much about giving any story, but she was
polite and obliging after she had satisfied herself as to my identity
and work.

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Omelia Thomas
1014 W. Fifth Street, Little Ro