h posters. It didn't have slats, it had
ropes. It was a corded bed. They had boxes for everything else--for
bureaus, chairs, and things."

Further Details about Schooling

"I went to school as far as the eighth grade. Professor Hale, Professor
Mason, and Professor Kimball were some of the teachers that taught me.
They all said I was one of the brightest scholars they had."

Later Life

"I married Cado Haney in 1882. He is dead now. He's been dead nearly
forty years. We didn't live together but fifteen years before he died.
We never had no children. After he died I laundried for a living until I
got too old to work. Now I get old age assistance."

Interviewer's Comment

A mighty sweet old lady to talk to.

Interviewer: Pernella M. Anderson
Person interviewed: Rachel Hankins
El Dorado, Arkansas
Age: 88

"I was born in Alabama. My old mistress and master told me that I was
born in 1850. Get that good--1850! That makes me about 88 but I can't
member the day and month. I was a girl about twelve or fourteen years
old when the old darkies was set free. My old mistress and master did
not call us niggers; they called us darkies. I can't recollect much
about slavery and I can recollect lots too at times. My mind goes and
comes. I tell you children you all is living a white life nowdays. When
I was coming up I was sold to a family in Alabama by the name of
Columbus. They was poor people and they did not own but a few slaves and
it was a large family of them and that made us have to work hard. We
lived down in the field in a long house. We ladies and girls lived in a
log cabin together. Our cabin had a stove room made on the back and it
was made of clay and grass with a hearth made in it and we cooked on the
hearth. We got our food from old mistress's and master's house. We
raised plenty of grub such as peas, greens, potatoes. But our potatoes
wasn't like the potatoes is now. They was white and when you eat them
they would choke you, especially if they was cold. And sorghum molasses
was the only kind there was. I don't know where all these different
kinds of molasses come from.

"They issued our grub out to us to cook. They had cows and we got milk
sometimes but no butter. They had chickens and eggs but we did not. We
raised cotton, sold part and kept enough to make our clothes out of.
Raised corn. And there wasn't no grist mills then so we had a pounding
rock to pound the corn