fore den but it wasn't my kine er white
folks what 'sponsible for dat, it was de low class like some of de
oberseers and den some of de yother folks like for instance de furriners
what used to come in de country and work at jobs de mars ud give 'em to
do on the places like carpentrying an' sich. I knowed one bad case,
boss, dat happened right dere by us place and dat was de oberseer who
'sponsible for dat and he was de oberseer for a widow oman what lived in
Helena and dis white man runned de place an' he hab he nigger oman and
she de mama of 'bout six chillun by dis man I tellin' you 'bout, three
gals and three boys, and dem chillun nigh 'bout white and look just like
him and den he move off to some yother part of de county and he git
married dere to a white oman but he take he nigger fambly wid him just
de same and he built dem a house in de middle of de place he done bought
and he keep 'em dere eben though he done got him a white wife who he lib
wid also and, boss, since I done told you he name don't tell I said so
'cause de chillun, dey is livin' dere yet and some of dem is gettin' old
deyselves now but, boss, I don't 'spect I is tellin' you much you don't
already know 'bout dat bunch."

Interviewer: Beulah Sherwood Hagg
Person interviewed: Mrs. Cora Gillam
1023 Arch Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 86
[HW: [Scratching Pacified Master.]]

"I have never been entirely sure of my age. I have kept it since I was
married and they called me fifteen. That was in '66 or '67. Anyhow, I'm
about 86, and what difference does one year make, one way or another. I
lived with master and mistress in Greenville, Mississippi. They didn't
have children and kept me in the house with them all the time. Master
was always having a bad spell and take to his bed. It always made him
sick to hear that freedom was coming closer. He just couldn't stand to
hear about that. I always remember the day he died. It was the fall of
Vicksburg. When he took a spell, I had to stand by the bed and scratch
his head for him, and fan him with the other hand. He said that
scratching pacified him.

"No ma'am, oh no indeedy, my father was not a slave. Can't you tell by
me that he was white? My brother and one sister were free folks because
their white father claimed them. Brother was in college in Cincinnati
and sister was in Oberlin college. My father was Mr. McCarroll from
Ohio. He came to Mississippi to be overseer