ustrious. Papa was a shoemaker. He worked on Sunday to
make extra money to buy things outside of what his master give them for
his family. Now I can remember that much. My papa was a bright color
like I am but not near as light as mama. He had a shop when I was little
but he wasn't 'lowed to keep it open on Sunday. I heard him tell about
working on Sundays during slavery and how much he made sometimes. He
tanned his own leather.

"I went to Mississippi and married. Folks got grown earlier than they do
now and I married when I was a young girl 'bout seventeen. We come to
Arkansas. I sewed for white and colored. I cooked some. I taught school
in the public schools. I taught opportunity school two years. I had a
class at the church in day and at the schoolhouse at night. I had two
classes.

"John Hays was mama's owner in Tennessee."

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Lucretia Alexander
1708 High Street. Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 89

"I been married three times and my last name was Lucretia Alexander. I
was twelve years old when the War began. My mother died at seventy-three
or seventy-five. That was in August 1865--August the ninth. She was
buried August twelfth. The reason they kept her was they had refugeed
her children off to different places to keep them from the Yankees. They
couldn't get them back. My mother and her children were heir property.
Her first master was Toliver. My mother was named Agnes Toliver. She had
a boy and a girl both older than I were. My brother come home in '65. I
never got to see my sister till 1869.

"My father died in 1881 and some say he was one hundred twelve and some
say one hundred six. His name was Beasley, John Beasley, and he went by
John Beasley till he died.

"My mother died and left four living children. I was the youngest.

"I got religion in 1865. I was baptized seventy-three years ago this
August.

"I ain't got nary living child. My oldest child would have been
sixty-four if he were living. They claim my baby boy is living, but I
don't know. I have four children.

"The first overseer I remember was named Kurt Johnson. The next was
named Mack McKenzie. The next one was named Pink Womack. And the next
was named Tom Phipps. Mean! Liked meanness! Mean a man as he could be.
I've seen him take them down and whip them till the blood run out of
them.

"I got ten head of grandchildren. And I been grandmother to eleven head.
I be