s Frances--that was her daughter--they wove such
pretty cloth for the colored. You know, they went and made themselves
dresses and the white and colored had the same kind of dresses.

"Yes Lord, they _had_ some folks.

"Miss Frances wore hoops but Miss Fannie didn't.

"During of the War them Yankees come down the river; but to tell the
truth, we run and hid and never seen 'em no more.

"They took Mars John's fine saddle horse named Silver Heels. Yes
ma'am, took saddle and bridle and the horse on top of 'em. And he had
a mare named Buchanan and they took her too. He had done moved out of
the big house down into the woods. Called hisself hidin' I reckon. And
he had his horses tied down by the river and the Yankees slipped up on
him and took the horses.

"Yankees burned his house and gin house too and set fire to the
cotton. Oh Lord, I don't like to talk about it. Them Yankees was
rough.

"Right after freedom our white folks left this country and went to
Missouri and the last account I heard of 'em they was all dead.

"After freedom, folks scattered out just like sheep.

"I'm tryin' to study 'bout some songs but I can't think of nothin' but
Dixie."

Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Lydia Jones
228 North Oak Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 93

"My name's Lydia--Lydia Jones. Oh my God I'se born in Mississippi. I
wish you'd hush--I know all about slavery.

"I never had but one master. That was old John Patterson. No he want
good to me. I wish you'd hush! I had two young masters--Marse John and
Marse Edward. Marse John go off to war and say he gwine whip them
Yankees with his pocket knife, but he didn't _do_ it. They said the
war was to keep the colored folks slaves. I tell you I've heard them
bull whips a ringin' from sun to sun.

"After the war when they told us we is free, they said to hire
ourselves out. They didn't give us a nickel when we left.

"I heered talk of the Ku Klux and they come close enough for us to be
skeered but I never seen none of 'em. We never had no slave uprisin's
on our plantation--old John Patterson would a shot 'em down. I tell
you he was a rabid man.

"I used to pick cotton and chop cotton and help weave the cloth. My
old mistress--Miss Fannie--used to go to the woods and get things to
dye the cloth. She would dye some blue and some red.

"Only song I 'member is Dixie. I heered talk of some others but God
knows I never fooled wi