th 'em.

"Yes'm I believes in hants. Let me tell you something. My mama seen my
daddy after he been dead a long time. He come right up through the
crack by the fireplace and he said 'Don't you be afraid Emmaline' but
she was agoin'. They had to sing and pray in the house 'fore my mama
would go back but she never seen him again.

"I'se been blind now for three years and I lives with my granddaughter
but lady, I'll tell you the truth--I been around. Yes, madam, I is."

Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Liza Jones (Cookie)
610 S. Eighteenth Street, Pine Bluff, Ark.
Age: 88

"Come in, this is Cookie. Well, I do know a heap about slavery, cause
I worked. I stayed in the house; I was house girl. They called me
Cookie cause I used to cook so much.

"That was in Madison County, near Jackson, Tennessee. My mistress was
good to me. Yes'm, I got along all right but a heap of others got
along all wrong.

"Mistress took care of us in the cold and all kinds of weather. She
sho did.

"She had four women and four men. We had plenty to eat. She had hogs
and sheep and geese and always cooked enough for all of us. Whatever
she had to eat we had.

"We clothed our darkies in slavery times. I was a weaver for four
years and never done nothin' else. Yes ma'm, I was a house woman and I
am now.

"Yes ma'm, I member seein' different kinds of soldiers. I member once
some Rebels come to old mistress to get somethin' to eat but before it
was ready the Yankees come and run em off. They didn't have time to
eat it all so us colored folks got the rest of it.

"Old mistress had a son Mac and he was in the war. The Yankees
captured him and carried him to Chicago and put him in a warehouse
over the water.

"Old mistress was a good old Christian woman. All the darkies had to
come to her room to prayermeetin' every night. She didn't skip no
nights. And her help didn't mind workin'. They'd go the length for
her, Miss.

"After I was grown I went most anywhere, but when I was little I sho
set on old mistress' dress tail. I used to go to church with her.
She'd say, "Open your mouf and sing" and I'd just holler and sing. I
can member now how loud I used to holler.

"Aint no use in talkin', I had a good mistress. I never was sold. Old
mistress wouldn't sell. There was a speculator come there and wanted
to buy us. When we was free, old mistress say, "Now I could a sold you
and had the money, and no