“I first remembers living on the plantation of Mr. Jake Dumas near El Dorado Landing.  You know it’s Calion now.  We lived up towards Camden and it was there that my ma and pa was married and buried.  I was a big girl durin’ the war.  My job was to card and spin.  And I use to carry the children to school.  When I would get to the school I would put the children off, git straddle and ride that horse home.  When I would get there old mos would say Ca’line did you run him?  I’d say naw sir.  Then he’d say, ’Oh, Carryline put the horse in the lot and come out here.  I’d say, ‘Master I didn’t run that horse’ but didn’t do no good.  He sure would whip me.  I’d get down and roll.  I would stomp and he would do the same.  I wondered how he could tell I’d run that horse.  But course he could cause that horse had the thumps (heart beating rapidly).

“I remember seeing the soldiers come through during the war.  They come by droves stealing horses, setting the cotton on fire and taking sumpin to eat, too.

“Yes, I does still member the songs we sung durin’ the war but I’ve got the asthmy and ain’t got much wind fur singin’.

  “You want to know the reason,
  You want to know the reason,
  You want to know the reason, I’ll tell you why,
  We’ll whip them Yankees, whole hog or die.”

  “Hooray, Hooray, Hooray for the Southern Girl. 
  Hooray for the homespun dress the Southern ladies wear. 
  My homespun dress is plain I know,
  I glory in its name;
  Hooray for the homespun dress the Southern ladies wear.”

“I’ve got the asthmy honey and jest caint sing no more.

“You asked ‘bout my husband and chillun.  I been married fo’ times.  My first man’s name was Dick Hagler, the next Frank Bibby, the next Henry Harris and the last one was Tom Smith.  That’s where I get my name Ca’line Smith.  I never did have but one daughter but she had sixteen chillun.  She’s daid now and mah granchillun is scattered.

“I got the asthmy an jes don’ feel like talkin’ no more.  Long time ago when I was sick master always had a doctor to me now I have to hire one.  And they always fed me good and clothed me but after I was free I would go round and work around to git a little sumpin to eat.”

Interviewer:  Thomas Elmore Lucy
Person interviewed:  Caroline Smith, Russellville, Arkansas
Age:  83

“Ca’line Smith’s my name and dey calls me ‘Aunt Ca’line.’  I was born about de year 1855 as I was about dis high (measuring) when de War broke out.  I remembers de boys marching away in their grey uniforms just as plain.  We chillen would watch dem as dey went away; we could see em as we peeped through de winders and de cracks in de walls.

“I was born in Mississippi close to Columbus on de plantation of my master, John Duncan.  And he was a purty strict old master, sure, but sometimes he was kind to us.  When we was set free he let us all go wherever we wanted to, but didn’t pay us nothin’.