“Dey raised de young folks better dem days.  Dey learnt ’em to work.  Dey didn’ min’ work.  Today dey don’ care ‘bout nothin’ but havin’ a good time.  Dey ain’ studyin’ ’bout no hereafter, neither.

“De Relief give me a little somethin’ t’eat an’ wear one time, but dey aint never give me no money.  I’s old an’ needy, but I’s trustin’ de Lord an’ de good white folks to he’p me now.  All de white folks I used to work for has moved away from town now.  I don’ have nobody to look to but my daughter.  She looks after me de bes’ she can.  Dey is some neighbor wimmins dat comes an’ sets wid me sometimes.

“I’s gittin’ deaf an’ I aint got a tooth lef’ in my head.  I’s too feeble to he’p make a livin’, but maybe I’ll git dat Old Age Pension ’fore I die.”

Mississippi Federal Writers Slave Autobiographies

[MOLLIE WILLIAMS Terry, Mississippi]

[Illustration:  Mollie Williams]

Mollie Williams, who lives two miles west of Terry, Miss., tells her story: 

“Iffen I lives’ til nex’ September 15, I’ll be eighty fo’!  I was born ‘bout three miles frum Utica on de Newsome place.  Me an’ brudder Hamp b’longed to Marse George Newsome.  Marse George was named afte’ George Washington up in Virginny whar he come frum.  Miss Margurite was our mistiss.  My mammy?  Well, I’ll have to tell you now ’bout her.

“You see, Marse George come off down here frum Virginny lak young folks venturin’ ‘bout, an’ mar’ied Mis’ Margurite an’ wanted to start up livin’ right over thar near Utica whar I was born.  But Marse George was po’, an’ he sho’ foun’ out ye can’t make no crop wid’out’n a start of darkies, so he writ home to Virginny fer to git some darkies.  All dey sont him was fo’ mens an’ old Aunt Harriet fer to cook.

“One day Marse George an’ his Uncle, Mr. John Davenport—­now thar was a rich man fer ye, why, he had two carri’ge drivers—­dey rid over to Grand Gulf whar dey was a sellin’ slabes offen de block an’ Mr. John tol’ Marse George to pick hisself out a pair of darkies to mate so’s he could git hisself a start of darkies fer to chop his cotton an’ like.  So Marse George pick out my pappy fust.  My pappy come frum North Ca’lina.  Den he seen my mammy an’ she was big an’ strengthy an’ he wanted her pow’ful bad.  But lak I tol’ you, he didn’ have ’nough money to buy ’em both, so his Uncle John say he’d buy mammy an’ den he would loan her over to Marse George fer pappy.  An’ de fust chile would be Mr. John’s, an’ de secon’ Marse George’s, an’ likewise.  Mammy was a Missourian name Marylin Napier Davenpo’t.  An’ pappy was name Martin Newsome.

“Darkies libed in li’l old log houses wid dirt chimbleys.  Dat is, de rest of de darkies did.  Dey kep’ me up in de Big House, bein’ mammyless lak.  Mos’ly I slep’ in de trun’le bed wid Miss Mary Jane till I got so bad dey had to mek a pallet on de flo’ fer me.  Dey was Mr. Bryant, Mr. A.D., Miss Martha, Miss Ann, Miss Helen, Miss Mary Jane, an’ Mr. George, all b’longin’ to Marse George an’ Miss Margurite.