ar whole week to git dar, we went part way on de train and den rid de steam boat up de Mississippi River ter de landin’.  We worked in the cotton field out dar and done all kinds er work on de farm, but us didn’t like an’ Dr. Peters an’ Mr. Allen give my Pa money fer us ter come home on.  ’Fore we could git started my oldest brother wanted to come home so bad he jest pitched out and walked all de way frum Arkansas to our old home in Georgy.  We come back by Memphis and den come on home on de train.  When we wuz out dar I went to school an’ got as far as ‘Baker’.  Dat’s de only schoolin’ I ever had.”

Aunt Arrie told about her courtship and marriage, she remembers all about it and grew rather sentimental and sad while she talked.  She said that Franklin Binns was going with her before she went to live in Arkansas and when she came home he picked up the courtship where he had left off when she went away.  He would ride 20 miles on horseback to see her.  He brought her candy and nice things to eat, but she still wouldn’t “give him no satisfaction ’bout whether she keered fer him er not.”  She said other men wanted to come to see her, but she paid them not one bit of attention.  “No mam, I wouldn’t ’cept of them, I never did go with in an’ everybody, I don’t do dat yit.”  She said one day Franklin was to see her and said “Less us marry, I think ’nough of you to marry.”  She said she wouldn’t tell him nothin’ so he went to see her parents and they agreed, so she married him sometime later.  They were married by a white minister, Mr. Joe Carter.

Aunt Arrie leads a lonely life now.  She grieves for her loved ones more than negroes usually do.  She doesn’t get about much, but “I does go over to see Sis Lou (a neighbor) every now an’ den fer consolation.”  She says she is living on borrowed time because she has always taken care of herself and worked and been honest.  She said that now she is almost at the close of her life waiting day by day for the call to come, she is glad she knew slavery, glad she was reared by good white people who taught her the right way to live, and she added:  “Mistess, I’se so glad I allus worked hard an’ been honest—­hit has sho paid me time an’ time agin.”

[HW:  Dist. 5 ExSlv. #7 Driskell]

Henry Bland—­ex-slave
[may —­ —­]

Henry Bland is one of the few living ex-slaves who was born on a plantation near Edenton, Ga., in 1851.  His parents were Martha and Sam Coxton.  In this family group were three other children, two girls and one boy, who was the oldest.  When questioned regarding the birthplace and the movements of his parents, Mr. Bland stated that his father was born in Hancock County, Ga.  His mother along with her mother was brought to Georgia by the speculator with a drove of other slaves.  The first thing that he remembers of his parents is when he was quite small and was allowed to remain in the Master’s kitchen in the “big house” where his mother was cook.