Interviewer’s Comment

Dortch’s grandfather on the father’s side was a white man and either his master or someone closely connected with his master—­his first master.  His last master was the father of his half-sister, Cordelia, born before any of the other members of his family.  These facts account largely for the good treatment accorded his mother and father in slave time and for the friendly attitude toward them subsequent to slavery.

Dortch’s whole sister, Adrianna, is living next door to him, and is eighty-five years old going on eighty-six.  She has a clearer memory than Dortch, and has also a clear vigorous mentality.  She never went to school but uses excellent English and thinks straight.  I have not made Dortch’s interview any longer because I am spending the rest of this period on his sister’s, and there was no need of taking some material which would be common to both and more clearly stated by her.  I have already finished ten pages of her story.

Interviewer:  Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed:  Fannie Dorum
                    423 W. Twenty-Fourth Street
                    North Little Rock, Arkansas
Age:  94

[TR:  Some word pronunciation was marked in this interview.  Letters surrounded by [] represent long vowels, and by () short vowels.]

[HW:  Church Holds Old Age Contest]

“I was here in slavery time.  Know the years I plowed.  Ginned cotton in slavery time.  My daddy was the ginner.  His name was Hamp High.  Stayed down in Lonoke County.

“I was here in slavery time.  The third year of the surrender (1868), I married—­married Burton Dorum.

“I was born in Franklin, North Carolina.  My old master’s name was Jack Green, Franklin County.  He had five boys—­Henry, John, James, Robert, and William Henry.  And he had a daughter named Mary.  My old mistress’ name was Jennie Green.  They all came from North Carolina and I think they are still there.

Work

“A slave better pick a hundred pounds of cotton in a day.  You better pick a hundred.  I couldn’t pick a hundred.  I never was much on picking cotton.

“I weeded corn, planted corn and cotton, cut up wheat, pulled fodder, and did all such work.  I plowed before the War about two years.  I used to have to take the horses and go hide when the soldiers would go through.  I was about nineteen years old when Lee surrendered.  That would make me somewheres about ninety-four years old.  The boys figgered it all out when they had the old age contest ’round here.  They added up the times I worked and put everything together.

Family

“I raised eight children.  Have five living.  And I reckon about forty children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.  You see I have been here right smart time.