“You didn’t have a regular time to git rations.  You didn’t on my place.  You got things any time you needed them.  My master was a good man.  My dad got anything he wanted because he was the ginner.  When he was working and it came mealtime, he would go right by the white folks’ house and git anything he wanted and eat it—­brandy, meat, anything.

Slave Wages

“My daddy not only did the ginning on my place; he did the ginning for other folks.  He did the ginning for an old rich man named Jack Green, who lived in Franklin County.  Jack Green paid wages for my father’s, Hampton High’s, work and the money was turned over to his mistress.  I don’t know whether they paid him and he turned it over to his mistress, or whether they told him about it and paid his mistress.  They trusted him and I know he did work for pay.  On account of the money my father earned he was considered a valuable slave.  That’s why he could go and eat and drink anything he wanted to.

Life Since Slavery

“My husband married me in May.  He went to his uncle and worked an shares for two or three years.  Then my husband took a crop to himself.  He bought a cow and hog and stayed there twenty-one years.  Raised a great big orchard.  All my children were born right there.  White people owned the farm.  Priestley Mangham and his wife were the white people.  When we left that place, my children were all big enough to work.  That was in North Carolina.  The nearest town was College.

“When the white folks tried to take advantage of us and take our crops, then we left and came here.  My husband is dead and has been dead over twenty years.

“My daughters do the best they can to help me along, but they’re on relief themselves and can’t do much for me.

Opinions

“The young people of today are in no good at all, except to eat.  They are there on mealtime, but that is about all.”

Interviewer’s Comment

About three years ago, there was an old age contest in one of the colored churches of North Little Rock.  Sister Hatchett was considered the oldest, Fannie Dorum next.  Sarah Jane Patterson was among those considered in the nineties also.  It is very probable that all of these three are ninety or more.  Stories of Dorum and Patterson are already in, and interview with Hatchett will be completed soon.

This paper fails to record Fannie Dorum’s accent with any approach to accuracy.  She speaks fairly accurately and clearly and with a good deal of attention to grammaticalness.  But she pronounces all “er” ending as “uh”; e.g., nigguh, cullud, fathuh, mothuh, m(o)stuh, daughtuhs.

There are a number of variations from correct pronunciation which I do not record because they do not constitute a variation from the normal pronunciation; e.g., “wuz” for “was”, “(e)r” for “[e]r”.