Annie Love
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Annie Love
1116 E. Twelfth Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 85?
"I don't know exactly how old I am. I was here when the war was goin'
on. I know I used to see the soldiers come by and come in, but I
wasn't big enough to work. I was born in Richmond, Virginia.
"My owners moved from Virginia to Mississippi. My mother and I lived
on one place and my father lived on another plantation. I remember one
Sunday he come to see me and when he started home I know I tried to go
with him. He got a little switch and whipped me. That's the onliest
thing I can remember bout him.
"Billy Cole was my master and I didn't have any mistress cause he
never was married.
"My mother worked in the field and I was out there with her when the
cannons commenced shootin' at Helena. We said they was shootin' at us
and we went to the house. Oh Lord, we said we could see em, Lord yes!
"After surrender, our owner, Billy Cole, told us we was free and that
we could go or stay so we stayed there for four or five years. I don't
know whether we was paid anything or not. After that we just went from
place to place and worked by the day.
"I never did see any Ku Klux but they come to my mother's house one
night and wanted my stepfather to show'em where a man lived. He went
down the road with 'em a piece. They wanted a drink and, oh Lord,
they'd drink mighty nigh a bucket full.
"Oh Lord, when I was young goin' to parties and dances, that was my
rule. Oh Lord, I went to them dances.
"I went to church, too. That was one thing I did do. I ain't able to
go now but I'll tell anybody when I could, I sure went.
"I went to school mighty little--off and on bout two years. I never
learned nothin' though.
"I lived right in Memphis mighty nigh twenty years then I come to
Arkansas bout thirty-two years ago and I'm mighty near right where I
come to Pine Bluff.
"I don't know of anything else but all my days I believe I've worked
hard, cookin' and washin' and ironin'."
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Needham Love
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Henry Long
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