Fanny Finney
From:
More Arkansas
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Fanny Finney, Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 74 plus
"I was born in Marshall County, Mississippi. Born during slavery. I
b'long to Master John Rook. He died during the Civil War. Miss Patsy
Rook raised me. I put on her shoes, made up her bed, fetched her water
and kindling wood.
"My parents named Catherine and Humphrey Rook. They had three children.
"When Master John Rook died they divided us. They give me to Rodie
Briggs. John and Lizzie was Master John's other two children. He had
three children too same as ma. My young master was a ball player. I'd
hear them talk. Ma was a good house girl. They thought we'd all be like
'er. When I was three years old, I was the baby. They took ma and pa off
keep the Yankees from stealing then. Miss Patsy took keer me. When ma
and pa come home I didn't know them a tall. They say when they come back
they went to Louziana, then 'bout close to Monticello in dis state, then
last year they run 'em to Texas.
"Pa was jus' a farmer. Gran'ma lived down in the quarters and kept my
sisters. I'd start to see 'em. Old gander run me. Sometimes the geese
get me down and flog me wid their wings. One day I climbed up and peeped
through a crack. I seen a lot of folks chopping cotton. It looked so
easy. They was singing.
"Betsy done the milking. I'd sit or stand 'round till the butter come.
She ax me which I wanted, milk or butter. I'd tell her. She put a little
sugar on my buttered bread. It was so good I thought Sometimes she'd
fill my cup up with fresh churned milk.
"I et in the kitchen; the white folks et in the dining-room. I slep' in
granny's house, in granny's bed, in the back yard. Granny's name was
'Aunt' Hannah. She was real old and the boss cook on our place. She
learnt all the girls on our place how to cook. Kept one or two helping
her all the time. It was her part to make them wash their faces every
morning soon as they started a fire and keep their hands clean all the
time er cooking. Granny wore her white apron around her waist all time.
Betty would make them help her milk. They had to wash the cows udder
before they ever milked a drop. Miss Patsy learnt her black folks to be
clean. Every one of them neat as a pin sure as you born.
"I was so little I couldn't think they got whoopings. I never heard of a
woman on the place being whooped. They all had their work to do. Grandma
cut out and made pants for all the men on the whole farm.
"Old man Rook raised near 'bout all his niggers. He bought whiskey by
the barrel. On cold mornings they come by our shop to get their sacks. I
heard them say they all got a drink of whiskey. His hands got to the
field whooping and singing. The overseers handed it out to them. The
women didn't get none as I knowed of.
"The paddyrollers run 'em in a heap but Master John Rook never let them
whoop his colored folks.
"We lived six miles from Holly Springs on the big road to Memphis. Seem
like every regiment of Yankee and rebel soldiers stopped at our house.
They made a rake-off every time. They cleaned us out of something to
eat. They took the watches and silverware. The Yankees rode up on our
porch and one time one rode in the hall and in a room. Miss Patsy done
run an' hid. I stood about. I had no sense. They done a lot every time
they come. I watched see what all they would do. They burnt a lot of
houses.
"A little white boy said, 'I tell you something if you give me a
watermelon.' The black man give the boy a big watermelon. He had a big
patch. The boy said, 'My papa coming take all your money away from you
some night.' He fixed and sure 'nough he come dressed like a Ku Klux. He
had some money but they didn't find it. One of the Ku Kluxes run off and
left his spurs. The colored folks killed some and they run off and leave
their horses. They come around and say they could drink three hundred
fifteen buckets of water. They throw turpentine balls in the houses to
make a light. They took a ball of cotton and dip it in turpentine, light
it, throw it in a house to make a light so they could see who in there.
A lot of black folks was killed and whooped. Their money was took from
them.
"The third year after the War ma and pa come and got me. They made a
crop for a third. That was our first year off of Rook's place. I love
them Rook's girls so good right now. Wish I could see them or knowd
where to write. I had to learn my folks. I played with my sisters all my
life but I never had lived with them. When pa come for me they had my
basket full of dresses and warm underclothes, clean and ironed. They
sent ma some sweet potatoes and two big cakes. One of them was mine.
Miss Patsy said, 'Let Fannie come back to see my girls.' I went back and
visited. Granny lived in her house and cooked till she died. I had a
place with granny at her house. We went back often and we helped them
after freedom. They was good white folks as ever breathed. There was
good folks and bad folks then and still is.
"Times is hard. I was raised in the field. I made seven crops here--near
Brinkley--with my son. I had two girls. One teaches in Brinkley, fourth
or fifth grade; one girl works for a family in New York. My son fell off
a tall building he was working on and bursted his head. He was in
Detroit. Times is hard now. The young folks is going at too fast a gait.
They are faster than the old generation. No time to sit and talk. On the
go all the time. Hurrying and worrying through time. Hard to make a
living."
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Gate-eye Fisher
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Molly Finley
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