Liza Stiggers
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Liza Stiggers, Forrest City, Arkansas
Age: 70 plus
"I was born in Poplar Grove, Arkansas on Col. Bibbs' place. Mama was
sold twice. Once she was sold in Georgia, once in Alabama, and brought
to Tennessee, later to Arkansas. Master Ben Hode brought her to
Arkansas. She had ten children and I'm the only one living. Mama was a
dancing woman. She could dance any figure. They danced in the cabins and
out in the yards.
"The Yankees come one day to our house and I crawled under the house. I
was scared to death. They called me out. I was scared not to obey and
scared to come on out. I come out. They didn't hurt me. Mr. Ben Hode hid
a small trunk of money away. He got it after the War. The slaves never
did know where it was hid. They said the hair was on the trunk he hid
his money in. It was made out of green hide for that purpose.
"Mama had a slave husband. He was a field hand and all kind of a hand
when he was needed. Mama done the sewing for white and black on the
place. She was a maid. She could cook some in case they needed her. She
died first. Papa's foot got hurt some way and it et off. He was so old
they couldn't cure it. He was named Alfred Hode. Mama was Viney Hode.
She said they had good white folks. They lived on Ben Hode's place two
or three years after freedom.
"I farmed, cooked, and ironed all my life. I don't know how to do
nothing else.
"I live with my daughter. I got a son."
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James Henry Stith
Previous:
Minnie Johnson Stewart
