Marthala Grant
From:
More Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Marthala Grant
2203 E. Barraque, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 77
"All I can remember is some men throwin' us up in the air and ketchin'
us, me and my baby brother. Like to scared me to death. They had on
funny clothes. Me and my brother was out in the yard playin'. They just
grabbed us up and throwed us up and ketched us.
"My mother would tell us bout the war. She had on some old shoes--wooden
shoes. Her white folks name was Hines. That was in North Carolina. I
emigrated here when they was emigratin' folks here. I was grown then.
"Durin' the war I heered the shootin' and the people clappin' their
hands.
"My mother said they was fightin' to free the people but I didn't know
what freedom was. I member hearin' em whoopin' and hollerin' when peace
was 'clared and talkin' bout it.
"Yes'm I went to school some--not much. I learned a right smart to read
but not much writin'.
"We'd go up to the white folks house every Sunday evenin' and old
mistress would learn us our catechism. We'd have to comb our heads and
clean up and go up every Sunday evenin'. She'd line us up and learn us
our catechism.
"We stayed right on there after the war. They paid my mother. I picked
cotton and nussed babies and washed dishes.
"I was married when I was twenty. Never been married but once and my
husband been dead nigh bout twenty years."
"When I come here this town wasn't much--sure wasn't much. Used to have
old car pulled by mules and a colored man had that--old Wiley Jones.
He's dead now.
"I had eleven childen. All dead but five. My boy what's up North went to
that Spanish War. He stayed till peace was declared.
"After we come to Arkansas my husband voted every year and worked the
county roads. I guess he voted Republican.
"I can't tell you bout the younger generation. They so fast you can't
keep up with them. I really can't tell you."
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Wesley Graves
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James Graham
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