William J Stevens
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: William J. Stevens, Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: Up in 70's
"I was born in Pleasant Hill, Alabama. My owners were Haley and Missouri
Stevens. They owned Grandma Mary. Pa was born on the place. Mother was
sold from the Combesses to Stevens. Mother's mother was a Turk Dark
Creek Indian. She was a free woman. Her name was Judy. I called her
Grandma Judy. She was old but not gray. She had long black hair as I
remember her. Mother was named Millie. Haley bought her for my pa. My
pa's father was Haley Stevens' own son. He was his coachman. Pa
never worked a great deal. Mother never cooked till after emancipation.
She was the house girl and nurse. Life moved along smoothly as much as I
ever heard till freedom come on. The Indians was independent folks. My
mother was like that. Haley Stevens took his family to Texas soon as
freedom come on. Mother went with them. They treated her so nicely. Pa
wouldn't follow. He said she thought more of them than she did him. He
kept me with him. He married again. He was a barber at Selma, Alabama.
He died a barber at Anniston, Alabama. While my mother was in Texas
she went to see her mother in Hickory, Alabama. She was talking with a
tramp. He had helped my pa in the shop at Selma. Mother took the train
and come to pa's and my stepmother's house. I was fourteen years old
then and still wore a long shirt-like dress. They treated her the
nicest kind. She told them she was married to a man named Sims down in
Mississippi. She went back. I don't know where. The barber business was
a colored man's trade in the early days.
"Soon after freedom I made two trips a day and carried my young
mistress' books to school. It was a mile for us to go 'round the road to
Pleasant Hill. She married C.C. Williams. I cooked for her. I cooked her
daughter's weddin' supper. She had two girls, Maude and Pearl. I worked
there fourteen years for my clothes and something to eat. Then I went to
myself. When I wasn't cooking I worked in Mr. C.C. Williams' sash and
blind factory. They was big rich folks. Mrs. Williams had a hundred rent
houses. She went about in her carriage and collected rent. That was at
Meridian, Mississippi. They learned me more than an education--to work.
She learned me to cook. I cooked all my life. I cooked here at the
Rusher Hotel till I got so old I was not able to do the work.
"I do little odd jobs of work where I can find them. I 'plied for the
Old Age Pension but they give me commodities and that's all. I supports
my own self such as it be.
"I find the young generation don't stick to jobs like I had to do. Seems
like they want an education to keep them out of work. Education does
some good and some more harm than good. Oh, times! Times is going fast.
Well with some I reckon. Some like me is done left. I mean I got slower.
Time getting faster. I'm done left outen the game. Time wait for no
man."
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Minnie Johnson Stewart
Previous:
Charlotte E Stephens
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