From the WPA Slave
Narratives:
Sarah Patterson
Foreword: Sarah Patterson, was born in slavery, the property of William
Wilbourne of Panola County, she is a small black negro, in feeble health,
weighing about 100 pounds and is about 5 feet tall.
Miss "Cloy" Wilbourne raised me, I was a sickly child and Miss took me in her
room and made me a bed right at the foot of her bed, and raised me there, I'll
always thank Miss Cloy for raising me so nice. I staid right with her and did
what she tole me to until I married, I have had thirteen chillun but ain't but
three of them living, one daughter is in about two miles of me, and lets my
little gran chile help me some.
I'm in very pore health, but I try to do a little cooking and I can see to
patch a little, I aint got any specticles, and I pulled out all my teeth but
three myself. I have to hobble along with a stick but I've been walking over a
mile to pick cotton all this fall, to try to git my a pair o' shoes, my close
are all worn out.
Lawsy I reckon we all gonna freeze this winter, I never can go where I want to
now. I am so far away I can't walk to town but I wish I could go to see some
of my ole Miss folks, they lived down about Sardis. The last time I went to
see Miss before she died she followed me out in the yard and shook my hand and
said "Come back to see me Sack", you see the white folks called me Sack. Miss
Cloy would let me sleep in one of her beds, she always said I was clean and
perticular like her.
My white folks were always good to me and I had plenty as long as I staid with
them, but times have changed and I've had a mighty hard life.
Interviewer: Unknown
Transcribed by Ann Allen Geoghegan
Mississippi Narratives
Prepared by
The Federal Writer’s Project of
The Works Progress Administration
For the State of Mississippi
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"If you teach them where they come from, they won't need as much help finding where they are going!" Cordelia Carothers " Aunt Dee" Geoghegan (1894-1987)
Project Manager: Ann
Allen Geoghegan State Coordinator Assistant State Coordinators and
Transcriptionists: Ann Allen Geoghegan, Debbie Leftwich, and Rose Diamond and Linda Durr Rudd Banner designed by: Melissa McCoy-Bell Unknown worker photograph provided by L. Stephen Bell Photography, and family photo albums of Karen Schweikle, Lucy Gray and Jens Burkhart. Copyright © 2005-2008 by MSGenWeb Project. All rights reserved. |
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