"I beg your pardon," said the interviewer, approaching
the step, "is this the home of Peach Sinclair, and will I find Mrs. Lou
Fergusson here?"
"It sure is," the voice was cheerful. "My mother is in the house. Come
around to the front," (the interviewer couldn't have reached the back
steps, even if she had wanted to--the back yard was fenced from the
front) "she's in the parlor."
Mrs. Lou turned out to be an incredibly black, unbelievably
plump-cheeked, wide smiling "motherly" person. She seemed an Aunt
Jemimah grown suddenly old, and even more mellow. "Mamma, this young
lady's come to see you. She wants to talk to you and ask you some
questions, about when--about before the war." (The situation is always
delicate when an ex-slave is asked for details. Somehow both interviewer
and interviewee avoid the ugly word whenever possible. The skillful
interviewer can generally manage to pass it by completely, as well as
any variant of the word negro. The informant is usually less squeamish.
"Black folks," "colored folks", "black people", "Master's people", "us"
are all encountered frequently.)
Five minutes of pleasant chatter preceeded the formal interview. Both
Mrs. Sinclair and her guest (unintroduced) sat in on the conference and
made comments frequently.
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