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Work Projects Administration

"Arkansas Narratives, Part 2"

I don't know just what day of
the month it was.
"My mother was named Indiana Simms and my father was named Burrell
Simms. My father's mother was named Ony Simms, and my mother's mother
was named Maria Young. I don't know what the names of their parents was.
"My mother's master was named Robert Tucker. My father's master was
named Hartwell Simms. Their plantations were pretty close together, but
I don't know how my father and my mother got together. I guess they just
happened to meet up with each other. The slaves from the two plantations
were allowed to visit one another. After their marriage, the two
continued to belong to different masters. Every Sunday, they would visit
one another. My father used to come to visit his wife every Sunday and
through the week at night.
"My mother had ten children.

Houses
"I was born in a log house with one room. It was built with a stick and
dirt chimney. It had plank floors. They didn't have nothin' much in the
way of furniture--homemade beds, stools, tables. We had common pans and
tin plates and tin cans to use for dishes. The cabin had one window and
one door.

Patrollers
"I have heard my mother and father tell many a story of the pateroles.


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