Mrs. Laura Smalley: They tend to all the children. Tend to the children. Just like, you know, you bring a whole lot of children, you know, and put them down, you know, at one house. Well, there somebody have to look over them, you know and tend to them, that way. Just a house full of them children. And if one act bad, you know, they’d whup him. They’d whup him too, the old woman. And if the old woman didn’t tend to the children, they’d whup, they’d whup her too.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: You know to make her tend to the children, she wasn’t doing nothing. Well she wasn’t a cripted [crippled] woman like me, you know. She wasn’t an old cripted woman, satisfied she wasn’t an old cripted woman like me. And they’d whup her.
And they had trays, I don’t know where you see a tray. Wooden tray. Dug out, you know, all about that, that long. And all of them you know would get around that tray with spoons, and just eat. I can recollect that because I ate out the tray.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: With spoons, you know, and eat, treat you like mush or soup or something like that. But feed them, you know, before twelve o’clock. And all them children get around there and just eat, eat, eat out that thing. And that old woman, you know, she would tend to them. Her name, Aunt Tishe. Yeah, I know what happen to her. Old woman, name Aunt Tishe. And she–
John Henry Faulk: Just like slopping hogs wasn’t it?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: It, Just like a tray, you know, just like a tray, you know, you have, it’s made just like a hog pit, a hog trough, you know.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And, and ah, of course you know they’d wash them things and scald them out for the children. I didn’t see them scald but that what they told me, they scald them out, you know.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: For the children. And ah, them children eat out of that, that thing and, that’s with wood spoon, if one would, if one reach his spoon over in the other’s hand, over in the other’s plate, he going hit him. Hit him, you know. Knock that, knock that there, s-s spoon back, you know, on his side. On his side.
And, that’s when we was children, you know. Wasn’t able to, to, tend to no, tend to no other children. I had a brother though, he could tend to children. In the, you know, just sit them down in a corner and put this child, you know how little children, put this child in between his leg, and then hug his hand around this child, that’s the way he nursed them. Couldn’t stand up with him. Couldn’t, you know, just enough, you know, shake him this way in the arms. I, I can remember that. I had a brother, name, Wright. And he just shake that child. Set him in the floor. And he–
John Henry Faulk: He was too little to pick him up.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. And if that child kick much, he’d fall, kick him over too, you know, and the old woman come there and spank them and give him the child back in his arm.
John Henry Faulk: [chuckles]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And they had certain times to come to them childrens. I think about this like a cow out there will go to the calf, you know.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And you know, they’d have a certain time, you know, cow come to his calf and at, at, at night. Well, they come at ten o’clock. Everyday at ten o’clock to all them babies. Give them what nurse, you know.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Them what didn’t nurse they didn’t come to them at all, the old lady fed them. Them wasn’t big, wasn’t big enough to eat, you know. She’d ah, the old mother had time, you know, to come. When that horn blowed, they’d blow the horn for the mothers, you know. They’d just come just like cows, just a running, you know, coming to the children.
John Henry Faulk: Out of the fields.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Out of the fields.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: How long did they nurse a baby?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ma’am? [echo]
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Couple years? How long would they nurse a baby, till it was big enough to walk, I guess?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes. Something or other like nine months, or something like that, you know.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: They’d nurse them till they be, get big enough, you know, to eat.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ta get eat. And they come to, come to every time, come there and ah, nurse that baby, ten o’clock. Ten o’clock in the day.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: [During (?)] the day?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ma’am. Ten o’clock in the day and three o’clock in the day. They come to that baby and nurse it.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Twice a day.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ma’am, twice a day. Come there and nurse that baby. He couldn’t eat, you know. But one could eat he would’t come until dinner time. But little one what couldn’t eat they’d come to it. T
That old woman had a time in there slopping them children. [laugh] Yes, sir. And I knowed that. And I remember, you see a scar right up in my forehead? Kind of a scar.
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Yes. Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I was, I had slipped out in the ah, some boys was throwing and knocked this scar in, in ah, on my head when I was little.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha. It’s way up here. Right underneath your hairline. Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ma’am. When I was little. Slipping off out there ah, Old Woman Slopping room. [laugh], I call it. Because you know that’s [where she (?)] fed us.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. And that scar, because a boy throwed a rock and hit me here. When, when, when ah, I was ah, young, you know, and hit me. When I was little. Coming on out there, I call it, Old Lady Slop Room.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [What I’m tell was (?)] no slop room but there’s a house, you know, where are feed all the children. I call that a slop room place.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Fed all the children.
John Henry Faulk: Now, who did the cooking for the plantation?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I don’t know what the old woman’s name done the, the cooking. A Miss Clemens did tell me not, not long ago, who done the main cooking. You know they didn’t cook, cook in the ah, kitchen like here; they’d have a off, off kitchen. Off from the house.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: On the outside, ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ahha. And then pack the vittles, you know, to the kitchen.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uh huh.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Pack it to the kitchen. They didn’t have, they wasn’t cooking in the, in the kitchen dining room. I was great big girl when I knowed the Mrs. Bethany and them had a, had a kitchen in the dinning room mixed together. I was a big old girl.
John Henry Faulk: [laugh]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: They cooked, you know, on the outside.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uh huh.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Right in the yard but no they cooked it out, out there, and then brought it to the house. They always brought it to their kitchen, when I was a child.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: And they had some of the, some of the slaves who worked in the house and then some who worked on the yard, isn’t that right?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No ma’am. They, they, they, ah, them work in, in the yard. Men work in the yard, some nights. But them there what, what work in the kitchen, they didn’t have nothing to do it, in the yard.
And they had one, [someone makes a hush sound] one, you know, to make up beds. Had one to make up beds, you know. And one to cook. And then the girls, had [six at time (?)] make up bed and then they go to field.
And they had regular nurse, you know. Nurse you never did see Old Mrs. with the baby. Never no time. They had a regular nurse.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: It’s like, you know, when you’d hire somebody’s nurse, but it be a grown woman nurse. Tend to that baby. And they keep no can never did get, no, never did carry it to old mister. Now if it was hungry at night or day, and I doubt it was hungry, they carry it there to her. You tend to that baby. That baby slept with the old nurses and all.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, has slept with them. Didn’t have nothing to do. Carry that baby and uh, and ah, sit there until, ah, he’d till ah, he’d nurse. And then after he’d nurse, you know, then, you’d carry it back tend to it. You didn’t have to, this, she tend to it, you know, and give it to you. You’d get, give it to her and nurse it, care how cold it is, and you’d carry that baby back on in that bed. That room where you was.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And I know Mrs.–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Well, did the mistress nurse the baby, or did she have a–
John Henry Faulk: Yeah.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: She, she nursed from the breast.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: But see, she’d she nursed this baby that, that it would be hungry. Well, this here, nurse would bring it to her, and let her nurse it. And then when she nurse she’d hand it right back, night or day, you know. Had tend to that baby night and day hand it back her. And that baby any kind of sick that nurse had sit up there at night and tend to it.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uh huh.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ma’am. Well, more than–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: You never did, eh?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ma’am?
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: You never worked in care of it like that?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: What the nurse had to do?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No. Well, you see that’s done now right here.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha
John Henry Faulk: That’s right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Folks now done now right here. Oh, my niece at ah, granddaughter here, she take care of baby, and they can mother her a little take care and ??? do ??? slave time. [laugh]
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Yeah, I know it.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: She never do hardly let her take it.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: I know a lot of women [dealing someone (?)].
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ma’am. Don’t send to her, you know.
John Henry Faulk: Well, do you remember, remember any of the slaves being sold? Do you remember any slave sellers, you know, men that would just buy and sell slaves?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. I never did see it. Why I never, us children never did know that, you know. We heard talk of it, but then I reckon that was after, after slavery I reckon. We heard talk of it. I used to hear them talk about, you know, you putting them on stumps, you know. Or something high, you know and bidding them off like you did cattle.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Bid them off like you did cattle.
John Henry Faulk: Well, none of your folks were ever sold then?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. None of them never was sold.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: You were born right there and never did leave? You were?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Born right there and stayed there until I was about nine, ten years old, maybe more.
Stayed right there. We didn’t know where to go.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Mama and them didn’t know where to go, you see after freedom broke. Just turned, just like you turn something out, you know. Didn’t know where to go. That’s just where they stayed.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uh huh. That’s right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Hmm. Didn’t know where to go. Turned us out just like, you know, you turn out cattle. [laugh] I say. Didn’t know where ta go.
John Henry Faulk: You remember when the Civil War was being fought?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Well, I, I can’t remember much about it, but I remember this much: When uh, Mr. Bethany, was gone a long time. Look like a long, long, time. And I remember all the next morning, it when he, he got up. Now don’t get, don’t knock with that back there, Well, ah, he, he ah, we all got up and all of them went to the house. Went to the house to see old master. And I thought old master was dead, but he wasn’t. He had been off to the war, and ah, come back. But then I didn’t know, you know, until the war. I just know he was gone a long time. All the niggas gathered around to see the old master again. You know, and old master didn’t tell you know, they was free.
John Henry Faulk: He didn’t tell you that?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Uh-uh. No he didn’t tell. They worked there, I think now they say they worked them, six months after that. Six months. And turn them loose on the nineteenth of June. That’s why, you know, we celebrate that day. Colored folks–celebrates that day. [repeats end of sentence]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Mrs. Adeline, our mistress, you know. And just catched her by her wrist this way, you know. Both of them pushed down in a rocking chair. And when she, Mrs. Dapheny, come home she was crying. And Mrs. Dapheny asked her what was the matter, you know. She told Mrs. Adeline that Martha Albert hurt her, hurt her wrist. And ah, and she ??? asked her then, [then told her (?)], “What you doing in this house here hurting old mistress?” Say, she wasn’t hurting old mistress. She used to old mistress, when “I [help her she started down (?)].” But, but the thing that old woman, poor old woman carried her to the peach orchard and, and whupped her. And, you know, just tied her hands this way, you know, around the peach orchard tree. I remember that just as well, look like to me I can. And around the tree and whupped her. Well, she couldn’t do nothing, but just kick her ??? . Just kick her feet. But they, they just had her clothes off pull her to her waist, you know. Yes, didn’t have her plum naked. But they had her clothes down to her waist. And every now and then they’d [whup her (?)]. You know, and then, snuff the pipe out on her, you know. Snuff the pipe out on her. You know, with embers in the pipe. [I don’t believe we (?)] ever seed [seen] the pipe smoking.
John Henry Faulk: Blow them out on her?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Hmm. Hmm.
John Henry Faulk : Good god.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: ???
John Henry Faulk: Did she scream?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yeah! I think she was. I think she did. But you see there was we was daring to go out there, where it was, you know. Because ah, our old master would whup us and then, Uncle Saul, Uncle Saul would whup us. You see, that is the overseer, Uncle Saul. Her papa was a overseer but he had to whup her. He whupped her too. He really sure did whup her. Well, he ah, he ah whupped her so that at night they had to grease her back. Grease her back. I didn’t know what kind of grease we had, but they sure greased her back, at night you know, that way. We just grease her back.
And ah, so after him, after so long on them, so, whupping being so long, that way they quit. They quit and give her her dinner. Late that evening they give her dinner. Late that evening of course she been whupped so bad then, you know, she didn’t want to eat, you know. If for they whupped you half a day, you ain’t want to eat, ??? you know.
John Henry Faulk: [laugh] That’s right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Because a little child, you can whip a little child here now, he’d get mad, you know, and don’t want to eat nothing. [steam engine blows whistle] ??? he won’t eat. So Uncle Saul, and him, he, he was going whup my momma, who had a brother, oldest brother named, Cal Heck. And he was going whup my, my mother’s boy, pack water, and she was going fight them. [laugh]
John Henry Faulk: Is that right?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. She was going fight them. You see, one portion of the people belonged to Mr. Bethany, and one portion, you know, belongs to, belongs to his wife. Wife, you know, just like, you know, you have a lot of niggas, you know, and they give you a portion of them, and your wife a portion of them. Her people give you people, people for them and your people give you some. Well that makes two parts. You got a part and your wife got a part, you know–
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm. Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: –of colored folks that way. And, so Mrs. Adeline wouldn’t let my, let ah, Uncle Saul whup her. That was her side, you know. That wasn’t her nigga, she wouldn’t let Uncle Saul whup her, that way. But it call her a sassy nigga. That’s what they call wouldn’t let Uncle Saul whup her. Now if the boy packing water, you know, you pack water, you know?
John Henry Faulk: Hmm
Mrs. Laura Smalley: All day and if Uncle Saul stayed late, you know, when they got to the water where Uncle Saul was, those field were, they was pitching out them. Was pitching out, as fast as children couldn’t get to them. You know. And she whup them if they let them.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yeah, she whup them if they let them. Now, and ah, and ah, and so, Uncle Bethany, you know, he wasn’t, he my daddy, he wasn’t, wasn’t ah–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: He’s your daddy?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Uhmm. He wasn’t, now don’t let me ??? . He, he wasn’t born, he wasn’t, he wasn’t [married (?)] to Bethany’ niggas, you see. He was a Pane.
John Henry Faulk: Pane?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: My old stepdaddy, yeah. He was a Pane. Uhmm. He was a Pane. And ah, he’d do everything, you know, he, he would, they couldn’t whup him. [Tha’ man (?)] couldn’t whup him. And his head, his head was red and he was red.
John Henry Faulk: Well, where’d he come from?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Well, I think he come from at Louisiana. Somewhere. Anyhow, he come from somewhere. Couldn’t exactly care where he come from. Because my momma come from Mississippi. And ah, well, he, he, he back up, you know. I don’t know what, all I ever seed was corn ??? .
John Henry Faulk: Yes, he was rail thin.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Rail thin.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
John Henry Faulk: Yes.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Well, he back up and ??? and they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t whup him. You’d give a stick and carry him off. Yes, sir. And ah, he’s a giant big old man, you know [what I mean (?)]? Made, he wouldn’t let them whup him, you see. And the master wouldn’t let them hurt him, because he let the, the ah, you know, the ah, overseer, you know, they whup you.
The master make him whip you, what overseer, when you see him. And they wouldn’t let overseers whup him at all, oh no. And their old master told him, run in the ??? , or something like that, don’t hurt him. You know, don’t ??? . Don’t whup him. He wouldn’t whup him. Well, I tell you something, no he wouldn’t whup him.
John Henry Faulk: [laugh]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. He wouldn’t whup him.
John Henry Faulk: Well, how would they, how would they punish him then?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Give him a ear of corn. [laugh] Give him ear of corn. Just like, you know, you take a, you know, you give me a ear of corn and ah that’ll do for my dinner, or my breakfast. You come home to dinner, he say you give me ear of corn. Say, you going shed it off him ??? . ??? and eat it. ??? on and eat it. Night come and they give him ear of corn, and ah, tha’s the way they fed him, you know. Punishing him, you know. Wouldn’t give him nothing to eat. Until he look like he was moving along too slow, too fast with that, you know. Too good.
John Henry Faulk: [laugh]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Too good for that, you know, just giving him corn. And he’s eating it and all and drinking water go on just the same. That’s so they wouldn’t give him none. Give him none.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: [Hmm (?)].
Mrs. Laura Smalley: They wouldn’t give him nothing, you know. But they let them drink water, you know. And ah, he lived just the same. And you, and he, he lived with momma twenty, thirty-two years, that before he died. Before he died. And, and he never did have a scar on him, my father, that old boss put on him.
John Henry Faulk: What approximately they paid for this, this ah, your stepdaddy? How come ah, ah–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No Pane, you know. Just, just, he wasn’t a Pane. They said [Prade (?)] but he was [what you call them (?)]? But you see, I don’t know what they paid for him; they paid for him, you know.
John Henry Faulk: And, I guess he was worth so much they didn’t want to hurt him.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Didn’t want to hurt him. And ah, he ah, you see, he had belonged to two, two sets of folks. Two sets, of people, you know. And he had, he, he would belongs to a Pane, then he belongs to a, some people, you know, in [Brenwood (?)]. They all stayed with the, you see he wouldn’t, wouldn’t do right and they’d sell him. They’d sell him, you know. Just like, you know, out here old nigga, you know, I wouldn’t act right sell me to somebody else. And wouldn’t act right what they would be a for not in good hand, you sell him to somebody else. That’s the way they would do that nigga.
John Henry Faulk: I see.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: They traded down ??? .
John Henry Faulk: Well, what about getting married? How did they go about marrying the slaves?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Well, they told me they jumped over a broom backward. [laughter from all]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I don’t know. Said, they told me they step over a broom backwards. I don’t know.
John Henry Faulk: Well, did they have church? Did the slaves have a church?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Oh, oh, I, I never remember no church. Momma said, we’re all in church, I didn’t remember that part of it. All in church. And would have be a tub, tub of water, sitting just like this thing is, you know, and that would catch your voice. And they would, they would have church around there tell them all to get around the tub. Get around that tub.
John Henry Faulk: Old master didn’t want them in the church.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: We don’t have no church. No. We didn’t have no church because. And um, old master come along in one of them, one was ah, was there, having church around the tub and we was down praying. And say he’s down and he prayed and just a prayed and old master come in and just a prayed and he come in and he gave me all of them, “Get up from there.” We didn’t get up, we just a praised him. And old master couldn’t ??? . We [kept (?)] prayed in him and asking the “Lord have mercy on my master. Lord have mercy on old master. Lord have mercy on old master.” Say, “I sure is getting my butt whupped.”
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: That’s how you have mercy on old master. I’m dealing with master. Folk didn’t even care for him wouldn’t get up, you know. Just flinch, you know, flinch. Got a person, you know, when person hit you, you know, you flinch. You just pray for old master. Old master step back and fell dead in line and [kick you (?)] naked. Dead in line and [kick you (?)] naked. When ever you stop praying, you know, he, he [said (?)], “Go on [head (?)] and pray.”
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Said, “Go on head and pray.” Because we wouldn’t stop. And ??? that was for the Lord, you know, that because of that.
John Henry Faulk: Yeah, the Lord works a lot of things.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yeah, sir. Because the Lord will suffer him stay down there get that whupping where he prayed. You know, just keep up praying. You know, I think I jumped up. I didn’t know. S-no way for me I jumped up. Because a whupping was–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Well, I, I well I don’t know about the church when it first started up, no more than the, you know, ah, when I was a child, you know, they used to didn’t have no church, you know, in no house, you know, they always had it in the trees.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: In the trees?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Under trees. Under trees. Yes, ma’am. Under trees.
John Henry Faulk: Brush arbors?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. Some, if they didn’t have no brush arbors, they just had it under the tree. You see. Just had it under a tree. And I don’t know, you know, the because of churches, you know, when you started. But I know when mama and them used to go to church it be under the trees, you know. Out and under, under the trees. And, and didn’t have no church houses much then. Just like, you know, you get a big old tree but and clear all out from under it, and make a, dry stalk down, you know, and make benches on it, you know. That’s what they have church, in—
John Henry Faulk: What kind of songs did they sing? Do you remember the names of any of the songs?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No. I couldn’t. [laugh] I can’t remember. I couldn’t. You know I can’t read, I never remember the songs. But they didn’t sing songs like they sung now, you know. They’d sing them old song, you know, about Amazing Grace and how sweet it sound, and all like that. But you know I can’t recollect all of them. I can’t recollect them since I been grown.
John Henry Faulk: Well, I declare.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: ??? . [Can’t recollect them (?)]. That’s what’s mostly they sung, Amazing Grace, how sweet it sound, and all like that. And ah, I wouldn’t know hardly all them old songs. Sometime I can bring off them old songs up again, again I can’t.
John Henry Faulk: Well, did you ever hear one called, ah, Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes. I’ve heard that.
John Henry Faulk: Was that one they sang way back then?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No. They didn’t sing that way back in that time. Now, they sung an old song about the, the Thunderballs Rattling and [Four Sons Stand So Idol Son (?)], Lord I Got to Get Union In My Soul.
John Henry Faulk: How does that go?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Let me see can, I sing a little of it.
John Henry Faulk: Seem like I remember it.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [sings]
Thunderbolts Rattling
These thunderballs is rattling.
Poor sinners stand so high the sun.
Lord I got Union in My Soul, ain’t got long to stay.
John Henry Faulk: I’ve heard it!
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir.
John Henry Faulk: Can you sing the rest of that, that’s a good. That’s a sure find.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [continues singing: Thunderbolts Rattling]
Lord I ain’t got long to staaay.
Lord I ain’t got long to stay in the world.
Ain’t got long ta stay.
God’s calling me and I ain’t got long to staaa-a-ay.
Lord I ain’t got long to stay in the world.
I ain’t got long to stay.
Good-bye. And I ain’t got long to staaay, Lord.
I ain’t got long to stay in the world.
I ain’t got’ long to staaay.
God’s calling me and I ain’t got long to staaay.
Lord, I ain’t got long to stay in the world.
I ain’t got long to staaay.
Fare ye well, I ain’t got long to staaay.
Lord, I ain’ got long to stay in the world.
I ain’ got long to stay.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I ain’t got much a voice for singing.
John Henry Faulk: Well, you got, oh, you got a good voice.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [laugh] I ain’t ??? .
John Henry Faulk: Lord have mercy, child. I didn’t know you could sing that.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: ??? .
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Yeah. That’s very true.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I cain’t [can’t], ain’t got no voice for singing.
John Henry Faulk: You remember a song called, Go Down Moses?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Go Down Moses?
John Henry Faulk: “Tell old pharaoh let my people go?”
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I never did know that’s one. Go Down Moses. Tell, that one, what it said go down. I heard talk of it. I heard it, some. Go Down Moses.
John Henry Faulk: You ever hear one called, Deep Riva?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir.
John Henry Faulk: You ever hear that one they call, Swing Low Sweet Chariot? Did you ever here the folks sing that?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes. I heard the folks sing that, but I never did know it, about Swing Low Sweet Chariot, ??? going carry me home. I never could learn that. I, I know, know ah, one, one [ah (?)], one the song I [knew was (?)], all that I remember is now, “My ??? .” I don’t know now about that song, but I know it though.
John Henry Faulk: How does it go?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I’m trying to think of it now. It goes about, about, about ah, on praying, praying to the Lord. Save my soul. But I could, I can’t,get it together. You know I, if I can’t get it together, you know, I don’t want to, sang, sing it. I can’t get it together.
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Because sometime, you know, that way I get them wrong. And they be sung wrong. [laugh]
John Henry Faulk: That’s right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. Sung wrong.
John Henry Faulk: Ah, what about one of these songs ah, Sinner Don’t Let This Harvest Pass. Did you ever hear that one?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. I never knowed that one, Let This Harvest Pass.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: What’s that other one about, Get On Board Little Children?
John Henry Faulk: Oh, yes. That Old Ship of Zion. Do you remember that one?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I, I remember it but I don’t know it all.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: [sings]
Old Ship of Zion!
I seen the oooo-old ship of Zion.
John Henry Faulk: [joins the singing]
Get on board.
Get on board.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I don’t know all the ??? . I just know a little of it. [sings : Old Ship of Zion while the Unidentified Woman Interviewer hums along]
Get on b-o-o-oard, little children.
Get on board–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: We don’t sing it, you know, that way.
John Henry Faulk: How do you sing it?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [continues: Old Ship of Zion]
Old ship of Zion.
Get on board.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I don’t know much of that one. [sings]
I have got my mother going on the ship of Zion.
Get on board little children.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I can’t get that one together. I don’t know many song. This here late and [also (?)] late song. I don’t know many—
John Henry Faulk: Has church services changed much from the way they used to be?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
John Henry Faulk: How, and how, how have they changed?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Mhmm.
John Henry Faulk: I say how? How have they–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: They don’t people the people done changed up from singing, you know, and played up from religion and everything, you know that way.
John Henry Faulk: Is that right?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. Done changed up from the religion and everything that way. I’m trying to get that old, that song, song like, it don’t look like I can’t get it straight. [pause] He ah, well, you done, you knowed this one about been s-s, Saved All Day?
John Henry Faulk: No. I never heard that one. I’d like to hear it. How does it go?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [sings]
Saved All Day
I’ve been sa-a-a-aved all daaay, no evil have I done.
Been saved all day, no evil have I done.
Been saved all day, no evil have I done.
Sanctified and holy, no evil have I done.
There is a love everybody, no evil have I done.
There is a love everybody-y-y, no evil have I done.
Good Lord, there is love everybody, no evil have I done.
Sanctified and holy, no evil have I done.
John Henry Faulks: [blurts– “Good!” in the middle of the song]
Haven’t lied on nobody, no evil have I done.
Haven’t lied on nobody-y, no evil have I done.
Haven’t lied on nobody, no evil have I done.
Sanctified and holy, no evil have I done.
There’s a love everybody, no evil have I done.
There’s a love everybody, no evil have I done.
Good Lord, there’s a love everybody, no evil have I done
Sanctified and holy, no evil have I done.
John Henry Faulk: Why that’s a good one. Where did you hear that?
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: That’s a good one!
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Oh, we learned that, we had sung that in our church, you know, up here.
John Henry Faulk: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: We sung that sometime in our church.
John Henry Faulk: You can, can you remember any that the slaves sung? Could you, could you, or did they ever sing any songs?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No. Ah, I , you know I never [sang (?)] in slavery, but I heard them sing some after freedom, I know them, some. But I, you know, that was way back some. I can hardly sing none of them. And one of them, I can’t seem to remember. My old stepdaddy used to sing it about the thunderballs rattling and about sinner standing so idol son. Lord, I Got Union In My Soul, I Ain’t Got Long To Stay. Didn’t, I told you that one ain’t I?
John Henry Faulk: [Speaking in concert with the Unidentified Woman Interviewer] Yeah. I’d say that’s a good one to hear.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: You sang that one for us, that’s a nice one.
John Henry Faulk: [a rooster crows] Your stepdaddy. Stepdaddy.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ahha. That old red man. He sung that all the time. [laugh]
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm. Ah, what, what were the preachers like in those days?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I don’t know, sir. I never remember no preachers [rooster crows] in slavery time. Never remember. Of course, you know, I wouldn’t have been so old, but you I could remember some things. I wasn’t say so old.
John Henry Faulk: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: But I could remember some things. But I never remember no preacher. [rooster crows]
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: They never allow them to have preachers, did they?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I never remember none.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I never remember none.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Just get together and sing and pray, eh?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: That’s all I head, would hear them sing. And you know, night come [rooster crows] I’d go and sleep ??? pretty [soon (?)].
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: These most that I sing, these here songs would sing, you know, after, after, you know, I’d be good big girl, you know. We use to go to church. Them arbors, you know, but they never did ah, never know–
John Henry Faulk: Well, they had preachers under the arbors, didn’t they?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I know one of them. His name–
John Henry Faulk: Who was that?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Name, name Uncle Mark. I never will forget him.
John Henry Faulk: Was he good?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Oh, yes. A old man, name, Uncle Mark. He preached. Yes, sir. His name, Uncle Mark.
John Henry Faulk: Was he a good preacher [preacher]?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. He’s a good preacher. Name, Uncle Mark. And–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Preach like they do now?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ma’am?
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Did he preach like they do now?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: They did better. They preached better then, and I reckon, because you see they was ah [dogs barking] then, now they preaches by scripts most of the time. But then, you know, they just preach, preach by the spirit, [rooster crows] you know. Just as–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: –the spirit, spirit let them, you know. And ah, they could preach good without a Bible because, you see, they’d, they’d have religion, you know, and ah–
John Henry Faulk: That’s right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And, and the Lord’ll teach them, you know.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Teach them what to say and how to say, you know. That’s what he taught us then. But now you know, they preach us by scripts. You know, they don’t preach by that. [repeat]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Only Indians I ever seen was over, was here. And they wasn’t wild. I used hear moma talk about them. When said she was, she was a child, she said that to one morning she went out and old mister, she was big enough, you know, to handle water, and say when she got to the don’t, open the don’t it the stars was falling. Now when the stars was falling that morning and said she didn’t know, and said old mistress looked out, and say’s ah, “Don’t you go out there.” She say’s ah, “Star.” She said, she just went like meat frying, you know. Said, the whole earth was just, just ah lit up, you know. Said they just going like meat frying. [she makes a swish sound to imitate falling stars] S-shhhh-s-hhhh-s-hhh-shhuh.
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Just before day, and said that to, when she went to go to the well ah, to the spring, and the stars fell, tell me they didn’t quit fall until ah, daylight. And said she met some Indian, Indian, Indians, down there, you know, where they pack water from a spring, she said. And said she met some wild Indian. And they had, old Mrs. Cooke, had give her a piece of bread. And gave, give her the, they give them the beads, you know. Give them, give her some, give her some beads, some beads, you know, and took the bread. And every time–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Aaah ??? .
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yeah, sir. Took the bread from her. And said every time she go a step in front, she, or go walk, they step in front of her. Every time they, she go to walk, they step in front of her.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And said that finally at last they ate the bread up and lift they hand back, you know, the, took the, took the beads away from her. And, and that said they was wild, took it away from her. And said–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: –she went back to the house crying. Went back to the house crying. Said her, she told she had met some people and took her bread and give her give her some bead and then took the beads away from her. And that’s only ever I hear talk of wild Indian, I-Indians in my life.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I never hear talk of no Indian. Ain’t never seen none, until ah, u-until I don’t know where them was Indians what, had all them feathers in the hat.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm. That’s right.
John Henry Faulk: That’s right. That’s Indians.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I-i-in the heads.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I’ve seen some of them.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Those are Indians.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And when, when I was a child, I don’t know where them was an Indian or not then. You see, that I was a child they’d go in, in droves.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: That’s in droves. And ah, come in your house, you know, and take what they wanted. Something to eat like that. You never take nothing but something to eat–like that. And then get out, you know, and make fun of me and grin, you know, and laugh, you know. [dog barks]
John Henry Faulk: Naw, is that right?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, and laugh. Take it and, all folk are there they go and take it. If they offer they hand, you know, for it, and made the motion, you just as well go give it to them, or let them, because they go on in and they get that stuff. Mama had an old chicken once. [dog bark] Great big old chicken. And it didn’t have nothing but pot then. Didn’t have, didn’t have no stove. Just had pots, as I recollect it. Had pots.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And taken, had that chicken in the, in that pot. And I don’t know what that man said to her, said to her, ah you know. To the other in out doors. He said some kind of language, we didn’t hear it. Here he come in with a bucket. And just take that pot and pour all that, that stuff in that pot. With them feathers in his head. In his ah, hat, you know.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Poured, poured all that in, extra vittels in that pot. And us little childrens standing around there hungry. And they had long, high feathers in they head. And they had, and them babies tied on they back.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm. Yeah, that’s right. That’s the way they do.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And tied on they, they back. Yes, I didn’t know what they was.
John Henry Faulk: What did they make the bedding out of in those days, the folks, what did the Negro, ah, colored folks use for bedding?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: They’d have quilts like they have now.
John Henry Faulk: I mean, what did they make mattresses out of, what, how would they make these feather beds?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: He will get that old chicken, you know, and things like that. That’s what they get them off, now gooses, you know, they, some of them are, wise enough to have goose feathers. But when I, when I was coming up, tell the truth about it, when I was coming up, we’d go out and cut our grass, cut it, you know, just take hold and cut it, and let take it off and pile it off and let it dry, and put that in the mattress.
John Henry Faulk: You’d sleep on that.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. We used to.
John Henry Faulk: Did you sleep pretty good?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. It slept pretty good. And wouldn’t grind up neither. You know, we cut it and it stayed.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: But if you wait till it frost fell on it’ll ground up fine.
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: We was children have, we, mama would have us to ah, them old big head old head mattress, [laugh] on the bed, and we thought we was something. [laugh] We would. Thought we was in something.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: What about ah, joining that ah business of ah, ah, taking, hiring some of the Negroes, the good hands, you know. Good women, good men, going off and breeding them like cattle. Do you remember anything like that?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No. I didn’t know, you see, they wouldn’t let children know of that, you know. But I heard it after. After that–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: –they’d do that. But you see, when we was comming up they wouldn’t let know nothing about nothing like that, but they say that was sure so. You know, just like a big, fine, looking woman, big, fine, looking man, you know. Old boss want’s, you know, children’s farm, you know. They just fasten them up in a house or somewhere. You know, go on off, leave them in there. Want to breed them like they was hogs or horses, something like that, I say.
John Henry Faulk: That sounds like it.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Sure does sound like it all right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And they say that’s the way they used to do–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: –in slavery time.
John Henry Faulk: Did they whip the slaves much? Do you remember how, whether they whipped them or–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: The, the biggest whupping that ever I knowed they get named, master Albert. The biggest whupping. That ever I knowed. Mr. Bethany, they didn’t whup his niggas much. They had to do something mighty, m-mighty go’–you know, bad for them to whup them. Yes, Mr.–
John Henry Faulk: Well, did the slaves ever try a slip away, they ever try to run off?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No. Not none on, not, not none on the place where we was. I never heard them say they run off over there. Run off. Other places I heared them stay in the woods, and ah, so long until they wear the clothes off them, slip up. Now I heard mama say when she was a girl, when she was girl, you know, she, she, she because she brought from Mississippi, when she was a girl, they’d ah, they’d one old woman run off. She did run off. They beat her so she run off–and every night she slip home and somebody have her something to eat. Something to eat. And she’d get that vittles and go on back in the woods. Go on back stay in the woods. And they would–you know just a, they’d tell her, the other, you know, because you see, I don’t know what they name, ‘See so and so? Ever see them?’ Say, ‘No. ‘ Well, you tell them if they come home we ain’t going whup them. We ain’t going whup them if they come home. Well, that be all the way know they’d come. Said once that a man stayed in the woods so long, until his hair long on them like a dog.
John Henry Faulk: [laugh]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: On them. You know, just growed up, you know, and stayed in the woods. Just stayed in the woods.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And they couldn’t get them out.
John Henry Faulk: Well, did any of them run off and get plum free, where they, did you ever hear of–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I heard talk of them.
John Henry Faulk: –your mother talking about them?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Heard them talking about they going off, you know. Going off to places where they free. ??? what I heard her say, I didn’t know that. She said just like see, be some white people, you know, with some nigga come along, you know, and he’d just get them off, you know. She take them, carry them off where he wouldn’t be, tell them he wouldn’t be no slave, or wouldn’t be beat up, you know. And carry them off that a way.
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Still, two or three they said that white folk had carried some three or four, you know, [a horn blows] colored people off that way. Or pick up children. Say they used to go in a wagons, you know. Go out wagons with the covers on them. I, I would see covers since I been big enough with wagon, with covers on them. Just take them and go on. And when I was a child I see little boys. A man jumped out the old covered wagon and caught the child. And caught him. And got far as Bell [Bellville, Texas] with the child. Well, I reckon that, that was a slave, I don’t know. [Reckon that (?)] was a slave, but they caught him. Caught the child. And I had a grandchild that, that they taken off.
John Henry Faulk: Is that right? Who took him off?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ah the show people I they took him off. I don’t know. They took him off. They steal him.
John Henry Faulk: What do you know?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, they took that child off and mama didn’t have but that one. And they took it off.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Mhmm.
John Henry Faulk: Well, I declare. Took him off with them.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Took it off. But they got it. [Master thought at that time (?)].
John Henry Faulk: Well, can you remember how the, what, what happened when they set you free? Do you remember what the, can you, you remember how the old master acted when they–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. I can’t remember that, you know. Can’t remember that. But I, I remember, you know, the time you give them a big dinner, you know on the nineteenth.
John Henry Faulk: Is that right?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: On, on the nineteenth, you know. That’s called, they still have it, give them a big dinner–on nineteenth. Well now, we didn’t know about ??? . I don’t hide the other side of the folks, you know, freedom. We didn’t know. They just thought, you know, were just feeding us, you know. Just had a long table. And just had ah, just a little of everything you want to eat, you know. And drink, you know. Now, and they say that was on the nineteenth–and everything you want to eat and drink. Well, you see, I didn’t know what that was for.
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I just, you know, children wasn’t wise like children is now, you know. Anything grow up now a child six, seven years old can tell you.
John Henry Faulk: That’s right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. They wasn’t wise, they are, that’s the way they done us. Give us a big dinner, Mr. Bethany and them. Mr. Bethany got Miss Mayor, and Mr. Bethany granddaughter stay right across town. And ah, she got a daughter stay out here in the country. Out near me stay.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Out here in the country.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
[recording begins with a fragment of the Unidentified Woman Interviewer’s laughter]
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I didn’ know. I know some of the white folks knew it wasn’t nice. Way they beat them.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Of course they do but they don’t want to tell on themselves.
John Henry Faulk: Do you, how long do you lived in Hempstead? Here?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Twenty-two years. Right here. Twenty-two years.
John Henry Faulk: Do you remember when they had the big race riot here a long time ago?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir.
John Henry Faulk: When all the, all the colored folks and white folks got in, got in a fight?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. I wasn’t here then I know.
John Henry Faulk: Do you remember it?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir.
John Henry Faulk: Did you ever hear of it, I mean?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. I didn’t hear of it. I stayed though at the [oil, oil (?)], in the oil field. That’s before it, I, I been the oil fields, I was there thirty years, in the oil field.
John Henry Faulk: Raccoon Bend.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. We call, you know, it just an oil field. Right there on, on a, on a place they call, Page’s Place. Yeah, we st-stayed right there. Huh?
John Henry Faulk: That’s about fifteen miles over here.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, ah about, pretty near Bellville. But it’s down in the Bottom like.
John Henry Faulk: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ahh. Any, any time you just say, down at Page’s Place, you know. Mhmm. Page’s Place. Now there’s Raccoon City, though, it’s right, there’s oil in there now, is that oil field–
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: –called Raccoon City. Raccoon City in oil field.
John Henry Faulk: Well, how many grandchildren do you, how many children you got, and grandchildren you got?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I’m a see. I got four living children. Four living children and about twenty-five grandchildren. Twenty-five now in [those (?)] years I come in. I think it twenty-five. And I got thirty, thirty-four great grandchildren, think it’s that. If I could, if I had time I could count them children. Now, here’s one of my great grandchildren. [Mrs. Smalley appears to be showing the family photos] I got four, four, four grown grandchildren here with me, four around me where I know. They here one going to the, what I got there? There’s Clara. Red. Ollie-May, her brother. And ah, Sunny Man and Bey. Now them, them there is my grandchildren. My, them my great, them ain’t my great grandchildren. And this here child, that one, one great grandchild. And my grandson, she got three, and that’s four, aint it? Yeah I ??? can’t keep up with them. That’s three.
John Henry Faulk: That’s four.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: That’s four? And my, my daughter right here, her son, he got two, he ah, he got two. And my grandson stay in the Bottom, he’s got six. Stay down here in this Bottom, he got six. That’s my great grandson got six. Yes, ah, my, my grandson, he got six. Well, I got a great grand, got a great grand-s-s-son, great grandson, he got four. That’s my great grandson. Got four. Four. At least last time I heard him he had four. And my, and my, my granddaughter, her daughter, she ain’t got but one. Ain’t got but one, I don’t think. Well, my ah, other great grandson, he, I think they say he had nine, great grandchildren. Why, I got about thirty or more or so great grand children, beside the grandchildren. My great grandchildren now, I got each here what I’m counting. Now my great grandchildren got these children. But my grandchildren, you know, they all, they all there too. I got so many of them. Why I got, I got great grandchildrens fifty-years old.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Fifty-years old. Yes, sir.
John Henry Faulk: When did you marry the first time?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I married before I was sixteen-years old.
John Henry Faulk: Is that right.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. Sixteen-years old.
John Henry Faulk: Who’d you marry?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: I married a boy named, Ross. Ross, ah, [Beauna (?)]. Him, married, married him.
John Henry Faulk: Where abouts, over in Bellville?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: In Bellville. I think we were married in Bellville, at Mr., at Mr. Thompson’s house. Yes. Which the uh, ???, mayor of the, mayor of the town, married me.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: An, [the (?] it to, Nelsonville. That’s only, that’s seven-miles from Bellville. On the other side. On the other side.
John Henry Faulk: Hmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Of Bellville.
John Henry Faulk: How long did that husband last, ah, live.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: We stayed together ten years.
John Henry Faulk: Ten years.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ten years. Before he died. Then after he died, I stayed together, uh, stayed single then about f-four or five years. No it wasn’t. I stayed together four years. Single, four years. Then I married another man named, Richard Smalley.
John Henry Faulk: Richard Smalley.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Richard Smalley. Yes, sir. And ah, I, I, ??? had some three, or four children, by him. Because ah, his, his ah, his oldest, my oldest boy by him, got a letter from him had thought he was dead.
And I got one of his granddaughters here with me now. His, his [grand (?)], his, his ah, daughter, granddaughter. Then, I got one of his daughters. Of course they work but they here with me. Oh, I couldn’t call the children, grandchildren, I ain’t got.The great grandchildren.
[Unidentified Woman Interviewer (?)]: Hmm. What’s and now?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Children, my great grandchildren got, you know. Yes, sir.
John Henry Faulk: Well, what about times here in, have times got any better for the colored folks, or do they still mistreat them here in Hempstead?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No, sir. They don’t mistreat them now here in Hempstead. Don’t mistreat them. Now and then, you know, they, here a good while ago, six, seven,years ago, you know, they go out in the country and beat them up.
John Henry Faulk: Mhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: But they done quit that now. They don’t beat them up so, so bad now like they used to. But you sure use ??? to them bad.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Well, didn’t they used to–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: That we, I used to be scared, you know, to set on the gallery. And I didn’t know whether they was going bother me or not, I hadn’t done nothing.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Hmm.
John Henry Faulk: Just bother you whether you done anything or not.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [laugh] I wouldn’t know. That they used to call this, ah, Six-Shooter Junction, you know. And I was sure enough scared. But there ain’t nobody never have bothered me since I’ve been here, and none of my children. But you see, we always acts right, you know, and treat everybody right, you know. We had no, no, no keep us coming, you know, to mistreat us, that a way.
Now I had a son he get, [loud noise] he get drunk. Put him in jail. He get drunk. But then they, they turn him out, they never beat him up. When they turn him out.
John Henry Faulk: They whupped some of them [rawhide on (?)] some of them.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, they whupped some of them, but you see I didn’t know. They whupped some of them. Beat them around, you know, they t-try to act tough and get drunk, you know, and try to act tough, you know, and they beat some them now I tell you.
And they did ah, women, some of them around here they kick them and knock them about, sometime. They get drunk, you know, and wouldn’t listen at them, you know, what they’d say, you know. They’d knock them put them in jail, something like that. The biggest been doing around here was, when colored folk killing up one another for a while, you know. Was killing up one another for a while. Women killing other women about they husbands, and all like that.
John Henry Faulk: Uhmm.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: That was the biggest doing. M-m-men killing wives right there in town.
John Henry Faulk: Is that right?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, sir. Man, the man killed his wife right there in town. Right there in the streets, killed her.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: [Killed her (?)]!
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And ah, another man would have killed a woman, but the doctor, you know, kept them from killing her. And then I had a niece cut her husband head off, right down there in this Bottom. A-a-ain’t even much more than about five miles down in the Bottom. Niggas was killing up them, themselves.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: How long?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Then, and another woman cut ah, killed her, stabbed another woman about her husband.
John Henry Faulk: Good mess.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: And ah, after she killed this woman about her husband, then ah, he went on and married her [him]. After she done killed his wife. [hushes children] Shh. Shhh. Go on out. Go on ??? .
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Well, ah, right after the Civil War, well, they used to, the Negroes used to hold office in this town, didn’t they?
Mrs. Laura Smalley: [laugh] That’s what they say.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: That’s what they, that’s what is written in the history books. [hush sound] That the Negroes used to hold office until they had this big, had a big fight about something, I don’t know just what. Then after that they get along [and that they never could (?)]–
Mrs. Laura Smalley: No. That was here in Hempstead. No, that wasn’t over, over our side. Well, you knowed I ain’t never knowed but the one man, one man that tried to hold office and that is, Handy Smith.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Big old black man, he tried to hold office, you know, over there–
Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: –and ah, but he slept too much. And they take him and had him on the [grass (?)], you know, and he sleep. Just slept. And let him go.
John Henry Faulk: [laugh] They didn’t, they didn’t have any more use for him after that.
Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes. They put him on a [pantry (?)], you know. Have him up and he just go to sleep. And over here, you know, I only been over here, you know, about twenty-two-years. And I don’t know.