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SLAVE NARRATIVES

A Folk History of Slavery in the United States
From Interviews with Former Slaves

TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY
THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT,
1936-1938
ASSEMBLED BY
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

WASHINGTON 1941

LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD.

Once upon a time a nice little girl lived in a country village, and she
was the sweetest creature that ever was seen; her mother loved her with
great fondness, and her grandmother doted on her still more.

A pretty
red-coloured hood had been made for the little girl, which so much
became her, that every one called her Little Red Riding-Hood. One
day, her mother having made some cheesecakes, said to her:

"Go, my
child, and see how your grandmother does, for I hear she is ill; carry
her some of these cakes, and a little pot of butter."

Little Red Riding-Hood immediately set out, with a basket filled with
the cakes and the pot of butter, for her grandmother's house, which was
in a village a little distant from her mother's.

As she was crossing a wood, which lay in her road, she met a Gaffer
Wolf, who had a great mind to eat her up, but dared not indulge his
wicked wish, because of some woodcutters who were at work near them in
the forest.

He ventured, however, to ask her whither she was going. The
little girl, not knowing how dangerous it was to talk to a wolf,
replied: "I am going to see my grandmamma, and carry her these cakes and
a pot of butter."

"Does she live far off?" said the Wolf. "Oh, yes," answered Little Red
Riding-Hood, "beyond the mill you see yonder, at the first house in the
village."

"Well," said the Wolf, "I will go and see her too; I will take this
way, and you take that, and let us see which will be there the sooner."
The Wolf set out, running as fast as he could, and taking the nearest
way; while the little girl took the longest, and amused herself as she
went along with gathering nuts, running after butterflies, and making
nosegays of such flowers as she found within her reach.

The Wolf soon
arrived at the dwelling of the grandmother, and knocked at the door.
"Who is there?" said the old woman. "It is your grandchild, Little Red
Riding-Hood," replied the Wolf, in the voice of the little girl; "I
have brought you some cheesecakes, and a little pot of butter, that
mamma has sent you."

The good old woman, who was ill in bed, then called out, "Pull the
bobbin, and the latch will go up." The Wolf pulled the bobbin, and the
door opened. He sprang upon the poor old grandmother, and ate her up in
a few minutes, for it was three days since he had tasted any food.

The Wolf then shut the door, and laid himself down in the bed, and
waited for Little Red Riding-Hood, who very soon after reached the
door. Tap, tap! "Who is there?" She was at first a little frightened at
the hoarse voice of the Wolf, but believing that her grandmother had got
a cold she answered: "It is your grandchild, Little Red Riding-Hood.

Mamma has sent you some cheesecakes, and a little pot of butter." The
Wolf called out, softening his voice: "Pull the bobbin, and the latch
will go up." Little Red Riding-Hood pulled the bobbin, and the door
opened.

When she came into the room, the Wolf, hiding himself under the
bed-clothes, said to her, trying all he could to speak in a feeble
voice, "Put the basket, my child, on the stool, take off your clothes,
and come into bed with me."

Little Red Riding-Hood accordingly undressed herself, and stepped into
bed; where, wondering to see how her grandmother looked in her
nightclothes, she said to her: "Grandmother, what great arms you have
got!" "The better to hug thee, my child." "Grandmother, what great ears
you have got!" "The better to hear thee, my child." "Grandmother,
what great eyes, you have got!" "The better to see thee, my child."
"Grandmother, what great teeth you have got!" "They are to eat thee up;"
and saying these words the wicked Wolf fell upon poor Little Red
Riding-Hood, and ate her up at a few mouthfuls.

VOLUME II

ARKANSAS NARRATIVES

PART I

Prepared by
the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration
for the State of Arkansas

INFORMANTS

Abbott, Silas

Abernathy, Lucian

Abromsom, Laura

Adeline, Aunt

Adway, Rose

Aiken, Liddie

Aldridge, Mattie

Alexander, Amsy O.

Alexander, Diana

Alexander, Fannie

Alexander, Lucretia

Allen, Ed

Allison, Lucindy

Ames, Josephine

Anderson, Charles

Anderson, Nancy

Anderson, R.B.

Anderson, Sarah

Anderson, Selie

Anderson, W.A.

Anthony, Henry

Arbery, Katie

Armstrong, Campbell

Armstrong, Cora

Baccus, Lillie

Badgett, Joseph Samuel

Bailey, Jeff

Baker, James

Baltimore, William

Banks, Mose

Banner, Henry

Barnett, John W.H.

Barnett, Josephine Ann

Barnett, Lizzie

Barnett, Spencer

Barr, Emma

Barr, Robert

Bass, Matilda

Beal, Emmett

Beard, Dina

Beck, Annie

Beckwith, J.H.

Beel, Enoch

Belle, Sophie D.

Bellus, Cyrus

Benford, Bob

Bennet, Carrie Bradley Logan

Benson, George

Benton, Kato

Bertrand, James

Biggs, Alice

Billings, Mandy

Birch, Jane

Black, Beatrice

Blackwell, Boston

Blake, Henry

Blakeley, Adeline

Bobo, Vera Roy

Boechus, Liddie

Bond, Maggie (Bunny)

Bonds, Caroline

Boone, Rev. Frank T.

Boone, J.F.

Boone, Jonas

Bowdry, John

Boyd, Jack

Boyd, Mal

Braddox, George

Bradley, Edward

Bradley, Rachel

Brannon, Elizabeth

Brantley, Mack

Brass, Ellen

Bratton, Alice

Briles, Frank

Brooks, Mary Ann

Brooks, Waters

Brown, Casie Jones

Brown, Elcie

Brown, F.H.

Brown, George

Brown, J.N.

Brown, Lewis

Brown, Lewis

Brown, Mag

Brown, Mary

Brown, Mattie

Brown, Molly

Brown, Peter

Brown, William

Brown, William

Broyles, Maggie

Bryant, Ida

Buntin, Belle

Burgess, Jeff

Burkes, Norman

Burks, Sr., Will

Burris, Adeline

Butler, Jennie

Byrd, E.L.

Byrd, Emmett Augusta

^{Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person Interviewed: Silas Abbott
                    R.F.D.
                    Brinkley, Ark.
Age: 73}

^{"I was born in Chickashaw County, Mississippi. Ely Abbott and Maggie
Abbott was our owners. They had three girls and two boys--Eddie and
Johnny. We played together till I was grown. I loved em like if they was
brothers. Papa and Mos Ely went to war together in a two-horse top
buggy. They both come back when they got through.}

^{"There was eight of us children and none was sold, none give way. My
parents name Peter and Mahaley Abbott. My father never was sold but my
mother was sold into this Abbott family for a house girl. She cooked and
washed and ironed. No'm, she wasn't a wet nurse, but she tended to Eddie
and Johnny and me all alike. She whoop them when they needed, and Miss
Maggie whoop me. That the way we grow'd up. Mos Ely was 'ceptionly good
I recken. No'm, I never heard of him drinkin' whiskey. They made cider
and 'simmon beer every year.}

^{"Grandpa was a soldier in the war. He fought in a battle. I don't know
the battle. He wasn't hurt. He come home and told us how awful it was.}

^{"My parents stayed on at Mos Ely's and my uncle's family stayed on. He
give my uncle a home and twenty acres of ground and my parents same
mount to run a gin. I drove two mules, my brother drove two and we drove
two more between us and run the gin. My auntie seen somebody go in the
gin one night but didn't think bout them settin' it on fire. They had a
torch, I recken, in there. All I knowed, it burned up and Mos Ely had to
take our land back and sell it to pay for four or five hundred bales of
cotton got burned up that time. We stayed on and sharecropped with him.
We lived between Egypt and Okolona, Mississippi. Aberdeen was our
tradin' point.}

^{"I come to Arkansas railroading. I railroaded forty years. Worked on the
section, then I belong to the extra gang. I help build this railroad to
Memphis.}

^{"I did own a home but I got in debt and had to sell it and let my money
go.}

^{"Times is so changed and the young folks different. They won't work only
nough to get by and they want you to give em all you got. They take it
if they can. Nobody got time to work. I think times is worse than they
ever been, cause folks hate to work so bad. I'm talking bout hard work,
field work. Jobs young folks want is scarce; jobs they could get they
don't want. They want to run about and fool around an get by.}

^{"I get $8.00 and provisions from the government."}