#786
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Matilda Hatchett
424 W. Twenty-Fifth Street, North Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: Between 98 and 100
“I was born right here in Arkansas about nine miles from Dardanelles (Dardanelle) in Sevier County. I think it’s Sevier. No, it was Yell County. Yell County, that’s it. You put the Dardanelles there and if they get that they’ll get the Yell part. Can’t miss Yell if you get Dardanelles.
“I wish I could get holt of some of my old white folks. Maybe you can find ’em for me. There’s one big policeman here looks like them but I don’t know whether he is or not. The first white owners that I knowed was Jackie George in South Carolina. That is where I heard them talkin’ about him comin’ from. I wasn’t born there; I was born here. I wasn’t born when he come from South Carolina. His wife was named Nealie. He was just like a ole shoe. Never whipped me but one time in my life.
“I’ll tell you about it. This is what they whipped me for. Me and my brother, Sam, had to water the horses. I didn’t have to go with Sam, but I was big enough to do that. We had one ole horse named John—big ole horse. I would have to git up on a ten-rail fence to git on him. One day I was leading ole John back and I got tired of walking. So when I come to a ten-rail fence, I got up on ole John. I got up on ’im backwards and I didn’t have hold of no bridle nor nothin’ because I was lookin’ at his tail.
“The others got back there before they did. Ole master said to them, ‘Where’s Tillie?’
“They said to him, ‘She’s comin’, leadin’ ole John.’
“Atter a while they saw me comin’, an’ one of ’em said, ‘There’s Tillie now.’
“An’ ’nother one, ‘Man, she’s sittin’ on the horse backwards.’ And ole John was amblin’ along nippin’ the grass now an’ then with his bridle draggin’ and me sittin’ up on his back facin’ his tail and slippin’ and slidin’ with every step.