"My husband was a soldier—a Yankee. Yes ma'am. They sends me thirty dollars every month, before the fourth. Postman brings it right to me here at the house. They treats me nice.
"When I come here, I landed on John Clayton's place. He was a Yankee and he was a good white man too.
"I'm the onliest one left now in my family."
Interviewer: Mrs. Irene Robertson
Person Interviewed: Avalena McConico
on the [---- ----] west of Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 40[?]
[TR: Much of this interview smeared and difficult to decipher; illegible words indicated by [----], questionable words followed by [?].]
"Grandma was a slave woman. Her name was Emma Harper. She was born in Chesterville, Mississippi. Her young master was Jim and Miss Corrie Burton. The old man was John Burton. I aimed[?] to see them once. I seen both Miss Corrie and Mr. Jim. My grandparents was never sold. They left out after freedom. They stayed there a long time but they left.
"The first of the War was like dis: Our related folks was having a dance. The Yankees come in and was dancing. Some "fry boys" [---- ----] them. The next day they were all in the field and heard something. They went to the house and told the white folks there was [----] a fire. They heard it. [----] he [----] about. Master told them it was war. Miss Burton was crying. They heard about [----] in [----] at Harrisburg where they could hear the shooting.
"They put the slaves to digging. They dug two weeks. They buried their meat and money and a whole heap of things. They never found it. A little white,[?] Mollita[?], was out where they were digging. She went in the house. She said, Mama, is the devil coming? They said he was." Master had them come to him. He questioned them. They told him they got so tired [----] of them said he [----] he [---- ----] the [----] Yankees come he'd tell them where all this was, but he was just talking. But when the Yankees did come they was so scared they never got close to a Yankee. They was scared to death. They never found the meat and money. They [----] and cut the turkeys' heads off and the turkey fell off the rail fence, the head drop on one side and the body on the other. They milked a cow and cut both hind quarters off and leave the rest of the cow there and the cow not dead yet.