"I worked in de hay harvest for $.50 a day. Common domestic for shirts was $.50 a yard. It took six yards to make one shirt, dat was a week's work. We lived on chickens. My mother raised a whole camp meeting of chickens. Dere never was a better white man dan Dr. Sharp. When I married I had four head of horses and three mules. I owed for one team of horses. I took typhoid fever in August and was in bed until November. Dr. Sharp and Dr. Bodine knew something was de matter but dey didn't know what it was. When de note come due, I got on a horse and rode to Dr. Sharp's. He wanted to know what I was doing on dat horse. I told him 'bout de note and he said, 'Hum, dat's what's been bothering you. Don't you get off dat horse! I help you den you get back home and go to bed and stay dere!' He just wrote a check for $90, I had already paid $300. After I got well, I sold a span of mules to Joe McCleary and put de check in de bank for Dr. Sharp. Dat was to pay him for de note and taking care of me dat summer and fall.
"I was in de railroad home guards during de war. We had to keep de people from tearing up de railroads. I fought Bill Anderson's men many a time. Seems sort of queer when I used to take dem de mail but we kept dem from burning de railroad bridges. I served for 'bout six months near Macon."
[Clara McNeely Harrell]
Interview with Clara McNeely Harrell,
Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
"We libbed way off 'en de backwoods, six mile tuther side o' Jackson, near Fruitland, and Ah's feared dey ain't much Ah ken tell yuh. My ole Massa wuz John McNeely. Ah don' rightly member mah ole Missus McNeely but when she die, ole Massa marry young Missie Harries fum down tow'ds de ribber. De white folks has a fine big white house an we'ens had a little log house. Dey wuz lotsa nut trees roun' dere an in de fall o' de year we'ens usta gather lotsa nuts—hicker' nuts, walnuts, an' dey wuz hazel nuts too.
"My Mammy's name?—les' see now—dey calls her Minnie—yes dat's it, Minnie. Youh see mah mind ain't so clear but when Ah talks 'bout 'em dey kinda comes back tuh me. Mah pappy's name wuz John Mitchell and he belong to a neighbor. I'se little and didn't hab much work to do. Jes chores, like heppin' to carry in wood and sech like, but mos'ly I'se jes' playin' an' tom-boyin' aroun'.
"Ole Massa had three boys at went off to war—Dey wuz Ab, an' Bob' an' Jack. We nebber seed no fightin' roun' our way but sometime we heard de cannon fum Cape. One time dey wuz lotsa sojers cum pass our place an dey had lotsa wagons an' things. Ah ain't nebber seed so many men an' I'se plum scared to death, but dey nebber bother none.
"We had big fields o' wheat an cahn an sich, but mah mammy didden work in de fiel', she spin an she weave. Ah could spin too. Ah's fill de quills and Ah'd hep her thread de loom. De loom stood out on de big porch and Ah kin jes see her sittin dar. She'd push de thread through tuh me an' den Ah'd ketch it and pull it through an han it back tuh her.
"When de war wuz over, Ole Massa call tuh me an' he say 'Clara, you know de war is over'—an Ah say 'Whar wuz it?' Ah nebber know'd nuthin 'bout de war.
"No'm, Ah don' know nuthin 'bout ghosts an sich like, but when Ah dies Ah specks to go to Hebbin an' Lawd! Ah's gonna sit all day an' shout an' sing, and clap mah han's an' stomp mah feet! Oh! Lawd! Dat's gonna be a happy time."