"My mammy was in full charge of the house, and all the 'Marse' children, and when they pass her, she say: 'Lif yo' dress', then if'n she see little spot dirt or wrinkle, make dem take off all de clothes and change. Den she say 'Take off you shoe', smell their feet, Huh! She call 'Lisa, bring that foot tub', then she would wash and dry their feet and put on clean stockings. Mammy wus clean as a new pin.
"When I got any size to notice I wus dum-confounded to hear my mammy talk up to the white boys comin' to court 'Missie Pinter's' girls. Mammy meet them at de door and say: 'What you want?' They say: 'I come to call on Mis ——'. She say, 'What you got makes you think got right to call on my fine daughter? What you own? Can you hire her work done? Do you think my daughter is gwin' to marry any' por' white trash, and have to work hard all her life?' Then if'n he couldn' give a good account for himsef, mammy would swing her tom-hawk and yell: 'Be-gone, don' come back'. 'Nother thing a young man had better not come courtin' in his shirt sleeve, better have on his coat or mammy would 'back' in he haid.
"Then after the war wus over, and we wus free, it wusn't hard to find work. I wus allus honest and religious, 'longed to the Southern Babtist Church. I got work among the rich white people and traveled with them. Then I worked as laundress in the U.S. Marine Hospital, in St. Louis, for seven years; when George Washington was President. I worked on the 'Chas. P. Shoto' steamboat as chamber-maid, and made lots of trips to Florida. I was maid for Mrs. Busch, in St. Louis, and they wus powerful rich, they made that beer up there.
"Richard says, he wus bawn May 8, 1845, on the corner of Beale and Main Streets, Memphis, Tenn. And I wus bawn May 8, 1835, in Giles County, Tenn. We neither one had much bad treatment but we is glad slavery is over."
Interview with Richard and Drucilla Martin,
Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
Called on and talked to Richard and Drucilla Martin, old time negroes, who were slaves. They talked fluently, really enjoying talking about the 'good days' as they put it, as they say their master was good to them.
Richard is rather short and wears a beard, which is snow white. He claims to be something better than ninety years old, he says about ninety-four or five, and Drucilla is ten years older than Richard.
About four or five years ago their home which they owned was destroyed by fire, and having no insurance, they have since been living in a poor substitute for a house made of pieces of tin, wood, and old boxes, built under the branches of a tree.
Richard was in a hurry to go to town and see if their old age pension checks had come yet and invited us to come back some other time.
Drucilla said she was the slave of John Pointer. Her mother who was part Indian wore a ring in her nose and carried a tomahawk, had ten children, and mothered the ten children of her master's wife. Drucilla does not remember much about her father, as he was the slave of another family.