"When de slaves war freed, we war tole ta go anywhar we pleas'd. For'nately muthuh married at onc't, but others did not care ta leave thar way of livin' 'cause they had no money, no homes, and did not know how ta do thar own work. But Jim Blackwell, who had been a slave fur John Coffman, saved up a lot of food in his cab'n an' then when he was freed, he went out in da woods an' built him a home of his own. He cut down de trees an' made his cab'n thar an' liv'd.
"I hear a woman stan' up an' say we would be bettah off today in slavery. I say,'Why?' She say: 'You would hab ta look aftah nothin' of your welfare.' 'If that's what she wuz talkin' 'bout', I said, 'ma fauthuh wuz ten years ole fore he put on a pair of pants. He had ta wear wooden shoes an' a tow shirt.' I wud not liv' twenty-four hours, bein' a slave now. I wud' not habe stood it with ma temper."
[Delicia Ann Wiley Patterson (Lucinda)]
Interview with Delicia Patterson,
St. Louis, Missouri.
Delicia Had Some Temper
The subject of this sketch is Delicia Ann Wiley Patterson, better known as Lucinda Patterson, 92 years of age and lives in a 3 room kitchenette apartment at 2847 Delmar Boulevard, apartment 103.
The old woman is a very neat little brown skinned, white haired person. She lives alone in her neatly furnished snug little quarters. When the writer introduced herself and asked for an interview, Lucinda seemed rather peeved and she said:
"I'm hot, and mad because the landlord sent the paper hanger here and started to clean up my apartment, then come and taken him away before he finished, because I am old.
"I got plenty temper and I been sick, and when I get mad I get sick all over again. I turned off the radio, 'cause I don't want nobody talkin' to me and I don't want to talk to nobody, I've told my history enough. I don't want to tell it no more anyhow, and especially today the way I feel."
But she seemed too good a subject to let go on with a merely perturbed mood, so I visited with her until she was in good humor, and very willingly gave me the following story:
"I was born in Boonville, Missouri, January 2, 1845. My mother's name was Maria and my father's was Jack Wiley. Mother had five children but raised only two of us. I was owned by Charles Mitchell until I was 15 years old. They were fairly nice to all of their slaves and they had several of us. I only got whipped once in the whole 15 years there, and that was because I was working in the garden with one of my owner's daughters and I pulled up something that she did not want pulled up, so she up and slapped me for it.