I reckon she won't have so long to wait now, even if I is feeling pretty spry and got good use of the feets and hands. Ninety-eight years brings a heap of wear and some of these days the old body'll need a long time rest and then I'll join her for all the time.
I is ready for the New Day a-coming!
Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date stamp: AUG 16 1937]
MRS. ISABELLA JACKSON
Age 79 yrs.
Tulsa, Okla.
"Boom ... Boom! Boom ... Boom!" That's the way the old weaver go all day long when my sister, Margaret, is making cloth for the slaves down on old Doc Joe Jackson's plantation in Louisiana.
That was near the little place of Bunker, and its my birthplace, and I guess where all Mammy's children were born because she was never sold but once and nobody but the old Doc ever did own her after she come to his place.
He always say couldn't nobody get work out of Mammy but him. I guess that's just his foolery 'cause if she ain't no good the Old Doc most likely sell her to some of them white folks in Texas.
That's what they done to them mean, no account slaves—just send them to Texas. Them folks sure knew how for to handle 'em!