Clements, Maria S. (3rd interview)

The following data is extracted from Arkansas Slave Narratives.

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed: Maria Sutton Clements De Valls Bluff, Arkansas Age: [Dec 31 1937] [TR: Also reported as Maria Sutton Clemments]


"Missus, I thought if I'd see you agin I'd tell you this song:

'Jeff Davis is President Abe Lincoln is a fool Come here, see Jeff ride the gray horse And Abe Lincoln the mule.' "They sang all sich songs durin' of the war.

"Five wagons come by. They said it was Jeff Davise's wagons. They was loaded wid silver money-all five-in Lincoln County, Georgia. Somehow the folks got a whiz of it and got the money outen one the wagons. Abraham, my old mistress' son had old-fashion saddle bag full. Sho it was white folks all but two or three slaves. Hogs tore up sacks money, find em hid in the woods. They thought it was corn. They found a leather trunk full er money-silver money-down in the creek. Money buried all round. The way it all started one colored man throwed down a bright dime to a Yankee fo sompin he wanter buy. That started it all. They tied their thumbs this way (thumbs crossed) behind em, then strung em up in trees by their wrists behind em. It put heep of em in bed an' some most died never did get over it. The Yankee soldiers come down that [HW: then?] and got all the money nearly. They say the war last four years, five months. Seemed like twenty years."

Source: Arkansas Slave Narratives

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