Person interviewed: Diana Rankins, Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 66


"I was born at Arlington, Tennessee but when I was a chile the depot was
called With. My parents' name Sarah and Solomon Green. There was seven
girls and one boy of us. My sister died last year had two children old
as I was. I was the youngest chile. Folks mated younger than they do now
and seem like they had better times when there was a big family.

"Adam Turnover in Charleston, South Carolina owned my papa. When he died
they sold him. He was one year and six months old when he was sold.

"I think S.C. Bachelor, around Brownsville, Tennessee, owned mama first.
She said they put her upon the block and sold her and her mother was
crying. The man after he sold her ask her if she didn't want him to sell
her. She said she didn't care but said she knowed she was afraid to say
she cared cause she was crying. She never seen her mama no more. She was
carried off on a horse. She was a little girl then. General Hayes bought
her and he bought papa too. They played together. General Hayes made the
little boys run races so he could see who could run the fastest.

"Papa said they picked him up and carried him off. He said they pressed
him into the breastworks of the war. He didn't want to go to war. Mr.
Hayes kept him hid out but they stole him and took him to fight. He come
home. He belong to Jack Hayes, General Hayes' son. They called him
Mr. Jack or Mr. Hayes when freedom come. Mr. Jack sent him to Como,
Mississippi to work and to Duncan, Arkansas to work his land. I was
fifteen years old when we come to Arkansas. Mr. Walker Hayes that was
president of the Commercial Appeal over at Memphis lost his land. We