Holly Grove Arkansas

Slave Narrative of Spencer Barnett

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person Interviewed: Spencer Barnett (blind) Location: Holly Grove, Arkansas Age: 81 Occupation: Brakeman on freight train, Farmed, Worked in timber, He sold “shuck mats” and “bottomed” chairs “I was born April 30, 1856. It was wrote in a old Bible. I am 81 years old. I was born 3 miles from Florence, Alabama. The folks owned us was Nancy and Mars Tom Williams. To my recollection they had John, William, and Tom, boys; Jane, Ann, Lucy, and Emma, girls. In my family there was 13 children. My parents name Harry and Harriett Barnett. “Mars Tom Williams … Read more

Slave Narrative of Vera Roy Bobo

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person Interviewed: Vera Roy Bobo (Mulatto, almost white) Location: Holly Grove, Arkansas Age: 68 “My parents come from Macon, Georgia. My mother was Margaret Cobb. Her people were owned by the Cobbs. They reared her. She was a house girl and a seamstress. She sewed for both white and black. She was light color. “My father was St. Roy Holmes. He was a C.M.E. preacher in Georgia and later in Arkansas. He came on the train to Forrest City, 1885. He crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry boat. Later he preached at Wynne. He was … Read more

Slave Narrative of Laura Abromsom

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person Interviewed: Laura Abromson, R. F. D. Location: Holly Grove, Arkansas (receives mail at Clarendon, Arkansas) Age: 74 “My mama was named Eloise Rogers. She was born in Missouri. She was sold and brought to three or four miles from Brownsville, Tennessee. Alex Rogers bought her and my papa. She had been a house girl and well cared for. She never got in contact wid her folks no more after she was sold. She was a dark woman. Papa was a ginger cake colored man. Mama talked like Alex Rogers had four or five hundred acres … Read more

Slave Narrative of Alice Biggs

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person Interviewed: Alice Biggs Age: “Bout 70” Location: Holly Grove, Arkansas “My mother come from Kentucky and my father from Virginia. That where they born and I born close to Byhalia, Mississippi. My father was Louis Anthony and mama name Charlotte Anthony. “Grandma and her children was sold in a lump. They wasn’t separated. Grandpa was a waiter on the Confederate side. He never come back. He died in Pennsylvania; another man come back reported that. He was a colored waitin’ man too. Grandma been dead 49 years now. “Mama was a wash woman and a … Read more

Slave Narrative of Selie Anderson

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person Interviewed: Selie Anderson Location: Holly Grove, Arkansas Age: 78 Occupation: House girl “I was born near Decatur, Alabama and lived there till I was fifteen years old. Course I members hearin’ em talk bout Mars Newt. I named fur my ma’s old mistress—Miss Selie Thompson and Mars Newt Thompson. Pa died when I was three years old. He was a soldier. Ma had seven children. They have bigger families then than they have now. Ma name Emmaline Thompson. Pa name Sam Adair. I can’t tell you about him. I heard em say his pa was … Read more