Gillie Hill
From:
More Arkansas
#787
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Gillie Hill
813 Arch Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: About 45
"My grandmother told me that they had to chink up the cracks so that the
light wouldn't get out and do their washing and ironing at night. When
they would hear the overseers or the paterolers coming 'round (I don't
know which it was), they would put the light out and keep still till
they had passed on. Then they would go right on with the washing and
ironing.
"They would have to wash and iron at night because they were working all
day.
"She told me how they used to turn pots down at night so that they could
pray. They had big pots then--big enough for you to get into yourself.
I've seen some of them big old pots and got under 'em myself. You could
get under one and pray if you wanted to. You wouldn't have to prop them
up to send your voice in 'em from the outside. The thing that the handle
hooks into makes them tilt up on one side so that you could get down on
your hands and knees and pray with your mouth close to the opening if
you wanted to. Anyway, my grandma said they would turn the pots upside
down and stick their heads under them to pray.
"My father could make you cry talking about the way they treated folks
in slavery times. He said his old master was so mean that he made him
eat off the ground with the dogs. He never felt satisfied unless'n he
saw a nigger sufferin'."
Interviewer's Comment
Gillie Hill is the daughter of Evelyn Jones already interviewed and
reported. The few statements which she hands in make an interesting
supplement to her mother's story. The mother, Evelyn Jones, remembered
very few things in her interview and had to be constantly prompted and
helped by her daughter and son who were present at each sitting. There
was considerable difference of opinion among them over a number of
things, especially the age of the mother, the daughter showing letters
to prove the age of seventy, the mother saying she had been told she was
sixty-eight, and the son arguing that the scattering of the ages of her
nineteen children showed that she must be well over eighty.
Gillie Hill claims to be somewhat clairvoyant. She gave a brief analysis
of my character, stating accurately my regular calling and a few of my
personal traits even indicating roughly my bringing-up and where. She is
not a professional fortune-teller, and merely ventured a few statements.
My impression was that she was an unusually close and alert observer.
Like her mother she is somewhat taciturn. I should have said that her
mother was reserved as well as forgetful. The mother never ventured a
word except in answer to a question, and used monosyllabic answers
whenever possible.
Next:
Harriett Hill
Previous:
Elmira Hill
