AFS t5500B

Interview with Aunt Harriet Smith, Hempstead, Texas, 1941

John Henry Faulk: [addresses someone in the background] Quit H. [addresses Harriet Smith] Did you raise many uh, did the white folks uh, poor white trash and the colored folks have many fights back in the, after the big break up? Have many run-ins?

Harriet Smith: No. We never had nothing to ran in to, but wagons and teams.

John Henry Faulk: Well I mean did they have many uh, you know, quarrels and uh, fusses.

Harriet Smith: No. No, they just have these white, these B.'s that they kill our white, our, our boys, my husband and his brother, was poor white people. They didn't like. And let me see how that did come up. I done forgot now, you know, all about that you know. I know my husband was on his way from the cedar break.

John Henry Faulk: Well did the white folks meddle? Did the poor white trash meddle much with the colored girls in those days?

Harriet Smith: Not, not, not at our home. I don't know where they did it. At other places.

John Henry Faulk: Well I did, I didn't mean at your home. I mean around though. Did you hear of any, anything like that going on in those days?

Harriet Smith: No. Yes. [mumbles] Well, the girls, we didn't run with them. They had different classes you know. Girls run, colored girls running with white boys, and white boys would come over at night. But we didn't associate with them [John Henry Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: Well did much of that go on in those days?

Harriet Smith: Very little of it. It's going on more now than it did in my raising up days.

John Henry Faulk: Is that right?

Harriet Smith: Yes sir. Yes sir.

John Henry Faulk: Well I, I think this might have gone on.

Harriet Smith: Yes. They, they uh, we didn't go with them. Didn't associate with their kind no how. It's going on more now than it did in my raising. My, my sisters and me [John Henry Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: Yeah, you know that little J. Jr. across the street from you looks, he's got almost blonde hair.

Harriet Smith: Yes.

John Henry Faulk: His hair's white looking.

Harriet Smith: Uh huh. His mama, yes, his, his mama, Miss F., is his grandma. Yes, Miss F.'s son P. M. is his, is his father, her oldest son.

John Henry Faulk: Well her name's B. though.

Harriet Smith: I don't care what her name is. Her name's F. B., but she married a B. But B. wasn't these children's father.

John Henry Faulk: Oh I see.

Harriet Smith: Uh huh. M. was these children's father.

John Henry Faulk: Well now who was your second husband Aunt Harriet?

Harriet Smith: Who was my second husband? Let me see, who was my second husband?

John Henry Faulk: You married again after uh, uh, your what's his name, Smith. [John Henry Faulk and Harriet Smith overlap]

Harriet Smith: Old man, old man, uh, oh, I married B. S., was my second husband.

John Henry Faulk: B. S.

Harriet Smith: Yeah. And uh [John Henry Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: How long did you live with him?

Harriet Smith: Oh, around about a year I reckon, two years. He, he had a good, he had Indian blood in him.

John Henry Faulk: He did.

Harriet Smith: Uh huh. Indian blood. And then my next husband was old man [voice trails off]

John Henry Faulk: Well now what happened to B. S.? He die or did you divorce him?

Harriet Smith: He, he wouldn't sign the divorce but I got my divorce from him just the same.

John Henry Faulk: You did?

Harriet Smith: Yeah, yeah, he, he, he never, he didn't, he, he lived a long time after, after me and him married.

John Henry Faulk: Well after, after you separated from him who did you marry?

Harriet Smith: 0ld man P.

John Henry Faulk: What's his name?

Harriet Smith: 0ld man P.

John Henry Faulk: Uh, how old was he?

Harriet Smith: Oh, he was, he was eighty something. He was older than I was. He was about, I, I was his second wife that he married.

John Henry Faulk: Well I, didn't y'all have trouble? Didn't you and he have a little trouble?

Harriet Smith: Who?

John Henry Faulk: You and old man P. Didn't he kind of cut up and carry on?

Harriet Smith: Yes. He cut up and carried on and I quit him. Come on back home.

John Henry Faulk: Uh huh. Did daddy get you that divorce?

Harriet Smith: Uh huh.

John Henry Faulk: I thought so. What was the matter with him?

Harriet Smith: Old man P. was all right. He was all right, but his son, that's what we had trouble with, A. He come to command the place, you know, tried to put me off of the place. He couldn't do it. I stayed there as long as I wanted to, and when I got ready, I come on home.

John Henry Faulk: Then who did you marry?

Harriet Smith: Uh, let me see, who was the last man I married, old man C. over here.

John Henry Faulk: Old man C.

Harriet Smith: Uh huh.

John Henry Faulk: Well did you and he, did he try to whip you one time?

Harriet Smith: Yes, yes. He couldn't whip me.

John Henry Faulk: Speak a little louder Aunt Harriet.

Harriet Smith: No, he couldn't whip me. He tried, but he couldn't. I put him [John Henry Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: What, what did you do to him?

Harriet Smith: [laughs] Put him outdoor.

John Henry Faulk: [laughs] Well he was about a hundred years old wasn't he at that time?

Harriet Smith: I don't know how old he was. He was in the Army.

John Henry Faulk: In the Civil War?

Harriet Smith: Yes.

John Henry Faulk: He fought in the [Harriet Smith interrupts]

Harriet Smith: Yes, he fought in the Civil War.

John Henry Faulk: And you married him in the 1930s didn't you? In the 1930s?

Harriet Smith: Yes.

John Henry Faulk: Well you see that would make him, that would make him close to a hundred anyhow.

Harriet Smith: Yes, but you see, you know there was another party between him, me and him that's the cause of our trouble.

John Henry Faulk: Is that right.

Harriet Smith: Yes. [phone rings] Just answer, answer over here.

John Henry Faulk: Was he running, was he chasing girls old as he was [Harriet Smith interrupts]

Harriet Smith: Yes.

John Henry Faulk: He was?

Harriet Smith: Yes.

John Henry Faulk: He just could hobble around [Harriet Smith interrupts]

Harriet Smith: Just could hobble around. They was chasing him for his money, you know.

John Henry Faulk: Oh I see.

Harriet Smith: Because he got, us see, he got, uh, when he quit the Army, got old, you know, he got his, his money, from the Army.

John Henry Faulk: Well the girls uh, uh, must have made a fool out of him.

Harriet Smith: Yes they did. Got his money, all his money. He got sixty or seventy dollars a month, every month.

John Henry Faulk: Hmmm.

Harriet Smith: Yeah, [mumbles]

John Henry Faulk: Well do you still go to church Aunt Harriet?

Harriet Smith: Yes. I go to church all the time nearly. Our church up, the Methodist Church up there [John Henry Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: Oh that must be [Harriet Smith interrupts]

Harriet Smith: At Saint Anthony. Yes, I, I join that church. After I come here we built that church, we built that church [John Henry Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: Well who is your preacher up there?

Harriet Smith: I haven't never met him, no. This, this we got a new preacher here, you know. I forget his name. [mumbles] Me and J. belongs to that church up there.

John Henry Faulk: Is he a good preacher?

Harriet Smith: I've never ask J. what sort of preacher he is. This Sunday I was preparing to go to the church, some of the folks from [unintelligible - place] come, and I didn't go.

John Henry Faulk: Well what do you think about Reverend R. as a preacher?

Harriet Smith: Well Reverend R., he's uh, Reverend R. is Miss F.'s preacher.

John Henry Faulk: Uh huh. Over at the Free Will Baptist.

Harriet Smith: Over at the Free Will Baptist.

John Henry Faulk: He's just a good friend of mine. I just wondered whether you liked him. [Harriet Smith interrupts and overlaps]

Harriet Smith: Yes. He's a good fellow. I like him fine. He's been to my house.

John Henry Faulk: He has?

Harriet Smith-. Yes.

John Henry Faulk: Well he thinks a lot of you too.

Harriet Smith: Yes. He's been to my house. I like him fine. Yes. Been to my house several times.

John Henry Faulk: Aunt Harriet, what, how has times changed since you uh, came to Austin?

Harriet Smith: Hmmm. I don't know. Times is changed. [mumbles] We've had churches, and different things like that.

John Henry Faulk: Did you ever think you'd live to see the automobile?

Harriet Smith: No. I never did think I'd ever live to see the automobile. And the thing is, that I heard talk of them. I heard my husband talk of them. He went North with a herd of beefs with some white folks and he seen them up there.

John Henry Faulk: Is that right? He was a cowboy. Well which husband was that?

Harriet Smith: That was J. S., my first husband, all of these children's father.

John Henry Faulk: Oh, he saw, he saw automobiles then when he went up with the, a herd of cattle [Harriet Smith interrupts]

Harriet Smith: Yes, yes. He'd come back and say, uh, I saw these airplanes and things.

John Henry Faulk: Is that right. And came back and told you about that.

Harriet Smith: Yes. We didn't know what nothing was.

John Henry Faulk: Well Lord, he was killed before the turn of the century, before 1900 wasn't he?

Harriet Smith: No. He was kill in 1901.

John Henry Faulk: 1901.

Harriet Smith: But he had been up  North with a herd of beefs, you know, for cattle [John Henry Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: Who'd he work for?

Harriet Smith: Well he worked for different people. Worked, we worked for ourselves then. We bought a home of our own. [slight pause] Yes the white folks [ John Faulk interrupts]

John Henry Faulk: Did you ever, you, you've plowed in the field haven't you?

Harriet Smith: Sure, I reckon I did. Plowed and chopped cotton up there. I could drop corn just as fast as I walk that a way. Grandma too.

John Henry Faulk: Plow oxen?

Harriet Smith: Uh huh, yes.

John Henry Faulk: What was the name of your oxen?  Do you remember?

Harriet Smith: Oh, I forgot them. One of them name Jerry and the other name Broad.

John Henry Faulk: Uh, named what?

Harriet Smith: Broad, they called him.

John Henry Faulk: Jerry and Broad.

Harriet Smith: Uh huh. Yes, we'd pop them whips and them oxen would go ’round there and plow.  Yes, I, I don't know if my children ever seen any oxen.

END OF SIDE B