35oD~:•4
	Oklahoma Writers Project	Ex—s1a~r~s




AUG191937	~ .
JOANNA DRAPER
Age 83 yrs.
Tulsa, Okia.


	Mo s t folks can~ t remem‘o er many things happened. to ‚ em when they oniy eight years old, but one of my biggest tribulations come about dat time and I never will forget iti That was when I was took away from my own mammy and. pappy and. sent off anö. bound out to another man, way off two—three hundred. miles away from whar I live. And d.at‘s the 1a~ time I ever see either one of them, or any my own hnfolks!

	Whar I was born was at Hazelhurst, Mississippi. Jest a little piece east of Hazelhurst, close to the Pearl River, and that place was a kind. of new plantation what my Master, Dr. Alexan&er, bought when he moved into Mississippi from up in Virginia awhile before the War.

	They said. mi mamms~ brings me down to Mississippi, and I was born jest right after she got there. My mamrny1s name was Margaret, and. she was born wider the Ramson~s, back in Tennessee. She belonged to Dave Ramson~ and his pappy had. come to Tennessee to settle on war land, and he had knowed

Dr. Alexanders people back in Virginia too. My pappyts name was Addison, and he always b elongeci to Dr. Alexander. Old. doctor bought my mammy ‚ cause my papp~ liked her. Old doctor live in Tennessee a little while before he go on down in Mississippi.

	Old doctorts wife named Dinah, and she shot was a good woman, but I dontt remember about old doctor much. He was away all the time, it

seem like.. •

••‚~~: ~	• When I is about six year old. they take me into tue Big House to


learn to be ~ house woman, ax~ they show me how to cook and. clean up and. take