THE AMERICAN GUIDE	WOPDS: 1,200
TOPEKA, L~NSAS	COMPLETE : 100%	~	I 4
EX S LAITE STORY	INTERVIEWER : E • Jean Foote
BtJTCEINSON, KANSAS




	Belle Williams was born in slavery about the year 1850 or 1851. Her mother‘s naine was Elizabeth Hulsie, being the slave of Sid Hulsie, her last name being the naine àf her master. The Hulsie plan-‘ tation was located in Carroll County, Arkansas. Belle Williams, better known as “Auntie Bol1e,‘~ is most interesting. She lives in her own littie home in the one hundred block on Harvey Street, Hutchinson, Kansas. She is too old and crippled to do hard work, so spends most of her time smoking her pipe and rocking in her old armchair on the little porch of her home. She is jolly, and most interesting.

	“Yes, I was a slave,“ she said. “I was born a slave on a plantation in Carroll County, Arkansas and lived there ‘till after the war. Law sakes, honey, I can see them ‘Feds‘ yet, just as plain as if il; was yesterday. We had a !ong lane -‚ you know what a lane is -‚ well, here they come~ I run for mah ma~uny, and I‘ll never forget how she grabbed me and let out a yell, ‘It‘s them Feds, them blue coats.‘

	“you see my massa was a good massa. He didn‘t believe in whipping niggers and he didn‘t believe in selling niggers, and so my mammy and me, we didn‘t want to leave our mistress and massa. We called them ‘Mother Hulsie‘ and ‘Massa Sid. ‚ One officer told my mammy that she could take along with her, anything out of the cabin that she wanted. Mammy looked around and said, ‘I don‘t want to take nothin‘ but my chillun, ‚ so we all told Mother Hulsie ‘goodbye, ‚ and