Emma Crockett

Emma Crockett, born Emma Jolly, said she was about 79 or 80 when she was interviewed in Alabama. Her mother was Cassie Hawkins and her father Alfred Jolly, and she was enslaved by Bill and Betty Hawkins on their plantation nearby. She married Henry Crockett, and they had five children; two daughters, Fannie and Mary, were living in Birmingham.

She never learned anything before freedom. Afterward a teacher showed her how to read print, though she couldn't read handwriting. About the war she said only that "it was bad times and folks got whipped," and that she saw the patrollers and, after the surrender, the Ku Klux, though they never bothered her. They did not go to church in slavery, but in old age she attended the New Prophet Church, and her favorite song was "Set Down," with its verses about Daniel and rocking shoes. She lived with a grandchild on a farm owned by Bob Davis and said they got enough to eat, "but it's tight."