Her grandson John G. Hawkens was interviewed in Biscoe, Arkansas in about 1937 about his life and his time as an enslaved person.
"I was born in Monroe County, Mississippi December 9, 1866. My parents was Frances Hawkens. She was a half white woman. I was told my daddy was a white man, Mr. Young."
"Grandmother was a field woman. She was dark but had some Indian blood in her. I believe they said it was part Choctaw Indian. I don't remember a grandfather."
"Lamar County, Alabama was across the line from Monroe County, Mississippi. One of the Hawkens girls (white girl) married a man in Mississippi. The master had three boys and one or two girls. Grandmother was sold to the Hawkens and mother was born there in Alabama. There was another woman they owned called Mandy. They was all the slaves they owned that I knowd of."
"Two of us was born in slavery. My sister Mandy was fifteen years old when slavery ended."
"Two of mother's children was slave born. Sister Mandy is dead but my brother George Hawkens is on 1114 Apenway, Little Rock. He can tell you more than I know. Two of us was born after slavery. We all had the same father - Mr. Young. He lived about two miles from Hawkens and had a white wife and family."
"All my family came from Mississippi to Forrest City, Arkansas together. I married the first time there. My wife died. Then I married at Brinkley, Arkansas. We have one boy living in Lee County. He's my only child."
The interviewer commented, "J. G. Hawkens is the whitest negro I have ever seen. He has blue eyes and straight hair. He was fishing two days I went to see him." Interviewer Irene Robertson recorded a large number of interviews with the WPA.
Interview: John G. Hawkens was interviewed in Biscoe, Arkansas by Miss Irene Robertson as part of the Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The results are made available by the Library of Congress. [1]
Her grandson G. W. Hawkins was also interviewed, in Little Rock, Arkansas in about 1937 about his life and his time as an enslaved person.