Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Ralph Ellison
ADDRESS 470 W. 160th Street, Manhattan
DATE
June 14th, 1939
SUBJECT Harlem
FOLKLORE 19 4
NEW YORK
1. Date End time of interview
2. Place of interview Corner of 135th Street and Lenox Avenue
3. Name and address of informant Leo Gurley
4. Name and address of person, if any, who ut you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and aderuss of p,rson, if any, accocpanin,-, you
6. Description of rporp, house, surrounLins, etc.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms,
each bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material
refers.)
FORM C
TEXT OF INTERVIEW (UNEDITED)
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Ralph Ellison
ADDRESS 470 Nest 150th Street, Manhattan
DATE June 14th, 1938
SUBJECT Harlem
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
I hope to God to kill me if this aint the truth. All you got
to do is go down to .elorence, South Carolina and ask most anybody you
meet and they'll tell you its the truth.
Florence is one of these hard towns on colored folks. You have
to stay out of the white folks way; all but Sweet. That the fellow I'm
fixing to tell you about. His name was Sweet -the -monkey. I done forgot
his real name, I caint remember it. But that was what everybody called
him. He wasn't no big guy. He was just bad. My mother and grandmother
used to say he 'was wicked. He was bad allright. He was one sucker who
didn't give a dam bout the crackers. Fact is, they go so they stayed
out of his way. I (saint never remember hear tell of any them crackers
bothering that guy. He used to give em trouble all over the place and
all they oould do about it was to give the rest of us hell.
It was this way: Sweet could make hisself invisible. You don't
believe it? Well here's how he done it. Sweet -the -monkey cut open a
black oat and took out its heart. Climbed up a tree backwards and cursed
God. After that he could do anything. The white folks would wake up in
the morning and find their stuff gone. He cleaned out the stores. He
cleaned up the houses. Hell, he even cleaned out the dam bankI He was
the boldest black sonofabitch ever been down that way. And couldn't
nobody do nothing to him. Be -cause they couldn't never see im when he
done it. He didn't need the money. Fact is, most of the time he broke
into places he wouldn't take nothing. Lots a times he just did it to
show 'am he could. Hell, he had everybody in that lil old town soaird
as hell; black folks and white folks.
The white folks started trying to catch Sweet. Well, they didn't
have no luck. Theyd catch 'im standing in front of the eating joints
and put the handcuffs on in and take in down to the jail. You know what
that sucker would do? The police would come up and says "Came on Sweet"
and he'd say "Youall want me?" and they'd put the handcuffs on in and
start leading im away. He'd go with em a little piece;Sho, just like he
was going. Then all of a sudden he would turn hisself invisible and
dissapear. The police wouldn't have nothing but the handcuffs. They
couldn't do a thing with that Sweet -the -monkey. Just before I come up
this way they was all trying to trap in. They didn't have much luck.
Once they found a place he'd looted with footprints leading away from
it and they decided to try and trap in. This was bout sun up and they
followed his footprints all that day. They followed them till sundown
when he come partly visible. It was red and the sun was shining on the
trees and they waited till they saw his shadow. That was the last of the
Sweet -the -monkey. They never did find his body and right after that I
come up here. That was bout five years ago. My brother was down there
last year and they said they think Sweet done came back. But they caint
be sho because he wont let hisself be seen.