Document text
Accession IA
W9923
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
Shipped from
Wash. office
Label
2 p
Amount
-1
WPA L. C. PROJECT ...W.p.i_ters IIMT
Form --3
Collection (or Type)
F.7/4:140-114
TitlerGhos4s7
Place of origin. (1hP rleatOn Date3.41,3i.37
Project workerCas.aels....11—__kried.eloari
Project editor
Remarks
Project #-1655
Cassels R. Tiedeman
Charleston, S. C.
33):5=
OPHELIA JEMISON
FOLKLORE
6,1142,f's
Opehlia was asked if the believed that spirits ever came
back to see their loved ones.
"I knowed sperrits come back. I seen um. Ef a pusson
die mean an wicked ant want you, he come back ant git at
you sure ting. You jest go up to de grabe yaad (graveyard) at
at sun down, ant hold you head close down to de ground you
kin hear em comint up louder ant louder ant of you don't
git way, you'll be snatched down in one ob dem graves.
"I see me husband one time. He stant by me side but he
bery little in size wid a big head, 'bout lak dat waiter
ober dere on de table, ant he hair parted on de side jest
as natural. He all dressed in white wid long flowint sleebe.
You see, he killed sudden lak widout he hab time to tell me
nuttin', so he come back to hab he say. He say it all right,
but I ain't catch what he say, den I wanna talk to em but he
banish. May be I too wicked to talk to a sperrit."
"But Ophelia how can spirits come back to this world?"
"Lord miss, sperrits ain't fasten down, dey freer den we.
Dey come back when ebber dey lak but a)me don't ebber come
back any. Tom an Alice, two ob me fambly been talkint to me
dis mornint, cause I been hear a buzzint in me year an' I
knowed dey want to know how I come here -/id you."
"Did they find out?"
"Ohl dey come agin ant agin till dey satisfy dem self.
Dey know by de way I talk vthen dat buzzint aggregate me.
W 9923
Project #-1655
Cassels R. Tiedeman
Charleston, S. C.
Page 2
Sperrits all obber, dey 'tract you Itention when ebber dey lak."
Source: Ophelia Jemison, Addison Court, Charleston, S. C.