Memoir, opening: earliest memories, Becky the nurse, Theodore Barker, Rock Spring
Book 2, Page 1 ·1870–1950
Transcription
Trouser legs, and a nurse’s big white apron! I think that must be my first memory — I have a vague picture of a board wall — a white building — men’s voices — my father’s laughter — and the long skirts of a baby dress — It must have been Theodore’s (Bula’s) christening — He was christened in the church in Saluda N.C. — My grand mother Perry had a home there —
Mam’mie Becky was the nurse. She had nursed me & was with me for a long time. Becky was a wonderful person — a splendid nurse — full of fun, but strict — I always had to mind my manners and be a “little lady”. I have never ceased to love her —
Becky was in Charleston when Pickens was born and came to see me. I asked her how old she was & she said — “Missy I don’t rightly know — But I does know this — I was 3 days old the last time Genl. LaFayette came to Chas’.”
[Pasted lower left: an oval-format albumen carte-de-visite portrait of an elderly Black woman wearing a white headwrap, captioned in ink:]
Becky
When Dad and Mam’mie were married they came to live at “Rock Spring”. Dad planted rice for Uncle Theodore Barker on Springfield & Block Block Island — these plantations were on the far side of the Edisto — on Pon Pon —
AI Notes
First page of a long handwritten reminiscence in blue ink on lined paper — the opening of Amy FitzSimons Walker’s memoir. A small oval albumen carte-de-visite of an elderly Black woman in a white headwrap is tipped onto the lower left and captioned ‘Becky’ — the family nurse described in the text. The narrative recounts the writer’s earliest memories: her brother Theodore’s (Bula’s) christening at a church in Saluda, N.C. where her grandmother Perry had a home; the nurse Becky; and the move with Dad and Mam’mie to Rock Spring, where Dad planted rice for Uncle Theodore Barker on Springfield and Block Island plantations on the far side of the Edisto, on Pon Pon. Struck-through ‘Block’ before ‘Block Island’ preserved as a writer’s self-correction.
Becky’s recollection of being three days old “the last time Genl. LaFayette came to Chas’.” dates her birth to mid-March 1825 — Lafayette was received in Charleston 13–15 March 1825 during the closing leg of his celebrated farewell tour of the United States, and never returned. By the time of this memoir she would have been in her late sixties or seventies.