Untitled Section 001

A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL WRITERS PROJECT, 1936 1938 ASSEMBLED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Illustrated with Photographs WASHINGTON 1941 SLAVE NARRATIVES

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VOLUME II ARKANSAS NARRATIVES PARTi Prepared by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Arkansas,,

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INFo:~~t4.NTs Abbott, Silas Abernathy, Lucian Abromsom, Laura Adeline, Aunt Adway, Rose Aiken, Liddie Aidridge, Mattie Alexander, Amsy O. Alexander Diana Alexander, Fannie Alexander, Lucretia - . Allen, Ed Allison, Lucindy Ames, Josephine Anderson, Charles Anderson, Nancy Anderson, R. B. Anderson, Sarah Anderson, Selle Anderson, W. A. Anthony Henry Arbery, Katie . Armstrong, Caaipbell An~istrong, Cora Baccus, Lillie Badgett, J~oseph Samuel Bailey, Jeff Baker, rames Balt imore Will lam Banks, Mose Banner, Henry Barnett., John W. H. Barnett, 3osephine Ann Barnett, Lizzie Barnett, Spencer Barr, Emma Barr, Robert Bass, Matilda Baal, Emmett Beard, Dma Beck, Annie Beckwith, J. H. Beel, Enoch Belle, Sophie D. Bellus Cyrus Benford, Bob Bennet Carrie Bradley Benson, George Benton, Kato Bertrand, fames Blggs, Alice Billings, Mandy Birch, ~Tane Black, Beatrice Blackwell, Boston Blake, Henry Blakeley, Adeline Bobo, Vera Roy Boechus, Liddie Bond, Maggie (Bunny) Bonds, Caroline Boone, Rev. Frank T. Boone, J. F. Boone, Jonas Bowdry John Boyd, Jack Boyd Mal Braddox, George Bradley, Edward Bradley, Rachel Brannon, Elizabeth Brantley, Mack Brass, Ellen Bratton, Alice Briles, Frank Brooks, Mary Ann Brooks, Waters Brown Casio Jones Brown, i~lcle Brown, F. H. Brown, George Brown, J. N. Brown, Lewis Brown, Lewis Brown, Mag Brown, Mary Brown, Mattie Brown, Molly Brown, Peter Brown, William Brown, William Broyles, Maggie Bryant Ida Buntin, Belle Burgess, Jeff Burkes Norman Burks, Sr., Will 153 155 157 160 162 164 166 168 175 180 194 195 197 201 202 210 214 216 218 220 223,226 229 233 237 241 246 249 251 253 255 267 272 275 281 284 286,288,289 290 298 299 301 303 311 315 317 324 329 330 334 336 338 I 3 8 lI 17 19 22 24 28 30 32 40 41 44 46 49 53 55 57 60 62 64 68 75 76 78 84 91 97 101 104 10? 109 112 115 119 122 126 127 129 131 132 135 137 141 146 Logan 149

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Burns, Adeline Butler, J~ennie 340 342 Byrd, E. L. Byrd, Emmett Augusta 346 347

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Frontispiece ILLUSTRATIONS Old Slave

[Interview with Abbott, Silas] 006 001

30468 ~ ~ ~ (1 Interviewer MtasIz~eie Robertson Person Interviewed Silas Abbott ~ R,F.D. ge?3 . Brinkley, Ark. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~..-. UI was born In Chiokashaw County, Mississippi. Ely Abbott and Maggie Abbott was our owners . They had three girls and two boys - Eddie and Johnny. We played together till I was grown. I loved em like if they was brothera. Papa and Mos Ely went to war together In a two-horse top buggy. They both come back when they got through. ttThere was eight of us children and none was sold, none give way, My parents name Peter ~ and Mahaley Abbott My father nevex~ was sold but ~rny mother was sold into this Abbott family for a house girl. She cooked and washed and ironed. Not ~j, she 3t t a wet nurse but she tended to Eddie and Johnny and me / ai . alike. She whoop th m when they nee4ed, and Miss Maggie whoop me. That the way we grow d up. Mos Ely was tceptjo~ y good I recken. No in, I never heard of him drinkin whi skey. They made cider and slimnon beer every year. Grandpa was a soldier in the war. He fought in a battle. I don t know the bat t le He t t hurt He come home and told us how awful i t was. My parents stayed on at Mos ~ and my un s family stayed on. He give my uncle a home and twenty acres ~ of ground and my parents same mount to run a gin. I drove two ~ niules my brother drove two and !e dx~ove two more between us and run the

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2. 2 gin. My auntie seen 8omebody go in the gin one night but didn t think bout them settin it on fire. They Irnd a torch, I recken, in there All I knowed, it burned up and Mos Ely had to take our land back and sell it to pay for four or five hundred bales of cotton got burned up that time. We stayed on and sharecropped with him. We lived between Egypt and Okolona, It~tississippi. Aberdeen was our tradin point. I come to Arkansas railroading. I railroaded forty years. Worked on the section, then I belong to the extra gang. I help build this railroad to Memphis. . ~ ~i did own ~. home but I got in debt and had to sell it and let my money go. Times is so changed and the young folks different. They t t work only nough to ge t by and they want you to give em all you got. They take it if they can. Nobody got time to work. I think times is worse than they ever been, cause folks hate to I, work so bad. I in talking bout hard work, field work Jobs young folks want is scarce ; jobs they could get they t want They want to i~un about and fool around an get by. u ~ ge t ~8 . 00 and provi s ions from the government.

[Interview with Abernathy, Lucian] 008 003

30369 #727 ~ 3 Interviewer ~ . ---~ Watt McKinnei . . ~ - --- ___r____ ~ ~a- ~ ~ -~ -~ ~ . -u -p~ ~ ~ ~ -~ ~ J~.- ~ ~ -w-~- Person interri.wsd . liisian Ab.iaathy~ Marvell ~ Arkansas s--m ~ ~ c ~ ~- ~ ~ j-*.~r--,~~~j-. -j~ ~ ~ _-.____ ~$ -. ~.---- -.-__ l__ _ -~--~~- ~J_~ ~ ~ ~- _J~~_ ~ .- ~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ RI was borned in de strias nort paxt of Mississippi nigh de Tennessee line. You i~onght say dat it we. bOut traddle of de state lins end it wasn t no great piece from where us libed to MOscow what was de station on de ois )~intis en Oharston Railroad. My white fOlks was do Abernathys. Ton neber do hear bout many folks wid dat naxr these tin~e, leaatwias not obsr in dis state, bat ders surs used to b. heap o~ dea Absrnathys back ho~ ihsre :i libed end I spect dat mebbs some dere yit en cose it s bound to bs eoi~ ot the young une let dar still, TAit de ois una~ Mars Lush en dem, day is all gone. - Mars bioh, he was my young boss. Though he n~z~ was Ia~oian us aU called him lach and dat was who I is ne~d for. 01e marg, he was ne~ Will and dat was Mare Luch s pa and my ois sise, she na~ Miss Cynthia and young miss, her nexie MiSa Ilien. 01e ears en oie miss, dey just had de two chillun, Mars laich and Miss Ellen; dat is what iib.d to b. groin. Mars Laoh, he bout two year older dan ~ and Miss Eilen, ehe bout two year older dan Mars latch. Miss Ellen, she married er ~ntman from Virginny end went dar to lib and Mars lash, h. married Miss Pennis K ith. Miss Fannie s folks, dey libed right nig1~ us on de j ining pies. and dem was my oie man s p.opl.a. Tas sah, boss, dat oie i~n yon see ssttin right dar now in dat ehers. ~s was Ella Kith, dits zaekly ihat her nsi~d ihen us sarri.d and ehe n~ised tir Miss Jauni. . as. 1~t ahs was.

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2. Us nebr did l.a~. our folkee. sben atter de Jar ober and de niWrs ~it dey fre8dc~, yit an still a heap ot de niggsrs did lsaie dey pare end a heap of dem didn an us stayed on en tar~d de Ian jus likeus been dom capt dey gib us a contract for part de crop an sell us our grub ~inst u8 part of de ~ crop and take dey aon.y outen us pert ot de cotton in de fall just like de bizness is dons yit and I reckon dat was de startin of de sharecrop dat is eti 1 goin on. *~oon atter Mare Iaich good and grown an hia an Miss Fannie dons married, ole mare and ois ais., dey bote died and Mars I~ich say he gwin. sell out en labs cause d.c len gittin so poor and wore out and it tekin thrss an mors acres to aeke a bale end he tell us all dat when we wind up de crop dat tall and say, You boy. ~sbbs can stay on mid whosvsr I ..ll out to er it not den you can fin you hcms mid so~ on close if you wants to do dat. And den h. says dat he gyms fin hi~ so~ good Ian ~bbs in Arkansas dom de riber trou Memtis. Mighty nigh all de ois tamblys let de placa when ~r. Luch sole it out. My pappy end my meumy, ~ day went to leatis and as wid em. I was growd by den end was tixin to marry lila just es soon es I could tin a good hc~. I was a country nigger en liked de tara en en coas wean t satisfied in tom, so twaan t long tors I heer.d bout hen s beam needed down de riber in Mississippi end data where I went en stayed for two years and bose~ I surs was struck mid dat lan ibat you could make a bale to a acre on an I just knowed dat I was gyms git rich in a hurry an so I writ er letter to 31 a en her peoples tellin dem bout de rich len and vising dea to co~ down dsrs where 1 was end I was wantin to marry lila den. Boast and you know what, twain t long store I gits er letter bask en de letter says dat lila an h.r poplse is down de ribsr in Arkansas fron Msatia

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5 at Bisdeos wid Mars latch an Misa lanni ~sr. Mare 7a~oh had dons ~ovsd b1~ an Mice :rannis to a bi~ plantation dey had bought doim der.. Dat ~as a funny thing how dat happsned su Rledeoe it was right croes ~ de riber from where t was en had been for two years en just soon se I git dat iettsr I range wid a niggor to teks ~ cross de ribsr in er ekift to de plantation vhere dey ail was and bout tust folkess dat I ses is lila an her peoples en lots of de famblyc fron de oie hc~ plac. back in !snnsses. an I curs was proud to see Mare lach en Misc l annie. Dey had built dsn.~ eelvse a fins house at a p lut dat was sorter like a knoll ihere de watsr don git when de ribsr come ~ out on de Ian in case of ob.rflow and up de rode bout half mile from h. houe.. lare I~ich had de store en de gin. 1~y had de bo~ den, dat le ~rs 1a~oh and lias Fannie did, and de boys wac nasd Olaude an Clarence attex Mise sun e two bruddera, *1km wac de finest boys dat one sisr did as.. At dat ti~ Glaud~ hs bout two year old and Clar.ncs, hs bout four er ~bbe ittis 1.... lila, ah; worked in de houes cooking for Nia. l annie an nuasin de shillun and ehe plumb crasy bout de chiliun an dey just as catlifled ~ld her ai dey wee iid der. i~amt and lila thought mors den chillun dan ehe did anybody. ~. juct crazy bout den boy.. Mar. Ia~ch, h. gihe ~ job right way sort fl~nkying for h1~ end hostling at de lot an barn and ~twasnVt long dan fors lila and .~ u.gitaarrledan ibs inacabindatMsrs tchhadbtiilt inds back of V de big houes. ~1. git long fin. for m~or. den a year and ~re latch, he raies p~L.nty cotton en et tl~e us ud teks trip up to Msmfis on de boat, on de Phil Lllin whatwas boutdeflnsist boat onde riber indemdaysandds o~ datmOat fr. ient put in at us landin wid de tr.ight for ~re Lash and dan h. ~st ginaily sont hs sotton en esod to I~fis on Lis sa~ Phil A3lin.

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4. 6. *1 ju~a said, bosa~ dat us git long tine fox mors den a y.ai and us all aigb~t7~happy~till Nia. lannis took aisk an died an it mighty nigh killed Mars Dish end .11 of us sad liars bich, he jus droop tor iseks till U8 git anxtoua bout hSi~ but atter rhile he git better and aee~ like ~bbe he gaine git ober he sadness but he neber was like he used to b afore Misa Fannie died. wAtt.r Miss Fannie gone, Mars Iaioh, he eay, LUs, you an I~ich iats mobs inds bighoua. an inak.y absdind.roomiher. de boys a1eep~ .0~ I yOU can look attsr em good, caue. lots nights I gwine be out latm at de gin an stors an I knows you gwine take plumb good cars of dem chillun. An so us fixed Us bed in de big house an de boys, dey sleeped right dar in dat room on ders bed where us could take care of em. ~ RI~t went on for bout two years an den Mare I~ich, h. ~in to get in bad health an jus wasted down like and den one night when h. ~t da stors h. took down bad and dey laid hin do~n on de bed in de back room where bi would sleep on sich nichts dat he didn eca~ ho~ ibm bi was 80 ~izy an he cozit a ni~er on a naile for - to co~ up dar an I nt in he row an Mars luch, h. say, ~ Liasen, bich, you is been a good faithful nigger an Ills too, en I ii gonna di. toni~t and I wants y~i to aen.d er letter to lise Illen in Vir inny etter I is daid en tell her to c~ en git de boys caua ehe is all de kin peoples dat dey habe let now c.pn coes you an Lia an it iaought be 8~ time afore she gita hers so y~i all take good en faithful cars dem till she rives an tell her ahi habe to ass dat all de bizness wind up and take de boy back ild her en keep dem till dey is grow.d. $VeU~ boss, us don. jus like Mirs Dich t.U us to do an us surs fs.l sorry for dem two littis boy.. I~y jus bout five en asbsn year old dsn and dey curs loved dsrs pa; dey was pluab crazy bait Mars latch end him bait dim too.

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5. 14 f t ~$ two ~ssks frc~ ti dat Mers luch daid, Misa Zilen co~ on d boat oil. ~ night en aba sieysd so~ days windW up ds bizness and den shs let, afl tak de boys way wid her back to Yii ginny whOre sba libsd, U. mirs did hate to part frc~ dem chillun. Dat e b.n nigh on to sixty years ago but us nabsr tox git de~ boys en us will slius lobe d. 3~y uasd to Sen us presents an sich every ~hrist~s for .sbsrel y,ere end dez u. staxted movin ~ bout en I reckon dey don know ~hors ~ s at now~ I mirs would like to see dem boys ag in. I betoha I d know de~ right today. M~bbS I wouldn t, it s been so long amas i seen ems but .huoks, I know dat diy would know . I

[Interview with Abromson, Laura] 013 008

e~ ~ ~ ~- ~.. . #685 Interviewer_ Misa IreneRobsrtaon Person interviewedLeura ~ Grove~ Arkansas Receives mail at Clarendon, Arkansas ge~~~ ~ My mama was nan~d Lloise Rogers, She was born in Missouri. She was sold and brou~ght to three or four miles from Brownsville Tennessee Alex Rogers bought her and my papa. ~e had been a house girl and well cared tore She never got in contact wid her tolks no more after she was sold. She was a dark woman. Papa was a ginger cake colored man. Mama talked like Alex Rogers had four or five hundred acres ot land and. lots of niggera to work it, ~ie said he had a cotton factory at Broinaville, Mistress Barbara Ann was his wife, They had two boys and three girls. One boy George went plumb crazy and outlived em all, The other boy died e~rly. Alex Rogers got my papa in Richmond, Virginia. He was took outer a gang. We had a big family. I have eight sisters and o~ne brother, ~Pa say they strop ~ em down at the carriage house and give em ti~e hundred lashe s. He say they have salt and black pepper mixed up in er old bucket and put lt all on flesh cut up with a rag tied on a at ick (r&p). Alex Rogers had a nigger to put it on the place they whooped, The Lord puts up wid such wrong doings and den he comes and rectifies it. He does that very way. *Pa say they started to whoop him at the gin house. Ha was a sorter favorite. He out up about it. That didn t raake no difference bout it, somehow they scared him up but he didn t git whooped thater tim. 7_ _ _____ *They fed good on Alex Rogers place. Theytd buy a barrel of coffee, a barrel molasses, a barrel sugar. Sotae great big barrels.

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4 Alex Rogers waan t a good man.~ Ha d tell them to steal a hog and git homo wid it. If they ketch you over there theytli whoop you. Re d help eat hogs they d 8tea1~ One time papa wae working ox~ the roads. The neighbor man and road man was fixing up their eating. Re purty itigh starved on that road work! He was hired out. Mama and papa spoke like they was mighty glad to get sat free. Soix~ believed they d git freedom and others didn t. They had places they met and prayed for freedom. They stole out in some of their houses and turned a washpot down at the door, Another white man, not Alex Rogers, tole inan* and papa and a heap others out in the field working. She say they quit and had a regular bawl in the field. They cried and laughed and hollered and danced. Lot of them run offen the place soon as the man tole em. My folks stayed that year and another year, What is I been doiiig? Ast me is I been doing? !hat am t I been doing be more like it, I raised fifteen ot my own children. I got tour livings I living wid on~e right here in dis house wid me now, I worked on the farm purty nigh all my life. I ccn~ to dis place,~ Wild, honey, it was I cc~ In 1901. Heap of changes since then~ Present t1i~&. Not as xi~~ch union mongat young black and white as the old black and ~iite~ They growing apart, Nobody got~ nothin to give. No work. I used to could buy second handed clothes to do my little children a year for a little or nothin Won t sell em now nor give em way neither, They don t work hard as they used to. They say they don t git nothin autan lt. They don t want to work. Times harder in wintOr cause it cold and things to eat killed out. I cans meat. We dry beef. In town this Nicke1 ~ lodlan playing wild wid young colored folks -.theae Sea Bird imisic boxes.

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1o,~ They play all kind things. Folks used to stay hox~ $aturday nights, Too mach running round, excitemeEt, wickedness in the world now, This genera~ tion la worst one, They trying to cut the Big Apple dance wien we old rolka used to be down singing and praying. Cause dis is a wicked ag~ times la bad and hard.* --~ ..- ..-.- - \ - ~ -~~----~ --.~ ~ ~ . .~ -~-~ - ~-- Iuterviewer a ~ c~m~nt ( ~ clej~-t~1telllgent. _/~~ ~_ ~ ~ : ~

[Interview with Aunt Adeline] 016 011

. 30380 ~ i1~ Interviewer ~ ~ Mr.. Zilleh Crois Peel ~ Person interviewed ~ Aunt Me1ine~ ~ Age 89 Rome 101 Rock8trest~ ~a~etteviUe Arkansae ~ ~ ~ I was born a alave about 1848 In Hlokmon County, Tenue aaes said Aunt Adeline who lives as care taker in a house at 10 . Rock Street, Payetteville, Arkansas, which is owned by the Blakely-liudgens estate. Aunt Adeline has been a slave and a servant in five genera.tions at the Parks Thmily. 11er mother, Liza, with a group of five Negroes, was sold into slavery to sohn P. A. Parka, in L~nnessee. about 1840. Then my s master cerne to Arkansas about 1849 looking for ~ a country residence, he bought what was known as the old Kidd place on the Old Wire Road, ~whioh was one of the Stage Coa~h stops. I was about one year old when we came We had a big house and many tirnea passengers would stay several days and wait for the next stage to oon~ by. It was then that I earned my first money. I must have been about six or seven years old. One of Mr. Parks daughters was about one and a half years older than I was, We had a play house back of the f ire..~ place chimney. We didn t have many toys ; maybe a doll made of a corn cob, with a dress made from scraps and a head made from a roll of scraps. We were playing church. kiss Fannie was the preacher and I was the audience. We were singing ~J ssus my all to Heaven is gone.

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2. 12 ihen we were hait way through with our a~ng ie discovered that the paasenger~ from the stage coach had stopped to listen. We were so frightened at our ~dience that we both ran. But we were coaxed to coI~ back for a dime and sing our song over. I remember that Miss ~annie used a big leaf tor a booke I had always been told from the time I was a small child that I was a. Ne~o of African stock. That it was x~.o disgrace to be a Negro and had it not been for the white folks who brought us over here fr~ Africa as 8laves, we would never have been here and would have been niioh better off. We colored folks were not allowed to be taught to read or write. It was against the laW. My master s folks a1~ays treated me well. I had good clothes. Sometimes I was whipped for things I should not have done just as the white children were, When a young girl was married her parents would always give her a slave. I was given by my master to his daughter, ILias Elizabeth, who married Mr. Blakely. I was just five years old. She moved into a new hoxi~ at Fayetteville and I was taken ~along but she soon sent me back hone to my master telling him that I was too little and not enough help to her, So I went back to the Parks home and stayed until I was over seven years old. ~*y master made a bill of sale tor me to his daughter, in order to keep account of all settlements, so when he died and the estate settled each child would know hew he stood~ *.~ ~t~eWt ~ be ~ 1~bi~!~~4L ~ end til.d in Probate Court in the clerk s offioe in Washin~on County. ~_i--~ _~ ~ ~ - --- - - - -------- - __~._ _______._____-. - --- - ~_ -.-- _J-~__----* -~-------- u ~-

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5. :13 I wa8 about 15 years old when the Civil War ended end was stiU living with Mi s. Blakely and helped care for her little children. Her daughter, Mies Lenora, later married H. M. Hudgens, and I then went to live with her and cared for her children. When her daughter Miss Helen married Proi~eaaor Wiggins, I took care of her little daughter, and this made tive generations that I have cared tor. I~ir1ng the Civil War, Mr. Parks took all his slaves and all of bis fine stock, horses and cattle and went 8outh to Louisiana follow Ing the S uthern army for protection. Many slave owners left the county taking with them their slaves and followed the army. When the war was over, Mr. Parka was still in the South and gave to each one of his slaves who did not want to come back to Arkansas so much money. My uncle George came back with Mr. Parka and was given a good mountain farm of forty acres, which he put in cultivation and one of my uncle s descendenta still lives on the place. My mother did not return to Arkansas but went on to J oplin, Missouri, a~nd for more than fifty years, neither one of us knew where the other one was until one day a man from Fayetteville went into a restaurant in J oplin and ordered his breakfast and my mother who was in there heard him say be lived. in Fayetteville Arkansas. He lived just below the Hudgene home and when my mother enquireci about the family he told her I was stil . alive and was with the family. While neither of us could read nor write we cor responded through different people. ~t I never saw her after I was eleven years old. Later Mr. Hudgens went to Joplin to see if she was well taken care of. She owned her own little place and when she died there was enough money for her to be buried.

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4.~ 14 Civil War daya are vivid to ~. Trie Courthouse which was then tu the middle or the Square waa burned one night by a crazy Confederat aoldier. The old men In the towneaved him and then put him in the county jail to keep him from burning other houses. ~aoh family was to take food to him and they furnished bedding. The morning I wae to take his breakfast, he had ripped open his feather bed and crawled meide to get warm. The room was 80 full of feathera when I got there that his food nearly choked him. I had carried him ham, hot biacuite and a pot of coffee. After the War many soldler5 cane to my mistress, Mm. Blakely, trying to make her free me. I told them I wa~ free but I did not want to go anywhere, that I wanted to stay in the only home that I had ever known. In a way that placed me in a wrong attitude. I was pointed out ae different. $oir~timea I was threatened for not leaving but I 8tayed on. ~ I had always been well treated by my master s folks. While we lived at the old Kidd place, there was a church a tew~milee from our hone. My uncle George was coaohn~en and drove my master s family in great splendor in a fine barouche to church. After the war, when he went to his own place Mr. Parks ~ve him the old carriage and bought a new one for the family. 01 can remember the clays of slavery as happy ones. We always had an abundance of food. Old A~int Martha cooked and there was always plenty prepared for all the white folks as well as the colored folks. There was a long table at the end of the big kitchen for the colored folks. The vegetables were all prepared of an evening by Aunt Martha with someone to help her.

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5. 15. My mother seemed to have a gift of telling tortune5. She had a ~. brasa 2~i11g about the 8ize ot a dollar with a handwoven knotted. string that she used. I remember that she told many of the young people in the neighborhood many strange things. They would corne to her with their premonitions. Yea, we were afraid of the patyroles. All colored folks were, They said that any Negroes that were caught away from their master s premises without a permit would be whipped by the patyroles. They used to sing a song: Run nigger run, The patyroles will get you. Yes m, the War 8eparated lots of families. Mr. Parks son, J~ohn C. Parks, enlisted in Colonel L H. Brooks regiment at Payetteville as third lieutenant. Mr. ~Tim Parke was killed at the Battle o~ Getys burg. / ~ WI do remember it was my mistress, Mrs. Blakely, who kept the Masonic ~ii1ding rr n being burned. The soldiers came to set it on fire. Mrs. Blakely knew that if it burned, our home would burn as it was just across the street. Mrs. Blakely had two ~nall children who were very ill in upstairs rooms. She told the soldiers if they burned the Masonic ~ilding that her house would burn and she would be unable to save her little children. They went away.~ While Aunt Adeline Is nearing ninety, she 18 still actives ~oe~ shopping and also tends to the many crepe myrtle bushes as wel . as many other flowers at the Hudgens place.

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6. 16 She attends to the renting of the apartment ~ house as caretaker, and le taken care of by members ot the Blakely-Hudgens temilies. Aunt Adeline talks white folks language as they aay, and seldom as800iateS with the colored people of the town.

[Interview with Adway, Rose] 022 017

f ~ ! Interviewer ~ Mrs. Bernice Bowden PeraOfl interviewed Rose 4.dway _ ~-- _____ .--____ ~- -e- -u rs~ ~ _~~~~_ - ~____~.___*- _ . - ~~--~-. . 405 W. ~U.1en, Pine Bluff, Arkansaa ~ ~ ~ ~ RI was born three years ~ fore aurrender. That ~ s what my people told me. Born in Mississippi. let ins see ~that county I come out of. ~iiith un 8 where I was bred and born. I know I seen the Yankeea but I didn t know what they was. My mama and papa and all of em talked about the Wax. - My papa wae a water toter in dunn the War. No, he didn t serve the arxny-~-.ju8t Ofl the farm. Mama waa the cook for her misaia In slavery t1n~s. I think my folks want oft after freedom and then coete back. That wai after they had done been sot free. I ca~ remember dat all ri~kt. registered down here at the Welfare and I had to,~1t my licenee from Mls8lasippi and I didn t remember which courthouse I got my license, ~.tt I SOlLt letters over there till I got it up. I got all my papers now, but I aintt never got no pension. *1 been through 80 much I can t git much in my remembrance bttt I was here--that ain t no joke s-si it~e~ here. My folks said their owners wasall right You know theywas cause they come back. I remember dit all right. ~*I been tai miu till I got disabled. After I married I went to fai~nin And I birthed fourteen head of chiflun by dat one man! 7ourteen head by dat one maid Stayed at home end took care of em till I got em up some size, too. All dead but five out of the fourteen head.

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2. 1~8 My iniasis name was Misa Catherine and her husband nan~d Ab. Cari . RI went to school a little bit-~mighty little. I could read but I never could write. And l in about to ~o blind in my old age. baa. Chillun ain t able to help me none cept give me some medicine once in a while, 3it I m get outdoora. 1 don t know what to think ot this young than I do now, nearly0 Back there wien I I need help and I need it give me a little bread and thankful to the Lord I can race. That baby there knows was born, I didn t know more~ nothin , I know they said it was bad luck to bring a hoe or a ax in the houe . .- ;. on your shoulder. I heard the old folks t.ll dat--~sure did. And I was told dat on old Christmas night the cows gets down on their knees and gives thanks to the Lord. RI member one song: * I am clirnbin J aoob s ladder ~. I am olinbin ~ aoob s ladder I am climbin ~Taoob a ladder Foi the work~is almost done. . Zvery round ~ea higher a Id higher . Every round goes higher and higher Ivory round goes higher and higher . br my work is almost done0 Sister, now don t you get worried Sister, now don t you get worried Sister, now don t you get worried For the work is almost done. My mother used to sing dat when she was apinnin end cardin They d spin and dye the thread with some kind of indigo. Oh, I member dat all right.R

[Interview with Aiken, Liddie] 024 019

30825 ~ 19 Interviewer M1~s Irene Robert8on Person interviewed Liddie iken~Theat1ey, Arkansas ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~- Lay mother was born. in sowbhwest Georgia close to the Alabama line. Her mother corne from Virginia. She was sold. with her raother and two little brother8. Her mother had. been $old and come in a wagon to southwest Georgia. They wa~ all field hands. They cleaned out new ground. They was afraid of hoop-~snakes. She said they look like a hoop rolling and. whateverthey stuck a horn or their tail in it died, They killed tress. PrMaina said she druther ploug~i than chop. She was a big woman and they let her plough right along by her two little brothers, Henry and Will Keller. will et so many sweet potatoes they called him Tater Keller. After he got grown we come out here. Folks called him Pate Keller. Henry died. I recollect Uncle Tate. r was born close to Mobile, Alabama. Mama was named Sarah Keller, Grandma was called Marlah. B&nksTlilrnan sold her the first time. Bill Keller bought them all the last time. His wife was named Ada Keller. They had a great big family but I forgot what they said about them. I~ack eiern up in a persimmon tree one day and the old riian hollered at him, Get out of that tree fore you fall. Bout then the boy turned loose and fell. It knocked the breath out hirn. It didn t kill hua. Three or four of Miss Ada s children died with congestive chills. Mama said the reason they had them chills they played down at the gin pond all the time. It was shady and a pretty place and they was allowed to play in the pond. Three or four of them died nearly in a heap,

025 020

2. 20 One of the boys had a pot bil1y~-.goat. It got up on. top mama s house one time, It would bleat and look down at theni. They was afraid it would jui:rip down on them if they went outs It chewed up things Aunt Beanie washed. She had. them put out on bushes and might had a line too. They fattened it auci killed it, Mama said Mr. Bill Keller never had xiothing too good to divide with his niggers, I reckon by that they got some o~ the goat q They lived like we live now, every family done his own cooking. I do&t know how many families lived on the place, ~1 know about the Yaiikeea, . They came by and. every one of the men axid boys went with them bu~t Uncle Cal. He was cr-i.pple and they advised him not to start. Didn t none of the won~en go. Mama said she never seen but one ever come back, She thought they got killed or went on sorie place else, Mr. Keller died and Miss Ada went back to her folks. They left everything in our care that they didn t move, She took all her house things. They sold or took all their stock, They left us a few cows and ;jga. I don t know how long they stayed after the old man died, His children was young; he mi~ ,ht not been so old. I recollect grandma. She smoked a pipe nearly all the tim.e. My papa was a livery stable iuan. He was a fine man with stock. He was a little black man. Mama was too big. Grandma was taller but she was slick black. He lived at Liobile, Alabama. I was the onliest child mama had. Uncle Tate Keller took grandma and mama to Mobile He never went to the War. He was a good carpenter and he worked out when he clidn t have a lot t o do in the field. He was off at work when all the black men and boys left Mr. Bill, He never went back after they left till freedom, They didn t know when freedorxx took place. They was ail scattering for two years about to get work and something to eat.

026 021

3. 21~ Pate come and ~ot them. They went off in a wagon that Tate made for his master, Bill Keller. We come to Tupelo, Mississippi froiii Mobile when I was a little bit of a ~ir1. Then we made one crop and come to liel na. Uncle Tate died there and mania died. at Crocketts Bluff. My papa died back in Mobile, Alabama. He was breakixi~ e. young horse and ~ot throwed up side a tree He didn t live long then. ~ I got three boys now and I had seben~a1l boys. They fai~ns and do public work. Torn. is in Memphis. Pete is in. Helena and I live wid. Macon between here (Viheatley) and Cotton Plant. We farm. I done everything could be thought of on a 1~anii. I ploughed soins less than five year ago. I liked to olough. My boy p1ou~hs all he can no~ and we do the chopping. We all pick cotton and get in the corn. ~ie work day laborers now. If I was young the t irne s wouldn t ~ stand in ray way. I could nake it. I don t know what is the trouble lessen some wants too rauch. They can t get it. We has a living and thankful tor it. I never plied for no help yet. I still knits my winter stockings. I got knitting needles and cards my own mother had and used, I ~ot use for them. I wears clothes on my body in cold weather. One reason you young folks ain t no count you don t wear enough clothes when it is cold. I wear flannel clothes if I can get holt of them. education done ruint the world. I learnt to read a little. I never went t o school I learnt to work. I learnt my boy~ t o go ~iith me to the field and not to be ashamed to sweat. It s healthy. They all works. / a

[Interview with Aldridge, Mattie] 027 022

d A~ ~ ~ s~ 3u42o Interviewer MIs s Irene Robertson Person Interviewe d ~ ~ ~ Age ~ 6 O ?~ Hazen, Ar~an8T~~_ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -.. My mother 8 old owner named Mas ter Sanders She born somewhere In Tennessee. I heard her say she lived In Mississippi. I was born in Tennessee. My pa was born in Mississippi, I know he belong to the Duncans. His naine George Washington Duncan. There ain t nary drap white blood in none us. I got four brothers. I do remembers grandma. She set and tell us tales bout old times like you want to know. Been so long I forgotten. Ma was a house girl and pa a field band. Way grandma talked it must of been hard to find out what white folks wanted em to do, cause she couldn t te 11 what you say some times She never did talk plain. They was glad when freedom declared. Theysaid they was hard on em. Whoop em. Pa was killedin Crittenden County in Arkans as He was new ground. A s torn come up and a limb hit him. It killed him. Grandma and ma allus say like if you bui ld a hous e you want to put all the winders in you ever goin to want. It bad luck to cut in and. put in nother one. Sign of a death. I ain t got no business tellin you bout that. White folks don t believe in signs. HI been raisin up childern - dopted childern, washin , ironin , scourin , hoein , gatherin corn, pickin cotton, patchin , cookin . They ain t nothin what I ain t done.

028 023

2. 23 Not ~ I sure am t t vo te d, I dont t b e lieve in women vo t ~. They don t know who to vote for The men don t know nither. If folks visited they would care more bout the other an wouldntt be 80 much devilment goint on.

[Help build railroad.] 029 024

f;~ j ~ ~ ~ Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor Person Interviewed A~nsy O. A1exan~ier ~2422 Center ~ L i~+~L e Roc~k, Arkan~s Age 74 ~ ~ ~ ~ I was ~born In the country several miles from Charlotte In Macklenberg, County, North Carolina in 1854. My father s name was John Alexander and. my mother was Esther MeColley. That was her maiden name of course. My father s master was named Silas Alexander and. my mother belonged to Hu.gh Reed. I don t know just how she and. my father happened to meet. These two slaveholders were adjoining neighbors, you might say. My father and. my mother married during the war. I was the first child. I had. three half brothers and. three half sisters from the father s side. I didn t have no whole brothers and sisters, I am the only one on my mother s side. ~ y father was not in the war. I don t know that the pateroles bothered him very much. My father and mother were well treated by our master and then both she and my father were quiet and their masters were good to them naturally. During slavery times, my father was a farmer. ~ mother farmed too. She was a hand in the field. They lived in a little log cabin, one room. They had a bed. in there, a few chairs and a homemade table. They had a plank floor. I only know what I heard my people speak of. I don t know what was what for myself because I was too young. From what I can understand they had a big room at the house and the slaves came there and ate there. They had ~ colored woman who prepared their #767

030 025

25 meals. The children mostly were raised on pot liquor. While the old folk were working the larger young u~ns mongst the cb~ild.ren would. take care of the little ones. .. Their masters never forced any breeding. I have heard of that happenin~ in other places but I never heard them speak of it in connection with our master. When the master came back from the war, they told the slaves they were free. After slavery my people stayed on and worked on the old. plantation. They didn t get much. Something like fifty cents a day and one meal. My folks did.n t work on shares. Back there in North Carolina times got tight and it seemed that there wa8n t much doing. Agents came from Arkansas trying to get laborers. So abotit seven or eight families of ~s emigrated from North Carolina. Thatils how my folks got here. The Ku. Klux were bad. in North Carolina too. My people didn t have any ti ou~ble with them in Arkansas, thoagh. They weren t bothered so much In 1~orth Carolina becau.se of their owners. But they would come around and see them. They carne at night. ~ e came to Arkansas in the winter of 1897, nI went to public school after the war, in North Carolina. I didn t get any ftirther than the eighth grade. My father and mother didn t get any schooling till after the war. They could reaa a little but they picked it up themselves during slavery. I suppose their Master s children learned it to them. - My father never did see any army service. I bave heard him speak of seeing soldiers come through though. They looted the place and took every~ thing they wanted and could carry. When I first come to this state, I settled in Drew County and farmed. I fanned for three years. ~ring the time I was there, I got down sick

031 026

3-. 26 with slow fever. When I got over that I decided that I would move to higher ground. There was a man down there who recomrnen.cied Little Rook and so I moved here. I have been nere forty- nine years. That is quite a few days. I belong to the Presbyterian Chtirch and have been a member of that church for fifty- five years. I have. never gotten out publicly, but I even do my little prei~.ching round in the house here. When I caine to Little Rock, I came in a very dull season. There wasn t even a hoa8e to be rentei. It was in the winter. I had to rent a room at Jones hail on Ninth and. Gaines streets arid paid one dollar a day for it. I stayed there about a month. Finally there was a vacant hou.se over on Nineteenth street and Common and I moved there. Then. I commenced to look for work and I walked the town over daily. No results whatever. Finally I struck a little job with the contractor here digging ditches,. grubbing stumps, grad-. Ing streets and so forth. I worked with him for three years and finally I got a job with the street car company, as laborer in the Parks. I worked at that job two years. Finally I got a job as track laborer. I worked there a year. Then I was promoted to track foreman. I held that seven years. - I quit that then and went to the railroads. I helped to build the Choc-. taw Oklahoma andGuif hallway. When the road was completed, I made the first trip ove r it as Porter. I remained t here till August 9 1928, During that time I was operated on for prostatitis and. doctors rendered me unfit for work, totally disabled; so that is my condition today. I think the fixture looks bright. I think conditions will get better. I believe that all that is necessary for betterment is cooperation. I believe the younger generation -.-. the way it looks -.-. is pretty bad. I think we haven t d~ie anything like as much as we could do in teachthg the youngsters. We need to give them an idea of things. They don t know.

032 027

.14a. 2~ Our future depends on ou.r ch11dr~a. If their minds aren t trained, the ftture will not be bright. Our leaders should lecture to these young people arid teach them. We have young people who dodge voting beewise of the poll tax. That is not the right attitude. I don t know what will become of us if our children are not better instructed. The white people are doing more of this than we are. There was a time w~n children didn t know but what the foot was all tbere was of a chicken. The foot was all they had ever seen. But young folks nowaday should be taught everything.

[Interview with Alexander, Diana] 033 028

30763 . . ~ 28 Interviewer Miss Lrene Robertson Person Interviewed D1anaA1exande~ Brink1e~ Arkansas ~ ~ ~ I was born in Mississippi close to Bihalia. Our owner was ~1yer8 (?) Bogan. He had a wife and children. Mama wa~ a field woman. Her name was Sarah Bo~an and papa s name was Hubbard Bogan. I heard them talk about setting the pot at the doors and having 8inging and prayer services, They all sung and preyed around the room. I forgot all the things they talked about. My parents lived on the same place after freedxn a long time. They said he was good to them. Dr. Bo~an in Forrest City, Arkansas always said I was his brother s child. He w~is dead years ago, so I didn t haire no other way of knowing. ~ The only thing I can recollect about the War was once my mistress took nie and her own little ~ir1 upstairs in a kind of Qeiling room (attic), They had their ham meat and jewelry locked up in there and other fine stuff. She told u8 to sit down and not move, not even grunt. Me and Fannie had to be locked up 80 long. It was dark, We both ~ ent to sleep but we was afraid to stir. The Yankees come then but I didn t get to see them0 I dithi t want to be took away by era. I was big enough to know that. I heard em say we was near bout eat out at the closing of the War. I thought it muster been the Yankees from what they was talking about, eating us out, I been washing and ironing and still doing it. All my lire I been doing that ceptin when I worked in the field.

034 029

2. 29 Me and my daughter i s paying on this house ( a good house ) . I been making my own living ~hard or easy0 I don t get no relief aid, Never have. I plied for the old people s pension. Don t get it. Interviewer s Gominent This must be Myers Bogan, yet she told me Bogan Myers. Later she said Dr. Bo~ari of Forrest City was thus end so,

[Interview with Alexander, Fannie] 035 030

3()~8S : Interviewer Miss Irene Robertaon Person Interviewed ~F8i~nis Alexander Helena, Arkansas Age~ ~ ~ - ~------- ------ ei was an orphant child. My mothsr-in..law told me during slavery she was a field hand. One day the overseer was going to whoop one of the w~en bout sompin or other and all the womexi started with the ho s to him and run him clear out of the field. They would. killed him if he hadn t got out of the way. She said the master hadn t pat a overs er over them for a long tiEle Some of em wou.ld.n t do their part and he put one of the n~en on the place over the wcmen He was a colored foreman. The women worked together and the men worked together In different fields. ~My mother~in..law was named Alice Drummond0 She said they would cut the hoecakes in half and put that in your pan, then pour the beef stew on top. She said on Christmas day they had hot biscuita. They give them flour and thinga to i~ke biscuit at hc~ on Sundays. When they got through eating they take their plate and say, t Thank God for what I rece ivd She said they had plenty milk. The churne was up high..~-five gallon churns. Soma cburna was cedar wood. The children would churn standing on a little stool. It would take two to churn. They would change about and one brushed away the flies. She 1ived~ dos to Meridian and Canton. My mother talked the bright side to her children. ~ie was born in Tennessee. She had two older sisters sold from her. She never seen them no more. They was took to I&issouri. Mother was never sold. She was real bright color. She died when I was ~ real little.

036 031

2. 3 Frcm what I know I think my parents was industries. Papa was a shoemaker. He worked on Sunday to make extra money to buy things outside of what his master give them for his family. Now I can remember that much. My papa was a bright color like I am but not near as light as mama. He had a shop when I was little but he wasn t lowed to keep it open on &uiday. I heard him tell about working on Sundays during slavery and how much he made sometimes. He tanned his own leather. ~ . ~1 went to Mississippi and married. Folks got grown earlier than they do now and I married when I ~a a you.ng girl bout seventeen. We come to Arkansas. I sewed for white and colored. I cooked some. I taught school in the public 8chools0 I taught opportunity school two years. I had a class at the church in day and at the schoolhouse at night. I had two classes. - J ohn Hays was mama s owner in Tenne esee .~

[Interview with Alexander, Lucretia] 037 032

p757 32 .-~ ~ ~ ~ ~. ~ Interviewer . arm~e1 8. Te or *~-p-_-_- -u j~ i_~~u a ~ U ~ ~ 1 S Person . interviewed Iaicretia Alexander .- ~ - __I ~ -U-~~~ ~ ~-~ -~U 1708 Righ 8treet, Littli Rock, Arkanaas Age 89 -*~ -.~- _I1__*_ 7 ~ ~ ~: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .. ~ ~ ~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ a ~ ~ I been married three t1n~a and my laat nai~ waa Lucretia Alexand.r I was twelve years old when the War began. My mother died at ee~enty-.three or aeventy.4 iv.. That ~a in Au~uat 1865..4~u~at the ninth. She wae buried August twelfth. The reaaon they kept her was they had refugeed her children off to different places to keep them from the Yankees. They couldn t get them bac~k. My mother and her children were heir property. Her first master waa Tollv.r. My mother ~ n~d Agnes Tolive .~ z . 8he had a boy and a girl both older than I ~m. My brother come ha~ in 65. I never ~ot to aee my elater till. 1869. My father died in 188 . and ecn~ eay he was one hundred t~lve end 8on~ say one hundred six. His neue was Beasley, John Beaaley, end he went by John Beasley till he died. My mother died and left NI got religion in 1865. Au~Ltat. four living chiliren. I wae the yowigeat. I was baptized aeventythre. yeara ago this I ain t ~ot nary living tour it he vers living. They I have four children. The first overaeer I reu~aber was nei~d Xurt Johnson. The nxt was named Mack McKenzie. The next one was nsn~d Pink Wosnack. And the next was ne~d Torn Phippe. MeanL Liked n enness$ Mean a man ai he could bs. I ve asen him take them down end whip them till the blood run out of them., child, My oldest child would have been eixty claim my baby boy is living, ~it I don t Imow.

038 033

2. 33 I got ten head of grandchildren. And I been grandmother to eleven head. I been great...grandmother to twelve head of great grandchildren. I got one twenty.4hree end another nineteen or twenty. Her father e father was In the army. She is the oldeet. Lotai Robinson, my granddaughter, has four children that are my great-grandchildren. Gayden J~enkina, my grand~ son, has two girls. I got a grandsOn named ~n ~Jenkine. I~a is the father of three boys. He lives in Cleveland. He got a grandson named Mark J eD.kifle in Memphis who has one boy. The youngest granddaughter-.I don t renember her husband a naae~haa one boy. There ar four generations of US. *1 been here. YOU see I took care of myself ihen I was young and tried to do right. The Lord has helped i~ too. Yea, I am going on now. I been here a long t1n~ ~tt I try to take care of myself. I was out visiting the sick last time you come her. That s the reason I missed you. I tries to do the beat I can. ~ I am stricken now with the rhewnatisia on one aide. This hip. My mother was treated well in slavery ti~a. My tather was sold five times. Wouldn t take nothin . So they sold k4ui. They beat him and knocked him about. They put him on the block and they sold him bout beatin up his master, He was a native of Virginia. The last tii~ they sold him they sold him down in Claiborne COUnty, Mississippi. ~ uat below where I was born at. I was born in Copiah County near Haziehurat, about fifteen miles from Haziehurst. My mother was born in Washington County, Virginia, Her first master was Quails ToUiver. ~ialls moved to Misa~. issippi and married a woman down there and he had one son, ~aohy Toliver. After he died he ~ willed her to Peachy. Then Peachy went to the Rebe . army and got killed.

039 034

3. 34 My mother a tather was a free Indian namd laahington, Her mother was a slave I don t kr~ow my father s father., Ra moved about 80 much and was sold 80 many times he never did t~11 ~ his father. He got hie name from the white fo1ka~ When ra a slave you have to go by your owner ~ name. My master s mother took me to the houa after my mother died. And the first thing I remember doing was cleaning up. Bri ging water, putting up moaquito~.bara, cooking. My master s mother waa 8u~an R~d. I have done everything ~xtt saw. I never sawed in my life. The hardest work I did was after slavery0 I never did no hard work during 8~avery. I used to pack water for the plow hands and ai . suchas that, ~t when my mother died, my mistress took me to the houas. ait Lawd~ I ve seen such bnttish dom a.-~runnin niggera with hounds and whippin them till they was bloody, They used to put em in stocka. When they didn t put em in stocks, used to b two people would whip em-~ the overseer and the driver. The o~erseer would be a men named Elijah at our house. He was Just a poor white man. Be had a whip they called the BIA~K S~ ~ . ~ I remember one time they caught a man named George Tinaley, They put the dogs on him and they bit im and tore all his clothes off of im. Then they ~xt im in the stocks. The stocka was a big piece ot timber with hinges in it. It had a hole in it for your head. They would lift it up and put your head in it. There was holes for your head, hands and feet in it. Then they would shut it up and they would lay that ihip on you and you oouldn t do nothin 1~it wiggle and hoUer, Pray, master, ray ~it when they d let that man out, he d run away again.

040 035

4. 35 Th.y~ would maks the alave8 work till twelvs o clock on ainday, end then th y would 1 t them go to church. The tiret ti~ I wa8 spri~ik1ed, a ihits preacher did it; I think hia n~ wa.. lillialna. ~Th, preacher would preach to the white folka in the forenoon end to the aolored tolka in the evening. The white ~O1ke had them hired. One of them prachers waa named Hackett; another, WiUi&is; and another, Cowan. There was five of them but I juat remember them three. One iien used to hold the slaves 80 late that they had to go to the church dirty from th.iz work. They would be sweaty end ~nelly. So the preacher t~iked him bout it. That was old man BIU Rose. The niggera didn t go to the churoh building; the preacher ce~ end preached to them in their quarters. He d just say, Serve your maatera~ Doii t steal your master s turkey. Don t steal your master s chickens. Don t steal your master a hawge. Don t atea . your master s meat. Do what. ~ s~ever your master tells you to do. 8sise old thing all the ti~, ~ My father would have church in dwelling housse and they had to whisper. My mother was dead and I would go with hii~. Sciistimea tby would have church at his house. That wou~Ld be when they would want a real metin with e~~e roe . preachin It would have to be dunn th waek nights. You couldn t tell the difference between Baptists end Methodists then. They was all Christisna. I never saw them turn nobody dom at the cot~inion, but I have heard of it. I nver saw them turn no pots dom neither; ~it I have heard of that. Th.y uad to sing their songs in a whisper and pray in a whisper. That was a prayer..iseeting f~ house to houes onc or twio....s once or twice a wsk. Old Thipps whipped ~ once. ifs aiiied to kill ~ ~it I got loose. Ha whipped ~ about a colored girl of hia n that he had by a colored wc~n

041 036

5. 36 Itippe wnt with a colored woman before he married his wife. He had a girl n~d U~rtha Ann Thippe. I beat Martha bout a pair of stockings. My VtiStIeeS bought n~ a nice pair ot atockinga from thi ~ atOrsa YOU 8S~~ they ua ~i to b~tt the atockinge. I wore the stockings once; then I waabed them and ~tt them on the f~ce to dry. Martha stole them and p~t them on. I bat her and took them off of her. ~ie ran and told her father end he ran n~ h~. ~e couldn t catch ~ and he told ~ he d get ~. I didn t ru.n to my father. I run to my iniatrees, and be knew he d better not do nothin then. ~o said, I ll git you, you little old black acmein Only he didn t say aoir~thin . He didn t get i~ than. 0Bit one day he caught me out by hie houas. I had gone over that way on an errand I needn t have don. H. had two girl. hold ~ Th y waa Angeline and Nancy. They didn t auch want to hold n~ anyhow. 8c~ nigger8 would catch you and kill you for the ihite tolks and then there was .o that wouldn t. I got loose from them. Re tried to hold i~ hieeslf ~t he co ldn t. I got away and went back to my old aietre8a and ehe wrote him a note never to lay his dirty hands on ~ a~in. A littlO later her brother, ~Tohnaon Chatman, came there and ran him ort th~ place, My old miatreca n~ waa &~aan Chatiimn before she married, Then she married Toliver. Then ehe married Reed. She married Reed last after Toliver died. *one old lady n~d Luily Moorshead runned in end held my mother once j for Phippa to whip her. Lud my mother was down with consumption too. I aimed to git old P~ippa for that. ~it then I got religion and I c ldn t do it. Religion makes y~ forgit a heap of things. 08uaan Reed, my old mistress, bought my father and paid f iftssn hundred dollara for him and she hadn t never asn im. Advertising. He had run away so mich that they had to advertise and aeU im,

042 037

6. 3~ B never would run away frog Miss Buaan. She ~aa good to hia ill she got S that old nigger beatsr.s~Pbipp.. Rsr huabend, Reed, was called a niggsr spoiler. My father wets en old man when ?hippe wae an overeeer and waan t able to tight ich then. Pliippa mire was a bad men, Ha waan t so bad neither; but the niggers waa soared of him. You Iaio~ In slave ttit~s, sosietimee ih n a master would git too bad, the nigger~ would kil . hiin .tole him off out in the woods somewherea and git rid of him. Two or three of them would git together and aohen~ it out and then two or thre of them would git him way out and kill 1m. Rit they didn t nobody ever pill nothin like that on Phippa. They was acared of him. wOns tii~ I saw the Yenkeei a long way off. They had on blue uniforme and waa on coal black horesa. I hollered oet Cb, I ese ac~~ thin . My mlatras said, What? I told her, and ehe aald, Them s the Tankee8. ~ie went on in the house and I went with her. She sacked up all the valuablea in the houe She said, Hers and ehe threw a sack of silver on me that was so heavy that I went right on down to the ground. Then ehe took hold of it and hoip me up and hoip me carry it out. I carried it out and hid it. She bAd three bdokskin sacka~ all full of allvr. That wasn t now; that was in alavez,y ti~s. D xing the War, J~eff :E~vli gave out Confederate money. It died out on the folks hands. Ab~t tisl~e hundred dollars of lt died out on my father a hands. ~it ther wasn t nothin ~t gold and silver in them sacke~ 1 heard them till the slaves they were free. A n~an nau~d Captain Barkue who had his arm off at the elbow called for the three near..by plantations to meet at our place. Then he got up on a platform with another man beside him and declared peace and frsedo~. H. p inted to a color.d men

043 038

7. 38 and yell.d, You re free as I am. Old colored rOlka, Old aa I em now, that wae on stiok8, thrOwed them aticka away and ahout.d~ RIgIIt aftei freedom I atayed with that white woman I told you abc*it~ I was with her about tour years, I worked f r twelve dollars a month and . my~ rood and clothes. Then I fi~ired that twelve doUars wasn t enough and I went to work in the field. It was a mighty nice wo~n. Never hit in her life. I never have been ihipped by a white woman. She was good to till she died. She ~ died after I had my second chi1d-~-~a girl child. ~ I have been living in this city fifteen years. I co~ from Chicot County when I come here We came to Arkansas in slavery t lines. They brought ins from Copiah County when I was six or eight years old. When Mrs. Toliver married she came up here and brought my mother. My mother belonged to her son and she said, Agnes (that was my mother s na~), will you follow ~ if I b~y your husband? Her husband s r~arrw was John 3eaaley. She said, t Then her old mistress bought ~aaley and paid fifteen hundred dollars to get my mother to come with her. Then Peachy went to war and was shot because he come hoi~ of a furlough and sta~red too l ng. So when he went back they killed him. My mother nursed h1.~m when he was a baby. Old man Toliver said he didn t want none of us to be sold; so th~y wasn t none of ii~ sold. Maybe there would have been if slavery had lasted longer; L~it there wasn t, Mother really bslonge4 to Peachy, ~it when Peachy died, then she tel . to her DhiStl 988. . / I have been a widow now for thirty yeara. I washed and ironed and plo~ and hoed everything, Now I am ~ittin so I am t able to do nothin and the Relief keeps me alive. I worked and took care of myself and my last husband and he died, and I ain t married since. I used to take a little boy

044 039

8. 39 and make ten bales of cotton. I can t do It now. I used to be a woman In my day. I em 1117 mother s seventh child. ni don t biy no hoodoo and I don t believe In none but a seventh child can more or less tell you things that are a long way oft. It you want to beat the devil you got to do right. God s got to be in the plan. I tries to do right. I ~ not perf ot ~it I do the best I can. I ain t got no bottom teeth, ~.tt my top ones are good. I have a few bottom ones. The Lawd s keepin me here for somopin. I been with im now seventy-three years. Interviewer s Co,~nent I ll, bet the grandest moment in the life of iater Alexander s mother was ihen her mistress said, ~&gnes, will you follow ~ It I buy your husband? Fifteen hundred dollars to ~xty a rebellious slave in order to unite a slave couple. It s eptc,

[Interview with Allen, Ed] 045 040

~- ~ 410 ~ ~ Intervie*er Mt5slrene Robertson ~ rt.~ ~ Pers on interviewed Ed A11n~Des ro~ Ark. Age~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ ~ ~ II know that after freedom they took care of my pa and ma and give em a home longas theylived. Ma died wid young mis tre s s here in Des Arc . . The present generation is doing to the bad. Have deal1n~s wid em, not good to you. Young folks aintt nice to you like they used to be. White boys and colored boys, whole crowd of us used to go in the river down here a . . together, one got in dan. ger help him out. They dont t do it no more. We used to play base ball together. All had a good time. We never had to buy a ball ~ or a bat. Always had em. The white boys bought them. I t t know as who to blame but yotrng folk changed. .

[Interview with Allison, Lucindy] 046 041

41 4 ) j r ~ ~~)U 3 Interviewer ILias Irene Robartaon Person interviOwed Lucindy A1118on~ Marked Trse, Lrkanaaa With children. at Blicoe, Arkaiiiaa Age~ 61 ~ ~ Ma was a slave in Arkansas. She said she helped grade a hill and help pile up a road between Wicksburg and Wyime They uldii t pu~t the road over the hill, so they put all the slaves about to grade it down. They don t use the road but it s still there to 8how for itself. She was a tall rawbony woman. Ma was a Hillis and pa s name was Adam Hulls. He learned to trap in slavery and after freedoen he followed that for a living. Ma was a sure nough field hand. Mama had three sets ot children. I don t know how many she did have in all. I had eleven my own self. Grandma wa~ named Tempy and I heard thora tell about when she was sold. Sheand mama went together. They used to whoop the slaves when they didn t work up pearL When the Old War cc~ on and the Yankees come they took everything and the black men folks too. They come by right often, They would drive up at mealtiiz~ and ccme in and rake up every blessed thing was cooked. Have to go work scrape. about and find something else to eato :~at they ke r bout you. being white or black? Thing they was after was filling theirsolves up. They done white folks worse than that. They burned their cribs and fences up and their houses too about if they got mad. Things didn t suit them. If they wanted a colored man to go in camp with them and he didn t go, they would shoot you down like a dog. Ma told about acme folks she knowd got shot in the yard of his own quartera.

047 042

2. 42 ~1Ts black folks don t want war. They are not war kind ot folka. Slavery waan t right and that Old War wasu t right neither. . When my children Wa~ all little I kept Aunt Mandy Buford till she died. She was a old slave wc~n. Me and my husband and the biggest children worked in the field. She would Bit about and smoke. My boys made cob pipes and cut cane j ints for er to draw through. Red cob pipes was the prettiest. Aunt Mandy said her master would be telling them what to do in the field and he say to her, I talking to you too. $he worked right ataon~ the men at the sane kind of work. She was tall but not large. She carried children on her r ight hip when she was so young she dragged that foot when she walked. The reason she had to go with the men to the field like she did was cause she wasn t no multiplying wcinan.. She never had a chile in all her lifetixr~. She said her mother nearly got in bad one time when her sister was carrying a baby. She didn t keep up. Said the riding boss got down, dug a hole with the hoe to lay her in it cause she was so big in front. Her mother told hirn if he put her daughter there in that hole 8 d cop him up in piece s wid her hoe He found he had two to concjuer and he let her be, ~it he had to leave cause he couldn t whoop the niggera. flit I could think of all she tole I d soon have enough to fill up that book you re getting up. I can t recollect who she belong to, and her old talk comes back to nie now and then, She talked. so rauch we d get up and go 0x1 off to keep frora hearing her tell things over so many times. Folks like me what got children think the way they do is all right I don t 1 ike soins of my children a ways but none of u.s perfect I tells right tar as I knows. Times what makes folks no un. Times gets stiff around Biscoe. Heap of folks has plenty. Soins don t have much a.not enough. Some don t have nothing,

048 043

3. 43 I don t believe in womezi voting. That ruined the country. We ~ot aIoiig very well till they ot to tinkering with the government.

Early days in Caledonia--early days in El Dorado. 049 044

. . ~ 44 ~ 30881 t%~i1cr~,w~ . ?OLU~OP~E SUBJECTS .~ (lL-~~ Nains if Iut.rvi.w.r~_ P.rn.lla And.r.on Subj ect~ ___ ~ ~- ----- ~ -- ~ ~ Ca1sd~nja ~Ear~ydaysin El. Doradi Ah wuz bo ri ds first yiar niggar. iuz fr... Wui born in Ca1s~. donia at d. Pri~ place. Mah ma b.long.d tuh Georg. Thompsofl~ Aftir mah .ina died ah .tay.d wid di Wommacks, a whil.. Aftuh dat mah pa taksn In. home. Pa s name wuz J.s~. Plueur. A~h workid lak r ~1avs. Ah out wood, sawscl 1og~, picksd 400 poundi uv cotton vah day. Ah sp.ck ah married di first tims ah wu& about fo t.in ysar~ ois Ah bs.n ir~.hr~1 thr.. timst. All inah husband s is daict. OL. man England and .1. man Culions run business plac.i and o .. man W.o1.y. liii name wuz reason Wool.y. D. Wooli.. got c.m.t.ry uv d.y own right dar user d. Cobb plac.. No body is buri.d in dar but d. fambly uv Woo .y.. 01. man A11.n Hals. h. run sr ttors dar too. H. is y.t livin right dar. H. is rsal si.. D. ois !arr.k. Mitch.11 piac. whar ah us tuh liv. is Guvn~nt land. 1arrsn Mitchsll, h. homsst.adsd ths placs. W. livid dar and wads good crops. D. purtisst dar wu~ sround, but not hit . gr,w.d up. Don livid dar and mad. good crops. Ds purti.st dar IUL erourid. Dar is ihah all inah chillun wus bo n. Ah use tuh tak. mah baby an walk tuh El Dorado to sevic.. Ah uss tub corns tuh ~1 Dorado wid a oman by ds nams of Su. ?.st.r. Nothin but wiod. whsn d.y laid dsp taiiroad ~ hsah. Dsy built dsui widh hc.~si and oxsi Ah saw im whsn d.y whoop di houes and oun till d.y fall out working dsm whsu dsy laid dat .t..1. Ah wua at de first buryin uv di fuit pusson buri.d in Calidonia gravsyard. Huh nams wuz Jo. Ann P.1k. W. sot up wid huh all nigh t and s ing and pray An ihm ws got niarly tub di church di bills t ~t.d tolling and di folks started tuh singin.

050 045

45 -2 ~h.n vah any body dud dey ring b.11. tuh let yo know ouis body wug daid. A vus born on Giri.tmas day, an ah had two chilluns born on Chri~tu~ts Day. D y wu~ twins and ons ui im had twi t..th and hi. hair hung down on hsr shoulderi wh.n hit vus born but hit did not livi but er uk. Occupat ion R. sident _________ Ag. ~ not given. i.$~!phifl, Ames Dom st ic F rdvi 11.

[Interview with Anderson, Charles] 051 046

I . ~46 Interviewer Misa Irene Robertson Person interviewed Charles Anderson~~ Heiena~4rkansas - Age~ ~ ~ 77 ~ ~ not siir~ ~ -. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~a $1 was born in Bloxifield, Kentucky. My parents had the same owners. Mary and B~1gin Anderson was their x ames. They was owned by Isaac Stone, Davis Stone was their son, They belong to the Stones as far back as they could remember. Mama was darker than I am. My father was brighter than I am. He likely had a white father0 I never inquired. Mama had colored parents. Master Stone walked with a big crooked stick. He nor his son never went to war, Masters in that country never went. Two soldiers were drafted ott o r place. I saw the soldiers, plenty of them and plenty times. There never was no serious happenings. ~ The Federal soldierS would come by, sleep in the yard, take our best horses and leave the broken down ones, Very little money was handled. I never seen much. Master Stone would give us money like he give money to Davis. They prized fine stock mostly. They needed money at wheat harvest time only. ViJaen a celebration or circ~ts come through he give us all twenty~. five or thirty cents and told us to go. There wasn t many slaves up there like down in this country, The owners from all I ve heard was crueler and $old them off oftener here. Weaving was a thing the women prided In doing~being a fast weaver or a fine hand at weaving. They wove pretty coverlets for the beds. I see colored spreads now makes me think about my baby days in Kentucky. ~.

052 047

2. wFreedcm was something mysterious. Co1~red folks didn t talk it. White folks didiit t talk it The first I realized something different, Master Stone was going to whip a older brother. He told mama something I was too small to know, She said, Don t leave this year, son. I m going to leave. Master didn t whip him. Ma8ter Stone s oou8in kept house for him. I remember her well They were all very nice to us always. He had a large fana. He had twenty servants in his yard. We all lived there closetogether. My sister and marna oooked~ We had ple ty to eat. We had beer In spring and eun~r. Mutton and kid on special occas ion8 We had ~ hog in the taU and winter. We had geese, ducks, and chickens. We had them when we needed them. We had a field garden. He rai8ed corn, wheat, oats, rye, and tobacco. ROnce a year we ~ot dreseed up. We got shirts a suit pante and shoes, and what else we needed to wear. Then he told them to take care of their clothes They got plenty to do a year. We didn t have tine clothe8 no time, We didn t eat hein and chicken. I never seen biecuit-~only scme~ times. I seen a woman sold. They had on her a ~ short dress no sleeves, so they could see her muscles, I reckon. They would buy them and ~it them with good healthy men to raise young slaves0 I heard that. I was very ~neU when I seen that young wcinan sold and years later I heard that was what was done. - I don t know when freedczn come on.. I never did know. We was five or six years breaking up. Master Stone never forced any ot us to leave. He give S D.9 of them a horse when they left. I cried a year to go back. It was a dear place to me end the memories linger with me every day.

053 048

3. 48 There was no secret society or order ot Ku Klux lu reach of us as I ever heard. V ~ ~I voted Republican ticket. We would ~o to J ackaou to vote. There wpuld . be a crowd. The last I voted was for Theodore Roo8evelt ~ I voted here in Helena for yeara. I was on the petit jury for several years here iii Helena. ~ 1 farmed in your atate sane (Arkansas) . I farmed ai . my young life. I been in Arkansas sixty years. I come here February 1879 wIth distant relatives. They O fl south. ehen I come to Helena there was but one set of mechanics0 ~ I started to work. I learned to paint and hang wall paper. I ve worked in nearly every house in Relena. - The present times are gloomy. I tried to prepare for old ace. I had a apartment house and lo8t it. I owned a home and lost it~ They foreclosed rae out. ~ . The present generation. is not doing as well as I have, $~y heailth knocked me out. My limbs swell, they are stiff. I have a bad bladder trouble. V RI asked for help but never have got none, If I could got a little relief I never would lost my house. They work my wife to death keeping us from starving, She sewed till they cut off a~i but white ladies. When she got sixty five they let her go and she got a little job cooking. They never give us no relief.

[Interview with Anderson, Nancy] 054 049

30429 49 Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson Peraon interviewed Nancy Az4erao~ ~ Street H, West Memphis, Arkansas Age66 I was born at Sanitobia, Mississippi. Mother died when I was a child, I was three xrionths old, they said, ~hen I lost her. Father lived to be very old. My mother was E~lla Geeter and my ste~nother was b.~cy Evans. My f ather s name was Si Hubbard. My parents married after the War. I re~nembers Grandma Harriett Rubbard. She said sh was sold. ~ie was a cook and she raised my papa up with, white folks. Her children was sold with her. Papa was sold too at the same time. Papa fired a steam gin. They ground corn and ginned c otton. I stayed with Sein al s family. Sh was good to me I had a ~rr~all bed by the fireplace. She kept me with two of her own children.. Some of the girls and boys I was raised up with live at Sanitobia now and have fine hcmes When we would be playir~g they would take all the toys frcm me. Mise Fannie would say, Poor Nancy am t got no toys. Then they would put them on the floor and we would ail play. They had a little table. We all eat at it. We had our own plates. We all eat out of tin plates and had tin cups. They couldn t keep me at hcme when papa married. I slipped oft across the pasture. There was cows and hogs in there all the time. I wasn t afraid of them. I would get behind Misa Fannie and hide in her dress tail when they come after me. They let me stay most or the time for about five years. Sain Hall was good to my father and Miss Fannie about raised me after fly mother died. She made me mind but she was good to me.

055 050

2. 50 ~G~ andma lived with papa. She was part Indian. As long as papa lived . he share cropped and ginned. He worked as long as he was able to hit a lick. lie died four miles east out from Sanitobia on Mr. Hayshaws place. What I told you is what I know. He said he was sold that one tine. Hubbards had plenty to eat and wear. He was a boy and they didn t want to stunt the children. Papa was a water boy and filed the hoes for the chopping hands. He carried a file along with them hoeing and would sharpen their hoes and fetch em water in their jugs. A~tnt Salue, his sister, took keer of the children. ~ Papa went to the var. He could blow his bugle and give all the war signals. He got the military training. Hirn and his triend Charlie Grim used to step around and show us how they had to march to orders. His bugle had four joints. I don t know what went with it. Prom what they said they didn t like the War and was 80 glad to get h~. ~Between the big farms they had worm fences (rail fences) and gates. You had to get a pass rrom your master to go visiting. The gates had big chains and locks on them. Soene places was toilgates where they traveled over some man s land to town. On them roads the man owned the place charged. He kept soins boy to open and shut the gate. They said the gates was tall. Some ot the slaves that had hard masters run off and stay in the woods. They had nigger dogs and would run them--catch em. He said one man (Negro) was hollowing down back of the wo~n fence close to where they was working. They all run to him. A great long coachwhip snake was wrapped round him, his arms and all and whooping him with ita tail. It cut gashes like a knife and. the blood poured. The overseer cut

056 051

3. 51 the anake 8 head o~t with hla.big kulte and they carried him home bleeding. His master didn t whoop him, said he had no business off in the woode. He had run off. His master rubbed salt in the ~ashea. It nearly killed him. It burnt him so bad. That stopped the blood. They said sut ( soot ) would stopped tbe blood but it would left black mark. The salt left white mark. on him. The salt helped kill the piscrn. (poison). Some masters and overseers was cruel. When they was so bad. marked they didn t bring a good ~ price.. They thought they was hard to handle. Aunt ~Tane Peterson, old friend ot mine, caine to visit me nearly every year after she got so old. She told me things tOok place in slavery times. She was in Virginia till after freedom. She had two 4rls and a boy with a white daddy. ~he told me all about how that ccme. She said no chance to run off or ever get off, you had to stay and take what come. She never got to marry till after treed~. Then she had three more black children by her husband. She said she was the cook. Old master say, Yane, go to the lot and get the eggs. She was scared to ~o and scared not to go. He d beat her out there, put her head between the slip gap where they let the hogs into the pasture from the lot do~n back of the barn. She say, Old misais whip. .me. This sin t right . d laugh. Said she bore three of his children in a roam in the same house his family lived in. ~he lived in the same house She had a room so as she could build fires and cook break.. fast by tour o clock sometimes, she said. She was so glad freedom cc~e on and soon as she heard it she took her children and was gone, she said. She had no use for him. She was scared to death of him. She learned to pray and prayed for freedom. She died in Cold Water, Mississippi. She was so glad freedom come on before her children come on old enough to sell.

057 052

4. 52 Part white children sold Thr more than black children. They used them tor ~ ~ house girls. I don t know Ku Klux stories enough to tell one These old tales leave my mind. I m 66 and all that was before my tinte. Times is strange-~hard, too. Bit the way I have heard they had to work and do and go I hardly ever do grumble. I ve heard so much. I got children and I do the best I can by them. That is all I can do or say.

[Interview with Anderson, R.B.] 058 053

30689 53 Interviewer -----. -~- :: ~8eiz~i~ S.T T1o r~~ --~-~-~---~ -- Person Interviewed ~ ~ R. B. nderaox~ ~ ~ - - Route 4, Box 68~ (new? G1?alIitS ) ~ 7Q~_~ Little Rock, Arkansas ~---~- I was born in Little Rock along about Seventeenth and Arch Streets. There was a big plantation there then. Dr. Wright owned the plantation. He owned my mother and tather, My father and mother told me that I was born in 1862. They didn t know the date exactly, so I put it the last day in the year and call it December ~O, 1862. My father s name was William Anderson. He didn t ~o to the War because he was blind. He was ignorant too. He was colored. He was a pretty good old i~n when he died, My mother s name was Minerva Anderson, She was three fourths Thdian, hair way down to her waist. I was in Hot Springs blacking boots when my mother died, I was only abou~t . ei ght or ten years old th n, I always regretted I wasn t able to do anything ror my mother before she died. I don t know to ~hat tribe her people be1on~ed. Dr. Wright was awf~u1 good to his slaves, nI don t know just how freethin cane to my folks. I never heard my tather say. They were set free I know. They were set tree when the War ended. They never bought their freedom. le lived on Tenth and near to Center in a one-room log house. That is the earliest thing I remember, When they moved from there, my father had accumulated enough to buy a home. He bought it at Seventh and Broadway. He paid cash for iti.~~five hundred and fifty dollars,

059 054

P LAC E H O L D E R

[Interview with Anderson, Sarah] 060 055

55 _~e,t~n. r~ ~_)~j ~ C~t) Inrvw.~ ~ ~.rn~jce Bovdsn Person Interviewed ~ Sarah Anderson ~ 3815 1. Second Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas ~ 78? *1 don t know when I was born. When the Civil War ended, I vas bout four or five years old. I jea remember when the pople coma backs the soldiers when th War ended. We chillun ran under the houes. That was the Yankees. I was born in Blbb County, Georgia. That ~ where I was bred and born. I been in Arkansas ever since I was tourten. That was shortly after the Civil War, I reckon. We come here ihen they was emigratin to Arkansas. I m tellin you the truth, I been here a long t1z~. . *1 member when the soldiers wnt by and we ohillun run under the houas. It was the Yankee cavalry, and they made so much noise. I~t a what the old folks told us. I member dat we nm under the house andY called ourasif hidlu . UMY master was Madison Newsoias and. my misais was Sarah Newao~, N~ned after her? Must a done it. ~ and I~r chillun was out wallowin in the dirt when the Yankees c~ by. Sometimes I stayed in the house with my ihite folks all night. My mother and father say they was weU. treated. That s what th y say. ROld folks didn t low us chillun round when they was talkin bout their business, no ma ~. ewe stayed with old master a good while after treedom--till they commenced emigratin train Georgia to Arkansas. Tea ma am3 4

061 056

2. 56 I m the mother of fourteen chilluxi two pairs of twins. I married younga..bout fifteen or sixteen, I reckon. I married a young fellow. I say we was just chaps. tfter he died, I married a old settled man and now he s dead. RI been livin a pretty good life. 8eems like the white folks just dn t want tas to get away from thel r chillun. Al ~ my chillun dead cept one son. lis was a twin.~

[Interview with Anderson, Selie] 062 057

3051G . ~ 5. ~b~_ . ~ ~ . -~ ~ ~ - -. ~ ~. Interviewer -L ~ Mipaj~yens Bo~er~.cT ~ ~ ~. Person Interviewed Sell. Ande~rson~ lio11~Q~ve~ ~&Tkeflsae~ Age ?8~ I was born near Decatur, Alabama and. lived there till I was fifteen years old. Cou.rae I members harin em talk bout Mars Newt. I named Air my ma a old mistress - Misa Selle Th ipson end Mars Newt Thompion. Pa died when I was three years old Re was a soldier. Ma had seven child ren. They have bigger families then than they hav now. Ma ne~ 1~mmstiine Thompson. Pa n~ Sam Adair. I can t tel . you about him. I: heard ein say his pa was a white ~n. He waa light skinned. Old folki did&t talk much foe children 80 I don t know well nough to tell you bout him. Ma waa a cook and a licensed midwife in Alabama. ~e waited on both black and white, Ma never staid at home nich. She wor~4 out. I cc~ to ~--~ ~ ~ ~ .~ Miaaiasippi after I married and had one child. Ma and all c~. Ma wnt to Torn McGhee s to cook after treedcm~ ~e married old aen ned I~wi~ Qiase and they worked on where he had been raiad. Hie n~e waa Lewia Sprangle. He looked after the stock and drove the carriage. ~ni l Sprengle had a store and a big farm He had three gii2s and three boys. I was the jr house girl Mema lived on the place and give me to ~ oau~ thsy could do bettr part by me than she could. I was six years old when she i~e 1~ to em. They lernt me to sweep, knit, crochet, piece quilts. She lernt her childrsn that,r way eciaetimss. Nias Nancy Spran~1e didn t treat n~ no different frcin her own girls. Mies Dora married ~. Pitt Loney

063 058

B. 58 and I was dressed up and held up her train (long dress and veil). I stayed with Misa Dora after she marrid. One of the girls married Mr. J ohn Gaibreth. I married and went home then come to Mississippi. Mrs. Oables, Mr. Gables was old people bxt they had two adopted boys. I took them boys to the field to work wid my children. She sewed for ins and my children. Her girls cooked all we et in busy tizi~s. They done work at the house but they didn t work in the field. RI been married five times. Every tiii~ I married I married at home. Mighty little marryin goin on now .~ mighty little. Mama stayed wid Mr. Sprangle till we all got grown. Miss Nancy s girls married so that ei . the way I knowd how to do. I bad a good time. I danced every chance I got. I been well blessed all my lif till I ni gettin feeble now. Papa run the gin on Mr. Sprengle a place then he went to wer, e~ back foe he died. I recken he come home sick cause he died pretty soon. ni .1.55 can membar this lu Klux broke dow~n our door wid. hatchets. It scared us all to death. They didn t do nuthin to us. They was huntin Uncle Jeff. Re wasn t bout our house. He was ox driver ter Mr. 8prangls. Him and a family of pore white folks ~t to f~iaain bout a bridle. 8c~ of em was dressed up when they coi~ to our houas ma said. After that Mr. Kirby killed him close to his hc~ startin out o~e mornin to ~rk. Hi. name was Uncle J~eff Saxon. Ma k~owd it was scs~ of the men right on Mr. Sprangle s place whut come to our house. RI live wid my daughter. I ~.t $8 from the Welfare. WIr they vote for btter it b. all right. I never seen no roles. I don t know how they vote I a too old to start up vot in .

064 059

3. 59 Lawd you ~t me now. The times changed an~ got eo taat. It ai . beyond me . I JeS listens. I d t know uhut goner happen to thia young generation. ~

[Interview with Anderson, W.A.] 065 060

~)~JO ~ SS~&I18. Tay2~or ~ j~ Pei son interuisw d L A. Anderson (dark brownL ~ ~2~o w. ~8~th:-3~trat; ti~ti. RoOk, A~ sas ~ F8 __-.__s- ~L *~* R Ocoupation ~ u - Eou~s~e end ~i~rd am - _ - - ~-~- z ~ ~ -~-~ j~ --w-- ~ - 1 don t ~ow nothin about slavsry. You know I wouldn t know nothin bout 1. t oaua ~ I was only four years old ihn ths war snd d. All I know is I was born in slarsry; but I don t know not~in bsut it. ~ WI don t r.i~ab.r nothin of my parsnts. Ti~s was all confiiesd end old folks didn t talk bfors chilun. They didn t haTe tii~. Besides, my mother and father wsrs .e.paratd. I was born in Arkansas and have livsd hers all my lits. ~tt I don t gossip and entertain. I just moved in this houes last ~ssk. Took a ibasl~ be:rrow sill brought all. thes things hers ~iysalt. wTh08. boys out there jus threw a stone against tlis house. I thought th h s ime falling. I ~rk si day and ~hsn r~ight co~s, I ~ tired. I don t haTs no wit., no childrsn, nothin ; nobody to help out. I don t ask the neighbors nothin cept to clear out this junk they l tt h.xe. I eI ain t goin to talk about ths Lt Klux. I ot other things to think about. It takes all my tiu~ and strength to do my work and live a Ohriatian. Yolk. ~ot so nowadays they don t cars bout nothin . I just lIve hers an~ serve th La~d.

066 061

2. 61 :cnt.rvi.w.r 8 c.~.nt. Andraon 1. aeparated from hie ute who stt hin. E lOst his hc~ a ahort tise ago. A few Eonthe ago, be was ao ~iok he was exp.ct.d to di.. He eupports himasif through the friendliness or a few white ~eop1e who give him odde and end. of work to do. I m*~ds thrss calls on him, helped him set up his etovse and his bede end clear up hi. house a little bit amos he had just moved into it end had a good~ deal ot work to do. Eis mia~ortunea have aad~ hin unwilling to talk just now, but hs will give a good interview .atsr I ~ certain.

[Interview with Anthony, Henry] 067 062

30495 . 62 Interviewer ~$i~ Ii~,e3Le BO ~tSO~ ~ ~ . _ Person ~ RJ.D. #1 Bi.eo.~, 4~i~an~ Ags~~84~~ S-. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ X wa~ born at Zackaon, North Carolina. My master and ~ietrsss nsaid Betsy end Jason Williema !ait ~y pa a name was Anthony. My young aast r was a orderly sear~ent. He took ~ iid him to return so~ ~les and wagons. K ehowed me what he want done an I followed hin round irid wagons. The wagons hauled aiininltion and provisions. Pa worked for the mas:~ter and aa cooked. They got sold to Lauem Capert. Ihen frsedc~ corns they went back and stayed a month or two at Iilliama then we all went back to Io~ Odc~.. Is stayed round close sud farmed and worksd till they died. I married and when I had tour or five children I heard ob dis country. I c~e o~ iigration ticket to ~. Lydelott hers at Biaoo. Train full ot us got together ~jid ccme. One IhIt aan got us all up and brought as here to Bisco.. I farad tor lb. Aydelott tour or fivs years, then for Mr. Bland, Mr. 8croggin. t I nusr wsnt to school a day in ay lits. I Used to rots here in Bi.coe right a~art. I l.t the young folk. do ~y votin. Th.y can ts . . more about it. I sho do not think it 1. the w~an a place to vote an hold all the jobs tr~ the n. Itten you don t in the Primary cause you don t know nut to pick out a man, you sho don t know mithin er taU. bout votin in the General lsction. In fact it ain t no good to our race nohow.

068 063

2. 63 t Th. whol world gone pass ay jud~ient long ago. E j... ~ ti round to see what they say an do n.zt. It 18 bad when you caint get work you able to do an that e hard on the old tolke. I could sav.d. I did save right emart. Sicknece come on. Somstiae you have a bad crop ysar, make nuthin, but you. have to live on. Young folks don t SeS no hard timee if they keep well an able to work. I get coianoditiea end $6 a month. I do a little if I can. One time my son b*Lght a place to me and him. H paid all cept $70. I don t know whut it cost now. It was 47 acree. I worked on it three years. He aold it and went to ths eaiaill. H any he c~e out aquar on it. I didn t wexiter eell it bat he did.

[Interview with Arbery, Katie] 069 064

Cy(~\ ~ fl~ Iaxberviewer . ~ ~ Bernice Bdwden _- __-_--s_.--w~- ~1~-~ ~ S -t . -~-I~ ~--1~~M T ~ ~. ~ ~ U UIS-~ Pereon intervi~ed ~ ~ ~ K*ti ~&rb~y~ ~ Age1~ ~ ~ 80 _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ni am eighty years old. 14y n~e t fore I w~s a Arbeiy was Baxter. I~r mother waa a Baxter. Born in Union Couub~r. Icr mother B fii Bt people wa~ Baxter and my grandmother wae a Baxter azid th~r just went by that nwno; she never did change her neane. The bose n~n.-that was ~wbat they called our ~ster hie na~ waa Paul Mocall. Be was mrried twioe~ His oldest son was Jim MiSCall. Ke was in the War. Yes BIa ~ the Civil War. Paul Mocall raised 3M U~ with hie ehillun and I never did call hiz n~ster, just called hin pappy, and Jin M~CaU, I called h5* brother J1m Juet; raised us all up there in the yard. )~ grandiixther was the cook. There ,,aan t no figitbin in union County but I ~wm~.r ilion the Yaxikeee ~as goin through and singint The Union forever, hurrahs bC~B~ hurrah w. li ral y t round the flag, bc~ Shoixt;ing the battle cry of freedom. (She ~eng this-.-ed.) And I meaber thie one good: t Old buckwheat cakes and good strong butter To i*~.k. your lips go flip, flip, flixbter, Ipok ai~y, look away, look away, Dixie land.~ PapW used to play that on his fiddle and have us chillun tryin to dance. Used to call us chillun and sa~, You little devils, oo~ up here and dance and bave ue n~.rohint. 64.

070 065

2. 65 w oouein used to be a quill blowers Brother Ji~a would oul f ishin canoe and plat t em togebher umthe~ called t em a paok five in a rowe jU8t like 3I~ fingere. Azybody that knawed how could s~ire make 3miaio on n. To~ Rollins~ that was ~i~r baby imole he wae a banjo pio1 x~ I can r in~iiber a heap a things that happened, but bout alavery~ I didn t biow one dear from another. The~r treated us 80 nice that when they said freed a coene, I thought I was always free~ n ~ heored n~r gran&aother talk aboirb sellin t ~ bttt I was just a little kid and I didntt know what they was talkin aboirb. I heered em sa~y, Did you Icnow they old A~unt Sally away from her by I heered t e~ talkin, I know that muoh. After freedom, our folks ste~yed right on Paul McCall e place. 3~p granbaother cooked for the M~Calls till I ias eight or nine yeare old., then. she cooked for the M~Cra~ s they was all relativee-..till I was twenty on.05 Then I ~rried~~ ~ Paul Mr~Ca1I firet aarried in the Baxter f83IIi)~y and then he married ixrbo the MoCre~r family. I lived on the Mocall place till I ivai grown. They all oo~ front Alaben~.. Yestm, they oo~ befot the viar ias. Chillun in ~a days paid attention. People raised ohillim in d a da~ya. Folks just feeds t e~ now and lerbe t e~ grow up. I looks at the young moe now and they is as wise ae rabbite. UI never went to school but three months, but I never will forg.1 that old blue baok MoGuffey ~ ~i Porber was our t.aoher and I wae scared of him. I ~as 80 soared I oouldn t learn nothin ~ .. As far as I can remiember I have been treated nice everywhere I been. Ain t none of the white folks ev r mistreated ~ie~

071 066

3. 66 Tprd we had p1eut~ to eat in slavery days. .saud freedom da~re too~ Que time when ~r mother was cookin for Colonel Morgan amt n~r oldeat brother was wor~c~~~ scine 1ar~d, n~r mother al vmye sent me over with a b~toket of milk for him. So one day she say, Snool y, conte oarry yotir brother & milk and hurry so he can bave it for dinner. I was goin aoro~~ a field; that ~as a awful deer oountry. I had ou a red dress and wae goin on with 31~T 1flhl C when I saw a old buok lookin at me. All at once he weni ~whu-u.su~, and then the whole drove cc~ up. There wa~ mose y trees ( I thivk she must have meaiit~ mimosa-..ed,) iii the field and I ruii and olizabed up in one of t A mose y tree grows crooked; I doutt oare how straight you put it in the ground, it s goin to grow crooked. So I oUab up in the n~aely tree and begin to yell. ~j brother heard me and o ite tcause he a owed what was up. Ue used to say, . t ~Jov~~ Snipe, when you come cross that mose ~j field, don t you wear that old red drops t cause the~y Il get you down and tear that dress off lotte ~ I liked the dreSs cause he had give it to me. I had set the milk down at the ~ foot of the tree and is a wonder the~r didiI t knock it over, but when ii~j brother heard me yell he come a runni&~ with a gun and shot one of the deer. I got B~e of the venison and he give s~e to Colonel Morgan, his boss marL Colonel Morgan bad fought in the war, The reason I ~~i~t4j tell you no n~re is, sizioe i got old n~j mind goes this and that a w~r~ ABut I can tell you all the doctors that doctored on me, They give ~ up to die once. I had the chills fr~ the first of ori Januaiy to the uex~~ We had Dr. Chester and Dr. Mocray and Dr. Lewie. -shie rame was P.riy and Dr. Gree~i and Dr. Smead. Took quinire till I oouldntt hear, and finally Dr. ~een said, tW& 13. just quit givint ber medicine, looks like hot ~ goint to die ~ azyway

072 067

. 4. And then Dr. Lecria fed me for three weeks stead~r on okra soup cooked v.~th ohickeit. Jtwb give me the broths Then I o rn~ienoed g~t*in better atid here lam. But I can t work like I used to~ ~Vhen I was young I ooulcl work righb along with the me~ but I can t do it now. I wish I could cause they s a heap a things I cl like that xir ohil .un and grandohillun can t get for ~e. t~e11 good bye, coene back again sc~etiine.

[Boys liked corn shuckings.] 073 068

68 ~( ~i ~ ~ ~i Interviewer Person interviewed ~-. -~--~ fih.1~a or -~-~--~-~ ~8~fl.R~eU A~n~si~rojt~ -- 802 Schiller Street, Little Rock, Arkansas ~--------- ~!~ ~ ~ ~ - - I couldn t tell you when I was born. I was born a good while berore freedom, I was a boy about ten years old in the time of the Civil War. That would make me about eighty five or six years old. My father s nwne was Gy Armstrong. My mother s name was Gracie Arm.strong. I don t know the names of my grandparents. They was gone when I got here. My sister died right there in the corner of the next room. House I used to live in an old log Th~ floors were these here planks. was in Georgia, in Houston County, him--know who dug his grave, They had beds nailed up to the side ot the house. People had a terrible time you know. White folks had it all. When I eo~ along they had it and they had it ever since I been here You didne t have no chance like folks have nowadays. 3ust made benches and stools to sit on. Made tables out o~ planks. I never saw any cupboards and things like that. Them things wasn t thought about then. The house was like a stable then. Bat them log houses was better than these cause the wind couldn t get through them. and Furniture house Take dirt and dob the cracks. Vie had ti~ windows and one door. That on old Dempsey Brown ~ pl. I know

074 069

2. 69 . WorkasaBoy nI wasn t dom nothin but totin water. I toted water for a whole year when I was a boy about eight years old, I was the water boy for the field hands. Later I worked out in the fields myself. They would make ins sit on xiiy rnarnmy s row to help keep her up. Free Negroes You better not say you were free them days. If you did, they d tell you to get out of there. You better not stop on. this side of the Mason Dixie Line either. You better stop on the other aide. Whenever a nIgger got so be couldn t mind they d take him ~down and ~ whip him. They d whip the free niggers just the same as they did the 8laVea, Marriage You see that broom there? They just lay that broom down and step over it. That was all the marriage they knowed about, Corn Shuokings / The boys tised to just get down and raise a holler and shuck that corn. Man, they had ftuL~ They sure liked to go to those corn shuckings. They danced and went on. They d give em whiskey . That s all I know about it, Rations They d weigh the stuff out and give it to you and you better not go back. They d give you three pounds of meat and a quart of meal and molasses when they d make it. Sometimes they would take a notion to give you some.~ thing like floi~r. ~xt you had to take what they give you. They give out the rations every Saturday. That was to last you a week,

075 070

3. 70 Patro11~ra I was at a ball one night. They had fen~ce rails in the fire. PatroUer knocked at the door, stepped in and closed lt behind him. Nigger pulled a rail out of the fire and 8tuck it galnst the patrofler and that patroller stepped aside and let that nigger get by. Niggers used to tie ropes across the road so that the patrollers horses would trip up. ~ Mulattoes I never seed any IrlUiattOe8 then. That thing Is something that just come up. Old Dempsey Brown, if he seed a white man goin round with the nigger women on hi s place he run him away from there ~it that s gwine on In the full now. That ought not to be If God. had wanted ~ them people to mix, he d have mixed em. God made era red and white and black. And I m goin to stay black. i: ain t climbed the fence yet and I won t climb it now. I don t know. I don t believe in that . ~ IC you are white be white . and if you are black be black. Children need to ~o out and play but tbese boys ought not to be lowed to ran after these girls. Whippings Your overseer carried their straps with thexa. They had em with em all the time. J~ust like them white folks dc~ down to the County Farm. Used to use a man just like he was a beast. They d make him lay down on the ground and whip him. They d had to shoot me down. That is the reason I tend to my business. If he wouldn t lay down they d call for help and strap him down and stretch him out. Put one man on one arm and another on the other. They d pull his clothes down and whip the blood out of him. Them people didn t care what they done since they didn t do right.

076 071

4* 71 Freedom ~!When. I first heard them ta1kin~ about freedom, I didn t kriw v~hat freedom was. I was there standin right up and 1ookin~ at era when they told us ~e was free. And master said, You all free now. You can ~o where you want to. They never give you a thing when they freed you. They ~1ve you some work to do. They never looked for nothin only to ~o to work. The white folks always had the best of it. When be Lincoln first freed em, they all stood together. If this one was ill the others went over and sit up with him. If he needed some~ thing they d carry it to him. They don t do that now. They done well then. As soon as they quit standing together then they had trouble. ~ wages Then Fellow said to me, Campbell, I want you to split up them blocks ax~d pile em up for me I said ~ihat you i to pay He said. I II pay you what is right . I said, That won t do; you have to tell ue what you goin to give rae before I start to work. nd~he said to ras, You can git to hell out of here. Selling and Bu~ying ~1aves They d put you up on the block and. sell you. That is just what they d do--sell you. These white folks will do anything, -anything they want to do. They d take your clothes off just like you was some kind of a beast. You used to be worth a thousand dollars then, but you re not worth two bits now. You ainTt worth nothin when you re free.

077 072

5. 72 Reftigees -~ Jeff Davis They used to come to my place in droves0 Wagons would start coming In In the morning and they wouldn t stop coming in till two or three in the evening. They d just be travelin to keep out the way of the Yankees. They caught old ~Teff Davis over in TwI~a Gounty. That s in Georgia. Caught hirn in Buzzard s Roost. That was only about four or five railes from where I was. I was right down yonder in Houston County. Twigg County and Houston County is adjoinin . I never saw any of the soldiers but they was following them though. Voters ni have seen plenty of niggers voting. I wasn t old enough to vote in Georgia. I come in Arkansas and I found out how the folks used themselves and I come out that business. They was selling themselves just like cattle and I t have nothing t o do wi th that. * I knew ~Terry Lawson, who was J~ustice of Peace. He was a nigger, a low-down devil. Man, them niggers done more dirt in tJ4s city. The Republicans had this city and state. I went to the polls and there was very few white folks there. I knew several of them niggers~--Mack Armstrong, he was Justice of Peace. I can t call the rest of them. Nothing but old thieves. If they had been people, they d been honest. Wouldn t sell their brother. It is bad yet. They still stealin yet, Ku Klux That s another devil. Man, I ll tell you we seen terrible times. I don t know nothing much about ein myself. I know one thing. Abe Lincoln said, Kill him wherever you see him.

078 073

6. 73 Se1f~Support end Suppor~t of Aged Slavea j in Slave Times A white man asked me how rauch they givin me. I said, ~i~ht dollars. He said, You ought to be ~itt in twenty-five . ~ I Maybe I ought to be but I ain t. I ain t able to do no work now. I ain t able to tote that wood hardly. I don t git as rauch consideration as they give the slaves back yonder. They didn t rr ake the old people in slavery work when they was my ace. My daddy when he was my age, they turned him out. They give him a rice patch where he could make his rice. When he died, he had a whole lot of rice. They stopped putting all the slaves out at hard labor when they ~ot old. That s one thins. White folks will take care of their old ones. Our folks won t do it. They ll take a stick and kill you. They don t reoo~nize you re human. Their parents don t teach them. Folks done quit teaching their children. They don t teach them the right thing no more. If they don t do, then they ought to make them do. Little Rock I been here about twenty years in Little Rock. I went and bought this place and paid for it, Somebody stole seventy-~five dollars from me right here in this house. ~nd that got rae down. I ain t never been able to git up since. I paid a man for what he did for me. He said, Well, you owe me fifteen cents. ~hen he ~ot done he said, You. owe me fifty cents. You can t trust a man in the city. I was living down in england. That s a little old country town. I come here to Little Rook where I could be in a city. I done well. I bought this place,

079 074

?. 74 I reckon I lived in rkansa~about th ~r years before I left and come here to Little Rock. When I left Georgia, I come to Arkansas and settled down In Lonoke County, made crops there. I couldn t tell you how long I stayed there. I didn t keep no record of it at all, I cone out of Lonoke County and went into J~efferson, Man, I wa~ never in such shape as I ara in now. That devilish stock law killed me. It killed all the people. Nobody ain t been able to do nothin since they passed the stock law. I had seventy-five hoes and twenty cows, They made a law you had to keep theni chickens up, keep them hoes up, keep them cows up. They shoots at every right th1n~, and the wrong things they don t shoot at. God don t uphold no man to set you up in the jail when you ain t done nothin . You didn t have no privilege then (slave time), and you ain t got none now.

Ex-slave and riddles. 080 075

interviewer ~ El DOrad~O Division . ~ 75 pernella AMerson, olored. peieral Writers Project 30012 Union County, Arkansas EX SLAVE AND RIDDLES I was born In tke Junction city community and. belonged to the Cooks. I was ten years old, at su.rrencler. Mother and father had. 12 children and we lived In a one room log cabin and cooked on a fireplace and oven. MOs arid. Miss Cook did not allow ~ and. pa to whip me. when ever 1 do something and. I knew I was going to get a whipping I would. make it to old Miss. She would. keep ~ from getting that whipping. I was a devilish boy. I wo~ild do everything in the world I could think of ju~st for devilment. Old. mos was sure good. to hi~ slaves. I never went to school a day in my life. Old. Miss wou.ld. carry me to chtirch sometimes when it was hot ~ we could fan for her. We used palmeter fan leaves for fans. We ate pretty good. in slavery time, but we did. not have all of this late stuff. Some of our dishes was possum stew, vegetables, per simmon. pie and tato bread. ~a did not allow us to sit around grown folks. When t~y were,ta ,king she always made us get under the bed. Our bed was made from pine poles. We children slept on pallets on the floor. The way slave~ married in slavery time they jumped over the broom and when they separated they jumped backward over the broom. Times were better in slavery time to my notion than they are now because they, did not go hungry, neither necked. They ate com~n aM ~re one kind of clothes. A duck, a bullfrog and. a skunk weit to a circus. the duck and. the Rulifrog got In, why didn t the skunk get in? C Answer) ~he duck h~i a bi il the bi lifrog had a greenback but the skunk had. nothing b~it a scent. If your father s sister Is not your aunt what kin Is she to you? (your mother). What is the difference between a four quart measure and a s ide saddle? (Aa~swe r) They both ho ld. a gallon. ( a gal on) Cora Armstrong, colored..

[Interview with Baccus, Lillie] 081 076

~3O3O2 Interviewer ~ Miss Irene Robertaon Person Interviewed LiUieBaeeu8~d1aon~ Arkansas I ll tell you what I heard. I was too little to reniember the Civil War. M~m~~es owner was ~ Dillard. She called him Ma8ter Dillard. Papa 8 owner W88 ______ ~nith. He called him Master ~nith. Mama waa named Ami and papa Arthur ~nith. I was born at West Point ~Li 88 1 ssippi. I heard ma ~ay she was 8olcI. She said Pattick sold her. She had to leave her two children Cherry and Aim. Mama wae a field hand. So was grandma yet she worked in the house soue she 8aid. After freedom cherry and Ann come to mama. She was going to be sold agin but was freed before sold, Mama didn t live only till I was about three years old, so I don t )~now enough to tell you about her. Grandma raised us. She was sold twice. She said she run out of the house to pick up a star when the stars tell. They showered down and disappeared. The Yankees camped close to where they lived, close to West Point, Mississippi, but in the country close to an arte8iafl well. The well was on their place. The Yankees stole grandma and kept her at their tent. They meant to take her on to wait on them and use but when they started to move old. master spicioned they had her hid down there. He watched out and seen her when they was going to load her up. He went and got the head man to make them cive her up. She was so glad to come home. Glad to see him cause she wanted to see him. They watched her so close she was afraid they would shoot her leaving. She lived to be 101 years old. She raised me,

082 077

2.. She used to tell how the overseer would whip her In the field. They waan t good to her In that way. RI have three living children and eleven dead. I married twice. My first husband Is living. My eeoond. husband i8 dead. I married in day time in the church the last time. All else ever took place in my lif~e waa hard work. I worked in the fteld till I was too old. to hit a tap. I live wid my children. I get ~8 and commoditiea. nI come to Arkansas because they said money was bushee. I had four little children to make a living was easier. I think people is better than they was long time ago. Times la harder. People have to buy everything they have as high as they is, makes money scarce nearly bout a place as hen a teeth. Hens ain t got no teethe We don t have much money I tell you The Weltare gives me 8. ~ easy to get -growed on for and they said it

[Mother was a fighter.] 083 078

: ~ 30836 Interviewer - -rn----- SaniieiS.Ta~1or . ~-~- - Person interviewed ~ose~phSamue1Ba~tt 1221 Wright Avenue LIttle Rock Arkansas A~e?2 -~-~ f 7!(~7L ~ Q4~ ~ g~:. ~ 4~7 ~ _ My mother had Indian In her. ~he would ficht. She was the pet of the people. When she was out, the pateroles would ~h1p her because she didn t have a pass, She has showed me scars that were on her even till the day that she died0 She was whipped because she was out without a pase. She could have had a pass any tiras ~or the a8king, but she wa~ too proud to ask. She never wanted to do tbin~$ by permission. Birth I was born in 1864. I was born right here in I~llas County. Some of the most prominent people in this state came from there. I was born on Thursday, in the morn1n~ at three o clock, May the twelfth. My x~iother ha told me that so often, I have lt rrieiaorized, ~ Persistence of Slave Customs While I was a slave and was born close to the end of the Civil Jar, I remember seeing many of the soldiers down here. I remember x~uoh of the treatment iven to the slaves. I used to say master myself in my day, We had to do that till after 69 or 70. 1 remember the time when I COUldn t ~o nowhere without a8kint~ the white folk8 . ~ I wasn t a slave then but I Couldn t go off without asking the white people. I didn t know no better. I have known the time in the southern part of this state when it you wanted to dive ~n entertainment you would have to ask the white fOlks0

084 079

2~ 79 Didn t know no better. For years and years, most of the niggers juat stayed with the white folka. Didn t want to leave them. 3u8t took what they give em and didn t a8k for nothing different. It I had known forty years ago what I know now~ lirst Negro Doctor in Thlip, Arkansas The first Negro doctor we ever seen come from Little Rock down to Tulip, Arke.nsas. We were all excited. There were plenty of people who didn t have a doctor living with twenty miles of them. When I wa~ fourteen years old, I was secretary of a conference, 3chooling What little I know, an old white woman taught me. I started to school under this old woman because there weren t any colored teachera. There wasn t any school at Tulip where I lived, This old lady just wanted to help. I went to her aboul seven years. ~ihe taught us a little every year.~ specially in the summer time. She was high cla8a.- a high class Christian woman-~..belonged to the Presbyterian church. Her name was Mrs. Gentry Wiley. I went to school to Sciplo Yones once. ~Then they opened a public school at Thlip and J~. C. ~nith taught there two years in the sun~ner time. Then Lula Baily taught there one year. She didn t know no more than I did. Then Sciplo came. He was there for a while. I don t remember just how long. After that I went to Pine Bluff. The County Yudge at that tinie had the right to naine a student from each district. I was appointed and went up there In 82 and 83 from my district. It took about eight years to finish Branch Normal at that time I stayed there two years. I roomed with old man John Young,

085 080

3. 80 You couldn t go to school without paying unless you. were sent by the Board. We lived in the country and I would go home in the winter and. study in the suiiimer, Professor 3~. C. Corbin was principal of the Pine Bluff Branch Normal at that time. Dr. A. H. Hill, Professor Booker, and quite a number of the people we consider distinguished were in school then. They fini8hed, but I didntt. I had to go to n~y mother because she was ill. I don t claim to have no schooling at all. Forty Acre s and a Mule My mother received forty acres of land when fr edom came. gave it to her. She was given forty acres of laud and a colt. more to tell about that. It was just that way~a gift of forty land and a colt from her former master4 My mother died. There is a woman living now that lost it (the home). Mother let Malinda live on it. Mother lived with the white folks meanwhile. Si;Le didn t need the property for herself. She kept it for us. She built a nice log house on it. Fifteen acres of it was under c~ltivation when it was given to her. My sister lived on it for a long time. She mortgaged it in some way I don tknow how. I remember when the white people ran me dom there some years back to get me to sign a title to lt. I didn t have to sign the paper because the property had been deeded to Susan Badgett and Hi~iRS; lawyers advised me not to sign it. But I signed it for the sake of my sister. : Father and Master My mother s master was named Badgett..~Captain John Badgett. He was a Liethodist preacher. Soins of the Badgetts still own property on Main Street. My mother s master s father was my daddy. Her master There is no acres of

086 081

40 81 Marr lage I wa$ married YU~1y 12, 1889. Next year I will have been married fifty years. My wife 8 name was Elizabeth Owene. She was born in Batesvllle, Mississippi, I me t her at Brinkley when she was visiting her aunt. We married in Brinkley. Very few people in thi8 city have lived together longer than we have. J~iily 12, 1938, will make forty~-nine years. By Yuly 1939, we will have reached our fiftieth anniversary. ~1 Patrollers, J!ayhawker8, Ku Klux, and Ku Klux Klan Pateroles, jaybawkers, and the Ku Klux came before the war. The Ku :iaux in slavery times were men who would catch Negroes out and. keep them if ~ . they did not collect from their masters. The pateroles would catch.Negroea . ~ out and return them 1f they did not have a pass. They whipped them ~ me~ tiraes if.they did not have a pass. The jayhawker8 were highway men or robbers who stole slaves among other thing8. At least, that is the way the people regarded them. The jayhawkers stole and pillaged, while the Ku Klux stole those Negroes they caught out. The word Klan was never included in their name, The Ku Klux Klan was an organization which arose after the Civil War. it was composed of men who believed in white supremacy and who regulated the morals of the neighborhood, They were not only after sews and. Negroee, but they were sworn to protect the better class of peoples They took the law in their own handa. Slave Work ~I rn not so certain about the amount of work required of slavea. !~Iy mother says she picked four hund~red pounds of cotton many a day.

087 082

5. 82 The slaves were tasked and given certain amount 8 t o accomplish. I don t know the exact amount nor just how lt was determined. Opinions It js too bad that the young Negroes t know what the old Negroes think and what they haire done. The young folks could be helped if they would take advice. Interviewer s Comment ~ Badgett s distinctions between jayhawkers, Ku Klux, patrollers, and Ku Klux Klan are most Intere 8t Ing. I have been slow to catch it. All my life, I have heard persons with ex.-slave background refer to the activities of the Ku Klux among slaves ;i rior to 1865. 1 always thought that they had the Klux Klan and the patrollers confused. . . I Badgett s defInite and clear cut memories, however, lead me to believe that 1D8JLY of the Negroes who were slaves used the word Ku Klux to denote a t/pe of persons who stole slave8. It was evidently in use before it was applied to the Ku Klux Klan. The words Ku Klux and Ku Klux Klan are used indiscriminately in current conver8ation and literature. It is also true that many persons in the present do, and in the past did, refer to the Ku Klux Klan 8iUIply ai Ku Klux. It is a matter of record that the organization did not at first bear the na~ Ku flux flan throughout the South. The na~ %~ flux

088 083

6. 83 380~B to have grown in application as the organization changed from a moral association of the best citizens of the South and gradually came under the control of lawless persons with lawless methods ...whipping and imirdering. It is antecedently reasonable that the change in names accompanying a change in policy would be due to a fitness in the prior use of the na~. The recent use of the name seems mostly imitation and propaganda, Histories, encyclopedias, and dictionaries, in general, do not record a meaning of the term Ku. Klux as prior to the Reconstruction period.

Ex-slave [a hostler's story]. 089 084

#717 ~ : ~ ~ r ~ r~ ~ FORM A 8 Circumstances of Xnterview s TATE -ArkaiL~aS NAME OF DRXER -.Sanuel S. TaylOr ADDRESS--Li ttl ~ Rock, ~rk sas DATL- -Dec~nber, 1938 SUBJECP :Ex slav e 1. Naine and. address of in fomiant~- Jeff Bailey 713 w. Ninth Street Utti e Rock. 2 Date ani t ime o f mt er y iew 3. Place of 1nt~rview 713 w. Ninth Street, Litti e Rock. 4. NaGE arxi a~.dress of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant -. 5. N~ux~ ~ and. ath~ress of person, if any, accompanying you -. 6. Descript ion o f room, louse ai rrouthings etc~

090 085

ft717 5 FORM B Pers onaiHis t ory of Informant ~ 8a8 ~ OF YORK.~ER ~Sanitie1 s. Taylor ADDRESS- ~-L Itti e Rock Arkai~s ae DATE - December, 1938 SUBJEC!I ~-Ex-~ s lave I~AWJE AND ADDRESS OF INFORANrt~~~Jeff Bailey, 713 W. Ninth Street, Little Rock. 1. Ancestry father, Jeff ~Yel1s; nether, Tilda Bailey. 2. Place and date of birth -born in 1861 in Monticello, Arkansas. 3. Family-- 4. Places lived in, with dates reared in ~Jbnticello. Lived. in Pine Blu~ff thirty two years, thai moved to Little Rock and has lived here thirty-two . years. 5. Eciu.cation, i~th dates-- . 13. Occupations and. accomplishments, with dates Hostler 7. Special skills and interests 8. Community ard religiou~s activities 9. Description of informant 10. Other points gained in interview

091 086

Text ofinterview (Unedited) STAPE---Arkansas NJt1~ OF ~4ORI~Eti--Samuel S. Taylor ADDRESS- -L I tt le Rock Arkans as D~ITE-~December, 1938 ~ SUBJECT -Ex-~slave KA1~ AND JLDDRE3S OF INFORi~T~Jeff Bailey, 713 W. ~inth . I :* #717 86 F~rmC j ~iD~t7~J Street, Little Rock. * * s * ** * * * * * 4 * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * ** * * I was born in Mcnticello. I was raised there. Then I carne up to Pine Bluff and stayed there thirty-~two years. Then I cane up here and. been here thirty twa years. That i~ the reason the white Ibiks so ~od~ to me now. I been here so long. I been a hostler all my life. I am the best hostler in this State. 1 go down to the post office they give me money. These white folks here is good to me. That you. writin down? Yes, that s w1~at I said. like me and t1~iy ~od to me. They give me anything I drink? That s the best bon~ied whiskey money can buy. Well, 1f you don t want it now, come in when you do. I lost mywife right there in that corner. 1 was married ~just once. Lived with her forty three years. She died. here five tnonths ago. Josie Bailey The white folks thought the world and all of her. That is another These white folks want. ou want a They gives it to me. She was one of the best ~men I ever seen. reason they give me so much. I gits ten dollars a month. The check comes right up to the house. I used. to ~rk with all them money men. Used to handle ail them horses at the poet office. They ought to give me sixty five dollars but they don t. But I gits along. God is likely to 1ezri~e live ten years longer. I worked

092 087

-2- 87 at the post office twenty-two years and. don t git but ten d.ollar8 a month. They ought to gin~ne more. M~r father s Lame was Jeff Wells. i~y rixther s naine was Tilda Bailey. She was married twice. I took her master s name. Jeff Wells was my father s name. Governor Bailey ou.ght to give nie somethin . I got t1~ same nan~ he has. I know him. My father s master was Stanley Jeff Stanley. That was in slavery time. that was my slave time people. i. was ju.st a little bit of a boy. i am glad. you are gittin that to help the colored people out. i~re they goin to give the old slaves a pension? What they want to ask all these questions for then? sell, 1 guess there s somethin else besides money th~it s worth while. My father s master was a good. man. 1~1e was good t o him. Ye s aby Jeff ~iel1s, that my fat~:er s naine. I was a little baby settin in the basket round in the yard and they ~ould put the cotton all round me. ~ihey carried me out where they worked and put me in the basket. I couldn t pick no cotton because I was too young. ~Vhen they got through they wou~d put me In that big old wa.gon and carry me home. There wasn t no trucks thez~. Jeff Wel is (that was my father) when they g~t through pickin the cotton, he would say, Put t~m children in the wagon; pick em up ~ put em in the wagon. I was a litti e b1tt~ old boy. J. could.n ~t pick no cotton the n. &it 1 used. to pick it after the surrender. ~ I remember what they said when they freed my father. They said, You re free. You children are free. Go on back there and work and let your chu... dren work. Don t v~rk them children too long. You ll git pay fbr your work. That was in the Monticello courthouse yard. They said, You re freej Free

093 088

3. 88 My mistress said to n~ when I got back horn., You re fit... Go on out in the orchard and git yossif acme peaches. They had a yard full of peach... Baby did I git n~ acme peachs . I pulled a bushel of em. Li Klux Klan RTh. Ku Klux run my father out of the fisid. once. And the WhIt people went end got thm bOut it. Th.y aaid, Tuai is hard, and can t have these psople loam time out of ths fisida. You ist th.es people work. A w..k after that, they didn t do no ~. Th. ~ flux didn t. 8c~body laid th.m out. I uad to go out to the fisida and they would ask ~ J eff Bailsy, ihat you dom out hers? I vasa little boy and you jus ought to sien me gittin way trum thers. Ihooo.~..e..I sI used to pick cottoz~ back yonder in ~nticeilo. I can t pick no cotton now. Naw Laidi I m too old. I can t do that kind of work now~ I need help. Carl Baii.y knowe . He ll help . I ~ a hoatler. I handle horses. I uasd to pick cotton forty years ago. My mother washed clothes right after th. War to git iia childrsn aomethin to eat. Sc~~ times ecubody would give us somethin to help us out. RTilda Bailey, that was my nothsr. Shs and my father b.longsd to diffsrsnt aastsrs. Bailey was her master a n~. ~is always callsd ~ esif Bailey and I call myself Bailey. If I die, I ll bs Bail.y. My insurance is in the ne~ of Bail.y. My rather and moth.r had about .i~t childr.n. They raiasd all their children in MontioeUo~ You ever bssn to Monticello? I had a good time in Monticello. I was a baby wh n psacs was dsclarsd. J!ust toddling round.

094 089

~ oo~ p002 op ~ ~~~ti~q T ~ O~ ~ ~ ~ i~eqjL 1~33t~ Op ~~1e~q 9Ae~~eq i ~IOtLt~AO~ pOO~ ~ eo~ os;. ~u o2 ~ i~o eAeITeq T .tOTLI9AO3 3Q O~ !1~O~ )~OO3 J~ 9OU~O ~ OA~LI ~ ~LtP(!~OO TtOj~ wp~1: ~TM i~UOW 9wo9 qn PIO~4 ~ t~t~ ~T1pJ eq ~ dot~ T %IO~4 ~TP ~ ~~4eT~ GcroT~~ T ~T ~ It~3tt O~TO1.~ T 4UP.tf$~eWO~ ~-T~ ~ sq.31 ~.T9A~GOOU ~ ~idoed ~ood ~ uo p~r~i~ oo~. ex~ 91cIOQct ~ 311 ~tt~t~ OXOW OU ~ ~UO ~ 9/ 1O~~.ZY P poo~ ~ 9q. O~ ~ 849H ~ttPI 3q o~. ~uTO~ Si~T Jo~q.o~p eq. o~. ~tr o1~ ~~3H uTa:~ p1~tt~ ~ .10; tZTLI ~ ~UTO~ ~het~ aAeTT~q T UT ~~ W3pT~e~Ic:t ~ o~_ &uTo~ s,1~eA~oo T ~ i~ .wv~ep o~. jie ~ t~ 3T~treip ~T .110 ~ q~X ~ 3~U~IP ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ )IL~T~P ~ PU~O~ I~ ~T~-t Of~ oq. pesn r ~T ~TtO~ mlt.I TIa~ o~. p:~Grt T t;~oriw oo~ ~tr~rp i~I~v~J j~ 1

095 090

Extra Comment #717 ~ORMD 90 STATE -~ Arkansas NAME OF ~ORKER ~- Samuel S. Ta~1or LDD~RESS -- Little Bock, Arkansas DATE ~- December, 1938 SUB~J ECT Ei-slave NAME AND ADDRE~3S uF I~FO.~M~T--Jeff Bailey, 713 W. Ninth Street, Little Rock. ** ** ** *** **** *** *** s * * * *** **~ ** **** * ** * * Jeff Bailey talked like a man of ninety instead of a man of seventy-six or seven. It was hard. t~ get him to stick to any kind. of a story. He had tz~ or three things on his mind sud he repeated those things over and. over a~ain-~ GovernOr Bailey, Hostler, Post Office. He had. to be pried loose from them. And he always retu.rned the next sent&ice.

[Interview with Baker, James] 096 091

3()327 ~ 91 Interviewer Mar~yD.iru~dgins. Person. Interviewed Ya~ies Baker Aged 81 fane ~ daughter who owns home at~941 Wade~St. The outskirts of eastern Hot Springs resei~ib1e e vast checkerboad-~-~patterned lxi Black and White. Within. two blocks of a house made of 1o~ faced sidin~~painted a spotless white and prrc~ided with blue shutters will. ba a shack which apiJears to have been made froni the ~iseard of a dozen generations of houses4 Some of the yards are thick with rustine cans, ~o1d tires and ini~ca1aneous rubbish. Some of them. are so gutted. by ~ui1y wash that any attempt atbecutificetion ~wou1d be worse than useless. Soire are swept-~ftrm f~shion~-free froni surfcce dust and. twigs. Some atte~pt-~--~others achieve crass and flowers. Vegete1:.le gardens are far less frequent th~ .n they should be, considerin space left bare. The interviewer fra~ kly io~ t her way several tthes~ One i: proper direction took her fully helf a mile beyond h~er destination. From a hilltop she could look down on less elev3ted hills and into narrow valleys, The impression was that of a cheaply painted back~drop designed for a stock presentr~ti~n of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch,

097 092

92 2 J~ames Baker E ud~ins. Movin~ along streets, alleys and. paths backward to~iard town~ the interviewer reached. another hill. Almost a quarter of a mile a we~ she spied an. old colored man sunning b~mself on the front porch of a well kept cottage. Somthing about his white hair and erect1y~sl~rnped bearing screamed. Ex ~ s1ave ~ even at. that distance. A. negro youth v~as passing. I beg your pardon, can you tell me v~here to find. Wade Street and Tatnes Baker ?~ Ya~ya~ya---s nia aiu. ~ de house over da-~da-da~-~da-~ r. He-~--~he- ~he lives at his daughtex~ s Co~.ld that be he on the porch V Ya~~ya~~-yas ma am~. Dat~~~ d.at ~ -~diit s right.~ AYes ma ani Itm J~aines Baker ~ Yes mat am~ I rexaeniber s about the ~ar You want to talk to nie about it. Let me ~et you a chair. You d rather sit ri~t there on the step ? il_l ri~it ma am~ I was born in Hot Spring eounty, below ~alvern lt v~~as. I was borned. on the farm. of a man named Eexaraonds. But I ~N85 pretty little v~hen he sold. me to some folks named Yenton, ~esntt with thex~ so very 1or~g. You kno w how it goes~-back in ehem days. v/hen a girl or a boy would marry v~hy they d

098 093

93. 3 Jax~es Baker Eudglns giveiii them. as many black folks as they could spare. I was give to one ot the de~hters when skie rxiarried. She was Mrs~ Samuel Gentry. I wasn t so very big before the war. SO I didn t have to v~iork in the fiel&s. ~Tust sort of ~1ayed around. Can t remember very niu~c.h about what happened then. We never did. see no fi~ ting about. They ~vas men wk~at passed through. They was soldiers. They caine backwards and forewards, I was about as bi~ as th. t boy you see there ~ ~pointing to a lad about 8 years old. ~ some of the:: they vas dressed. in b1ue-~sort of blue. ~e v~~aE told th ~.t they ~as Federals. Then some of theni W:~!5 in ~ey~---~-theni was the Southerners. N , we wasn t scared of thera---~either of theni. They didn t never bother none of us. Didn t have anything to be sea.~ ed. of not at alle It v~asn t really L:alvern we was at~-~that v~as sort of before ~~alvern conic to be~ Malvern didn t grow up until after the railroad corne through, The town was across t~ river, sort of this side. It v~as called Rockport. Ma am~ you kY~J)W about R~o~ort ~~a de1i~hted chuckle. Yes, raa am. don t many folks now-~a-days know about Rockport, Yes ma am ~he river is pretty shoaly right there. Pretty shoaly. Yes nia ~arn there was lots of doings around Rockport. Yes nia ani. Dat s right. Before Garland county v~as made, Rockport was the capitol O~- ~ ~ I mean de county seat of Hot 3pring

099 094

94 t 3~nies Baker ~ Hudgina County. Hot Springs was in that county at that time. There was big doings in tovrn v~hen they held courts Real bi~ doings~ NO, m&am. I didn t do nothing rauch v~ben. the war v~as over. No, I didn t ~o to be v~ith my daddy. I moved over to live v~ith a man I called Uncle Bi11y~~Unc1e Billy ~3ryant he was. 11e had all his family v~ith him. I stayed vvith hi~ and did v~hat he told rue to-- -- til I ~rew up. He was a1i~~ays good to me-~-treated rae like his ov~n children. Uncle Billy lived at Rockport. I liked living v~ith huit. I remember the court house burned dow~-~-.~or biowed down--~seexn.s like to nie it banned down. Uncle Billy ~ot the job of cleaning bricks. I helped. him. That v~as v;hen they roved over to I alvern--~~ ~the court h ous e I me an No-~-~ rn-no they didn t. N~t then, that v~as later~--~t1eydidn t build the ~ railroad until later. They built it back ~ - sort of simple like~-~built it down by ~Tud~e Kieth s. J No ma?arn. I dontt remember nothing about when they built the railroad. You see v~e lived across the river~and I giess~-~e1l I just didn t know nothing about it. But Rockport wasn t no good after the railroad come in. They moved the court house and most of the fo1I~ moved away. The~re i~vasn t nothing much left. I startet farming around there some. I moved about quite a bit. I lived down sort of by Benton too for quite a spell. I worked around at most any kind of farming.

100 095

95 Hudgins 5 J~anies Baker Course most of the tirn.e we v~as working at cotton and corn. I s spent most of ray life farming. I like it. Moved around pretty con~iderab1e. Sometimes I hired out~~--~someti~aes I share cropped -~ sometimes I worked thirds and fourths. What does I niesn by hired out-~-~I means worked for v~a~~es. Which way did I like best -~I 1l take share~crcpping. I sort of like share- cropping. I been. in Hot Sprln~s for 7 yez~rs. Come to be with niy daughter4 (An interruption by a small negro gir1~-~--~neatly dressed. and bright eyed. Not content with watching from the sidelines she h~d edged closer and squatted eortifort9bly within a couple of feet of the interviewer. ~ wide, pearly irin, a wee pointing t, forefinger and, Gr~nddaddy, that ladys got a tablet just like Aunt Ellen. see, C~randdaddy. ) you raustm t bother the lady. Didn t YOUr mother tell you not to stop folks when they is talking. ~-the voice was kindly and th~re was paternal pride in it. A nickle-~tendered the youngster by the intervie~er~~and guaranteed to produce a similar tablet won a smile and childish silence.

101 096

. I 9 ; o ~Taiaes Baker Hudgins, . Yes, ma am, I lives i~ith iriy d~aughter.~--her name is Lulu Mitchell. She ovir~ her house--.~yes mateni it helps. 3ut it s sure hard to ~~et ~lc~ng. Seenis like it s lots harder now than it used. to be v~hen I was ~~itting st&rted. Lulu viorks----she irons. ~tnother dau~ter lives right over there. lier name s Ellen. She works too~--at what she can get to do. She OVJnS her house too. ~ Three of my d~u~ter~ is living. Been married twice~ I has. Didn t stay vdth the last one 1on~. Yes ma ani I been C3nL iflg backwards and fore~:ards to Hot Springs all ray life-~-~ you might say. t~asntt ftr over and I kept a coniing back. Peen living all around here. Itts pretty nice being vdth ~y daughter. She s ~ood to rue. I loves my granddaughter. We has ~ a pretty hard. titne~--4i~rder dan what I had. i~vhen Il was young~but ~en it do seem. like it s harder to ear~ money dan v~Let it ~NE~S ~:hen I ~as ~TOUfl~. ~

[Interview with Baltimore, William] 102 097

~_~ 4 ~4~ ~~)&Jt) Interviewer R.S. Taylor ______ _______________ _____ Person Interviewed Uncle William Baltimore Be side ~ ~- - i~__I~_ B1uff~Arka~aas, Jefferson Count~y. A~e 103. ~You wants to know how old I is? I se lived a long time. I se ~oin on 104. My gran matumy was over 100 years. My n~ai~na was 100. My pappy was 96. They wa~ twelve chilluns. I don t know if any of my sisters or brothers la livin . Don t kn~ 1f one of ray friends back in my boy days is ilvin . I se like a poor old leaf left hangin to a tree. Yes I sho do m~nber back befo the war. I was borned on t1~ Dr. ~aters place about twieve miles out of P1x~ Bluff on the east side of Noble Lake. My gran. maniny and gran pappy and ray rnan~iia and my peppy were slaves on de Walker plantation. I was not bought or sold jtist lived on de old plantation. I wasn t whipj~ d ziel the r but once I mi~ity near got a beatin . Want to hear about It? I likes to tell. Dr. ~ aters had a good heart. He didn t call us slave& He call U.S ~ . He di dii t want none of hi s niggers whipped ceptin when there wasn t no other way. I was grown up pretty good size. Dr. Waters liked rue cause I co~i .dmake wagons and show mules. Once when he ~s going away to be gora all day, he tole me what to th while he was gone. The overseer wasn t no s~ eh good n~ n a s old. master He ~nted t o be bo se aid t old me what to do. I tole him de big boss had tole me what to de~ and I was goin to do it. He ~ot mad and said if I dIdn t do w1~at he said I d take a beating. I was a big n1g~ er and powerful atout. I tole the overseer fore he ~hip~e d ins be s show himself a better iran than I was. Then. he Ibund he was to have a fight he didn t say no more abLlit the whlpr4ng.

103 098

-.2- 98 ni v~orked oil de plantation till de war broke. Then I went into the army with them what called themselves secesh s. I didn t fight none, never give me a ~n ncr sword. I was a servant. I cooked and toted things. In 1863 1 was captured by the Yankees and n~rched to Little Rock and sworn in as a Union Soldier. I was sure enou~i soldier ziow. I never did any fi~ht1ng but I n~rched with the scldiers and worked for theni whatever they s id. We n~rched from Pine Bluff on through Ft. &dth and the Indian Territ ory of Ok1ahon~ Then we went t o Leavenworth Kansas a nd back to .Tefferson County, Arkansas. And all that walking Idid on these same foots you~ see right 1~ere now. On this long march we e~nped thirty miles from Ft. &nith. We had gone without food. three days and was powerft~l hongry. I started out to get scmething to eat. I found a ~ieep, I was tieldad. I laughed. I could turn the tas~ ot that sheep meat uMer my tongue. When I ~ot to camp with the aheep I had to leave f or picks t duty. Hungrier than ever, I thought f~ that sheep all the tiz~ When I gcW back I wanted my th~unk of neat. It bad been killed, oked, sat up. Never got a graae spot on my finger from my sheep. When t ime come to r breaking up the army I went back to lette raon county and set to fa~ain I was free now. I didn t do so well on the land as I di dn t have imile s and more y to live on. I went t o Dersa County and opened up a blacksmith shop. I learned how to do this work when I was with Dr. eaters. He had me tau~it by a skilled man. I learx~d to build wagons too. I nade my own tools. Who showed me how ? Nobody. When I i~eded a hack saw I n~deit out of a fils- that was all I had to make it of. I bad to bave it. Once I nude a cotton scraper out of a piece of hardwood.

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3- 99 I put a ateel edge on lt. O yes I made everything. Can I build a wagon n~ke all th e parts? ~ve ry th ing b~i t t he hubs for the whee .a. You say I don t eem to see very well. Ha h L I don t see mithin at all. I se been p1w~ blind for 23 years. I can t see nothin . ftit I patches my oin o1ot!~es. You don t know ~ow I can tI read t~e needle? Look ~ ere. I asked ~~im to let me see ~is needle threader. Ne felt around in a drawer and pulled out a tiny little half arrow which )~e !~ad made of a bit of tin wit!~ a pair of sci8eore and fine file Me pushed t!~is t1 roug~ t ,. eye of t~e needle, then hooked t~,e t~r.ad on it and pulled it back again threading is needle ~s fast as if ~e ~ad good eyesight. T ~i. is a needle threader. I made it myself. W*t~~ me thread a needle. can t I do it as fast as it I ~ad a !~ead full of keen eyes? My vif. been gone twenty years. S~,e went blind too. 1 ~iad to do aomet)~ing. Vy patcI~e8 may not look 80 pretty but they eure holt (~iold). You wants to know w~at I t~,ink of t~~e way young folks is doing tiese days? Th.y se goin to fast. So is ti~.ir papas and memmas. Dey done forgot dey s a God and.a day of settlin . Den what dances pays de fiddler. I got religion long time ago jined de Baptist c~urch in 1870 and ~ aven t never got away from it. I ee tried to tote fair wit~ God and ~ e s done fair by me. Does I get a j~nsion? I e~ure do. It ~as a lucky day w ~en de Yankees got me. Ef t ey ~adn t I don t know wiiat d become of me. After I went blind I ~ad ~ ard time.. Volks, w ~ite folks and all, brougI~t me food. But that wasn t any good way to get along. $otiwes I ate, sometimes I didn t. So some of my w%ite~ friends dug up my record wit~ tli Yankees and got mo a pension. Now I m setting pretty for de rest of my life.

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-4 Yea ~ O yea l es older dan moet folks get. Still I may be still takin ny grub here w~en some of t~eee young ~i ey drinkin raum around young c ape is under t~e dirt It paye to I don know of any bad epota in me yet. It paya to live. ,oneet, work ard, stay sober. God only krxo~ws What some of tI,eee lazy, triflin drinkin young folks ii comin to :I~oO

[Interview with Banks, Mose] 106 101

30(:i? . Per~ai1a L And.i son ~____~- p -s.____ -~----- - ~-- ~- ~ _-.~-- - ~ - - - _~I_ Nos. ~ Bsza. ~ 13: D~adO ~ A~k~Sai~ ~ fl~IM is Jioas Banks and~ I ~ sixty nin ysars old. I was born In 1869. ~ I ~as born four years after freedcm but atill I was a slays In a way. My papa stayed with his old ini a and maater after trse~c~ until h di.d and b just died in 1918, so ws ai . stayed with hi* too. I had o~e of the beat easiest times In my life. My master waa nam Bob Steisneon and he was a jewel. Never meaned us, ne~r dogged, never hit one of u. In bis lit.. E. b~ight us just like he bought i~y papa. He never niado any of th gina work in the tisld. Re said ths york was too has. Re always said splittin rails, btiahing, plowing and work like that wa~ for ian. That work makes no count wosn. - *The girls swept yards, ~ cleaned the houas, nursed, and iaahed and Ironed, combed old mies and the children s hair and cut their finger and toe nails and mended the clothes. The wcinens job waa to cook, attend to the cows, knit all the socks for the men and boys, spin thread, card bats, weave cloth, quilt, sew, scrtth and things like that. ~The little boys drove up the cows, slopped the ho~a, got wood and pins for 1i~ht, go to the spring and get watr. After a boy ian twelv then he let him work in the field. 1~r ~ job was hitching the horse to the bugg tor old Las Stevenson, and put the saddle on old master s saddle ho~ as. ~I a. very ~nell but ihsn the tiret railroad come thr~ old master took US to 105 the train. I guess it was about forty or fifty mil s Iaterviei~r Person interviewed A~s~ . 101

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2. 102 bcauae it took U8 arOund four d~y8 to make. ths round trip. Ths trama wera not like they are now. The engine was ~al1er and they burned wood and they had what they called a dna head and they didn t run vry fast, and could not carry many cars. It was a narrow gauge road and the rails w r mell and the road was dirt. It was not gravel and rocks like it ii now0 It was a great show to me and we all had soathing to talk about for a long ti~. People aU. around went to see it and we camped out one night going and c~ing and camped one night at the railroad so we could ses the train the next day. A man kept putting wood in the furnace in ~ order to keep a fir. Smoke come out f the drum head. ~ The drue head was acw~.thing like a big waahpot or a big old hogahead barrsl. An ox te~ was used for most all traveling. You did not see very many horses or ailes. wThe white children taught us how to read and I went to school too. ~I wsnt to church too. We did not have a church houa; ~ used a brush arbor tor service for a long ti~. In the winter we ~iilt a big firs in the middle and we sat all around the fire on sz~ l ~pin. logs. Later they built a log churoh,ao we had service in there ror ysara. wie did not live near a school, so old aiatreu and the childrsn taught us how to read and write and count. I never went to school in ~ lit. and I bet you, can t none of these children that rub their heads on college walls beat me reading and counting. You call one and ask them to divide ninety nine cows and one bob tailed bull by two, and they can t answer it to save their li~ea without a pencil and paper end two hours fi~ring when it s nothing to say tm.t fifty. Wasn t no cook ato~ea end heaters until about 1890 or 1900. If thsrs was I did not know about th. They cooked on fireplace end tirs out in the yard

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.5. . 103 on ~at they called ovin and vs had plenty of plain grvab. ~ie stole eggs from the big hrn~ae bsceuae we never got any eggs. 0m. custom ot aerrying wae ju8t pack up and g on end livs with itho you wanted to; that is th Negroes didi~I don t know how the white people ~ri.d. This lawful marrying o from the law since men aede law. ~When anybody died evrybody stopped ~rking and moensd and praysd tint il after ~ths burying. ~I can say there j. as imich differenee bstween now and sixty years ego ae it is in c ay and night.

[Interview with Rumple, Casper] 109 104

~ /2~ . 104 .?~/~tL/ ~~ 3060 S Interviewer S. S.Taylor . Pers on Interviewe d fienr~y Banner County ff spital Age? Little Rock, Ark. - ~ ~ ~ ~- ~ - ~ ~ ~ g I was sold the third year of the war for fifteen years old. That would be in 1864. That would make my birthday come in 1849. I must have been 12 year old when the war started and sixteen when Lee surrendered. I was born and raised in Russell County, 01 Virginny. I was sold out of Russell County during the war. 01 Man Menefee refugeed me into Tennessee near Knoxville. They sold me down there to a man named Jim Maddison. He carried me down in Virginxiy near Lynchburg and sold me to Jim Alec Wright.. He was the man I was with in the time of the surrender. Then I was in a town called Liberty. The last time I was sold, I sold for $2,300, -- more than E m worth now. Police were for white folks. Patteroles were for nig.. gers. If they caught niggex~s out without a pass they would whip them. The patteroles were for darkies, police for other people. They run me once, and I ran home. I had a dog at home, and there wasn t no chance them gettin by that dog . They caught me once in Liberty, and Mr s Charlie Crenchaw i John Crenchaw s daughter caine out and made them turn me lo s e. She said, They are our darkies ; turn them loose One of them got after me one night. I ran through a gate and he couldn t get through. Every time I looked around,

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2. I would see through the trees some bu$h or other and think lt was him gaining on me. God knows L I ran myself to death and got home and fel . down on the floor. The slaves weren t expecting nothing. It got out somehow that they were going to give us forty acres and a mule. We ai . went up In town. They asked me who I belonged to and I told them my master was named Banner. One man said, Young man, I would go by my mama s name if I were you . I told him my mother s naine was Banner too. Then he opened a book and told me all the laws. He told me never to go by any name except Banner. That was all the mule they ever give me. V RI started home a year after I got free and made a crop. I had my gear what I had saved on the plantation and went to town to get my mule but there wasn t any mule.~ Before the war you belonged to somebody. After the war you weren t nothin but a nigger. The laws ~f the country were made for the white man. The laws of the North were made for man. Freedom is better than slavery though. I done seed both aides. I seen darkies chained. If a good nigger killed a white overseer, they wouldn t do nothin to him, If he was a bad nigger, they d sell him. They raised niggers to sell; they didn t want to lose them. It was just like a mule killing a man. Yellow niggers didn t sell so well. There weren t so many of them as there are now. Black niggers stood the climate better. At least, everybody thought so. II a woman didn t breed well, she was put in a gang and sold. They married just like they do now but they du t have 105

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~. 3. 1O6~ no 11 cens e Some pe ople say that they done thi s and that thing but it s no such a thing They married jus t like they do now, only they didn t have no license. O . man came out on April 9, 1865, and said, tGeneral Lee s whipped now and darn badly whipped. The war is . The Yankees done got the country. It is all over. Just go home and hide everything you got General 5 army is coming this way and s tealing everything they can get their hands on. But General Le e s army went the other way. tu saw a sack of money setting near the store. I looked around and I didn t see nobody. So I took it and carried it home. Then I hid it. I heard in town that Jeff Davis was dead and his money was no good. I took out some of the money and went to the grocery and bought some bread and handed her five dollar bill. She said, My goodness, Henry, that money la no good; the Yankees have killed it. And I had done gone all over the woods and hid that money out. There wasn t no money. Nobody had anything. I worked for two bits a day. All our money was dead. The Yankees fed the white people with hard tacks (at Liberty, Virginia ) . All around the country, them that dn t have nothin had to go to the commissary) and get hard tacks. I started home. I went to ~ own and rambled all around but there wasn t nothin for me. I ias set free in April. About nine clock in the morning when we went to see what work we would do ol man Wright called us all up and told us to come together. Then he told us we were free. I couldn t get nothin to do; so I jus stayed on and made a crops

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30808 . 1o~ Intervl.wr lilas Irns Robrtaon ~ Peraon interviewed~~ John~L L Barn.fl, Marienna Arloensas ~ .~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .~ - I was born at C1int~n Pariah, Louisiana. I m elghty.-one yeara old. My parents and four children was aold and left SIX children behind. They kept the oldest children, In that way I was aold but sever alone Our family was divided and that brought griet to my parente. We waa sold on a block at New Orleans. J. ~ Gambol (Gamble?) In north Louisiana bought us. After freedom I seen all but one of our family. I don t recollect why that was. For three ieeks steady after the surrender people was passing from th War and tor two years off end on eorr~body ccme along going h~. &~ rod~e and s i~ had a cane or stick walking, ~ Mother was cooking a pot ot shoulder meat. Them blue soldiers oc~ by and et it up. I didii t get any I know that They cleaned us out Father wa~ born at Eastern ~ore Maryland. Ko was about halt Thdian. Mother a mother was a squaw. I m more Indian than Nefgro. Father said it was a white Insu s war. He didn t go to war. Mother was very dark. Be spoke a brokeu tcn~u . *1. worked on after freedom for the man we was oined by. We worked crops and patches. I didn t see rm~ch difference then. I see a big changs acme out of lt. We had to work. The work didn t slacken a bit. I never owned land btit my rather owned eighty acres in Drew County. I don t know what become o~ lt. I worked on the railroad section, laid croastlea, worked in stave mills. I farmed a whole 1~t all along. I hauled and cut wood.

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I get ten dollars and I aell~ eaaaafraa and little thinge along to help out. My wife died0 My two eons left juat betore the World War. I never hear trcm them. I married aince then. Present t1ii~a...I can t figure it out. Seems like a stamped.. Not imich work to do. If I was young I reckon I could tind something to do. Pre sent generation--Seem like they are more united. The old ones have to teach the young ones what to do. They don t listen all the tim. The t imea is arLge. People a children don t do them much good ziow ae~na like. They waste moat all they make ao~ way. They don t make it r.gu.lar like ~. did fanning. The woxk waan t regular faraing but Saturday was ration day and we got that.~ 2. 108

[Interview with Barnett, Josephine Ann] 114 109

109 304.51 ~ ~ ~ ~BB~b.rt~on ~ J ~ Person intorviswd . . . .~ ~ ~ ~Pr~tt ~ ~ riJ.D,., 1~ Talla Bluff, Arkansas ~ ~ .1 do not ~ow~ ~y .~ot a. I jud I ec~~ ~ batwssn ?5 and 80 ysars old. I was born clos to G.rmanto~, ~nnossss. P. belong, that is ~7 ~thsr, to Phi lip MoNeill and ~lly MoNsill. My mother ~s a nilk.r. Re had a whole besp of hog., catti and stock. That not all my mother done. ~t. plows~ Qiild rn dons th ohurnin . Nm. way it all cc~ bout I was the onli..t chU. ~ noth~r had. ala and Miss 8alli. l.tt hr to halp gathsr ths crop and thay brought ~inth.~iggvidtbem. Isstonalitt aboxinthefoototths ~*1w. It had a whit. unbralla str.tohad ovsr it. ~sat big unbralla run in bstwain them. lt was fastansd to tba ~zgg asat. Ihm w. got to Memphis they load.d ths ~ on ths ship. I had a fini ti ecaing. Vhsnw got to3~sksI.ndingw.rod.tohisplaoe intha ~agg. It is 15 miles trou bers ~Ds YaLta &ut~1. In the till n.arly all hi. slav.. ocae out here. Than whn ny aoth.r cc on. Z nsvar sun ny papa att~r I l.ft baCk hc ~ My fath.r belong to ~ston Esok. Es wouldn t ash and Mr. McNeil ~uldn t sail and that how it oc~. NI sister bean fiv or six yasr. old whn I co~ out hsrs to Arkansas. My grandma was a aidwff. ~ie ~s airsady out h.r. li had to o~ with ths first crowd oauss sc wc~n was expct~ ing. I till you it sho was squally tii. This country was will.

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2. 110 It wag different trcm Te~nssase or close to Oermantoun where we ccu~ trou. None of the slaves liked it het they was brmi~t. .Th. war C ~ On direckly aft r w. got hers. Several fewilies had the slaves droYs off to Texas to save them. Ks.p em trcm tollowing the Tankse soldiers right hers at the Bluff oft. I remember eseln them co~ up to the gats. My nother and t* aunts wsnt. His son and c mors men drove em. After frssdcm them what left childern c~ back. I stey.d with ay grandma uhile they gon. I fed the chickens, shslld corn, churned, swept. I dons any little turns they sent ~ to do. One thing I remember happsnsd iten they had a ecri~ close ~ ~ it a~frer been the one on Long Prairie they brOught a young boy shot through his lung to Mr. ~ill1p MaNsill e hou. He was a stranger. He died. I felt so sorry for him. He was right young. H. belong to the Southern army. The Southern army nearly made hie place their headquarters. ~Anothsr thing I rber was a aunt was going thrmigh the country esttin fire to all the cotton. Mr. NcN.ill had his cotton ~ eli ~r ~op w~ aids. That n ist it afii~s. It hern.d ~rs than a wssk big. He burned e~ left at ths gin not 3fr. MCN.ill s. It ~s fun to us children ~*it I know my gr.nd crid and .11 the balenos of the slaves. ~uee they t so~ iris~s ~ney and clothes too when the cotton was 801k TIie slaves hated the Tsnksss. They trsatsd them sa. ~y s having a big tim. They didn t like the slaves. They stsl fris the slaves too. Sous poor folks didn t have slaves. Aft.r frsd~ ~ mothsr c~ back after ~ and c~ hers tf ~ Tails Bluff sud I been hers svsr since. ~&e Tsnkss soldiers had hellt

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shacks and they L~ft them. They would do. &~ was on. room, log, boxed and all sorts. TAsy give us a little to sat to keep us from starvin . It eho was a little bit. too. Ny mother got work about. am. tiret schoolhouse was a colored school. I. had two rooms and, Wo teachers sent do~ from ths North to teach us. If they had a ihite school I didn t know it. They had one later on. I was bout grown. Ni . Proctor end Mies Rice was the first teachers. I. lau~.d bout em. They was rough looking, didn t look like white folks down bers we d been used to. They thought they aho was ~rt. Another teacher coms down her was Mr. Abner. Ihite folks wouldn t have nothin to do with em. w. learned. They learned us the ABC a and to writs. I can read. I learned a hsap of it since I got groin Just trying. They gi~ a start. Ti~s is hard in a way. Prices so high. I flevsr had a hard t1 in ~ylifs. I get $0 a month. It is cauee iq husbsM was a soldier hers at 1~ Talla Bluff. $1 do not vote. I ain t goiner voW. ~I don t biow what to think of tbe young generation. They ars on the road to ruin seems like. I spsakin of the real young folks. They do like they ass the white girls and boys doW. I don t know what to b.o~ of em. The womsn outer stay at home and ist tba n take care of em. The ~omsn ssa like taking all the jobs. The colorsd folks oookin sud asking th. living for their ~n folks. It ain t right ~ to . I don t care how they do. Things ain t got fi~d sines that last ~ i: World t,~J. Itt~

[Interview with Barnett, Lizzie] 117 112

30331 112 hit.rvieisr ~. iIra.RoasB.~ InDs~ ~ PeraorL interviewed u Lizzis ~*et~~ Gonwa~i.Axkan~aa. Age _ ~iO~ T.s)I was born a slave. My old mer~y was a 5 ave before ~. She was owned by my old Mie., Panny 1~nnington, of Nashvifle, Ten-. neesse. I was born on a plantation near there. She is dead now. I shore did love Miss Panny. ~7 Did you have any brother. and sisters, Aunt Liz.?~1 Ihy, law yea, honey, my ~ay end Miss Fanny raised dsy chillun together. Three each, and we was jss like brothers and si.t.ra, .11 played in de seim yard. No, we did not eat together. ~tt~t~ Dey sot us niggers out in de yard to eat, but many a ~SS l es slept with Miss Penny. ~b4 ~r. Pexinington up and took de old..tias onjuaption. i~y asile it T. B. now. My aai~y nursed him and took it trc~ Mi and died befors Mr. Abe Lincoln ever sot her free. ~ ~ have seen hard times, Nies, I shore hays. In dem days when a man owned a plantation end had children end they liked any o~ the littl slave niggers, they were issued out te em just like a horse or cow. ~ Member, honey, when de old-.time war happened between the North and South, The Slavery 1er. It was so long ago I just can mber it. Dey had us niggers scared to death of the Bluejack.ti. One day a man ce~ to Mies Penny s house and took a liking to .

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p E.~it~msuponab1ookan hs say, Howo1di.di.nigg.fl~An eh ~ eaT ~Y. when eh know wsU an good I waa ten. No, he didn t gst I~. ~1t I thought n&y tiae had corn.. ~Yea, airee, I was Mie. J anny a child. Why wouldn t I love her when :i aucked titty from her breast ihen my rnemrny was working in tba field? I ahor did love Mue Fanny. ~ When de nigg.r war vas over and dey didn t fit ~igJit~ any longer, Abs Lincoln sot all de nigger. frs and den got sassinated ter dom it. ~Miaa, you don t know ihat a hard life we elavea had, caue y~ ain t old enough to meaber it. Many a ti I ve heard the ~zll whip. a~flying, and heard the awful oriee of the elavee. The flesh would be cut in great gaps and the rnaggit. trnaoc.$et would get in thee and they would squirm in iiiaery. \\ ~ want you to know I am not an Arkanea. born nigger. I co~ fr~ Penn.... . Be eure to put that down. Z moved to Memphi. .tter Ilias . Fanny died. ~\While I lived in M.iiphie, de Yellow Fever brok out. You hav never seed the 11k.. Zvsrything was under. quar~tins. The folk. died in piles and de coffins was piled ai high as a house. They ~irisd them in trenches, and later they dug graves and burid them. Ibsa they got to looking into thi coffins, they discovered so~ had turnd over in dey coffins and .o~ had clawed dey eyes out and sc~ had gnawed hole. in dey hands. 1~y was b~iried alive ~ Misa, do you believs in ha nts? IOU, if y had been in Ilsmphia del you would. Dsy was je. Paradin de .trets at nits ax4 you d nest ds~ comm at you round de dark corners and all cl houssa evsry. whsr was ha ntsd. I ve seod plenty of eu wid ay own eys, yes, sirs.. 2. 113

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3. Tea, the ti~s wers awtul in Msm~hia endurin the plagu . I~n died lying around and babies ~ioking their brsaets. As soon as the frost cam. and the quarantine was lifted, I cs~e to Conway, 186?. ~it I am a Tennesei.i nigger. ~ ~Ihen I came to Conway ther were few houses to live i~. No depot. I bought this piece of land to ~iild my shanty frcm ~ . 71m Rarkrider tor $25.00. I worked hard for vhit folks and saved my money and had this littli two-room house built ~ud chiansy, and a11 porch end one small windowj. It is about to fail down on me, but lt will last ai long ai I live. At first, I lived and coked under a ~sh 13U?UshJ 7arbor. Cooked on the coals in ~ iron skillit. Hers it is, Nias. ~ Part ob de tine after de nigger war ~civiiJ I lived in Hot Springe. Pr.aident linley had a big resrnation over there and a big hospital for the sick and wounded soldiers. Den de war broke out in cuba end d re was a ~ what de news come ovsr dat de r ~ ~as on. Den when dat war was over and Kinley was tryin to get us nigg.rs a slave pension dey up and sasslnatsd hie. ~ Lftsr Mr. Lincoln sot d. slaves trss,. dey had Northorn teachers dom South and they were called spies and all litt the country. \I don t know zastly how old I ~. J~y say I 100. If Mt~s Penny was livint she could ..ttl. it. ~it I hays had a hard lit . Y.. ~e. Here I is living in my shanty, pendin on my good ihiti neighbors to tied me and no income cspt ay Old ~e ~nsion. Thank God for Mr. Roosevelt. I love my Southern white friends. I se glad the North end South done shook hands and made friends, All I has to do now is sit and look forward to de day when I can nest my old ~ sud Misa lenny in the ~U~ory Land. The ~k God. 114

[Interview with Barnett, Spencer] 120 115

Thtervtswar~ ~ ~Mise Ir.*. Rob.rtsoa Person intevi.wad~s~.r Barfl.tt (~blindJ~ ~oJ4y th!oy.~ 4Z~k~ ~~__81~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I wac born AprU 30, 1856. It was wrots in a old Bibi.. I ~ 81 years old. I waa born 5 ail s from Florsna. Alabama. Th. tolb owned u. was Nancy sud 1~rs Tc~ Jillisas. To my rscolleation thay had John, lillian, and Torn, boys; Jan, Ann, Zaicy, and mmi, girla. In ay Thaily there was 13 children. My parsnta ns Barry and Harri.tt ~rn tt. Mars T c~ Iilliuis had a tsnnin~ yard. Es bought hides this way: Ihsn a fsllow bring kids. h. would tan em thsn givs hie beak half what he brought. Thsn h. work up the rest in shoes, harness, whoop., saddles arid sellthsa. Th i~nal1worksdwidhimsndhe hadafarm. R. ~ raised corn, cotton, wheat, end oats. That .lavry was bad. Mars Tcu Williams wasa t cruel. H. nev.r broke the skin. Nh n the horn blowad th.y bstt.r b in place. Th.y u.d a twisted cowhide whoop. It was wit and tisd, thsn it mortally would hurt. One thing you had to b. in your plea. day nd night. It was ntin . ~znday was visiting dey. EOns man oou~ to dinnsr, h hit a horas wid a rock and rua way. R. inisasd his dinnsr. Es cc beck to dark and want tole Mar. Tc. He didn t whoop him. X was mighty littl whsn that took pleas. ~They worked on Saturday 11k. any othsr day. One ~n fixed out th. rations. It didn t take 1on~ f.r to go git sa. 1~5

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2. 116 .me wc~en plowed like ~n in plow time, Some wogen made rails. Ihm it was cold and raining they spin and wov in th house The ~n cut wood under a shed or side the barn so it knock off the wind. Mars Tom Williams had 12 grown men and women. I was too little to count but I heard my folks call em over by usn~ and number mors times en I got fingers and toes. He would hire em out to work ec~. wihen freedcmt coins on I was on Haikin Lsnkford $impeon plac. It wag 3 or 5 ailes frc tom. They had a big din~sr picnic doss by. It was 4 or 5 day of Au~ist. A lot of soldiers coss by thsre a~d eaid~ You niggers air fr.s. It bout brok up the picnic. The ~dt. folks broke off h~. Them wanted to go back ant, thee didn t struck off gone wild. Miss b~cy and ~. Bob Barntt give all of em stayed sc~ corn end a little money. Thsn h. paid off at the end of the year. Thsn young master went and rented at Dilly Runt place. I. stayed wid him 3 or 4 years then we went to a place he bought. ~m Bo~rnstt cc~ to close to Little Rook. Mars Willi~ started end died on the way in Msm~his. te come on wid ih. family. Otiess they are ail dead now. lieht I know or could find em. To~ never married, He was a soldier. One of the boys did to the war etartsd. My brother toi married Iaivenia Omstsd end lavis ~Stsd marrisd my sister Betsy and Mars Tc~ ~illiems s~ppsd the wcn. ~ ma was a cook for the uhit folks how I cc~ to know so ~oh bout it ~ Boys wore loose shirts till they irns nine or ten ysars old. The shirt oc to thi calf of the l g. Jo belt. Ie had plenty eooa eating. They had a big ~rd.* and plsflty milk. Th y cooked wid the eggs mostly. They would kill a bief

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3. and ha~e a wek ot hog killing. mey would kil . the best th hard st weather that come. The famillea cooked~ at night and on Sunday at ths log cabine. They cook at night for all next day. The old men hauled wood. Wh.i1 I was a little boy I could hear men runnin the alava wid hounds in the ntountairia. Ths lendmen paid paddyrollue to keep track ot elavse. Ks.p em hcme day and night. ~We took tUllIa bout going to white church. We go in washin at ths crek and pit on clean clothee. She learned n~ a prayer. Old miatrese learned me to asy it night I slept up at the houa. I still can say it: Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to k..p If I should die fo I weks I prey the Lord my soul to taks. ~Th. slavee at our places had wheat straw beds. The ihits folks had fine goose feather beds. We had no idle day.. Rad a long ti~ at ~ dinner to rest and rest and water the teams. 8o~tima we fed them. Old DhIStI SSa had two peafowla rooetsd in the Colonial poplar tress. 3h had a pigeon houas and a turkey houas. I recken chicken and goo houas too. When oci~pany come you take em to see the term, the ~rdsn, th nsw Isather things jea made and to see the littl ducks, calvss, and colts. Folks don t care bout seeing that now. Tb.. girls went to Ilorencs to school. &ll I can recoUect is them going off to school and I knowed it we.s Florenes. am. Tankese birned the big hoes.. It was a fine houas. Old mistress m~oved in the overseer a houee. He was a ~iiti ~n. He movsd somewhere l.S. Ph. Yankees iuads raids and took 15 or 20 osirse frc~ her at one tim. They set the tatsr hous afire. They took the corn.

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4. Old mistress cried more en one tim. The Yankees starved out more black faces than white at their stealing. After that ~r it was hard for the slaves to have a shelter end enoug~i eatin that winter. They died in piles bout after that August 1 tole you bout. los Innes was our overseer when the house burned. The Ku flux come to my houas twice. They couldn t get filled up wid water. They scared us to death. I heard a lot of things they done. I don t Tots. I voted once in all my lits to some county officers. ~1 been in Arkansas since lebrusry 5, 1880. 1 come to Little Cypress. I worked tor Mr. Clerk by the month, J . W. Crocton s place, Mr. Kitchen e place. I was brakemen on freight train awhile. I worked on the section. I farmed and worked in the timber. I don t have no children; I never bsn married. I wanted to work by the month all my lit.. I sells mats (shuck mats) i. and I bottom chairs 5O~. The $ocia ~ Welfare gives ~ $10.00. That is lO~ a meal. That wimsn next door boards ~ ~ tabl board -~ for 50 a day. I make all I can outer tust one thing and another.~ (E. is blind ~ cataracts.) lis

[Interview with Barr, Emma] 124 119

.30905 1:19 Interviewer Mi88 Irene Robertson Person interviewed ~nmaBarr~ Madison, Arkan~aa A~e ~ My parent8 belong to two people. Marna was born in Mississippi I think and papa corae from North Carolina. Papa s master was Lark Hi ekerson. Mama was sold from Dr. Ware to Dr. Pope. She was grown when she was sold. She was the mother of twenty-seven children. She had twins three times. Daring the Civil War she was nm from th Yankees and had twins on the road. They died or was born dead and she nearly died. They was buried between twin trees close to Hernando, Mississippi. Her last owner was Dr. Pope, ten miles south of Augusta, Arkansas. I was born there and. raised up three miles south of Aut~usta, Arkansas. ~ ~Yhen mama was sold she left her people in Mississippi but after freedom her sisters, Aunt Mariah and Aunt Mary, come here to mama. Aunt Mariah had no children. aunt Mary had four boys, two girls. She brought her children. Mena said her husband when Dr. Ware owned her was Maxwell but she married my papa after Dr. Pope bought her. Dr. Ware had a fine man he bred his colored house women to. They didn t plough and do heavy work. 11e was hostler, looked after the stock and. got in wood. The women hated him, and the men on the place done as well. They hated hirn too. My papa was a Hickerson. He was a shoemaker and waited on Dr. Pope. Dr. Pope and Miss )~rie was good to my parents and to my auntees when they come out here.

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2. 120 ei am the onliest one of mama s children living. Mama was 8old on the block and cried off I heard them say when they lived at Wares in Miss issippi. Mania was a house girl, Aunt IViary cooked and my oldest sister put fire on the skillet and oven lids. That was her job. Maine was lighter than I am. She had Indian blood in her. One auntee was halt white. She was lighter than I am, had straight hair; the other auntee was real dark. She spun and wove and knit socks. Mama said they had plenty to eat at both hcmes. Dr. Pope was good to her. Mama went to the white folks church to look after the babies. They took the babies and all the little children to church in them days. MSDIa said the preachers told the slaves to be good and bedient. The colored folks would meet up wid one another at preaching saine as the white folks. I heard my suntees say when the Yankees come to the house the mis tress would run give the house women their money and. jewelry axid soon as the Yankees leave they would come get it. That was at ~ares in Mississippi. I heard them talk about slipping off and going to some house on the place and other places too and pray for freedom during the War. They turned an iron pot upside down in the room. I~hen some mens slaves was caught on another man s place he was allowed to whoop them and send them home and they would git another whooping, Some taon wouldn t allow that; they said they would tend to their own slaves. & r~any men had to leave home to go to war times got slack. It was 3~udge Martin that owned my papa before he was fteed. He lived close to Augusta, Arkansas. when he was freed he lived at Dr. Pope s. He was sold in North Carolina. Dr. Pope end 3udge Martin told them they was free. Mama stayed on with Dr. Pope and he paid her. He never did whoop her,

126 121

3. 121 Mama told ins ail this. She died a few years ago. ~he was old. I never heard rauch about the Ku Klux. Mania wae a good speller. I was a good speller at school and she learned with U8. I spelled in i~ebster s Blue Back Speller. We children stayed around home till we married off. I nursed nearly all ray life. Me and my husband rarmed ten years, He died. I don t have a child, I wish I did have a girl. My cousin married us in the church. His name was Andrew Baccus. After my husband died I went to Coffeeville Kansas and nursed an old invalid white woman three years, till she died. I come back here where I was knowed. I m keeping this house for some people gone oft. Part of the house is rented out and I get ~8 and commodities. I been sick with the chills.

[A preacher tells his story.] 127 122

122 Interviewer S. 3. T~ylor Person interviewed Robert Barr __~~iO8_ yest 18th ~3t. Age73~ Little Rock, Ark. OccupationPreachin~ r 2 ~ / ~ ~.. ~ (?~.J - - - _(_(_ ~ ~ _(~)_~_~:1_j_ tu am a minister ~f1 the Gospel. I have been preachixig for the last thirty years. I axa batching here. A man does better to live by himself. Young people got the devil In them now a days . Y~u~ own chi idren t want you around. TI ~ got one grand-daughter that am t never s tood on the floor. Her husband kicked her and hit her and she ain t never been able t stand up since. I got another daughter that ain t thinking about marrying. She just goes from one man to the other. The government gives me a pension. The white folks help nie all along. Before I preached, Ifiddled, danced, shot craps, did anything. . My mother was born in Chickasaw, Mississippi. She was born a slave Old man Barr was her nias ter. She was a Lucy Appelin and she married a Barr. I don t know whether she stood on the floor and married then as they do now or not. They tell me that they jus t gave them to them in those days My mother said that they didnTt know anything about marriage then. They had some sort of a way of doing. Ol~ Massa would call them up and say, You take that man, and go ahead. You are man and wife I don t care whether you liked it or t. You had to go

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2. ahead. I heard em say: Nigger ain t no rnore n a horse or cow. But they got out from under that now. The world Is growing more and more civilized. But when a nigger thinks he Is something, he ain t nothin . White folks got all the laws and regulations In their hands and they can do a they please. You surrender under em and go along and you ar~e all right. I~ they told a woman to go t o a man and she d I dn t they would whip he r You di dn t have your own way. They would make you do what they wanted. They d give you a good beating too. . fl1~y father was born in Mississippi. His name was Simon Barr. My mother and father both lived on the saine plantation. In all groups of people they went by their master s naine. Before she married, my mother s master and mi~tress were Appelins. When she got married - got ready to marry = the white folks agreed to let them go together. XLd Man Barr must have paid something for her According to my mother and father thatt ~ the way it was. She had to leave her master and go with her husband s master. According to my old father ~.nd mother, the Patteroles went and got the niggerswhen they did something wrong. They lived during slave time. They had a rule and government over the colored and there you are. When they caught niggers out, they would beat them. If you d run away, they d go and get you and beat you and put you back. When they d ~et on a nigger and beat him, the colrred folks would holler, I. pray, Massa. They had to have a great war over it, before theyfreed the nigger. The Bible says there is a time for all things. S My mother and father said they got a certain amount when 1~3

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3. they waa freed. I don t know how much lt was. It was only a small amount. After a short tIme lt broke up and they didn t get any more. I get ten dollars pension now and that Is more than they got then. 1 heard Old Brother Page In Mississippi say that the slaves had heard em say they were going to be free. His young mistress heard em say he was going to be free and she walked p and hooked and spit In his face. When freedotn carne, old Massa caine out and told them. II have heard folks talk of buried treasure, I ll bet there s more money under the ground than there is on it They didn t have banks then, and they put their money under the ground. For hundreds of years, there has been money put under the ground. fil heard my mother talk about their dances and frolics then. I never heard her speak of anything else. They di i.n t have much freedom. They couldn t go and come as they pleased. You had to have a script to go and come. Niggers ain t free now You can t do anything ; you got nothin . This whole town be longs to white folks and you can t do nothin If nigger get to have anything, white folks will take it. We raised our own food. We made our own flour. We wove our own cloth. We made our clothes. We made our meal. We made our sorghum cane molasses. Some of them made their shoes, made their own medicine, and went around and doctored on one another. They were more healthy then than they are now. This generation don t live hardly to get forty years old. They don t live long now. 124

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4. 125 I came to Arkan3as about thirty-five years ago. I got right into ditches. The first thing I did was farm. I farmed about ten years. made about ten crops. Mississippi gave you more for your crops the.n Arkansas.

[Interview with Bass, Matilda] 131 126

126 ~~i: ::~o Interviewer Person interviewed Age~~_ fi~Q ~ ~- Mi s. Bernice Bowclen Matilda Basa 1100 Palm Street Pine Bluff, Arkansas Yes ma am, I was eight years old when the Old War ceasted. Honey, I ve lived here twenty years and I don t know what this street is. r was born in Greenville, Mississippi. They took my parents and carried em to Texas to keep em from the Yankees. I think they stayed three years cause I didn t know ein when they come back. I member the Yankees come and took us chillun and the old folks to Vicksburg. I member the old man that seed after the chillun while their parents was gone, he said I was eight when freedc~n come, We didn t know nothin bout our ages--~didn t have nough sense0 My parents come back after surrender and stayed on my owner s place-.4ohxi Scott s place. We had three masters .4hree brothers. I been ~ in Arkansas twenty years--right here. I bought this home. I married my husband tu Mississippi. We farmed.. The Lord uses me as a prophet and after my husband died, the Lord sent rae to Arkansas to tell the people. He called me out o1~ the church. I been out ot the church now thirty-three years. Seems like all they think about in the churches now is money, so the Lord called me out.

[Interview with Beal, Emmett] 132 127

~n ~c~ (~(~ ~ ~ ~J ~ -~I ~$ 1j 1 ~ #655 Interviewer u----. ~~Miaa ~fl~!p~3?it.!on --~--- - ~ P~r8Ofl interviewed ~GttBBa1 Biscoe~Arkanaaa ~ A~s ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~ s. ~ ~ ~ ~ eI was born In Holloman County, Bolivar, Tennessee. Maater Dr. ~Tim May owned my set er fOlks. He had two girls and two boys. I reckon he had a wife b.~t I don t recollect seeing her. Na suckled ~ William May with n~. Ely and Seley and Susie was his children. WI churned for mania in slavery. $h tied a cloth around the top so no flies get in. I better hadn t let no fly get in the churn. She take ~ out to a peach tree and learn me how to keep the flies outen the churn next time. *MBma was Dr. May s cook. We et out the dishes ~it I don t know how ail of em done the ir eating0 They eat at their houses. ~ . May had a good 8iZe bunch of hands, not a big crowd. We had straw beds. Made new ones every su~~r. In that country they didn t low you to beat yo hands up. I heard my folks say that more n one time. ~Dr. May come tole em it was freedom. They could get lend and stay... ail at wanted to. All his old ones kept on wid him. They sharecropped and sonm of them got a third. I recollect him and worked for him. ~The Ku Klux didn t bother none of us. Dr. May wouldn t low them on his place. Mama come out here in 1880. I figured there better land out here and I followed her in 1881. We paid our own ~ys. Seem like the o~era ought to give the slaves something ~it seem like they was mad cause they set us tree. Ma was named Viney May and pa, Nick May.

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2. 128 Pa and four or five brothers was sold in Mamphis. He never seen his brothers no more. They come to Arkansas. Pa and Dr. May went to war. The Yankees drafted pa and he cone back to Dr. May after he fit. H~ got his lip split open in the War. Dr. May cone borne and worked his slaves. He didn t stay long in war. I reckon they had plenty to eat at home They didn t run to the stores every day bout starved to death like I has to do now. Ma said they didn t low the overseers to whoop too much er Dr. May would turn them off. Er horse stomped on my toot eight years ago. I didn t pay it zmxch tention. It didn t hurt. Blood-~p ison come iii it and they took ~ to the horsepital and my leg had to co~ off, (at the knee). Ne have to go back to Africa to vote all the lectiona. Voting brings up more hard feelings. ~

Ex-slaves. 134 129

. 3001j.. 129 Interviewer Pernella Anderson, colored. :2 ~1 ~SLAV~ Yes I was born In slavery time. I was born September 2, 1862 in the field unbr a tree. I don t know nothing abou~t slavery. I was too young to remember anything about slavery. But I tell you this much, times ain t like they used. to be. There was easy living back in the 18 hur~ired years. People wore homemade clothes, what I mean homespun and lowell clothes. My ma spun and weaved all of her cloth. We wore our dresses down to our ankles in length and. my dresses was called mother hiib~ards. The skirts had about three yards circumference and we wore plenty of clothes under our dress. We did not go necked like these folks 4o now. Folk did not know how we was made. We did not show our shape, we did not disgrace ou.rself back in 1800. We wore our hair wrapped and head rags tied. on our head. I went barefooted until I was a youxi~ missie then I wore shoes in the winter but I still went barefooted in the summer. My papa was a shoemaker sO he made our shoes. We raised everything that we ate when I was a chap. Vie ate a plenty. We raised plenty of whippowell peas. Th~t was the only kind of peas there was then. We raised plenty Modie sweet potatoes they call them nigger chokers now. We had. cows so we had plenty of milk arid butter. we cooked on tk~ fireplace. The first stove I cooked on was a white woman s stove, that was 1890. I never chanced to go to school because wI~re we lived there wasn t no school. I worked all of t1~ time. In fact that was all we knew. White people did not see where negroes needed any learning sO we had to work. We lived on a place with some white people by the naine of Dunn. They were good people but they taken all that was made because we did not know. I ain t never been sick in my life and I have never had a doctor in my life. I am in good health now. We traveled horseback in the years of 1800. ~Ve did. not ride straddle the horse s back we rode sideways. The old. folks wore their dreses dragging the ground. We chaps

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called everybody old. that married. We respected them because t~iey was considered as being old.. ~1me has made a change. ~-Dina Beard, Douglas Addition. 130

[Interview with Beck, Annie] 136 131

) ~ ~.) 131 ~ Interviewer Misa IreneRobertson Person interviewed -. ~ Annj. Beck, Iest~ M~n~hi~ ~i ~ansaa Age~~~~5Q ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .. ~ - I was born in Mia8is ippi, Mama was born in Alabama and sold to Kolec~b, Misaissippi. Her owner was Master Beard. ~.e was a field woman. They took her in a sta~e . coach. Their owner wanted to keep it a secret about fredom. ~t he had a brother that fussed with him all the time and he told the slaves they was all free. Main~ said they was pretty good always to he~r for it to be slavery, ~t papa said his owners wasn t so good to him. ~e was sold in Rich~. mond, Virginia to Master Thomas at Grenada, Itiasissippi. fle was a plain farming aen.~

[Interview with Beckwith, J.H.] 137 132

#783 Interviewer Bernice Bowden Person interviewed J. H. Beckwith ~ N~ith~pnice Stre et Pine Blii?T, Arkaiisas Age 68 No zna m I was not born in the tine of slavery. I was sixty eight last Friday. I was born November 18, 1870 in Johnson - ounty, North Carolina. lAy mothe r was born in Ge o rgia and. he r name was Grac le Baru.rn. Father was born in North Carolina. His name was Rufus Beckwith. He belonged to Doctor Beckwith ~ and rnot~ r, I think, belonged to Tom Barum. Barurn was just an ordi- nary farmer. He was just a second or third class farmer - - just pcor white folks. I think my mot~r was the only slave he own&.. My father had. to walk seven miles every Saturday ni~t to see my mother, and be back before sunrise Mnday. My parents had at least three or four children born in slavery. I know my father said he worked at night and made shoes for his family. 1~t father was a mulatto He had a negro mother and a white father. He had. a mechanical talent. He seemed to be somewhat of a genius. He had a pro- iuctlve mind. He could do blacksmithing, carpenter work, brick work and shoe work. Father was marrl&. twice. He raised ten children by each wife. I think my mother had fifteen children and I was the the thirteenth child. I ein the only boy among the first set, called to the ministry. And there was one in second set. Father learned to read and write after freedom. After freedom he seit my oldest brother and sister to Hampton, Virginia and they were graduated from Hampton Institute and later taught school. They were graduated from the same s~h~ol Booker T. Washington was. He got his idea of vocational education there. the 132

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-2- I haven t had much education. I went as far as the eighth grade. The biggest edu~cation~ I have had was in the Conference. 1 joined the Little i~OCk General Conference at Texarkana in 1914. was the Viethodi st Episcopal north and I was ordained as a deacon and an elder by white bishops. Th~ in 1930 I joined the African ~ethodiet. By trade I am a carpenter and bricklayer. I served an apprentice under my father and under a German contractor. - TI used to be called the best negro journeyman carpenter between iAonroe, Louisiana and Little Rock, Arkansas. HI made qaite a success in my trade. I have a couple ci United States Patent Rights. One is a brick mold ho1dir~ ten bricks and used to make bricks of concrete. The other is a s1idin~ door. (See attached drawings) I was In the mercantile business two and one-half years in Sevier (ounty. I sold that because it was too confining and returned to the carpenter s trade. I still practice my trade some now. 1 have not had to ask help from anyone. I have helpel my home and I sentj my daughter to Fiak University where she ~hi1e there she met a youxig man and they were later married Chicago. They own their home and are doing well. Iii my work in the ministry I am trying to teach my people to have higher ideals. ~Ye have to bring our race to that high ideal of race integrity. I am trying to keep the negro from thinking he is hated by the upper class of white people. ~hat the negro needs is self consciousness to the extent that he aspires to the higher principles in order to stand on a i equal plane In attainment but not in a social way. At present, the negro s ithals are too low for him to visualize the evils Involved in race ~ixtare. He neecis to be lifted in his Own estimation and This I at er others. I Own was graduated. and now live in 133

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P LAC E H O L D E R

[Interview with Beel, Enoch] 140 135

:~~ ~::~ 135 Intervi.w.z~ Mie I~sns Robsrtaon __J___I-_ S U -~ ~ ~ ~ __ - - -.__~_~____s-._ ~ _-- ~-. Psrion nte~i.wsd~Be~t~Gr pn ~oy~ ~ar~pn~ Ar~c8I1~y Ag L~j~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t~ Tes aaem I was iorn a slave i,orn in elavery tian. i wer torn in Kardnian County, Texineuse. My oin daddy .aa a Union eoldler and sy mama was a cook tsr the mletrsee. We belonged to Mies Viney and Dr. 11m Haie. My daddy drawed a peneton fer bein a ioldier till he dis. He went oft to wal t on some men he know. Then he ~et 8OEM I~fl Wanted him to join the a~. Thy said then he git paid azxd get a bounty. No a~ he never got a rd cent. He cc~ back broke as he went off. He eay hs turned loose aoon as he could and mustered out and let them right now. * He had no time to ax em no qusetions. That what he eaidZ We etayed on that place till. I was big nut to do a daye work. W. had no other placs to gc. There was plenty land and no stock. Kouase to atay in got scaro . If. a tem ~ had a place to stay at ~hsn that war snded hs cot~nted hiseelf lucky I t~U you. H4p oi black sri white jea i amlin round through the woods an over the roada huntin a little to eat or a little sumpin to do. If you stay in the field workin about puttin back the fences an round yo own house you wouldn t be hurt. ~~The L~ Kluxea war not huntin ~rk theireelvee. They was keepin order at the gatherine and down the public roads. Folks had co~ toted off all the folks made in the crop. till they don t call nuthin atsalin.

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2. 136 They whooped em and nude em ride on rails. I don t know a . . the csr~ ringe on did take place. I aho would been scarsd it I seed s~ comm to me. We left ~. ~as and went to Grain, Thnneseee. I had three aisters and halt-brothers. I don t remember how many, some lead. I faraed all my lite. :~v.rybody said the land was 80 much better and newer out in Arkansas. Then I married I com to Pcniberlin and worked fer Sam ~.rdnne bout twelve years. Then I rented trcm J~im Hicks at England. I rented trc~ one of the Cariley boys and Jim Neelam. Then I very tust com here I worked at Helena on a farm one year. When I got my leg taken off it coat bout all I ever had cumlated. I lives on my sister s place. Henry Bratoher s wife out at Green GrOve. The Welifare give me $ cause I caint get bout. I don t know bout the ti~s. It is eo unsettled. Polka went work ceint get it and some won t work that could. You caint get help so you can make a crop of your own no more, ter eomtimes is close. ~

[Interview with Belle, Sophie D.] 142 137

3(\c.~4)3 13~~ t Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed So~phie D. ~lle~ F~restCi1~ Arkansas ~e~ ~._7Y~ I was born near Knoxville, Oeor~ia. Liy mother was a professional Pastry cook. ~hc was a house woman du~rin~ slavery. She was owned by Lewis Hicks and Ann Hicks. They had Saluda, r~Iary, Lewis, and Oscar. . Llother was never sold. Mr. Hicks reared her. She was three.$ourths indian. Her father was George Hicks. Gordon carried him to Texas. Mr~ Bob Gordon was raean. He asked I~r. hicks to kee; mother and auntie while he \~ent to Texas. Mr. Gordon was so mean. Liy iaother had two little girls but r~iy sister died while ~.all. ?tI never ~iV1 ~my one sold. I never saw a soLlier. ~~it I noticed the ~ro~in peopi~ Wh1Sp5i~ifl~ rLafly times. Liother explained it to me, they had some news from the Vlar. Aunt 1Tane said she saw them pass in ~ I sard her say, Did you see the soldiers pass early this morning? I was asleep. ~ornetthes I was out at play ~4hen they passed. Master Hicks called us all up at dinner one day to the big house. He told us, You are free as I am. I never had ~vorked any then. No, they cried and went on to their homes. ~nt ~ane was bad to speak out, she was so uuch Indian. She had three children. She went to another place to live. ~Jhe was in search of her husbai~d Lnd tIiou~t h9 niait be there at FLb. ~Talley. .iother stayed on another year. Mr. Hicks ~ ~as ~ood to us. None of the children ever worked till they was ten or twelve years old.

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He had a lot of slaves and about twenty five children on the place crowing, He had just a bi~ p1an~ation. He had a special cook, ~int Mariah, to cook for the field hands. They eat like he did. Master Hicks would examine the jr buckets and a great bi g split basket If they didn t have enough to eat he i~ould have her cook more and send to them. They had nice victuals to ~at. He had a bell to ring for ai . the children to be put to bed ~t sundown and they slept late He said Let thera crow. Their diet ~ias milk and. bread ~id eggs. ~ie had dack e~s, ~iiinea eggs, goose eggs, and. turkey eggs. I don t know ~vhat all the slaves had but mother had feather beds. They saved all kind of feathers to make pillows and bed and chair cushions. ~e always had Lt pet pi~ about our place. Master Hicks kept a drove of pea fowls. He had cows, goats, sheep. We children loved the lambs. elvira ~attended to the milk. She had s~e of the ~irls and boys to rilik, Uncle Dick, mother s brother, was Mr. hicks coachman. He v~as raised on the ~~iaCe too. ni think Liaster lUcks and his family ~as French, but, though they were ii~ht ~k1~ people0 They had 1i~t hair too, I think. One day a Frenchman (white) that ~as~a doctor corne to call. Uy Aunt Jane said to me, He is your papa. That is your iJapa. I saw hi~ many tir~es after that. I eia considered e~it~ninth white race. On~ little girl u:) at the courthouse asked ne a cjLiestion arid I told her she was too young to know about such sin. (This ~irl ~as twenty~four years old. and the case ~ke s steno~rapher.) Liaster Hicks had Uncle ?atrick bury his silver and sold in the woods. It w:4s in a trunk. The ~~air and hide ~as ~tjli on the trunk when the iiar ceased. He used his raor~ey to pa~ the slaves that worked on his place after 7reedom. 2. 138

144 139

3. 139 I went to school to a white ma~ from Yanuary till May and mother paid him one dollar a month tuition. After I married I went to school three terms. I married q~uite young. Everyone did that far back. I married at Aunt Jane s home. We ~ot married and had dinner at one or two o clock. Very quiet. Only a fev~ friends and ray relatives. I wore a ~reen wool traveling dress. It ~~as trix~med in black velvet and black beads. I married hi a hat. ~t about seven o clock ~ went to my husband s home at Perry, Geor~,ia. he owned a new buggy. We i ode thirty miles. ~de had a colorod riinister to marry us. He via~i a ~~inter ~d ~t fine ~rovider. LIC u~ed. I nad iio ciiilaren. I caiae to ~orrest City 1874. There was three dry~oods and grocery stores aiid two saloons here~five stores in aU. I corae alone. ~iint Jane and Uncle Sol had migrated here. L y mother come with me. There was one railroad tiirou~h here. I be1on~ to the Baptist church. I i~iarried the second tiue at L~usko~ee, Oklaho~ia. L~y husband lived out there. He was Indian-~frican. He ~ias a Baptist minister. ~e never l~ud any children. I never h~d ~ child. They tell i~ie no~ if I had married dark mex~ I ~ ou1d ~~iaybe had children. I marriei very 1i~h~t men both -~ ir:~e. ~I washed and ironed, cooked arid ke;t house. I sewed ~or the public, b1~ick and white. I washed and ironed for Lii s. Grahari at Crockettsville t~nt::~thrae years and tli ee months. I irtheriied a home here. Owned a home ~Lere in Forrest City once. I live with my cousin here. He uses that hou$e for hi~ study. He is a ~a;tist rainister. (The church is in front of t~eir home~ ~a very nice new brick church ~ ed.) Pm blind nov; or I could stjli sew, wash and iron some maybe,

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40 1410 ni ~et eight dollars from the Social Welfare. I do my own cooking in the kitcheii, I am seventy~seven years old. I try to live as good as my a~e4 E~very year I try to live a little better, t little sweeter as the years go by.

[Made own cloth.] 146 141

30837 ~ 1-4:1 Interviewer ~ ~ Peraon Interviewed Cynis Be1Lii~ ~ - :t52o ~1aski Streit,~ Little Rock, Arkansas 7(/(~~/~. ~t ~ ~ ~ ~ I ~ ~ ~ ~ RI was born in Mississippi in 1865 in ~efterson County. It was on the tenth of March. My father s n~ne was Cyrus Bellus, the saine as mine. My mother s name was Matilda Bellus. My father s master was ~vid Hunt. My father and mother both belonged to him. They had the same master. I don t know the na~s of my grandfather and mother. I think they were Jordans. No, I know my graM- mother a n~ne was Annie Hall, end my grandfather s name was Stephen Hall. Those were my mother s grandparents. My father s father was named lohn Major and hi8 mother was named Dinah Major. They belonged to the Hunts. I - don t know why the names was different I guess he waan t their tiret master. ~ Slave $ales, Whippings, Work I have heard my tolke talk about how they were traded oft and how they used to have to work. Their master wouldn t allow them to whip his hands. No, it was the mistress that wouldn t allow them to be whipped. They had hot words about that scmetii~e. ~The slaves had to weave cotton and knit sox. Sometimes they would work all night, weaving cloth, and spinning thread. The spinning would be done tiret. They would make cloth for all the handa on the place. RThey used to have tanning vats to make shoes with too. Old master didn t 1~now what it was to buy shoes. Had a man there to make them.

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My father and mother were bOth field hande. They didn t weave or spin. My grandmother on my mother s aide did that. They were aupposed to pick-the maxi, tour hundred pounds of cotton, and the woman three hundred. Arid that was gittin some cotton. Lt they didn t come up to the taak, they was took out and give a whipping. The overseer would do the thrashing. The old mistress and master wouldn t agree on that whipping. Fun The slaves were allowed to get out and have the ir tun and play and musement for so many hours Out side of those hours they had to be found In their house. They had to use fiddles. They had dancing just like the boys do now. They had lcnockin and rasslin and all such like now. Church So far as serving God was concerned, they had to take a kettle and ~ turn lt down bottom upward and then old master couldn t hear the einging and prayin I don t know just how they turned the kettle to keep the noise frcm goin out. Th.tt I heard my father and mother say they did it. The kettle would be on the inside of the cabin, not on the outside. house, Furniture, Food The slaves lived in log houses instead of ones like now with weathers.. boarding. The two ends duffed in. They always had them so they would hold a nice family. Never had any partitions to make roc~a. It was just a straight long house with one window and one door. Provisions were weighed out to them. They were allowed four pounds of meat and a peck of meal for each working person. 2. 142

148 143

3. They only provided for the working folks. If I had eight in a family, I would juat get the same amount. There was no provlslona tor child. ren, *But all ihe children on the place were given something trcm the big house, The working folks ate their breakfast before daylight in the log cabin where they lived, They ate their aupper at home too. They wae allowed to get back home by seven or eight o clock. The slaves on my place never ate together. I don t know anything about that kind of feeding. wThey had nurses, old folka that weren t able to pork any longer. All the children would go to the same place to be cared for and the old people would look after them. They waan t able to work, you know. They ted the children during the day. How Preedcm Canm My father and mother and grandmother said the overseer told them that ~ they were tree, I g~eaa that was in 1865, the same year I was born. The overaeer told them that they didn t have any owner now. They waa free folks. The boas man told them too--had them to ccme up to the big hous and told them they had to look out for themselves now becauee they were free aa he waa. Right After the War Right after emancipation, my folka were freed. The bosa man told them they could work by the day or sharecrop or they could work by groupe. A group of folks could go together arid work and the boas r~n would pay thm 80 much a day. I believe they worked for him a good while- about seven or eight years at least. They was in one ott the groupa. 1.3

149 144

Earliest Recollections My own earliest recollections was of picking cotton In one of those squads..-.the groupa I was telling you about After that the people got to renting land and renting stock for themselves They sharecropped then. It seems to me that everybody was satisfied. I don t r~nember any one saying that he was cheated or beat out of anything. Schooling We had a public school to open in ~ efferson County, Mississippi. We called it Dobbins Bridge. There ~a a bridge about a mile long built across the creek. We had two colored women for teachers. Their n~es was Mary Howard and Hester Harris. They only used two teachers in that school. I attended there three years to those same two w~n~ We had a large family and I q,uit to help take care of it. Ku Klux I don t think there was much disturbance trcm the Ku Klux on that plantation. The colored folks didn t take mi.~ch part in politics. ~ Later Life I stopped school and went to *ork for good at about fifteen years. I worked at the field on that same plantation I told you about. I worked there for just about ten years. Then I farn~ at the sa~ place on shams, I stayed there till I was bout twenty-aix years old. Then I moved to Wilderness Place in the Cotton Belt in Mississippi. I farmed there tor two years. I farmed around Greeixvifle, Mississippi for a while. Then I left Greenville and oan~ to Arkansas. I came straight to Little Rook. 4. 144

150 145

5. The first thing I did I went into the lumber grading. I wasn t traind to it, but I went into it at the request of the z~n who employed ~. I stayed in that eight years. I learned the lumber grading and checking. Checking is seeing the size and width and length and kind ot lumber and seeing how xmich of it there is in a car without taking it out, you know. I married about 1932. My wite is dead. We ne~er had any children. ni haven t worked any now In five years. I have been to the hospital. in the east end. I ~et old age assiatance.~eight dollars sud c~ntnoditiea.R

[Interview with Benford, Bob] 151 146

%~N~ - ~ . ~ . ~ I F~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ; ~ ~ .~ ~ j ~ .~ ,-~t ~. ~ ~4 .~ Interviewer ae w~en Person interviewed Bob Benford 209 N. Maple Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Slavery 4ime folks? Here s one of em. Near as I can get at It, I se seventy- nine I was born In Alabama. My white folks said I corne from Perry County, Alabama, but I come here to this Arkansas country when I was sniall, My old master was Thu Ad Benford. He was good to us. I m goin to tell you we was better ott then. than now. Yes raa am, they treated US right. We didn t have to worry bout payin the doctor and had plenty to eat. 01 recollect the shoemaker come and measured uiy feet and directly he d bring me old red russet shoes. I thought they was the prettiest things I ever saw in my life. Old mistress would say, Ccm.e on here, you little niggers and she d sprinki e sugar on. the neat block and d just lick ~ sugar, I remember the soldiers good, had on blue suits with brass buttons, I se big enough to ride old master s hoes to water. He d say, Now, Bob, don t you r~n that hoss but when I got out of sight, I was bound to run that hose a little, nI didn t have to work, just stayed in the house with my mazinny. ~he a seamstress. l in tellin you the truth now. I can tell lt at night as as daytln~, We lived in Union County. Old master had a lot of hands, Old mistress name was M188 Saille Benford. She just as good as she could be. She d come out to the quartera to see how we was gettin along.

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2. I d be so ~Iad when Christmas oon~. We d have hog kuhn and I d get the bladders and blow em up to make noise you know, Yes lady, we d have a time, NI recollect when Marss Tirn broke up and went to Pexas. Stayed there bout a year and come back. When the war was over I recollect they said we was free but I didn t know what that mean. I was always free . After freedom meminy stayed there on the place and worked on the shares, I don t know nothin bout my father, They said he was a white man. I remember I was out in the field with mazmny and had a old mule. I punched him with a stick and he come back with them hoofs and kicked me right in the jaw ~ knocked me dead. Lord, lady, I had to eat mush till I don t 1 ike imish today. That was old Moss ~ he was a saddle mule. Me? I ain t b en to school a day in my life. It I had a chance t~ go I didn t know it I had to help mammy work. I recollect one time when she * Wa8 sick I got into e. fight and she cried and said, That s the way you does my child and I know she died. next week. After that I worked here and there. ~ I remember the first man I worked for was Kinch MolCinney of ~l Dorado. I remember when I was just learnin to plow, old taule knew five hundred times more than I did. He was graduated and he learnt me. ni made fifty~-seven crops in my lifetime. Me and Hance Chapman he was my witness when I married we made four bales that year. That was in 1879. HIs father got two bales and Hance and me got twc, I made money every year. Yes ma am, I have made some money in my day. When I moved from Louisiana to Arkansas I sold one hundred eighty acres of land and three hundred head of hogs. I come up here cause my chillun was here and my wife frk~t ~4 ~ 147

153 148

wan~ted to coma here. You know how people will stroll when they get grown~ Lost everything I had, Bought a little farm here and they wouldn t let me raise but two acres of cottoii the last year I farmed and I couldns t make my pa3PfllOflt8 with that. Made me plow up some of the prettiest cotton I ever saw and I never got a cant for lt. Lady, nobody don t know how old people I s treated nowdays. &it l in livin and I thank the Lord. I m so glad the Lord sent you here, lady. I been once a man and twice a child0 You know when you re tellin the truth, you can tell lt all the time. Iflu Klux? The Lord have meroyL In 74 and ?5 saw em but never was bothered by a white man in my life. Never been arrested end never had a lawsuit In my life. I can go down here and talk to these officers any time. Yes ~ I used to vote, Never had no trouble. I don t know what ticket I voted. We just voted for the man we wanted. Used to have colored neu on the grand jury ~ half and half ~ sud then got down to one and then ~ knocked em all out, I never done no public work in my life but when you said farmin you hit me then, Nother thing I never done. I bought two counterpins once in my life on the stalirnents and ain t never bought nothin since that way. Yes ma atri, I got a bait of that staliment buying. That s been forty years ago. ni know one time when I was livin in Louisiana, we had a teacher mined Lrvin Nichols. He taught there seventeen years and one time he passed s~ie ~ihite ladies and. tipped his hat and went on and fore sundown they had him arrested, SOEne of the white men who knew hirn went to court and said what had he done, and they cleared him right away. That was in the 80 s in Marion, Louisiana, in Union Parish. 30 148

[Interview with Bennet, Carrie Bradley Logan] 154 149

:307.57 1.9 ~ nterviewer~~ MissIreneRobert~on Person interviewed Carrie Bradley Lo~ji Bonnet ___~ ~kan~as~ Age?9 plus i: was born not a great piece from Mobile but it was in Mississippi in the country. My mother b long to Mas~ia Tom Logan.. He was a horae trader, He ~ot drowned in 1863-.-~durin of the War, the old war. His wife waa Misa Liza J~ane. They had. several children and some gone from home I jus seed when they be on visits home. The ones at home I can recollect was Tiney, John, Bill, and Alex. I played wid Tiney and nursed Bill and alex was a baby when Massa Torn ~ot drowned. We never knowed how Massa Tori ~ot drowned. They brought him home and buried hini, His horse come home. He had been in the water, water was froze on the saddle. They said it was water soakedb The:r thought he swum the branch. Massa Toni drunk soins, ~1e never did know what did happen. I didn t kno~v rauch bout em, S He had two or three fatailies of slaves0 Ma cooked, washed and ironed for all on the place. She went to the field in busy times. Three ~of the nien drove horses, tended to em. They fed en and curried and sheared era. M~ said Massa Torn sure thought a heap of his ni~gers and fine stock. They d brins in three or four droves of horses and mules, care fer en, take em out sell era. They ~o out and get droves, feed em up till they looked like different from what you see come there, He d sell em in the early part of the year. He did make money. I ~iow he muster. My pa ~ias the 1iead blacksmith on Massa Tom s place, them other raen helped hirn alone.

155 150

2. 150 I heard ma say no better hearted man ever live than 1~1assa Porn if you ketch him sober. He give his men a drink whiskey round every once in awhile. I don t know what Miss Liza ~Tane could do bout it. She never done nothin as ever I knowed.. They sent apples off to the press and all of us diunk much cider when it come home as we could hold and had some long as it lasts. It turn to vinegar. I heard my pa laughing bout the time Massa Torn had the Blue Devils. He was p isoned well as I understood it. It muster been on whiskey and. something else. I never knowed it. His men had to take keer of em. He acted so rauch like he be crazy the~~ laughed bout things he do. He ~ot over it. Old mistress~ we all called her Miss Liza Jane~-.ithooped us when she wanted to. She brush us all out wid the broora, tell us ~o build a play house0 Children made the prettiest kinds of play houses them days. We nade the walls outer bark sometir~ies. ~e jus marked it off on the ground out back of the sraokehouse. we d ride and bring up the cows. we d take the meal to u mill. It ~as the best hoecake bread can be made, It was water ~ound meal. Vie had a plenty to eat, jus cox~rioneatin . ~ie had good cane molasses all the time. The clothes was thin bout all time ceptin when they be new and stubby. ~e ~ot new clothes in the fall of the year. They last till next year. ni never seed Massa Tom whoop nobody. I seen Miss Liza ~Tane turn up the little children s dresses and whoop em with a little switch, and straws, and her hand. She most blister you wid her bare hand. Plenty things we done to get vzhoopin s. 7e leave the bates open; ~ve d run the calves and try to ride em; vie d chunk at the geese One thing that make her so mad was for us to climb up in her fruit trees and bree.k off a limb,

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3. 151 She wouldn t let us be eat Ing the green fruit mo8tly cause it would make us sick. They had plenty trees. ~e had plenty fruit to eat when it was ripe, Liassa Tomt s little colored boys have big ears. He d pull em every time he pass one of ein, He didn t hurt ein but it rni~ht have made their ears stick out. They all had big ears. He never slapped nobody as ever I heard bout. ni don t know how niy parents ~ras sold. I m sure they was sold. Pa s name was ~Tira Bradley (Bradly) . He come from one of the Carolinas, Ma was brought to Mississippi from Georgia. All the name I heard fer her was Ella Lo~axi. When freedom cone on, I heard pa say he thought he stand a chance to find his folks and them to find him if he be called Bradley. 11e did find some of his brothers, eiid ma had s~e of her folks out in Mississippi. They come out here hunting places to do better. They wasn t no 3radleys. I was little and I don t recollect their names, Seem lack one family we called ~~unt Mazidy Thornton. One was Aunt Tillie and Uncle Mack. They wasn t Thornt one I knows that. My folks was black, black as I is. Pa was stocky, gtiinea man. Ma was heap the biggest. She was rawbony and tall. I love to see her wash. She could bend round the easier ever I seed anybody. She could beat the clothe8 in a hurry. She put out big washings, on the bushes sud a cord they wove and on the fences. They had paling fence round the garden. Massa Torn didn t have a big farm. He had a lot of mules and horses at times. They raised some cotton but mostly corn and oats. Miss Liza Jane j left b fore us. ~de all cried when she left. She shut up the house and give the women folks all the keys. Vie lived on what she left there and went on raising more hogs and tending to the cows. We left everything. i~e come to Hernando, Mississippi. Pa farmed up there and run his blacksmith shop on the side. My parents died close to Horn Lake. M~xna was the mother of ten

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4. :152 and I am the mother of eight. I ~ot two living, one here and one in Memphia. I lives wid em and. one niece in i~atchez I live with som~a. I was 8cared to death of the Ku Klux Klan. They conic to our house one nicht and I took my little brother and we crawled under the house and got up in the fireplace. It waa bi~ nough fer us to sit. We went to 8leep. We crawled out next day. We seen tern coming, run behind the house and crawled under there . They knocked about there a pretty good while We told the folks about it. I don t know where they could er been. I forgot it been so long. I was fraider of the Ku Klux Klan den I ever been bout snakes. No snake s bout our house Too many of us ~ I tried to get sc~ne aid when it first corne bout but I quit. My children and my niece take keer er me. I ain t wantin fer nothin but good health I never do feel good. I done wore out. I worked in the field all my life. A heap of dia youn.~ generation is triflin as they can be. They don t ~ half work. Seine do work hard and no pendexice to be put in sonie ein. Course they steal fo dey work. I say some of em work. Times done got so fer head of ins I never speck to ketchS up. I never was scared of horses. I sure is dese autanobiles. I ain t plannin no rides on thorn airplanes. Sure you born I ain t. Polka ain t acting lack they used to. They say so I got all I can get you can do dout. It didn t used to be no 8ich way. Times is heap better but heap of folks is worse an ever folks been before.

[Interview with Benson, George] 158 153

Interviewer Mrs.BerniaeBowden Person lnterviewed~_ aeor~ Benson ~7 ll Quartere, Pine &u~f, Arkansa:s A e 80 ~ Occupation -~ ~ - Cotton 7ai~r ~ - I wa8 here in slavery daye ~ yes ma m, I was here. lVhen I camie here, colored people didn t have their a~ea. The boss man had it After surrender, boss man told me I ought to keep up with my age, It d be a use to ~ so~ day, but I didn t do lt. I member the soldiera would play with n~ when they wasn t on duty. That was ~ the Yankees1 I was born down here on Dr Waters 1. Born right here in Arkansas and ain t been outa Arkansas since I was born. So far as I know, ~. Waters was good to us. I don t know how old I was. I know I used to go to the ~ house with my mother and piddle around. My father jined the Yankees and he died in the army. I old people talkin sayin we was goin to be free You ~ow much sense cause I was down on the river bank and the Yankee e across the river and I said, John, you quit that shoot in I didn t have n~ich senes. nI can remember old men irtaindall had these nigger doge. Had to go up a tree to keep em from bitin you. Dr. Waters would have us take the cotton slid hide it in the swamp to keep the Yankees from burnin it ~it they d find it a~ way. heered the I didn t have was shoot in So you know 153~

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2. Never went to school over two montha In all my goin a. We always lived in a place kinda unhandy to go to school. Pirat teacher I had was named Mr. Bell. I think he was a northrn man. . WAll my life I been farmin ~ still do. Been many a day since I sold a bale a cotton myself. White man does the ginnin and packin AU I do is rai se it I in farxnln on the shares and I think it I raise four bales I ought to have two bales to sell and boss man two bales, but it ain t that ~ way. I voted ever Since I got to be a man groin. That is ~ as long as I could vote You know ~ got so now they won t let you vote I don t think a person is free unless he can vote do you? The way this thing is goin I don t think the white man wants the colored man to have as imich as the white man. When I could vote, I jus voted what they told me to vote. Oh Lord, yea, I voted tor Gartie 4. l as quainted with him I kiiowed his ne~. Le s see Powell Clayton was he one of the presidents? I voted for him. And I voted for McKinley. I think he was the last one I voted fr. ~I been farmin all my life and what have I got? Nothin . Old pension? I may be in glory time I get it and then what would become wife? age of my 154

[Interview with Benton, Kato] 160 155

r ~c~ ~ 155 t Interviewer Mrs. Bernie~e Bowden Persozi interviewed Kato Benton -~ - Creed Taylor Place, Temo Pike Age ~_ ~ __~ Pine Bluff Arkan as nI was born in South Carolina before the War. I alu t no baby. I wa8n t raised here. No ma em, My daddy s name was Chance Ayers and my mammy s name was Mary Ayera. So I guess the white folks was named Ayers. White folks was good to us. Had plenty to eat, plenty to wear, plenty to drink. That was water, Didn t have no whisky. Might a had some but they didn t give us none. Oh, yes ma ezn, I got plenty kin folks. Oh, yes raa am, I wish I was back there but I can t get back. I been here ~ long I likes Arkansas now. My mammy give me away after freedom and I ain t seed her since. ~ie give rae to a colored man and I tell you he was a devil untied. He was so mean I run away to a white man s house. ~xt he caine and got me and nearly beat me to death. Then I run away again and I ain t seed him since. I bad a hard time coniin up in this world but I m livin yet, somehow or others I didn t work in no field much. I washed and ironed and cleaned up the house for the white folks, Yes ma em~ wNo ma ein, I ain t never been married in my life. I been ba chin . I get along so fine and nice without marryin . I never did care anything bout that, I treat the w~en nice-s-speak to em, but just let em pass on by.

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2, 156 I never went to school in my life. Never learned to read or write. If I had went to school, maybe I d know more than I know now. These young folks comm1 on is pretty rough. I don t have nothin to do with em~~they is too rou~x for me. They is a heap wuss than they was in my day~some of em, WI gets along pretty well. The ~e1~are cives ins eight dollars a month0

["Pateroles" bothered father.] 162 157

. ;4 ~ ?6O Interviewer ~wa~s1 8. T~yior Person Interviewed ~amea Bertrand . ~ ____ ~. r-._ ~ ~~--u-_-_ ~.- _ - _ ~.--_- u _ ~ _~S~~ a--u -~-w~ 1501 Maple Street, Little Rock, Arkanaae --~-~ ~-- - ~ - I have heard my rather tell about slavery and about the Ku Klux Klan bunch and about the paterole bunch and things like that. I am elxty-eight yeare old now. Sixty-eight years oldi That would be about five years after the War that I was born. That would be about 1870, wouldn t it? I was born in J~efferson County, Arkansas, near Pine Bluff. My tather 8 name was MacIc Bertrand. My mother s name was Lucretla. Her name iefore she married was Yackson. My rather 8 owners were named Bertranda. I don t know the name of m~y mother s owners. I don t know the names of any of my grandparents. My rather 8 owners were famers, I never saw the old plantation they used to live on. My tather never told me how lt looked. ~xt he told me he wa~ a farmer....that s all, He knew tarmin~. He used to tell me that the alaves worked from sunup till sundown, His overseers were very good to him. They never did whip him. I don t know that he was aver sold. I don t know how he met my mother. Out in the field the man had to pick three hundred pounds of cotton, and the w~nen had to pick two hundred pounds. I used to hear my mother talk about weaving the yarn and making the cloth and making clothes out of the cloth that had been woven, They used to make everything they wore~clothes and socks and shoes. I em the youngest child in the bunch and all the older ones are dead. My mother was the mother of about thirteen children. T~n or more of them

163 158

2. were born In slavery. My mother worked practically ail the time in the house. She was a house worker moatly. My father was bothered by the pateroles. You see they wou1dr~ t let you go about 1f you dldn t have a pasa. Father would often ~et out and go round to 8ee his friends. The pateroles would catch him and lash him a little and let him go. They never would ship him much. My mother s people were good to her. She never did have any complaint about them. ~For aimisement the slaves used to dance and go to balls. Piddle and dancel I never heard my father speak of any other type of ai~aement~ sI don t remember what the old man said about freedom coming. Right after the War, he farn~d. He stayed right on with his master. He left there before I was born and moved up near Pine Bluff where I was born. The place my father was brought up on ~as near Pine Bluff too. It was about twenty miles from Pine Bluff. RI remember hearing him say that the Ku Klux Klan used to co~ to see us at night. ~t father was always orderly and they never had no clue against him. He never was whipped by the Ku Klux. My father never got any schooling. ~ lie never could read or write. He said that they treated him pretty fair though on the farms where he worked after tmed~. As far as he could figure, they didn t cheat him. I never had any personal experience with th Ku Klux. I never did do any sharecropping. I am a shoemaker. I learned my trade trc~ my father. My father was a shoemaker as well as a far~r. He used to tel . ~- that he made shoes for the Negroes and for the old master too in slavery tin~e, RI have lived in Little Rock thirty years. I was born right down here in Pine Bluff like I told you. This is the biggest town...~

164 159

3. :I~59 a little bigger than Pine Bluff. I run around, on the railroad a great deal. So after a while I Just co~ here to this tom and made it my

[Interview with Biggs, Alice] 165 160

~U~1 O ~ ~) k Y -~L t ~ Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson Perso~i Interviewed AliceJ31~s Age Bout7O Holly Gr~pj~ Ark. ~y mother come from Kentucky and my father from Virginia. ~/ That where they born and I born close to Bkhalia, Mi8sissippi. My father was Louis Anthony and mama name Charlotte Anthony. Gran~a and her children was sold in a lump. They wasntt separated. . Grandpa was a waiter on the Confederate side. He never come back. He died in Pennsylvania; another man come back reported that. He was a colored waitin man too, Grandma been dead 49 years now, ~~a was a wash woman and a cook. They liked her. I don t remember my father; he went off with Anthony. They lived close to Nashville, Tennessee. He never come back. Mama lived at Nashville a while. The master they had at the closin of the war was good to grandma and mama. ~ It was Barnie Hardy and Old Miss, all I ever heard her called. They stayed on a while. They liked us. He d run us off if he d had any bother. ttThe Ku Klux never come bout Barnie Hardy s place. em at town not to bother his place. 1 never wanted to vote. I don t know how, I am too old to try tricks new as that now. Honey, I been workin in the fi eld all my life. I m what you call a country nigger. I is a widow just me an my son in He told 160

166 161

2. 1)1 family. Our home is fair. We got two hundred acres of land, one cow and five hogs - pigs and all. The present conditions is kind of strange. With us it is just up- and-down-.hill times. I ain t had no dealins with the young generation. Course my son would tell you about ein, but I can t. He goes out a heap more ani do. 1 don t get no pension. I never signed up. I gets long best I can. ~ . ~ s

[Interview with Billings, Mandy] 167 162

~3osii 1~2 Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed MandyB1~~11ing~a 3101 W. 14th Highiazid Add. Pine Bluff, Ark. Age~~ Now I waa born in 1854. That was in slavery ti~a. That t yi&tiday wa8it? Born iii LOUi8iftUa, In 8parta~om~that waa the county seat. *B111 Otta was my last owner. You see how come rae sold my mother was my grandfather s baby chile and his owner promised not to separate him nary time again. It was in the tinie of~ the Old War. Charles Mc.m Laugb.lin-~..that was my old rnaster....~he ~as ray father and Bill Otts, he bought my mother, and she was sold on that account. Old Master Charle8 wife wouldn t low her to stay. I m tellin lt just like they told it to me. We stayed with Bill Otts till we was free, and after too. My grand- Lbather had to steal me away. My 8tep ather had me ruade over to Bill Otts. You know they didn t have no sheriff in them days--.had a provost marshal. As near as I can come at it, Miss, I was thirteen or fourteen. I know I was eighteen years and four days old when I married. That was in 74, wasn t it? ?2? Well, I knowed I was strikin it kinda close. My white folks lived in town. When they bought my mother, Miss Katie took ins in the house. My mother died dunn of the War -yes ma am. ni member when the bloodhounds used to run em and tree em up. Yea m, niggers used to run away in slavery times. Some of em was treated so mean they couldn t help it,

168 163

Yea ma em, I ye seen the KU Klux. Seen em takin the niggera out and whip em and kick em around. I m talkin bout Ku Iflux. I know bout the patrollera too. Ku Klux cane since freedom but the patroilera was in slavery times. Had to get a pass. I used to hear the nigger8 talkin bout when the patrol .ers got after em and they was close to old master s field they d jump over the fence and say, I m at home now, don t you come in here. - I fam~ed in Louisiana after I was married, but since I been here I mostly washed and ironed. When I worked for the white folks, I ound ~ a cook cause I didn t like to be bound down so tight 01 a Sunday. I been treated ~pretty well. Look like the hardest treatment I had. was my gr~tndfather a, STake Nabors. Look like he hated me cause I was white i-and I couldn t help it. It he d a done the right thing by me, he could of sent me to school. He had stepchillun and sent them to school, but he kep me workin and plowin . 2.

[Interview with Birch, Jane] 169 164

~ ~ /1.: ~ ~ 16x1 Interviewer Miss Irene Robertaon . : \ Person intervlewed ~-- - ~:axI! B1reh~ Brink1ey~4rkansaa ~ ni was three years old when the Yankees come through. I can t recollect a thing about them. Ma told us children if we don t be qulet the Ku Kiuck come take us clean off but I never seed none. When we be working she say if we don t work the grass out pretty soon the Ku Kiuck be taking us out whooping us. So many of us she haveto scare us up to get us to do right. There was fifteen children, nearly all girls. Ma said she had good white :eolks. She was Floy Sellera. 3he belong to Mistress Mary Sellera. She was a widow. Had four boys and a girl. I think we lived in Chester County, South Carolina. I am darky to the bone. Pa was black0 All our family is black. My folksccine to Arkansas when I was so young I jes can t tell nothing about it. We farmed. I lived with r~y husband forty years and never had a child. Blackfolks used to vote more than I believe they do now. The n~n used to feel big to vote. They voted but I don t know how. No rna em, reckon I don t vote 1 The times been changing since I was born and. they going to keep chang.~ ing. Times Is improving. That is all right. ni think the young generation is coming down to destruction. You can t believe a word they speak. I think they do get married some. They bave a colored preacher and have je8 a witness or so at home. Moat of them marry at night. They fuss mongst their8elvea and quit sometimes.

170 165

2. 165 I don t know imich about young folks. Ybu can t believe what they tell you. Soue work and some don t work. Some of theta will steal.

[Interview with Black, Beatrice] 171 166

#~ , I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #650 A Interviewer Miss IreneRobertaon Person Interviewed Beatrice Black) Biscoe~Arkaxisai Age ~ .48L ~ Occupation Storeand ~ loint ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ i~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~. ~. ~ ~ I waa born. below the city pump here in Bi~coe. My husband is a twin and the youngest of thirteen. children. Hi8 twin brother ia ~ living. They axe fifty years old today (Augu~st 6, 1938) His mother lived back and forth with the twine. She died year before last. ~he was so good, She waa ~u~re good to me. She helped raiae my three children. I misses her till this very day. Her naine was Dedonia Black when she died, She said master brought her, her father and mother and two sisters, Martha and Ida, front Brownsville, Tennessee at the coimnencexi~nt of the old war to Memphis in a covered ox wagon, and fran there on a ship to Cavalry Depot at 1~ Valls Bluff. They was all sold. Her father was sold and had to go to Texas. Her mother was sold and had to go back to I~nneasee, and the girls ail sold in Arkansas. Master Mann bought my mother4n-law (Dedonia). She was eighteen years old. They sold them off on Cavalry Depot where the ship landed. They put her up to stand on a barrel and auctioned them off at public auction. Her father got with the soldiers in Texas and went to war. He enlisted and when the war was over he come on hunt of u~y xnother.i in~law. He found her married and had three children. He had some money he made in the war and bought forty acres of land. It was school land ( Government land). She raised all her thirteen children there. They brought grandma back out here with them from Tennessee. They ai . died and buried out here. 166

172 167

~-t) ( 2. My mother~.1n..1aw wa~ married three tin~g. ~he had a slavery husband nair~d Nathan Moseby. Mter he died she married Abe Ware. Then he died. ~ie married Mitchell Black and he died bug before she died, She wa~ ninety two years old when she died end could outdo ~ till not but a few yeara ago. Her strength left her all at once. $he lived on then a f ew years. She always told n~ Master Mann ~ fO1ICE was very good to her. She said she never remembered getting a whooping. But then she was the beat old thing I ever seen in my life. ~he waa really good. One 2tory she tole more than others wa~ : Up at I~s Are country the Yankees come and made them give up their sornething-to~eat. Took and waated together. Drunk up their milk and it turning, (blinky -ed.). She d laugh at that. They kept their grocerisi in holei in the ground. The Yankee. jumped on the colored folk. to make them tell where wa~ their provi.ion. Some of them had to tell where .ome of it was, They was .cared. They didn t tell where it all wai, V~hen they went to ~s Arc and the gates waa closed they had to wait till next day to get their provisions. They had to start early to get back out of the picket. before they closed.

Story told by Boston Blackwell. 173 168

$0314 168 : ~TERVtEW WITh EX-.SIAVES Name of Interviewer BeUlah She wood H~g~ Naine 0fb ~x-S1ave~_ ~ ~ ~.ge98 Residence 320 Plum, North Little Rook story told by Boston Blaokwell Make yourself coi~ifoble, miss. I can t see you much cause my eyes, they is dim. My voice it kinder dim too. I knows ray a~e good. Old Miss, she told me when I got sold ~ Boss, you is 13 - borned Christmas. Be sure to tell your new misses and she put you down in her book. My borned naiae was Pruitt cause I got borned on Robert Pruitt s plantation in Georgia, - Franklin County, Georgia. &~t Blackwell, it my freed name. You see, miss, after my marny got sold down to Au~sta ~ I v;isht I could tell you the man what bought her, I ain t never seed him since, I was sold to go to Arkansas; i~efferson county, arkansas. Then was when old Miss telled me I ~n 13. It was before the Civil liar I come here. The onliest auction of slaves I ever seed ;~as in Lieniphis, coming on to Arkansas. I heerd a girl bid off for ~OO. She was about fifteen, I reckon. I heard a woman a breeding woman, bid off for ~15OO. They alviays brought good money. I m telling you, it was when v~ was coming from Atlanta. Do you v~ant to hear hovi I runned away and jined the Yankees? You know ~braham Lincoln claired freedom in 63, first day of 3~anuary. In October 63 I runned away and went to Pine Bluff to get to the Yankee s.

174 169

I was on the Blaokwell plantation south of Pine B1u~f in 3. They was building a new house; I wanted to feel some putty in my hand. One early morning I cilia a ladder to ~et a little chunk and the overseer man, he seed rue. Here he come, yelling me to ~et down; he gwine whip me cause i se a thie ~, he say. He call a slave boy and tell him cut ten wilier whips; he ~wine wear every one out on ~e. When t s gone to eat breakfas I runs to my cabin and tells my sister fltse leaving this here place ~or ~ood. She cry and say, Overseer man, he kill you. I says, He kill me anyhow. The young boy what cut the whips he named LTerry - he corne along wif me, and we wade the stream for long piece. Heerd the hounds a-howling, getting ready for to chase after us. Then we hide in dark woods. It was cold, frosty weather. Two days and two nichts we traveled. That boy, he so cold and hon~ry, he want to fall out by the way, but I drug him on. when we sets to the Yankee camp all our troubles was over. ~ e gets all the contraband we could eat. ~as they more ii~n aways there? Oh, Lordy, yessum. Hundreds, I reckon. Yessuin, the Yankees feeds all them refugees on contraband. They made me a driver of a team in the quatemasters departriient. I was always keerful to do everything they telled nie. They telled rue I was free when I gets to the Yankee camp, but I couldn t ~o outside much. Yessum, iffen you could get to the Yankee s camp you was rree right now. That old story bout 40 acres and a xwile, it make me laugh. Yessuin, they sure did tell us that, but I never knowed any pusson wflich got it. The officers telled us ~Je would all ~et slave pension. 2. :169

175 170

That just exactly what they tell. They sure did. tell me I would ~et a passel (parcel) o ~ ground to farm. Nothing ever hatched out of that, neither. When I got to Pine Bluff I stayed contraband. When the battle come, Captain L~an1y carried me down to the battle ground and I stay there till fighting was over. I was a soldier that day. No uiri, I didn t shoot no gun nor cannon. I carried water from the river for to put out the fire in the cotton bales what made the breas works. Every tinie the Federates shoot, the cotton, it corne on fire; so after the battle, they transfer me back to quartemaster for driver. Captain Dodridge ~as his name. I served in Little Rock under Captain Haskell. I was swored in for during the war (Boston held up his ri~t hand and repeated the words of al1e~iance). It was on the corner of ~in and Markham street in Little Rock I was swored in. Year of 64. I was 5 feet, 8 inches high. You says did I like living in the army? Yes.. sum, it was IDurty good. Iffen you obeyed themYankee officers they treated you purty good, but iffen youdidn t, they sure went rough on you. You says you wants to know how I live after soldiers all ~o away? Well, firstes thing, I work on the railroad. They was just beginning to come here. I digged pits out, going alone front of where the tracks v~as to go. How much I cet? I ~et ~l.OO a day. You. axes me how it seem to earn money? Lady, I felt like the riehess man iii the world~ I boarded with a white fambly. Always I was a watching for lay slave pension to begin coming. Fore I left the army my captain,. he telled me to file. 3. 170

176 171

My file number, it is 1,115,85?. After I keeped thera papers for so raariy years, white and black folks bofe tolled nie it ain t never corning - my slave pension - and I reckon the chiiren tored up the papers. Lady, that number for rue is filed in Washington. Iffen you go there, see can you get ray pension. After the railroad I went steamboating. First one was a little one; they call her Fort Smith cause she go fram Little Rock to Fort ~ iith. It was funny, too, her captain was n~ne ~inith. Captain Eugene Smith was his naine. lie Tb~as good, but the L~ate was sure rougli. What did I do on that boat? Missy, aas you ever on a river boat? Lordy, they s plenty to do. Never is no time for rest. Load, onload, scrub. Just you do whatever you is told to do and do it rig~at now, and you ll keep outen trouble, on a steamboat, or a railroad, or in the army, or wherever you. is. That s what I knows. Yessum, I reckon they was right smart old masters what didxi t want to let they slaves go after freedom. They hated to turn them loose. J~ust let them work on. Heap of them didn t know freedom corne. I used to hear tell how the govraint had to send soldiers away down in the far back country to make them turn the slaves loose. I can t tell you how all them free niggers .;as living; I was too busy 1ookin~ out for myself. Heaps of them went to farming. They was share croppers. Yessum, miss, them Ku Kluxers ~as turrible, what they done to people. Oh God they was bad. They come sneaking up ~nd runned you outen your house and take everything you had. They ~as rough on the women and chiiren. 4. 171

177 172

People all wanted to stay close by where soldiers was. I sure knowed they was my friend. Lady, lemme tell you the rest about when I runned sway. After peace, I ~ot with my sister. She s the onliest of all my people I ever seed again. She tolled me she v~as skeered all that day, she couldn t i~iork, she shake so bad. She heerd overseer man ~ettin~ ready to chase rae aiid Jerry. He saddle his horse, take his ~un and pistol, bofe. He gwine kill me on sight, but Jerry, he say he brin~ him back, deaci er alive, tied to his horse s tail. But he didn t get us, Ha, lia, E(~. Yankees ~ot us. Now you wants to krio~ about this voting business. I voted for Genral Grant. ~my men corae around and registered you before voting time. It wasn t no trouble to vote thera days; white and black all voted to~ether. All you had to do ~ias tell who you was vote for and they dive you a colored ticket. All the men up had different colored tickets. Iffen you re voting for Grant, you ~et his color. It was easy. Yes Iciarn~ Gd er mighty. They was colored men in orfice, plenty. Colored le~ islaturs, and colored circuit clerks, and colored county clerks. They sure uas some big officers colored in them times. They v~as all my friends. This here used to be a good county, but I tell you it sure is toii~1i now. I think it s wrong exactly wrong that we can t vote now. The Jim Crow lay , it put us out. The Constitu~ tion of the United States, it give us the ri~ht to vote; it made us citizens, it did. 5. 192

178 173

You just keeps on asking about me, lady. I ain t never been axed about niyself in my whole life Now you wants to know after rail roading and steamboating what. They was still work the Yankee army wanted done. The war had been cone for long time. All over every place was bodies buried. They was bringing them to Little Rock to put in Govmint graveyard. They sent me all over the state to help bring them here. L~ajor Forsythe ~as my quarteniaster then. After that c~as done, they put me to work at St. John s hospital. The work I done there liked to ruin rue for life. I cleaned out the water closets. After a while I took down sick from the vaork the scent, you know but I keep on till I get so for gone I cau t stay on my feets no more. A misery ~ot r~e in the chest, rl~ht here, and it been with rae all through life; it with me now. I filed for a pension on this ailment. I never did get it. The Govinint never took care of me like it did some soldiers. They said I was not a listed man; that I ~zas a e aployed man, so I couldn t ~et no pension. ~t I filed, like they told me, I telled you my number, didn t I? 1,115,82?, Boston Blackwell. I give my whole tine to the Govmint for ~any years. W1iite and black bofe always t li1fl~ ne I should have a pension. I stood on the battlefield just like other soldiers. My n~ber is in Washington. ~ajor Forsythe ~~as the one wh~tt signed it, right in his office. I seed hua write it. Then ~Ihat did I do? You always asking rae that. I was low er long time. when I finally ~et up I ~vent to farming ri~Lt here in Pulaski county. Lordy, no, miss, I didn t buy no land. Nothing to buy with, 6. 173

179 174

7. 174 I went share eroppin~ with a white man, Col. Baucum. You. asking me what was the shares? Worked on. halvers. I done all the work and fed. myself. No um, I wasn t married ylt. I took the rheurnatiz in my legs, and got short viinded. Then I was ~ ood for nothing but picking cotton. I kept on with that till my eyes, they ~ot so dim I couldn t see to pick the rows clean. Heap o tirnes I needed medicine ~ heap o times I needed lots of things I never could get. Iffen I could of had some help when I been sick, I mought not be so no account now. My daughter has taked keer of me ever since I not been able to work no more. I never did live in no town; always been a country nigger. I always worked for white folks, nearly. Never mixed up in bi~ crowds of colored; stayed to myself. I never been arrested in my whole life; I never got jailed for nothing. Vihat else you want to know, Miss? About these days, and the you~n~ folks~ Well,. I ain t saying about the young folks; but they -~ no, I wouldn t say. (He eyed a boy working with a saw.) Well, I will say, they don t believe in hard. work. Iffen they can make a living easy, they will. In old days, I ~as young and didn t have nothing to worry about. These days you have to keep studying where you going to ~et enough to eat.

[Drove a "horsepower gin wagon."] 180 175

In tervleuer J~J~_~_ Samuel, 8. ~ __ _~ ~ ~ _ ~ Pei~aon intervIewed Hen~ Blake R~ir ~ i:~6 a~ 5tr.et~ ~ . i~o~4 A~ aa Age ~ Occupatio~i ~ F.a~ A !Rd Junk~ ~en~ ~b1e r ~ ~ ~ ~f ~ ~ l vz ~ ~. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ _ . _ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 0~ RI wac born March 16, 1863, they tell i~. i was born in Arkaneaa ri~t down here on Tenth and Spring Streta in Little Rook. That waa all wood8 then. We children had to go In at night, You could hear the wo . vea and the beara and thinge. We had to make a big fir. at night to keep the wolvee and varmints away. My father W&B a akitfman. He uaed to CIOSB the Lrkanaaa River in a t.rrydm.boat. My father a n wae Doc Blake. And my mother ~ ~ Hannah lilliaina before she married9 My father s mother a n~e wac &~aie ~omathin ; I done forgot. That je too tar back tor ma. My mother e mother was namad &ieie Suaie lilliame. My father e maiter wae namad Jim Paty. My father wae a elavery man. I was too. I ueed to drive a horaspower gin wagon in alav.ry t1i~. ~iat was at Pastoria just this aide of Pine Bluff-. about three or r~r miles this aids. Paty had two p .aoe& ~on. ab~it four miles from Pine Bluff and the other about tour miles frc~ Ingland on the river. ~Whsn I was driving that horsepower gin wagon, I was about seven or eight years old. There wasn t notbin hard about it. Just hitch the il.e to one another e tail and driv. them round end rcmnd. There an t no lines. Just hitch them to one another s tail and t.1l them to git up. You d ~*ill a lever when y wanted them to stop. The nub wasn t hard to mana~. #754 175

181 176

2. 176 Uwe ginned two or three bales of cotton a day. We ginned aLl the auvm~r. It would b. J\ine before ma got that cotton all ginned. Cotton brOUght thirty4ive or forty cents a pound then. 1 wae.treated nicely. My father and mother were too. Others were not treated so well. D~t you know how Negroea la. They would slip off and go out. If they caught them, he would put thai in a log but they had for a jail. If you wanted to be with a woman~ you would have to go to your boss man and ask him and he would let you go. My daddy was sold for five hundred dollars put on the block, up on a atuinp~m..they called lt a block. J im Paty sold him. I forgot the nama of the man he was sold to Jatta, I think lt was. RAfter slavery we had to get In before nig~t too. If you didn t, ~i Klux would drive you in. They would come and visit you anyway. They had sc~thing on that they could pour a lot of water in. They would seem to be drinking the water and lt would all be going In this thing. They was gittin it to water the horses with, and when they got away fran you they would atop and give lt to the hors.a. When he got you good and scared he would drive on away. They would whip you if they would catch you out in the night tl. My daddy had a horse they couldn t catch. It would run right away from 70U, My daddy trained it so that lt would run away from any one who would cci~ near it. Ha would take ma up on that horse and ma would sail away. Those Ku Klux couldn t catch him. They never did catch him. They caught xiiany another one and whipped him. My daddy was a pretty mean man. He carried a ~in and he had shot two or three man. Those were bad timas. I got scard to go out with him. I hated that ~iainss. ~it directly it got over with. It ~t over with ~en a lot of the Ku Klux was killed up.

182 177

3. In slavery time they would raise childrsn just like you would raies colts to a mare or calvea to a cow or pigs to a aow. It waa just a ~iaineea. It was a bad thing. But it waa better than tba county tara. They didn t whip you if you worked. Out there at the county tare, they bust you open. They Ixtat you up till you can t work. There s a lot of people down at ths state farm at CWtP11in8-.~that a where the farm is ain t it-.4hat a raw and bloody. They w~ldn t let you co~ down there and write no history. No Lawdi You better not try it. One halt the world don t know how ths other helf livea. I ll tell you one thing, if thoae Catholice could get control there would be a good tise all over thi8 world. The Catholics are good Thlke. wThat ging that got after you it you let the min go dom whil you ~rs out that a called the Patero ee. 8ci~ folks call em the Ku Klux. It wae all the aeme old poor white traah. They kept up that busin.ae for about t.n yeare after the 1er. They kept it up till folks began to kill up a lot of I em. That a the only thing that stopped then. My daddy uaed to make hi. own bullets. I vs forgot iho it is that told us that w was free 8~body c~ and told UI us rs tree now. I done forgot who it was. BRight after the lai, my father fard a ihile and aftr that he pulled a skiff. You know Jim Lawson s place. He stayed on it t~nty years. lia atayd at the Perguson place about tn years. They re adjoining placs. Hs stayed at ths churchill place. Widow Scott place, th Boj.an place That a all. Hays you ben down in Lrgsnta to the Roundhoues? Churchill a place runs way down to there It wasu t nothing ~it faxa.e in Little Rock then. The river road was the only on there at that tine. It would take a day to ccme down from Ol ar Lake with the cottons

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4. 178 You would start roend about aidnight and you would ~t to Ar~snta at nina o clock the next morning. The roads va. atwaya bad. Attei freedom, ~ workod on eharsa a while. Then w rnted. When ~ worksd on aharse, we c~idn t make nothing~juai overalls and aciithing to eat. Half went to the other man and you wmild deetroy your half if you weren t carotta. A man that didn t know how to count would aiway. lose. Hs might loe anyhow. They didn t give no itemized statem.nt. No, you juet had to take their wo4 mey never give you no detail.. They Just asy you o 80 mich. No matter how good account you kept, you had to go by their account and now, Brother, I m tellin you th truth about thie. It e been that way foi a long tim. You had to take the white man e work on notes and evsry thing. Anything you wanted, you could git if you were a good hand. You could git anything you wanted aa long as you worked. If you didn t meke no money, that a ail right ; they would advance you nxrs. Bit you bettsr not leave him you better not try to leave and get caught. ~.y d keep you in debt. They were 8h8X~. Chriatmae co~, you could take up twenty doilare in 8 flethifl to eat and much ae you wanted in whiakey. You could biy a gillon of whiskey. Anything that kept you a slave becauss he was alwaya right and you were always wrong if there was difference. If there wae an argument, h. would get mad and there would b a shooting take place. And you know how eo~ Negro.. i.. Long aa they could git ac~thin , they didn t cars. You 8.0e if the whit man cerne out behind, h. would teed you, let you hav what you wanted. He d just keep you on, help you get on your feet~that la, if you were a good hand. ~it if you weren t a good hand, he d just let you have enough to keep you alive. A good hand could take care of forty or fifty acrea of land and would have a large f~. Ily. A good hand could git cloth.a, food, ihiskey, whenever he wantd it.

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5. 1~9 My father had nine children and took cars of them. Not all of th.m by on wife. He was married twice. He wa~ marrl.d to one In slavery time and to another after the War. I was a child of the first ones I got a sister still living down here in Galloway station that le mighty nigh nixtety years old. No, ehe nuist be a hundred. Her ne~ is Prances ~bbina. When you git ready to go down there, 1,13. tell you how to find that place Jus 11k. I told you how to fin this one. Galloway is only bout tour milea fr~ Roa City. I been married twice in my lit.. My first woman, she died. The second lady, she is still living. le dissolved friendship In 1913. Iaaat~ wise, I walked out and give her my hos, I used to own a ho~ at t~nty~ first and Pulaski. *1 belong to the ~pti.t Church at Irightaville. I used to belong to Arch Street. las e deacon there for about twelve years. Rtt they had too niioh splittin and goin on and I got out. I ll tell you more sc~ti~. . Thterviewer s C iimnt Henry Blake s age appears in excess of eighty. His idea of seventy~. five is based on what ec~one told him. He le certain that he drove a Horsepower Gin Wagon during ~slavery t1n~s~, and that he was seven or eight when he drove it. Zven if that ~re in 65 he would be at least eighty year. old seventy three years since th War plus seven years of hi. lite. Hi. ra~nner of narration would indicate that he drove earlier. The interview was held in a dark room, and for the first time in my 11f. I took notes without seeing the paper on which I was writing.

Adeline Blakeley as told by: Adeline Blakeley. 185 180

O~LJL.IA~~k) ~ 180 Interviev~er Ma~yD. Hud~ins Person Intervie~\ed Miss ~de1ine Blakeley A~e 87 Ho~ie 101 i~toekStree~, ~1&:ettevi11~ ~rk&nsas. ~riere is no hint of elision in the speech o:r Adeline Blakeley, scarcely a trace of vernacular. All of her life her associations have been v~ith white ~ersons. She occupies a position, rare in ~ost~slavery days, of he~ro servant, coi~fidant and fr~end~. ~fter the death of I.Trs~ Eudgins, family intir~ates, v~ives of physIcians, bt~nkers~ vives and other Fayetteville dowagers continued Deriodically to come to see deline. They c~nie not in the spirit of Lady Bountifuls condescending to a hireling, but because they wanted to chat v.~!th an old tiiae friend. Interviewer s note.

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181 Adeline Blalceley M.D. I-Iud~4ns 2 AS told by: Adeline Blakeley Honey, look in tb~ bible to ~et the dc~te v~Qen I ~ born. e Want to ~ ~ve :I~t just right. Yes, Iiere s the place, reE;d it tO nie. TU13~ 10, 1850 ? Yes, I reiueniber now, t1i~t s i~that they ve a1v;~s tala rue. I wanted to be sure, t1~ou.~i. I was t~orn in i-~icianan County, ~enn. and v~a~: aooi:t a ~.Tear ~hen Lhey brouftht me to Ari:ansa~. ::y inc~t1~er and her ~eop1e had been bou~t by ~r. 3~o1in P. Parks v~ben they v:ere just chi1dreri ~ lohn and Learina and ~.:artha. I w~~s iLe first iIt~1e n~ro in ~he Parks kitchen, Fi~om the first they rL~aae a pet out of iiie. I V)SS little liJce a dofl~nJ they tre~ted iit like a p1eythun~--~-~spoi1ed rae~~-rotten. . L~ter r. Parks c~n~.e to ans~:~ he lived neaL v hat is now Prarie Grove, but v~hat do ~TOU think it ~ called t1en-Iio~ i~ye. Later on they named it I~i1lin~s1ey Lor a ~an ~ho settled tiere. .Ie v~ere tv~o miles out on t-e ~ire Road, t~~e one the te1e~r3ph 1i~ie cure in onh:_oney, L,l~~1ost evo:~r co!ar~1unity had a ~ /ire Rocd .

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3 Adeline Biakeley M.D. Hudgins. It was the oustoni to ive a girl a slave when she was rn~rr1ed~, When Miss Parks became Mrs. Blakeley she moved to Fayetteville and chose nie to take with her. She said since I was only 5 she could raise nie as she wanted. me to be~ But I iriust have been a lot o~ trouble and after she had herbaby she had to send nie back to her father to grow up a little. For you nii~t say she had two babies to tcke care of sInce I was too little to take care of hers. They sent a woman in my place.. Honey, when I got back, I was awfull I had been with the negroes down in the country and. said. thitt and hain t and words like that. Of course all the children in the house took it up from i~.e. Mrs. Blakeley had to teach me to talk right. Your Aunt Nom was born while I was away. I .wa~ too little to tak~ full charge of her, but I could sit in a chair and hold her on my lap. . Mrs. Elakeley taucht her children at home. EIer teaching was almost all they had before they entered the University. When I was little I wanted to learii, learn all I could, but there was a law against teaching a slave to read and frite. One wox~ian-~-~she was from the North did it anyway. But when folks can read and write its going to be found out. It was made pretty hard for that wornan 182

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183 4 ~ Adeline Blakeley Mary D. Hudgins After the war they tried to get rae to learn, but I tossed fly head and wouldn t let them teach me. I was about 15 and thought I was grown and v~ou1thi t need to know any niore. Mary:, ~ sounds funny, but if I had a million dollar I would give it gladly to be able to read and ~vrite letter to my friends. I remeraber well when the v~ar started. Mr. Blakeley, he was a cabin et maker and not very v~e11, was not considered strong enough to go. But if the war ha~i kept up iauch ~ longer they ~ou1d have called him. Mr. Parks didn t believe in seceding. He held out as long as it was safe to do so. If you didn t go with the popular side they called you ttbolitionistt or maybe ? 3ubmissionist . But when ADkansas did. go over he was loyal. He had two sons and a son- 1n~ 1aw in the Confederate army. One fought at Richmond and one was killed at Ge1~rsburg, The little BlakQley boy had always liIce-d to play with the ~xnerican flag. Hetd niarch with it and carry it out on the porch and hang it up But after the trouble began to brewhis mother told hini he vvould have to stay in the house when he played with the flag. Even then somebody saw him and scolded him. and said tEither burn it

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Adeline Blakeley M.D. Hud~4ns or wesh it. The child thought they meant it and he ~ri~ed to v~sh it. fl3re~ ueren t so good in those deys and it ran. terribly. It vas the av~fu1e~t thing you cve~ saw. F~yettevi11e suffe~ed all thru the vvar. You see we~ were not very far from the aividinE line and.both armies were about here a lot. Tue Fe:erals ~~ere in ch&r~e mCst of the time. They bed a Post here, set up breast i~orks and fortified the sc~uare. The court houce v~ss in ti~e ~~iddle of it then, It was fun~~y th&t there vvasn t more real fighting about he~e. ~2herc were several battles but they v~ere more like skirmishes~-~~just a fe~~ men killed each time, ~1hey v~ere terri~b1e just t1~e came. ~t first they buried t:~e Union soldiers where the Confederate ~e~ietery is now. The 3outherners were placedjust any~here. Later on they moved the ITorthern. caskets over to ~here the Pede:~al Cemetery is now and they took up the southern men v~hen they kno v~here t~o find them ~nd placed them over on the 1~ill where they are toclayD Once an officer came i~to o~r home a~d liked a t.able he sv~, CC) he took it0 :.rs. ii3lakeley followed his horse as far a~ she could ple~din~ with hin. to ~ive ~t beck because her husband had nacde it. The next d~y a neighbor returned it. Ee L~id found ft th the road and. recognized it. The ~::an who stole it h&d been killed E~nd ~.rop~ed it as he fell. 184

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6 Adeline Blakeley I~.D. IIUd~1flS t- ~Tust before the Battle of Prarie c~.rove the Fe~era1 A rr~on cenie thru. Some officers stopped and :anted us to cook for them. Paid us vieil, too. One r~en to~k little flora on i~tS lap and almost cried. He said ~he remi~~ded hin of Lis ovth Uttle girl he d may~e ne-ver see again. He ~eve ~er a cute little ..vory handled ~en knife. He asked L~rs. Blakeley if .~e couldn t leave his olstols vIth her until he can~e hack thru F3yetteville. She told him ~t ~va~ askir~ too much, whet v~ou1d happen to her ar~ . ~er family if they found those ~eapons in her possession ? But he ar~ued th~b it ~ only for a few days. Jhe hid them under a tub in the base~ent and after \;aitir~ a : ~e~r ~a e them to her brother \1hen he came thruu~:h. The Yankees ~iet tlLG 3outherners at Pr~rie -~-rove. TI~e shots sou~ced just like t\ - ;0000rfl froni here in Fayetteville. We al\~a3rs though t~e -Lan ~:Ot killed there. ~ The soldiers camped all around everyv~here. Lots or them were in tents and saine of the officers v~ere in houses. they didn t burn the colle~e~- -~here :~i~s sa ~yer had tau~ht, you know. The officers uced it 1~or their l:Lvin~- Quarters. They built barracks. for the men of upright logs. 3- e that building across tbe street. It s been lots of thLn~s, a .~. ivery statle, vet~tnary barn, anartment house. But it ~as one cf The oldest b~i 1n~s in ~.rkansas. They ve kept on re~odelin ~ it. The Yankees made a 185

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1-86 17 . coxnnilssary out of it. Later on they moved the food. up on the squee and. used it for a hospital. I can remember lots of times seeing the feet of dead men sticking out of the vd.ndows~ Your Aunt s mother saved th at build. Ing from being burned. How did it happen ? Well you see both sides were firing buildings~~the Confederates to keep the Yankees from getting them, and the other way about. But the Southerners did most of the burning. Mx s. Blakeleyts little boy was siokwith fever. She and a friend vvent up, because they feared burnings. They sat there almost all night. Parties of men would come along an d they vould plead vvith theme One sat in one doorv~ay and the other I n the building next Mrs. Blakely was I. a Southerner the other w man a Northerner Eet~een them they keDt the bui1d1n~s irom beine burned~ saved their own homes thereby and possibly the lue of the little sick boy, It was like thet in Fayetteville. There were so many folks on both sides and they lived so close ~o~ether that they ~ot to know one another and were friends. Things like this would happen. One day a ~Torthern officer came over to ou.t house to talk to his wife who was visiting~ He said he would be away all day. ~ He was to go do~n to

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i8~ o Adeline Blakeley M.D. HUd~~1n~ Prarie Grove to get Old Man Parks, dead. or alive . Not until he was on his~way did somebody tell him that he v~as talking atout the father of his wife s hostess. Next day he carne over to apoloeize. Said he never v~ou1d have made such a cruel remark if he had known~. But he didn t find his nian. ~s the officers vient i, i the front door, M~ ~ Parks went out of the back end the wanen surrounded hini until he got avvay. There was another time ~hen the North and South took refuge together. During the war even the little children v~ere tsu~ht to listen for bu~ .e calls and Imow what they ia:;ant. 7e had to know- ~- and ~ to act v~ben we heard theia. One day, I reinenib~r we v~ere to have peas for dinner with ham hock and corn . I ~as hungry that day and everything sn~elled so good. But ~ju$t as the peas v~ere p~.rt of thera out of the pot and. in a dish on the tabi e the si gnal c aras ~ To A~ras . Cannon followed alino st ixuinediately. We all ran for the cellar, leaving the food as it v~ias. The cellar v~as dug out only a little way down. It had been raining and. snowing all day-- -~rnelted as it fell. It was about noon and the seep water had fi1I~d. a pool in the middle of the celler. They placed a tub in the water

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g Adeline Blakeley M j~, irud4ns and it floeted like a little boat. They put Nor~ and. a little ~r1 v~ho v~&s visitin~herend ae in it. The grown folk$ clung to the damp sides of the ce1l~r floor and wE~li. After the worst bombing w&s over ~e he~rd someone upstairs in the house calling. it v~as the ~ife of a Iorthern officer. He had ~tten away so fast he h~d forgotten kis pis~o1s. She h~d tried to fcll:v. hirn, but the shots had frightened her. ~Te celled to her to conie to the basement. She carne, but in trying to climb up the slick sides she z~li~ dov~n and. almost thto our tub0 ~he looked so fu~ny ~~ith her bi~ f~t less that I gig~led0 Trs. Ulakeley slapped me-~~ it vvas or~e of the fey. times she struck me. I v~as ~l~d she did, for I v;ould have laughed out. rLd it didn t do to laugh at ulorthernersG It WE~S night be ore the fighting v~as over. fl old man ~ho v~as in the base~nent vJth us v~ent upstairs because he he&~d someone Eroan, sure encu~i e v~ounded iran h~d dragged hi:~self to our door, 11e laid the ~il8fl, almost faintThg dOVvfl before t~e fireplaoe. It was all he cauld do. The man died. ~~hen v~e finally carr~e up there vasn t a pea, nor o bit of 11am, not a crum o!~ cornbre~d1 Flo&ters ~:ad clecne the pot until it shone. ~Ve had a terrible tir.:e bettinL alc:ri~ thiring those years. I don t bel!eve ~e could ja~:e done it exoept ~or the iTorthern soldiers. You mi~ht s~y the Confederacy vas 1~ept up b: privote subscription, but the ~nkeec had the v~hole F ederal government

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:t89~ 10 ~kde1ine Blakeley . M.J~. Eudj~ins. back ot thezu~ They had ~od rations ~Aih1ch were ithued uncooked. They could get them prepared anywhere they IikecL We were ~ood. cooks so that Is the way v~e got our ~ it for so1d~t t~s and. eating it with them.. They had quite a v~rety and a lot of everythi-ng. They were given bacon and coffee and sua:ar and flour and beans and soriithin~ they calIed~ fluxed ve etables . i~hose beans were little and sweet~-~not like t1~e bi~ ones we hav& today. The mixed vegetables were liked by lots of folks~---I didn t care for them. Everything was ground up together and then dried1~. You had to soak it like dried pe~~s before eo~king. After the war they carne to Mrs. Blal:eley, the soldiers aocused her of 1ceepin~ nie aGainst my will. I told them t at I stayed because I wanted to, the Blakeleys were my people. They et me alone, the ~thites did, but the negroes didn t like it. They tried to fight me and. called nie naines. There was a v~ell near the sq~uare from which everybody got water. Between it and our house was a negro cabin. The little negroes would rock nie. I stood lt as long as I could. Then I told Mrs. Blakeley. She said to get some. rooks in luyf3uoket and it they rocked me to heave back. I was a good shot and they ran. Their mother cerne to Mrs. Bkakeley to co::;p1~ain, but she told her, after hearing her thru that I had stood all I could and the only reasoia I

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II Adeline Blakeley M.D. Hudglns .hadntt been seriously hurt ~ because her children werenvt good shots, They never bothered rae again. . It was hard after the war. The Federals stayed on for a long time. Fences were down, houses ~were burned, stock was e~one, but we ~ot a1on~ son~ehow. Mien Nora Blakeley was 14 a lady was teachin a subscription school in the hail across the street-~-~the serne hail Mrs. Blakely had saved from burning0 She wanted Nora to teach. for her. So, child. that she ~ vas)she went over andpretty soon she was teaching lip to the fourth grade. I went over every morning and btilt a fire for her before she arrived. That fall she went over to the University, but the next year ~he had to stay out to earn money. Ihe wanted to finish so badly that we decided to tcke boarders. They would. corne to us from way over on the campus. There were always lots zaore who wanted to stay than we could take. We bought silver and dishes just as v~e could ~ay for thea, and we added to the house in the suinnier time. I used to cook their breakfasts and dinners and pack baskets of luneh for them to take over to the Campus. We had lots of interesting people with us. One was J eff Davie~-later he was governor and then senator. He and. a Creek Indian ~boy named sais Rice were great friends. There were lots of Indians in school a~ th~ University then. They didn~t have so many Indi~~ schools and tribes v~ould make up money and send a bright boy here.

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~ ~ . ~ 19 12 Adeline ~B1ake1ey Hudgina. Ten years after she graduated from the trniversity Nora married harvey M. i ud~ins. They moved to Hot Spr1n~s and finally ran a hotel. it burned the night of Washington s birthday in 1895. It was terrible, ~e saved noth1~.g but the night clothes ~e were in~ Next morni~-~g it i~as worse for we saw small pox flags all over town. Our friends came to our rescue and save us clothes and we vvent with friends out into the country to escape the epidemic, There were tI~ree or four tsmiiies in one little house. It was crowded, but we were all friends ~ so it was nice after all. About ten years before Mr.Hudgins had bui~.t a building in Fayetteville. They used the second floor for au Opera House. When we caaie back here after the fire we took it over to. run. i~tr . Hudgina had that and all the billboards in town. ~e saw all the shows. Several years later the twins, Helen and Wade were born. I alv~ays went to see the shows and took them with me. Folks watched the~i more than the shows. I kept them neat and clean and they were so cute. We saw the circuses too. I rerueniber onceBarnum and Bailey were coming to Fort Smith. We were going down. I didn t tell anybody, but I put ~45 in my purse. I made money then. i~. Hudgins got me a cow and I sold milk and butte~ and. kept ~ll I niade. Why the first evening dress Helen. had and the first long pants Bud ( Wade) riad I bought. Well, we were

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C ~ ~ ~ . :t~2 13 Adellne Blakeley ~.D. nud~ins go1n~ down to IPort Smith, but Bud got sick and ~e couldn t go. You know,. Mary, it seen~ed so queer. when iI~eIeu and I went to California, we all saw the same circus together. Yes, I ve been to California with her twice. Whenever the train would stop she would corne froxn. the pullman to the coach where the colored persons had to ride to see about me. We went out to visit Sister ( Bess Hudgins Clayton) and Bud. While we were there, Barnum and Bailey carne to Los Angeles. It seemed so funny. There we;: were- -~away out in California ~ali the children grown up and off to themselves. There we were~-~all of us-- ~ seeing the show we had planned to see way back in Arkansas, years and years before. You know, Honey, that doll Ann has~~she got it for her seventh birthday ( Ilisabeth Arm Wiggans-~--~daughter of Helen Hudgins Wi~gans). It was restrung for her, and was once before for her mother. But it s the same doll Baby Dean ( Dean Kudgins ) carried out of~that fire in riot Spr1n~s in 1895. Everybody loves Ann. She makes te fifth generet~on I ve cared for. When Helen is going out she brings Ann down here or I go up there. It s usually down here tho. Because since we turned the old home into apartments I take care of them, and it s best for me to be here most of the time. All t~e people in the apartments are mighty nice to me. Often for days at a time they bring me so much to eat th8t I don t have to cook for myself. A boy going to the University has a room here and tends to the furnace. Eets a nice boy. I like hint.

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3~3 ~ 193 14 My life s been a full one, Honey, cnd an interesttn~ one0 I can t redly ssy v.hich :~irt of it ~ best. I ccn t c~ecide whether it s ~ better v~orid no~ or then. Pve hcd lots ()~ herd. ~ork, snd lOtS Of friends, lots cf fun aiid I ve gone lots of pieces. Life ~.s interesting.

[Interview with Bobo, Vera Roy] 199 194

~:~i--i;.~~ ~ J fr~L.~.1 .) InterTiewer Miss Irene Robertson r ~ PeraorL Interviewed VeraRoy Bc,b~ i1~t~4o~, almost I~1t~.QJ~ Holly Grove, Arkansas A~e ~ My parenta came from Macon, Georgia. My mother was Margaret Cobb. Her people were owned by the Cobba. They reared ber, She was a house girl and a seemstma8. She sewed for both white and black. She was light color. My father was St. Roy Holmes. ~ He was a C.LE. preacher in Georgia and later in Arkansas. He ca~ on the train to Formst City, 1885. He crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry boat. Later he preached at Wynne. He was light color. I never heard them say very uuxoh about si avery. Phi s was their own home. y1 husband s father was the son of a white man also Randall Bobo. He used to visit us from Bobo, Mississippi. The Bobos owned that town and were considered rich people. My husband was smxe darker and was born at Indian Bay Arkansas. He was William Bobo. I never knew hirn till two months betore I married him. We had a home wedding end a wedding supper in this house. (This may be continued)

[Interview with Boechus, Liddie] 200 195

j ~ Interviewer Misalrene Roberteon -- Person interviewed Liddie Boecbua4 (second i~tervi~i) Madison, rkanaaa ~ I iras born in West Point, ILiaaisaippi. My own dear mother s owner waa Pool. His wife was MiStlOBB Patty Pool. Old man Pool raised our set. H~a was an old soldier, I think. Es was old when I cc~ to know him. My own papa a pa was ~nith. After he c ~e back frcm th Civil War he took back his ~nith name. He changed it back frcin Pool to &iith. ~I was a ~nn1l child when my own dear mother died. My ate~inothor had some children of her oin., so papa hired n~ out by the year to nurse for my board and clothes. My stepmother didn t care for ~ right. Ihite folks raised we, RI married when I was fifteen years old to a wejn twenty ysare old or more. White folka w~ia good to me but I didn t have no sense. I let em. I marrIed too young. I liTOd wid him little over twelve years, and I had twelve children by him. Then I marrid a preacher. We had two more children. My first husband was trifling. I ploughed, hoed, split wood to raise my babi s. My daughter c~n frmt Louiziana to stay with me last winter when I ira.. sick. I got ei~it dollars, now I get8 six dollars from the Welfare. My daughter hers now. RI went to one white teacher a few days Mis. Perkin.. I never got to go enough to learn. I took up reading and writing frcm my children. I write mighty poor I tell y . 195

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2. 196 RI u8sd to b a midwife and got ten dOUal8 a case. They won t pay off now. I do a little of that work, but I don t get nothing for it. They have a doctor or won t pay. My husband was a good man. Ee was a preacher. l in a Baptiat. *1 don t Imow ihat to think about young toile. every feller la for hi. 01x1 seit. Times is hard with old folka. I had a atrok they said. Thia new generation ain t got no strength. I think lt la because they eat around. ao much. What would a heap of them do? A long day a work in the field would kill acme of them. It would Scme folks don t work nough to be healthy. I don t know, ~it though, I really believea education and autc~iobi1ea is the whole cauae ~

[Interview with Bond, Maggie (Bunny)] 202 197

30809 19~ Interviewer Miss Irene Robert aon Per8on interviewed Ma~gie (Thimi~) d~J4a~Iipon~ 4rJcanpaa~ Age~ ~ ~ ~ ~s was born at Magnolia, North Carolina. Lou Na8h named me Maggie :~t3~ ~Y r1t~tress, That wa~ her name. They had a rabbit they called Bwany. p; cLle3d. They started calling me Bunny. Our old xrxi8tre8s wa8 a Mallory fro~rt Virginia. She was the old head o1~ all the8e at Forrest City. (A big family of people are descendants at Forrest City.) School 1X~ring the War MI 8. Eddy Williams said to my mother, Let her go to school and play with the children. I was young. I don t know how old I was. I was ~iashed, my hair combed, and clean dresses put on rae. I went to school foujr or five days. I set by different ones. They used. slates. It was a log schoolhouse. It had a platform the teacher sat on. They preached in it on Sunday. Where Mt. Vernon Cemetery now stands. The teacher was Mrs. ~iCC~3.flj8. She rode horseback from out of. the bottoms, The families of children that come there were: Mallorys, Izards, Nashs, Dawsons, Kittrelis, and Pruitte. There was a big oak tree in front The boys played on one side the girls on the other. Cake and pie was a fortune then. It the children had any they would give nie part of it. Times was so hard then people had plain victuals every day at school. . The children tried to learn the at recess under the tree. They used McGuffey s and Blue Back books. One day I said out loud, I want to go howe.

203 198

2. 198 The children all laughed. One day I went to sleep and the teacher sent rue out doors to play. Mrs. MoCalli8 said, Th~nny, you mus n t talk out loud in school. I was nodding one day. The teacher woke me up. She wrapped her long switch across the table. She sent me to play. The house set up on high blocks. I got under it and found some doodle holes. Mrs. MoCallis corne to the door and said, Bunny, don t call so loud. You taust keep quiet. I would say: Doodle, doodle, your house on fire. Corne ge~t some bread and butter . They would come up. After the War I had a white lady teacher from the North. I went a little bit to colored school but I didn t care about books. I learned to sew for my dolls. The children would cive rue a doll all alone. The happiest year of my whole life was the first year of my married. life. I hardly had a change of clothes. I had lots of friends. I went to the field with Scott. I pressed cotton with two horses, one ~o1n around and the other coming. Scott could go upstairs in the ~in and look over at us We had two young . 00W8 They had to be three years old then before they were any service. I fed hogs. I couldn t cook but I learned. I had been a house girl and nurse. ni was nursing for Mr8. Pierce at Goodwin. I wanted to go home. She didn t want rue to leave. I wouldn t tell her why. She said, I speck you going to get mar She gave me a nice white silk dress. Mrs. Dren.nand made it. My owner, M188 Leila Nash, lend me one of her chemisette, a corset cover, and a dress had ruffles around the bottom. It was wide. She never married. I borrowed my veil fr i a colored woman that had used it. Mr. Rollwage (dead now but was a lawyer at Forrest City) gave Scott a tie and white vest and lend him his watch and chain to be married in. They wae friende~

204 199

3. 199 Miss Leila made my cake. She wanted my ~o1d band ring to ~o in it. I wouldn t let her have it for that. Not my rine~ She put a dime in it. Miss Maggie Barrow and Mrs. Maggie Hatcher made two ba8keta full ot maple biscuits tor my wedding. They was the best cake. Made in big layer8 and cut and iced. Two laundry baskets full to the brim. She showed us a white cedar three~gal1on churn, brass hoops hold the staves in place, fi1 ty~seven years old and a castor with seven cruita patented ~cember 2?, 1859. It was a silver castor and was fixed to ring for the meal. She showed us the place under a cedar tree where there are four unmarked graves-.-Mr. and Mrs. McL!urray and their son and daughter and one niece. The graves are being plou~hed over now. Mrs. Murray s son gave her five hundred dollars. She hid it. After she died no one knew where to find it. Scott Bond bought the place. ninny was fixing the hearth (she showed us the very spot ) bri ck and found a brick Dora threw it out The can could never be found and soon Dora went home near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dora was a Negro servant in the Bond home It seems the money was in the old can that ~nny found but thought it was just a prop for the brick. Maggie (Bunny) Bond has given two of her white friends coffins. One was to a man and two years ago one was to a woman, Mrs. Evans daughter. She wanted to do something, the nicest thing she could do for them, for they had been good to her. People who raised them and had owned them. They gratefully accepted her present. In her life she has given beautiful and extensive wedding presents to her white friends who raised her and owned her. She told. us about giving one and scwaone else said she gave two. Theo Bond s wife said this about the second one.

205 200

- 40 The Yankee8 paseed along In front of the Scott Bond home from Hunter, Arkan as to Madison, Arkansa8. It was an old military road. The Yaakee8 burnt up Mt. Vernon, Arkan8a8. Madison was a big town but it overflowed so bad. There were pretty homea at Madison. Levies were not known, so the courthouse wa~ moved to Forrest City. Yankees camped at Madison. A lot ot them died there. A cemetery was made in sight of the Scott Bond yard. The markings were white and black letters and the pailing8 were white with black pointed tips. They were moved to the north. Madison grew to be large because it was on a river. Interviewere ~ Comraent Maggie ()~iriny) Bond Is e1ght..~ninth white. 200

[Interview with Bonds, Caroline] 206 201

~ j~1 201 Interviewer Thoenas ~iiuore Incy Person Intervi ewed~_ Caroline Bondi ~b~sseUv111e Lxkansas Age~_jO, ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What s all dis info mation you about goin to be for? Will it help us along any or make times any better? All right, then. My naxne 8 Caroline Bonds. I don t know jist exactly when I was born, ~t I thirLk it was on de twentieth of March about~.about..~yes, in 1866, in Anderson County, North Carolina. ~So you was a Tarheel too? Bless my soul! My old master was named Hubbard, and dat was my name at first. My parents belonged to Marse Hubbard and worked on his big plantation till dey was freed. *1 was too little to remember much about what happened after de War. My folks moved to Arkansas County, in Arkansas, soon after de War and lived down dere a long time. *1 joined de Missionary Baptis Church when I was f if.~ teen and has belonged to lt ever since, No 8lI~, I never got in de habit of votin and never did vote, never thought it was necessary.

[Free colonies.] 207 202

202 Interviewer Person interviewed ~\~ ~w-~s SamuelS.Taylor Rev. Frank T. Boone 1410 W. Seventeenth treet Lliile Rock, Arkansas LT ~7L~ ( ~4 k I was born in Nansemond County, Virginia on my father s place near the center ot the County. I was born free. We were xnerabers o~ the colonies. You know there were what is known as Free Colonies. They were Negroes that had always been tre. The first landing of the Negroes in America, they claimed, formed a colony. The Ne~,ro men who came over, it is said, could buy their freedom and a number of thera did. But I didn t become free that way. My ancestors were a white man and an Indian woman. He was my great-grandfather. None ot my family have been slaves as far back as I know. There was one set of white people in Virginia called Quakers. Their rule was to free all slaves at the age of twenty- one. So we got some free Negroes under that rule. My mother who was a Negro wc~nan was freed under this rule. My father was always free. My grandmother on my father s side owned slave s. The law was that colored people could own slaves but they were not allowed to buy them. I t t know how many 8laVeS my grandmother owned I t know they were slaves until the War was over. I saw the colored people living in the little houses on the place but I didn t know they was slaves. One morning my grandmother went down to the quarters and when 8he came back she said to my aunt, Well, the slaves left last night. And that was the first I knew of their being slaves.

208 203

2. 203 My father 8 name was Frank Boone. I waa named for him. My mother s naine was Phoebe Chalk. I don t know who her mother and father were She said that her mother died when she was a child. She was raised by G~uaker people. I presume that her mother belonged to these Quaker people. On our place no grown person was ever whipped. They was just like one family. They called grandmother s house the big house. They farmed. They didn t raise cotton though. They raised corn, peas, wheat, potatoes, and all things for the table. Hogs, cows, and all such like Wa8 raised. I never saw a pound ot meat or a peck of flour or a bucket of lard or anything like that bought. We rendered our~own lard, pickled our own f ish, smoked our own meat and cured lt ground our own sausage ground our own flour and. meal from our own wheat and corn we raised on our place, spun and wove our own cloth. The first suit of clothes I ever wore, my mother spun the cotton and wool, wove the cloth and made the clothes. It was a mixed 3teel gray suit. She dyed the thread so as to get the pattern. One loom carried the black thread through and the other carried the white thread to weave the cloth into the mixed pattern. I don t know how large our plac was. Maybe it was about a hundred acres. Every one that married out of~ the family had a home. They called lt a free Negro colony. Nothing but Negroes in it. My father volunteered and went to the army in 1862. He served with~ the Yankees. You know Negroes didn t fight in the Confederate armies. They was in the armies, but they were servants. My father enrolled as a soldier. I think it was in Company F. I don t know the regiment or the division. He was a sergeant last time I saw him. I remember that well. I remember the stripes on his arm. He was mustered out in Galveston, Texas, in 1865.

209 204

3. 204 The house I was born in was a log house, 8ealed inside. The cracks were chinked with dirt and mud, and it wa~ weather boarded on the outside. You couldn t tell it was a log house. It had two rooi~s. In them times you didn t cook in the house you lived in. You had a kitchen built off from the house you lived in dust like you. have servant quarters now. You went across the yard. to do your cooking. The smokehouse was o~f by itseLf. Milk was off by itself too. The dairy house was where you kept the flour and sugar and preserves and fruit and pickles and all those kind ~ of things. No food. was kept in the house. The milk house had shelves all up in it and when you milked the cows the pans arid boils and crocks were put up on the shelves. Where it was possible the milk house vas built on a branch or spring where you could get plenty of cold water You di dn t milk in the milk house. You milked in the cow pen right out in the weather. Then you carried it down to the milk house and strained it. It was poured out in vessels. When the cream rose it was skirmned off to churn for butter. Peed for the stock was kept in the corn crib. We would call it a barn now~ That barn was for corn and times we had overhead a place where we kept fodder. Bins were kept in the barn for wheat and peas. Slaves on Other Places I seen the slaves outside the colonies. I was little and didn t pay any attention to them. Slaves would run away. They had a class of white people known as patrollers. They would catch the slaves and whip them. I never saw that done. I heard them talking about it. I was only a child and never got a chance to see the slaves on the places of other people, but just heard the folks talking about them.

210 205

4. 205 lithin the Yankee Lines lVhen the War broke out, the free colored people became fearful. There was a great deal o ~ stuff taken away frcm them by the Contederate soldiers. They moved into the Yankee lines for protection. My family moved also. They lost live stock and feed. They lost only one horse and then they came back home. I can see that old horse right now. He was a sorrel horse, with a spot in his forehead, and his naine was fohn. My father was inside the Yankee lines when he volunteered for the service. I don t know how much he got or anything about it except that I know the Yankees were hold-. ing Portsmouth, Norfolk, Hampton Roads, and all that country. Expectations of the ~lavea I could hear my mother and uncle talk about what the slaves expected, I know they was expecting to ~et something. They weren t supposed to be turned out like wild animals like they were. I think it was forty acres and a mule. I am not sure but I know they expected something to be settled on them. ~ What They Got If any of them got anything in Virginia, I don t know anything about it. They might have been some slaves that did ~et something--.just like they was here in Arkansas. Old Man Wilfong, when he freed Andy Wilrong in Bradley County, Arkansas, gave Andy plenty. He did get forty acres of land. That is right down here out from Warren. Wilfong owned that land and a heap more when he died. He hasn t been dead more than six or seven years. I pastored him in 1904 and 1905. There were others who expected to get something, but I don t know any others that got it. Land was cheap then.

211 206

5. 206 Andy bought land at twenty$ive and fifty cents an acre, and sold the timber off o~ it at the rate of one thousand dollars tor each forty acres. He bought hundreds of acres. He owned a section and a section and one half of land when he was my member. He had seven boys and two girls and he gave them all forty acres apiece when they married. Then he sold the timber off of four forties. Whenever a boy or ~ir1 was married he d give him a house. He d tell him t o go out and pick himsel f out a place He sold one hundred and sixty acres of timber for four thousand dollars, but if he had kept it for two years longer, he would have got ten thousand dollars for it The Bradley Lumber Company wertt in there and cut the tiniber all through. Wilfong s master s ~ was Andrew Wilfon.g, same as Andy s. His master came from Georgia, but he was living in Arkansas when freedom cane. Later on Andy bought the farm his master was living on when freedom cane. His master was then dead. . . Right After the War My mother cerne back home and. we ~went on farming just like we did before, raising stuff to eat. You know I can t remember much that they did before the War but I can rem~nber what they did during the War and after the War, .when they cax~ back hone. My folks still own the old place but I have been away from there sixty-one years. A whole generation has been raised up and died since I left. WI cama out with one of my cousina and went to Georgia (Di Pont) following turpentine work. It was turpentine farming. You could cut a hole in the tree known as the box. It will hold a quart. Rosin runs out of that tree into the box. Once a week, they go by and chip a tree

212 207

6. ~ to keep the rosin running. Then the dippers dip the rosin out and put it in barrels, Them barrels is hauled to the still. Then it is distilled just like whiskey would be. The evaporation ot it makes turpentine; the rosin is barreled and shipped to make glass. The turpentine is barreled and sold, I have dipped thou8auds of gallons or turpentine. I came to South Carolina in 1880 and married. I stayed there seven years and caine to Arkansas in 1888. 1 caine right to North Little Rock and then moved out into the country around Lonoke County,--on a farm. I farmed there for five years. Then I went to pastoring. I started pastoring one yeai before I quit making cotton. I entered the ministry in 1892 and continued in the active service until November 193?. I put in forty five years in the active ministry. ~ Schooling I first went to school at a little log school in Suffolk, Virginia. From there I went to Hampton, Virginia. I got my theological training in Shorter College under Dr. T. H. J!aekson. Ku ~ Klux I never had any experience with the Ku Klux Klan. I seen white men riding horses and my mother said they was Ku Kiuxes, but they never bothered us as I remember. They had t~ sets of white folks like that. The patrollers were before and during the War and the Ku Klux Klan carrie after the War. I can t remember how the Ku Klux I saw were dressed. The patroflers I remember. They would just be three or four white men riding in bunches.

213 208

7. 2o~ Nat Turner Rebellion sI have heard the Nat Pumer Rebellion spoken of but I don t know what was said. I think the old people called it the Nat P~irner War. Reconstruction I~ys Lawyer Thipper was one of the best criminal lawyers in the state. He was a Negro. The Republican party had the state then and the Negroes were strong. Robert &nall was a noted politician and was elected to ~o to Congress twice. The last time he ran, he was elected but had a hard fight. The election was so close it was contested but E~nall won out. He was the last nigger congres~an. I heard that there were one or two more, but I t t remember them. When I first went to South Carolina, them niggers was bad. They organized. They used to have an association known as the Union Laborers, I think. The organization was like the fraternal order, I don t know s they ever had any trouble but they were always in readiness to protect them.. selves if any conflict arose. It was a secret order carried on just like any other fraternal order. They had distress calls. Every member has an old horn . which he blew in time of trouble I think that same kind of organization or something like it W&~ active here when I came. The ~agles (a big family of white people in Lonoke County) had a fight with niembers of lt once and some of the Eagles were killed a year or two before I came to this state. Voting and Political Activities I voted in South Carolina, but I wasn t old enough to vote in Georgia. However, I stumped Tallaferro County for Garfield when I was in Georgia.

214 209

8. 2~~j I lived in a little town by the name of~ McCray. The town I was in, they had never had more than fifteen or twenty Republican votes polled. But I polled between two hundred and three hundred votes. I was one oi the regular speakers. The tickets were in my care too. You see, they had ticketa In them days and not the long ballot s . They dldzi t have long ballots I Ike they have now. The ticket8 were sent to me and I took care o~ them until the election. In the campaign I was regularly employed through the Republican Campaign Committee Managers. According to preparation and conditions there were less corruption then than there is now. In them days, they had to learn the tricks. ~.it now they know thorn. Now you find the man and he already knows what to do. Songs Back in that period nearly all the songs the Negro sang considerably viere the spirituals: l in Going Down to J~ordan,t Roll Yordan Roll.

[A Union veteran.] 215 210

210 Interviewer Samuel8. Taylor ~ -~. Per8Ofl interviewed J. F. Boone 1502 Izard, Little Rock, Arkanaaa Age66 - ~ ~ ~ _ ~ - ~ ~ ~ - ~ - ~ _ ~ ~~4:t~ ~ _ ~ - ~ - _ _ My father 8 name was Arthur Boone and my mother s name was Eliza Boone. I am soin to tell you about my father. Now be sure you put down there that this is Arthur Boone s son. I am ~T. F. Boone, and I ein goin to tell you about my father, Arthur Boone. My father s old master was Henry Boone, My mother carne fr i Virginia--north Virginia and my father came from North Carolina, The Boones bought them. I have heard that my father, Arthu~r Boone, was bought by the Boones. They wasn t his first masters. I have heard my father say that lt was more than a thousand dollars they paid for him. He said that they used to ~it up niggers on the block and auction them oft0 They auctioned off niggers accordin to the breed ot them. Like they auction ott dogs and horses. The better the breed, the more they d pay. My father was in the first..class rat Ing as a good healthy Negro and those kind sold ~or good money. I have heard him say that niggera so~ times brought as high as five thousand dollars. My father don t know much about his first boss man. ~t the Boonea we re very good to them0 They got bi scults once a week. The overseer was pretty cruel to them in a way. My father has seen them whipped till they couldn t stand up and then salt and things that hurt poured In their wounds. My father said that he seen that done; I don t know whether it was his boss rrian or the overseer that done it.

216 211

My f~ather said that they breeded good niggors stud tern like horses and cattle. Good healthy man and wo~na~ that would breed fast, they would keep atalled up. Wouldn t let them get out and work. Keep them to raise young niggers from. I don t know for certain that my father was used that way or not. I don t suppose he would have told me that, but he was a mighty fine man and he sold 1~or a lot of money. The slaves weren t to blame tor that. My father said that in about two or three months after the war ended, his young uiaster told them that they were freeQ They came home from the War about that time. He told them that they could continue living on with them or that they could go to some one else if they wanted to cause they were free and there wasn t any more slavery. I was born after slavery, Peace was declared in 1865, wasn t it? When the War ended I don t know where my father was living, but I was bred and born in Woodx~ff near Au~ista in Arkansas, All the Booneses were there when I knew anything about it. They owned hundreds and hundreds of acres of ~round0 I was born on old Captain Boone s farm. n1~y father was always a farmer. ~ He farmed t ill he d led, They were supposed to give him a pension, but he never did get it, They wrote to us once or twice and asked for his number and things like that, but they never did do nothing. You see he fit in the Civil War. Wait a nilnute. We had his old guii for years. My oldest brother had that gun. He kept that ~un and them old blue uniforms with. bi~ brass buttons. I~1y old muster had a horn he blowed to call the slaves with, and my brother had that too. He k ~pt them things as particular as you would keep victuals. Yes, my father fit in the Civil War, I have seen his war clothes a~ many times as you have hairs on your head I reckon. 2. 211.

217 212

3, 212 He had his old sword and al1~, They had a hard battle down In Mis8issippi once be told me. Our house got burnt up and we lost his honorable dis- charge. ~t he waa legally discharged. ~it he didn t git nothin for it, and we didn t neither0 w rather was whipped by the pateroles several times. They run him and whipped him. My daddy 8lipped out many a time. ait they never caught him when he slipped out They never whipped him for al ippin out . That was during the t line he was a slave The si ayes waan t allowed to go from one master to another without a pass. My father said that sometimes, his young master would play a j oke on him. My father t read ~ HI s young master would give him a pass and the pass would say, Whip Arthur Boone s ~ and pass him . When he come s back, whip his ~ again and pass him back. His young master called hisseif playin a joke on him. They wouldn t hit him more than half a dozen licks, but they would make him take his pant8 down and they would give them tohim jus where the pass said. They wouldn t hurt him imich. It was more devilment than anything else. He would say, Whut you hittin me for when I got a pass? end they would say, Yes, you ~ot a pass, but it says whip your ---. And they would show it to him, and then they would say, You ll git the res when you come back. My father couldn t read nothin else but that s one word he learnt to read right well. My father was quite a young man in his day. He died in 1891. He was just fIftysix years ~ld. I m older now than he was when he died. My occupation when I was well was janitor. I have been sick now for three years and ain t done nothin in all that tine. If it wasn t for my wife, I don t know whut I would do.

218 213

4. 213 I was born in 1872, on I~cember the eighth, and I am sixty-six years old now. That i8, I will be if the Lord lets rie live till 1~cember the eighth, this year. Now whose story are you saying this is? You say this is the story of Arthur Boone, father of J. F. Boone? Well, that 8 all right; but you better mention that Y F. Boone je Arthur Boone 8 son. I rent this house from Mr. Lindeman. He has the drug store right there If anybody cornea lookin tor me, I might be moved, but Mx Lindeinan will still be there.R Interviewer s Coninent If you have read this interview hastily and have missed the patroller joke on page three, turn back and read it ~ The interviewer considers it the choicest thing in the story. That and the story of an unponsioned Union veteran and the insistence on the word *aonn seemed to ire to set this story off as a little out of the ordinary.

[Interview with Boone, Jonas] 219 214

214 ~~fl~LSZ I4O~OflhlL ~ -- ZOfl~8 Boon . St. Charlee. Arkanea~ Intervi isr_______ P.r.on lntrniswsd Ags 86 Ik8t any day in St. Charles you can aes an old N.gro man coining dom the street with a small sack made of bed ticking han~ging ehot~pouch faahion from his shoulder. This la old Uncle Jonas Boone iho by the aid of hie heavy cane walketo tom end makes the ro~ind of hie whits tOlke home to be given iome old shoes, clothes, or poesibly a ~ea of grime or sons sweet potatoea ~ in fact what ver he may find. ~Jonae can you remember anything about the war or elavery~ tuai? Yea ~ I iaa a great big boy when the 8lavee were iot free. Do you know how old you ars? Yea mea I wil . bi 87 years old on March 15th. I was born in Mimi.. isaippi at CornerviUs. Ily mother belonged to Mr. L. D. Hewitt a wife. She didn t have many slaves ~ just my parents and my two unclea and their fainilise. My daddy and two uncles went to the war ~it our inietr.u h~eband Mr. Hewitt wam too old to go. I guess ~ daddy was killed in de war, for hm never c~ hoai when my Uncles did. Is lived h.re in Arkansas close to St. Charlie. Our mistress ~a good to her slaves ~it when thmy were frei her husband had got hiaaslf drowned in big LaGrue whn de watsr was high all over the bottoms end low ground; he was tryi g to cross in a boat, what you call a dug out. You know it . a big log scooped out till it floats like a boat. Then after that our aistrema wantd to go back

220 215

2. 2j5 to her old ho~ in Mississippi and couldn t take us with her cause ehe didn t have any money, so we stayed here. My manuy cried days and nights when she knew her mistress was going to leave her here in Arkansas. We moved down on de Schute and worked for Mr. ~ck Price. You know he was Mr. Arthur s and Miss Toe e father. 3onas, if your owners were Kewitte why is your nem Boone? Well you s e, mise, my daddy s daddy belonged to Mr. ~niel Boon., Mr. John Bo s and Mies Mary Black s grandpa, and I was named Boone for him, my grenddaddy. I been married twice. My last wife owns her hon out close to de church west of St. Charles. I haven t been able to work any for over two years but my wife makes us a living. She s 42 or 43 years old end a good worker and a good w~n. I ve been all de ti~ want~ ing some of this help other folks been g ttin~ but dey won t give ~ nothing. The women what goes to your house to see if you needs relief told me I was better off den most folks an of course I know I d rather have ay wife and home than have to be like lote of dise niggera who s old and can t work and got nothing but what de Oov rnment give em.R

[Interview with Bowdry, John] 221 216

30439 #725 216 Interviewer Misa Irene Robertson ~ .~ ~ U ~ ~ -~-_ ~ t-~ ~ I J . _-_ * _- _- _ ~ S ~ ~ Person interviewed Zahn BoW~y~ Cia ndon~ ~rkanaaa -~_ -s-____. __w.* u ~ ~ ~ ~ .. ~ Ag. 75 -*~ -~_-_-~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~ ei was born at Baidwyn, Mississippi not far from Corinth. then my mother was last seen she was going away with a ~inch of Yankees. I don t know what it was. She was a dark woman. Pa was light. I was born in 1865. I was left when I was two or three months old. I never seen no pa. They left me with my uncle what raised ~. Ha was a slave but too young to go to war. Ris master ~s named Porter. Master Stevenson had sold him. He liked Porter the best. He took the nai~ of Stanfield Porter at freedom. Porters had a ordinary farm. He wasn t rich. He had a few slaves. Stevenson had a lot of elavsa. ~andfather was in ~arleston~ South Carolina. Him and my uncle corresponded. I~y uncle learnet to read and write but I guess so~imbody dons his writing for him at th other end. w Uncle 8tanfi.id issu a heap of the War. H. ~en thea fight, co~ by in dr!Tes a mile long. They wasted their feed and living too. Rit frssdoet Master Porter told them ab~it it end be lived on there a few years till I c~ into recollestion. I found out about my pa and mother. They had three ast. of children in the houas. They was better to them. AU. of them got better treatment en I did. One day I ~eft. I d been making ~tp my mind to leave. I was thirteen years old. Soared of everything. I walked twenty miles to Middlston, Tennessee. I slept at the atate line at so~ stranger s but at black folks houas. I walked ail day two days. I got a job at s~ ihite folks good as my parents. His ns~ was J. D. Pa1m.r~

222 217

2. 2f~ Re wa. a big far~r. I Blspt iii a servant s houa and et in hie own kitchen. H~ ont ~ to school two twoiionth terms. Four a~onth. all I got. I got ~ board thm four monthe. I got my board and eight dollars a month the other months in the y.ar. He died. I coa to Forrset City wban I waa twenty years old. I been married. I got a girl lives wid as her.. My girl, she marri.d. RI ain t got no ecntpla$nt again th. tis. ~ lite has ben fair. I worked ~.ighty hard.R

Ex-slave - history. [The Boyd negroes.] 223 218

~ L~ ~ t~- Little Rock District 2j~ 8 ~)(i~:)6~) FOLKLORE SUBJECTS Naine of Interviewer ~ Irene Robertson Subject ~ .- Ex-S1ave-~ ~ Story ~ Infornmtion (If not enoush space on this page add page) ErL ~ Jack Boyd was born a slave. Miss Ester s mother was a Boyd and married a Donnahoo. Miss Ester Donnahoo married Jim Shed. The Boyd s 1 ived in R lohmond V Irginia. They s old Jack Boyd s grandmother, grand. father, mother, and father a number of time s ~ One time they were down in Georgia not far from Atainta. They were being ill treated. The new ma ster had promi sod to be good to them s o he wasn t and the news had gotten back to Virginia as it had a time or two before so the Boyds sent to Georgia and brought them back ~tnd took them back home to Virginia. The Boyds always asked the new masters to be good to them but no one was never so good to them as the Boyd~ were~ ~and they would buy them back again. lNhen freedom was declared three of the Boyd brothers and Miss Ester s husband Jim Shed, was the last master of Charlie Boyd. Jack s father came to Waco, Texas. They n~ay have been there before for they were big ranohmen but that is when Jack Boyds whole fern~ly caine to Texas. There were thirty six in his family. Ihe families then were large. When Jack grew up to be about ten years old there wasn t anything much at Waco exceDt a butcher shop and a b aoksinith shop. Jim Shed alone had 1800 acres of land his own. He used nine cowboys,scrne white and some black. The first of January every year the cattle was ready to be driven to Kansas City to market. They all rode broncos. It would rain, sometimes hail and sometimes they wou)~,d get into thunder storms. The cattle would stampede, get lost and have to be found. 1his information given by JaokBo~ ~ Place of Residence Hazen,Arkansas _______ Occupation -- - -- --- Light j~obs now. ~~AGE~2~_

224 219

2j9 They si ept in the open plains at night. They had good clothe s. They would ride two or three weeks and couldn t get a switch. Finally in about Jum or July they would get into Kansas City. The uthite masters were there wait.. ing and bought foo and supplies to take back home. They would have started another troop of cowboys with cattle about June and n~et them in Kansas City just before Christmas. Jack liked this life except it was a hard life hi bad weather. They had a good living and the Masters made tebig money? Jack said he always had his own money then. His peo~le are soattered around Waco now, the Boyd negroe ~ He hasn t been back since he cairn 1x Arkansas when he was about eighteen. He married here and had ~ raised a big family. The plains were \ill of rattle snakes~ rabbits, wild oats aid lots of other wild animals. They never started out with less than 400 head of cattle. Ihey picked cattle that would travel about together. It would all be grown or about the same age. The worst thing they had to contend with was a lack of water. They had to carry water along and catch rainwater and hunt places to water the cattle. ills father s and grand father s masters names were Gjllj5, 1~awkins, aid Sam Boyd. They were the three v~ho caine to Texas and located the ranch at 1 aco. Jack thinks they have been dead a long tinte but they have heirs around Waco now. Jack Boyd left ~aco in l8~3l.

Ex-slaves. 225 220

~RMA 2P0 ~ ~ ~# #765 ci rcwnstances Of Interview STA~ Arkan saa NAIVE O F V~ORKER-- Berni ce BOwden i~DDBESS 1OO6 Oak Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas DATE November 2, 1938 SUBJECT-~x-~s 1 ayes 1. Name and address of informant -~~ia1Boyd., son of slaves 2. Date and. time of interv iew~-Noyernber 1, 1938, 9:45 a.rn. 3. Place of interview -101 Miller Street 4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in totich with informarit~ None. I saw hirn sitting on porch as I walked a1on~. 5. Name and address of person, if any, acconipanyiri~ yoti~~ None 6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. -Frazne house. Sat on porch. Yard clean -everything neat. Near foundry on graveled street in su.burbs of west Pine Bluff. Text of Interview Papa belonged to Bill Boyd. Papa said he wa~ his father and treated.him just~ like the rest of his children. He said. Bill Boyd. was an Irishman. I know papa loOked kincia like an Irishrnan- -fa e was red, Mama was abo~z~ my color. Papa was born in Texas, but he came to Arkansas. I member hearin hirn say he saw em fight a ix months in one r ~ ace down here at Marks Mill. He said Bill Boyd had three sons, Urk and Porn and Nat. The y was in the Civil War. I heered Torn ~Boyd say he was in behind a crew of men in the war and a Xankee started shoot in and when he aho t down the last one next to Tom, he seen who lt was d.oin the shootin and. he shot him and saved his life. He was the hind one. I ve farmed mostly arid eawmllled. I use to get as high as three and five dollars callin figgera for the white folks.

226 221

Intervi ewer sOontnent NAME OF WORKER -Berx~ice Bowd.en ~ AND ADDRESS OF IN~OBM~T.~Ma1 Bo$, 1O~. Miller Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Subscribes to t1~ Daily Graphic and. reads of world affairs. Goes to a friend s house ~id listens to the radio. Lives with d~ghter and is su~pported by her. Hou3e belongs to a 8on-ln-lav. Wore good clothing and. was very clean. He hoped~ that the United. States wo~.i1d not become Involved. in a war. 221

227 222

FORM B 2p~ #765 Personal History of Informant ~T~TE~Ark an~ae NA~ OP WQRKER-~-Bernice Bowden ADDR~SS-~-1OO6 Oak Street DATE -November 2, 1938 SuBJ~CP--~Ex,31avea NA~ AND ADDRESS OF LNBt~RMANT-- Ma1 Boyd, 101 MIller Street, Pine Bluff, Ark. 1. Anceatry- -Father, Pol Boyd; ~bther, Julia Dangerfield. 2. Place axe. date of birth-~Cleveland Cou.nty, Au~gu~st 4, 1873 3. Fami1y-~- Lives with daughter. Has one other daughter. Mther one half Indian, born in Alabama, he thinks. 4. Places lived in, with dates Ouachita County, Dallas Cou.nty. Bradley County, Jefferson County. 5. Edtication, with dates--Began schooling In 1880 and. went until twelve or thirteen. 6. Occu~pationa aid accomplishments, with dates Farmed till 21, public work? Sawmill work. 7. Special skills and. interests -None 8. Corrzxamity wid religious activit les -Ward Chapel on West Sixth. 9. DescrIption of informant Gray hair, hei~it b ft. 9 in., high cheekbones. Gray hair practically straight says like father. 10. Ot1ier points gained in interview -Says father was part Irish. Belonged to Bill Boyd. Stayed there for years after freedom.

Ex-slave - history - old sayings. 228 223

Little Rock Distriot 3o57(~ ~ . 223 FOLJ~LORE SUBJECTS Name of Interviewer Irene Robertsoni/ Subject -~ ~ - ~ ~ _____ Story ~ Information (If not enouFh space on this pap~e add page) George Braddox was born a slave but his mother being freed when he was eight years old they went to themselves ~ (~eorge had one sister and one brother. He doesn t know ar~ything about them but thinks theyare dead as he is the youngest of t:~e three. His father s name was 9eter Calloway He went with Gus Taylor to the war and never came back to his family. George said he had been to ChicaFo several times to see his father wher~ he was liv~ Ing. But his mother let her children ~o by that name. She gave them a naine Braddox when they were freed. Calloways lived on a j ining plantation ~ John and Dave Gemes. John Genes was the old master and Dave the young.George said they were mean to him. He can reme~ber that Gu~ Taylor was overseer for the Cernes till he went to war. The Cl~emes lived in a brick house and the slaves lived in log houses. They had a big farm and raised cotton and cern. The cotton was six feet tall and had big leaves. They had to rull the leaves to let the :OW1S ~et the sun to op~n. They tonped the cotton too. They rrade lots o~ cotton and corn to an acre. Dave 1~emes had several children ~ ien George moved away, their names were Ruben, Johr, ?.~ar~aret, Susie and Betty. They went to school at ~arshall, Texas, sohn Comes had fine carriages, horses and mules. :~e had one old slave who iust milked and churned, She didn t Jo anythinr else. then youn~ calves had t~ be attended to somebody else had to hel~ her and one man did all the feeding. They had lcts of peafowles, ducks, reese and chickens. This information given by Geo~eBraddox ___ Place of Residence p~en~Arkansag Ocupation Fariner AGE 80

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2~4 They had mixed stock of chiokens and guineas ~ always had a drove of turkeys. Sometime s the turkeys would go off with wild turkeys. The re were wild hogs and turkeys In the woods. George never learned to read or write. He rei~mbers they built a school for white children on the Calloway place joining the Cernes olace but he thought it was tuition school. George said he thought the Gexnes and all his kin folks carne from Alabama to Texas, but he is not sure but he does laiow this. Dr. Hazen came from Terinessed to Texas ar~d back to Hazen, Arkansas and settled. 1115 COUSIU Jane HodFe (colored) was working out near he;e and he carne here to deer hunt and just stayed with them. 11e said deer was plentiful here. It was not c1e~red and so close to ~~hite Cache, St. Francis and M~.ssissippi rivers. George said his mother cooked for the ~emes the first he could remember of her, That was all she had time. to do. It was five miles to Marshall. ~hey lived in Harrison County and they could buy somethings to eat there if they didn t raise enourh. They boup ht cheese by the cases in round boxes and flour in barrels and sut~ar in barrels. They had fine clothes for Sunday. After his mother left the Gemes they worked in the field or did anything she 3ould for a livinr. George married after he c~rne to Arkansas and bought a farm 140 acres of land 4 miles north of FLazen and a white man, ~ ~ closed a rnort~age out on h&ITI and took it. fIe naid 7300.00 for a house in town in which he now lives. :~ ~ son was killed in the Vorld ~ar ard he rets his SOflts insurance every month. George said when he came to Arkansas it was easy to Uve if you liked to hunt. Ship the skins and get some money when you couldn t be farming. Could get all the wood you would cut and then clear out land and farm. lie hunted 7 or 8 years with Colonel A. F. Yopp and fed Colonel s dogs.

230 225

..3uu. He hunted with Mr. Yopp bu he didn t think Colonel was a very good n~an. gathered from George that he didn t approve of wickedness. It is bad luck to dig a grave the day before a person is bur~ied, or any time before the day of the burying. Uncle George has dug or helped to dig lots of graves. It is bad luck to the family of the dead oerson. The grave ought not to be left open ~ it is c~t11Od. TIC has always heard this ~nd beLieves it, yet he can t remember when he first heard it. He thinks there are soirits that direct your life and if you do wrong the evil fates let you he punish d. He beleves in good and evil spirits. Spirits right here among us. He says there is ttbound to be spirits or t something I ike

[Interview with Braddox, George] 231 226

226 4_~~ ~ r. ~ ~ Interviewer M128 Irene Robertson Person interviewed Geor~ raddox,Hazen,Arkansas~ Age ~ Most o ~ the old songs were religiou8. E don t remember none xm.tch. lYhen the war broke out my papa jess left and went on off with 80X120 people and joined the Yankee army. T went to see him since I been at Hazen. He lived In Chicago. Yes main he s been dead a long time ago. Gus Taylor and Peter Calloway (white) took my papa with them for their helper. He left them and went with the Yankee army soon as he heard what they was fighting about. Peter Galloway lived on a big track of land joining Dave Genes land. It show was a big farm. Peter Calloway owned my papa and Dave Genes my mama. ~s Taylor was Dave Genes overseer. Peter Calloway never come back from the war. My folks corne from Alabama with Dave Genes and his son John Genes. I was born in Harrison coinity, Texas. Gujs Taylor was a great big man. He was mean to us all. The Yankees camped there It was near Marshall. I had some good friends among the Yankees. They kept me posted all time the war went on. Nobody never learnt me nothing. I can ~ipher a little and count money. I took that up. I learned after I was grown a few things. Just learned it myself, I never went to school a day in my life. The Genes had a brick, big red brick house. They sent their children to schools. They had stock, peafowis, cows, guineas, geese, ducks and chickens, hogs and everything. Old woman on the place just milked and churned. That is all she done.

232 227

2. ~ I never heard of no plantations being divided. They never give us nothing, not nothing. Right after the war was the worse times we ever have had. We ain t had no sich hard times since then. The white folks got all was made. It was best we could do. The Yankees what camped down there told us about the surrender. If the colored folks had started an uprisin the white folks would have set the hounds on us and killed us. ~ I never heard of the Ku Klux Klan ever being in Texa$. Gus Taylor was the ridin boss and he was Ku Klux enough. Xverybody was scared not to mind him. He rode over three or four hundred acres of ground. He could beat any fellow under him. I never did see anybody sold. I never was sold. We was glad to be set free. I didn t know what it would be like. It was just like opening the door and lettin the bird fly ou~t. He might starve, or freeze, or be killed pretty soon but he just felt good because he w~s free. ~ie show did have a hard time getting a1on~ right after we was set free. The white folks what had money wouldn t pay nothing much for work. All the slaves was iii confusion. cousin of mine saw Dr Hazen down in Texas and they all come back to work his land. They wrote to us about it being so fine for hunting. I always liked to hunt so I rode a pony and come to them. The white folks In Texas told the Yankees what to do after the surren der; ~et off the land. We didn t never vote there but I voted in Arkansas. Mr. Abel Rinehardt always hope ins. I could tr ~ist hirn. I don t vote now. No colored people held office in Texas or here that I heard of.

233 228

3. 228 I got nothiug to say bout the way the young generation Is doing. I farmed around Hazen nearly ever since the Civil War. I saved ~3OO and bought this here house. ~1y son was killed in the World Vlar and I get his insurance every month. I hunted with Colonel Yapp and fed his dogs. He never paid me a cent for taking care of the dogs. His widow never as much as give me a dog. She never give me nothing! l in too old to worry bout the present conditions. They ain t gettin no better. I sees dot.

[Interview with Bradley, Edward] 234 229

~78O 229 n - Interviewer ernice BOwd.en Person Interviewed EdwardBradley 115 Sout~1&~ 3tree~ PIne Bluff, Arkan.sa~s Age 70 I was seventy years old this last past June, the sixth day. Lots of people say I don t look that old but l in sure seventy and I ve done a lot of bard work in my day. One thing, I ve taken good care of myself. I never did. lose much sleep. I fartred forty years of my life. een in this 3tate thirty seven years. I was born iii Hardin County, Tennessee. I disremember what a~e I ~vas w1~n I left Tennessee. t ~T mother was named Mary Bradi ey and my fat he r was ri&med }Ti1 1 i ard Bradi ey. They originated in Alabama and. was sold there, and they was free when they corne to Tennes8ee. Bradley was the last man owned em. I think Beaumont sold em to ~rad1 ey. That s the way I always heered. em talks I think they claimed their owrers was pretty good to enf. I know I heered~ my father say he never did ~et a whippi~- from either one of ern. ~Of course my motter wasn t a Bradley fore s1~ married. I had one brother four years older than I was.. He was and I had a whole brother was two years older than I. TtFlrst place I lived in Arkansas was near Blytheville. years. I was married and farrnin for myself. I went from Hardin County, Tennessee to Blytheville, ~.rkansas by land. Dro ye a te am and t~ cows I th ink we was on the ro ad. fo ur day s. ~Jy WI fe went b;j train. You know t~t was too wearisome for her to go by lend. ~he was a ~(airphy. my ha1f-~brother I lived there four

235 230

230 I had. been ruiinin a five horse crop in Tennessee and. I carried three boys~ that I used. to work with me. The last year I was there I cleared ~166O.44. I never ~r11l forget lt. I ~w1e a hundred and. ten bales of cotton ~nd left 2000 pounds of see~i. cotton in the field caase I was goin to move, 9LLV fol~cs was sicic all the time. ~1asn t any canals in that country, and my wife had malaria every year. After I got my crop finished I d get out cnd log. I was raised in a poor county and you take aman like that, he s always a good worker. I rented the land ~ 365 acres and I had seven families workin for me. I was responsible for everything. I told em that last year th~t if I cleared over a ~lOOO, I d. give em ten dollars a piece. And I give lt to em too. You. see they was under my jurisdiction. Next place I lived was Forrest City. They all went with me. Had to charter a car to move em. It was loaded too. HI had 35 hogs, 17 head of cattle, 13 head of mules and. horses. And I had. killed 1500 pounds of hogs. Yoti see besides uly family I had two-~month- hands worked by the month. I ow-n a home in Forrest City now. I m goin back right after Christmas. i~y children had. it fixed up. Had the waterworks and electric lights put in. Two of my d,aughters married big school teachers. One handles a big school j n August a anti th e oth er In For re st C i ty . One of em I s in th e Smith Hughe s work too. I ve done something no other man has ~one. I ve educated four of my brothers and sisters after my father died and four of my wife s brothers and sisters and one adopted boy and my own six children -- fifteen in all. A man said. to me once, r~ any man that s done that much for education ought to get a pension from the educator people.

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2:~i I never went to school six months In my life but I can read and. write. I m not extra good. in spelling ~- that s my hind.rance, but I can figger very well. We always got our children startea. fore they went could help em in school till they got to United. States Another thing I always would do, I wOuli buy these one learned their A, B, C s fore they went to school. 1 reckon I m a self made man in a lot of things. I learnt my own self ho~ -to blacksmith. I worked for a man for riothin just so I could learn and after that for about a year I was the best plow sharpener. And then I learned how to carpenter. My mother was awful good. on head couritin and she learnt Irie when I was a little fellow. My oldest brother use to help me. We d sit by the fire, so you. see you might say I got a fireside edu.cation. When I left Forrest City I moved to England and made one crop and moved to Baucurn and made one crop ani then I moved on the Sheridan Pike three miles the other side of Dew Drop. I got the oil fever. They was sellin land under that headin . Sold it to the colored folks sua lots o these Bohemians. They slio is fine people to live by ~ so accommodatin . Then I carne here to Pine Bl~iff in 1921. I haUIeI wood for two ~ears. Then I put in my application at the Cotton Belt Shops. That was in 1923 and I worked there fifteen years. I retired from the shops this year and took a half pension. I think I ll get about fifteen dollars a month. That s my thoughts. I have two daughters in Camden. One teaches school and one operates a beauty parlor. All six of my children finished high school and three graduated from col to school arid then I money. block A, B, C s. 2very lege.

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I think the younger generation is livin to fast. I know one thing, they has done ~ they bout wore out the old folks. Old folks educate em arid. can t accumulate anything. They don t settle much now til.1 they marry. Seems like the young folks don t have much acco~runodation. I ll tell you another thing, the children aren t carryin out things like they use to. I think when us old folks plays out this world is goin to be in a bad. shape. I belong out here to the Catholic Church ~ the oldest church in the world. I use to belong to the Methodist Church, but they got along so bad I got tired, so I went to the Catholic. I like it ou.t there ~ everthirig so quiet and nice.

[Interview with Bradley, Rachel] 238 233

o ) ~) ~ ~ ~ .~. ~ Ne~iie of Thterviswr ~ ~ Bowiou P8raon intervioied RaohsiBrad.l.y~ 1103 Stat 8tre,t~ Pi~3~Uff. 4rkan~ap AgelO?? Upon arriving at ths h abls unpainted horn. of Rachsl Bradl.y I fo~ad her 8ittiIig in ths doorwey on a typical split-oak bottcmd chair watching the traffic of State rs, one of our bueieet etrsete out of the high rsnt district. It is a mixture of white end Negro etora and hcn~a. Attei~ aeking her name to be eure I wae really talking to Rachel Bradley, I said I had been told ehe wa~ a torlDar slave. Ysa ~, I ueed to be a 8laT~ She tiled broadly displaying n.arly a tull set or te.th. She is ot a cheerful, happy disposition and seemed glad to answer ay quec tions. As to her age, ahe said ehe was N~ ~ girl on th. floor when the atare tell. I looked this up at the public library and tound that tailing atai a or ahowera of nateora occur in cyclee of thirty. three y.are. One euch display waa r corded in 1853 and another in 1866. So if Rachel Bradley ii really 107 yeara old, she waa born in 1830. It is a question in my ~dnd whether or not she co~ild have r~embsred tailing stare at the a of three, ~t on the other band it eh. wa~ *a little girl on the tloor~ in 1866 ehe would be only scmswhei between s.venty-tivs and eighty years of Her aaet r and mietraa ~rs MitchsU end Ilizabeth Slnaons end they had two eons and two daughters. They livd on a plantation about twelve miles frcm Fararaville, Louieiana~

239 234

2. 234 Rachel vai a houas girl and hr mother was tba cook. B~id~ doing houes work, ahs vai nursemaid and ai eh grew old r did h.r als.. trns sewing and could also weave and kx~it. Prom ths way she sailed and rolled her eysi I could see that this was the happiest time or her lit.. My ihits folks was so good to . I sat right down to the aai* table after they was tbru.~ While a child in the hone of her white folks she played with her mistrsss children. In her own words RMy mistress givs us a task to do end when we got it done, we went to our playho~ise in the yard.~ When the war cane along, her maiter was too old to go ~t his two cone went and both lived through the war. ~est1oned about the Yankees during the war she said, WI ~ right smart of the Yankees. I seen ths Calvary go by. They didn t bother my white folks none. Rachel said the ABC s for me but cannot read or write. She said her mistrsas children wanted to teach her ~it she would rather play so grew up in ignoranc . . After ths war Rachel s white folks moved to Texas and Rachel went to live with her mistress married daughter ~rtha. For hex work eh was paid six dollars a month. She was not given any money by her former owners after being freed, but was paid for her work. Later on Rachel went to work in the field u~.king a crop with her brother, turning it over to the owner of the lend for groceries and other supplies and when the cotton was weighed de white folks taken out part of our half, I knowed they done it but we couldn t do nothin bout it.

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ri ~ 5. Rachsl had four huebanda and elsvn children. Hsr second husband abandoned her, taking the three oldest and leaving five with her. Ons boy sud one girl were old enough to help their mother in the field and one stayed in the house with the babies, so ehe managed to i~ake a living iorking by the day for the ihite p.op s. The only clash with the K~i Klux Klan was when they came to get an army gun her husband had bought. Being a woman, Rachel did not know atch about politica during the Reconstruction period. $he had heard the words ~moorat Radical and Republicans and that was about all ehe remembered. Concerning the younger generation Rachel said: I don t know ihat goin come of em. The moat of em is on the beat (trying to get all they can from others). After moving to Arkanese, she made a living working in the field by the day and as she ~ew older, washing and ironing, sewing, house.. cleaning and cooking. ~ Her long association with white p.ople shows in her speech which is q~uite plain with only a few typical Negro expressions, auch as the following: ~s1I. died this last gone Sattiday and I hops (help) shroud her. When whit lady find baby, I used to go hep draw the breas . Heap a people. ~wn.

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A ~. The lelfere Depart~nt gives Rachel $6.00 a month. ~ pays $2.00 a month for two roc~a with no drinking water. With the help of her white friends she managa to exist end says ehe i~ *pendin on ths LordN to help her get along. Sh sang for me in a quav.ring voice the following songe reminiscent of the war: H isapan dresses plain I know, - And the hat psiuiitto too. Thirrah2 Hurrsh~ We cheer for the South we love ao dear, Ie cheer for the hoeneepun dresses The Southern ladies wsar2~ *Iho is Pries a fightin ? He ii a rightin , I do know. I think it is old ~irtia, I hear ths osunone roa .

[Interview with Brannon, Elizabeth] 242 237

30403 #659 ~ 23~ Thterviewer ~Miaa IreneBobertson Peraozi interviewed Elizabeih Brannon~ BiacOe~, Arkansas Pack t to move aoi~ h~re elai) Age __~ 4~O ~1ua ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .. rn I was born in Helena, Arkansas ~ Grandma raised u~ mostly. She was born up in Virginia. Her name was Mariah Bell. *Grandxnother was sold more than once When she was small she and her niother were sold together to different thyers. The morning she was sold she could see her mother crying through the crowd, and the last she ever seen her mother ehe was crying and waving to her. ~e never could forget that. We ai . used to sit around her and we would all be crying with her when she told that so many, many times. ~ andmother said she was five years old then and was sold to a doctor in Virginia. He made a house girl of her and learned her to be a midwife. *She told us about a tii~ when the stars ~ fell or a time about like it. lier master got scared in Virginia. His niece killed herself cause she thought the world was coming to an end.. Mama of the baby was walking, crying and praying. Grnd~e ~a had the baby. She said it was a terrible niorning. wWhen grandi iarna was sold away from her own mother she took the new master s cook for her mother. I live to see her. Her naii~ was Qiarity Walker. She was awful old. Grandinaina didri t rexaember if her mother had other children or not. She was the youngest. Qrandinezn~ was sold again. Her second master wasn t good as her doctor master. Be didn t feed them good, didn t feed the children good neither,

243 238

2. ASL) (J 11e told hia slaves to steal. Grand~iema had two children there. She waa pre~iant again. randpa stole a shoat. She craved meat. I&,at waa scarce then and the War was on. Grandpa had lt out up and put away. Grandmama had the oldest baby in the box under her bed and th~ youngest child asleep in her bed. She was frying the meat She seen the o~erseer across the field stepping that way. Grandpa left and grandrnaxna put the skillet of meat in the bed with the baby and threw a big roll of cotton in the fire. The overseer co~ in end looked around, asked what he smelled 1*xrning. She told him it was a sack of motes ( cotton lumps) ~andpa was J im Bell. Hie master learnet him to steal and 1i~. He got better after freed~. Gran4rpaina never would let us have pockets in our aprons and dresses. Said it was a temptation for us to learn to steal. She thought that was awftt . and to lie too. *Grandmama and grandpa and ia~ma and her sister, the baby, died. Cc~ with soldiers from Virginia to Helena, Arkexisae on a big boat. They nursed soldiers in the hospital in the last of the War. Grandpapa died in 1895. He had heart trouble He was seventy-five years old then. Grandmez~ died in 1913. She was awful, awful old. ~ Grandm~ia said they put her off on College and Perry streets but that wasn t the names of the streets then. She wore a baggin dress and brogan shoes. Brass-toed shoes and brase eyelets. She would take grease and soot and make shoe polish for them. Je all wore that dress and the shoes at tii~s. I wore them to Peabody School in Helena and the children made so imich fun of their cry C sq~ueeIcing) till I begged them to get n~ some better looking shoes for cold rainy spells of weather. I wore the dress. It was strong nearly as leather. When she was sold the last tiii~ ehe got a ~rble box and it had a small lock and key. It was square and thick, size of four men s shoe boxes.

244 239

. ~ 3. 2~9 When she come to Arkansas she brou~t lt filled With rice on the boat. ~e kept her valuable papers In lt. Our house Ixirned and the shoes end box both got away from x~. Her oldest girl died after the surrender and was never married. Never had children. On College and Perry streets the hospital was cleared bought the spot. It has had two houses rot down of his own been graded down and a big brick house stands there now. She used to tell how when meat was so scarce she d be cooking. She d wipe her girls faces with the diahrag. One of them would lick her lips. Make other children hungry for neat to see them so greasy. They hadn t had any meat. GrandmRma told me her doctor master boaght them shoes for her, and I think they gave her the marble box. The children teased me so nnich grend-~ ~nexna bought me sct~ limber sole shoes. ~Auntie was good they said end mama was mean so they said. died after surrender. We d tel . grsndmema she ought to put the mema. She said ths good Lord took care of her baby that time. ~et so mad. She would whoop us tor ~ saying she ought to put the on her. *Grandmwna was a midwife with black and white tor torty-five years in Helena. She worked tor Joe Homer, Mr. Leiter, Mrs. L M. Allen. Mama had eeven children, and grawbiiaina raised 1111 MarShal ( re. He works at D. T. Hargraves & Sons store now in Helena. He started a delivery boy 1~it now he is their main repair men. eGraMm13Lma W5~8 a. strong women. Mama worked out at some places I told you. GrandmeTna worked. Graudmama always had a pretty flower yard. She did love pretty flowers. away and grandpa on it. It has Auntie skillet on Mama would hot skillet

245 240

4. 240 *Uama minded grandinama like one of us. She was a good woman. None of us not even the boys, ever had pockets in our olothea. Grandxn~a made them for us. She taught us not to lie and steal. &e thought it was the worse thing you could do. She was loved and respected by white and black till she died down at Helena in 1913. They are aU. buried dom there.

[Interview with Brantley, Mack] 246 241

3O~68 21.1 ~g a~% ~ Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson . ~ -~-~---~ --~ ~ Person intervi ewed Mack ~anUe~ ~ln~eyfl Arkan8as, A~e8O I was born In Dallas County close to Selma, Alabama. My rriother s o~iners was Miss Mary Ann Roscoe and her husband was Master Ephriaxa Roscoe. They had a good size gin and Th.rxn. We would gather round and tell ha nt tales till we would be scared to go home in the dark. The wind would turn the old~$ashioned screw and make a noise like packing cotton. We older children would run and make out we thought it was the spirits. We knowed better but the little children was afraid. ~r parents was Lucindy Roscoe. My pa be1ou~ to Warren Brantley. His name was Silica Brantley. I was a stole chile. Ma had a husband the master give her and had children. My pa lived on a joining farm. She wasn t supposen to have children by my pa. That is why I m called Mack Brantley now. Mama died and Green Roscoe, my older brother, took me. to Howell s so they would raise me. They was all kin. I was six months old when ma died. My sister nursed ins but Miss Mary Ann Roscoe suckled rue wid 1~iiss Itiinnie When Miss Minnie got ~rowri and married she went to ~iobile, Alabama to live. Later Brother Silica dive nie to ~iaster Henry Harrell. They sent rae to school. I never went to colored school. We went to Blunt Springs three months every year in the summer time. When we come home one year Mr. Hankton was cone and he never come back, He was my only teacher. The white population didn t like him and they finally got him away.

247 242

2, 2~2 They W88 ood white people, I had a pallet lxi the roam and in the morning I took it up and put it away in a little room. I elept iii the house till I was good and grown. I iriade fires for them In the winter time. Mr. Walter died three years ago. He was their son. He had a big store there~ Miss Carrie married. Charlie Hooper. He courted her five years. I bring her a letter and she t ore it up before she read it ~ He ~ kept coming. He lived in Kentucky. The last I heard they lived in Birmingham. Miss Ki~tty Avery Harrell was my mistress at freedoni and after, and after boss died. I had four children. when I left. If Mr. Vlalter was living I d. go to him now. Mr. Hooper would cuss, Old boss didn t cuss. I never liked Mr. Hooper s ways. Old boss was kinder. All my sisters dead. I reckon. I got two brothers. Charles Roscoe was where boss left him. He was grown when I was a child. .Tack Roscoe lives at Forrest, Mississippi. Brother Silica Hoacoe had a wife and children when freedom cotas on. He left that wife and ~ot married to another one and went off to MIssissippi. Preachers quit their slavery wives and children and married other wives. It wasn t right. No ma am, lt wasn t right, Awful lot of it was done. Then is when I got took to my Miss Kitty. After freedom is right. I tole you I was a stole chile. I never seen my own pa but a few times. He lived on. a joining farm. Ma had a husband her master give her the first time they had been at a big log rolling and come up for dinner. They put the planks out and the dinner on it. They kept saying, ~Iack, shake hands with your papa. He was standing off to one side. It was softer shame. They kept on. I was little. I went over there. He shook hands with ins ~ I said, Hi papas Give me a nickel He reached in his pocket and cive me a nickel. Then they stopped teasing ins,

248 243

3. 243 He went off on Alabama River eighteen miles frc~n us to Caholba, Alabama, I never seen him znu~eh taore. Ma had. been dead. then several years, Green, my brother, took me to Miss Mary Ann Roscoe when mama died. She was my ma s owner. I stayed there till Green died. A whole lot of boys was standing around and. bet Green he couldn t tote that barrel ot molasses a certain piece. They helped it up and was to help him put it down and give him five dollars. That was late in the ebenin . He let the barrel down and a ball as big as a goose eg~ of blood corne out of his mouth. The next day he died. Master got Dr. Blevins q~uick as he could ride there. He was mad as he could be. Dr. Blevins said it weighed eight hundred pounds. It was a hogshead. of molasses. Green was rauch of a man. He was a giant. 1k. Blevins said they had killed a good man. Green was good and so strong. 1 never could Thrget it. Green was my standby. The Yankees burnt Boss Henry s father s fine house, his gin, his grist m~i1l, and fifty or sixty bales of cotton and took several fine horses. They took him out in his shirt tail and. beat hua, and whooped his wife, trying to rrake them tell where the money was. lie told her to tell. He had it buried in a pot in the garden. They went ~mnd dug it up. Forty thousand dollars in gold and silver. Out they lit then. I seen that. He lived to be eighty and she lived to be seventy-~eight years old. He had owned seven or eight or ten miles o~ road land at Howell Crossroads. Road land is like highway land, it is more costly. He had Henry and Finas married and. moved off. Miss Melia was his daughter and her husband and. the overseer was there but they couldntt save the money. I waited on Miss Melia when she got sick and died. She was fine a woman as ever I seen. Every colored person on the place Irnowed where the pot was buried. Some of them planted it. They wouldn t tell,

249 244

4. ~ V~e could hear the battles at Selma, Alabama. It was a roar and. like an earthquake. Freedom I was a little boy. I cried to ~o with the bigger children. They had to tote water, One clay I heard somebody crying over croes a ditch and fence covered with vines and 8rnall trees. I heard, Do pray master. I run bid under the house. I was snoring when they Thund me. I heard somebody say, ~ Slave day is over. That I s all I ever knowed about freedom. The way I knowed, a Yankee. We v~as in tIi~ road piling up sand and a lot of blue coats on horses was coming. We ~ot out of the road and went to tell our white folks, They said, Get out of their ~ iay, they are t Vthen I left Alabama I went to Mississippi. I worked my way on a steamboat. I had been trained to do whatever I was coximianded. The man, my boss, said, Mack, get the rope behind the boiler and tie it to the stob and. dead man . I tied it to the stob and I was looking for a dead man.. He showed rae what it was. Then I tied it. I went to Vicksburg then, I had ~ot mixed up with a woman and run off, I been married once in my lif~. I had eighteen children. Nine lived. I ~ot a boy here and a girl in Pine Bluff. My son s wife is iaean to me. I don t want to stay here. If I can ~et my pension started, I want to live with my daughter, I used to vote Republican. They claimed it made times better for my race. I found out better. I don t vote now, Wilson vias good as Mi , i~oosevelt, I think. I voted about eight years ago, I reckon. I didn t vote for Mr. Roosevelt. I wie :i I was young and had the chance this generation has sot. Thies is better every way for a good man unless h is unable to work like I am now.

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5, 2g.5 C 8 old maxi tends hi s garden, a lar e idee one ed . ) My son supporta me now,

[White folks want niggers.] 251 246

246 Y t~ I : 1~) ( ~ ~ $~ I Interviewer rn _ SexiiueiS.Tay~.or Person Interviewed Ellen Brass 142? L Eighth Street, Little Rock, Aricansas AgeAbout 82 ------------~ E JYh~~ ~:Lct:(j~ ~ Y}~4~4 VI was born In Alabama in Green County. I was about four years old when I came from there ; 80 I don t know much about it I growed up in Catahoula Loul siana. My s naine was Caroline J~itler and my father s naIne was Lee Butler. One of ray father s brother8 was named Sam 1~itler. I used to be a ~tler myself, but I married. My father and mother were both 8laV S. They never did any slave work, Father Free Raised My father was free raised. The white folks raised him. I don t know how he became free. All that I know is that he was raised right in the house with the white folks and was free. His mother and father were both slaves. I was quite small at the time and didn t know much. They bought us like cattle and carried us from place to place. Slave Houses The slaves lived in log cabins with one room. I don t know what kind of house the white folks lived in. They, the colored folks, ate corn bread, wheat bread (they raised wheat in those times), pickled pork. They made the flour right on the plantation. George Harris, a white trian, was the one who brought me out of Louisiana into this State. We traveled in wagons in those days, George Harris owned us in Louisiana.

252 247

~T? i~ 2. ~1ave Sales We were sold from George Harris to Ben Hickinbottom. They bought us then like cattle. I don t know whether it was a auction sale or a private sale, I am telling it as near as I know it, and I am te11in~ the truth. Hickinbottom brought U8 to Catahoula Parish in Louisiana. Did I say Harris brought us? ~el1, Hickinbottom brought us to Louisiana. I don t know why they went from one place to the other like that. The soldiers were bad about freeing the slaves. From Catahoula Pariah, Hickinbottom carried us to Alexandria, Louisiana, and in Alexandria, we was set free. How Freed~ i Came Acoordin~ to my remembrance the Yankees come around and told the people they was free. I was in Alexandria, Louisiana. They told the colored folks they was free and to ~o and take what they wanted from the white folks. They had us all out in the yard dancing and playing. They sang the song: t They hung ~ eff Davis on a sour apple tree While we all go marching It wasn t the white folks on the plantation that told us we was free. It was the soldiers their selves that carne around and told us. We called em Yankees. Right After the War Right after the War, my folks farrned--raised cotton and corn. My mother had died before I left Alabama. They claimed I was four years old when my mother died in Alabama. My father died after freedcm. Occupation My first occupation was fanning -you know, field work. Sometimes I used to work around the white people too -clean house and like that,

253 248

3. 2.~ .~ 8 Randc*u OpinionB The white folks ain t got no reason to xiiiatreat the colored people, They need U8 all the time. They don t want no food unless a nigger cooke lt. They want niggers to do all their washing and ~ ironing. They want niggers to do their sweeping and c1eanin~ and everything around their houeea, The niggera handle everything they wears and hands them everything they eat and drink. Ain t nobody can get cloaer to a white person~ than a colored pereon. If we d a wanted to kill ein, they d a all done been dead, They ain t no reason for white people mistreating colored people.

[Interview with Bratton, Alice] 254 249

30830 ~ ~ 249 Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed A1i~e Bratton~, Whoatiej, Arkansas A~e~ 56 I was born. a few miles from Martin, Tennessee. Mama wa~ born in Virginia. ~he and her sister was carried off from the Witherspoon place and. sold. She wa~ Betty and her sister was named Addle, Their mama had died and some folks said they would raise them and then they sold them, She said they never did know who it was that carried them off in a bi~ carriage. They brought them to Nashville, Tennessee and sold them under a big oak tree. They was tied with a haine string to a hitching ring. Addle wanted to set down and couldn t. She said, Betty, wouldn t our mama cry if she could see us off like this? Marna said they both cried and cried and when the man corne to look at them he said he would buy them. They felt better and quit crying. He was such a kind looking young man. They lived out from Nashville a piece then. He took them home with him, on a plank across the wagon bed. He was Master L~vy Fuller. Ho had a young wiTh and a little baby. Her naine was I~istress Maude and the baby was Carrie. She was proud of Betty and Addle, They told her their mama died. Mama said she was good to them. She died the year of the surrender and liaster Davy took them all to his mother s and his papa put them out to live ~:iith a family that worked on his place. They went to see Carrie and played with her till Addle married and mama come close to Martin to live with them. Addie took consumption and died, then mama married Frank Bane and he died and I was born.

255 250

2. 250 My pa was a white man. He was a bachelor, had a little store, and he overcome mama, She never did marry no more, I was her only child. I don t remember the nian but mama told me how she got tripped up and nearly died and for me never to let nobody trip me u~p that way. I sorter recollect the st ore It burned down one ni~it We lived around over there t ill I was sixteen years old. We moved to a few miles of Corinth, Mississippi on a farm. L~r. Cat Medford was the manager. I ~ot xaarried. I married Will Bratton. We had a home wedding on Stmday evening. It was cold and freezing and the freeze lasted over a week. Will Bratton was black as night. I had one little boy. After mania died Will Bratton went off with another woman. He come back but the place was mine. Marna left it to me. I wouldn t let him stay there I let him go on where he pleased. Times been growing slacker for a long time People live ~ slack. Young folks coming on slacker and slacker every day. Don t kxiow how to do, don t want to know. They ~et by better en I did. I work in the field and I can t hardly ~et by. I see folks do nothingall the time. Seem like they happy. Times is hard for some, easy for some. I want to live in the country like I is cause I belongs there. I can work and be satisfied~ I did own my home. I reckon I still do. I got a little cow and some chickens.

[Gives up the ghost.] 256 251

. ~ ~ ~)(j~ ~o 251 Interviewer 8axm~e1S.Ta1lor Person interviewed Fr~n ~ Briles ~-r--~a~ ~_ ~ _ ~ - .______ - ~ ~ ~-_~-_ ~ 817 Cross Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Age~_ About 82or 83 ~. !~ ~ -~- ~wm nI W~8 born ri ght here in Lrkanaaa. My tattLer s name was Moses Briles. My mother s nax~e was Tudy Brilea. Her naine before she was married- I don t know. They belonged to the Brl es. I don t know their first nen~ either, My father was under 8lavery. He chopped cotton and plowed and scraped cotton. That is where I got my part from. He would carry two rows along at once, I was little and couldn t take care of a row by myself. I was born down there along the tine of the War, and my father didn t live long after. wards, He died when they was settint them all tree. He was a choppin for the boss man and they would set them up on blocks and sell them. I don t know who the tnan was that did the selling, but they tell me they would sell them and buy them. I am sick now, My head looks like it s goin to bust open. I have heard them tell about the pateroles. I didn t know them but I heard about them. Them and the Ku Klux was about the s ine thing. Neither one of them never did bother my folks. It was just like we now, nobody was round us and there wasn t no one to bother you at all at Bribe plantation. Briles plantation I can t remember exactly where it was. It was way down In the west part of Arkansas. Yes, I was born way back south~east~way back, I don t know what the nwae of the place was but it was in Arkansas. I know that. I don t know nothing about that, My father and mother ca~ from Virginia, they said, My father used to drive cattle there, my mother said, I don t know nothin except what they told ~

257 252

t~g 2. ~I learnt a little sonmthing from my folks. I think of more things every tiras I talk to scmebody. I know one thing. The woman that bossed me, she died. That was about~Lord I ~as a little bitty of~ a fellow, didn t know nothin then. She made clothe8 for me. She kept me in the house all the t Irre. She was a white women. I know when they was sett Ing them frees I was goin down to ~et a drink of water. My father said, Stop, you 11 be drowned. And I said, What niust I do? And he said, Go back and set down till I come back. I don t know what my tather was doing or where he was going. There was a man I don t know who..-he come round and. said, You re all free t My mama said Thank God Thr that, Thank God ror that . That is all I know about that. Then I got o~d enough to work they put me in the woods 8plitting rails and plowing. When I grew up I scraped cotton and worked on the farm. That is where my father would corne and say, Now, son, if anybody asks you how you reel tell them the truth. . I went to school one session and then the man give down. He got 8ick and couldn t carry it no longer. His pupils were catching up with him I reckon. It was time to get sick or~ soinethin . I never did marry, I was promised to marry a woman and she died. I said, Well, I will give up the ghost. I won t marry at all. I am t able to do no work now cept a little pittling here and there. I get a pension, It s been cut a whole lot.R So

[Interview with Brooks, Mary Ann] 258 253

253 . o~j ~Jt~j#k?:i ..~ ~. . . ~ Mrs. Btraiss 3owdas ~ .u - ~L.l U .-.~UIS ~ *~JT ~U ~fl W U SiN ~ U _-U- --- ~~SV . a~1 n~o.ka - - ._-__M_______--I_-uU- I_ ~ _ ~ _ _~ _~U~~C - P- ~ z_sa 1ddit~on~ Pin.. Bluff, Arkansas Int.rvi.wsr Person intervie~sd ~ s---..O _ I was born hsrs in Arkansas. IMrin the war wa went to Texas and stayed ons year and six months. My old .ster was old Dr. &.wstr. Es boeght mo whan I eight year. old. Took me in for s debt. Ne had a drug store. nurs.girlinth.ho~iss. Stayedinthehouasallaylife. I stayed here till ~. Brwstsr ~ ~. Arthur Brewst r was hi. n stsye~t here tut i~. csrri.~ as to his brother-in law ~. Las Brunson. St.ysd thsre sihils, thin ~h war stsrtsd and hi carried us all to Texas. 1 sian s~ Yankees after is ccmm back to Arkansas. I was scared of ~. ~ don t know nothin b*it the war. I wasn t in it. I was livin butisiasinTexas. ~ The ~L flUx got after us twice *ea is was gem to Texis. Is had ix wagons, s cart, and a carriage. Old Dr. ~assa rede in the carriage. He d go ahead and pilot ths way. le got lost twios. Ihm is cc~ to Bed Rivsr it is. up sad is had to o~ there thres ~ks till ths water fill. . Es took sc~ ihasp and acme cows so is could kill most on th way. I bsr we forded Salin. Rivsr. ~ . Brunsan carri.d us there and stsy.d till h. hired us out. Attsr ths war sesstsd he c~i attsr us. Told us we didn t belong to him no more said is was fris as he was. Ysakees sent him after us. AU thi folk. 00mo bask sU hat ons fily. was a girl lissa

259 254

2. ~ ex bad tolsrabls good ours. Miss I~nny k~wst r good to . Old asst r got ~run~ so ~asii. ccv. hems somstis ddy as a hog. All his chilina was girls. I nursed aU the girls ~it ens. .1 was a aighty denser ihm I was yenag ~- danosd nil night long. Paddyr4Illers run u.s hcu fron denein oui night. RI ae~bsr on. song ~ ussd to sing: ~ ~ Hop light lady ..~ksiassUdough~ae. I.y.xb ~j~4 ~ wsthr~ So th. ~nd don t blow. Eow ~ny !hillun I hais? I.s as. ~ count ~ up. Ida, ~il1i., Clara hadsix. &~ of the young folk. nowadays pretty rough. Seas of em do right end sou don t. ~svsr did go to school. Coulda ~snt ~it papa di.d end had to go to work. I thinks ovsr old ti~s sos~tinsa by ~ysslt. Didn t know what frnsdon was tili ws wal frss and didn t hardly know then. .E.ll, it s b.sn a long t1. All ths ~svsters end the ~inaons ~sad iin~~ I ~ $tiU hors buM. Bssn blind sight yssrs.~

A railroad worker's story. 260 255

~d s. s. Taylor A F-~ ~ ~ I ~ ~ ~ I ~ ~ ~# I d ~ - :.~ ~ .~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ (~A~ ~ ~ f ~: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I wa~ only three years old when peace ( 1865 ) wa~ de dared. X was born In 1862. Peace was declared in 1865. 1 rimea ber seeing plenty f men that they said the white folks n ver whipped. I remember aeeiug plenty of ae)i that they 8atd bought their own free- i: remember a woman that they 8ald fought with the ove~aeer for a whole day and 8tripped him naked aa the day he wae born. She was N ancy Ward. 1er owner waa named Billie Yard. Re had an overseer named Roper. Her husband ran away from the white folks and &tayed three years. Ne wa~ in the ~you in a boat and the bottom dropped lut of it. He c1iR~ d a tree and hollered for s~me~ne to tel his ~.a8ter to come and get him if he wanted him. . FATIER L~y father s master was John T. WIlliame. He went into the ariq -- the rebel army -- and taken ~iy father with him. I don t know how long ~ father stayed in the army but I was only 6 months old when he died. lie had some kind of stomach t?~oebl. and died a natural death. ~ MOTI~E My mother and father both belonged to Toe tard ai~ at first but Ward died and his widow married ~illiaina. ~ mother told me and nftt only told me but showed me knots ac osa her shoulder where they ~hipped her from seven in the morning until nine at hight. She went into ~Iaters Brooke 1814 Pulaski Street 75 ~%~A~1 __

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~3. s. Taylor the amoke hou/8e to g t some meat and they clo8ed in on her and 8hut the door and strung her ~p by her hands ( her arms were crossed and a rope run f rorn ~1er ~rr1i~t~ t) the hook In the oe1l~ Ing on which iseat ~as hying) . There were three of them . One would whip until he wa~ tir d, and thei the other would take it up. Some years after ~he got that whipping. ber master e child was down to the bayou playing in the water. She told the aMid to atop playing in the water, snd it did Ist. Inetead it threw dirt Into the w~ter that had the bluing in it. Then ehe took the child and threw it in ~ o the Bayou. ~ii Some way or ther the child managed to eoramb .e out. When the child e aunt herd t t from the oh I ~4 she queeti oned ~y m~t~er ~nd a~ked her if k ehe dId lt. My mother told her ~~Ts1~*. ~ ehe a~id, ~Iell what do you want to own it for? Don t you know 1f they find lt 0ut9 they will kill you~ HO1~1 PRIEDOM CAME ~ffy mother aid that an old white man came through the quarters on e morning ~rnd said that they were all free ~ that they could go away or otay where they were or do 1d~hat they wanted to. If YOU will go there, :i can send you to an old man

262 257

~25~ s . s. Taylor eighty-six yeare old who was In General Shermaa s amy. Is S$1 fron Mii3sissippi. I don t know where h. was a slave. kt bi Ian tell iou when peacb was dso1ar ~ and what they said and .vsrythin~. ~ filA.? TB SLA~ IXflCTID The slaves we e not expecting nuch bet they vers expeotiag more than they got. X an not tefliag you anything I read in historybut I bave h ard that there was a bounty In the tx sasury ~ir tus x-alsvis, and thea alone. Andsome reason Or other th*y did n riot pay it..zt. but the time vas aoning when theywouid paj it off. And every man oz wOasu liVing that was born a i1~av woutd benefit grom it. They say that Abrahan Lineola prinotpaUj ~s killed be- cause he was going to pay this mone7 to thi ex-slaves and before they would permit it they killed hin. ~ Old nan site sh. lives out in the west part et town vas an agent for cerne ~ Benater she _ e In Washington, and he charged a dine and took ~our nane and age and the place wher! Yo+iY.d. xu KLUX KLAN ?hs,!~aU.d the L E. L0Vhi$ Ssp~. Right there in ~ neighborhood, there W$6 a ~tired man who had n t hag eons In The cc4,red ~an sai l ti ~oaiag into the lot to get tise mull for the white aa~,d sud w~n he was working for. The *ite n hit hin Waters Brooks 1814 Pa1~askt Street. little Reek., Ark. Retirid railroad worker, le. ~e.

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/1 2j8 84 5. ?ay:L.r The legro knocked the whIte man down and was/ going to kLU hUa when the white mari begged him off, teUing him that he w aU n t let anybody bise hurt ~iM . IS ( the Negro) ws % on oft and ~evsr cams baok a. That nigh.t there weis two hundred white . Cs~pS looking for~ hini but t~sy dtdz~ t find hia : . An~ther rua got itto aa srguiuent. Th 7 WeUt to WO2 k aid lt a*a started to rain. The legro thOught that they would stop w rking be cause of ths rain; so he start.d home. The man he was w~j~g f ~ ait Ma and asked him where be was going. When bi told hia hs started tO hit hta with the. butt end of the gun hi. was wearing. The Negro knooke4 hi* gu UP. took it away froa hie, and drawed down and etart~d to kill hta wh n anOther Negro knssk~d tho gun up, and s*~ed the white *ah s lit.. B~t thi hUer aight as yoU ~avs kII ed him beoau~. that night se~enty.fivs niasksd min h**ted hia He was hid swa~ by his friends ~u~ttl he got e ohaac to get sway. This an was named Mattbsw Collins. There ~ another ease. Ikis was s political ns. ~ colored aan wanted to run for repree.entati~e if Ora kiM. is had aeon atilap .pesktn~. Es lived en a uhite asn s pIsee and the owner cams to his and told him he had better get sisy beca~ie s mob was coming after hi* (net Just K L L). Is toid his wiSe to go away and stay with his ~ but she *ORI4 n t. ~s hid hiisU in a Waters Brooks 2$14 Nla ki Streit, tti. Rock A~kaasas R.tiri4~ ~ ~Ur a* ~ _______________

264 259

:1:12 259 s. s Taylo? trunk a~d his wife was undir tks floor with his t~s ahfldrsn. The white min firedinto the houas and that did a t di azqthlng. so they throwid a bail of fire into ths houas and bsziiid his itt. and ohildrui. ?~sn k. rost ~p aad osas Out of the trunk ~nd bolbred ~Look out I a o..taig. and hs firsd a load of buck shot and ~tori one a nu.rl~ in tvs aid. ran a~vay in tho ~af*. tin * nsxt da~ he wont to this n on whose placs he lived, bvat he told hi2L he could n t do anything abut it. Another ass ~y thi a~s of Bob Sauj.r had s far* near * hoas aad another far* down asar ~ajtat7 a, place. Ii worked Ui ___ ihguiii~ fr..~ one tara t. th. .tk.r. ala boy would ride in fr At with a nfl. and k. would be ta rear with a big g~n swisgiag dowa fron hi s hip. Thon ~s one gsi who got o*t and went dswa ts Al~~drta (~ui.i~). Is writ. to the officers and they caught the Nigger and ~Ut ii iii into the stocks and brought him back. and ths man kai a t done s thing but: run away. After that th.j~ worked bta with a chata ho~di~ his legs together s. that ho co~ld only ~ks short stops. They ha& an old white ass who work d Liiors sut they tr.at~ hia so ~an h ran ay sad left his wif . They trsstsd the poor vh:Itss about as bad as they treatted the colorod. ~ . If Bob mot a Isgr. carrying. ssttoa to t~. jn~ he wsld ask *lhos.00tton t. that?, sD,d if the J~sr ~*id it ~ s~ ikiti . lotira Brooks 1$14 Pulaski StrS.t. Littlo losk.. Arkaimsas ~ R,ttia4 ~iIri~d v~r ______

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~2Go s. a. ?.;3~or sap s. he ~~o*Id 1~et him a~sne. Eut if he said. Xia., Bob wo~I4 tell hi~i to take it to some Gin whsr ho i,aiitsd it taken. I. wae tb. the kind of itan that if you seen hua first, yGu wsu .d u t asst hia. One nt ht he slipped up on a Jigger n that had 1~tt his place and killed hii as he sat at sapper. I had an aunt with f v or su, cht:Ldr.a who worker with hia. le itarried a~ young iis~tr.ss after I was fres4. I saw hua do this . The white folks had a funeral at the ~~rch doim there ose Sanday. le cams aloag and 7.~ig Lillie ~rd (~ihLto ~a) was sittlig in a buggj drt*tng with hi. vifs. I~on he say :siiii., he 3u*p d d.w* ott of ht~ bi$gy and hsrs.~ vkipp~d lUi uatt2~ ho ran away. Afl the vhii . Saiysr . aoiher4a~~av was attti~ ta hi. bu$U e.IIinm lut, 0Sho t hua, Bsb~, sheet hua. lhts was be. cause Billie aad aiiothsr n had done soas taU about Bob. . ~CUPAT!OJ3 . ~ 1q00 I coite t Brt*k:L.y, A*aa~sas, ~reh 4. 110. and had,. ~ Arkaitaas STIr s tas . hay I Sititi s th~ postaaster ~.r. I iras rilitid tara oit which t was faratag . in lareh k. p~t hands la ~ . ft.i~ to ~ pick iq cott.n AU that was in the field ~ae auto. t kas~ that I could . t 40 anythivg about it so I loft . A co~p1 st yea~s be fore that t rentd five sores of Land frmn Ma fir thr.. dollars ait

266 261

-.7 / 261 ~. 8~. ?syior Se?. (ve~ ba1 agr imeni) sowed it down in aott~a~. lt done ~o weil i~ dade fi~ bales of cotton on Lt. le saw thi~ proepsots were as good that he went to the ~n dio furnished ae eupplise aed teld )~im that i: had agreed to d~ ~ iiork on a third and fourth ( one-third of the seed and oneufeurih ( the cotton to go to the owner). ~ got this althongh if he had stuok to the .grsoosat he would n t have gtten but fifteen dollars. So he dealt me a blew there b*t 1 got over it.- .~ s B~efors thu I had bowght a pt.ss of tiaber land 1~n I~ori~.s.s parish (L.uist~) and was xp.otiag t ~.t th mousy to finieh paying for it. f$o~ ~y cotton. The cost was $IOO~OO. S. itien he ppt hands in ~ field, it made me nad, aed I ICt. ( ~*oks wield hass isst neat ~f his cotton if the hands had ptckod it. ) s At Brinkley, x farmed n ha1~ei wi th lUI ~rter~ a1 ot the rickest ~n in banc Cauhty (Arkansas). .1 dies $17.50 worth of work for Carter aM he paid we for it . Their hi turu.d around a~ charged we up with it. Ilion we ane tfb settle up. wo cield n t Settle. So finalty. hi aaid iigtar.a doa t lis.~ and t said. 10. figures don t Iii but ion ds ~h en I sod tbM I stepped Outand did n t get seared until I was half way hies. ~t nobody did anything . I. aent for es but ! wield a t g. baok becasse I Waters Brooks :11.14 Pulaski Street. Little Rook Retired railroad worker .

267 262

~~? 262 s. a. Taylor . knew ~hat he W&8 doing. After that I went to Theatley, Arkansas. about five nibs wsst . f Brinkley. t nads a crop for Goldberg. aks ReMus was Gold. berg s agent. The folko had told the white foLks I ~s n t no acciunt, 80 1 COuld n t get nothing on j Ja.t a little fat neat and bread and I got as naked as a Jaybird. About the Last part of August, when I had doris laid by and everything Yaks R.sdna 4 caas )~7 and told no what the liggere had .514 and said he knswd it was a lie b cauas t had the bsat orop on th place. . When Goldberg went to psy ne off, h. told Dr.. Beauregard to seas and get his noney. I .aid,* ~oI~ give me q aoasj; I pay ~ own debt.. Ton have iaothing to do with it.~ ~ien I said that jota co~4 hays heard a pin drop. But hi gaveit to as. Then I aaflsd the Doctor and gav hin his a.nsj and he receipted . I newer st.~d there but sas ysar. ~ I uvsd then down to lape), S ~ough on I~. west s p1ace. I od to rent but Dr. Veat would nt advance ne u~ythi~ unisse he took a n.rtgag. a .7 pInes ; s. I wOuld n t stay there.. I chart~ sr d a ear ~ an4 took iq things back to BrinkLsy at a cost et ten ds& tari. T stayed around Prinktsy all th winter. While T was at Ph afley. there ~e a man ~y the r~s of 1111 Snith who narrt d the daUghter at Dr. Psator. druggist at Brin~s7. low 31* SmIth por white traih, attsispted t, assault Will Tho waters 31 GOks 1814 Palaski Streit, Little Rook Ark Retired raUx.ad worker 7$

268 263

c~ 263 S. S. TaIlor . daught.r.(ISglO gtrl.ak whoa Thonas heard it. he hunted Ji~ with a Winohsatsr . Whe~ i that got out Dputy Shertff arrested 1111 and they atd that he was chained whoa ho was brought to trial.. Ii got away fran then ~. h w and went to Tonuboro. T took iq horse and rid seven or eight ailed t carry hi. ctothea~ Another ligger who had piwais.d to anke a crop wh,n he k Sft had the bl od beat out of ht. baok vscauas he did a t do it. The winter. I worked at th Gin and Biask Saw ~i1L. . That ipring T pulls tap and goes to Bries.. That waa In the year 1905. t ~ wade a crop with old aan Wile; W.rley one of the biggeet iIi~g.rs there. T feil short. Georg. Walk r furniahed what ~ hd. Then T lilt and wont back to BrinkThy and work~ at the Sawaiij again. That ~ in 1904. t vent tcJoneabo o. ~ had Just nunJr enough to go to Jouesboro, a~iI had ~sjxaim~~ a couple of dol. tars over. t h~d never been out before that; eo ~ spent tk~t ~ n t did II get any work. I stayed there three day. and ziights and dit ri t get anything to eat. LtVei in a bcx oar. Then I went to work with the tton Dolt. . M, boarding miatrese decided to go up to fiftesa dollars f or board3 I told her I could n t pa~i her fifteen do1iar~i f~r that month, Iut would begin next month. She wouldn t have tbst and got tus offiosra to look for my nonsy 80 i caught the train and went back to 3rlnkley and work 4 on the railroad again fr~ Uis Waters bsska 3.814 Pulaakt Strsst. Little Rook Arkansa~a Rstirid 1*iIraSd worker

269 264

?~ / / (:J 264 ~ 3. Tayler Cetton 3S~t to ths Rook Island. ~ I wa 8 ~5tt1fl~ along all right and I don ~ job, but when ths foreman wanted a. to w rk on the roof and I told him if that was all he had for as to do he could pay e o~f because-that was off the gronud anI I was fraid of falling. Is said that I was a good hand and that h~ hated to 1o~e na. lu larch. 4. 1907. I cans hire (Little Rock) and at first roIts4 concrets In ifi.asye~ ea t $1.10 a day where the othr ~ were g ttiug frwi two to tas ~fld ~ half. doUars. ?h.y quit for note wages ~ I had to qialt with then. Then I worked around till my 24 when I was hired at the Mountain Shopsas In~ia wiper for about six or eith noatha then painte flies for thrs er four neaths. then waS wOod hauler for absat thirtsan or ~ yenis. then teak care of the situation with shaving. and *11. th.n ataj.d ta wash room s tz: er seven jw~ until I ~was rstired. I ~ksd contraI of the ici house too. I~A$ AP~IT TIE P~ ~ . o*ag ps0p3s are Just g tng back ta aid Ants-BiU dir.. They are going to d*stritioa . Thsy got a~w~ if th.LZ swa and you oan t tell then an.ything. They d.n~t idneate a~qth1ng .bat thj~ heads The heart is n t sdusatsd and ti ~ heart ta blaik as ~p hat, can t di aqthti~g far Go*~ The old people ars a.t getti~ a a squars dial. Sons of then ars being hiIpI. Waters :~ eeki . . I 14 P~itaski ~ttest. Littis leek, irkansas Retired R*iIr.$d Workir .

270 265

265 s. s. Taylor SCNOOLIIO I did not get ~au~h sohooling. Between the time I.was old enough to go to school and the time Iwent to the field, ~ iot a little. I would go to school from July to S pteaber, and also about six weske in Zara*ry. They had publie sohool taught by aoi~s of the people. t went to a white aan ones. An old ~btte woman *~$ht thu s before him, ~: went to a legro woman, Old Lady Abbie Lindsay. Skis lives here nowfrown on State Street. She ta ~beut ninety years old. t went to J~ubi Williams (white), Current Lewis, Abbie Lindsay, and A. G. ~prtin. They did n t pass you by grades then. got through the fourth reader. 1f you got through, they would go back and carry 7011 through .gain. They had the old Blue Back Speller. I got ready for the fifth reader but t quit. I had Just begun to sipbs~. in arithmetic, but T had to quit because they oould n t spare as out of the field. !n fact they put ~ into the field when! was eight years old, but j managed to go to ~hool until I was about tweivsy.aru~,i old or something like that. I never got a year s schooling all put together. iy mothar was a widow and had f ~ or six children, none If thin able or big enough to workb~t ~ oldest sister. She raised five of ~ If :i: had done as she told me. t might have been a gso~ eoho~ ~atsra 3rooka t$14 Pulaski Strss$, Little 1~ck, Arkansas Retired railroad worker

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1 s. s. T;alIsr ar. But I PlaYed aro~rnd an~ ~m went catt wi th the other chj~dyen. I tearnt wa~ aftei waids wh n ~ ~ grown how to vki1~e ~ naine. I could ~3:~k addition ~tnd I c.iuld work so~n in muitipltea :t~ tion. but I could n t work division and could n t work sub.~ traction. Conie around any tinie~ specially a Sunday atter~soxas. tat~ra Br oki 1814 Pulaski Street. L1tt ~s Rook. Arksnsa R ttrsd ~ailroM workir

Negro lore - the story of Casie Jones Brown. 272 267

~-~--~ ~. .... P 1 . 4~.i4 ~ .~ . . ~ : Little Rook District FOLKLORE SUBJECTS ~ Name of IntervieworVelinaSazuple Subject ~ ~ ~ORE~~IE STORYOF CASIEJONES BRGNN St~oi y - Information (If not enough space on this page add page) Casie Jones Brown was a dearly loved Ner~ro servant. He was known for his loving kindness toward children, both black and white. Lots of the white children would say, Casie sure is smart because Casi~ was a funny and witty old darkie, Casie has a log house close to his master, Mr. Brawn. They live on what is called the Brown Plantation. The yard had large old cedars planted all arowid it. They were planted almost a century ago. The plantation is about six miles from ~aragould, Arkansas, where the hills are almost mountains. There havebeen four generations living in the old house. They have the big sand stone fireplaces. Casie has a spiritual power that males hirn see and hear things. He says that sometimes he csn hear sweet voices somewhere in his fireplace. In the winter time he does all of his eooking in a big black kettle with three legs on it, or a big iron skillet. And when he first settled there he did not have a stove to cook on e~cept the fireplace. 11e says the 5irig~ in~ that cones from sorriewhere about th~ fireplace ~s cTod having his angels entertain him in h~s lonely hours. Casie is 91 years old and has been in that settlement as long as he can remember. The little white boys and girls like to be entertained by Casie. Ele tells them stories about the hear and peter rabbit. Also he has sub jects for them to ask questions about and he answers them in a clever way. :ro was kind enough to let me see the list and the answers. ~e cennot write but he has little kids to write them for him. He cannot read, but they ap?)oint one to read for him, and he has looked at the list so much that he has it rr~morized.

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268 . . CASIE JO1 S BROWN 2- Casio, what does hat mean or use hat for a subjeot. De price ob your hat ain t de niedjer ob your brain. Coat ~ Ef your coat tail oatoh afire don t wait till you kin see de blaze tf0t you put it out. Graveyard - De graveyard is de oheapes boardin house. Mules Dar s a f tn ly coolness twix de mule an de sing e tree. Mad - It pesters a man dreadful when he git mad an don know who to cuss. Crop -. Buyin on credit is rabbin next ~ ~ Christmas -- Christmas w5.thout holiday is like a candle without a wick. Crawfish - De crawfish in a hurry look like he tryin to g t dar yastiddy. Lean houn Lean ho~n lead do pack when de rabbit in sight. Snow Flakes ~ Little flakes make de deepes snow. Whitewash -- Knot in de plank will show free de whitewash. Yardstick ~ A short yardstick is a po thing to fight de debbul wid. Cotton Dirt sho de quickes on de oleanes cotton. Candy De candy pullin din call louder dan de log..rollint. Apple De bee apple float on de top o ligion heaps de half bushel. 110e - De steel hoe dat laughs atde iron one is like de man dat is shamed o his grand-daddy. Mule ~- A mule kin tote so much goodness in his face dat he don t hab none lef for his hind legs. V~a1ks ~- Some grabble walks may lead to ~de jail. Cow bell De cow bell can t keep a secret. Tree Ripe apples make de tree look taller.~ Itose __ De red rose don t brag in de dark. Billy goat - De billy goat gits in his hardes licks when he looks like he gwine to back out o de fight.

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CASIE JO~1ES BR~Yd~N 269 . 3 fim t t t Good luck - ijs hard for de bes an smartes folces in de wul to git long widout a little teoh o~ good luck. Blind horse - Blind horse knows when de. trough empty. ~agon - De noise of de whee Is don t medjer de load in de wagon. H0t Las ear s hot spell cools off mighty fast. Hole - Little hole in your pocket is wusser n a big one at de knee. u n Tim & day - Appetite don t regerlate de time o day. Quagmire - De quagmire d on t hang out no si. gn. ~ Ne dlo - One pus son kin ~ ead a ne od le better than two. Pen- De pint o de pin is de easier in to find. . ~ __ ~De green top dontt medjer ae price o~ de turnip. Dog - Muzzle on de yard dog unlocks de smokehouse. . EQUAL TO THE EL~ERGENCY Heber Uno Isrul, inairauy says, hoocwr~ de milk so watery on top in de mornin . Patriarch: Tell you mamix~ dat s de bes sort o milk, dat s de dew on it, de cows been layin in de dew. Hebei ~ she tell me to ax you what mock it so blue. ?atriarch~ You ax your maiurr~r what mock she so blaok. Here are some of Casio s little rhymes t}at he entertained the neighbor children with: . Look at dat possum in dat hollar log. He hidin he know dis nigger eat possum laik a hog. Hear dat hoot owl in dat tree, Dat old hoot owl gwine hoot right out at yew. Rabbit, rabbit, do you know; I can track you in de snow.

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CASIE JONES BRGN1~ ~ -4.. . e One young man 1ing~red at the gate after a long visit, but a lots ob sweethearts do dat. His lady love started to cry. He said, Dear, don t cry; I will corne to see you again. But she cried on. Oh, darling don t cry so; I will come back again, I sure will. Still she cried. At last he said: Love, did I not tell you that I would soon come again to see ~r()1~? And through her tears she reolied: Y05, but I am afraid you will never go; that is what is the matter with me. ~iVe must all go. Uncle Joshua was once asked a ~~reat question. It was: If you had to be blown up which v~ould you choose, to be blown up on the railroad or the t We 11, sa id Unc le Joshua, I don t want to be blowed up no way; but if I had to be blowed up I would rather be blowed up on de railroad, because, you see, if you is blowed up on de railroad, dar you is, but if you :~s blowed up on de steamboat, whar is you? Casie t lls me of some of his superstitions: If you are the first person a oat looks at after he h~s licked }~isse1f, you are ~~cing to be married. If you put a kitten under the cover of your bed and leave it until it crawls out by itself, it will never leave home. If you walk through a pl~oe where a horse wa!lcw~, you W ll have a headache. If a woodpecker raps on the house, someoneis going to die. If an owl screeches, turn the pocket of your apron inside out, tie a knot in your apron string, snd 1-e will stou. If a rabbit rims across the road in front of you, to the left, it is a sign of bad luck; if it goes to the right, it is a sigh of good luck0 If you out a child s finger naIls before it is a year old, it will steal vthen it grows up.

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CASIE JONES BROV~N 2~1. 5. If you put your hand on the head of a dead man, you will never worry about him; he will never haunt you, and you will never fear death. If the pictures are not turned toward the wall after a death, some other member of the family will die.. If you see a dead man in the mirror, you will be unlucky the rest of your life. -

Slavery days. 277 272

Little Rook District 30584 . 272 ~ FOLKLORE SUBJEC TS ~ ~ ~fii~ . j~~j~j1, Naine of Interviewer Ve1inaSaxnp~e ~ Subject SlaveryDays Story s Information (If not enough space on this page add page) TFTE ATT K THE YANKEES MADE 0N JCHN~IE REAVES PLACE GIVEN BY AUNT ELCIE BROWN k 2nt Elcie Brown (a negro girl age nine years old) was living in the clay hiIl~ of Arkansas close to Centerville, and Clinton in Amid County on Johnnie Reeves Place. Johnnie Reeves was old and had a son named Henry L. Reeves -~ho was married. Young Reeves got the news that they were to be attacked by the Yankees at a certain time and. he took his family and all the best stock such as horses, cattle, and sheep to a cave in a bluff which was hid from the spy~glasses of the Yankees, by woods all around it. Johnnie Reeves was left to be attacked by the soldiers. He was blind and almost paralyzed. 11e had to eat dried beef shaved real fine and the negro children fed him. They ate as much of it as he did. Aunt Elcie and her brother fed him most of the time. They would p~et on each side of hirn and l3ad him for a walk most every day. The nativos thou~ ht they would bluff the sol diers and cut the bridge into and thought that the soldiers would be unable to cross Beevors Creek, but the Yankees was ?repared. They had made a long bridge for the sbldiers to come marching right over. This bridge was just a mile from Reeves farm. Y~hen the soldiers came they were 80 many that they could not all cone up the big road but part of them cau~ over the hill by the sheeps spring and through the pasture.

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-2.. All the negroes came out of their shacks and watched them march toward their houses. Elcie and her brother got scared and ran in the house, crawled in bed and thoupht they were hid, as they had scrutcHed dovm in the middle of the bed with the door locked. But the soldiers hursted in and moved the bed from the corner. One stood over the bed and laughed, then asked the other rcan to look, then threw the covers off of them. He first took her brother by one arm and one leg and stood him on his feet, patted his head and told him not to be afraid, that they would not hurt them. Then took Elcie and stood her up. He reached in a bag lined with fur which was strapped on them and gave them both a stick of candy. Elcie says she thinks that is why she has always liked stick cendy. She also says that that day has stood out to her and she can s ee everything just like it was yesterday. All the negro homes were close together and the soldiers raided them in small bunches. They were kind to the negro children. ~en they started to the big house where Johnnie Reeves Lived all the negro children followed them. Vhen they entered the house Mr. Reeves was sitting by tho side of the fire-place and every one that ~assed hirn kicked him brutely. They ransacked the place all over and when they got up stairs they kicked out all the window pains and tore off all the window-shutters. They took all the things they wanted out of the house, such as silver~ware, and jewelry. The sir~ke house, milk house and store house was three separate buildings in a row. The first one they entered was the ni1k-ho~se. It had seven shelves of milk, cream end but ter in it. There was eleven crooks of sweet milk larger than a waterbucket. They had forty gallons of butter milk and over three gallons of butter in a large flat crock. They also had over five Fallons of cream. The Yankee soldiers ate all the butter and cream and set the milk in the yard and ask the negrc kids to finish the milk. ~ s

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f;, I ~ They drank it like pigs without a cup, just stuck their heads doiim and drai~k like pigs. ~hen they were full the balance of the mi k was so dirty :i~t looked like pigs had been in it. The so1dier~ entered the next building which was the store~rcom where they stored rice, flour, sugar, coffee, and such like, and they took what they wanted,then destroyed the rest. Mr. Reeves had just been to tovm and bought a hogshead of sugar and they took it out and burst it and invited the negro children to help themselves. Elcie says that when the kids all go~ full there was not a half bushel left. The last raid was the smoke~house where stuffed sausage was hanging by the hundred and han~s by the dozens. They didn t leave a thing, took lard and everything~. It took over two wagons to hold everything. Then they crossed over to.the next place o~n~ed by Bill ~unley. ***** *** ** *** **~* ** Dr. Levy tells me of his father being partial to the southerners although he lived in Evansville, Indiana, and fou~tht as a Yankee. He was accused of being partial and they would turn over his ~wa~ons and cause him trouble. He had fine wagons and sometimes when he would be turning his wagons back up after them beinr turned over to contrary him, he would curse Gen. Grant, and call him that G. D. Old Tobacco spitter. Although henry Levy seldom did swear as he ws.s French, sometimes they would make him mad and he would do so.

Builds church and school. 280 275

#741 t~isjJ 3o~: ;~o Interviewer 3aimie18.Ta~1or Person interviewed p. E~. Brown ~d - !iiko~ ~tY~i~ti~ Rock, Ar1caI~ ~ ~ J ~ ~r)~ ~7/ ~ ~- ~ ~ 1 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~f~YZ~ I wa~ born in Marion County, M138i$sippi. Columbus is the county seat. My father a naine was Haxard Brown, and my mother? s name was Willie Brown. She wa8 a Rankin before she married, My mother was born In Lawrence County, Mississippi, and niarried rather there, My father was born in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. I was born in three feet of the line in Louisiana. I was born in the old slave quarters. The house was just across the line between Mississippi and Louisiana. The lower room was in Loui lana and the other was in Mississippi, There was a three foot hail between the rooms. It was a matter of convenience that I was born in Mi8sissippi. I might have been just as well born In Louisiana. The house was in both states. My tather s master was Black Bill Warren. Black Bill was just a title they give him, I think that his name was Toe Warren, but they nicknamed him Black. Bill, and everybody called him that. My mother belonged to the Rankinses. My mother s mother was named Dolly Ware My father s mother was named Maria. The ir papa s father was named Thomas and I forget my mother s father s name. I know it but I forget it just now. I haven t thought over it for a long time. ~M~y father when he died was eighty five years old. He was treated pretty good in slavery t ime He dl d farm work, His mars had about ninety slaves, that is, counting children and all. When I was a boy,

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2, 276 I waa lfl those quarters and saw them. some time afterward, taught In them. I have been a preacher, oie course. I hundred years old. He belongs to the My tather lived to see freedom. years. He died at my home. He was so close to the fight Ing that he could hear the guns and the firing. When they was freed, some white people told him, You are just as tree as we re I was born after the Emancipation proclamation. The proc~ lemation was Issued In September and I was born In October, It didn t become effective till January first, So I wa~ born a 8lave any way you take it. The tarm my father worked on was on the Pearl River. It was very f~ert ile It was in Missi ssippi. A very big road runs be side the farm. The road s called the Big Road.. The nigger quarters were across the road on the south side. My mother s folks treated her nicely too. Mr. Rankins didn t have any slaves but Mrs. Rankins had some. ~Her people gave them to her, My grandma who b longed to her had twenty.. aix children~, $he got her start off of the slaves her parents gave her, and finally she had about seventy.$ive. She ran a farm. My mother a work was house women. She worked in the house Her mie.. tress wa~ good to her. The overseer couldn t whip the niggers, except in her pre sence so that she could see that it waan t rua. She dldn t allow the women to be whipped at all. ehen an overseer got rough, she would tire him. Slaves would run away sometimes and stay in the woods if they thought that they. would get a whipping for it. But she would send word for them to come on back and they wouldn t be whipped, And she would keep her word about it. I went back there and though it was And later on, I preached in them, since have a cousin there now. He la about a Methodist Episcopal Church. He has been dead more than twelve

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3. 277 The ~ slaves on her place were treated 80 good that they were called tree niggere by the other white people. When they were whipped, they would go to the woods. . ~ . I have heard them speak of the pateroles often. They had to get a pass and then the paterole e wouldn t bother them. They would whip you and beat you it you didn t have a pass, Slavery was an awful low thing. It waa a bad system. You had to get a pass to go to see your wife. If you didn t have that pass, they would whip you. The pateroles carried on their work for a good while after slavery was over, and the Civil War had ended. RI was pretty good when I was a boy. So I never had any trouble then. I was right smart size when I saw the Ku Klux. They would whip men and won~n that weren t married and were living together. On the tiret day of ~anuary~ they would whip ~n and boys that didn t have a job. They kept the Negroes from voting. They would whip them~ They put up notices, No niggers to coi~ out to the polls tomorrow. They would run them off of government land which they had bomesteaded. Sometimes they would juat persuade them not to vote. A Negro like my father, they would say to him, Now, Brown, you are too good to get messed up. Them other niggers round here alu t worth nothing, but you 5 ~8 and we don t want to see you get hurt, So y~ stay way from the polls tomorrow. And tomorrow, my father would stay away, under the cir.. cumstancee. They had to depend on the white people for counsel. They didn t know what to do themselves. The other niggers they would threaten them and tell them if they came out they would kill them. Right after the war we farri~d on shares. When we made our last shars. crop, father farmed on Senator Bilbo s mother a farm on the State line I nursed Senator Bilbo when he was a baby. Theoda Bilbo. He is the one who says Negroes should be sent to Africa. Then there wouldn t be nobody hers

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4. 278 to rai8e people like him~ He fe ~). into the mi .). pozid one day and I pulled him out and kept him from drowning. If it werori t ror that, he wouldn t be here to say, Send all the Negroes to Africa, It I d see him right noire he d give z~ ten dollars. *Mr . Bilbo s first husband was a Crane. He killed himself. He didn t intend to. It W~8 in a horse race, The horse ran away with him and killed him, Then Theoda s father married her. Be was a poor man. He married that widow and got up in the world. They had a gin mill, and a grist mill, and a sawmill They got busine as from everybody. That was Theoda e daddy old man Bilbo. *In lBrlO W5 stayed on Elisha Mc~ee a farm. We called him Liisha but his name was Elijah. I began to remember them. The next year, we tarn~d tor old man William Bilbo. ~it we didn t get along so weli there because daddy wouldn t let anybody beat him out ot anything that was his. That was Theoda s grau daddy. Then we went to (Mi sei asippi ) Miss ran s. The next year she married Theoda Bilbo s daddy and in 1874, my daddy moved up on his own place at Hurricane Creek. There he built a church and built a school, and I went to the school on our own place. He stayed there till 1880. In 1880, we moved to Holly Springs. That was right after the yellow fever epidemic. I went to school there at Shaw University. I stayed in that school a good. while. It s called Rust CoUe~ now. It s named after the $ecretary of the Freedman s Aid Society. Rust was the greatest donor and they namad the school after him. I went to the state school in my la8t year because they would give you a lifetime certificate when you finished there. I mean a lifetime teaching certificate for Mississippi. I finished the course and got the certit. bate. There is the diploma up there on the wall. J. H. Henderson was the princip4 and he was one of my teachers too. Henderson was a wonderful men,

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5. 2~9 You~ know he died out here in the county hospital sc~etime ago. Soi~tiii~ I ll tell you all about him. He was a remarkable man. He taught there behind Highgate, a Northern man. I ll tell you all about him Bcmeti~, RI termed with my father in the early part of my life, When I went to Holly Springa in 1881, 1 worked for Dr. T. ~ . Malone, a banker there, and a big farxi~r.--Preaident of the Holly Springs Bank, I worked for him mornings and evenings and slept at home of nights. I would work In vacati n times too at whatever I could find to do till I got about able to teach, When I first con~nenced to teach, I taught in several counties Lincoln, Simpson, Pike, Marion (the place I ~nt to school ) and Copiah. I built the school at Lawrence County. I organized the Folsom High School there. It was named after President Cleveland s wife, I taught there nine years. I married there. My wtf e s name was Narcisaa Davis. She was a teacher and graduated tram the same school I did. She lived in Calhoun County. She died in 1896, in Conway. I taught school at Conway in Faulkner County, and joined the ministry as a local preacher, in 1896. I moved from there to White County and taught in Searcy one term. Taught at ~be ten years. Married again in l898a~Lnnie Day. I taught at Beebe and lived in White County. Then I bought me a home at Higginson, and went into the ministry solely. I left Higginson and taught and pastored seven years at ~s Arc. I know practically everybody in I~s Arc. I was thinking today about writing Brick Williams, He is the son of old man Williams, the one you know I think. Then I come to what Is called Sixteen Section three miles from Galloway and taught there seven years and pastored. I presided too as Elder soins of those yeara -~North Little Rock District. Then I went back and pastored there and taught at West Point, Arkan~. sas four years. Then I pastored at Prescott and was on the Magnolia District

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6. 281) as Prealding Elder two years. Then I presided over the North Little Rock District again. Pastored St. Ia.ike Circuit in aou.thwest part of Lrkanaaa below Washington. Then I built a church at ~oneaboro, I pastored twenty.. nine years altogether, built five churche8, and have been reaponsible for five hundred converalona0 *1 think the prospects of the country and the race are good. I don t see much dark days ahead. It is just a new era. You are doing aomething right now I never saw done before in my life. Even when they had the cen&ta, I didn t see any colored people taking it. I don t get any assistance in the form of money frcm the governu~nt. I have been trying to g~t it 1xi~t I can t. Looks like they cut off a lot of them and can t reach lt. Won t let r~ teach school. Say I am too old for ~PA teaching, Superannuate me In the church, and say I m too old to preach, and still I haven t gotten anything from my church since last J anuary. I get some commodities tram the state. I belong to the C. M. E. Church. I have lived In this community twenty-five yeara.~ Interviewer s Comment Hanging on the wall was the old man s diploma from the Mississippi State Normal School for colored persons. It was dated May 30, 1888, and lt bore the signatures of J. R. Preston, State Superintendent; X. D. Miller, County Superintendent (both members of the Board of Directors); ~r. H. Henderson, Principal; Narcissa Hill and Maria Rabb, faculty members.

[Interview with Brown, George] 286 281

#714 281 ~. /~ Interviewer I4rs. Bernice Bowdon Per8on Interviewed Geor~e Brown .. -~ i~ute 4 ~r159, ~i1r9~ -B :~if, A~k ~in~s ~ Me~ 8~ Ye8 xn, I was born. In slavery times. I wa~ born in 1854, How old does that leave ins? No raa am, I wasn t born in Arkansas, born in Alabama. J ini Hart was my white folks, Good to nie? I d rather let that alone0 Plenty to eat? I ll have to let that lone too. I used to say my old misais was Hell a mile Her name was Sarah.. $he was a Williams but she married .Tim Hart, They had abotit a hundred and seventy head) little and big together. Me? I was a servant at the hou8e, I didn t do any field work till after surrender~ Some women was pretty insan. amid old misa was one ot em, You ll get the truth now--i ain t told you hal~0 We lived in Marengo County. The Tombigbes River divided it and Suinter County. The War didn t get down that far. It just got as far as Mobile. Oh yes m, I knowed. they was a war gwine on. I d be waitin on the table and I d hear the white roiks talkin . I couldn t keep all I heard, I know I heard em say General Grant went up in a balloon and counted all the horses and mules they had in Vicksburg~ I seen them gtinboats gwine down the Tombigbee River, And I seen a string of cotton bales as long as from here to there floatin down the river to Mobile, I reckon they was gettin it away from the Yankees. You see we was a hundred and fifty miles north of Mobile.

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2. 282 I wish you d a ea~ht ri~ with my mind ru~nn that way. I could open your eyes, They had. a overseer naxaed Sothern~ One Sunday my xtiai~y slipped ore and went to church. Some o~ em told Sothern and he told Miss Sarah. And. she had. maIl2rny called out and they had a strop bout as wide as my hand and had holes in it, and they started whippin her0 I was nuinin around there with ray shirt tail full of bricks and I wa~ ehunkin ein at that overseer. He would a caught rr~ and whipped me too but Torn Kelly~ that was old miss son~ in-law ~ssaid, A calf loves the cow, 80 he wou.ldn t let old xaiss whip las, I core away from Alabama in 75. 1 lived in TaUUIah, Louisiana eight years and the rest of the time I been here in Arkansaa~ ~I ve farmed most of the tiras, I owned one farm, forty-.nine acres~ but ray boy got into trouble and I had to sell it, Then I ve been a engineer in sawmills and at gins. I used to be a round rnan~I could work any place. Me? Vote? No, I never did believe in votin . I couldn t see no sense in it, They was raobbin and kuhn too much for George Brown. I was a preacher- Bapti8t, I was a ordained preacher, I could marry tepi, Oh Lord, I ain t preached in a long time I got so I couithi t stand on my feet. I been in the Church of God sixty-~one years. Never been in any lawsiiit or anything like that in niy life~ I always tried to keep out of trouble. I member one time I come nearest to gettin drowned in the Tombigbee River, We boys was in washin and we got to divin and I div where it was too deep, When I corxie up, look like a world of water. A boy in a skiff con~ and broke right to mes I reckon I was unconscious, I didn t know what, :ait them boys wasn t unconscious.

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3. 283 I think the younger generation i~ mighty bad. There ~ 8O~O except iOfl8 but the ~enera1 run is bad~. ye seen the time you could go to a white man and he would help you but these young white folks, they turn from ~OUQ

[Interview with Brown, J.N.] 289 284

30i30 I ~- Interviewer Bernice 3owden ~ :~ Person interviewed J.N, Brown ~ 3500Test tth A~. Age79 Pine Bluff, Ark. Oc cupat ion Sells peanutsfr~ni wa~gon ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Yes ni, I was livin in slavery tirne$ - musta been - I was born in 1858, near Matchez, Mississippi - in town. old Daniel Virdin wa~ my first master, I can halfway remember him. Oh Lord, I remember that shootin . Used to clap my hands - called it foolishnes$. We kids didn t know no better. ni was in Camden, Arkansas when we was freed. Colored folks in them days was sold and run. My father was in Camden when we got free - he was sold. My mother was sold too. I heared em say they had a good master and rnistis. Man what bought em was name d Brown. They runned us to Texas dunn the war and then come back here to Camden. I never went to school. I was the oldest chile my fath-. or had out a sixteen and I had to work. We had a kinda hard time. I stayed in Camden till I was eighteen and then I runned off from my folks and went to Texas, Times was so tight in Arkansas, and a cattleman come there and said they d give me twenty-five dollars a month in Texas. I thought that would beat just something to eat. I been workin for the white folks and just gettin a little grub and no t makin any money. In Texas I worked for some good white folks. John Worth Bennet was the man who owned the ranch. I stayed there seven

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2. 285 years and saved my money. I was just nacherly a good nigger. That was in Hopkins County, Texa$. I ve got a good memory, That s all I got to study bout is how to take care of the situation. I was livin there in that country in 1882, fore the Spanish-American War, I come back here to Arkansas in 1900. My father was named Nelson Brown. He preached. My mother s name was Sally Brown. Long in that time we tried to vote but we didn t know zactly what we was dom. I think I voted once or twice, but if a rrian can t read or write and have to hav somebody make out his t icke t he don t know what he s vot s o I jus t qui t to vote. Now about this younger generation, you ve asked me a question it s hard for me to answer, With all these nineteenth century niggers, the more education they got, the bigger crooks they is. We colored people are livin under the law, but we don t make no laws You take a one-armed man and he can t do what a two-armed man can. The colored man in the south is a one-armed man, but of course the colored man can t get along without the white folks. BUt I ve lived in this world long enough to know what the cause is - I know why the colored man is a one-armed man.

[Interview with Brown, Lewis] 291 286

286 ~:~_~ ~ ~ ~ ~J ~ Interviewer Mrs.BeruiceBowden Person interviewed Iawls Brown ?08 Oak Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Age ~ Yes xn my name is Brown ~ I~w1s Brown. Yes m I lived dunn slavery times. I was born in 1854. I been workin this . I been d iggin up the ground to bed up some onions. No I t work every day. Sornet linea I feel aiim ~ don t feel like dom nothin . I wa8n t big enough to member bout the war. All I member is seem the soldiers retirin from the war. They come by my old master s plantation. The Yankees ~was In front ~ they was the horsebackers. Then come the wagons and then the 8outhern soldiers commt alon in droves. ~I was born in Arkansas. My mother and father belonged to Dr. Yordan. He was the biggest slaveholder in Arkansas. He was called the Nigger Ruler , If the overseen couldn t make a slave behave, the old doctor went out with a gun and shot hirn. When the slaves on other plantations couldn t be ruled, they was sold to Dr. 3~ordan and he ruled em or killed em. I don t member much else bout my old master but I member my old mistress. The last crop she made before freedom, she had two plantations with overseers on em and on one plantation they didn t low no kind e slave cept South Canlinane. But on the other plantati on the slaves come from different places.

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o . Aftor the war we went to Texas and I member my old mistresa come down there to get her old colored folk8 to come back t &rkansae. Lote of em went back with her. She called heraelf givin em a home. I don t know what she paid ~ I never heard a breath of that but she hoped em to get back. I didn t go ~ I stayed in Texas and growed up . and married there and then coins back to Arkansas in 1882. Oh yes m ~ the Ku Klux was plentiful after peace. They went about robbin people. Some of the colored 1 olks thought they was better off when they was 8laves. They was the ones that had good masters. Some of the masters didn t low the overseers to buke the slaves and some wouldn t have overseers. I never did vote for no President, just for horns officers. I don t know what to say bout not letting the colored folks vote now. They have to pay taxes end spense s and I think they ought to have something to say bout things, I, How did you lose your arm? It was shot off. I got into a argument with a fellow what owed me twenty-four dollars. He decided to pay me off that way. That was when I was bout seventy. H s dead now. I think the people is more wickeder now. The devil got more chances than he used to have and the people can t do ri~t if they want to.

[Interview with Brown, Lewis] 293 288

:3()6?9 288 FOIJ~LOR~ ~JB~ECTS Name of intervie~sr 1(ra. Bernice Bowden ~bjeot -~--~-- Th~r~8$~ 31aVS ?7De78 Story Information ( It not enough apace on this page add pat) I was born in 1854 and co se I waan t big enough to work much in slavery times, but one thing I did do and that was to tote watermelons for the overseer and pile em on the porch. 1 member he said if we dropped one and broke it d have to stop right there and eat the whole thing. I 1~ow I broke one on ;~irpo~ so I could eat it and I member he made me scrape the rind and drink the juice ~ I know I eat till I was t ired of that water. ~ melon. And then there was a lake old master told us to stay out of. If he caught you. in it d take you by the shirt collar and your heals and throw you back in. I know he nearly drowned ins once. This infomation given by~ ~IawiaBrown ( ) Place of reaidence 8~O2 J.Ei~thPineBluff~ Arkansas Occupation Rt1n1S~S~ _____

[Interview with Brown, Lewis] 294 289

:30(381 289 FOIXLORE aJB1TEOT$ Name ot interviewer lira. Bernice Bowdezi Subject ~ 9Ai ~d Rearin~ cu5joms~ ofEarly ~ ~ . -~ Story Information ( If not enough space on this page add page) ~In them daya, folka raised one another s chillun. If a child was at your house and misbehaved, you whipped him and sent him home and his mother give him another whippin . ~d&fld you better not a~ite your parentaL This informat Ion given by Lewi8 Broin ( ) Place of residence ~8~O2 W. Zighth~, ~ .Arkanaa5 Occupation -~ - ~ Age 84

Ex-slave. 295 290

#721 FORMA Circumstancesof Interview STAT~- Arkansas ~ OF WORKER--Samuel S. Taylor ADDRE~S- Litt1e Rock, Arkansas DATE -Decemb er 1938 S(JBJECT--Ex slave 1. Name and address of informant Lewis Brown, 2100 PLiaski Street, Little Rock 2. Dat e and. t I me o f Inte rview- 3. Place of interview 2100 Pulaski Street, Little Rock, Arkansas 4. Nana and address of person, if any, whO put you in touch with informant - 5. Name and aidress of person, if any, accompar~ying you 6. Description of room, house, aLirroundings, etc.-

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#721 291 FORM B Personal History of Informant s TATE- ~-Arkansa s NAME OF ~~ORKER~ Samu.el s. Taylor ADDRESS Little Rock, Arkazisas DATE December, 1938 SUBJEC~ Ex s1 ave ~ A~D DDRL~ OF IOiE~ANT~Lewis Brown, 2100 Pulaski Street Little Rock. 1. Axcestry father, Lewis Bronson; mother, ~a1lie Bronson. 2. Place and date of birth Born April 14, 1855 in Kemper County, Missiszippi. 3. Fai~ii .y-~-Five children. 4. Places lived in, with dates~-- Lived in Mississippi until the eighties, thai moved to Helena, Arkansas. ~oved from Helena to Little Rock, 5. Education, with dates- -- 6. Occu.pations and accomplishments, with dates --Farming. 7. Special skiii~ ~nd interests - 8. ~m~riunity and. religious activities -Belongs to Baptist Church. 9. I~scription of informant- - 10. Other points gained in interview -Facts concerning child life, status of colored girls, patrollers, marriage and sex relationships, churches and. amuse ment s.

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fl21 FORM C. Text of Interview (Unedited.) STA~&~ Arkan~as NAiS OF WOrnCR--samu.el s. Taylor ADDRE~S--~Little Rock, Arkansas DATE December, 1938 SUBJEC~-Exsl ave NA~ . i~D ADDEESS OF IN~iML~NT - Lewis Brown, 2100 PulaskI Street, Little Rock. * * * * * ~* * * * *4 ** * * * * * * * * * * * * )~ ** * * * * * * * *** K * I was born In 1855, April 14, in Kemper County, I~iississippi, close to ieridian. I drove ~in wagons in the t une o f the war in a horse power gin. I carried matches wici candles do~n t weigh cotton with in slavery times. They had to pick cotton till dark. They had to tote their weight hund.red pounds, two pounds, whatever it was down ~ the weighing place and they had. to weigh it. Whatever you. lacked. of having your weight, you. would get a lick for. On down till they called us out for the war, that ~was the vvay it was. T1~y were ~in to give my brother fifty lashes but t1~e~ corne and took hirn to the army, and they didn t git to whip him. My father was Lewis ~ronson. He corne from South Carolina. ~Ty mother waS ~toie. The s~e~ii~tOr~ stole her and ~ey brought her to Kemper County, Mississippi, and. sold her. iv~ mother s name was Millie. My father s o~ner was Elijah McCoy. id Elijah McCoy was the owner, but they didn t take his name. They went back to the o id standard mark aft er the s~i rrender . They went back to the people where they come from, arid they changed their nair~s they changed off o f them old. names. Mc oys was my maste rs but my fa the r went back to the naire of the people way back over in there in South Carolina, where he cou~ie from. I don t know nothiri bout them. Re was the father of nine chil~ dren. He had. two wives. One of than he had nine by, and the other one he had. none by. So he went back to the one he hai. the nine children by.

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-2- ~ 293 Early Life nI wa8 ten y .rs old. when war was ended. I bal to carry matches and candles to the cotton pickers. It ~u1d be too dark for them to weigh up. Th~ couldn t see. They bad tasks and they would be picking Ull late to git their tasks done. Matches and candles come from the big house, and I had to bring it down to them. That was t~ years before the war. I wasn t big enough to do nothing else, only drive to the gin. I drove horse power to the gin.~--drove mu1e~ to the gin. I would drive the cows out to the pasture too. The milk women would milk tlem. Lawd, I could not do no milking. I was too small. The milk women would milk them and I would drive tl:e cows one way and the calves another so that they couldn t nul. And. at night I would go git them and they ~uld milk them again. The milk women milked t1~rn. What ~uld I know bout milkin. I never did any playin , cept plain marbles arid. goin in swimmin . Schooling The ~thite girls arti boys learned u.s our A~B C s after the war. They had. a free school in Kemper County there. My children I learnt them myself or 1~ad it clone. You. couldn t ~oard1y ever find one in Kemper Country that could spell and go on. They didn t have no time for that. Some few of them learned their -B-~C s before the war Bat that is all T1~.y learned what they learned after the war in the free governm~it schools mostly. They wot~ld not do not hi to you 1f they c~x ght you rn in si ave time. Sometimes the ~th1te children would teach you your A~B C s. Status of Colored Girls They had mighty mean ways in that country They would cat ch young colored girls and whip them end make them do what they wanted. The re wasn t but

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2~4 one mean one on our place. He was ordered to go to war and. he didn t; so they pressed him. He was the or~ that promised my brother a whipping. He left like this norning and corz~ back a week from today dead. The rest of them was pretty good. The rr~an one was Elijah. Master s Sons Old. man McCoy had fow~ SOnS; Elijah, that was the rne~ one, Redder, Nelson, C1a~y. Pat rollers Sometimes the pateroles ~uld do t1~ devil with you if they cau~ght you out without a pass. You could go anywhere you. pleased if you had a pass. But if you didn t have a pass, they d give you. the devil. Mar nage and. Sex Bela t ionshi PS You~ could have one wife over here and another one over there if you~ wanted to, My daddy had tv~ ~men. ~nd he quit the one that didn t have no children. People weren t no more n dogs then days,- -~weren t as much as dogs. Motler and Fat1~er s Work In slavery time, my father worked at the field. Plowed and hoed aid made cotton and corn what else was he goin t.o do. ~r thother was a cook. ~ Sustenance My master fed u.s &id clothed us and give us something to eat. Some of them was hell a mile. Some of l2iem was all kinds of ways. Our people was goal, One of them was n~an. Fat1~r s Brother My father s brother belonged to Elijah. I had an auntie over in ti~re too. I don t know what becon~ of them all. They were all in Kemper cotmty, Mississippi.

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-4~ . 29~ Churches The white people had churches in slavery times jast like they have now. The white people would have service one a month. Bat like these street cars. White people wou~1d be at the front and colored. would fill up back. They ll quit that after a while. Sometimes they would have chu.rch in the rrorning for the white folks and charch in the evening for the colored. They wou.ld baptiZe you just like they would anybody else. tItll tall you. wbat was done in slave time. They d sing and pray. The white folks would take you to tbe creek ~nd baptize you like anybody else. Sometimes tbe slaves ~vuld be off and Mv e prayer meetir~gs of their owxi ::TiO th ing b.i. t c o b r ed peo pie th er e . They ~ ~ Oil ~ t O u~t uh that. So me ti me 8 t hey wou id tu rn a tu b or p0 t down Tha t wo uld b e when they were making a lot of ftiss and didn t want to bother nobody. The ~thite people wouldn t be against the meeting. But they wouldn t want to be disturbed. If you wanted t s Ing at night and d.idn t want nobody to 1~ ar it you. could just take an old wash pot and turn it down-~-4eave a little sj~ce for the air, ani nobody could hear it. Amuserr~nt The grown folks didn t havernuch smusement in slavery times. They had banjo, fiddle, melodian, and things like tbat. There wasn t no baseball in those days. I never seed none. They could dance all they wanted to their way. They darned the dotillions and the waltzes ~d breakdown steps, all such as that. Pick banjo! U-usnph~ They would give corn hu.skins; they would ~ and shuck coni arid shuck so much. Get through shucking, they would give you dinrer. Sometimes big rich white people would give dances out in the yard and look at their way of dancing, and. doing. Violin players would be colored.

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296 -.5-, Have C otto n picking too so metirnes at ni ght moonshiney night s Ph at s when they d give the cotton pickings. Say you didn t have many hands. The~a they d go arzl said you one hand from thi.s place and. one from that place. And. so on. lotir friends wou.ld do all that for you.. Between ein they d. git up a big bunch of hands. Then they d give the cotton pickir~, and. git your field dared up. They d give you something to eatand ~thiskey to drink. How Freedom Came Notice was given to my father that he was free. White peopl in that country give it to him. I don t know what they said to my father. Then the last gun was fired. I don t know where peace was d.~c1ared. Notice come how that everybody was free. ~ld my daddy, You re just as free as I am. Some went back to their daddy s name. Some went back to their master s name. My daddy went back to his old. rraster s name. ~ Right after the ar First year after the war, they planted a crop. Didn t raise no cotton during the war, from the tin~ the war started. till it eacled, they didn t raise no cotton. After t~ war, they give the colored people corn and. cotton, one-.third and one-fourth. They ~ou1d ba~il a bal of it up during the war I mean, during the tine before the war, aril give it to the colored people. They had two crops. No cotton in the time of the war, nothing but corn and peas and. potatoes and so on. All that went to the white people. But they divided it. They give all so much rouni. Had a bin for the white and a bin for the colored. The next year they commenced with the third arid fo~rt1~ business..-. third of the cotton ~md fourth of the corn. You could have all the peanuts you wanted. You could sell your corn but they would only give you fifty cents for it - fifty cents a bushel.

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29, My fat~r farmed and. sharecropped for a while after the war. He changed. from his master s place the second year and weit on another place. He farmed all his life, He raised all his children and got wore owt and pore. He died. In Kemper Oounty, Mississippi. All his children and everything was raised there. . Life Since the War I came to Arkansas in the eighties. come to Helena. I did carpenter and farn work in Helena. I macle three crops, one for Phil ~ddox, ~wo with Misi Hobbs. I cone from Helena h~e. ni married in Mississippi in Roland ~rks, sixty miles this side of Vicksburg. I had two toys and. three girls. Two girls died in Helena. One died. in Roland Forks before I come to Helena. Nary one of the boys didn t die. I don t do no work ixw. This rheumatism 8 ~Ot me down. I call that age. If I could i~ork, I cou.ldn t git nothing worth while. These niggers here won t ~y you nothing they promise you.. My boy s got zr~ to feed as long as I I ive row. I did a batch of work for the co bred. people round b ere in the spring of the year and. I ain t ~ot no n~ney for it yit. I belong to the Mount Zion Ba~ptist Church; I reckon I do. I got down sick so I couldn t go and I don t know whether they turned me OUT OR NO. I tell you, people don t care nothin about you when you get old, or stricken down. They pretend they do, but they don t. My mind is good. and I got just as much ambition as I ever had.. But I don t have the strength. I haven t got tut a few more clays to lag round in this world. when you get old and stricken, nobody cares, children nor nobody else.

[Interview with Brown, Mag] 303 298

~:;o373 298 Intsrviewsr Miss Sallis C. Miller I u---1 ~ _ _I_-.-p -__f Ii- _~L~ _ 1~ __ -___ I___ J Person interviswM ~ ~sg 3ro~ E~aitsvills. Arkansas ~ ~ ~ ~ m ~ ~ 1 was born i~ North Carolina end cc South with ay white tofls. They was trying to git out of the war and ~n right into it. ~ mother died when I was a baby. I don t rei~mber ~ mother 4thatt. what a~w-iIfl~ hw,~ 4~3 no more then you do. I left wy whit tolka. Ihsn I was~yeers old, ws lived out in th country. They was willing to k..p ~*it after the war they was so poor. The ~irle told ~ if I could c~ to town and Lind. work I had bstter do it. Two of than cc~ n.erly to tows with ~. They told i~ I wae frss to co~ to town end liYs with the oolorsd folks. I didn t know what it msant to be tx s.. I was juat as free as I wanted to b. with my white tolks. When I got to town I ata~ with your aunt awhile then she asnt me down. to stay with your granaa. A white girl who lived with thea, like one of the family, learned me how to cook end iron. I knew how to wash~ I don t know anything about the present generation. I ain t basn able to git out for the last year or two. I think I broke ivy toot~ tor Ihedtogooncrutch.ialongtius. ~Tb. whits folks always sing bitt I don t know what they suns. I didn t pay no tention to it then.

[Interview with Brown, Mary] 304 299

30438 ~ 2~ . #724 t Inter~iewsr . ~ riss Irsia Bobertson . ~ -u__~____ _-.-.--~js~--.~ m~~_ ~ L-~ ~ .s-w~i._~- T~ *~U *~P.. L J ~ 1*I. Person intsrviswed ~ Mmry Brown1 ~.arendon~ 4*sn.as __p -~ ~ ~ ~ ~-I *-~-~ I ~ _ -~--*- -I- ~-~ -~- r ----u~ -p-w ~ U U~ ~ Born in 1860 - I ~ .~ ~I-~-~UJ. ~S--_ ~ ~~-_L ~-~U ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~Maaa was born in slavery but never sold. Grendaa and bar buebnd was sold and brung eleren children to Crystal Springs. They was sold to Mr. Ilinkliwell. I was born there. Grandaa was born in Virginia. Her back was out all to pi.ose where ahs had been beat by her mastr. Both of them was ihoopsd. He was a hostler and b1acks~th. ~Whea p andaa was a young w~n ebs didn t have no children, so her master thought ~rs ah. was barren. Es sold hr to Taylora. Em co~ long deren children. T8ylor sold thee. After freedom she had another~ Kswash.ronliast boy. That wassofunnytohearhertellit. Inv.r could forgit it long as I evr know a thing. Grandiia s baby child was seventyif ir year8 old, cepting that boy what was a stole child. ~e died not long ago at Oerp.ndsl., Mississippi. I got the letter two weeks ago. ~Lt. ehe had bs.n dead a. while tors thsT Writ to Her na~ was Aunt ihn7 ~ ~te didn t have no children. Orand*a said the first ti~ she was aold~i4he first day of J ulythey put her in a trader yard in Virginia. ~e was crying end says, Teks baok to iRy waas. An old wo~n said, You ars up to bs sold. Aunt Helen, her sister, was t ing her husband sotking in the field. They~ fooled hsr away from her five little children. Orsndaa said she never was seen no more. ~e was auch older than ~sndma. Grandaa stayed with her slavery husband till he died.

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. 2. 300 Sins. ~ some popl. tried to steal my aeme. ~i. wae a faat ru~nn r and could dans.. They ~ want.d to .ak mon.y out of her. They would bet on her rassi. Lt Iarnt chool they took about thirty-aix childrsn off in wagoni. Never oou 4 get trao of them. Nsvsr saan nor heard of a on. of tbam again. That was in thu stats at Iarnst 8ohool year. ago but aines fresdom. RI was born during ths War aoon after Maater M~ nkilwsU took mem~ over. Es didn t ever buy h.r. Maua died young but grandma lived to be over a hundrod years ~ old. ~be told me all I ~ow ab~t real oldn time.. RI just look. on in aszement at this young generation. Thy~ is happy all right. Times not hard tor thea glib and well as they seems. ~ Times have changed a sight sines I was born in this world and still changing. Sometimes it 5. a like they ars all right. Ag iJI times is tough on old folks 11k. a, mi. is sfl in the Bibls. abo~it the time. and folks chsn~ing.

[Interview with Brown, Mattie] 306 301

~O~F89 . . ~ 3O~i Interviewer ~ Misa Irene Rbe~t~on ~ ~ Person Interviewed Mattle Browfl~ He1e~a~ ~ - -- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - ~ - *1 heard mother ~ay t line and ag in I was a year and two months old the year of the aurrender. I was born in Montgoniery, Alabama. Mother waa a milker and a house w ~an. Pather died when I was a baby. Mother never married,. There was three of us to raise. I m the youngest. Sister was the regular little nurse girl for mother s mistress. I don t recollect her name. The baby was sickly and fretful. My sister set and rocked that baby all night long in a homemade cradle Mother said eh d nod and go on. Mother thought she was too young to have to do that way. Mother stole her away the first year of the Civil War and let her go with some acquaintances of hers. They wa~ colored folks. Mother said she had good owners. They was so good it didn t seem like slavery. The plantation belong to the woman. He was a preacher. He rode a circuit and was gone. They had a colored overseer or fore~man like. She wanted a overseer just to be said she had one but he never agreed to it. He was a good man. Mother said over in sight on a joining farm the overseers whooped somebody every day and more than that scmetimes. She 8aid some of the white men overseers was cruel. Mother quilted for people and. washed and ironed to raise us. After freedom mother sent for my sister. I don t recollect this but mother said when she heard of freedom 8he took me in her arms and left. The first I can recollect she was cooking for soldiers at the camps at Montgomery, Alabema.

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2. 302 They had Several cooka. We lived in our own house and mother washed and ironed for thm sc~ne too. They paid her well for her work. ~I recollect some of~ the good eating. We had big white rice and big soda craoker8 and the best meat I ever et. It wa~ pickled pork. It waa preserved in brine and 8hipped to the soldiers in hogheada (barrels). We lived there till mother died and I can recollect that much. When mother died we had a hard time. I look back now and don t see how we made it through. We washed and ironed mostly and had a mighty little bit to eat and nearly nothing to wear. It was hard time8 for U8 three children. I was the baby child. My brother hired out when he could. We stii~k together till we a.l1 married off.~

[Interview with Brown, Molly] 308 303

30472 3 3 Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson . Person Interviewed - ~- ~ ~ Age 90 or over B~inkie~ Ark. k__~ ~ ~ ~------ ~ - -r----- ~-- ~ -~ -~ ~ ~ ~ One morning early I (Irene Robertson) got ofT the bus and started up Main Street. I hadntt gone far before I noticed a small form of a woman, She wore ments heavy shoes, an old dark dress and a large fringed woolen shawl; the fringe was well gone and the shawl, once black, was now brown with age I passed her and looked back Into her face. I saw she was a Negro, dark brown. Her face was small with unusually nice features for a woman of her race. She carried a slick, knotted, heavy walking stick- a very nice-looking one. On the other arm was a rectangular split basket with wires run through for a handle and wrapped with a dirty white rag to keep the wire from cutting into her hand or arm, I stopped and said, Auntie, could you direct me to Molly Brown s house? flItm her, she replied. Well I want to go home with you. What you want to go out there for? II want you to tell me about time s when you were a I said. It111 not goir~ home yet. I got to get sornethint for dinner. Well, you go ahead~ and I U follow ng Very well, she said.

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2. 304 3: window shopped outside, and I noticed she had a box of candy, but it was a 25 1 box and had been opened, so I thought it may be nearly anything just put in the box. The next store she went into was a nice4ooking meat market and grocery combined. I followed in behind her. A nice-.Iooking middle-aged man gave her a bundle that was large enough to hold a 5O~ meat roast. It was neatly tied, and the wrapping paper was white, I observed. She thanked him. She turned to me and said Give me a nickel . I said, I don t have one. Then I said teasingly, Thy you think I have a nickel? She said, You look like it. I opened my purse and gave her a dime. She went over to the bread and picked up a loaf or two, feeling it. The same man s aid Let that alone . The old woman slowly went on out. I was amazed at his scolding. Then he said to me, She begs up and down this street every day, cold or hot rain or shine and ~ I have to watch her from the time she enters that door till she leaves I give her scrap meat, he added. How old is she? She was about fifty years old sixty years ago when she came to Brinkley. She is close to a hundred years. People say she baa been here since soon after the town started. He remarked, She won t spend that dime you gave her Well, I will go tell her what to buy with it, I replied. I hurried out lest I loose her. She had gained time on me and was crossing the Cotton Belt Ry. tracks. I caught up with her before she went into a small country grocery store on #70

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3. 305 highway. She had passed several Negro stores, restaurant3, etc. 1 want a nickel s worth of meal please s Ir I said, Auntie, buy a dime s worth of meal. t, I 7 t want but a ni cke 1 s worth The man handed I t to her to put in the baske t . ~ Give me a pI e ce The merchant gave her a nice hard stick. She broke it half in to and offered me a piece. I said, No thank you Aunt le She really . wanted me to have it, but I refused it. She blowed her nose on her soiled old white underskirt. She wormed and went on out . I asked the merchant How old is she? Bless her heart, I expect she is ninety years old or more. I give her s orne hard candy every t line she e orne s in he re I give. her a lot of things She spends her money wi th me . Then I asked if she drew an Old Age Pension. He said, ~ think she does but ~ that is about 3O~ and it runs out before she gets another one. She begs a great deal. . I lagged behind. The way she made her way across the Broadof America made me scringe. I crossed and caught up with her she turned off to a path between a garage and blacksmith shop. I said, Auntie, let me take your basket. She refused me. I said, May I carry your meal or your meat? I ~ t ~ know you she said shortly. A jolly man at the side of the garage heard me. I said, I m all right, am I not to the man. He said, Aunt Molly, let her help you home She is all way as

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right, I m sure. I followed the path ahead of her. When we turned off across a grassy mesa the old woman said, Here ~ and handed over her basket. I carried it. When we got to her house aeross a section of hay land at least a mile from town, she said, Push that door open and go to the fire. An old Negro man, not her husband and no relation, got a very respectable rocking chair for me. He had a good fire in the fireplace. The old woman sat on a tall footstool. She.was so cold. She said, Bring me some water, please. A young yellow boy stepped out and gave her a cup of water. She drank it all She put the meat bones and ~rap meat on the coals in an iron pot in some water. She had the boy scald the meal, 8prinkle salt in it and add a little cold water to it. He put lt in an iron pan and put a heavy iron lid over it. The kettie was iron. The boy set it aside a id put the bread on hot em~ bers. She sat down and said, I m hungry, . I said, Auntie, what have you in that box?t1 She reached to her basket, untied some coins from the corner of the soiled rag - three pennies and a nickel. She untied her ragged hose ~ she wore two pairs - tied above the knee with a string, and slipped the money to the foot and in her heavy shoes. It looked safe. Then the old Negro man came in with an armfull of scrub wood and placed it by the fireplace on the floor, He said, The Government sent me here to live and take care of Aunt Molly. She been sick. I build her fires, and me and that boy wait on her. 4. 30G

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307 5. I asked, 18 the boy kin? He said, No in, she s aU alone. He went away and the boy went away. The old woman called them and offered them candy. She had twelve hard pieces 0fb whitish, stale chocolate candy in the box. The boy refused and went away, but the old man took three pieces. I observed it well, when she pa~ s ed it to iue for worms I r efus ed I t . It seemed free from bugs though. She ate greedily and the old man went away. We were alone and she was warm. She talked freely till the old Negro man returned at one o clock for dinner. Notwith 3tanding the fact the meal hadn t been sifted and the meat not washed, it looked so brown and nice in two pones and the meat smelled so good I left hurriedly before I weakened, for I was getting hungry from the aroma. I was born at Edgefield County, South Carolina, and lived there till after I married. ~ Did you have a wedding? UI sure did. . Tell me about it, I married at home, at night, had a supper, had a nice dance. You did? I did. Did a colored man marry you? Colored preacher - Jim Woods. Did he say the ceremony? He read it out of a little book,

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6~ 308 Did you have a nice supper? Course I did I White folks helped fix my weddin supper. Had turkey, chickens baked shoat pies and cake ~ - a table piled up full. Mania helped cook it. It was all cooked on fireplace. SHOW were you dressed? Dressed like folks dressed to marry. ftHOW was that? - t,1 wore three or four starched underskirts trimiried in ruf~ fies and a white dress over em. I wore a long lacy vail of net. Did you go away? I lived close to my ma and always lived close bout her. I was called a first class lady then. You were. ~ My parent s naine T empy Harri s and Albert Harr s She was a cook. He was a farmer. They had five children. The reason I come to Arkansas was cause brother Albert and Caroline come here and kept writin for us to come My. folks belong to the Harrises. I don t know nothin bout em - been too long ~ and I never fooled roun4 the ir houses Some my folks belong to the Jones es . They kinfoiks of the Harrises. No, I never saw no one sold nor hung neither. Remember grandpa His daddy was a whi te man Hi s wife was a black woman. Mama was a brown woman like I is. I ain t had narry child. My moth r die~d here in this house. Way me an my husband paid for the house he farmed for Jim Black and Mr. Gun.n. I cooked for Jim Woodfin. Then I run a roomin house tin four years ago. Four years ago I went to South Carolina to see my auntie. Her name Julia. They all had more n I had. She d

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7. dead now. All of em dead bout lt. She was a light woman - Julia. Her pa was a white man; her ma a light woman. Julia considered wealthy. t,1 don t know hi bout freedom I s een the soldiers. I seen both kinds. The white folks was good to us. We stayed on. Then we went to Albany, Georgia. We lived there a long time lived in Florida a long time then corne here. The Joneses and Harrisea had two or three familles all I know. They didn t have no big sight of land. They was good to us. I picked up chips, put em in the boxes. Picked ein up in my dress, course; I fetched up water. W~ had rocked wells and springs, too. We lived with man named Holman in Georgia. We farmed. I used to be called a smart woman, till I done got not able. My grandpa was a white man; mama s pa. What I been dom from 1864 - 1937 ? What am T ~ ~ done I Frrnirit I told you 1 fences was coniinon. hogs, it cows i~ We raised hogs and cows and kept s ornethin to eat at home. I knit sox. I spin. I never weaved. Folks wore clothes then. Th~y t wear none now, Pieced quilts. Could I sew? Course I didZ Got a machine there now, (pointed to an old one.) II never seen no Ku Klux. I hid if they was about. I sure did hear bout ein. They didn t never come on our place. I told you I never knowed when freedom corne on. I went to school in South Carolina. I went a little four or five years. I could read, spell, cipher on a slate. Course I learned to write. Course I got whoopins; got a heap o whoopins. People tended to ebildern then. What kind books did we have ? I 309

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8. 310 read and spelled out of the Blue Back Speller. We had numbers on our slates. The teacher set us copies. We wrote with soap stone. Some teachers white and some colored. ~Weii course I got a Bible. (disgusted at the question). go to church and preachin every Sunday. Yes, ma am, now. ni don t study votin . I don t vote. (disgusted). I rec kon fly husband and pa did vote. I ain t voted. Course I go to town. I go to keep from gettin hungry. Me and this old man get demodities and I get some money. t, I told you I t t bother young folks bus Ines s ~ I thought I told you I don t If I young I could rai. s e s in at home that the reason I go hungry. I give down. I know I do get hungry. t, One thing I d t tell you I made tallow candles when I was a young woman. t1 ~ don t know nothin b out th~ t C I vi 1 War.

[Interview with Brown, Peter] 316 311

3 ~93 . 311 Interiiewer Misa Ir.n. Robertaon - PS1!80fl interviewed Peter &~own~ Helena, ArIcp~a. Ags~~8~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -~ - ~ ~-~ *1 was born on the Woodlawn ce. It was owned by Thwid and Ann Hunt. I was born a alave boy. Master Hunt had two sous and one girl. Bigy and Thinbar wa8 the boys nema. Annie wae the girl s name. My parents names was Yane and William Brown. Papa said he was a little shirt tall boy when the stars fell. Grandma Sofa and Grandpa Peter Bane lived on the same place. I m named after him. My papa come f r~i Tennessee t~o Missisaippi. I never heard ma say where ehe come from. ~ reii~mbrance of slavery Is not at tal . favorable. I hoard the master sud overseers ~hooping the slaves b fore day. They had stakes fixed in the ground and tied them down on their atcinacha stretched out and they beat them with a ~xll whoop (cowhide woven) . They would break the blisters on them with white oak paddles that had holes in it so it would suck. They be saying, Oh pray, master. He d say, Better pray fer yourself. I heard that going on when I was a child morning after morning. I wasn t big enough to go to the field. I clidn t have a hard time then. Ma had to work when ehe waan t abie Pa stole her out and one night a small panther smelled them and cc~ on a log up over where they slept in a cenebrake. Pa killed lt with a bo~Ls knife. Ma had a baby out there in the cansbrek. Pa had stole her out They went back and they never made her work no mor. She was a fast breeder; she had three sets of twins. They told him if he would stay out of the woods they wouldn t make her work no more~

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2. 312. take care of her children, They prized fast breeders. They would corn. to see her and bring her things then0 She had. ten children, three pairs of twina. Tona and Sofa, Peter arid Alice, Isaac and Jacob. ~When I was fifteen years old, mother said, Peter, you are fifteen years old today; you was born March 1 1852. She told me that two or three tifllea and I kept up wid it. I am glad I did; she died right after that. Ma and pa et dinner, weil as could be. Took cholera, was dead at twelve o clock that night. It was on Monday. Ike and J~ake took it. They got over it. I waited on the little things. One of them said, Peter, l in ungr I broiled some meat made a ash cake and put the meat in where I split the ash oaks. He et it and went to sleep. He started mending. Sister come and got the children and took them to Lake Providence. I fell in the hands then of acme cruel people. They had a doctor n~d ~. Cole~n c~e tO see ma and pa. E. said, Don t sat no fruit, no vegetables. He said, Eat meat and bread. I et green plume and peaches like a boy fifteen years old then would do. I never did have cholera. A boy fifteen years old didn t know as much as boys do now that ag,~ The master died b fore the cholera disease corns on. We had moved from the hill place to a place in ths bottoms. lt was on thi saine place. None of his family had cholera but neighbors had lt le buried ma and pa on the neighbor a place. We had kin folks on the Harris place. Ihile we was at the graveyard word o~ to dig two or three more graves. Master s houe. was sot on firs the smok.house emptied, the gin burned ~ 1 end the cotton. The inulsa was drove out of th. lot. That turnd ag in the Yank.es. le helped raies that insat they stole. They l.rt us to starve and fed their fat ailvea on what was our living. I do not believe in parts

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3. 313 ot slavery. That whoopi~ was cruel, but I know that the Whit. man helped the slave in wayi. The slavee was woi ked too herd. M~n was no b.tter th they are now. My owner had tio fine black horses aerne Night and SI~ade. Oient waa a ihite driver. I~ lived close to Fiat where they had horee races. ~e told Clent to get Ni&it ready to vin ac~ money. fl~s told Cleut not to let nobody have their hand on the horas. Gum slept in the stable with the hor . They hd three horees on the track. They made three rounde. Night lost three timse, but on Pridey Night ocane in and won the mousy. He made two or three thousand dollars and paid Cleat. - I never heard how ~ioh. lreedcai RSC~. men cc to our houes seerching for arasa Je had a chest. They thrsi~ things winding. Said it waS freedctn. We didn t think aich f stich trsedca. Had to take it. We didn t have no arms in the ~ We never Been free times and didn t know what to look for nohow. We never felt ti~~ a8 good. le moved to the bottoms end I lost my parente. RI feu in tue hands of e~ ~an people. They worked me on the fro~n ground barefooted. My feet frostbit. I wore a Shirt dress and a britches leg cap on my head and sers. I had no shoes, no underwear. I slept on a bed made in the corner of a room cal sd a ~znk. It had bagging over straw and I covered with bagging. Aunt ~ (~ulis) and Uncle Mass Harris c~ for i~. Siatr brought my horse pa left tor ~. They took ~ frc~ thee folks to stay at Mr. L C. Winters. lie was good to as. Re giv fifty doUars and ted z~ and my horse. He give m good clothes e~d a house in his yard. t was hungry. He fatten d me and my herse both.

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4. 3i14 They broke ths L~ flux up by putting grapvinia acro58 the roada. I know aboutthat. I never seen one of them in ~y lite. Ilection daya yeera gone by ~as big tim.a~ I did vote. I voted regular a lo g tine. The lait Pz eaident I voted tor wa~ lilaon. WI termed and worked on atsainboata on the Miasiesippi River. I was what they called roueterboixt. I loaded and unloaded freight. I worked on the Q~octaw, ~ sane White X~ate Adents, end other 1itt1~ boats a few days at a tine. late Adams burnt at MOons Landing, I stopped off here at Bielena for ~hristinaa. Sosie people got drowned end sc~ burned ~ to death. The mad clerk got lost. ll~ went in and got two bags of silver money, pat ths~ in his pockets. The stave plank brok end he went down and never oc up. Us was at thi shore nearly but nobody knew he had that silver in his pockets. H. never cc~e up and. he droimsd. P~opl. sasn him go in but th others svu~ out. He never cc~ up. They missed him and found h~m dead and the two bags of silver. I was dus to be on there bu~t I wanted to spend Ghria~aa with grand~ia and my wits. The Qioctaw carried t n thousand bales of cotton at ti_a. I worked at ths oil mill eixts.n or ~ aivsntssn years. I night watched on th. transfer twsnty- two years. I cc~s to Esisna when I was thirty years old. I m eighty-six now. The worst thing I ever done was drink whiskey so~. i: done quit it. I have asthma. Tho doctors say whiskey ii bad on that disease. I don t tstoh it now. I think the present gen.ration is crazy. I wish I had the chance they have now. The present times is setting bsttsr. I ask the Lord to spare me to b. one hundred y.ars old. I m strong in th faith. I pray every day. He will open the way. The times have chan~s& in my lif.~

[Interview with Brown, William] 320 315

. ~ ~ ~ Thterv1e~er ~-~--- ~ - Mi1~as Irene RobertBOu Person Interviewed William ~owxi, Hazen 43~kanaa~a ~&ge67 I was boru In Virginia bit I was born. after 8lavery. I heard my folks talk a heap about oldern times. The way I come here was Dr. Hill brought bout 75 taxnilies down to Mississippi to work on farms. I come to Deer Creek close to Sunflower, Mississippi. I lived there 11 years and I drifted to Arkansas. I don t remember if they was in any uprisings or not. If they was :L~:~ rebellion cept the big rebellion I don t recall it. My whole families was in de heat of the war. My mother and father s owner was John ~ith. I recollecta hearin them talk bout him well as if it was yesterday ~ we worked on, MeFowell place close to Petersburg, Virginia when I was little. Then I worked for Miss Bessie and Mr. ~ ohn stewart last fore I come with Dr. Hill. I had lived up there but he come and settled down in Miss issippi. ~ The first place I worked on in Arkansas was the 3 ohn Reeds bout 3 mIles from Danville. I stayed there 3 years. My folks stayed on there but I rambled to Little Rock. I worked with Mr. L. C. !~ err1ll, I milked cows and cut grass, fed cows. He has a automobile company in Little Rock now. I farmed bout all my life. Now I don t own nothing. i: stays at my daughters. I been married twice. Both my wives dead.

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The times change so mu ch I don t know whether they any better or not. The black race ain t never had nuthin ~ some few gets a little hea~jay once in a while. I used to vote some ~ didn t care nuthin bout lt much. Never 8eed no good. corne of it. Heap of them vote tickets like somebody tell em or don t know how dey vote. The young generations better off than the old folks now. The things change so fast I don t know how they will get by. 2. 316

[U. S. dictatorships predicted.] 322 317

30844 Q ~ t4( Intervleier ~i ~*i~1S.Ta~ .or Person interviewed ~r j ~ II1UMn &oIfl ~ -~- -~ - ~-- -~ 409 L !rventy-Pitth S~et ~ ~ ~ North Little Rock, Arkanaaa - - - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ L - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~j *1 wa8 born in Arkansas in Crosa County at the foot of Crowley 8 Ridge OIL the east aide of the Ridge and just about twelve miles frc~n Old Witte burg, on May 3, 1861. 1 got the date fran my mother. She kept datea by the old family Bible. I don t know where ehe got her learning. She had a knowledge of reading. I am about her sixth child. She was the mother of thirteen. My mother s master waa named Bill Neely. Her miatreaa was named Mag Neely. My mother was one of the leading plow handa on Bill Neely a fars. She had a old mule named 3ane. When the Yankees would come down, Bill Neely and all hie friends would leave home. They would leave when they would hear the cannon, becaUse they said that meant the Yankeea were coming, When Neely went away, he would carry my mother to do his cooking. She would leave the children there and carry just the baby when ehe went. Old Aunt Malinda--ahe waan t our aunt; she was just an old lady ~ called Aunt Malinda who cooked for the kitchen- would cook for us while she was gone. When the Yankees had passed through, my mother and the master would all come back. My original name was not Brown. It was Pope I became Brown after the War was over. I moved on the old Barnes farm. When the soldiers were mustered out in the end of the War, a lot of soldiers worked on that place.

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Petsr Brou, ~n old color.d soldier niet rsd out tr~ MemphIs, a.t ~ mother, oourt.d her, end niarri.d her. ~ Lii th other ohfldx.n that ~rs bo~ to hOi Sr. csU.d Brow~1 end th popl,. eaU.d her Brow*, and juit osiled Oil ~hs other child:r031 Brown too, including mo. AM I just let lt go that ~ ait a~ ~athOr wa need Harrison Pops. Ha dId In the Conf.derat s~ out thsrs a~ih rea srou~d Littl Rook. H. had violatst sc~ ot th mX1~tSr7 laws, and th.y put htm In that thing th.y had to ~u~tah them b7, and whOa thsy takn kim out, he contracted ~meuaonia and di dj I do* t know whsrs h. 1. buris~ I would to God E &tdI You Irnow when the.. 8ou$hern araise went e1on~ they carried colored .tevsdox.a to do the ~ork for thea. PatroUsre RI isa a little fellow in the tims of the paterol.a. It the dsvs~ wanted to go out anyiher., they had to get a pasa and they had to be back at a certain ti~ it they didn t ~t back, it would be a~ kind of pint~thmm at. Ths pat.rolei was a mighty bad thiaga it th.y oa~ight you whrni you wsr. out without a pass, thsy would whip you iuzmorsifufly, end if you isi s out too Lat. they would whip you. Ihsrsvr coloz sd people ~s4 a g~thsring, tb~m patsroles would bo thsrs looking On to see if thsy oou1~ find anybody without a pass. If they did find anybody that couldn t show a pass, thsy would taks him right out end *ip him thsn and th.rs~ KUKIux 1 know tits KU ~ux a~ist havi been in uss bsfors ths War bsoauas X ri~mbsr ths basinsis when I was a little bit ot a fsUow. Thiy had a plais out there on Orowisy a Ridge thsy uui to asti at. They trisi to ~ imprsa.ion that thsy would bs old Conf.diz ats soldi rs that hOd bss~ kjU.4 . 2. 318

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3. 319 in the battle of Shiloh, and they uaed to ride down from the Ridge hollerin , I 0h2 Lordy, Lordy, Lord They would have on those old unifoma and would call for water. And they would have sowe way of pouring the water down in a bag or something underneath their unitorxns 80 that lt would look 11ko they could drink four or five gallone. One night when they come galloping down on their horsea hollering Oh$ Lordy, Lordy like they uaed to, sanie Yankee aoldiere atationed nearby tied ropea acroas the road and. killed about twenty-five of the horaee and broke lege and arma ot about ten or fifteen. They never used the ridge any more after that. . Parents My t e master was Shop Pope and his wits was named Tulia Pope. I can t ren~nber ihere my father was born but my mother was born in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. I don t know the n~ee ot my grandfather and grandmother on either side. ~ Slave Houses The old slave house was a 1g house built out of hewed loge. The logs were scalped on each aide to give it the appearance or a box house. And they said the logs would fit together better, too. They would chink up the cracks with grass and dirt ~what they called That s what they called chinking to keep the wind and rain out, *1 was born in a one.room hut with a clapboard room on one side for the kitchen and storeroom. They would go out in the woods and split out the clapboards. My mother had eight of we children in that room at one time.

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4. t.~ %~ Ftirnitu.re As to furniture, well, we had benche8 for chairs. They were made out of punching four holes in a board and pitting atloke In there for lega. That Is uhat we eat on. Tables generally were nailed up with two lege out and with the wail to support the other aide. The beds were made in a corner with one leg out and the two walla supporting the other aides. They called that bed the Georgia a We had an old cupboard made up in a corner. Food ~Food was generally kept in the old ~pboard my mother had, When ehe had too much for the cupboard, ehe p~tt it in an old chiat. Right After the War My mother had eight children to teed. After the emancipation she had to huatle for all of them. She would go up to work -pick cotton, ~m.l . corn, or what not and when ahe came home at night she had an old dog ehe called t Coldy She would go out and aay, Coldy, Coldy, put him up And a little later, we would hear Coldy bark and ehe would go out and Coldy would have aom.th~ng treed. And ehe would take whatever he had - poaaum, coon, or what not~-and she would cook it, and we would have it for breakfaat the next morning, Mother uaed to go out on neighboring farms and they would give her the scrape when they killed hogs and so on. One night she was coming h~ with sc~e meat when she was attacked by wolves. Old Coldy was along and a little yellow dog. The doge fought the wolves and while they were fighting, ehe alipped home. Next morning old Coldy ahowed up cut aln~o~t in two where the wolvea had bitten him. We bandaged him up and took care of him.

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5. 321. ~And he lived f r two or *sx. years. Th. Utfl. ysilol dog never did *0w up no aore~ lb fl,... thor ee1~d that the wolves aist hav kiU.4 and sates ft hSa. Schooling *1 put in about ons month schooling ~i ii i was a boy about cix or seven years old. Thn I movd into St. francis County and went two weaks to a subscription school a few mUss below Yorrest City. Liter I wont back and took th sxaaination in cross County and passed it, and taught for a yesr~, I got ths bulk of ~y education by lamp light r.sding. X have dozis a~. studying in Oth r p .aoss -thr.e years in ~iort r CoUego where I got th. d.greas of B. D. and D. D. at th ago of rifty-tiv.~ I hay. prsachd for fitty..s.vsn years and actually pastoxed for torty t ,.r ysarsa I toUoi.d faming in sy .arIy day.~ then I first narrid wy wits, ~ tai~d thsr for ten or t,elrs years b.fors I utsrsd th ministry. X have bsen aarri.d titty-a.T.a years. ~ . Msrriago ~1 ~s airris( ~anu.ry 15, 1~8Z. I an now in the titty!aev.nth year of ~rtago. Ny wife Val n.d Mary Khan Stttbbs. ~s was trc~ BSL4Iyn, Mississippi. Th.y ~ored trcs Mtsaissippi abou~ the winter of 1880 and th.y made on crop in Arkansas beforews warned. ~iey stopp.d In our oo~aty and atteaded our church~ I ast h.r in that ~ Th. wost rsuarkabls thing was that during ths ti I ~a acqjiaintsd with her ir pastor bea igsapacitat. and I took ohargo of the church. X ran a rsvjval an~ sh ~s convsrt.d during ths rsvivsl. bit ah join.d ths C. L L ~urch. X b.long tothsl.LI.

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. 64 82.av. S~1ei *1 reieabsr ~y nether esrryitg the children frosa the Bill Nesly place to the Pops p1~Cs. That Saturd y .v.ning after ~ got th ~ th ~ cs alOng s~ slsV traders. They had vith th* as I rei~mber a~e ten or twelve boya end girls and acne old folk. that were able. to work. They had them chained. I asked my niother what they were going to do with them sud she ash they ~re carrying them tt Louisiana to work on a cane ts~. One boy cried a lot. The next morning they pit those alavse in the road and drove thim down to iittsburg the same as you would drive a drove of catt1a~ Iitt.burg was whers they caught the boat to go dom to ~uisianae That ~s the b.st mode of travl in those days. ~ Opinions In a tew iords, ny opiniOn 0f the prs.smt is that our existence as Duiiocrsts and Bspablioans is abotit played out. If Mr. Roos~sIt is electid for a third tern, I think we will go into a dictatorship just as Russia, Germany, sut Italy have already done I think we are nearer to that now than we have evr bsen betor. I do net think that Mr. Roosersit wili become a dictator, but I do believe that his being elected a third tine itli cause acme one else to b.cous diotator~ My opinion is that he is neither Democrat nor Rspubltcsn. SOur young psople are advancing froa a literary point ot visw, but I claia that thsy are losing ~at along moral lines. I don t believe that value morals as well as the people did years ago iho didn t know so ~ush~ I believe that the whole nation, white and black, is losing neal stsaias.~ They do not think it is bad to kill a nen, take another neu s wir or rob s bank, or anything oies. ~iT dSsSCXatS ths churches by carrying snytht~g

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V. ~23 i*to t~o church. ~ ?M~ is no sacred ~1a e nOWe C~rnivaia and v.rything .la are carried to the shureh~ *i~ ~ ROoe~v.1t ja .xiot re.1.ct.d e~ain, the country is going to hai one of the bloodisat ware it ha. ever had bscauas ws have ao many IuDopeefl doctrines ccuiing into the United 3tat.a~ I have been hYing ae,.nty-sight y.ara1~ and I never thou~tt that I ~ou1d live to see the day whsn the governant sould reach out eM talcs bOld of thing. Like it has don~ .~ihs 1P4&, the ERL, and ths ~O, end oth.r loik going on todey. I. are headod tor ccunt and we are going to get in a b1oo4~ ~ra ft.r. are hundrsda of ~n going round who bslisvs in ~~uiia~ but ~o don t want it to be known nowo

[Interview with Broyles, Maggie] 329 324

30827 ~ . . ~ . 324 Interviewer MiaaIre~eRobertaon -~ Person interviewed . ~eBroyls~7orrest ~ __4~o~t~~ 8Q~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ e~ I was born in Decatur, Tennessee. Mother was sold on the block at public auction in St. Louis. Master Bob Young bought a boy and agirl. My father was a tu1l~blood Iri$bman. His nen~ was Ias8iter. ~ie didn t have no more children by him. He was hired help on Bob Young s place. Bob Young had one thousand five ~hundred acres of land. He had several :tarms. Little Hill and Creek farms. They had a rock walk from the kitchen to the house. I slept in a little trunnel bed under my mother s inisti eas bed. The bed was corded and had a crank. They used no slats in them days. We called Master Bob Young s wife Misa Nippy; her nam was Per/nel/i/py. They was good old people His boys was rough. They drunk and wasted the property. The white folks had feather beds and the slaves had grass beds. W. d pu.ll grass and cure it. It made a good bed. Misa Nippy learnt us to work. I know how to do near bout an~rthing now. ~ie kept an ash hopper dripping al.l the t in~ We made all our soap and lye hominy by the washpota ~ll. Mother cooked and washed and kept house. She took the lead wid the house. work. Mies Nippy ride off when she got ready. Mother went right on w14 the work. I took care o ~ the chickens and took the cows to the pasture, I helped to wash clothes. I stood on a block to turu meat. We had a brick 8tOVe and a grill to fry meat on. We had good clothes and good to eat. After I was groan I d go back to see Misa Nippy. She raised ~ She say,

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2. 3~5. I thou.ght so much o~ your mena.. I love you. I. hope. you live a long time . Mama had a hard time and Miaa Nippy knowd all about it. Atter Bob Young bou~jit mother he w nt back and bou&it Aunt Sarah. They ~rowed up together. They could dance with a gLaaa of water on their heads and never spill a drap. Ma said when she married they had a corn shucking and a big dinner four clock in the ~ morning. Her name was Dtiza, She had two children by him, ktnt J~ane on. Welches place took him away from her. Re q~uit mother cold to go wid her. After freedom she married Ban Pitta. The way ehe married at the corn ahucking, they jumped over the broon~ back arda end Master Bob Young nounced it. She was killed no time after freedom, but she had had six children. Miss Nippy kept me. She was good to me and trained me to read. We all never left after freedom. I never left till I was good. and grown. I a1W~B thought Master Bob Young buried his money during the War. children wasn t allowed to watch and ask q~ueationa. I was St~4ing in the chimney corner and seen him bury a box of ~cmething in the tlower garden. I was in Misa NippytS ro ii. I never did know if it was money or what, Re had a old yeller dog followed him all the tins. Truman was a speckled dog set about on the tront porch to bark. . . *Sem, the boy that was bought when I wae~ in St. Louis, was hard to control. Bob Young beat him. He died. They said he killed him. They buried him in the white folke cemetery. 0They celebrated Qirietmaa visiting and big parties. We would have eggnog and ten or fifteen cales. Meeter Bob Young was a oonaump~. tive. Re had it thirty~4ive ysara. They all died out with it.

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3. 32G They kept a big ten or fifteen gallon dem.ljohn with willow woven around the bottom fu~11 of whiskey, aU. the time upstairs. They kept the door locked, ~I stole miny ah drink. Find the door unlocked, I got too xm~t h one time. It made me sick. I thou~ght I had a chill. She thought I been upstairs. They was partlcuiar with the children, both black and white then. They put the children to bed by eundown an~d they would set around the fire and talk. She raised ~lnora and the baby Altona after mother got killed. She give them good clothes arid good to eat The jr papa took the boy. He left alter mother got killed. We took a pride in the place like it was our own. We did.n t know but what it was our very own, We had a acre in garden. We raised everything. We had three or four thousand pounds of meat and three cribs of corn~ I ketched it when I left them. I made thirty..three crops in my life. My children all grown and gone. My son~.4n.4aw died. He had dropsy eight months. He had a dead liver, I ve wanted since he died. I ve had a hard time since he died. He was a worker and so good to us all. Mother worked with a whIte won~an. Mother was full-blood Indian her.self, The woman a husband got to dealing with his daughter. Saie had three babies in all. They said they put them up in the ceiling, up in a loft. This old man got mad with Bob Young and burnt his gin. Mother seen him slipping around. They ask her but she wouldn t tell on him, for sh didn t see him set it on fire. They measured the tracks. He got scared mother would tell on him. One night a colored man on the place conte over, Her husband was gone somewhere and thi t got hcn~ She was cooking supper. They heard sc~body but thought it was a pig ccme around.

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4. 327 lioga ran out all time. The step via~ a big limestone rock. She opened the door and pat the hot lid of the skillet on it to cool. Stood it up s1de-~ ways, Then they heard a noise at that door. It was pegged. So she went along with the cooking. It wasn t late. He Thund a crack at the side of the stick and. dirt chimney, pat the rm~zzle of the gun in there and shot her through her heart. The man flew. She 8tru~g1ed to the edge of the bed and fell. The children was asleep and I was afraid to move. The moon come up. I couldn t get her on. the bed. I put a pillow under her head and a quilt over her, but I didn t think she was dead. The baby cried in the night, I was 80 3cared I put the eight-~onths-o1d baby down under there to nurse. It nursed. She was dead then, I think now. when four o clock come it was dayl ight The little brother said, I know what s the matter, our m~a s dead. I went up to Mr. Bob Young s. He brought the coroners. I was so young I was afraid they was going to take us to jail. I asked little brother what they said they was coing to do. He said, They are going to bury niama in a heep (deep) hole. They set out after her husband and chaaed h~i clear off. They thought he shot her by hua not corning home that night and her cooking supper for him. This white ina~ left a~d went to Texas. His wife said the best woman in Decatur had been killed. They put hirn on the gallows for killing his daughter s babies, three of them and put them In the loft. He told how he killed mother. He had murdered four. He was afraid mother would tell about him, ~e knowd so ~eh. She didn t tell. Indians don t tell, She waa with his girl when the first baby was born, but she thought it died and she thought the ~ir1 come home visiting, so his wife said she had told her to keep her from telling. It was a bad disgrace. His wife was a good, humble, kind woman.

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5. 328 Ma8ter Bob Young sent for Ben Pitta after they d run hini off, and he let him have bis pick of us. 11e took the boy and lived on the place. Her other husband cane and got his two children. M188 Nippy took our baby girl and the other little girl. I was raised up at her house, so she kept me on. Kept us all till we married off, I d reel foolish to ~o try to vote. I~m too old now. I don t get help from the government yet. We are having ahard time to scratch around and not ~o hungry.N

[Interview with Bryant, Ida] 334 329

:~ ~~~ ~ ~ 329 )~1~C~ ~ .~- Interviewer Mias Irene Robertson ~ Peraon interviewei Ida B~ant~ ~ ~ka11~8 .~ . -. (V~ryvery black Negro wo~nan) Ages 61 My mother waa HUlda Williams. Grandpa was J ack Williams. Her mistress. was a widow woman in slavery times. They lived in Louisiana. I was born close to Bastrop in Morehouse Pariah. My father died when I was ten years old. He was old. I was a child. Things look different to you then you know. Grandpa was I~anaen Terry, grandtna Aggie Terry. They called pa Major Terry but he belong to BiU Talbot. Hansen Terry was a free man. Hemolded hIs own monet. ~ died in South Carolina. Pa come from ~dgetie1d, South Carolina to Alabama. Stayed there awhile then come on to Louisiana. He slipped ott frcin bis master. Between South Carolina and Louisiana he walked forty miles. He rode all the other t i~. My folks always farmed. Times have been getting sc~~ better all a1on~ since I was a chile. Times is a heap better now than I ever seen In my life. The young insu depends on their wives to cook and make a living. They don t work nn.~oh ~ none of em. We old niggers dom the washin and the young women dom cookin and easy jobs. None of the men ain t workin to do no good. A few months In the year ain t no workin , RI get cccimoditiei. I owns this house now. I bout paid it ait, I washes three washin s a week, The rest of the time I pieces up q~~ui1ts for myself. I need cover.*

[Interview with Buntin, Belle] 335 330

L ~ 30734 ~ : ~ y: ~ 330 ~1 ~ . ~ Thterv lewer - - Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed Befleaintin~ Marianna, Arkansa~ ~ ~ i~n~ 80 s - ~ ~ ~ ~ - ~ ~ b.i ~I never was 80)4. I was born in Oakland, Mississippi. My master said he wanted all he raised. He never sold one. He bought my mother in Lexington County. She was a field haiid. Our owners was Master Johnson B~intin and Mistress Sue ~intin. They had two children Bob and 1~annie, Re had a big plentation and tour femili~s of slaves. Charlotte was the cook. Myra worked at the house and in the field. Ra had seven little colored boys and two little colored girls. I spent most of my time up at the house playing with Bob and Fannie. When mistress whooped one she whooped aU. three. She would whoop us for stealing her riding horse out. We would bridle lt and all three ride and ride. We got several whoopings about that. RI have seen colored folks sold at Oakland. They had a block and nigger traders cc~e. One trader would go and see a fine baby, He keep on till he got it. I ve seen them take babies fr~a the mother s ei~ and it the mother dare cry, they would git a beatin . They look like they bust over their grief. RIf you was out after seven o clock the patrollers git you. They would beat and take you hoene Some masters say to them, You done right and some say, You bring my hands home; I ll whoop them myself. The patroUera caught one of Gaddises women and whooped her awful for ocining to town on Sunday. I newer did know why she went to town that way.

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2. 331 ~That selling was awful and crowds come to as. how they sell. They acted like it was a picnic. Some ~omen was always there, ecm with their buabanda. Saine w~n sold slaves and some bought thm. *1 never did see none sell naked. I seen men took from their wives end mothers and children. Let me tell you they didn t have no scjuaillng around or they would get took off and a beating. Master Alex ~.tntin was Dr. Buntin. Ke said, I worked like one of my sIave8 end bought my alaves with what I made and I em not going to have them t bused by the patrollera. George and Kit and J~ohnson was his cousins. lit . wasn t so good to his slaves. It was my job to brush the flies off the table. I had a fly brush. I would eat out of Bob s and Yex nie s plates. Misa &te say, Bell, I m going to whoop I say, Miss &i, please don t I m hungry too. She sey~ You atop playing and eat first next t line Then d put some more on their plates, We sot on a bench at the table. We et the same the white folks did all cooked up together. NOne time Dr. &intin got awful mad. The dogs found some whiskey in a cave one of his slaves had hid there. They would steal arid hide it in a cave. He got a beating zmd they washed it in salt water to keep them frcm getting sore and stiff. *8cm. tolka kept dogs trained to hunt runaway niggers. They was fat, and you better not hit one or hurt it if it did bite or you would git a awfu.l beating. Master Alex was a legislator. He had to leave when the Yankees co~ through. They killed all the legislators. I loved him. He run a store and we three children went to the store to see him nearly every day. He took us all three on his knees at the same ti~. I loved him

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3. 332 When he was g~e, I said, Mise &~e, where la Master Alex? She say, Mayb he be back pretty soon. While he wa~ gone they had a battle in a little skirt of woods close by. We hung to Mies &te s skirt tail. I een the Yankees mn by on horses and acme wa1~cing. Mx . J ordan, a southern soldier, waa shot ilL his ribs. Mr. ~ffard was shot in his knee. Some ot the other southern soldiers drug them up to our ho~ise, Miss Sue nursed them. I think they got well and went hone. ~ ~Three days befor Master Alex left they sent all the stock off and ~nit the turkeys end geese under the house and chi okena too. It was dark so they kept pretty quiet. ihen the Yankees got there they stripped the smOke house We had a lots of ir~at and they busted the storehouse open and strowed (strewed) meat and flour all along the road. They hired Manviy (Charlotte) to cook a big meal for them. &e told the man she was traid Miss Sae whoop her. He said, ihooping time near bout out . He asked her bout 8c chickens but she wa t goin to tell 14m cause it was her living too for them to waste up. They never found the geese, turkeys~, and chickens. They rambled all through t1~ house looking for Master Alex and went through every drawer and closet upstairs and dQwxi. It was aeendalous. They had Miss ~ie walking and crying and us three children clinging to her skirt tail scared to death and crying too. Ilion they left the big lieutenant rode off ahead on a fine gray horse. They e ie back when we just got the table sot and et every crumb of our dinner. They was a lively gang. I hate em. I was hungry. Rations was scarce. They wasted the best we had. Master Alex had three stores and he kept the middle one.

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4. Jo Mistr~a told all Iiaster Alex ~ slaves they had been freed. The~ ~n all left. My mother left and took ~. I got mad and went back axi~d lived there till I married, ~ster Alex come back after two weeks. My mother soon died after the surrender. She died at Bateevifle Missi esippi. ~ Lots of the slaves died. Their change of living killed lots of em. My father lived on Sam Bronoy s Brangh s) place Master Alex wanted to ~iy him but he took him on to TSXSB before I was born. I never did see him. eI been faxming, cooking, wash and iron along. I been in Arkansas twelve or tourteen years. How am I supported? I m not imich &~pported. My boy don t have work iwich ot the tii~ I don t get ~ the pension. I trusts in the Lord. I belong to New Bethel Baptist church dom here. *Timee_I don t know what to think. ~ My race is the under folks and I don t never say nothing to harm em. ~ I m one of em. ~. Times is hardest in my uts. I have to sit. I can t walk a step- creeping paralysis.

[Interview with Burgess, Jeff] 339 334

30486 . ~ Intervj.w.r -~ ~~ir .~.-t ~- ~ ~ ~bs~ ti ~ - - ~- Preon intez~viewed ~ J .tt Bw~a~ Tg~iar.ndon~ Ar~sas~ Ak!~L~ i~ ~ ?~86~~1L .t fl~JOt~14U ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ *1 was born in OEranville Texas, My i~aeter was trathera Burgess and miatreas Polly Burgees. My master died fore I was born. fie died on the way to Pe~a, trying to save hie slaves. ~eep them trcm leaving him and from going into the war. They didn t want to tight o His eon was killed in the war. My folks didn t l ow they was tree till three years after the war was over. They conte back to ~locbe Bay, the old home placee There was a bureau at De Talle Blu~ffo They had to let the elaTes go and they was citizens then. My tolks wasn t very anxious to leave the white owners because times was so runny and they didn t have nowhere to go. The courts was torn up powertul here in Arkensea. 9lsap of meanness going on right atter the war. One man tell you do thta and another m say you better not do that you sho get in trouble. It was hard to go straight. They said our master was a good mau but awt~il rough wid his sl ~tr.s~nd the hands overseeing too, Giese he was ro~igh wid his family too. wTim.s is hard with ~. I get $10 pension every montho I got no home now. I got ~ three hogs. I lives three miles from here (Claz endon), ~Ir I wasn t so old and no account I d think the times the beat ever. It s bad when you gst old. I jesa asse the young folkee I don t know naioh about them. Seems Lack they talk a lot of foolish chat ~ to

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2. 335 I got a lot and a half in toma They tore down my houee and toted it ott f oi~ tirs wood. It waa rentedo The they moved out and wouldn t pay no rent. They kept doing that way. I never had a fain ot my own. RI was good with a eaw and axe. I cleared land and. farmed. Once I worked on the railroad they was building. I drove pile xnoatly. larrn.ing is the beat job and the best place to make a living. I found out that myself. -

[Interview with Burkes, Norman] 341 336

~7O ~ . . Intervi ~er ~~___ - Bernice Bowclen Person Interviewed. Norman Burkes ~bs weit E1e~eiith Striet, Pine B1UfY,~ ~ri~iiaas ~e 73 I d.idri t quite make slavery. M~ and freedom came here together. I was born In Union Cotmty, Arkansa8. My mother was born in Virginia and. my father was an Alabamian. I ve heered. em say how they done in slavery times. Whupped em and worked ein and didn t feed em much. Said they d average a~bou~t three pou.nds of meat a week and. a peck of meal, a half gallon o molasses. That was ai lowed the hands for a week. No sugar and no coffee. Arid. they d issue flour on Saturday so they could have Sunday morning biscuits. My father was sold. to Virginia and he and. my mother was married there. and, they moved with their white people here to Arkansas. They called. theIr owner old Master, Yes m, I can remember him. Many times as he whipped me I ought to rern~nber hirn. I never will forget that old man. They C laimed he was pret ty good to em ~ He di dn t whup em much I don t think. If my mother was livin she could tell you everything about Virginia. She was one hundred and two when she died. 1~ folks is long livers. My oldest brother was sold in Virginia and shipped down into Texas about ten years before I was born and I ain t never se~x him. ~iey sold wives from their husbands and children from their parents and tJiey couldn t help it. Just like this war business. Come and draft em and they couldn t help it. #785

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-2 It1 think the way things la now, they re goin to build. u.p anotI~r war. extra Ooran~it I was interviewing this man on the front porch arzl at this poin~, he got ~1p and1 went Into the hou.se, so the interview was ended as far as be was eon~ OSrbd.

[Interview with Burks, Will Sr.] 343 338

30501 ~ Interviewer ML8~ Irene Roberteon ~ - ~ - ~- _ - ~t ._ _It ~ ~ ~ ~ R-~F ~ Pereon interviewed Will B rka Sr ~P3:~i~ ~ ~i+1~y;~ ~4 - h~boni~!~uy Grove Age75 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ My parent naines wac Katherine 11111 and Bill Burke. They had five boys and three girls. Their ownere fur as I knowe wae Fraxk and Po ily Burke They had a heap of e laves. They was good white folke. My folks etayed on two or three years. They wac both field h~fld8. They hadto go to the house and Master Frank Burke told em they was free. lu 1880 Judge Scott paid their way and I come wid them toForrest City. There was a crowd. He bought em out here to farm. We come Christmas 1880. I never will forgit that. It was Jea different In a new country and left some of our folks an all that. I was born close to Columbia, Tennessee. I used to see the soldier.s pass long the big road, both sides. Seem lack theyd be in etrii~s a mile long. I never heard much bout the war. They wouldntt let white nor black children set round and hear what they was talkin bout. Why they send em off to play build playhouees outer rocks and hay, leaves, any little thing they throw way we take it to play house White children playe d together then cause it was a long ways between white folks house, and ~ colored children raised up wid em. I don t see none that now. - One thing I done a long time was stay at the toll gate. They had a heap of em w~n I was a boy. The fences was rook or rail and big old wooden gates round and on it marked, Toll Gate . I d op n and. shut the gate. Walkers go free. Horseback riders -

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2. 339 fifteen cents. Buggies ~ twenty-flve oent~. Wagons ~ Lifty eent$. The state broke that up and made new roads. Some they changed a little and u$ed. After that I 3tand bout on roads through fields ~ short ways folks went but where the farmers had to keep closed up on count of the crops. I open and shut the gate. They d throw nie a nickel. That was first money I made stayin at toll gates about Columbia, Tennessee. Ku Klux come to our house and took my papa off wid em. Mama was cryin , she told us children they was goiner hurt him. I recollect all bout it. They thought my papa knowed about some man bein killed. My papa died wid knots on his neck where they hung him up wid ropes. It hurt him all his life after that. It made him sick what all they done to him tryin to make him tell who killed somebody. He was laid up a long time. I recollect that Then they found out papa dldn t know nothin bout lt they said they was sorry they done him so mean. I vote a Republican ticket lack my papa till I eluded it not the party, it is the man that rules right. I voted fur Mr. Roosevelt. I know he is. (A Democrat) I know d. i~t when I voted for him. Times is tough but they was worse fo he got elected. Things you buy gets higher and higher that makes it bad. We got two hogs, one cow, few chickens and a home. I owns my home for a fact. My wife is 73. I sin purty nigh 75 years old. What make it hard on us we is bout wore out. I been farinin and carpenterin all my life. Last years I been farmin wid Mr. L. M. Osborne at Osborne. We work forty acres and made 57 bales. I had a team and he had a team. So I worked it on halves. That was long time ago. In 1929 I believe. Best farmin . I ever done . ~ We got twenty cents pound.

[Interview with Burris, Adeline] 345 340

3()336 . 344Q Int.rvi.ier ~ L ~ ~~tt ~ . Person interviewed Adelins ~irri.1. 1~Witt. Arkansas Age 91 Adelins ~irris is a little old white~haired irinkled~faced mulatto or yellow Negro w~n iho says ehe was old enough to b. working in the fields vhn the iar begin. According to her story she must have bssn about 14 then, which woeld ~k. her at least 90 years old now. She looks a~ ~ ~ ~ I 1~w~ she might be a hundred. She ~ is stooped and very feeble ~it can get ~J~- C 7~i~L4~ Z~C~L~ ~ i:; ~d~.IL ~ around acme days by the help of a stout walking stick) ~ then .he ~ not. s~b~s~ leave her bed for days at a ti~. She own. nothing and is living in the hc~ of her daughter-in-law who is kind to,~ end carsa for her as best ehe can. She saya she was born in I~rry County, Tenneese. Columbia ~ ~ was the county aits. When asked if she was born during slavery tine ahs said, Yss, honey, my niuv~ny was one of de slaves what belonged to ~. . ~ Billie and Miss Liza Bnfroe. Lord bless her heart she was good to my m~~y end hei chillun3 I had two littli brothers, twins, and ehen dey ccme to dis world 1 can remember how ~r old mistress would c~e svery day to see about dem and my aen~y. She d bring things to eat, clothes for the babies end everything eles. Y.s sin My moth r didn t want for snything as long as she stayed with Miss Liza, not evin after de Negroes was ;~r.$. When I was a little girl I was give to my young mistress, end I etayd with hsr till my folks was ct*ing to Arkensas and I oc too.

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2. 3~ft : lihy did your folks mov to Arkmneas? *~.u, you eis ii heard thie was a good country and th.rs was a whit man ccms there to get a lot of niggere to farm for him down on the rimr and ws ccme with him. K brrought a Lot ot feaili.. on a big boat call d a flatboat. We were days and nighte floating down the riv r. we landsd at St. Charlea. I married in about two year. and haven t ever lived anywhere else but Arkansas County and I~ve always been around good white folks. I d been oold and hungry a lot of tImes if it wasn t tor ec~ of dee~,leeeed white folkes ohillen; dey ccmee to see me and bringe me things to eat and clothes too, s~etimee. How many tiase did you marry, Aunt Md.? ~Tuat one ti~ and I just had four chilien, twine, two ti~e. One child died out ot each sit just eft me and Becky and Bob. Bob and Dover, his wife, couldn t get along but I think most of it s his fault, for Dover s just as good to ~ as she can be. My own child couldn t be better to me den she is. ~I don t know, honey, but looks to mi like niggsrs ~e better off in dim days den they ars now. I ~iow dey was if dey had good white folks like s did. ~y didn t have to worry about rnt, clothes, nor eumpin to sat. ~t was there for them. 4.11 they had to do was work and do right. Course I guess our master might not of been so good and kind et we had been mean and lazy, but you know none of us ever got a whippin in our lite. Eoney, ccme back to ses Aunt Add. scmetii~. I likes to talk to you.

[Nurses once called rulers.] 347 342

349: 309Go Interviewer Sani~e1S. T~.or ~ ~ Person interviewed J~eflflie ~it1er -- 3012 Short Main Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Age~ ~BetweeE~ lO3axid 10? T ~ ~ ~ ..~ ~ ~~~ ~ ~ I was born February 10, 1831 in Richmond, Virginia. I was a nurse raised by our white folks in the house with the Adarrises. Sue Stanley (white and Indian) was my godmother, or urseinother they called em then. She was a sister..lnJaw to Jay Goold s wife She married an Adams. I wasn t raised a little nigger child like they Is in the South. I was raised like people. I wasn t no bastard. My father was Henry Crittenden, an Indian :tull blooded Creek. lie was named after his father, Henry Crittenden. My mother s name was Louisa Virginia. lier parents were the Gibeons aa~ nationality as her husband. My nursemother was a white woman, ~t she had English and Indian blood in her. My mother and father were married to each other just like young people are nowadays. None of my people wer slaves and none of them owned any 8laVes. House I m Richmond, they lived in a little log cabin. Before I had so much trouble I could tell you all about it, but I never torget that little log cabin. That is near Oak Grove where Lincoln and Garfield and Nat Ptirner met end talked about slavery. Furniture we had oak furniture. We had a tall bed with a looking glass in the back ot it long bolsters, long pillow cases just like we used to make

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2. 343 long infant dresses, There were tour rooms In the cabin. It wae in the city. The kitchen was a little off fran the house. You reached it by going through a little portico. Food We ate bananas, oranges, hazelnuts, apples, fruit for every month in the year for breakfast, batter cakes, egg bread. The mornings we had egg bread we had flesh. For dinner and supper we had milk and butter and some kind ot sweetneas, and bread, of course. We had a boiled dinner. We raised everything--even peanuts. . ~ Clothes ~ We made everything we wore. Raised and made the cloth and the leather, and the clothes and the shoes. Contacts with Slaves and Slave Owners ni t t know about slavery. I didn t have to do with them folks. We picked em up on our way in our travels and they had been treated like dogs and hadn t been told they were free. We d tell em they wasfreeandletemgo. Leaving Richmond ill I can tell you is that we come on down and never stopped until we got to Memphis, and we tarried there twentyfive years. We came through Louisiana and Georgia on our way out here and picked up many slaves who didn t know they was free. They was using these little boats when we came out here. In Louisiana and Georgia when we came out her., they weren t thinkin bout telling the niggera they were tree. And they weren t in Clarksville either. We landed in Little Rock and made it our headquarters.

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3. 344: Occupatlona Christian work has been the banner of my life--labor work, giving messages about the Bible, teaching. Mostly they kept ins riding -I mean with the doctors. when we were riding, the doctors didn t go in a mother s room; he 8ent the rider in. They call em nurses now and handle them indifferently. The doctor jus stopped in the parlor and made his money jus sitting there and we women did all the work. In 1912 I gave up my riding license. It was too rough for me in Arkansas. And then they wouldn t allow me anything either. Now I have a poor way of making a living because they have taken away everything from me. I prays and lives by the Bible. I can t get nothin from my husband s endowment. He was an old soldier in the Civil War on the Coiffederate side and I used to get ~3O a month from Pine Bluff. He was freed there. Wilson was President at the time I put in for an increase tor him ir~ the days of his sicknea~. He was down sick thirty years and only got :~3O a month. The pension was increased to 460 for about one year. He died in 1917, March 10, and was in his ninetieth year or more from what he told me. The picture shows it too. Voting Paying my taxes was the votin I ever done. They never could get me to gee nor hai. There wasn t any use voting when you can see what s on the future before you. I never had many colored friends. None that voted. And very tew Indians and just a few others. And them that stood by me all the while, they re sleeping.

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4. 345. Thoughta of Young People Don t know nothin bout these young folks today. Don t nothin spoil a duck but his bill. I have had a h&rd time. I am heavy and l In jus walkin bout. A little talk with Jesus is all I have. I ll fall on my knees and I ll walk as J esus says. My heart s bleeding. I know I m not no more welcome than a dog. I pays for thi8 little shack and when you come to see me, you might as well come to that kitchen door. I ain t going to use no deceit with nobody. I ll show you the hole I have to go in. Interviewer 8 Gominent I understand that Sister ~itler gets a pension of $5 a month. Although her voice is vigorous, her mental powers are somewhat weak. She cannot remember the details of anything at all. She evidently had heard something about Nat Turner, but lt would b hard to tell what. The Nat Turner Rebellion, so called, a fanatical affair ihich was as much opposed by the Negroes as by the whites, took place in Southampton County, Virginia, In August and September 1831, the same year In which Yennie B~ttler claims birth. She would naturally hear something about it but she does not remember what. She had a newspaper clipping undated and minus the reading matter showing her husband s picture, and another showing herself, February 10, 1938 The Arkansas De.

[Interview with Byrd, E.L.] 351 346

i~riS12 ~)kJ( ~ 346 Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person interviewed L L. Byrd ~ - 618 N. Cedai, Pixie Bluff Arkansas ~ ~ I was born In 1862. I just can remember the Yankees0 They come through there and got horse8 and. money and anything else they wanted~ To my reasoning that s the reason the North has got more now~ They got all the money they could find. And they took one fellow belonged to the same man I d1d~ My owner s name was Jack Byrd. V~e stayed with him about a year and then we farmed for ourselves. I never went to school much. My mother was a widow woman and I had to work. That was in South Carolina, NI come to Arkansas in 1890. I didn t marry till I was about thirtyseven, I got one child living. That s my daughter; I live with her. She s a bookkeeper for Perry s Undertaking Company. When I come to Arkansas I stopped down here in Ashley County. I farmed till I come to Pine Bluff. I been here forty years. I worked at the stave mills. I just worked f~or three different firms in forty years0 I used. to own this place, tut I had to let it go on account of taxes. Then my daughter bought it in. I been tryin to get a pension but don t look like l in goin to get it. I have to stay here with these children while my daughter works, It takes all she makes to keep things goin .

[Interview with Byrd, Emmett Augusta] 352 347

4 :~ ~- ~ ~ UU( 41L) Interviewer )L188 Irene Robertaon Person interviewed ~nnett~ista ByMar1~ne~ ~jc~sa8~ Age~_~~8 ~ ~I was born. in Washington County, Missouri. I m eightyi..three Y6~8 old. Mother 8 owner was William Byrd. He got killed in a dispute over a horse. A horse trader shot him. His nanm was Cal Dc5ny. Father s owner was Byrd too. Mother was Miss Harriett Byrd s cook. Yes, I knowed her very well. I was nine years old when I was stole. Me and my older brother wa~ both stole. His name was Hugh Byrd. We was just out. It was in September. A gang out stealing horses stole U8 It was when Price made his last raid to Missouri. It was s~e of the soldiers frcm his gang. We was playing about. They overtook us and let us ride, then they wouldn t let us git off. They would shot us if we had. In a few days we was so tar off. We cried and worried a heap. It was e1~hteen years before I see my mother. The old snag I was riding give out and they was leading so they changed me.. I cried two or three days. They didn t pay my crying no tentlon. They had a string of nigger men and boys no women far as from me cross to that bank. I judge it is three hundred yards over there. After the battle of Big Blue River my man got killed and another man had charge of me and soelebody else went off with my brother. I never seen him. That battle was awful, awful, awfull Well, I certainly was scared to death. They never got out of Missouri with my brother. In 1872 he went to St. Louis to my mother. She was cooking there. My father went

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2. 348f with the Tankeea and was at ~Tefferson Barrack8 in the army during the War. He was there when we got stole but she went later on betore he died, He was there three months, He took pneumonia. They brought me in to KansaS and back by Ft &nith. Talking about hard tiu es, war times is all the hard times I ever seen. No foolin I It was really hard times. We had no bread shoot down a cow and cut out what we wanted, take it on. We et it raw. Sometinies we would cook it but we et more raw than cooked. when we got to Ft. &aith we struck good times. Folks was living on parched corn and sorghum molasses. They had no railla to grind up the corn. Times was hard they thought. Th.u?ther south we come better times got. When we landed at rkadelphia we stayed all night and I was sold next day. Mr. Spence was the hotel keeper. He bought me. He give one hundred fifty dollars and a fine saddle hor8e for me. I never heard the trade but that is what I heard em say afterwards. Mr. Spence was a cripple man. Yohn Merrican left me. He been mean to me. He was rough, Hit rae over the head, beat me. He was mean. He lived down bout Warren, down somewhere in the southern part of the state. I never seen him no more Mr. Spence was good to me since I come to think about it bitt then I didn t think so. We had plenty plain victuals at the hotel. He meant to be good to me but I expected too xm~ch I reckon. Then it being a public place I heard lots what was said around. I c ie to think I ought to be treated good as the boarders. Now I see it different. Mr Spence walked on a stick and a crutch. He couldn t be very cruel to me if he had wanted to, He wasn t mean a bit, I was the bellboy and swept round some and gardened. In 1866, In May, I run off. I went to ~.llas County across Ouachita River. I stayed there with Matlocks and Russells and Welches till I was good and grown. Mr.