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	Interviewer	j~onQ Rotso~L~  ~

Person mt erviewed J‘ohnGood8on (Goodrum)~ Des Arc~Arkansas

	A~e _ ~ &rn in 1865






	“My master was Bill Goodrwa. I was born at Des Arc out in the country close by here. My mother was a house woman and my father was overseer. I was so little I don‘t remember the ~iar. I do remeiaber Doc~ Rayburn. I seed him and remember hirn all right. He was a bushwacker and a Ku Klux they said. I don‘t remember the 1~i Klux. Never seed theni.

	“I heard nay parents say they e~cpectod the government to divide up the land and give thorn a start ~— a home and some land. They ~ot just turned out like you turn a hog out the pen and say go on l‘in through wid you.

	“I heard theta set till midnight talking ‘bout whut all took place during the Civil ~ar. The country was wild and it was a long ways be-. tween the houses. There wasn‘t many colored folks in this country till closin‘ of the war. They started bringing ‘em here. Men whut needed help on the farms.

	~A1l my life I been cooking. I cooked at hotels and on boats. I cooked some in restaurants. They say it was the heat caused rae to go blind. I cooked up till 1927. The last folks I cooked for was on a boat for Heckles and wade $ales up at Au€?usta, Arkansas. I done carpentry work some when I was off of a cooking job. I never liked farmin‘ much. have done a little of that alone between times too. My main job is cookIng.