Untitled Section 001

SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Shivery in the From Interviews with Former Slaves TYPE WRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY TIlE FEDERAL WRITERS PROJECT b 1936 1938 ASSEMBLEI) BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Illustrated with Photographs United States WAShINGTON 1941

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VOLUME II ARKANSAS NARRi~TIVES PART 7 Prepared by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Arkansas

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I~FO~1AN~S Vaden, Charlie Vaden, ~llen Van Buren, Nettie Vaughn, Adelaide J. Whitxuore, Sarah 3 Wilborn, Dock 5 Wilks, Bell 7 Williams, Bell Williams, Charley Williams, Charlie Williams, Columbus Williams, Frank Williams, Gus Will ~5JTiS ~ Henrietta Williams, Henry Andrew (Tip) Williams, James Williams, John Williams, Lillie Williams, Mary Williams, ~.:ary Williams, Mary Williams, Rosena Hunt Williams, III, William Ball (Soldier) 191 Williamson, Anna 193 Wil1iaL~1son, Caille Halsey 196 Willis, Charlotte 198 Wilson, Ella 201 Wilson, Robert 207 Windhaxn, Tom 210,213,215 Wise, Alice 216 Wise, Frank 218 Withers, Lucy 222 Woods, Anna 224 Woods, Cal 229 Woods, Maggie 232 Word, Sam 235,239 Worthy, Ike 242 Wright, Alice 244 Wri ght Hannah Brooks 249 140 142 147 149 150 153 154 159 161 163 Wadille (Waddell), Emmeline (Enilline) 13 Waldon, Henry 14 Walker, Clara 19 Walker, Henry 28,33 Walker, Jake 36 Walker, ~Take 39 Wallace Willie 42 Warrior, Evans 44 Washington, Anna 46 Washington, Eliza 49 Washington, Jennie 57 Washington, Parrish 60 Wat son C aro 1 me 62 Watson, IJary 64 Wayne, Bart 70 Weathers, Annie Mae 71 Weathers, Cora 73 Webb, Ishe 76 Wells, Alfred 82 Wells, Douglas 83 Wells, John 85 Wells, Sarah 89 Wells, Sarah ;lilliarns 94 Wesley, John 96 Wesley, Robert 98 Wesmoland, Maggie 99 West, Calvin 104 West, Mary Liays 106 Wethington, Sylvester 107 Whitaker, Joe 108 White, Julia A. 109,120,132 White, Lucy Whiteman, David 136 Whiteside, Dolly 137 Whitfield, J. w. 138 166 170 172 177 179 180 183,187 189 134 Yates, Young, Young, Tom Annie John 252 253 255,257

Negro lore. 004 001

~~Q~~ORE SUB~EC1~ Little Rock District ~& 9 :~ vv i~J~J /~---Jz- ~ :1 Name of Interviewer Subject -~--~ - Irene Robertson NEGRO LORE Story - Information (if not enough space on this page add page) Charlie l aden s f ather ran away and went to the war to fight. He wa s a s lave and le ft hi s owner HI s mo ther di ed when he was five years old but before she died she ~ve Charlie to Mrs, Frances Oweri~s ( white ledy) . She came to Des Arc and ran the City Hotel. He never saw his father till he was grown. ~e worked for Mrs. Owens. He never did run. with colored folks then. He nu?sed her grandchildren Guy and Ira Brown Then. he was grown he bought a farm at Green Grove. It consisted of a house an~d forty- seven acres of land, He farmed two years. ~ fortune teller cerne along and told him he was going to marry but he better be careful that they wouldn t live together or he might drop out. He went ahead and married like he was fixing to do. They just couldm t get along, so they got divorced, They bad the wedding at her house and. preacher Isarel Thomas (colored) married therrt and they went on~ to his house, He don t remember ho~c she was dressed except in white and he had a wflOW outfit too. Next he married Lorine Rogers at the Green Grove Church and took her home. She fell off the porch with a tub of clothes end died from it just about a year after they married. He married again at the church and lived with her twenty years. They had four girls and. four boys, She died from the change of life. The last wife he didn t live with either. She is still living. Had another fortune teller tell his fortune. She said, Uncle, you are pretty good but be careful or you li be walking around begging for vIctuals, He said it had nearly come to that now except it hurt hirn to walk. (He can hardly walk.) He believes some of what the fort une tellers tell cornes true He has been on the same farm since 1887, which is forty- nine years, and did fine till four years ago. He can t work, couldn t pay taxes, and has lost his land. This information given by____ CharlieVaden ~ C ) Place of Residence - - Hazen Green Grove Ark. Occupat ion ~~ ~riing ~ge ~

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Charlie Tadei~s Father 2 2 He wa~ paralized five montb , helpless as a baby, couldn t dress himself. An herb doctor settled at Green Grove and used herbs for tea and poultices and cured him. The doctors and the law run him out of there. His naine was Hopkins from Popular Bluff, Missouri. Charlie Vaden used to have rheumatism and he carried a buckeye in each pants pocket to rr~ke the rheumatism ligbter. He thought it did so~ne good. He has a birthmark. Said his mother must have craved. pig tails. He never had enough pig tails to eat in his life. The butchers give them to him them he co~nes to Hazen or Des Arc. He said he would f~ight a circle saw for a pig ta1l,~ He can t remember a~y old songs or old tales. In tact he was too sr~ll when his mother died ( ive years old). He believes in herb medicine of all kinds but oau t remenber except garlic poultice is good tor neuralgia. Saassafras le a good tea, a good blood purifier in the spring of the yesr~ He knows a weather sigi that seld~n or never falls. Thunder in the morning, rain before noon. Seldom rains at night In Zruly In Arkansas. He has seen lots of lucky things but doesn t rerneraber them. It ~ bad luck to carry hoes and rakes in the livIng house. It s bad luck to spy the new moon through bushes or. trees. He doesn t believe in witches, but he believes in spirits that direct your course as long as you are good aiid do right. He goes to church all the time If they have preaching. Green grove is a Baptist church. He is not atraid o~ dead people, They can t hurt you 1f they are dead.

[Interview with Vaden, Ellen] 006 003

a t Interviewer M~.ss Irene Robertson Person interviewed Ellen Vaden J--~- ~Vai~ Bi~f~ Irk. Age_~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I 81T1 83 years old. My mother come from Georgia. She left all her kin. th.ir owner was Dave and Luiza Johnson, They bad two gir1~ and a boy - Meely, Colly and Tobe. My mother s aunt come to Memphi s in s lavery t line and o orne t o se e u . She cooked and bought herself free. The folks what owned ber hired her out till they got paid her worth. She died In Memphis. I never heard father say where he come from or who owned him. He lived close by somewhere. My mother cooked. Me and Dave Johnson s boy nursed together. When they had company, Miss Luiza was so modest she wouldn t let Tobe have t~tty . He would come lead my mother behind the door and pull at her till she would take him and let him nurse. She said he would lead her behind the door, I dontt remember freedom. I know the Ku Klux was bad around Augus ta Ar, One time when I was little a crowd. of Ku Klux corne at about dusk. They told Dave John8on they wanted water. He told them there was a well full but not bother that woman and her children in the kitchen. Dave Johnson was a Ku Klux himself, They went on down the road and met a colored woman. She knowed their horae8, She called some of them by name and they let her alone. One time a colored man was settin by the fire. His wife

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2.. 4 was sick in bed, He seen the Ku Klux coming and said Loi d God, here conies the devil. He run off, They didn t bother her. She told them she was sick. When she got up and well she wouldn t live with that husband no more. tiUp at Bowens Ridge they took some colored men out one night and if they said they was Republicans they let them go but 1f they said they wa~ Democrats they whooped them so hard they nearly killed some of them. Some said they was bushwhackers or carpet baggers and not Ku Klux. 1 am a c~ountry-ra1sed woman. I had a light stroke and caln t work in the field. I get ~8.OO and commodities. I like to live here very well. ~ I don t meddle with young folks business, Seems like they do mighty foolish things to nie. T irne s be en changing e ver s inc e I come in thi s world. It 5. s the people cause the times to change. I wouldn t know how to start to vote.

[Interview with Van Buren, Nettie] 008 005

3O~~i . 5 interviewe? ~ P6r80fl interviei.d NettisYan Bursii.~C ~~rendon,~ Arkanaaa ~ schoo .4each.r ~ My mother was named laabel Porter ~nith. She come trcia Springs. ville . ~ Rev.; Porter brought her to Misaisaippi o loae to ~oUy Springs. Then she ccme to Bateaville Arkansas. lis owned her. He was a circuit rider. I think he was a Presbyterian minuter. I heard her say they brought her to Arkansas when ehe was a small girl. She nursed and cooked all the tii~. After freedom she went with Reverend Porter s relatives to work for them. I know so very little about what she said about slavery. wily fath r was raised in North Carolina. Hie nana was Jerry &iith and his master he called J~udgs ~ith. My father mad.. all he ever had :tarmin .~ Ee knew how to raise cotton. 11e owned a hosis. This is his home (a nice home on River Street in Clerendon) and 80 acres. He sold y this farm two miles tram here after he had para 48i8, to live on. My parents had two girls and tso boys. They aU dead but me. My mother s favorite song was ~Oh Row I Love Jesus Because Re lint Loved Me . They ccme here because my mother had a brother dom hers and she heard it was auch fine farmin lath. Whsn I was a little girl my father was a Presbyterian so he sent me to boandin school in Cotton Plant end then seat me to Jacksonville,

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2.. (3 flhiflOi8. I workei~ ay board out up there. Mrao Dr. Carroll got ~ a place to work. M~r alster learned to B W. ~. sewed for the public till her death. $he sewed for both black and white folke. I strotohes curtains now it I can get any to stretch and I irons. It give ~ rheumatism to waah. I used to wa8h ax~d iron. My husband cooks on a Government derrick boat He gets 1 25 and his board. They have the very beat things to eat. He likes the work if he can stay well. He eau cook pies and faiicy cookin They like that. Say they can t hardly get somebody work long because they want to be in town every night. We have one child. I used to be a primary teacher here at Clarendon. I never bave toted. My husband votes but I don t know what he thinks about it. ni try to look at the present condit ions in an encouraging way. The young people are so extravagant. The old fOlks in need. The thing moat discouraging is the strangera come in and get jobs hct~ folks could do and need and they can t get jobs and got no money to leave on nor no place to go . People that able to work don t work hard as they ought and people could and whim to work can t get jobs. 8o~ of the young folks do surs live wild lives. They think only of the present tiass. A few young folks are buying homes but not half of them got a home. They work where they let em have a room or a house. Ditu ferent folks live all kinds of ways.~

[Interview with Vaughn, Adelaide J.] 010 007

~?36 7 ; ~ ~ ~ ~ ; t~ ~ ;~) Interviewer Samuel S. T~yior~~ Person interviewed u-j . ~s - ~ ~ ~ _ - --u ~ a 1)22 Cr6aa Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Age________ I was born in Huntsville A1abama~ My mother brought me from there when I was five years old ~ She said she would come to Arkansas because she had beard so much talk about it~ But when she struck the Arkansas line, she didn t like it and she wanted to go back. I have heard her say why but I don t remember now; I done forgot. She thought she wouldn t like lt here, but she dId after she stayed a while0 My bronchial tubes git all stopped up and make it hard for me to talk, Phle~n gits all around, I been bothered with them a good while now~ My mother, she was sold from her father when she was four years old. The rest of the children were gr wn then, Master hickman was the one who bought her. I don t know the one that sold here Hickman had a lot of children her age and. he raised her up with them. They were nice to her all the time, ~ Once the pateroles came near capturing her. Bit she made it home and they didn t catch her0 Mr0 Candle hired her from her ni~ster when she wa~ about eighteen years old, He was nice to her but his wife was ti~an. J\ist because mother wouldn t do everything the other servants said Mie Candle wanted to whip her, Mother said she knew that Mie Candle couldn t whip her alone. But she was fraid that she would have Saille, another old Negro woman slave, and Kitty, a young Negro woman slave, to help whip her,

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2. 8 One day when it was freezing cold, she wanted mother to Btand out in the hail with Salue and Clara and wash the glasses in boiling hot water0 She was making her do that because she thought she was ixppity and she wanted to punish her ~ When mother went out she rattled the dishe e round in the pan and broke them0 They was all glasse s ~ ~js Candle heard them breaking and come out to see about it. She wanted to whip mother but 8he was fraid to do it while she was al ne; so she waited till her husband come home1, When he come she told him. He said she oughtu t to have sent them out in the cold to wash the glasses because nobody could wash dishes outside in that cold weather0 NThe first morning she was at Mis Candle s, they called her to eat and they didn t have nothing but black molasse s and corn bread for mother s meal. The other two ate it but mother didn t, She asked for something eises She said she wasn t used to eating that-~that she ate what her master and mistress ate at home. MIs Candle didn t like that to begin with~ She told my mother that she was a smart nigger. She told mother to do one thing and then before she could do it, she would tell her do something else, Mother would just go on doing the first thing till she finished that, and Mis Candle would git mad, But it wasn t nobody s ta~ilt but her own. She asked mother to go out and git water from the spring on a rainy day. Mother wouldn t go. Finally mother got tired and went back home. Her mistre ss heard what she had to tell her about the place d been working, Then she said mother did right to quit. She had worked there f~or three or rour montha~ They meant to keep her but she wouldn t stay. Mis Hickman went over and collected her money,

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3.. 9 Vflien moth l worked out the people that hired her paid her ownera, Her owners furnished her everything ~e wanted to eat and clothea to wear, and~ all the money she earned went to them, MIs Candle begged Mr. Hickman to let him have mother back, He said he d talk to his wire and she wouldn t mistreat her any more but mama said that she didn t want to go back and Mrs. Hickman said, No, she doesn t went to go back and I wouldn t make her. And the girls said, No mama, t t let her go back And Mi Hickman said No she was raised with my girls and I em not going to let her go back. The Hickmans had my mother ever since she was four years old, My grandfather was allowed to go a certain distance with her when she was sold away from him. He walked and carried her in his armas Mama said that when he had gone as far as they would let him go, he put her in the wagon and turned his head away She said she wondered why he didn t look at her ;. but later she understood that he hated so bad to part from her and couldn t do nothing to prevent it that he couldn t bear to look at her. Since I have been grown I have worked with some people at Newport. I stayed with them there and married there, and. had all my children there. I heard the woman I lived with, a woman named Diana Wagner, toi . how her mi stre as said Coins on, Diana I want you to go with me down the road. a piece t And she went with her and they got to a place where there was e. whole lot of people. They were putting them up on a block and selling them just like cattle. She had a little nursing baby at home and she broke away from her mistress and them and. said, I can t go off and leave my baby. And they had to git some man and throw her down and hold her to keep her from goin back to the house They sold her away from her baby boy. They didn t let her go back to see him again. &tt she heard from him

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4.. jo after he became a young mane Some one of her friends that knowed her arid knowed s1~e Wa8 sold away from lier baby met up with this boy and got to quest1ofllfl~ hirn about~ his mother. The white folks had told him hia motherta naine and all He told theni and they said ~y, I know your mother. 3h s down in Newport . And he said Gitmue her address and P 11 write to her and see if I can hear from her, ~nd he wrote0 And the white people said they heard such a hollering and. shouting goin on they said, What s the matter with ian And they came over to see what was happening. And she said, I got a letter from my boy that was sold from x~e when he was a nursing baby. She had me write a letter to him. I did all her writing for her and he came to see her0 I didn t get to see him, I was away when he come, She said she was willing to die that the Lord let her live to see her baby again and had taken care ot him through all these years~ My rather s name was Peter Warren and my mother was named Adelaide Warren. Before she was married she went by her owner s na~, Hickman. My daddy belonged to the Phillips but he didn t go in their names He went in the Warren s naine. He did that because he liked theni. Phillips was his real father, but he sold him to the Warrena and he took their name and kept it~ They treated him nice and he just stayed on in their naxne~ He didn t marry till after both of them were free, He met her somewheres away from the Hi ckriian s G They marri od in Alabama, Mania was born and mostly reared in Virginia and then come to Alabama. s where I was born, in ama. And they left there and carne here I was four years old when they come here. I never did hear what my father did in slavery time, He was a twin. The mo at he took not ice of he said was hi s brother and him sett in on an old three~1egged stools And his mother had left some soft soap on the fire,

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5. :11 His brother ~aw that the pot ~as goin to turn over ana he jumped. up. My father tried to get u~p too but the stool turned~ over and caught him, eaught his little dress and held him and the hot soap ran over his dress and on to his bare skifl. It left a bi~ burn on his side lone as he 1ive~ His mother was there close to the house because she knowed the soap was on and those two little boys were in there, She heard him crying and ran in and carried him to her raaster~ He got the doctor and saved him, My father s mother did~n t do nothing after that but tend to that baby0 lier master loved those I ittle boys and kept her and didn t ~e1lherbeceuse of them, (The under~ scoring is the interviewer s~-ed.) That was his last master.~~.aWarren, Warren loved him more than his real father did~ Warren said he knew my father would never live after he had auch a burn. 11~t he did 1ive~ They never did let him do much work after the acciden.t0 I think my father s master, Warren~ I cantt remember his first name~ ~arrned for a living, ~ I 1y father and mother had five children, I don t know how many brothers my rather had. I have heard fly mother say she had four sisters, I never h9STd her say nothin bout no brothers-i just sisters~ ni had six children4 Got three living and three dead, They was grown though when they died. I had three boys and three girls, I got two boys living and one girl, The boy in St. Louis does pretty well, But the other in Little Rock doesn t have much luck. If he d get out of Little Rock, he would find more to do0 The one in St. Louis don t make rmi~ch now because they done cut wages. He s a dining.car waiter, Thia girl what s here, she does all she can for ins, She has a husband and my husband is dead, He s been dead a long time,

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6, 1 ) & RI belong to Bethel A. M. i~. Cirnroi~. You know where that is~ Revs Campbell is a good man. We had him eight years, Then we got Brother Wilson one year and then they put Ceiupbell back, I don t know what to think of these young people. Some of them is iiinii1n~ wild. When I was working tor myself, I was generally a maid. ~it that is been a long time ago0 I washed and ironed and done laundry work when I was able a long time ago, But I can t do lt now, I can t do it for myself now. I washed for myself a little and I got the flu and got in bad health0 That was about four years ago. I reckon it was the flu.; I never did have no doctor1 when I take the least little cold, it cones back on me.. Interviewert ~ Gominent This old lady appears nearer eighty than sixty~nine, and she speaks with the sureness of an eyewitness,

[Interview with Wadille, Emmeline (Emiline)%Waddell, Emmeline (Emiline)] 016 013

.1 Q) Interviewer ~--- -- Person interviewed EmrneljneWaddllle (~pceased) ~ Lonoke Coimty, Arkansas ~jej.Q6~ _ ~he immigrated with her owner, L. W. C Wacidille, to Lonoke County in 1851, coming to Hickory Plaina and then to Brownsville. They moved from Rayburn, Georgia in a covered wagon drawn by oxen. She lived with a great.-~granddaughter, Mrs. ~Tohn High, seven miles north of Lonoke, until 1932, when she died. She had nursed six generations of ~the iaddille family. She was born a de f~nute but her hearing and speech were restored m~y years ago when 1i~htenin~ struck a tree under which she was standing. Ermueline told of how they would stop for the night on the rough journey, and while the men fed the stock, the women and slaves would cook the evening meal of hoecake, fried venison, and coffee. The women slept in the wagons and the men would sleep on the creek watching for wild life. Y~ith other pioneers, they suffered all the hardships and dangers incident to the settling of the new country more than three$ourths of a century ago. Enmieline always had good care. She worked hard and fa1th~-. fully and was amply rewarded.

An old slave. 017 013

j ~M ~~~332 Circumstances of Interview STATE~ Arkansas i~A1v1E OF ~JBKER~ Blanche Edwards ADDRESs~-- Lonoke, Arkansas ~ ~ October 20, 1938 3UBJECT~ An Old Slave 1. I~atne and address of informant~ Mrs. John G. High, living nine miles north of Lonoke, Arkansas, 2~ Date and time of interview-~ October 20 1938 3, Place of interview - At the home of Mrs. John G. High, nine miles north of Lonoke. 4. Name snd~ ad~dress of person, if any, wh p~zt you in touch with informant- 5. Naine and address of person, 1f any, accompanying you- 6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Text of Interview F iiline Wadciell, a fartuer slave of the L. W. Wadd.ell family, lived to be 106 years old, and was active up to her death. She was born a slave in 1826 at Raben county, Georgia, a slave of Claybourne Wad.d.ell, who emigrated to Brownsville, in 1851, in covered wagons, oxen drawn. Her white folks were three weeks making the trip from the ferry across the Mississippi to old Brownsville; after traveling all day through the bad and. boggy Woods, at the end. of their rough journey at eventide, the movers dismounted and began hasty preparations for the s While the men were feeding the stock and. providing temporary quarters, the women assisted the slaves in preparing the evenIng meal, of hoe cake, fried. venison and coffee. Then the women and children would sleep in the wagons while the men kept watch for wild life. ~RMA 13A

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~ 13B I(arntny ~ni1ine was a faithfu.1 old black mammy true to life and. traditions, ax4 refused~ her freedom, at the close of the war, as wanted to stay and. raise 901d Massa s chilluns, which she did., for she was nursing her sixth generation in the Wad~e1l family at the time of her death. Even to that generation there was a close tie between the southern child and his or her black mammy. ~ strange almost u.nbelievable thing happened to ~ni1ine; she was born a deaf mute, but her hearing and speech was restored rnan~r years before her death, when lightening struck a tree uniier which she was standing. ~ ~ ~ ~ Superstitious beliefs were strong in her and. her tales of hants were to her little white chilluns , really true but hair raising. Then she would talk and live again the days that are no more , te hing them o f the happy prosperous, sunny land, in her negro dialect, and then tell o f the ruin and desolation behind. the Yankees; the h~d times my white folks had. in the reconstruction days negro ard carpetbag rLtle; then give them glimpses of good much courage, some heart anci human feeling; p erhaps ending wi th an outburst of the negro sp iritual her favorite being, Swing low, sweet ebariot, coming for to carry n~ home. After a faithful service of 106 years, ~niline died in 1932 at the home of ~frs. Joim G. High, a gre&t-granddaughter of L. W. C. Waddell living nine miles north of Lonoke, a~. the grown up great great grandchildren still miss ~

[Interview with Waldon, Henry] 019 014

.~)~ ; ~ #730 ThterVieWer~ ~ Person interviewed~ ~ ~ - -~-- 816 Walnut Street, North Little Rock, Arkansas A;7A 84 ~ _____ I was plowing when they surrendered. I had just learned to plows and was putting up some land, My young master come home and was telling me the War was ended and we was all free, I was born in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, I think lt was about Vi)~V) 1854, My father s name ~ ~ my mother s ~ I knew them both. My mother belonged to Sterling and my father belonged to a man nan~d Huf Richmond Huff. We lived in Lauderdale County. Huff wou.ldn t sell my father and my people wouldnt t sell my mother, They lived about a mile or so apart. They didn t marry in them days. The niggers didn t, that Is, Father would just corne every Saturday night to see my mother. His cabin was about three miles from her s. We moved fromLauderdale County to Scott County, Mississippi, arid that separated mama and papa. They never did meet again. Of courses I mean it was the white people that moved, but they carried mains and us with them, Papa and mama never did meet again before freedom, and they didn t meet afterwards, My mother had twelve children.--.eight girls and four boys, She had one by a man named Peter ~aith, ~ She was away from her husband then. She had four by my father two boys and two girls;~y father s name was Peter Huff, My mother s name was Mary Sterling~ I never did see my father no more after we moved away from him,

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2. My father made cotton and corn, plowed and hoed In slavery tin~~ ~ old master had seventy4ive or eighty hande, His old ma8ter treated him pretty rough. He whipped them about working, He never hired no overseer over them. When be whipped them he took their shirts oft and whipped them on their naked backs. He cut the blood out of soins of them. He never did rub no salt nor vinegar in their wounds, His youngest son done his over.~ see Ing. He would wh ip them so~time but he waan t tight on them like soi~ that I knowed. A fellow by the name of J~iin Holbert was mean to his slave s as a man could be. He would whip them night and day. Work them till dark; then they would eat sapper. Cook their own supper. Had nothing to cook ~xt a little meat and bread and. molasses. Then. they would go back sud bale up three or ~our bales of cotton,. Some nights they work till twelve o clock then get up before dayl gh~~t round four clock..-and cook their breakfast and go to work again. That was on Yixn Holbert and Lard Moore s place. Them was two different men and two different places ~plantations. They whipped their slaves a good deal always beating down on somebody. They made their backs 8O1 O. Their backs would be bleeding just like they cut it with knives. Then they would wash it down with water and salt. On my master s farm, each one cooked in his own cabin. Thile the hands were working, my master left one child, the largest, stay there and taken care of the little ones. ~ ~ They had bloodhounds too ; they d run you away in the woods. Send for a man that had hounds to track you if you run away. They d run you end bay you and a white nan would ride up there and ~ say, If you hit one of them hounds I 11 blow your brains ou He ~ d say t your damn in Them hounds would worry you and bite you and have you bloody as a beefs

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3. 16 but you dassent to hit one of ~hm~ They would tell ~ to at~d still end put your hands OV ~ your privates, I eon t ~ they d have killed you. ~t you believed they would. They wouldn t try to keep the hounds off of you; they would set them on you to see them bite you, Five or six or seven hounds bitin you on every aide and a man settin on a horse holding a doubled shotgun on you~ My old miss s sister hired slave women out to o 4 J~im Holbert once, of them was in a delicate state, and they dug a hole and put her stomach in it and whipped her till she could hardly walk. Holbert lived to 80G the niggers freed. All ot his slaves left him pretty well when freedom cous. He managed to hold on to his money. He didn t go to the War. He was pretty old. He had two sons in the War--hie wife had one in there and he had one. One of them got wounded but he didn t die. My mistress s oldest son, Ed Sterling, ~ got shot in the Civil War. He ~ot shot right in the side at Franklin, L~nnessee.. It tore his whole side off--near about killed him. Th~t he lived to ride paterole He was mean, Catch a man in bed with his wife at night, he d whip him and make him go hox~e He was the meane at man ilL the world. 11 the other eons were better than he was. His name was Kd Sterling. The tiret thing I remember was work. You weren t allowed to re~mber nothing but work in slave times and you got whipped about that. You weren t allowed to go nowhere but carry the n*ilea out to the pasture to eat grass. SOmetj~~ they jump the fence and go over in the field and eat corn. M~ and another fellow named Sandy used to watch them all day Sunday, Watching the mules and working in the fields through the week was the first work I remember. Me and my sister worked on one row. The two of us r~de a hand,

022 017

4. li She is dom in ~xas aomewhorea now~ They taken her from old lady Sterling a place. She give them to her aon~ and he carried them down In ~exaa. i~e had a broken leg and never did go to the war, If he did, I never knowed nothing about it. None of the masters never give n~ anything. None of them as I knows of never give anything to any of the 81av0s when they treed em. Never give a devilish thing, Told them that they was free as they was and that they could stay there and help them make crops if they wanted to0 The b1g~est part of thei~ stayed0 The rest went away0 Their husbands taken them away. WRight after the war my mother married an old ~el1ow who used to be old Holbert s nigger driver. He stayed on Sterling s place one night, He stayed there a year, Then he married my mother and went to old Holbert s place and of course, we had to go too. I stayed there and worked for him And my mena too and the two youngest sisters and the youngest brother stayed. With me. I run away frcaa him in 86. 1 went down the railroad about five miles and an old colored fellow give n~ a job. He used to belong to the railroad boss. ni worked nearly two years on that railroad; then I left and come on down to Arkansas~, I have been right here on this spot about forty yeara~ I don t know how long it is been since I first cone here, but it is been a long time ago. I paid fire Insurance on this place for thirty nine years. I lived over the river before I co to North Little Rock0 I worked tor the railroad company thirty eight years. It a been fifteen years since I was able to work ~ybe longer. I belong to Little Bethel Qrnrch (A. M. L) here in North Little Rook. I been a ~mber of that church more than thirty~five years.

023 018

5. 18 I have been married twice, and. I am the tather of three children that are livizig and two that dead. TODEIY, ~rLm, ~w1ng, Ma~etta, and the baby. He was too young to bave a name when he d1ed~ I think things is worse than they ever was. Zverythlng we get we have to pay for, and then pay for paying for It, It lt wasn t ror my wife I could hardly live because I don t ~et mach from the railroad coxapany.~

Story by Aunt Clara Walker. 024 019

19 Interv ielN er ~ D ~ ~ - Person Interviewed Aunt C1ar~ Walker Aged 111 110111e F1QtV~OOd.S ~ et ~ Garland County. Own property. ****** ~ Story by Aunt Clara Walker You ll have to wait a nilnute xnatain. Dis cornbread can t go down too f as . Yes rna ani, I likes cornbread. I eats it every nieal. I wouldn t trade just a little cornbread ror all de flour dat is. Where~bouts was I born ? I Was born right here in A;rkansas. Dat is it was between an on de b-orders ot it an dat state to de south-~--~-yes ma~e~, dat s right, ~ Louisiana, MY mother was a slave before me. She come over fron de old country. She was a~runnint along one day front of a ~a-~-~ dat stripedy anixaal~-a tiger? an a man come along on an elephant and scoop her up ant put her on a ship. Yes ma am. ~y name s Clara Walker. I was born Clara J ~ones, cause niy pappy s name was Jones. But lots of folks called nie Clara Cornelius, cause Mr Cornelius was de man what owned nie. Did you eve~ hear of a child born wid ~ a ~il over its face? Well I was one of dem ! What it mean ? ~Vhy it means dat you can see spirits an ha nts, an all de

025 020

. . Budglns 20 2 ciaral Walker 2 other creatures nobody else oa~ see. Yes ma am, sonie children is born dat way. You see d~t great grandchild. of mine lyin on de floor ? Ee s dat way. He kin see e~ too. Is many of em around here ? Law sey f dey s as thick as p1ss~ants. ~what does dey look like ? ~3ome of t era looks like folks ; ant some of em looks like hounds. When dey sees you, dey says Howdy% an ii~ you don t speak to em dey takes you by your shoulders en dey shakes you. Maybe ~ ey hits you on de back. ~n if you go over to de bed an lies in de bed an goes to sleep, dey~ul1s decover of~f you. You g~t to be polite to ein. !dvhatmakes t~ walk around? Well, I got it figgured b t dis way. Dey s dissatisfied. Dey didn t have time to git dey work done while dey was alive0 Dat greatgrandohiid of mine, he kin see em too. Now lily eight ~andchi1dren an xny three children what s alivin none of ~em can see de spirits. Guess dat ~reatgrandohild struck way back. I goes way back. M~ ai master what had to go to de war, little tore it was over told me when he left a~t I was 39 years old. Somebody figgured it o~it for me dat l s ill now. Dat makes me pretty old, don t 1t2 There was another fellow on a Joinin plantation. He was a witch doctor. Brought hini over from Africa. 11e didn t like his master, cause he was niean. 80 he make a little man out of mud. An he stick thorns in its bEck. Sure nuff, his

026 021

Clara Walker Eudg ins 3 ntaster got down witii. a ~nisery jn his tack. ~ e witch doctor let de th~rU stay In de mud-man until he thought his master had got nu.ff punishment. When be tuck it out, his iaaster got better. Did I got to school. No ma aia. N~ot to book SChOOl. Dey v~ouldn t let culled folks git no learnin&. When I was a little girl ~ie skip rope an play high spy ( I spy). ~.1i v~e had to do was to sweep de yard an go after de COV~S an de pigs an de sheep. An dat was l un, cause deywas lots of us children an. we all did it together. When I was 13 years old my ai mistress put nie wid a doctor who learned me how to be a xaidvvite. Dat was cause so many womer~ On. de plantation was catchin babies. I stayed wid dat doctor, Dr. Mc~Gil1 his naine was4, for 5 years. I got to be good. Got so he d sit down an I d do all de wark. When I conie home, I made a lot o money for old miss. Lots of times, didn t sleep reg~ilar or g t my meals on time for three-~four days. Causewhen dey call, I always went. Brought as many ~vhite as culled children. l s brought most 200, white an black since I s been in Kot springsf. Brought a little white baby -.~--to de Wirds it was-~-.~deylived Jest down de lane-~~brought dat baby bout 7 yeer ago. I s brought lots of em an I ain t never lost a case. You know why. It s cause I used my held. When I d go in, I d take a look at de women., an 1f it was beyond me, I d says

027 022

HUd~1ns Clara Walker 4 Dis is a doctor case, Dis ain t no case for a midwife. You git a doctor. ~i dey d have to get on . i d Jes stant before de lookin glass, SlLt I wouldn t budge. Dey couldn t make me. I made a lot of money for o1~ miss. But she was good to nie. 811e give me lots of good clothes. Those clothes an fly mother~s clothes burned up in de fire I had a few years ago right on dis farm. Lawsey I hated loosin dose clothes I had when I was a ~ir1 more dan anythir~g I lost./ ~1ArL I didn t have to work in de fields. in between times I cooked an I would jump in de loom. Yes, ma am I could weave good. Did. my yards every day. I weave cloth for &resses--~fime dresses you would use thread as thin as dat you sews wid today ~ I weaves cloth for underclothes, an~ fo handkerchiefs an for towels. Den I weaves flits sud lice. Whatts dat---well yc~u see it was kind corse cIpth de used for clothes like overalls. It was sort of speckeldy all over--~datts why d~,called it nits and lice. Law, I used to be good once, but after I got all burned up I wasn~t good for so much. It happened dis way. A salt lick was on a nearby plantation. Ever body who wanted salt, dey had to send a hand to help make it. I went over one ~ - j-an workin~ around I stepped on a live coal. I move quick an I fall plum over into a salt vat. Before dey got iae out I was pretty near ruined.

028 023

Eud~ins 23 c~1ara Walker 5 What did dey do? D6~ killed a hog--$resh killed a hoe. An dey fry up de fat~--fry lt up wid some of de hog hairs an dey greesed nie good. ju lt took all de fire out of de burns. Dey kept rae greezed for a 1on~ time. I ~as s1~k nearly six months, Dey was good to me. An one day, young miss, she married. 01 xalss give nie to her tiong of 23 others. Twenty four ~as all she could spare ant keep some for herself an save enough for de other children. We went to California. Young ~lss vvas good, but her husband was mean. He give nie de only white folks whlppini~ I ever had. Oit miss never had to wl4p her slaves. I was tryint to cook on. an. earth stove~~dat s why it happen. Did you ever hear of an earth stove? Well, dey make sort of drawers out of dirt. ~ burn wood in tern. After you glt used to lt you kin cook o~ lt ~ But dat ~ay i: was busy an I burned de biscuits. Axi he whip me. I run. o ft I knew in gene ra 1 a e way home When I come to de Brazos river it looked most a mile across. But I jump in an I swini lt. One day I done found a pearl handled poeket knife. A ~ew days later I meet up wid a white boy. ~#nt he say Its his knife, an I say, tWhite boy, I know dat ai ri t your kni fe you know it al t But if yo u 11 wr lt e me out a free pass, i ll give it to YOU.t jflt SO he wrote it. After dat, I could walk right up to de front gates an ask for

029 024

6 Clara Walker Ht,idgins ~4. somthin to eat, Cause I had a paper sayint I was Clara J ones an I was goin home to nty ol mistress gist Cornelius. Please paterollers to leave rue alone0 An folks along de way, deytd take me in an feed me. Dey d give me a place to stay an fix me up a lunch to take along. Dey d s ay t Cl ara you s a goo d. ni gger s a go in home t o your ol miss. SO we s goin to do for you. Ant I got within five miles of hoxue before dey eatch me. AIL 1fl7 o1~ mss wont let me ~o back. she keep nie an send another one in my place. An de war kept on, an ai niassa had to go. ~~i word come dat he been killed. Yes,~- em~~some folks run off~ an ~ some of exa stayed. Finally ol miss refugeed a lot of us to California. What is it to refugee. Well, you see, suppose you was afraid dat somebody goin to take your property an you run eeia away off somevvhere-~-~ how you come to know. When de war was over, young iaiss she come in an she say, Clara, you s as free as I am. No, I ain t. says I. Yes, you is, says she. tThat you goin to do V tits goin to stay an ~ work for you. says I. No says. she) you. ain t cause I can t pay you. Well, says I, I ll go home to see my pid mother. Tell you what, says she, I ain t got nuff money to send you, only part~-~so you go down to whar dey is a pannin gold. You kin git a job at ~2.OO per day.

030 025

Many s a day Itve stood In water up to niy waist pannin ~o1d. In dem days de/vQrked women jest like men. I worked hard, ail young miss took care of ras. When ~ got ready to come home I bought my stage rare ant I oarr~ed ~3OO on me back to my ol mother. De trip toQk six weeks. Everywhere de stage would stop young nilss had writ a note to somebody and de stage coach men give it to eni an dey took care of me~-good care. When I got home to my mother I found dat ol laiss had give all of en~ sorathint along with settin ein free. My mother had 12 chIldren so she git de mos . She git a horse, a milk cow, B killirit hoes and 50 bushels of corne She moved off to a little house on o1~ miss s plantation and make a crop on halvers. She stay on der for three-$our year s Den she move off i nto anoth er cou:ty where she could go to meetin without havin to cross de rivers An I stayed on wid her an help her ~arm~~ I coud plow as good as a man in dem days. Finally I hear dat you could make racre money in Hot springs, so I come to see. My mother was dead by dat time. De first ye~ iniade a crop for Mr. C1ay-~ ~ my granddaughter cooks and tends to obuidren for some of his folks today. Then I went to town an I ~Vasbed at de Arlington hotel. It wasn t de fine place it is today. ~-t v~as gest boards like dis cabin of mine. ~yjt ~ washed at another hote1...---~at was it- ---~down across de creek from de Arlington.

031 026

Clara Walker HUd~ins 26 Yes flla 81fl, dat s it. De Grand Centralit WQS grand too~~-for dein days. An I cooked for Dr. MeMasters. An I cooked for Colonel Rector~ ~~de Rectors had lots of nioney in dein days. I could make a weddin cake good as anybody~~-with a gagenient rin.g In it. I could niake it fine~-~-tho I don t know-but two letters in de book an thoses Is A and B. I married Mr. Walker. He was a hod carrier when dey built de old red. brtck Arlington, I remember lots of~ things dat happened here. I remember seem ~ de snioke from de fire--~dat bi~ one. We was a livin near Picket prings~~you don t know ~Iiere dat is. Well, does you know where de soldierts breast work ~as-~-- ~-- flOW I git you On to rernexaberin&. Den, later on we moved out an? got a farm near Ha wes. I tra~ed dat place for dis one. Yes, ma am I likes livin in de country. Never did like livint in town. I don t right know whether culled folks wanted to be free or not. Lots of ein didri~ t rightly understand. 01 miss was good to hers. Some of em wasn t. She give em things before an she give ein things after. Of course, we went back an we washe for em. But one raort~l blessin. 01 ~ had made her girls learn how to cook ant wait on themselves. Now take de Conibinders. Dey was on de next plantati~a. Dey was mean. Many a time you could hear de bull whip clear over to ouj place, PLOP, PLOP. AU 1f dey died, dey Jest wrapped ein in cloth an? dig a trench, an plow right over em.

032 027

Clara Walker Itudgins ( An when de war was over, dey wouldn t turn. dey slaves loose. An de Federals marched in an marched ein oft. ~t ol Miet Qonabinder she holler out an she say, What my girls goin d to do~ Dey ain t never dressed %~1eyseI~ves in dey lite. We cen t cook ? What we do V An de soldiers didn t pay no attention. Dey just marched em off. An oit man Combinder he lay down ant he have a chill ant he die. He die because day take his property away from him. Yes, ma ent, Thank you for the quarter. l s goin to buy snuff. :i: gets along good. My grandson he hawis ~wood for de paper mill. An my granddaughters dey ~works for folks cooks au takes care of children. I had a good crop dis year. I ll have meat, I got lots of corn, ant I got other crops. We re gettin along nice, mighty nice. Thank you ma em.

[Interview with Walker, Henry] 033 028

:;t;~i~~~ 28 Interviewer -~- - -----~--~ ~Li_~ps Irexie Robertson --~ - Person interviewed - ~ Ax~kansas Age 80 I was born nine miles south of Nashville, Tennessee. The first I ever knowed or heard of a war, I saw a lot of the funniest wagons coming up to the hot~se from the road. I called the old mistress. She looked out the window and pushed me back ~p in the corner and shot the door. She was so soared. I thought them things they had on their coats (buttons) was pretty. I found out they ~as brass buttons. I peeped out a crack it was already closed cept a big crack, I seed through. Well, the wagons was high in front and high ul the back and sunk in the middle. Had pens in the wheels instead of axels. Wagon had a box instead of a bed. The wagons would hold a crib full of corn. They loaded up everything on the place there was to eat and carried it off. My folks and the other folks was in the field. Colored folks didn t like em taking all they had to eat arid had stored up to live on. They didn t leave a hog nor a chicken, nor anything else they could find. They drove off all the cows and calves they could find. Colonel Sem Williams, the old master, soon did go to v~ar then. The folks had a hard time making a living. Old mistress bad four girls and her baby Ed was one day older than I was. Tiie children of the hands played around in the woods and every place and stayed in the field 1f they was big enough to do any work.

034 029

2. Oci (~ t, old mistress bad all the children pick up sealey bark8 and hickory nuts and chestnuts and walnuts. She put them in barrels. She sold some of them. She had a heap of sugar taaple trees. They put an elder tunnel to nui the sap in buckets. We carried that and she boiled it dowii to brown sugar. She had up pick up chips to burn when ~he simmered it down or made soap. She kept all the children hunting ginsing up in the mountains. She kept it in sacks. A man corne by and buy it. We hunted chenqupins down in the swamps. There was lots o ~ walnut trees in the woods. No the slaves didn t leave Colonel Williams. He left them. He brought me and ~d and we went back and moved to the old Williams farm on Arkansas River close to Little Rock. Then he sent for my folks. They come in wagons. They worked for him a long time and. scattered about. I stayed at his house till he said ilenry, you are grown; you better look out for yourself now. ~d was gone. He sent all the girls off to school and ~d too. They taught me if I wanted to learn but I didn t care much about it. I went to the colored school and Ed to the white school. He learned pretty well. I never did like to sociate or stay bout colored folks and I didn t like to mind em. Old mistress show did brush me out sometimes and they called. my mother to tend to rae. Then I was real little they drove the hands to the block to be sold out alone the road. Old mistress say: ir you don t be good and mind w 11 send yare off and sell you wid em. That scared nie worse than a whooping. Never did see anybody sold. Uee~rd theza talk a heap about it. Ihen one of them wouldn t work and lay out in the woods, or they wouldn t mind

035 030

3. ~30 they soon got sold off. They mated a heap of them and sold them for speculation. No main I didn t like slavery. We had plenty to eat but they worked for all they got. Rad good fires and good wari~ houses and good clothes but I did not like the way they cive out the provi.. E3~OflS. They blowed a horn and measured out the weeks paratta for every family. They cooked at the cabins for their own farailies. There was several springs and a deep rock walled well at old. mistress house. Old mistress always lived in a fine house. I slept at my mother s house nearly all the time. ~he had a big family. White folks raised me up to play with Ed till I thought I was white. They taught me to do right and I ain t forgot it. I never was arrested. I married three times, bought three marriage license all in Prairie County. All three wives died. I owns dis house cept a mortgage of ~5O. One of my boys got in a difficulty. I don t know where he is to get him to pay it off. The other boy s not man enough either to pay it oft. I never did know jess when the Civil War did close. I kept hearing em say we are free. I didn t see ~mi~ch difference only when Colonel Williams come back times wasn t so hard. Then. he sold out and come to Arkansas. Then each family raised his own hogs end chickens and. finally got to have cows. I was as scared of the Ku Klux Klan as of rattlesnakes. In Tennessee they come up the road and back Just after dark. They rode all night and if you. wasn t on your master s own land and didn t have a pass from him or the overseer they would set the dogs on you and nui you horns. Sometimes they would whip them.

036 031

4. 31 Take thorn home to the old. master, I never heard ot no Uprisings. People loved each other better then than now, They didn t have so m~ich idle time. There was always some work to be doing, When they didn t mind they run them with dogs and whipped them. The overseer and paddyrollers seed about that. The first day of the year everybody went up to hear the rules and see who was to be the overseerQ Then they knowed what to do for the year. They never did kill nobody. No main that was too costly. They had work according to their strength and age. The Ku Klux was to keep order. I been living in Hazen forty or fifty years. All I ever have done was farm sometimes one half for the-other and sometimes on share crop. I have voted but not lately. I votes a Republican ticket. I votes that way because it was the Republicans that set us free, I always heard it said. I jess belongs to that party. Seems lack we gets easier times when the Democrats ~e4~ . Colonel Williams was a Democrat. The young folks are not as well ofC as I was at their age. They are restless and won t work unless they gets big pay and they sDends the money too easy. The colored people are too idle and. orderless. They fbi~ht and hate one another and roam around in too rrr~ch confusion. I gets from ~3 to ~8 last month from the Sociable welfare. My children helps me mighty little. They got their own children to see after and don t make rri~.ich.

037 032

5. 32 Colonel Williams and Zd are both dead. They did give me a lot of fine clothes when I went to see them as long as they lived. I don t know where the girls hab cone. Scattered around. I oughter never left my good old home and white folk8. They was show always mighty good to me. I never could sing much. I used to give the Rebbel Yell. Colonel Yopp give me a dime every time I give it. Since he died T ain t yelled it no more, I learned it from Colonel Williams. I jess took it up hearing him about the place.

Ex-slave - hunting. 038 033

. ~ Little Rock District ~ 30567 FOLKLORE SUBJECTS ~ ~ ~ . . . ~ . ~aL~e of Interviewer Irene Robertson . Jut~e~t -~------~ Ex-Slave-Huntin~~n ~~tory - Information (If not enough space on this page add page) Henry V~a1ker was born nine miles south of ~1ashville, Tennessee. .~ :~~~~e:abered the soldiers and ran to the windows to see them pass. One day .i~ saw a lot of soldiers coming to the house. Henry ran in ahead and said ~ dt loud, tltheiu Yankeys are coming up here.1 The mistress slaped Henry, . -~ ~ ~iim and slariin~d the doors The sold 1ers did not get in but they did ~ th ~r damage that day. They took all the mules out of the lot and drove . ~ ~ n ~ Lh~1fi away. They filled their ttdug~.out wagons with corn. 4 ~ dug~out wagon ~ hold nearly a crib full of corn. They were high in front and back L~J~ ~ OLfl~O down to a point, nearly touchodthe ground between the wheels. 2h~ ii~h~els had. pens inste~.d of axles lxi them. ~ children ran like pigs ~v~r~j Lorning. The pigs ran to ~st acorns arid the children ~ v~hite &id ~~1aci~~o pick up chestnuts, scaly barks and hickory nuts. There were lots t~~ ~ ~ I ~ .L .~lack walnuts. We ha~ iarrels of nuts to eat all winter and the mist~ ~ .~ . tr. . ~~ess sola some every year at ~asrLv1lIe, Te~nessee. ~ ~ ~ie woods were full /~ ~t trees and we had a few maple and sweet gum trees. We simmered down ~ ~ sap for brown sugar and chewed the sweet gum. Ike picked up chips to . ~~iL . ~i:;~er the sv~eet maple sap down.~~ ~U~ed elder tree wood to make ~fauoets for ::ruj barrels. There were chenquipmns down in the ~swamps that ~he children . . /) ~ . . . ~ S ~ ~ ~~ered. )~nry talker said that th~y were sent upon the hills to find g5~n~ :i~g and often fouixi lon ; bed3 of it. They put :i~t in sacks and a man oarr~ V, --~-.~ uought it from the mistress. The mistress,~ naine was Mrs. ~Tiliiams. ~ ix~.ror~tion given by HenryWalker ~ ~ ~i~.ce of Residence Hazen~ Arkansas ~ ~oupation Farr~r. ~ - i_ ~- - . AG~ 79~

039 034

2. 5r~/ ~ She ke~t the money for the gbis~~ ~ud nuts toowhen she sold the ~. Henry said ~ he ateat i~rs. Williams~but the other children ate at the cabin. On saturday evening the horn would sound and every slave would ~oiiiO to ~et his allowance of proirisions. They used a b 1g bell himg up in a tree to ~ai1 them to meals and to begin work. They could also hear other farrj~ b~i15 and horns. Colored folks could have dances if they w uld ~et ;eri;uisSiOfl. Some masters were overseers themselves and some hired overseers4 . . 5~~~ :at~y Roliwas a white man ~nd the bush-wackers give us trouble so~t mes. n January irst every year overybodyate psas ~d hog joie and r~e~ved the new rules. The masters. would say, ttdOflt~b be running up here ~u11i~~g if~ On the overseer.t They had a bush harbor church and the white ~ ~~c:~er came to ~roach to black and white someties. They taught obedience ~1L~i ~LE) Golden ~tu1es. No schools k~e~ry said since freedom the white men :~aa cheated him out of ~ ~ll he had eyer made with pei~ ~anC~ 1~nk. He~rather ~e ~1hipped with a stick than a wriEing pen. He said Mr. and L~rs. Williams ~f~ ~ people. deary learned to knit his socks and gloves at m4ght watch- . ~ . s se. ~ tj~ groi~ people. They made a certain number of broches every night. - 1ikeL~ that~. ~ . ~ e- ry said i~r. ~iliiaxas let hIrn carry his gun hunting with him and ~.~~A?:~it !~i fl1 i~OW to ShOO5 squirrels. They v~ere plentiful. He had a lot of ~ The raas~er wer~t to the deer stand and ilenry managed the twelve hounds. .-(~ ~idn t i1k~ to Lox hunt. About a hundrod men ~nd thirty dcgs, horns, eto% . u~ ~r t~e chase. They came from Nashville and 1x. the country. A~ fox makes ~:irce 1 OUi~dS from where he is jumped and then widens out. They brought~ fine ~ ~ out or~ the chases. I ~ . N ~1nen tney nad corn shuokings one ~egro would sit ~ the fence and L~ad the singing, the others shuck on each side. The xt~stor would pour out ~ ~in cup Lull of whiskey from a big jug for e~h corn shucker, and ~s. ~. il hams would give each a square of gingerbread. ~ ~ : ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ;~ ~

040 035

35 L~r. ~~i11iams set asLde a oer~amn number of acres of land every year ~ be cleared, fenced and broke for cultivation by spring. Six or bight men ~ ori:ed together. They used ~ sticks to carry the logs to the piles ~7 ~~iere they were burning them. A saw was a ~jd~ show, they used ma1l,ax~and wedge. After the log rolling there would be a big supper and a go~d one. :~~e visitors got what they wanted from the table first. mat was manners. ((.~e took turns going to the ~ethodist church at Nashville with, Mr. and :rs. ~illiams. They went in the fine carriage and the maid held the baby uU~ afly Lody else rode along behind on horseback. The carriage horses were curried every day, kept up and ate corn and. fodder. ~ Mr. and,i~irs. Williams cai~~e bo Nashville to b 1g weddings aiid dances often. After Henry ~ a1ker c~ame to liazen, Colonel Yop~~ had him feed his dogs a~d attend him on big fox hunting trips. Since Oclonol Yopp died January ~23 ilenry seldorn)or perhaps has never sung the song he sang to Colonel for J~jffieS if he needed a little change~ He learned the song and.hoop back in ~ I4~ * ~ t / (7~t~ ~ 2~i::~ssee in slavery days. lie said ~ ilhie.m 1 oroh (colored boy) took it up ~ ~ ~ ~ Iru;~~ L~c~ring him sing for Colonel Yopp and would vwit~ it for ~ and sing it ~ gIve it with the old Carolina, Georgia and reflr~ ssee whoop. 3. )

[Interview with Walker, Jake] 041 036

36 Interviewer ~ ~ ~ Person intervieWe~~ j ~j~ ~ 3002 Short W. Ninth Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas ~WeU I was here--i was born in 1842 Au~et the 4th. That makes me ninety five in the clear. If I live till next ~August I ll be ninety six. No ma ara, I wa t born in Arkansas, I was born in Alabama. I been in Arkansas bout torty or fifty years. I used to live in Mississippi I first left the old country. Oh yes ni, I was bout big enough to go dunn the War, but I wo t off. Couldn t a had no better master. That s the reason I m livin I do. Always took good care of myself. Never had. no exposure, nI ~ work fore the War, I ll says Done anything they said. J~ohn Carmichael was my old. master and Miss Nancy was old misais. Oh yes ina am, I seed the Yankees. They stopped there. I wasn t askeered of nobody. I have went to the well and drawed water for em. ni member when the War was gwine on. I didn t know why they was fight in . If I did I. done forgot-.-.I 11 be honest with you. I didu t know it only they was fi glitin . Most of my work was around the house ~ I never paid no tention to that war. I was livin too fine them days. I ~as livin a hundred days to the week. Yes ina aiii, I did get along f ines Oh yes ma am, I had good white folks. I never was sold. No ma em, I was born right on the old home place.

042 037

~ 2. Patroilera? Had to get a pass from your master to go over there. Oh yes, I know all about them. I have seed the Ku, Klux too. Yes ma am, I know all about them things. I never been to school bit half a day. I went to work when I was eight years old and been workin ever since. ~ ~y father died in slave times and my mother died the fourth year after surrender. After rreedom, I worked there bout the course of three or four years. Then I emigrated and come on to Mississippi. The most I done them tixne8 was farmin . Reckon I stayed in Mississippi five or six years. The most work I done here in Arkansas is carpenter work. l in the first colored man ever contracted in Pine Bluff. le i wasn t able to work, I don t think I d stay here long. Used to drive the mule in the gin In slave times. We didn t have a bit of expense on us. Our doctor bills was paid and had clothes give to us and. had plenty of something to eat. Yes m, I used to vote but it s been for years since I voted. Voted rtepublican. I don t knov~ why the colored people is Republican. You askin rae something now I don t know nothin about, but I believe in votin for the man goin to do good-P-do the country good. Oh, don t talk about the younger generatiow.. I jist can t accomplish ein, I sure can t. They ain t got the regeniou~s and gets-up about em they had in my time. They is more wiser, that s about all. The young race these days.-~- I don t know what s gwine coin. of em. If twasn t for we old fogies, don t know what they d do. We am t never had that World liar yet told about in the Bible. Called this last war the V~or1d War but twasn t.

043 038

3. 38 Pve always tried to keep my place and I ain t never been. in a~y kind of trouble.

[Interview with Walker, Jake] 044 039

:30828 ~ 39 IntervieWer~ MjaaIrene Robertson Person interviewed~ Take W~ker~j~heat3~ey. Ltkansaa ~ I was born seven or eight inile8 frcni fernando, Misaissippi. My pa was a slave over twenty years0 He belong to Master Will Walker, arid his white mistress was Ann. They brought hint from round Athene Georgia, 11e was heired through his master. His own. mother died at his birth axicl he was the son of a peddler through the country. He was a furriner but pa never could tell. His young master never told him. His nia was the nurse about the place The peddler was ~a white man of some kind. He kept ccniing about selling ~ooda. Tus does made a bad racket. They never bought nothin muc~. J Old master suspicioned him trying to ~et away with something abowt the place. He come right out and accused him to being up to ecmething. He denied it. He told the peddler not to come backe He never. After it was over she told her mistress. He wanted her to go on off with him. That made them mad. But he never was seen about there. ~v:~hen will Walker got married he wanted my pa. and he v~as give to him, a horse arid buggy, two mules, a lamb, and five young cows. He had some money and he come to Mississippi. I reckon he did bu~y some 3~and. He got to be a slave owner before freedom. Pa said he drove the horse to the bug~ and his master rode a mule, led a mule and brought his cows, and th4y kept the lamb in the buggy with them nearly aU the way. I think they was good to him. Eis young mistress cried so much they all went back once before freed~. They went on Christmas time.

045 040

2. 40 Only tune he ever was drux,k. He ~ot d~own and nearly froze to death. The white folks hoard he waa somewhere down. They went and got him one Sunday morning in a two-~horse wagon. Ee was nearly dead. That was hiB first and last spree. Pa said he nursed three o~ his young niistres& babieB, Alfred, Pc~n, andKenneth. After freedom pa went to Texas with Alfred Walker. He owned a ranch out on the desert arid raised Texas ponies and big horn cows. They sent a carload o~ young cattle to St. Louis and pa stopped back in Mississippi and married ma. She was a Walker too, Libbie Walker. There was fourteen of us children. They nearly all went to Louisiana to work in the timber, I come to Olarendon. I been married three times. My last wire left me and took my onliest child, Only child I ever had. They was at Hot Springs last aecot~t I had of them. She was cooking for a woman over there My ~ir1 is up bout grown now. She come to Clarendon to see nie three years ago. I sent for her but she wouldntt stay. She writes to me, but I have to get somebody to write for me and. somebody to read her letters. I can read. print real good. I never went to school a day in my whole life We had. to work early and late when I come up. UI farmed, sa~mil1ed, worked in the timber. I do public work, haul ~iood, cut wood, and work in the field by day labor. I votes a Republican ticket. I haven t voted since Mr. Taft run, I don t have no way to keep up with elections now. Folks used to talk niore, now they keeps quiet, I never heard pa say how he corne to know about freedom. Ma said she ~~as refugeed to Texas end when they brung thorn. back, Master Will Walker blet them at the creek on his place and he said You all are free now,

046 041

3. 41 You can go on my place or hunt other p. They sent on his place and they lived there a lone time. I c3.on ~ remember ever living ou that place. Pa wasn t there then. I don t kno g~ where he could been. Ma and pa Was both ~iJ~kers but no blood kiii, Ma didn t talk mu~ch about old t1n~aa, She waa sold once she said. BESS K811~ bought her. I don t know i~ Will Walker traded for her, She never did. say. Bass Kelly was mean to her. Ue beat her and one time she hid and. kept hid. till she nearly starved, she said~, She hid in the corn crib. It was a log house. &e~did~t enjoy slavery, Pa had a very good. time, better than us boys had it when we c ae up, He worked and kept us with him. He and. ma died the sanie week. They had irneunionia in Mississippi. I got one sister. She lives close to ~reveport. ~e keeps up With us all I go down there every now aad then. 8h s not stove up like I am. She wants me to stay with her all the time. I gets work down there aasier but I have the rheuinati~ bad. down there. I don t know what will become of young folks. I wish I had their chance They can t wait for nothing. They in too big a hurry tor the crop to grow, ~sy living by the day. When the year gone they ain t no better off. Times is good in places. Hard in places, Times better in. Louisiana than up here. Work easier to get. ?olka got raore living, S PI tfll chopping cotton on Mr. Hi s place I gets ziinety cents a day. I can t get over the ground fast.

[Interview with Wallace, Willie] 047 042

:30737 ~ ~ \-~~J~ S ~ IntervieWer~ ~ Person interviewed ~iii~e Waiiaee 40th and Georgia Streets,. Pine BlufT, Arkansas Age8O~ ~ S I was born in Green County, Alabama. Elihu Steele was my old masters ~iiss Julia was old miasis~ She was ~1ihu s wife. Her mother s name was Penny Eatter, Miss Penny give my mother to her daughter Julia. ni was a twin and they choo~ed us f~or the cook arid washer and ironer, but surrender cxne along tf0~ we got big enough to do anything. My father was crippled and couldn t work in the field, and I remember he used to carry the children out to the field to be suckled. They had a right smart of slave s My mother had twelve children and ~ttm the baby. I remember they d make up a big pot of corn bread and pot-~1iquor and they d say, Eat, chillun, eat, I remember o~e time the white folks had sane stock tied out, and I know my sister s little boy didn t know no better and he showed the Yankees where they was. I remember when they said the people was free, but our folks stayed ri~ht on there..~..I don t know how many years~! cause my mother thought a heap of her old 11113813, Penny, 1 went to school after freedom and learned how to read and write and figger. I worked in the field till I got disabled. I never did wash and iron and cook for the white tolks,

048 043

2. 43 I was fifteen~somewhere in there--~when I married and. I m the mother 010 twelve children. I have lived in Thomas, West Virginia; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Cumberland Maryland ; Milliken, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama. I just lived in all them places following my children around, ni fell through e. trestle in Birmingham and injured myself c iin from o RI think the people is gattin terrible now. You think they re gettin better? I think they re gettin wass. I got a book here called Uncle Tom and I hates to read it some.. times cause the people suffered so. I don t think old master had. any overseers. Miss Yulia wouldn t low a1~y of her people to be beat,

[Interview with Warrior, Evans] 049 044

Mrs. Bernice Bowden 1:ve.ns Warrior 609 ~ 23rd Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Interviewer Person interviewed________________________________________ ~ I was born here in Arkansas in I~l1as County. I don t know zackly what year but I was bout five when they drove u.s to Texas. Stayed there three years t ill the war ceasted. Old master s name was Nat ~nith. He was good to me. I was big enough to plow same year the war ceasted. Yankees cc~ae through Texas after peace was dared.. They d coins by and ask my mother for bread. She was the cook. STe left Arkansas roro the war got busy. ~verything-was pretty ragged after we got back. White folks was here but colored folks was scattered. My folks come back and went to their native home in ~l1as County. Never did nothin but farta work. Worked on the shares till I got able to rent. Paid five or six dollars a acre. Made some money. I heered of the Ku Klux. Some of em come through the Clei~nons place and put notice on the doors. Say VA~A~. All the women folks got in one house. Then the boss man come down and say there wa8n t nothin to it. Bo ss man didn t want em there. I went to school a little. Kep me in the field all the tira. Didn t get tur enuf to read and write, Yes m, I voted. Voted the Republican ticket. That s what they cive me to vote. I couldn t read so I d tell em who I wanted to vote ~or

050 045

2, 45 and they d put it down. Some of my friends was justice or the peace and constables, I been in Pine Blurt bout four years ~ till I ~ot disabled to work, I been married tive ti~es~ All dead but two. Don t know how many chillun we had . have to go back and study over it. Some of the younger generation is out o~ reason. Ain t strict on cbilhtn now like the old folks was.

[Interview with Washington, Anna] 051 046

#679 46 ~ f_~ ~ Interviewer MissIreneRobertson Person interviewed Aima1aahjn~ton~, C1arendon,~Arkan8as (Back of Mrs. Maynard s home in the alley) I ve forgot who my mother s owner was~ She was born in V1rginia,~ She was put on a block and sold, She was fifteen years old and she never seen her mother again after she left her, Her master was George Birdsong. He bought my papa toot They was onliest two he owned. I e wanted thea both light so the children would be light for house girls and waiting boys, Light colored folks sold. for more zaoney on the block, The boss man over gx~andpa and ~raxidma in Virginia was 3 ohn Glover, a~t he was not their o~mer, My ~raxidpa was about white. He eaid hi8 o~iaers was good to him but now grandma had a pided back where she had been whoo ed, Grandpa coins down. from the Washington slaves s~ my papa said. That is the reason I holds to his naine and my boy holds to it~ Papa sold he had to plough and clean up new ground for Master Birdeong, He was a young raan starting out and papa and. niama was young too. (She left and caine back with some old scraps o~ yellow and torn papers dirrily written all over: Anna Washington, born 1860 at Hines County at Big i~ock. Mother born at Capier County, Father born at White County, Virginia~ cd.) This is what was told to me by my papa: His grandraother was born of Ge orge ~iashington s housemaid. That was one hundred f03 tY ~~ars ago. His papa was educated under a fine mechanic and he help build the old 8tate~. houc~e at ~Jashington, Major Rousy Paten was the Washington nigger t ~~~inistrator.

052 047

2. I had a sister naxnad Martha Qirtia after hi8 youn.g wife~ I had a brother named Rousy Patton. They are both dead. now, Pa lived to be ninety. eight years old. My mama was as white as you is but she was a nigger woman. Pa was lighter than I is now~ i m getting darker cause l in getting old, My pa was named Benjamin Washington, I heard my pa talk about Nat Turner. (~ he knew who he was o .k. ed0) He ~ot up a rebellion o~ black folk back in Virginia. I heard my pa sit and tell about him~. Moses Kinnel was a rich white man wouldn t sell Nellie cause of what h~a wire said~ She was a housemaid, He wrote o~wn free pass book and took her to Maryland~ Father s father wanted to buy Nellie but her ovnier wouldn t sell her, He took her, My mother had fourteen ohildren~ Me and Archie was the youngest, Moses Kinnel was a rich white man and had lots of servants. He promised never to sell Nellie and keep her to raise his white children. She ;as his maid, He promised that her dying bed, ~it father s father stole her and took her to Maryland. ~ Pa run away and was sold twice or more. When he was ~na11 chile his mother done fine washing. She sent him to go tetob her some fine laundry soap what they bought in the towns ~ Two white insu in a two..~wheel open buggy say, hey, don t you want to ride? I ain t got time. Get in buggy, we ll take you a little piece. One jumped out and tied his hands together. They sold him. They let him go to nigger traders.~ They had him at a doctor s examining his fine head see what he could stand. The doctor say, rie is a fine man. Gould ti~st him with silver and gold his weight in They bruni hini to Mississippi and sold him for a big price. He had these ~pers the doctor wrote On him to show,

053 048

3. 48 Then he sent for my inan~a attei they sat him tree. His name waa Ben ~ash ingt On. He never spoke nmch of freedom, He said his master in Miasiasippi told them and had theni sign up contracts to finish that year s crop. He took back his old. Virginia name and. I don t recollect that master s name0 Heard it too. Yes ma am, heap er times~ My recollection is purty nigh gone, I don t get no younger in feelings cause I m getting o1d~

Slave memories - birth, mother, father, separation house. 054 049

~> ~ ~ ~ . ~ POLKLORE SUBJFCTS Name of Interviewer ~. ~.Tay1or S~bjOCt _~ SlaV memories ~- Birth, Mother Father, Separation Houe Story ~ Infoi iiiation (If not enough spaoe on this page add page.) The first thins I remember was living with my mother about six miles from Scott s Cros8ing in Arkansas, about the year 1866. I know it was 1866 beca se it was tIie year after the surrender, arx~ we kno~v the surrender was in 1865. I kno~v the dates after 1866. You don t know nothin when you don t know dates. If you get up In court anu say soinethin , the lawyers ask you when lt happened and then they ask you where did it happen, and if you can t tell thern~ they say Witness is excused. You don t know nothin . Mother and Father. ~ -~ LM~ <~ 6ur~J Ply rncther was born in North Carolina inMaeklthbergin Hen-i derson County. I don tbknow when she came ~o Arkansas. and I don t know when she went to Tennessee. MY father sas born Iii Tennessee. I don t know the county 1i~ I did in North Carolina. I don t know the town either, but I think it was in the rurals somewhere~ The white folks separated fly mother and father when I was a little baby in thd.r arms. The people to whom r~y father belonged stayed in Tennessee, but my mother s people came to Arkans as . It mus t have been al ong in the tIme of the war that they corne to Ar&ansas. Dw e I 1 ing My mother lived in a log house chinked with wood chinks. The Thj~ information given by ~1lza ~ffashir~ton, 151? West Sevent~enth ) L Ft~~ I e ito~ Ax kak~ s~ ~- Place of Resjdenoe Occupation ~ and Ironing( When able ) ~ ~ Age About 77

055 050

. 2 FOLKLORE Name of Interviewer ~nS. S. Taylor Subject -- Slaves: Dwellings, .Pood,Clothes, Story or Information Phc ~hiflk~ looked like ~1uts. ~ou know what a glut 18? No? iNch a glut looks hike t~e pattern of a shoe. They lay the logs to~ gether~ and then chir~ k up the crq~zks with wood blocks made up like the pattern ~ a ~3hoe. These were chinks, wooden things about a foot 1OflG~~ shaped like a weJge. They Here used for chinkth~. Af~ ter the logs viere laid together, chinks would be needed to stop up the holes between the logs. After the chinking was finished, clay ~va~ stuffed in to 8top up the cracks ami make the house warm. I ve o s e cri a many a .~fle bu j 1 t. iNide planks were used for the floors. The doors were hung on wooden hinges. The doors were nev~er locked. They did n t have ar~ 1ock~ on them. You could bar them on the inside if you wanted to. They did ~ n t have no fear of burglars in them days. People wasTh t bad then as they ~8 now. ~Tney had ju8t one window and. one door in the house. The chimney was built up like a ladder and clay and Straw was stuffed in the framework. J__ ~ H I have seen such houses built right down here infScotts. ~ My motherwas a field hand. She lived in euch a house in Tenne~~ There wa3 n t no brick about the hou8e, not even in the chimney. - ~ _-__u ~ ~ ~ - Thjz information ~ivcn by Eliza Washin~tou (Negro) Place of Re8iidenthe ~ 151? L Seventeenth Street, Little Rock, Ark. Occupation ~ Washing and Ironing ( When able ) Age ~ About 77

056 051

3 5:1 FOLKLORE SUBJECT Name of Interviewer -~ S. S. Taylor ~ Subject -~ Dwellings, Food, Clother Story or InfoDznation In later years, they have covered up all those logs with weather boards and made the houses look like what they call modern , b at theyr e the same old log houses. Food L mother said her white folks fed her well. She had whatever they had. When ehe came to Arkansas, they issued ration8, but she never was i~8ued rations before. When they issued rations, they gave t:~e~ so much food each week ~- 80 much corn meal, 80 much potat~S, so much cabbage, 50 much molasses, so much meat -- mostly rubbi8hlike food. We went out in the garden and dug the potatoes and got the cabbage. But in Tennessee, my mother got what2ever whe wanted whenever ~he wanted it. If she wanted sal , she went and got it. If she wanted meat, she went to the smokehouse and got it. Whatever she wantt~d3 she went and got lt, and they diCh t have no times for Issuing out. Social Affairs ~ Corn Shuckings, ~uiltings and Dances The biggest time I remember on the plantat~ionswas corn shuck.~ This information given by ~1iza Washington ( Negro woman) Place of residence ~ 1517 W. 17th Street, Little Rock, Arkansas OCCu~atjon ~ Washing anc~ Ironing ( ~hen able ) Age -~ Aboit 7?

057 052

FOLXLOR~ SUB3ECTS Naine of Interviewer -~ s. s. Taylor Subject -~- Corn Shucking, Dance8. ~uiltin~s, ~edd1ngs among si*ves Ing time. Plenty of corn wae bro~ight in from the eribB and strowed along where everybody could get to lt freely. Then they wOUld all get corn and shuck lt until near time to quit. The corn shucking wa~ always at night, and only as much corn as they tkiou~ht would be shucked was brought from the cribs . 3~ust before they got through, they would begin to sing. Some of the eongs were pitiful and sad. I can t remember any of them, but I can remember that/ they were sad. One of them began like thiB: The speculator bought my wife and child. And carried her clear away.N when they got through shucking, they would hunt up the bo8s. He would run away and bide just before If they found him, two big men would take him up on their shoulders and carry him all around the grounds while they 8ang. My mother told me that they used to do lt that way in slave time. Dane es They di( n t dance then like they do now all hugged up and indecent. in them days they danced what you call square dances. They don t do those dances now, they re too decent. There were eight on a Bet. I used to dance those myself. --~u~ltinga This information given by Eliza Washington ( ~gro woman Place of Residence ~ 1517 W. 17th Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Occupatjo~ -~ Washing and Ironing ( When able ) Age - About 7 ?

058 053

Folklore Stbjects N~~e of Interviewer ~ s. ~. ~a.y1or Subject ~ Q,ulltlngs ( Continued ) ~eddings,Worsh1p among Slave8 Story or Infornatlon --~-~- ~ w- I heard mother ~ay che went to a lot of quiltings. I suppose they had them much the same as they do now. Everybody took a part ~f the quilt to finish. They talked and sang and had a good. time. And they had somethin to eat at the close just as they did in the corn shucking. i never went to a quilting. Worship Some of the ~igger8 want to church then just as they do now, and ~ozne of them were ~n t allowed to go. Reverend Winfield used to preach to the colored people that if they would be good niggers and not steal their master s eggs and chickens and things th~t they night go t2e the kitchen of heaven when they di d. Anl old lady once said to me, I would give anything if I could have Maria in heaven with me to do little things for My niother told rue that the ~iggers had to turn the pots down to keep their voices from sounding when they were praying at night. Ana they could n t sing at all ~eddin~s I can remember that they used to have weddings when I was a child around the years 1867 arid 1838. My mother told me of marriages and weddings. She never saw no paint on anybody s f~e They used tO have powler buk t iey never u ed an~ paint . Girls were better then than t~1ey are now Tnis information given by Eliza Washington, Negro woman Place of residence -- 15171.17th St, Little ROOb!dI *rk~ini~ --

059 054

FOLKLOR~~ SUB3~CTS 54. Name of Interviewer ~ s. :~. Taylor subject ~- Slaves: Pig~it with Master (Junior) Story or Information ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ MY mother s first ma5ter was nanied Easly, ana her second was named NeelY. She and her young master, John McNeely,who was raised with her anl who wai about the same age as she was ~ got to fighting one day and she whipped him clear as a whi8tle. After she whipped him that fight went all over the country. She was between sixteen and seventeen years old an he was about the same. She had never been whipped by the white folks. She was in the kitchen. I don t know what the trouble started over. But they had an argument. There were some other white boys in the kitchen with her young master, and they kept pushing the two of them up to fight. He wanted to show off; so he told her what he would do to her if she diCn t hush her mouth. She told him to just try it, and the fight was on. So they fought for about an hour, and. the other white boys egged them on. She said that her old master never did whip here and she %ire wa~ n t going to let the young one do it. I never heard that they punished her for whipping her young master. I never heard her say that anybody tried to whip her at any other time. My mother was a strong woman. She could lift One end of a log with any man. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ This infovmation given by Bliaa Washington ( Negro Woman ) Place of residence ~- 151? Nest 17th Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Occuoati on ~ Washing and Ir oning when able ( Age about 7?.)

060 055

FOLKLORE SUBJECTS Name of Interviewer O- S. 3. taylor Subject -~ sLave Uprisings; i~egroes in Confederate Army Story or Information ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ . teen MY mother used to say that wi~en she was about four/years ol4,~ C That was about the time that the stars fell, and the stars fell in l8~3~ So she muet have been born in 1819. In 1833 she was sold for a fourteen year old girl. That was the only time that she ever was sold. That left her about eighty-three years old when she &~ died in 1903. ) She used to say that when she was about fourteen ( Meckle~bur~ Co.1 ) years old, and was living in North Carolina in Macklinb~rg, in Hen ~ ~. ~ derson County, that the white folks called all the slaves up to the ~ ~ t bi~ house and kept them there a few days . There wai~ n~ t no trou ble on my mother s place, but M~t~ad heard that the7e was an uprisIng among the slaves, and they called all the Niggers up to tk~ house. They dien t do nothint to them. They just called them up to the ~ house and kept them there. It all passed over soon. I don t kiiow nothin else about it. .. Confederate Army Negroes ve heered old 8rother Zachary who used to belong to Bethel Church tell about the surrender. Brother Zachary is dead now. He was a soldier in the Confederate army. He fought all through the war and he used to tell lots of storlei about it. rou know, Lee was a tall man, fine looking and dignified. Gravit was a little man and short. Those two generals walked up t each other ~r with a white flag in their hands. And they talked and agreed just when they would fight, And then they both went back to their armies, Information given y ~ ~ 1517 ~. l 7th stree~, r.~ttle Rock ~: Ark (Negro Woman

061 056

e FOLKLORE SUB~CTS Name of interviewer ~ s. s. Taylor ~ubjeCt ~- Confederate Army Negroe8; Ex-slave Occupatioria StorY or Informatiori8 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ and thei fought the awfuleat battle you ever heered of. The men lay dead iii rows and rows and rowa. The dead men covered whole fieldS. And General Lee aald that there wa(~t any uae doing any inCiTC f1gbtifl~. General Grant let all the rebels keep their guns He dlcCh t taue nothin away from them. I saw General GranAwhen he came to Little Rock. There wae an ~o1d white man who had never been .o Little Rock in Ma life. Ne said I just had to C ~e up here to see this great general that they ~re talking about~ Occupat i ons o We always worked in the field in slave time. I don t know n~th* in about share cropping because i: always did days work. I used to ~et four and fivedollar~ a week for washing. But now they wants the young ~olks and they don t pay them five dollars for everything. I cantt ~et a pension. Why you reckon they won t give me one~. They don t L~nderstand that that little house X own doeCh t even keep itself up. ~ty dau~hter~ini. law is good to me but shee needs everything she makea. 3: can t get much to do now, and what little I gets, they don t pay me iuch for. I dont remember nothin else. ~ ~ ~ ~ hj~ information given by Eliza ~Nashington lace of residence 151? W. 17th Street, Little Rock, Ark. CcUpatjon ~ Washing and Ironing -~ Age about 7? ~ ~ ~ ~ t9 Y LQ O Y) ~ ds ~1 ~ 3 ~ ~ . -~

Untitled Section 062 057

L) I 30519 InterYieWB~~~_ ~ ~ Person interviewed L ~ Waeh1ng~n~j~VaUeB~itf. Arkansae My mother wa~ a slave and my father too I recken. They belonged to Yack Waltoxi wban I rernmbered. I wae born at St. Charles. My mother died in time of the war at St. Louis. This is whut I ra members. My mother was sold twice. The Prices oined her and th Wakeflelda owned her betors ehe was owned by old J ack Walton. I was the youngest child. I had one brother went to war and he drawed a pension long as he lived. We children all got scattered out. Mr. Walton bout the age or my tather and he said some day all these fig gara be set tree and warnt long fore they aho was0 I had one older sister I recollect mi~ity well. My mother named Fannie, my father named Abe Walton. He had a young master J eznes Walton. When I was mithin but a chile I remembers J ainea dressed up like Ku Klux Klan and scared n~. The old master aho did i~ioop him bout that. They take care of the little black children and feed em good an don t let em do too hard er work to stunt em so they take em off and sell em for a good price. I remembers the little old log house ay graz~P~ and granpa way back over on the place stayed in till they died. We went back after the war and lived ten years on the same place. We lived close to the white folks in a bigger house.

063 058

2. 58 RI don t recollect no big change after freedcm cept thy uit selling and working tolka without giving them money. I was too imafl to notice much change then I speck. Ti~ea hae alwaya been tight wid me. I alu t never had very much. I did work an a livin is all I ever got out of it. Never could make enough to get ahead. The white folks never give the darky nothing when freedom declared. We used to raise tobacco and sell it to smoke and make snuff. And he had em make ax handles to sell on the side for money till the crops gathered. If you believe in the Bible you won t believe in women vo~in. I never did vote. I ain t goner never vote. The present condition is fine. Ifra. Bobineon oarriea a great big truck load to her farm every day to pick cotton. She aent word up here ehe take anybody whut wanter work. I wish I was able to go. I loves to pick cotton. She pay em seventy-~tive cents a hundred. She ll pay em too I don t know what they do this winter. Set by the fire I recken. Bit next spring she Il l t hoe that crop. She took em this past year to hoe out that very cotton they pickin now. Her husband, he s sick. He keeps their store up town. She takes a few white hands too if they wanter work. I don t think the present generation no worse en they ever be.n. They drawed up closer together than they used to be. They buys everything ~iow an they don t raise nuthin. It s the Bible fulfillin. everything so high they caint save nuthin! I married twice. Pirat time in the church, other time at home, I had four children. I had two in Detroit. I don t know where my son is.

064 059

3. 59 He may be there yet. My daught.r there got fourteen children her own. I don t know uher the othere ars. N&i they don t help me a bit, do we .1 helpin theirselves. I gets the Welfare elatance and I worke my garden back here.

[Interview with Washington, Parrish] 065 060

60 ~- ~. 14Th. Bernice Bowden - - w-. -- Parxt~i Washin~gton -- W--- - 812 Spruce $treet, i~ine Bluff, Arkansis down to Pine Bluff. me though-- just got Interviewer Person interviewed_______________________________________________ ~ge86____ ?~I was born in 1852- born in Arkansas. Sam Warren was my old master. I remember soins of the Rebel generals.- General Price and General i~ari~iaduke. We had started to Texas but the Yankees got in ahead of us in the Saline bottons and we couldn t go no further. My boss had 80 nach faith in his own folks he wouldn t leave here til it was too late. He left home on Saturday night and got into the bottoms on sunday and made camp. Then the Yankees got in ahead of him and he couldn t ~o no further, so we come back to Jefferson County. The Yankees had done took Little Rock and come My father died in 1860 and my mother in 1865. trI can remember when they whipped the slaves. Never whipped they was just trainin me up. Had an old. lady on the place cooked for the children and we ~ihat ~e could. I remember when peace was declared, the people shouted and rejoiced -a ~teavy load had fell off, ~ai the old hands stayed on the place. I stayed there with my uncle ~d(i aunt. We as treated better then, I was about 25 years old when I left there

066 061

2. 61 nI farmed til 8?. Then I joined the Conference and preached nearly forty years when I was superannuated. I remember when the Rebels was camped up there on my bos8 s place. I used. to love to see the soldiers. Used to see the horses hitched to the ~rti1lery. Two or three of S~m Warren s hands nm o if and joined the Yankees, They didn t know what it was gain to be and two of em come back--stayed t1~ere too. I used to vote the Republican ticket. I was justice of the peace four years~twO terms, I went to school here in Pine Bluff about two or three terris and I was school director in district number two about six or seven years. I have treat hope for the young people of the future. Course sonie of em are not worth kuhn b~t the better class I think there is a bright friture for ein. 9But for the world in general, if they don t change they gain to the devil. But God always gain to have some good people in reserve tu the Juci~ient .

[Interview with Watson, Caroline] 067 062

62 Interviewer Person interviewed Age 82 -~-- -~L~ ~ th~i ~ ~!ni~eeBowd!Il . Caroline Watson 517 L 21st Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas t ~ was born In 55 in March on the 13th on Sunday morning in time for breakfast. I was born in Mississippi0 I never will forget my white folks. Oh, I was raised good. I had good white folks. Wish I could see some of em now, Well, I specs I do rexr~xnber when the war started0 I m~rxber when twas coin on. Oh Lord, I member all boat it. Old mistress name was Miss Ellen Shird.. Oh the Yankees used to come around. I can see us chillun sittin on the gallery watohin em. I disremember what color uniform they had on, but I seen a heap of em, My old master, I can see hint now ~ old 3 oe Shird. lust as good as they could be. t, I 8hoiild se~y I do remember when they surrendered. I know everybody was joyous. ~t they done better fore surrender than they did afterwards ~ that is them that had to go off to themselves~ 1 was always so fast tryin to work I wasn t studyixi bout no books, but I went to school after surrender. My father and mother was smart old eolks and made us work. 1 just been married once. I did pretty well. I like to been married since he s dead but I seen so many didn t do so well. I has four sous and one daughter. My son made me q~uit workin . They gets me anything X want.

068 063

2. 63 I got a religion that will do to die with. I done give up everything. Younger generation? That we do with em? They ought to be sent off some place and put to work. They ju8t gone to the dogs. The Lord have mercy. My heart just ache3 and moans and groans for em.

Ex-slave. 069 064

)~ ~ ~ ~ ~ L Jt ) t ) #720 ~RMA 4 . . Circw wtances of Interview ~T4TL ArkanSaS N ;~ OF ~ORXER Samue1 s. T&~~r1or DDi~S- Lit tie Rock Arkans as DATE--December, 1936 SUBJECT- ~ s1ave 1. Narn~ and address of infoxrnant Mary.Watson, 1500 Cross Street, Uttie Rock. 2 ~te and time of interview 3. Place of interview 1500 Cross Street, Little Rock. 4. Name and. add.re s s O f pe rson i f any who put you I n tou. ch wi th informant-.. 5. it ame and address of person, if any, accompanying you- 6 Dc se ri pt ion of ro orn ho u.s e surroundinga etc.

070 065

#720 ~ORMB~ 65 ~!!F~8 ~ ~ 5p ~--ArkansaB ~Ai;~ OF i~ORKER Sanaiel 3. Taylor D~Ri~SS Little Rock, irka~isas D~p1~ December, 1938 SUBThOT -~ slaVe ~ ~~ND ADDBESS OF INF U~I~T Mary Watscai, 1500 Cross Street, Little Rock. 1. Ancestry~ father, Abram McCoy; mother, Louise ~oCoy. 2. Place and date Of birth -Mississippi. No date. 3. Family 4. Places lived in, with dates Lived. in Misslsaippi1until 1891 then rzxyed. to Arkansas. ~ b. Edu.cation, with dates 6. Oocu.pations and accomplishments, with dates 7. Special skills and interests 8. Community and. religions activities 9. )escriptlon of ix~formant 13. Other points gained in interview This person tells very little of life, but tells of her parents.

071 066

#720 FORM C Te~tof Interview (Uned~ited4 STAT.~ -~Arkans as i~A1i~ OF WO1~K~R--Sanflte1 Z. Pa~1or . ADDR~sS~-L1~~e Bock, Arkansas DATE- December 1938 sUBJEC!L~Ex s1ave i~ ~ AND ADDRESS OF I~~RMANT-~-Mary Watson, 1500 Cross Street, Little Rock. s * s * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * ** * * * K * * * * * * * * * * * * * My mother and father were McCoys. Eis name was Abram and her name was Louise. My mother di~1 right here when Brewer was Pastor of Wesley. You ought to ren~inber her. 1~y ~nother died. in 1928. My father died. in 1897 when Joe Sherrill was pastor. Joe Sherrill went to Africa, you. know. He was a missionary. My mother was owned. by Bill Mitchell. He came from Alabama. I can t call the name of the town, just now. les, I can; it Was Tuscaloosa. My father caine from Sou~th Carolina. McCoy was his owner. But how corne him to l ave South Carolina 1~ was sold. after his master died. and. the property was divided. He was sold awa~r from his family. He had a large family ~ abowt nine children. My mother was sold away from her mother too. She was little and couldn t help herself. My grandma did~n t want to come. i~nd sbe managed not to; I don t know how she managed it. Before freedom my father was a farmer. My mother was a farmer too. My ~other wasn t so badly treated. She was a slavebut she worked right a1on~ with the white children. She had t~ brothers. The other sister stayed with her mother. She was sold my mother s mother. Btit I don t know to whom.

072 067

4, My father was a pre ache r. He cotild wo rd. any hymn. io w cou. id he do ~ it, I don t know. On his Suzi~iay, when the circuit rider wasn t there, he would have me read the Bible to him and then he coudd get up and tell it to the people. I don t knOw how he managed it. He didn t know how to read. But he had a wotherfui. memory. Re always had his exhorting license renewed and. he exhorted the people both Methodists and Baptists. After freedom, when I went to school I knew and always helped. him. My father vot ed. on the election days all the time. 1~e was a ~epub1ican, and he rallied to them all the time. Before the war, my father farmed. He commenced in the early fall hauling the cotton frOm Abbeville, Stuth Carolina to Augusta, Georgia. ~hat was his business ~- teamster, hauling cotton. He never dia talk like his owners were so mean to him. (if c~rse, they weren t mean. When her master died and. the property had to be sold, his master bought her and her babies. My father met my mother befo7 the war started.. Colored people were scarce lii the locality where she lived. These white people saw my father and liked. him. And they encouraged her to marry hirn. She was only seventeen. ;~r father was imich older. He remembered the dark ~ay in Ma~ and when the stars fell. He didn t show his age much thoagh till he came to Little Rock. ~e had. been used to farming arid city life didn t agree with hirn. He left about seven years after coming here. . . ~ My father and. mot1~r met and. married in Missis8ippi. He came from South i~arolina arid she came from Alabama. /mey had nine children. All of them were torn after the war. /i am the oldest. l~ee McCoy is my youngest brother. You Ici_0w him, I m sure. He is the president of ~ust College. I was born right

073 068

68 after the war. ~ou t pu.t me dOwn as no ex s1~ve. I was born right after the war. Right after the war my father farme cl in MIs $1 s s ipp I He to o k a no ion to corne to Arkansas in 1891. He brought his whole faniily with hirn. ~A~i~d I I have been out here eber since. I never saw any slave houses. I wa~ ~ a slave. I have oeen to tne place where my mother was raised. I was teaching school near there and ju.st ~aiited to see. After her master died, Sam McCallister)hiscousinJtook the clave chu dren and. was the ir gu~ardian. Years later it come up in court and tbey took all his land. Bill Mitchell was her first master. He died. during slave time. MeCallister was made administrator of the estate. Hewas made guardian of all the children too. He was made g ardian of the white chu-. dren and of the colored children. He raised thera all. There was Ma and her auntie ar~. three or four children o f her aunt j s. Later on, way after t he war, there was a lawsuit. I was grown then. The cou.rts made him pay the w)~ite children their share as far as he was able. Of course, the colored children got nothing because they were slaves when he took them. I don t know nothing about the Ku ~.ux Klan bothering my family. I don t reaiember anything except that I hear them talking about the Ku Klux and the ~tero1es. I wasn t here. J~n t p~it nie downas an ex-slave. I am not sri ex-slave. I was born after the war. I don t know nothing abou.t slavery exceptwhat I heard others say. I expect I have talked too much anyway.

074 069

#720 FOBMD !x!~ ConIn!ilt ~TA~ -Arkansa8 1\T~1:E OF WORJ~R-~-~Samue1 S, Taylor DDRESS--~Little Rock, Arkansas D~T~--December, 1938. sUBJECT--1~x Slave rw~ ~ND ADDRESS Op IN~DR.Ma~~ Watson, 1500 Cross Street, Lit-tie Rock. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * ~he co natarit reiteration o f the phrase I ni no t an ex slave roused. my curiosity and. drove me to a s~iperficial investigation. Persons who are acquainted with her arid. he r family estimate that M~ry watson is nearer eighty than seventy. She started her story pleasantly enough. Bwt when she got the obsession that she would be put down as an ex-slave, she re fused to tell more. There is one thing not to be ove rlooked.. Mary Wat son has a mind that is still keen. She tells what she wants to tell, arul she doesn t state a thing that she does not want to state. The .h1dd~i facts are to be dis cemed only by su.btle inference. Thi s trait intere sted me1 10 r her younger brothe r ment loned. in tbe story, is a dist1ng~iished character President of Bu.st College, Uoliy Springs, Mississippi, and. known to be.experienced arid. efficient in his ~&ork. Whatever she may have reserved or stat&., in reading her story, we are reading at least a sid( light on a family of which soute of the xr~rnbers have done some fine work within the race.

[Interview with Wayne, Bart] 075 070

~ & ~3 ( .~ ::~t~~ ~ ~ Interviewer MeRo~~e~or~ Person interviewed Bart Wa~e,He1ena~, Arkan~aa A~e?2 I Wft8 born at Holly Springs in 1866e It was in the springtime. Ma said I was borA two years after the surrender. Ma was named Mary and pa Dan-- ~Dan Wayne . They never was aold. In 1912 Dr. Leard wa~ living in a big fine house at Sardis, Missis8lppi. He was o~xr last owner, Mallard 3~one s owned them too ~ Pa didn t have rio name. He was called for his owners. I don t know if he nexned hiaseif Dan Wayne or note The way I think it was3 Mr0 ~Tones give Dr. Leard s wife them, He cive her a bi~ plantation, I knowed Dr. Leard my own self all my life. I d go to see him. The present tunes is bard. I get ten dollars a mOnth0 I don t know what to say about folks now-.--none of them.

[Interview with Weathers, Annie Mae] 076 071

( O~n: ~ J~ ~> ~ ~ ~: Interviewer Pernella Anderson Person Interviewed AnnieMae Weathers ~ast Bone Sti~eet Age ~ ? El Dorado Ark. HI was born bout the second year after surrender right down here at Caledonia. Now the white folks that ma and pa and me belonged to was named Fords. We farmed all the time. The reason we Larmed all the time was because that was all for us to do. You see there wasn t nothin e1~e for us to do. There wasn?t no schools in my young days to do no good, and this time of year we was plowin to beat the band and us always planted dorn in Feb ruary and in April our corn was. tt~e fixed our ground early and planted early and we had good crops of everything. We went to bed early and rose early. We had a little song that went like this: Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. and The early bird catches the worm. cooked breakfast every morning by a pine torch. f, I member hear i~ ~y pa s ay that when s omebody come and hollowed: yer niggers is free at lastt say he just dropped his hoe and said in a que er voice ~ Thank God for that It made old rniE;s and old moss so sick till they stopped eating a week. Pa said old. moss and old miss looked like their stomach and guts had a law suit and their navel was called in for a witness, they was EO sorry we was free.

077 072

2. 72 After I got a good big girl I was hired out for my clothes arid something to eat~~ ~viy dresses was made out of cotton stripes and- my chemise was made out of flannelette and my under pants was made out of homespun. Our games was Honey, honey Bee, Ball I can1t Yall, and a nother one of our games was Old Lady Hypocrit.t

[Interview with Weathers, Cora] 078 073

~ ~ .~ ~ .~ ~ ~ir ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . -~ . ~ ~ ~.. ~. ~ ~ 73 IntervieWer~~ 3~uej. LTay).~oi~ Person ix~terview d C ra Weather& . . ~818 C1~iiteiStree ~itti ~ I~1c,~ ~ Age ?9~~ I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ni have been right on this spot for aixty~three years. ~ I married when I wa~ sixteen arid he brought me here and put me down and. I have been here ever since . No I don t mean he deserted me ; I mean he put me on thia spot of ground . Of course I have been away on a. visit but I ~ haven t been uo-. whores else to live. When I Carne here there was only three houses ~o~~ . . Winstead lived on Chester and Ei~hth Street; Dave I~via lived on Ninth and Rin~o; and George Gray lived on Chester and ~ighth. ~ Rena Lee lived next to where old man Paterson stays now, 906 Chester. Rena Thompson lived on Chester and Tenth. The old people that used to live here is mostly dead or moved up Lorth0 on Seventh and Ringo there was a little store. It was the only store this side of Main Street, There was a little old house where Coffin s Dru~ E~tore is now. The branch ran across there Old. xnan John Peyton had a nursery in a little log house. You couldn t see it for the trees. He kept a nursery for flowers. On the next corner, old man Sinclair lived~ That la the southeast corner of Ninth and Broadway. I~ext to him was the Hall of the SORs of Ham, ~That was the first place I went to school. Lottie Stephens, Robert Lacy, and t8 Richmond were the teacher, Rollins was the principal. That ~~as in the Sons of Ham s Hall. gQ~34~ ~ ~ ~

079 074

2, 74 I was born 1x~ Dallas C unty, ArkansaB, it must have been long bout in ei~hty~fifty fli33~O, eaua I was 5ixteen ye~xa ciA whxi. I ccme here and I been here sixty-three yaara. 9Dfl?ing the War, I was quite ~na .1. My ~nother brought me here after the War nd I went to school for a while, M~other had a large ramlly. So I never ot to go to school but three month8 at a time and only got one doUar and twenty$ive cents a week wages when I was working0 My tather drov a wagon and hoed cotton. Mother kept ho~xse. She had--.lemme see-~one, two, three fou~r--e Ight of us, but the younge st brother was born hers My niother s name was Millie Stokes. My mother s n~xne before she was niarri ed was ~I don t know what My father s naine was William St okes. My father said he was born In Maryland. I inst Richard ~ieathers here and married him sixty-three years ago. I bad ix chlldr n, three girls and three boys. Children make you smart and industrious- make you think and ~:~ake you. get about, I v~ heard talk of the pateroles ; they used to whip the slaves that v~as out without pa8ses, but none of them never bothered us. I don t remember anything myself , because I was too 8Dlall. I heard of the Ku K1u~x too ; they never bothered my people none They scared the niggers at night. I never saw none of them. I can t remember how freedom cama. First I kno~ed, I was free. PG ople in them day8 dIdU t know as much as the young people do now. ~t they thought more Youn~ people nowadays don t think, Scme of them will do pretty well, but some of them ain t goin to do nothin . They are ~ittia worse and worser, I don t know what is gain to become of them. They been dependin on the white folks all along, but the white 11011(8 am t sayin much now. My people du t seem to want nothin .

080 075

7 f~j O~ (L) T~e majority of them just want to dress and run up and down the streets and piay cards and policy and drink and dance. It is nice to have a good time bu-e there is something else to be thought of. But if one tries to do some-. thin , the rest tries to pull him down. The more education they get, the ~orse they are -4hat is, some of them.

[Interview with Webb, Ishe] 081 076

30686 f~i Interviewer Samuel S~ T~y1or - ~ Per$on Interviewed I~he Webb - 1_10 Cross ~triit, Lit ) Rock, Arkansas Age78~or more I was born October 14, That was iii. slavery time. The record is burnt up. I was born in. Atlanta, Georgia. My father s master was a ~iebb. 1-lis first name was Huel. My father was named after him, I came here in 1874, and I was a boy eleven or twelve years old then. My father was sold to another man ror seventeen hundred dollara, My mother was sold for twenty hundred. I have heard them say that so mu~ch that I never will forget it. Webb sold my father and bought him back. My me s folks were Calverts ~ The Calverts and the Webbe owned adjoining piantat ions. My ~randinother on my mother s side was a Calvert too. Her first narae was Joanna. I think my father s parents got beat to death in slavery. Grandfather on my m ther s side was tied to a stump and whipped to death. i e was double jointed and no two men could whip him. They wanted to whip him because he wouldn t work. That was what they would whip any one for, They would run. off before they would work, stay in the woods all night. My Grandma Calvert was buried over here in Galloway on the Rock L~1and road on the .Tohn i~ynes plantation. My folks masters were all right, &~t them nigger drivers were bad, just like the county farm. A man sitting in the house and putting you over ~t lot of men, you gwinter go up high as you want to,

082 077

2. n ~1y Cather was a blacksmith and my mother was a weaver0 There was a lot of those slavery folks round the bouse, and they tell nie they didn t work them till they were twenty ~one they put them in the field when they. were twenty4wo. If you didn t work they would beat you to death, My father killed his overseer and went on off to the War, The pateroles used. to drive and whip them, They would catch the slaves off without a pass and whip them and then make the boss pay for them when they took them back.0 I never seen the pateroles but I have seen the Ku Klux and they were the same thing. The jayhawkers would catch you when the pateroles didn t, They would carry you to the pateroles and. get pay for you, and the pateroles would turn you over to the owners, You had to have a pass. If you didntt the paterolee would catch you. and wear you out keep you t ill the next morning, and then send you home by the jayhawkers. . Th y didn t cal . them that though, they called them bushwhacker8~ tThe Ku Klux came after the War, They was the same thins as the pateroles-.-4hey come out from thex~i, I know where the Ku Klux home is over here on ~ighteenth and Broadway. That is where they broke up. It ain t iiever been open since. (Not correct~ ed.) I saw the Yankees coins in the yard on the Webb place. That was in the time of the Ware The old mati got on his horse and flew. The Yankees went Ii~ the smokehouse, broke it open, got all the meat they weiited. They didn t p~y you nothing in slavery time. But what meat the Yankees didn t take for themselves they give to the niggera. My folks never got anything for their work that I know of, I heard my . fliother say that nobody got paid for their work. I don t know whether they han a chance to make anything on the side or not.,

083 078

3. j The Yankees, when they come in the yard that morning, told my father he was free, I remember ~ that myaelf4 They ccme up riding horses arid cari ylfl long old guns with bayonets on them, and told him. They rode all over the country from one place to another telling the riggers they were free. Ma8ter didn t get a chance to tell us because he left whezi he saw them Comm . When my mother and father were living on the plantation, they lived in an old frame building. A portion of it was log. My father stayed with the Calverts~ - his wife s white folks. At first old man Webb sold him to them; then he bought him back and bought my mother too. They were together when freedom caxae0 You know they auctioned you off in slavery tine. Every year, they would, they put you up on the auction block and buy and selle That was down in Georgia. ~e wa8 ix~ Georgia when we was freed..-4n Atlanta, My father and mother had fourteen children altogether. My mother died the year aeter we cor~ie out here That would be about 18?5, ~ I never had but three children becau8e my wife died early. Two of them are dead. Right after freedom, my father plaited baskets and mata. He shucked mops, put handles on rakes and did things like that in addition to his ~annin~0 He was a blacksmith all the time too. He used to plait collars for mules. He farmed and got his harvests in season. The other things would be a help to him between times. My father caine here because he thought that there was a better situa~a tion here than in Georgia. Or course the living was better there because they had plenty of fruit. Then he worked on a third and fourth. He got one bale of cotton out of every three he made. The slaves left many a plantation and they would grow up in weeds. When a man would clear up the ground like th1~ and plant it down in something, he would get all he planted on it,

084 079

4. 79 That was In addition to the grou.wl that he would contract to plant. He used to plant rice, peas, potatoes, corn, and anything else he wax~ted too. it was ai : ~ n 80 lOfl~ as lt was on extra ground he cleared up. But they said Cott on grows as high as a man in Arkansas . Then they paid a man two dollars fifty cents for picking cotton here in Arkansaa while they just paid about forty cents in Georgia. So iriy father came here . Times was good when we come here. The old man cleared five bales or cotton for himself his first year, and he raised his own co~m. He bought a pony and a cow and a breeding ho~ out of the first year s money. He died about thirty.-~ five years ago. t~en I was coming along I did publie work after I became a grown man. First year I made crops with him and cleared two bales for myself at twelve and a half cents a pound. The second year I hired out by the month at forty-4ive dollars per month and board. I had to buy my clothes of course. ~fter seven years I went to doing work as a millwright here in ~~rkansas. I stayed at that eighteen months. Then I steamboated. We had a captain on that steamboat that never called any man by his li?3lne We rolled cotton down the hill to the boat and loaded it on, and 1f :roii weren t a good man, that cotton ~ot wet. I never wetted my cotton0 2u1 jus the same, I heard what the others heard. One day after we had fInished loading, I thought I d tell him something. The men advised me not to. He was a rough man, and he carried a gu~n in his pocket and a gun in his shirt I walked up to him and said, Captain, I don t know what your naine is, but I know you s a white man. I m a nigger, but I got a name jus like yo1_~ have. My name s Webb. If you call YJebb, I ll corne jus as quick as I viill for any other name and a lot more willing. If you don t want to sUy ~iebb, you 6811 jus say Let s so, and you ll find me r1~ht there.

085 080

5. 81) He looked at me a moment and then he said, There you from? I said I m from Georgia, but I carne on thi8 boat from Little Rock. He put hie arm around my shoulder and said, ~ Come on upstairs. We had two or three drinks upstairs, and he said, You and your pardner are the only two men I have that js worth a dam. Then he said, But you are right ; you have a name, and you have a right to be called by it. And from thon on, he quit eallin us out of our names. But I only stayed on the boat six months, It wasn t because of the captain. Them niggera was bad. They gambled all the time, and I gambled with them. ~it they wouldn t stop at that. They would argue and fight and cut and shoot, A man would shoot a man down, and then kick him oft into the rivers Then when there was roll call, nobody would know what became 0fb him. I didn t like that I knew that I was goin to kill somebody if I stayed on that boat cause I didn t Intend for nobody to kill me. So I stopped4 After that, I went back to the man that I worked for the month for and stayed with. him till I married. I took care or the stock. I was only raarried once, My wife died the fourteenth of October. We had three children, and i have one daughter living, I have voted often, I never had no trouble, I am a colored man and I ain t ~ot nothin but my character, but I take care of that. I let them know I am in Arkansas, I ain t been out of Arkansas but to Memphis and ViCk~u.. bure, and I took them trips on the boat I was working on, I was a good man then. nI can t say nothing about these wild4ieaded youn people, They ain t E~Ot flO sense. Take God to handle them,

086 081

6. 81 ~Scane parts of politics are all right and some are all wrong. It is like Grant. Re was straddled the fence part o~ the time. I believe Roosevelt W8.flts eight more years. Of course, he did a great deal for the people but the workilig man isn t ~ett1ng enough money. Prices are so high and wages so low that a man keeps up to the grindstone and. never gets ahead. They don t mean ~or a colored man to prosper by money. Senator Robinsozi said a nigger wasn t worth but fifty cents a day. &~t the nigger is conhin~ anyhow. He 18 stinehlng hisseif and doing withou~t. The young folks am t doing it though. These young tolks doing every devillabraont on earth they can. Look at that boy they caught the other day who had robbed twenty houses. This ~ young race ath t goin to stan what I stood for, They goin to school every day but they ain t learning nothin . what will take us through this tedious journey through the world is his rriaxmers, his principle, and his behavior0 ~Loney ain t soin to do it. You can t get by without principles, manner, and. good behavior. Niggers can t do it. And vihite folks can t either.

(Negro lore) - ex-slave. 087 082

~ ~\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~i ~ ~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .~ ~ ~ .. ~:. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ p.-Q 2-10-36 ~O3~ . . 82 0 . FOLT OP1~ STJP3~CT~3 TTame of ~ %bject ~ $3tory informHtlon I hn~ de eye of an ea~~1e. One In my hnld, de other in ray chest. Sorn(~tirnes us slaves would stay out later at ni~tht then oie raarster seid we coui,~ and the y send the pRtrOlS out for us . And we started a song; Run nigger run, t~ patio catch you, run n egger run I t s alma st day. ~y brother run off and hid in the pasture. I wui a smnll boy, dey ~11ed me nigger cowboy, c~,use I dr1v~~ cows up et ni~ ht ~!nd took em to de paster in the morin~s. I Imowed ray brother runned off, but I wo~,1dn t tell on him. He run of fto join the Yankee8. They never found h~m although,they used the uigger &~gs, who were taken out by men ~io were looking for runThway nigger slaves. Ef I h~d my choice, I d ruther be a slave. B~t we cant always have our ruthers. Them times. I had good food, plenty to wear, and no more work th~n was good for me. row i Is kinder n~11iated, when I think of what a high stepper I used to he. Having to hang around with a sac/~Ofl r!ly b8ck be~gi,r~g de govermnent to keep rue fum stswving. * This information given by ALfred Wella Place of residence ~ Five ~orka Occupation ~ ~ Age 7 ?.

[Interview with Wells, Douglas] 088 083

Interviewer ~Iri.Bornice Bowden Person interviewed Dou~1aa We11~ ~ 14:19 Alabama Street, Pine Bluff, rkenaa~ Age 83 nu se just a kid bout six or seven when the war started and bout ten or twelve when it eeasted. I se born in MiBBlS ippl on Mies Nancy Davis plantation. Old J eff Davis was some relation. My brother J~ef~ jined the Yankees but I never seen none till peace was declared. I heered the old folks talkin and they said they was fightin to keep the people slaves. I member old mistress, Miss Nancy. She was old when I was a kid. She had a big, large plantation. She had a lot of hands and big quarter houses. Oh, I member you could go three miles this way and three miles that way. Oh, she had a big plantation. I reckon it was mighty near big as this town. I member they used to take the cotton and hide it in the woods. I guess it was to keep the Yankees from gettin it. I lived in the quarters with my father and mother and we stayed there after the war long ti~ after the war. I stayed there till I ~ot to be grown. I continued there. I member her house and yard. Had a big yard. I can read some. Learned it at Miss Nancy Davis plantation after the war. They had a little place where they had school I went to church some a long time ago.

089 084

2. 84 Abraham Lincoln was a white man. He fought in the time of the war didn t he? Oh yes he issued freedom. The Yankees and the Rebels fought. ifter the war I worked at farm work. I am t did no real hard work for over a year.~

[Interview with Wells, John] 090 085

30729 85 Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed J~o~nWella, Kdmondson, Arkansas Age82 nI was born down here at Edmondson, Arkansas. My owner was ~ captain in the Rebel War ~Civil War). He ru.n us off to Texas close to Greenville. He was keeping us from the Yankees. In tact my father had planned to go to the Yankees. My mother died on the way to Texas close to the A.rkansas line She was e onfined and the child died too. We went in a wagon. Uncle Torn and his wife and. Uncle Granville went too. He left his wife She lived on another white man. s farm. My master was Captain R . Campbell ~onea. He took us to Texas. He and. my father come back in the same wagon we went to Texas in. My father ~ oe ~ ones WellsJ told Captain R. Campbell zones if he didn t let him come back here that he would be here when he got here-~-beat him back. That s what he told him. Captain brought him on back with him. What didn t WO do in. Texas? Hooeee~ I had five hundred head of sheep belonging to 3. Gardner, a Texan, to herd every day--twice a day. Carry t eni off in the morning early and watch em end fetch em back fore dark. I was a shepherd boy is right. I liked the job till the snow cracked my feet open. No, t didn t have no shoes. Little rotuid cactuses stuck in my feet, - t, I had shoe 8 to wear home capta in Yone s save leather and every~ thing needed to Uncle Granville He was a shoemaker. He made us all shoes ~U5t before we was to start back. Captain Jonea sent the wagon back tor us My tather come back r ight here at Edniondaon and tarriied cotton and corn.

091 086

2. 86 Uncle Tom and Uncle ranville raised wheat out in Texas. They didn t have no overBear but they said. they worked harder an ever they done in their lives, fore or ainceG My father went to war with his master. Captain zones served bout three years I judge. My father went as his waiter. He got enough of war, he said. Captain B:. Campbell Tones had a wife Miss Aune and no children. I seen mighty near enough war in Texas. They tit there. Ye8 xna am, they did. I seen soldiers in Greenville, Texas. I seen the cavalry there. They looked so fine. Prettie8t horses I ever seen. Freedoms Master Campbell tones come to us and aaid, You free this morning. The war I s over. It been over then 1~xt travel was slow. You all can go back home, I ll take you, or you can go root hog or die. We all got to gatherin up our belongings to corne back home. Tired of no wood neither, b6sides that hard. work. We all share cropped with Captain R. Campbell Jonea two years. I know that. We got plenty wood without going five or six miles like in Texas. After freedo~n folks got to changing bout to do botter I reckon. I been farxain right here all my lite. We didn t have a lot to eat out in Texas neither. Mother was a farm woman too. I never seen a Ku Klux. Bad Ku Klux sound sorter like good Santa Claus. I heard em say it was real. I never seen rie ither one. Ididowntenacreso~land. lownahornenow. My father drove a grub wagon f~r~n Memphis to Lost Swamp Bottotn...-.n.ear Ethnondson-~when they built this railroad through here. Father never voted. I have voted several times.

092 087

3. Present times i~ tougher now than betoro it come on. Things not going 1 ike it ought somehow. We wants more pension. Us old tolks needs a good living cause we ain t got mach more time down here. Present generation~.they are s1ack~..I means they slack on their pareflt8, don t see after them. They can get faim work to do. They waste their money more than they ought. Soene tolks purty nigh hungry. That is for a I~act the way it is coing. ~&nondson, Arkansas Master Henry ~dmondson owned all the land to the Chatfield place to Lehi, Arkansas. He owned four or five thousand acres of land. It was bottoms and not cleared, They had floods then., rode around in boats some~ times. Colored folks could get land throtigh Andy Fleimaing f~olored man . Mr. Henry Edmondson and whole family died with the yellow fever. He had 8everal chi1dren~Miss Emma, Henry, and Will I knowed. It is probably his father btu~ied at far side of this town. A rattlesnake bit him. Lake Rest or Scantlin was a boat landing and that was where the nearest white folks lived to the Edraondsons. I worked for Mr. Henry Edmondson, the one died with yellow fever. He was easy to work for. Laud wasn t cleared out niuch. He was here before the Civil War. Good many people, in fact all over there, died of yellow fever at Indian Mound. Me azid my brother waited on white folks all throu~i that yellow fever plague. Very few colored folks had it. None of em I heered tell of died with it. White folks died in piles. Now when the smallpox raged the colored folks had it seem like heap more and harder than white folks. ~nallpox used to rage every few years. It break out and spread. That is the way so many colored folks come to own land and why it was named Edniondson. Named for Master Henry--Edmondson, Arkansas.

093 088

4. 88 Mrs. Cynthia Ann ~arle wrote a diary du~ring the Civil War. It was partly published in the Crittenden County Time&i ~West Memphis paper~ Fridays, Noveuiber 27 and December 4, 1936. She tells interesting things happening. Mentions two books she is reading. She tells about a flood, etc. She tells ~about visiting and spending over a thousand dollars. Mrs. L. A. Stewart or Mrs. H. ~. Weaver or ~dmondson owns copies if they cannot be obtained at the printing office at West Memphis,

[Interview with Wells, Sarah] 094 089

:30774 89 Interviewer e1~~PaT1Or~ ~- - Person Interviewed Sarah Wells ~ . ~ 1012 W. Sixteenth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas A~e ~ 84 OcoupationField. hand I was born in Warren County, Mia8issippi, on Ben Watkins plantation. That was my ~ster~Ben~orthington~ I don t know nothin about the year ~ Vi~ ~ ~ but lt was berore the war--.the Civil War, I was born on Christmas day. Isaac Irby was my father. I don t know how you spell it. I can t read and write. I can tell you this. My mother s dead. She s been dead since I was twelve years old. Her naine was J~ane Irby. My name is Wells because I have been married. Willis was my husband s naine. I have just been married once. I was married to him fifty years. He has been dead thirteen years the fifteenth of October. 1 don t know how old I was when I was iaarried. But I know I am eighty-tour years old now, I xmi.st have been about twenty or twenty~one when I married. Slave Houses The slaves lived in log houses, dirt chimneys, plank floors, They had beds made out of wood- that s all I know. I don t know where they kept their food. They kept it in the house when they hadany. The slaves didn t have to cook imich. Mars Ben had a slave to cook ftr them. They all et breakfast together, and lunch in the fiel . Food and Cooking There was a great big shed. They d all go up there and eat.-.the slaves would all go up and eat I t know what the grown folks had,

095 090

2. 90 They used to give us children milk aiid corn bread for breakfaat. They d give us greens, peas, and all like that tor dinner. Didn t 1~tow nothin about no 1UDOli. Work and Runaways ; Day a Work My mother and father worked in the field hoeing, plowing and aU. Like that- doing whatever they told em to do. They raised corn and ground mea .. Some of the 8laves would pick five hundred pounds of cotton in a day; some of them would pick three hundred pounds; and acme of them only picked a hundred. IF YOU DIDN T PICK ~O HUNL~ED FIFTY POUNDS, THEY D I~~JNISH YOU, put you in the stocks. I~ you d run off, they put the nigger hounds behind you. I never run off, but ray mother run off. She gould go in the woods. I don t know where she d go after she d get in the woods9 ~he would go in the woods and hide somewheres. She d take somethin to eat with her. I couldn t find her myself, She take s~aethin to eat with her. She didn t know what flour bread was. I don t remember what she d take-...somethin ehe could carry. Sometimes she would stay in the woods two sometimes three months. They d pay for the nigger hounds and 1~t them chase her back. She d try to get away. She never took me with her when she ran away. Biying and Selling My mother and her 8ister were bought in old Virginny. Ben Watkins wa$ the one that bought her. He bought my father too. Then he sold my father to the Leightons. Leighton bou~ght my father froel Ben Watkins for a carriage driver. I was never bought nor sold. I was born on Ben Watkins plantation and freed on it.

096 091

3. Patrollers Pve heered them say the pateroles is out. I don t know who they was. I know they d whip you.. I was a child then. I would just know what I was told mostly. How Freedctn Came The Yankees told my mother she was tree. They had on blue clothes. They said them was the Yankees. I don t know what they told her. I know they said she was free That s all I know. Sometimes the soldiers would do right smart damage They set a lot of houses on tire. They done right ~nart damage. ;reff Davis I have seen Yeff Davis. I never seen Lincoln. They said it was ~ eff Davis I seen. I seen him in Vickaburg. That was after the war was over, Ku Klux Klan n ~ have heered about the Ku Klux, but I don t know what it was I heered, They never bothered n~. Right after the War Right after the war, my mother and 1~ather hired out. to work. They did most any kind. of work~whatever they could get to do. Mother cooked, Father would generally do house cleaning. Mother didn t live long after the war,

097 092

4. ~d_, ~ Blood Poisoning I lost my finger because o~ blood poisoning. I had a scratch on my fingar. Pulled a hangnail out of it. ~ I went around a lady who had a high fever and she asked me to sponge her off and I did it. I got the finger in the water that I sponged with and it got blood poisoned. I like to have died. Father s Death I was married and had three children when my father died. Icriow what he died with nor what year. My mother had had seven children- all girls. I had seven But three of niine were boy8 and Thur were girls. Ain t none of living now. I don t children, them Little Rock My son was living in Little Rock and he kept after me to come here and I come. After I c~e, he left and went to Kansas City. He died there. I used. to do laundry work0 I quit that. I comenced to do sellin for different companies. I sold for Mack Brady, Crawford & Reeves, and a lot of em. ~ Opinions I don t know what I think about the young people. They ain t nothin like I was when I was a gal. Things have changed since I come along. I better not say what I think.

098 093

5. 0* Interviewer s Cc~mnent The 1nterviewe~ says ahe is eighty four, and her story hangs together. Her husband died thirteen years ago, and they had been married fifty years when he died, She recollects being about twenty years old when she married. She says she was about twelve years old when her mother died, one year after the close of the Civil War. This data seems to be rather conclusive on the age of eighty.four.

[Interview with Wells, Sarah Williams] 099 094

63.fl~ I ~- ~%J ~ ~ J ~ . 94: Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed 8arsh Williams WeUs, Biscoe~ Arkansas ~-.--.~)!~ ~ ~. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I jesa can t tell much; uiy memory fails i~. My white folks was ;TobIL and Mary Williams but I was born two years after the surrender. Soon after the surrender they went to Iabanon, Tennessee. My folks stayed on wha I was born round in Marry County. My father was killed after the war ~it I was little. My ~ther died sat~ year I married. I heard em say there was John and Frank. They may be living over there now. I heard em talking bout war times. They said my father was a blacksmith in the war. I come here wid four l1ttl~ children on a ticket to Orocketta Bluff. We was sick all that year. Made a tine crop. The man let another man have us to work. He was a colored man. His wife sho was mean to us. She never come to see or do one thing when we all had fever. The babies nearly starved. Took all for doctor bille and niedicine. Had $12 when all bills settled out of the whole crop. In ail I had fifteen children. .tt two girls and one boy all that livin now. I farmed and washed and ironed all my lite. My husband was born a slave. (He recently died.) The present generation ain t got no religion. They dances and CUts up a heap. They don t care nothing bout aettlin down. When they marry now, that man say he got the law on her, $he belongs to him.

100 095

2. He thinks he eau make her do like he wants her all the time and they don t get along. Now that s what I hear round. I she got married and we got along good till he died. We treated one another beat we knowed how. The tims ii what the folke making it. Time ain t no different, is like the folks make. This depreesion ia whut the folki is making. ome so soared they won t get it all. They leave mighty little for the reat to get. They ain t nothin matter with nothin but the greedy people want it all to split through wid. I don t know what going to c ~ of it all. Nothin I tell you bout it ain t no good. Young folks done smarter than I ia. They don t li&ten to nobody.

[Interview with Wesley, John] 101 096

:3()t~9O Interviewer Misa Irene Robertson Person 1nterviewed~e~1ey~jeiena, Arl an8as Age ~ fI was full ~rowu when the Clvii War come on. I was a slave till mancipation. I was born close to Lexington, Kentucky. My master in Kentucky was Master Griter. He was fraid er freedom. Father belong to i~Terys in Tennessee. He was a farm hand0 They wouldn t sell him. I was sold to Master Boone close to Moscow. I was sold on a scaffold high as that door (twelve feet). I seen a lot of children sold on that scaffold, I fell in the hands of George Coggrith. We come to Helena in wagons. We crossed the river out fro~ii Memphis to Hopefield. I lived at Wittsburg, arkansas during the war. They sniuggled U8 about from the Yankees and took us to exas. Before the war corne on we had to fight the Indians back. They tried to sell us inTexas. George Coggrith s wife died. Mother was the cook for ail the hands and the white folks too. She raised two boys and three girls for hirn. She went on raising his children during the war and after the war. iXU~ifl~ the war we hid out and raised cotton and corn. We hid in the woods. The Yankees eoulc i t make much out in the woods and canebrakes. We stayed in Texas about a year. Four years after freedom we didn t laiow we was free0 ~e Was on his farm up at Wittsburg. That is near Madison, Arkansas. Mother wouldn t let the ehiidren get far off from our house. She was afraid the Indians would steal the children. They stole children or I heard they did. The wild animals and snakes was one thing we had to look out for. Grown fo1k~ and children all kept around home unless you had business and went on. a trip.

102 097

2. 97 My wife died three years ago. I stay with a grandchild. I got a boy but I don t know where he is now. I had a acre and a home. I got in debt and they took my place. I voted, The last time for President Wilson. Vie got a good President now. I voted both kinds of tickets some. I think they called me a Democrat. I quit voting. I m too old. I farmed In my young days. I oil milled. I saw milled. I still black smithing (in Helena now). I make one or two dollars a week. Work is hard to git. Times is tight. I don t get help ceptin some friend bring us some ~ work. . I stay up here all time nearly. I don t know about the young generation. Well, we had a gin. ~ring of the war it got burnt and lots of bales of cotton went long with it. The Ku Klux corne about and drink water. They wanted. folks to stay at and work. That what they said. We done that. We didn t know we was nohow. We wasn t scared.

[Interview with Wesley, Robert] 103 098

. ~ 98 Interviewer Miss Irene Robert8on Person interviewed RobertWesl~y~Hoily grove .~ Arkan~s Age ~ I was born in Shelby County, Alabeina. My parents was Mary and Thomas ~esley. Their master was Mary and J obn Watts. ~J!ohn Watts tried to keep me. I stayed round him all time and rode up b~ ~hind him on his horse. lie was a soldier. Both my parents was sold but I don t know how it was done. There was thirteen children in our family. The white folks had a picnic and. took colored long to do round. Some heard bout freedom and went home tellin bout It. We stayed on and. worked. tThe Ku Klux sure did run soma of em. Seem 1 Ike they dn t know what freedom meant some of ein run off and kept goin Never did get back. I don t know a thing bout the Ku Klux. I heard em say they got hi s for dein too much visitin I was a baby so I don t know. I do not vote. I voted for McKinley in Mississippi. t I been rmi all my li te I got one hog and a gardens three Uttle grand babies. My daughter died and their papa went off and left eza. Course I took em -~ had to. I pay ~l house rent. I get 412 from the Ti-: ~ ut. The times is mighty fast. I recken the young folks do fair. There ~ been big changes since I come on.

[Interview with Wesmoland, Maggie] 104 099

3046G 99 Interviewer MiaslreneRobertaon Person interviewed Magg1~e Je~no1and~ Brinfle7. Arkansas A~e 85 I was born in Arkansas in slavery time beyond Des Arc. My parents was sold iii ~IIissisaippi. They was brought to Arkansas. I never seed my father after the closing of the war. He had been refugeed to Texas and come back here then he went on back to Miss is sippi. Marna had seventeen children~ She had six by my stepfather. Ilion my stepfather was mustered out at De Valls Bluff he come to Miss (Mrs. ) Holland s end got mama and took her on v~id him. I was give to Miss Holland 8 daughter. She married a Cargo. The Hollands raised me and my sister. I never seen mema after she left, My mother was Jane Holland and my father was ~nith Woodson. They lived on different places here in Arkansas. I had a hard time~, I was awfully abused by the old man that married Miss Betty. She was my young mistress. He was poor and hated Negroes. He said they didn t have no feeling. Be drunk all the time. He never had been used to Negroes and he didn t ~ike em~ He was a middle age man but Miss Betty Holland was in her teens. No, mama didn t have as hard a time as I had. She was Miss Holland s cook and wash woman. Miss Betty told her old husband, Papa don t beat his Negroes. He is good to his Negroes. He worked overseers in the field. Nothing Miss Betty ever told him done a bit of good. He d~dn t have no feeling. I had to go in a trot all the time. I was seared to death of him ~ he beat me so. I n~ scarred up all over now where he lashed me. He would strip nie start naked and tie my hands crossed and whoop me till the blood ooze out and drip on the ground when I walked. The flies blowed. me time and again.

105 100

I~I1ss Betty catch him gone, would grease my plaees and put turpentine on them to kill the places blowed. He kept a bundle of hickory switches at the house all the time. MISS Betty was good to me~ She would cry and beg hi.ra to be good to me. One time the cow kicked over my milk. I waa scared not to take scme milk to the house, so I went to the 8prlng and put soins water in the niilk, He was snooping round C spying) scmewhere and seen me. He beat me nearly to death. I never did know what suit him and what wouldntt. Didn t nothing please hini~ He was a poor man, never been used to nothizi and took spite on me everything happened. They didn t have no children while I was there but he did have a boy before he died. He died fore I left ~rdane1le. When Mi ss Betty Holland married Mr. Cargo she lived close t o t~rdanelle That is where he was so mean to me He lived in the deer and bear hunting country. He went to town to buy them some things for Chi~istmaa good while a~ ter freedc~n ~ a couple or three years. Two men conie there deer hunting every year. One time he had beat me before them afid on their way home they went to the Fresinens bureau and told how he beat n~ and what he done lt for ~ biggetness. He was a biggity acting and braggy talking old man. When he got to town they asked him if he wasn t hiding a little Negro girl, aak if he sent me to school. He ooze borne. I slept on a bed made down at the foot of their bed. That night he told his wife what all he said and what ~ll they ask him. He said he would kill whoever orne there bothering about ne, He been telling that about. He told Miss Betty they would fix me up and let me go stay a week at my sister s Christmas. He went back to town, bought me the first shoes I had had since they took me. They was brogan shoes. 2.

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The~r pi.tt a pair cf his sock on n~. Mise Betty made the calico dress for ne and made a body out of sc~ of his pants legs and quilted the skirt part bound it at the . bottom with red flannel. 8he nude my things nice ~ put my underskirt in a little frame and quilted it so it would be warm, Christmas day was a bright warm day. In the morning when Miss Betty dressed me up I was so proud. He started me off and told me how to go, I got t o the big creek. I got down in the ditch ~ du t get across. I was n~.nning up and down it looking for a place to cross. A big old mill was upon the hill. I could see it, I seen three men coming, a white man with a gun and two Negro ~n on horses or axles. I heard one say, Yonder she is. Another said, ~ don t look like her. One said~ t Call One said Margaret . I answered. They come to me and 8aid, Go to the mill and cross on a foot log. I went up there and crossed arid ~ot upon a stump behind my brother .~in~..law on his horse. I didn t know him. The white man was the nan he was share croppin with. They all lived in a big yard 1 ike close together. I dn t seen my si star before in about four years, Mr. Cargo told me if I t back at his hou8e New Years day he would come after me on his horse and run nie every step of the way hcme. It was nearly twenty~$ive miles. He said he would give me the worst whooping I ever got in my life. I was going back, scared not to be back. Had no other place to live. Then New Year day ccz~ie thewhite man locked me up in a room in his ho~s~ and I stayed in there two days. They brought i~ plenty to eat. I slept in there with their children, Mr. Cargo never come after me till March. He didn t see nie then he cone. It started in raining and cold arid the roads was bade When he come in March 1 seen him. I knowed him. 3. 101

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4. 102 I lay down and covered up in leaves. They was deep, I had been in the woods getting sweet.~m when I seen him, I~e scared me~ He never seen me. This white man bound me to hi8 wife s friend for a year to keep Mr. Cargo from getting me back. The women at the house and Mr. Cargo had war nearly about me. I missed my whoopinga. I never got none that whole year. It was Mrs. Brown, twenty miles from Dardanelle, they bound nie over to.. I never ~ot no more than the c~aon run of Negro children but they t mean to me. When I was at Cargo e, he wouldn t buy me shoes. Miss Betty would have but lxi them day8 the man was head. of his house. Miss Betty made me moccasins to wear out in the SflOW ~ made them out of old rags and pieces of his paflt8. I had risings on my feet and my feet ft ostbite till they was solid sores. He would take his knife and stob my risings to see the matter pop way out. The ice cut my feet, He cut my foot on the side with a cow~ hide nearly to the bone. Miss Betty catch him outer sight would doctor my f eet. Seem like she was scared of him. He wasn t none too good to her. He told his wife the Freemens Bu~reau said turn that Negro girl loose She didn t want me to leave her. He de spised nasty Negroe s he said. One of them fellows what come for me had been to Cargo s and seen me. He was the Negro man come to show Patsy s husband and his share cropper where I was at. He whooped rae twice before them deer hunters. They visited him every spring and fall hunting deer but they reported him to the Freemens Bureau. They knowed he was showing off. He overtook me on a horse one day four or five years after I left there. I was on my way from school. I was grown. He wanted me to come back live with them, Said Liss Betty wanted to see me so bad. I wasso scared I lied to him and said yes

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50 103 to all he said. He wanted to come get me a certain day. I lied about whore I lived. He went to the wrong place to get me I heard. I was afraid to meet him on the road. He died at Dardan4le before I come way frcm there~ After I got grown I hired out cooking at ~1,25 a week and then ~1~5O a ~eek. VJhen I was a girl I ploughed some, I worked in the field a mighty little but I have done a mountain of washing and ironing in my life, I can t tell you to save my life what a hard. time I had when I was growing up. ~ daughter is a blessing to me. She is so good to me~ I never knowed nor seen the Ku Klux. The Bushwhackers was awful after tIie war They we nt about steal ing and they dn t work, Conditions is far better for young folks now than when I come on0 They ci-n ~et chances I couldn t get they could do. My daughter is tied down here ;~ith me. She could do washings and ironinga if she could get them and do it i~re at home. I think she got one give over to her for awhile. The regular ~ woman is sick. It is hard for rae to get a living since I been sick~ I ~et coinr~odities. ~it the diet I ara on lt is hard to get it0 The money is tiI~ troubles I had two strokes and I been sick with high blood pressure t:~r3a years. We own our house. Times is all right if I was able to work ~L~j Cfl,joy things~ I don t get the Old Age Pension0 I reckon because my :U~ter 5 husband has a job ~ I reckon that is it~ I can t hardly buy i~llk, that is the main thing. The doctor told me to eat plenty milk, pi never voted,

[Interview with West, Calvin] 109 104

~~ 4~- ; ~osoo Iii-terviewer Misa Irene Robertaofl Person interviewed Calvin Neat~ Widener, Arkansas ~ Mother belong to Parson Renfro. He had a son named ~im Renfro, She was a cook and farni hand too. I never heard her speak rauch oit her owners, Pa s owner was Dr. vest and Miss J nsie West, He had a son Orz ~ st and his daughter was Miss Lulls West. I never was around their owners. Some was dead before I come on. My pa was a cripple insu. His leg was drawn around with rheuntatism. jAiring slavery he would load up a small cart wid cider and ginger cakes and go sell it out He sold ginger cakes two for a nickel and I never heard how he sold the cider. I heard him tell close speriences he had with the patrollera. 3ome oi~ the landowners didn t want him trespassing on their places. He got ~ a part o~ the money he sold out for. I judge from what he said his owner got part for the wagon and horse. He sold some at stores before freedom. He farmed too. His name was Phillip Aest and mother s naine was Lear West. He was a crack hand at making ginger cakes. He sold wagon loads in town on Saturday till he died. I was a boy nearly gro~n. They had ten children in all. I was born in Tate County, ~iiississippi. L~1r. Miller had land here. I didn t work for him but he wanted me to corne here and work his land. He give us tickets. He said this was new land and we could do better. We work a lot and make big crops and don t hardly ~et a living out of it, We come on the train here. We come in 1920. The way we got down here now it is bad. le make big crops arid don t get much for it. ~e have no place to raise things

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to help out and pay big prices for everything. I work. B~~t times is hard. That is the very reason it is hard. ~e ~ot no place to raise nothing, (hard road and ditch in front and cotton field all around it except a few fee t of padded dirt arid a i~iood pile . ) Times is good and. if a fellow could ever get a little ahead I believe he could stay ahead. Since ray wife been sick we jes can make it. We never called for no help. She cooked and I worked. She signed up but it will be a lone time, they said, till they could ~et to her. 2.

[Interview with West, Mary Mays] 111 106

a~. ~3CSO4 106 Interviewer Mi sa Irene Robertson Person interviewedMjr~~s Wes~Widener, Arkansas ~ ~ My parents naines was J osie Vesey and Henry Maya. They had ten children and five lived to be full grown. I was born in Tate County, Miss iL3sippi. Mother died in chi1dbir~th when she was twenty-eight years old~ i m t~ie mother of twelve and got five living. I been cooking out for white people since I was nine years old. I am a good cook they all tell me and I tries to be clean with ray cooking. Mother died before I can remember much about her. My father said he had to work before day and all day and till after night in the spring arid tall of the year. They ploughed with oxen and mules and horses all. He said ho~ they would rest the teams and feed and still they would go on doing something else. They tromped cotton at night by torchlight. Tromped it in the wagons to get off to the gin early next morning. In the winter they built fences and houses and got up wood and cleared new ground. They made pots of lye horniny and lye soap the same day. They had a ashhopper set all time. In the summer is when they ditched if~ they had any of that to do. Farming has been pretty much the same since I ~ias a child. I have worked in the field all my life. I cook in the mornIng and go to the field all evening. We just had a hard time this winter. I had a stroke in October and ~ to quit cooking. (Her eye is closed on her left side- ed.) I love farm lite. The flood last year sot us behind too. We could do fine if I ti;~td my health.

[Interview with Wethington, Sylvester] 112 107

30514 . liiterviewer Misa Irene Robertson Person Interviewed 8y~vester W~thi~n g~i - Holly ~~ove, Arka~Lsaa Age_~~~ ~77 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ WI recollect seeing the ~.1ish (4~iit1a) peas up and down A the road0 I can tell you two things happened at our house, The Yankee soldiers ccme took all the stock we had all down to young mistress mule They come fer it Young ml stress got a gun, went out there, put her side saddle on the mule and climbed up. They let her an that mule both be. Nother thing they had a wall built in betwix er room and let hams and all kinds provisions swing do~u In thor. It went unnoticed. I recken it muster been 3 ft. wide and long as the room, Had to go up in the loft trum de front porch. The front porch wasn t celled but a place sawed out so you uld get up in the loft. They used a ladder and went up there bout once a week. They swung hams and insel flour and beef. They sw~ing sacks er corn d.owxi in that place. That all the place where they coi~ild keep us a thing In de world to eat. They come an got bout all we had. Look like starvation ceptin what we had stored way.

[Interview with Whitaker, Joe] 113 108

~G~~.3I #644 1()8 Interviewer Misa Irene Robertson Person. interviewed Toe ~ Age 70 ~us ~ - .~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ ~ - I m a b1ack~nith; my pa wa8 a fine blacksmith. He was a blacksmith in the old war ( Civil War) . He never eot a pension. He aald he loss his sheep skin0 His owners was George and Bill ~1hitaker, ~ other always said her owners was pretty good. I never heard my pa speak ot them in that way. They was both born. in nu. ~he was never sold, I was born iii 1~&~rray County, Tennessee too. My mother was named Fronle Whitaker and pa Ike ~ ~hitaker. Mother had eleven children~ My wire is a fnll blood Cherokee Thdlan. We have ten children and twenty~three grandchildren, ni don t have a word to say against the times ; they are close at present. Nir a word to say about the next genera-~ tion. I think tintes is progressing and I think the people are advanc Ing some too ~ ~-- t~v~1 1

[Interview with White, Julia A.] 114 109

~ ~1 ;:t:(..,:3.1.O ~ Interviewer ~ ~----~ - ~ . ~ -~ ~ HaM ~ - ~.-. u~ . Person interviewed ~B.JU1if ~ Cross St. Little Rock, Ark. ~ge?9 Idiom anddlalect are lacking In thl8 recorded interview. Mrs. Thite s conversation was entirely free from either. On being quea~ tioned about this she explained that she was reared in a home where fairly correct English was used. My cousin F~iiue1 Armstead ~ could read and write, and he kept the records ot our Thznily. At one time he was a school director. Of course, that was back in the early days, soon after the war closed. My father Was named James Page J~ackson because he was borilon the old Jackson plantation In Lancaster county, Virginia. He named one of his daughters Lancaster for a middle name in memory of his old. home. Clarice Lancaster J~ackson was her full name. A man named Galloway bought my father and brought him to Arkansas. Some called him by the name of Galloway, but my father always had all his children keep the name ~ackson. There were fourteen of us, but only ten lived to grow up. He belonged to Mr. Galloway at the time of my birth, but even at that I did not take the name Galloway as it would seem like I should. My father was a good carpenter; he was a fine cook, too; learned that back in Virginia. I 11 tell you something interesting. The first cook stove ever brought to this town was one my father had his master to bring. He was cook at the Anthony House. You know about that, don t you? It was the first real tine hotel in Little Rock.

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When father went there to be head cook, all they had to cook on waa big fireplaces and the big old Dutch ovens. Father just kept on tell Ing about the stoves they had In Virginia, and at last they sent and got him one; lt had to come by boat and took a long time. My father was proud that he was the one who set the first table ever spread in the Anthony HouSse. You see, it was different with us, from lots of slave folks. Some n~asters hired their slaves out. I remember a drug store on the corner of Main and Markhem; it was McAlmont s dru store. Once my ~ather worked there ; the money he earned it went to Mr . Galloway of course. He said lt was to pay board for mother and us little children. My mother carne from a fine family, - the Beebe family. Angeline Beebe was her naine. You ve heard of the Beebe family, of course. Roe well Beebe at one time owned all the land that Little Rock now sets on. I was born in a log cabin where Fifth and Spring streets meet. The J~ewish Synagogue is on the exact spot. Once we lived at Third and Cum berland across from that old ~~idred-year-old-bulldln~ where they say the legislature once niet. What you call it? Yes, that s it; the Hinter lider building. It was there then, too. My father and mother had the kind of wedding they had for slaves, I guess. Yes, xna arn, they did call them broom.~stick weddings . I ve heard tell of them. Yes, ina am, the master and mistress, when they find a couple of young slave folks want to get married, they call them before themselves and have them confess they want to niarry. Then they hold the broom, one at each end, and the young folks told to jump over. sometimes they have a new cabin fixed all for them to start in. After Peace, a minister came and married my father and mother according to the law of the church and of the land. 2. ho

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The master s family was thoughthil In keeping our records iii. their own big family Bible. All the births and death8 o~ the children In my father~ Thmily wa8 in their Bible. Mter Peace, father got a big Bible for our family, and -- wait, I ll show you . . . . Here they are, all copied down just like out of old master s Bible. . . . Here s where my father and mother died, over on thi5 pages Right here s my own children. This space is for me and my hu8band. No ma em, it don t make n~ tired to talk. But I need a little f t line t o recall all the things you want to know bout I was so little when freedom came I just can t reriiember. I ll tell you, directly. I remember that the first thing my father did was to go down to a plantation where the bigger children was working, and bring them all home, to live together as one family. That was a plantation where my mother had been ; a man name Moore - ~ ames Moore - owned it I don t know whether he had bought my mother from Beebe or not. I can remember two things plain what happened there. I was little, but can still see them. One of my mother s babies died and Master went to Little Rock on a horse and carried back a little coffin under his arm. The mistress had brought mother a big washing. She was working under the cover of the we1 T~house and tears was ranning down her face. When master came back, he said : How come you are wo rking t oday Angeline when your baby I s dead? She showed him the big pile of clothes she had to wash, as mistress said. He said: There is plenty of help on this place what can wash. You come on in and sit by your little baby, and don t do no more work till after the tuneral. He took up the little dead body and laid it in the coffin ~vith bis own hands. I m telling you this for what happened later on. 3. :ti~t

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A long time after peace, one evening mother heard a tapping at the door. Then she went, there was her old master, James Moore. Angeline, he said, you rei~ember me, don t you? Course she did. Then he told her he was hungry and homeless. A man hiding out. The Yankees had taken everything he had. Mother took hirn in and fed him for two or three days till he was rested. The other thing clear to my memory is when my uncle Toni was sold. Another day when mother was washing at the welChouse and I was playing around, two white ~n came with a big, broad~shouldered colored man between them. Mother put her arms around him and cried and. kissed him goodbye. A long time after, I was watching one of my brothers walk down a path. I told mother that his shoulders and body look like that man she kissed and cried over. Why honey, she says to me can you remember that? Then she told me about my uncle Tom being sold. away. ~ I So you see Miss it e a good thing you are more interested in what I know since slave day8. I ll go on now./The first thing after freedom my mother kept boarders and done fine laundry work. She boarded officers of the colored Union soldiers; she washed for the officers families at the Arsenal. Sometimes they come and. ask her to cook them something s:~cial good to eat. Both my father and mother were fine cooks. That s when we lived at Third and Cumberland. I stayed home till I was sixteen and helped with the cooking and washing and ironing. I never worked in a cottoil field. The boys did. All us girls were reared about the house We were trained to be lady 8 ~ids and houseworker8. I ~rried ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ when I was sixteen. That husband died four years later, and. the next year I married this man, Joel Randolph White. Married him in March, 1879. 4. 112

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In those days you could put a house on leased ground. Could lease it for five years at a time. My father put up a house on Tenth and Scott. Old man Haynle owned the land and let us live in the house for ~25 . 00 a year wit il father s money was all gone ; then we had to move out. The first home my father really owned was at 1220 Spring street, what is now. Course then, it was away out in the country. A white lawyer from the north ~ B. F. Rice was his name - got my brother J~iminie to work in his office. .Timmie had been in school most all his 1i~e and was right educated for colored boy then. Mr. Rice finally asked him how would he like to study law. So he did; but all the time he wanted to be a preacher. Mr. Rice tell Yimmie to go on studying law. It is a good education; it would help him to be a preacher. Mr. Rice tell my father he can own his own home by law. So he make out the papers and take care of everything so some persons can t take lt away. All that time my family was working for Mr. Rice and finally got the home paid for, all but the last payment, and Mr. Rice said J 1113131ie s services was worth that So we ha~d a nice home all paid. for at last. We lived there till father died in 1879, and about ten years more. Then sold lt. My father had iriore money than many ex~slaves because he did what the Union soldiers told him. They used to give him greenbacks money and tell him to take good care of lt. You see, misa, Union money was not any good here. Everything was Confederate money. You couldntt pay for a dime s worth even with a five dollar bill of Union money then. The soldiers just keep on telling my father to take all the green backs he could get and hide away. There wasn t any need to hide it, 5. 113

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6. 114 ~ bOdy wanted it. Soldiers said just wait; soni~Iay the Confederate money wouldn t be any good arid greenbacks would be all the money we had So s how my father got hi s money. ~ If you have time to listen, miss, I d like to tell you about a ~- ~ wonderful thing a young doctor done for my folks, It was when~he ~npowder explosion wrecked my brother and sister. The soldiers at the Arsenal used to get powder in tins called canteens. When there ~as a little left - a tablespoon full or such like, they would give lt to the little boys and show them how to pour it in the palm of their hand, touch a match to it and then blow. The burning powder would fly oft their hand without burning. We were living in a double hou8e at Eighth and Main then; another colored family in one side. They had lots of children, just like us. One canteen had a lot more powder in. My brother was afraid to pour it on his hand. He put a paper down on top of the stove and poured it out. It was a big explosion. My little sister was standing beside her brother and her scalp was plum blowed off and her face burnt terribly. His hand was all gone, and his face and neck and head burnt terribly, too. There was a young doctor live close by name Deuell. Father ran for him. He tell my mother if she will do just exactly what he say, their faces will come out fine. He told her to make up bread dough real sort of stiff. He made a mask of it. Cut holes for their eyes, nose holes and mouths, so you could feed them, you see. He told mother to leave that on till it got hard as a rook. Then still leave it Ofl till it crack and come off by itself. Nobody what ever saw their faces would believe how bad they had been burnt . Only round the edge s where the dough t cover

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was there any scars. Dr. Deu~e11 only charged my father ~5O.OO apiece for that grand work on my sister and brother. Yes ~ I ll tell you how I come to speak what you call good 1~nglish. First place, niy mother and father wa~ brought u~p in families where they heard good speech. Slaves what lived in the family didn t talk like cottof~ield hands. My parents sure did believe in educa~. tion. The first free schools in Little Rock were opened by the Union for colored children. They brought young white ladies for teachers. They had Sunday School in the churches on Sunday. In a few years they had colored teachers come. One is still living here in Little Rock. I wish you would go see her. She is 90 years old now. She fotinded the Wesley Chapel here. On her fiftieth anniversary my club presented her a gold medal and had Mother Wesley engraved on it. Her naine is Charlotte E. Stevens. She has the first school report ever put out in Little Rock. It was in the class of 1869. Two of my sisters were grad~. uated from Philander &nith College here in Little Rock and had post graduate work in Fiske University in Nashville, Tennessee. My brothers and sisters all did well In life. Ahane married a minister and did missionary work. Cornelia was a teacher in Dallas, Texas. Mary was a caterer in Hot Springs. Clarice went to Colorado Springs, Colorado and was a. nurse in a doctor s office. J ininie was the preacher, as I told you. Gus learned the drug business and Willie got to be a painter. Our adopted sister, Molly, could do anything, nurse, teach, manage a hotel. Yes, our parents always insisted we had to ~o to school. It s been a help to me all my life. I m the only one now living of all my brothers and sisters. 7.

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Well ina am, about how we lived all 8ince fteedom; it 8 been good till these last years. After I married my present husband in 1879, he worked In the Mi8sOUri Pacific railroad shops. He was boiler maker s helper. They called it Iron Mountain shops then, though. 52 years, 6 months and 24 days he worked there. In 1922, on big strike, all men got laid off. When they went back, they had to go as new men. Don t you see what that done to my man? He was all ready ror his pension. Yes ma am, had worked his full time to be pensiozied by the railroad. ~it we have never been able to get any retirement pension. He should have it. Urban League is trying to help him get it. He is out on account of disability and old age. He got his eye hurt pretty bad and had to be in the railroad hospital a long time I have the doctor s papers on that. Then he had a bad tall what put him again in the hos.. puai. That was in 1931. He has never really been discharged, but just can t get any compensation. He has put in his claim to the Rai1~ road Retirement office in washington. I m hoping they get to lt betore he dies. we re both mighty old and feeble. He had a stroke in 1933, since he been off the railroad. How we living now? It 8 mighty poorly, please believe that. In h~ s good years we bought this little home, but taxes so high, road assessments and all make it more than we can keep up. My granddaughter lives with us, She teache8, but only has school about half a year. I was trying to educate her in the University of Wisconsin, but poor child had to quit. In su~er we try to make a garden. Some of the neighbors take in washing and they give me ironing to do. friends bring iii fresh bread when they bake. It takes all my granddaughter makes 8. 1.16

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to keep up the mortgage and pay all the rest. She don t have clothes decent to go. I have about sold the last ot the antiques. In old days the mistress used to give my mother the dishes left from broken sets, odd vases and such. I had ~ some beaut 1f~il things but one by one have sold them to antique dealers to get something to help out with. My church gives rue a donation every fifth sunday ot a collection for benefit. Sometimes it is as much as ~.2.5O and that sure helps on the groceries. Today I bought four cents worth of beans and one cent worth of onions. I say you have to cut the garment according to the cloth. You ain t even living fro~n hand to mottth, if the hand don t have something in it to put to the mouth. No ma am, we couldn t get on relief, account of this child teach ing. One relier worker did come to see us. She was a case worker, she said. She took down all I told her about our needs and was about ready to go when she saw my seven hens in the yard. Whose chickens out there? she asked. I keep a tew hens, I told her. Well, she hollered, anybody that s able to keep chickens don t need to be on relief roll and she gathered up her gloves and bag and left. 7~es ma am, I filed for old age pension, too. It was in April, ig~ i filed. When a year passed without hearing, I took my husband down so they could see just how he is not able to work. They told me not to bring him any more. Said I would get ~lO.OO a month. Two years went, and I never got e~ny. I went by myseLf then, and they said yes, yes they have my naine on file but there is no money to pay. There must be millions comes in for sales tax. I don t know where it all goes. 9.

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of course the white folks get first consideration. Colored folks always has to bear the brunt. They ju8t do, and that s all there is to What do I think of the younger generation? I wouldn t speak for all. There are many types, just like older people. It has alway8 been. like that, though. If all young folks were like my granddaughter I guess there is many, too. She does alithe sewing, and gardening. She paints the house, makes the draperies and bed clothing. She can cook and do all our laundry work. She understands raising chickens for rnarket1but just don t have time for that. She is honest arid clean in her life. Yes ina am, I did vote once, a 1on~ time ago. You see, I wasn t old enough at first, after freedom, when all the colored people could vote. Then, for many years, women in. Arkansas couldn t vote, anyhow. I can remember when M. W. Gibbs was ?olice Jud e and Asa Richards was a colored alderman. No ma ain~ The vot1n~ law is not fair. It s most untair ~e colored folks have to pay just the same as the white. We pay our sales tax, street improvement, school tax, property tax, personal property tax, dog license, automobile license - they what have care we pay utility tax. And we should be allowed to vote. I can tell you about three years aso a white lady come down here with her car on elec tion day and ask my old husband would he vote how she told him if she carried him to the polls. He said yes and she carried k~im. When he got there they told him no colored was allowed to vote in that election. Poor old man, she didn t offer to get him home, but left him to stumble along best he could. 10. :118

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Il. 119 I m glad if I been able to give you some help. You ve been patient with an old woman. I can. tell you that every word I have told you ie true as the gospel.

Ex-slave. 125 120

#722. FORM A Circu.mstances of Iiiterview s T~T~ ArkaI18 as i~~i OF YORK~R Sarnue1 S. Taylor ~i~S Llttle Rock, ~rkansas D~~ Deceznber, 1930 SU}JECT Ex slaVe 1. Name &id a&tress os infbrmant -Julia White, ~JO3 Cross Street, Little Rock. 2. Date and time of interview :3. Place of interview 3003 Cross Street, Little Bock, ~rkatisas ;. i~aine and3 a~tdres5 of person, if any, who put you in touch with inf~ormant r2. Name and. a~aress of ; rsori, if any, accoixi~anying you 6. DescrIption of room, house, surroundings, etc.

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#722 FORM B Personal Histoi~T ~f Informant ST~E A an8as ~ OF ~O~ER-~Samue1 s. Taylor ~i~~3S -.Litt1e n~O~k, Arkansas D~TE - Dec ezub er 19 ~8 3UEJECT--~EX-S I ave ~ i~ND ADDRESS OF Ii~OEU~1&J~TP--~Jii1ia White, 3003 Cross Street, Little Rock. 1. ancestry - 2. ilace azul date of birth ~Litt1e Rock, Arkansas, 1858 3. Farni1y~-~wo childrn 4. Places lived in, with d~ates~- Litt1e Rock all her life. 5. ~xiu.c~tion, with ~lates 6. ccu.patloxis and accornplithments, with Jat es~ 7. ~~)ecia1 skills and interests- 8~ Uo~rriu.x~ity and religious activities 94 ~)escription Of informant- 1O.Cther points gained in interview -~She tells of accomplishments made by the ~e~ro race.

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#722 FORMC ~J!exi ~fb Interview (Unedited) STA~- -Arkansas I~~Ai~ OF ~RK~-~Sam~ie1 s. Taylor ADDRESS Little Bock, Arkaneas D~TE ~-December, 1938 SUBJEC~- Ex sIave ~ A~D ADDRESS OF II~FOBM~Aj~P- J~i1ia White, 3003 Cross Street, Little Rock. * * * * * * * * 4 2K * * * * * * * K * * * $1 It * ** * * K * $ * * 4 * ** * * I was born right here in Little Bock, Arkansas, eighty years ago ort the corne r o f Fifth and Broadway. It was in a litt le log hou.s e. That us ed to b~ out lu the woods. At least, that is where they told me I was born. I :;as there but I don t remenber it. The first pl~.ce I remernber was a house on Third. and Cumberlazid, t ~ 8ollthwest corner. That was before the war. We we re 1 lvi ng the re when pe ace was de~ 1 ared You. kr~o w my fathe r hired my mother s time from Jantes Moore. Ee used to belong to Dick Galloway. I don t know how that was. BuSt I know he put my mother in that house on Thir~j and Cumberland while she was still a slave. And we smaller children stayed in the house with mother, and the larger children worked on James :~oore s plantation. My father was at that time, I guess, you. ~u.id call it, a porter at i~c~lmont s drtig store. He was a slave at that time but he . worked the re. He was workir~ there t1~ day this place was taken. I ll x~ver forget that. It was on September 10th. We we i e. go Ing acro as Third Street and there was a Unj~n woman told mamma to bring u.s over there, because the soldiers were about to attack the town and they were going to have a battle. I had on a pair of these brogans with brass plates on them, and. they were flspping open and I tripped u.p just as the rebel so1di~s were running

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2- 123 by. One of them said, There s a like yeller nigger, le take her. Mrs. Farmer, the Union woman ran ou1t and said., No you won t; that s riiy nigger.~ jjid she took us In her house. Arid we stayed there while there was danger. Then my father came baek from the drug store, she said. she dixln t see how he kept from being killed. At that time, there were about four houses to the block. On the place where we lived there waS the big hou.se, with many rooms, and then there was the, barn and a lot of other building$. My father rented that place and. turned the outbu.i1dir~s into little houses and allowed the freed slaves to live in t~m till they could find. another place. My husband was an orphan child, and the people he was Hying With were George Phelps and. Ann Phelps. Th~ were freed slaves. That was after the war. They came here and. had this little boy with t1~m. That Is how I come to meet that g ntlemen over there and get acquainted with hirn. W1~n they moved away from there Phelps was caretaker of the Oakland. Cemetery. We mar rie~. on the twenty seventh day of March, 1879. I still have the marriage license. I marr ied. twice; my first husband was G~eorge W. Glenn and my maiden ~ne was Jackson. I n~,rried the first time June 10, 1875. I had. two children in my first marriage. Both of then are dead. Glenn died. short ly after the birth of the last child, Febraary 15, 1878. Mr. White is a mighty good. man. He is put up with me all these years. AM he took mighty good care of my children, them by my first hi.~sband as well ~s his own. When I was a little girl, he used to tell me that he wouldxi t have me for a wife. After we were married, I used to say to him, You said. ~ioa wouldn t have. me but I see yoU~!re mighty glad to get ne. t : have t1~ marriage license for my second marriage.

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124H The re s qui -te a few o f the o 1 d one s 1 eft Have y ou se en M. ~i 1 1 wn, ar~ i~S. Stephen, and. Mrz. Weathers? Cora Weathers? Her nane 18 Cora not Clora. She s about ninety years old. She s at least ninety years old.. You. say she says that she is seventy~ four. That must be her insurance age. I guesS she is seventy four at that; she had to be seventy four before she was ninety. When I was a girl, she was a grow woman. She was married when my husband went to school. That has been more than sixty years ago, because we ve been married nearly sixty years. My sister Mary was ten years older than me~ and Co ra ~Ve athe rs was ri ght al ong wi ~ he r. She kne w my mo t he r. ~Jien these people knew my mother they ve been here, b caase she s been dead sincee94 and she wcx~ld have been 110 if she had lived. ttMy mother used to feed the white prisoners the Federal soldiers who Ne , e be Ing hei 1. The y pa Id he r and. t o id her to keep t I~ :~!one y bec au. se I t was Union Money. You know at ti~at t une they were using Confederat e money. ~y father kept it. He had a little box or chest of gold ~ad silver money. fnenever he got any paper money, he would ch&ige it into gold or silver. . Mother used to make these ginger cakes ~ they call em stage planks. :~ brother Jimmie would sell them. The men ased to take pleasure in trying to cheat him. He was SO clever they couldn t. They never did catch him r~apping. Somebody burnt our house; it wa~ on a Sunday evening. They tried to ~ it caught froni the chimney. We all like to uv burnt up. My father was a carpenter, whitewasher, anything. He was a co~nnon :Lborer. ~e didn t have contractors then like we do now. Mother ~~orked out iI_i service too. Ji nnie was the oldest boy. Fe taught school too. i~)T father set the first table that was ever set in the ~Uithony Hotel, ~ was the cause of the first stove bein~ hrou~tht here to cookon.

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-4.- 125.: Some of t he clii id. ren of the p eople that rai sed. my mother are at Ill living. They are Beebes. Ro swell Beebe wa~ a liltle one. They ia4 a colored man xiansd Pete r anil he was teaching Ro swell to ride ar~1 the pony ran away . ~ Peter st epped. ou.t to sto p him and Ro swell sal d, Gi t out o f the way Peter, and let Billie .Bu.tton come . I get some comtnod.lties from the welfaxe. u~t I don t get nothing like a pension. My husband worked at the Missouri Pacific shops for fifty two years, aud he don t git nothing neither. It was the Iron Mou.ntain when he first went there on June 8, 1879. He was disabled in 1932 because of inju.ries received on the job in 1~arch, 1931! But t1~y hurried him out of the ho8pital and never would give him anything. That ~nday mo~nii~g, they had had a loving cu.p given them for not having had. accidents in the plant. And at three p.m., be was sent into the hospital. He had a fall thatinjured. hisbeaci. They only kept him there for two days and two hours. fie was hurt in the. head. Lir. ~1kins himself came after him and. let him set around in the tool room. He stayed t~re till he couldn t do nothing at all. In 1881, he got his eye hurt on the job in the service of the Missouri Pacific. lt was the iron Mountain than. . lie was off abou.t three or four months. They didri t pay his wages while he was o ff. They to id him they wo uld. give him a lifetime job, but they didn t. Eis eye gave hirn trouble for the balance o his life. Sometimes it is worse than others. He had to go to the St. Louis ~ospital quite often for about three or four years. . ~ When the ho~ise on Third and Oumberlaxid was burnt, be rebuilded. it, and t:!:e owners charged hirn such rent he had to move. ~e rebuilt it for five hunare~.i dollars and was i;o get pay in rent. The owoers jumped the rent up to twenty five dollars a month. That way it soon took up the five hundred dol lars. Then we moved. to ~ighth and Main. I~iy brother Jimmie was in an acci ~Lent there.

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-5- . 1?6 He was pouring powder on a fire from an old powder horn and the flames jumped lip ifl the horn and exploded and crippled his hand and. buxnt his face. Dr. Duel, a right young doct r, said he could cure them if father would pay him fifty dollars a piece. My sister was burnt at the same time as my brother. He had theta make a thin dough, and. prit it over their faces ar~d he cu.t pieces out for their eyes, and nose, ~r~i nioutn. The~- left that dough on t1~ir faces and. chest till the dough got hard arid peeled off by itself. It left the ~1bite skin. Gradually the face got back to itself ar~ took it3 right color ~&~ain, so yo~ cou.ldn t tell they had ever been turnt. The only medicine the cLoctor gave them was Epsom salts. Fifty dollars for each child. I used. that remedy o~n a school boy once and cared hirn, bu.t I didn t charge hirn nothing. I have a program which was given in 1674. They don t give programs like that now. People wouldn t listen that long. We eacb of us had two and three, and so me of u.s had s ix ~nd seven part s to 1 earn. We 1~rnt the~n and recit ed. them and came back the next night to give a Christmas Eve program. -You can make a copy of it if you want. ~ A. C. iiichmond is Mrs. Childrcss brother. Arma George is Bee Daniels inothe r (Bee Daniels is Mrs. Anthony, a colored public school teacher here). Corinne Jordan is living on Gaines between Eighth arxi Ninth streets. She is atout seventy five years old now. She was about Mollie s age and. I was abou.t five years older. thai ~olly. Mary Riley is C. C. Riley s sister. c. a. Riley is Haven Riley s father. C. O. is dead nOw. Haven Riley~was a teac1~r, at Philander Smith, for a while. He s a stenographer now. Augu.st Jackson and J. ~ . Jackson are my brothe re. W. O. ~nory became one of our pastor s at ~es ie~ John bush, everybody s heard of him. He had. the Mosaic temple and got a big fortune together before he died., .b~it his children lost it all. Annie Richmond. is .Axinie Childress, tI~ wife of Professor R. C. Ohlidress, the State

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t 127 Supervisor. Corinne Winfre~z turned out to be John B~i5h s wife. willie Lane ru~rried W. O. Emery. Sciplo Jordan became t~ big man in the Tabernacle. H. H. Gilkeywent to the post office. He married Lizzie Hull. She s living E~till too.

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Extra Cornn~nt fl22 FORM D 128 STATE~-Arkans as I;A~E OF ~ORKER- -~Saxnue1 S. Taylor D.J~ESS- L1ttlG Rock, Arkansas j~Tth- December, 1938 ~3L ~JECT~~ slave i~2~ A~D ADDRESS OF INFORM~N~-Jul1a White, 3003 Cr088 Street, Little Rock. *~:*******~***~*** ******** ***************** The marriage licexse which Mrs. White sh~*red n~, was ias~i~1 March 27, 1879, by A. ~V. Worthen, Cou.nty Clerk, per W. ~ W. Booker to Julia Glen. and J. R. Thite.. It carries the name of Reverend W. H. Crawford who was the Pastor of Wesley Cbapel ~hurch at th at time. T~ license was issu.ed in Pulaski County.

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123 GRAND ENTEBTAINM~NT AT WESLEY CHAPEL Wednesday Evening, Dec r. 23, 1874 PROGRAMME Part ieclaination - Mud Pie Dec1amation-~ Ducklins and Ducklins Dialogue-- The Beggar Dec lamat I on~- ?Iork While You Work Dialogue - The Miser ::ec1amation~Pretty Pictures ~)ec1amation - Into the Sunshine 3ong - Joy Bells ialogue - Sharp Shooting ~eclarnat ion~ What I know iec1amation-~- The Side to Look On ~ialogue~-~ The Tattler Declamation~ Little Clara Dia1ogue-~ John Williams Choice Address by the General Manager Song~ We Come Today frayer Declamation- - My Mother s Bible Dia1ogue~-- Three Little Graves Dialogue - About Heaven Mr. A. C. k~ichmond By the School Rev. William Henry CrawfoH Miss Annie George MISS M. Upahaw and Miss M. A. Scruggs Miss Julia Jackson and. Miss Alice Richardson Miss Amelia Ross Miss Coren Jordan Mr. H. H. Gilkey and Mr. L A. M. Cypers Master Albert Pryor Mr. C. C. Riley and Mr. Charles Hurtt,Jr. Miss Cally Sanders Miss Mollie Jackson By the School Master Asa Richmond, Sciplo Jordan, and Miss Laura k. Morgan Master Morton Hurtt Miss Dora Frierson Miss Mary Alexander, Miss M. A. Scrugg Miss Mary Ross Miss Rebecca Ferguson Scipio Jordan, H. H. Gilkey and Julia Jackson

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. 130 Dec1axnatiOn-~-~ A Good Rule Dec1aInatiOn-~ Complaint of the Poor Dialogue-- The Examination. Miss Lilly Pryor ldliSS Riley L. H. Haney, Jackson Crawford end John ~ ThE END. Part II. Dialogue-- The Maniac Dia1ogue-~ Father, Dear Father; or The Fruits of Drunkenness Dialogue ~- An Awakening Dialogue~ Betsy and I are out 1eclarnati on~- Lily of the 1~alley Dia1ogue-~ Hasty Judgment Declamation- The Little Shooter flia1ogue7~ Practical Lesson Leclemation-- Bird and the Baby ~ ia1ogue-~ Scenes in the Police Court ~a11ad~ Yankee Doodle Dandy lVIiss Willie Lane, A. C. Richmond, Rafe May, and }~aster A. Pryon 3ohn E. Bush, W. A. M. Cypers, Win. Emery, Miss Coren Winfrey, Miss Maggie Green, and others. Miss Mollie Pryor and Miss Annie Richmond Alex. Scrugge and W. A.. M. Cypers Miss Mary Foster C. C. Riley, A. C. Richmond, Cypers and Haney Master August Jackson Miss Yulia Jackson, and August Jackson Miss Julia Foster Richmond, Bush, and Emery J. E. Bush Part III Dia1ogue~ Colloquy in Church ieclamation -Lucy Gray Dia1ogue--~ Matrimony Dialogue-~- Traveler Declamation~ Truth in Parenthesis Alice Richardson end Mollie Miss Alice Moore Miss Willie Lane, M. A. Scrugge, Mary Alexander, Mr. C. C. Riley Morton Hurtt and Scipio Jordan Alice Moore.

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DialOgue-- Forty Years Ago Declamation- - The Last Footfall Dec1aznatiOn-~ Gone with a Handsomer ~an than Me Declamation- - Golden Side Dec1amation~ The Union was saved by the Colored Volunteers Dialogue-- Relief Aid Saving Society Song--- Dutch Band DeclamatIon -- Number One ieclamation- -- ~hat to Wear, aiid How to W~ear It Dialogue - A Desirable Acquaintance -~9~ . .131 A~le8, Scruggs, and J. P. Winfrey Lizzie Hull 3ohn E. Bush, Miss Maggie Green, and H. G. Clay Annie Richmond Swan ~effries Maggie Scruggs, Mary Ross, Lizzie Hull, Alice Moore, Mary Alexander, Mollie Pryor, Annie Fairchild, Uz~ zie Wind, Julia ~ackson, 3. E. Bush, J. w. Jackson A. C. Richmond, Wm. E~nery, J. H. Haney, W. A. M. Cypers, J. O. Alexander, J. E. bush, J. W. Jackson Alice Richardson. Miss Coron Winfrey J. E. Bush, J. W. Jackson, A. C. Rich- mond DIalogue- -- The Little Bill Marion Henderson, J. E. i3~~h, Miss Willie Lane, Miss Laura A. Morgan, Asa Richmond, Jr. Dialogue - Country Aunt s Visit Henry Jackson, Misses Aube and Julia Crawford, Maggie Howell, Julia Jackson Dialogue-- Beauty and the Beast Marion Henderson, Julia Jackson, Laura (Six Scenes) Morgan, Mary Scruggs, Mary Ross, Coren Winfrey, Willie Lane, Lizzie Wind, Alice Crawford, J. E. Bush, J. P. Winfrey i)ialogue - How not to Get and Answer M. A. Scruggs and Mary Alexander ~ecleniation -- The Incidents of Travel John Richmond Interviewer s Comment This program was given on one night, and the participants doubled right back the next night on another lengthy program celebrating Christmas Eve.

[Interview with White, Julia A.] 137 132

#732 132 %~/ ~ y(~1~4) Interviewer~,~ ~ P~r8Ofl interviewed J~u1iaIhite (Contiuued)~ ~ O3 01088 Si;reit, Little Rock, Arkanaaa Aga~~ 80 ~ ~ ~ ~ . _ _ ~ ~ .~ ~ I~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ The Commissary was on the northeast corner of Third and ~unber1and, They used to call lt the government ccimn.issary building. It took up a whole half block, lira, Farmer, the white w~azi, was living in what you call the old Henderliter Plaee, the building on the northwest corner, during the War. She was a Union woman, and was the one that took U8 in when the Confederate soldiers were passing and wanted to take us to Texas with them. I was so small I didn t know much about things then, When peace was declared a preacher named Ikigh Brady, a white man, cane here and he had my mother and father to marry over again, n)fr . Stephens father was one of the first school-4eachera here for colored people, L~iere were a lot of white people who cerr~ here from the M rs. North to teach, Peabody School used to be called the Union School. Stephens has the first report of the school dated 1869. It gives the na~a of the directors and all, L~ K. Benford was one of the Northern teachers, Anna Ware and Louise COffman and Miss Henley were teachers too. ~Mi a, Stephens is the oldest colored teacher in Little Rock, The ~ children didn t want the old men to teach us. So they would teach t Lo ~ehe was only twelve years old then .~~ and she would hear our lessons. Then at recess tii~ie, we would all get out and play together. She Was my play mama, }L~r father, William Wallace Andrews, the first pastor of We sley Chapel M. E . Church, was the head teacher and Mr. aray was the other.

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2. 133 They were teaching in Wesley Qiapel iurch. It was then on Eighth and Broadway. This was .betore Bonford s t1n~. It was just after peace had been declared. I don t know where Andrewa come frcm,nor how much learning he had. Most of the people then got the Ir learning from white children. ~it I don t know where he got his. eWesley was his first church as tar as T know. Before the War aU the churches were in with the white people, After freedom, they drew out. Whether Wesley was his first church or not, he was Wealey s first pastor. I got a history of the church, They had a real Sunday-school in those days. My sister when she was a child about twelve years old said three hundred Bible verses at one ti~ and received a book as a prize. The book was nei~ed A Wonder~ul I~1iverance and other Stories, printed by the kneriean Tract Society, New York, 150 Nassau Street. My. sister s nana was Mollie J aeksoa.

[Interview with White, Lucy] 139 134

30717 1 ~. Y .. ~ Thtervlewer )~asIrene~be~aon_~ Person Interviewed. Iucy~ White, Marianna~ Lrkansas ~ Age?4_~ I was born on. .Tim Banks place close to Felton. His wire named Miss Ik~ss. Mania and all ot young master s niggers was brought from Mississippi. I reckon it was fore I was boni, Old master n~ame Maek Banks. I never heard mama say but they was good to my daddy. They had a great big place in Mississippi and a good big place over here. nI recollect seeing the soldi ers prance long the road. I thought they looked mighty pretty. Their caps and brass buttons and canteens shining in the sun. They rode the prettiest horses. One of em come in our house one day. He told Miss Puss he was goiner steal me . She say, Thn t take her off. He give me a bundle er bread and I run in the other room and crawled under the bed way back in the corner, It was dark up under there, I didn t eat the bread then but I et it after he left It sure was good. I du t recollect much but seeing them pass the road, I like to watch em. My parents was field folks. I worked in the field, I was raised to work. I keep my clothes clean. I washed em. I cooked and washed and ironed end done field work all. V~hen I first recollect Marianna, Mr. Lon Tau and Mr. Free Lending (?) had stores here, Dir. Steven (Stephen?) and Dr. Nunnaly run a drug store here There was a big road here. Folks started building houses here and thsre. They called the town Mary Aim to de longest time, Well, the white folks told em, You free. My folks worked on 1 er about twenty years. They d give em a little sompin outer dat crap.

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2. 135 They worked all sorter waya 4hat a right..-they sure did. They rented. and share cropped together I reckon after the War ended. The ~ Klux never bothered us. I heard bout em other plaeea. I never voted and I never do sepect to now. What I know bout votin ? Well, I tell you, these young folks Is cautions. They don t think 80 buSt they is. Lazy, count, spends every cent they gits it~. their hands~, Some works, some work hard. They drink and carouse about all night so~e~. times. No iua em, I did not do no sich er way. I woulder been ashamed of myself, I would. Times what done run away wid us all now. I don t know what to look fer now but I know times changing all the time. ni gets ten dollars and some little things to eat along. I say it do help out. I ~ot rheumatism and big stiff ~j ints (enlarged wrist and knuckle8).

[Interview with Whiteman, David] 141 136

~ Interviewer Bertilce Bowden. Person interviewed. ~ (C) Age 88 Home 1O4LKansasStree~neB1aCf,Arkansaa. - How do do lady. Oh yea, I wa~ a pretty good sized boy when the war 8tarted. My old marster was sponsib .e Smith. Liy young marster was hi~ son.~in..1aw I member bout the Yankees and the flReveIsU. I niember when a great big troop of eia went to war, Some of tern was 017111 and some was laughin . I tried to get young inar$ter to let me go with hirn,but he wouldn t let me, Old. marster was too old to go and hi3 son dodged around and didntt go either. I meniber he caught hisseif a wfld mustang and tied hisseif on it and rode off and they never did see him again. UI know when they was fightin we use to hear the balls when they was goin over, I used to pick up many a ball. tu wish my recollection was w th me like it used to be.~ ( At this point his wife spoke up and said Seems like siflce he had the flu,his mind is kinda frazzled. Yes tn, I member the Ku Klux. They used to have the col~ ored folks dodgin arouzid tryint tokeep out of their way. 13G

[Interview with Whiteside, Dolly] 142 137

o,~_. ~ ~ ,~) ~ Interviewer B rnice Bowden Person Interviewed DoilyiThiteside(c) Age 81 Home ~ ~ ~ T, ~ reok n I did live in slavery times.. look at my hair. I been down sick- I been right low and they didn t speck nie to live. Well, I ll tell you I was old enough to knowwhen they runned. us to Texas so the Yankees coul dn t overtaken us We was in Texas when freedom come. I reineniber I was sittin on the fence when the soldiers in them blue uniforms with gold buttons come. He said I come to tell you you is free . I didn t know what it was all about but everybody was sayin Thank God . I thought it was the judg~ ment day and I was lookint for God. I said to myself, I m goin have some buttons like that some day. Colonel Williams was my marster. My mother and took care of the colored folks when they was sick. I people wasn t given nothin but blue mass, oalomei,oastor and every body was healthier than they is now I~iti the only one Iivth that my mother birthed in this ~7orld, I was horn here, but I been travelin , I been to Memphis and around. t, No main, I don t remember j else ~ I done tole you was a nurse remember when oil and gruel, all I know.

[Interview with Whitfield, J. W.] 143 138

Interviewer Person interviewed Age AbOut 60 3Q~:~5 Samii 1 8. Ta7101 ~-_u_~ _ ~ W - - ~ ~ __-_ - ~- y. L Whitfield 3 :oo w; ~ent~e th ~ TA ~iIi. ~k~ii~s~a - - Occupation - - ~e~4i i~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ My father s name was laik. Whitfisid. ~. waa aixty.dthree y.ar~ old when he died in 1902. H~ was twenty.eix years old when the Civil War ended. He Was a slave, There were three other boys in the family besides h1~. No girls, (t Iew 5er~i) His old mare nana was Bill Garraway. They lived at Nubien, North f Carolina. My father said that his work in slavery time was blaokamithing. ils had to fix the wagons and the plow too. He said that was his work du.ring the Civil War too. He worked in the Contederate army too. RI renumber him saying bow they whipped him when he ran off. The over~. seer got after him to whip hi~ and he and one of hie frienda ran off. As they jumped over the fence to go into the woods the old mare hit my daddy with a cat o-~nine tails, You see, they took a strap of harness leather and cut lt into four thongs and then they took another and cut it into five thongs, and they tied them together. When you got one blow you got nine and wben you got five blows you got forty five. As his old mars hit him, he said, I got him one, sir; it was a good one too, air, and a go-boy. Rtt it was nine, My father told nie how they married in slavery time, They didn t co~tnt marriage like they do now. It one landowner had a girl and another wanted that girl for one of his ~n, tbey would give him her to wife. 7 #755 1:38

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2. :139 When a boy-~child was born out of this marriage they would rsarve him for breeding pirpoeea if he waa healthy and r bust. That if he waa puny and sickly they were not bothered about him. Many a time if the boy was de8lrable, he was ~*it on the stump and auctioned off by the tii~ he was thirteen years old. They called that putting him on the block0 Different ones would come end bid for himand the highest bidder would get him. My father spoke of a pass, That was when they wanted to see the girls they would have to gat a pass from the old mars. M~ father would speak to his niars and get a pass. If he didn t have a pass, the other mars would give him a whipping and sent him back. I told you about how they whipped them, They used to use those cat-~o..nine tails on them when they didn t have a pa5s. . ~Th.y lived in . a log cabin dobbed with dirt end their clothes were woven on a loom, They got the cotton, a~*in it on the spinningia~wheel, wove lt on the loom on rainy days. The wo~n spun the thread and wove the cloth, For the boys from five to fifteen years old, they would make long shirts out of this cloth. The shirts had deep scallops in them. Then they would take the same cloth and dye it with indigo and make pants out of it. The boys never wore those pants in the field. No young fellow wore pants until he began to court. My mother was a girl that was sold in Ianoir Oounty, near J~enston, ~ i4~Ai~+t~1 ? North Carolina. My tather met her in a place called ~If rd, North Carolina. / ~e~e~t? My father was sold several times, The oiner solde her to ~iis oiner and they jumped over a broomstick and uere married. My daddy s mars bought my mother for him. Her ne~ was Penny.

[Interview with Whitmore, Sarah] 145 140

;3U~4~5 Luterviewer Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed Sarah Whitmora Clarendon~, 4kansas ~ -- The interviewer found this ex slave in small Quarters. The bed, the room and the Negro were filthy. A fire burned in an ironing ~aoket, mostly papers and trash for fuel. During the visit of the inter viewer a white girl brought a tray with a measuring cup of coftee and two slices of bread with butter and fruit spread between. When asked where ~he got her dinner she said The best way I cari meaning somebody might bring it to her. Her hands are too stiff and shaky to cook. Her eye sight is so bad she cannot clean her room. Two WPA county visitors, girls, bathe i~er at intervals. . I was born between Yackson and Brandon. Sure I was born down in L~ississippi. My mother s name they tole me was Rosie. She died when I was a baby. My father named Richard Chamber. They called him Dick, hewas killed direckly after the war by a vthite man. He was a Rebel scout. The man named Hodge. I seed him. He shot my father. Theta ~aestions been called over to me so much I most forgot em. V~ell some jes lack em. My father s master was Hal Chambers and his wife Virginia. ~~cken I do member the Ku Klux. They seared me to death. I go under the bed every time when I see them about. Then was when ray father was :cilled. He went off with a crowd of white men. They 8aid they was debel scouts. All I know I never seed him no more since that evening.

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2. 141 They killed him across the line, not far from ~Ais8i88ippi. hatnbers had two or three farms. I was on the village farm. I had one brother. Chambers sent him to the salt works and I never seed him no i~iore. I ~(J~5 a orphant. Chambers make you work. I worked in the field. I coins wid a crowd to Helena. I come on a boat. I been a midwife to black and white. I used to cook some. I am master hand at ironin . I have 110 children as I knows of. I never born none. I help raise some. L come on a fine bia steamboat wid a crowd of people. I married in ~xkansas0 My husband. died ten or twelve years ago. I forgot which years it was. I been livin in this bery house seben years. The Government give me ~1O a month. I would wash dishes but I can t see bout ~ett i ne f round no more. Don t ax me bout the young niggers. They too fast fo me. If I see ein they talkin a passel of foolish talk. ~hut I knows is times is hard wid me shows you born, You come back to see me, If you don t I wanter meet you. all in heaben. By, by, by.

[Interview with Wilborn, Dock] 147 142

4 ~ ~: ~ ~ 4r-~ ~ ~ #686 1:12 Interviewer WattMcKinne~~ Person interviewed Dock Wilborn A mile or so from Marvell, Arkansas Dock Wilborn. was born a slave near Huntsville, Alabama on January 7, 1843, tIle property of Dan ~ii1born who with his three brothers, ~1ias, Samt and Ike, moved to Arkansas and settled near Marvel . in Phillips County about l855~ ~ According to Uncle Dock the foui Wilborn brothers each owning more than one hundred slaves acquired a 1ar~e body of wild, undeveloped land, divided this acreage between them and immediately began to erect numerous 1o~ stn~ctures for housing themselves, their Negroes, and their stock, and to deaden the timber and clear th~ land preparatory to placing their crops the following season The Wilborns arrived in. Arkansas in the early fall of the year and for several months they camped, living in tents until such tiir~ th~at they were able to complete the erection of their residences. Good, substantial, well constructed and warm cabins were built in which to house the slaves, niuch better buildings Uncle Dock says than those in which the ~rfe~ra~e Negro sharecropper lives today on Southern cotton plantations, And these Negroes were given an abundance of the same wholesome food as that pr~7ared for the master s family in the huge kettles and ovens of~ the one COTnllon kitchen presided over by a well-.trained and competent cook and ~J )erViSOd by the wire of the r aster0 During the period of slavery the more apt and intelligent arnon~ tho3e of the younger Ne roes were singled out and given special training f~Q~% those places in which their talents indicated they would be most useful

148 143

in the life of the p1antation~ 1r1S were trained in housework, cooking, and in the care of children while boys were taught blacksniithing, carpentrying, and some were trained for perscrnal servants around the home Some were even taught to read and to write when it was thought that their later positions would require thia learning, ~ According to Unela Doek Wilborn, slaves were allowed to enjoy many pleastires and liberties thou~ght by many In this day, especially by the descendants of these slaves, not to have been. accorded them, were entirely free of any responsibility aside from the performance of their alloted labors and speaking from his own experience received kind and just treatment at the hands ot the Ir masters, The will of the master was the law of the plantation and prompt punish~ment was administered for ~any violation of established rules and though a master . was kind, he was of necessity invariably firm in the administration of his government and. in the exeou~tion of his laws. Respect and obedience was steadfastly required and sternly demanded, while indolence and. dis~respect was neither tolerated or permitted. In ref~itati n to often repeated expressions and beliefs that slaves were cn~ielly treated, pr vide~with insufficient food and apparel and subjected to inhuman punishrne~nt, it is pointed out by ex slaves themselves that they were at that time very valuable property, worth on the market no less than from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars each for a healthy, grown Negro and that it 18 unreasonable to suppose that these slaveownera did not properly safegu~ard their investments with the befitting care and attention such valuable property demanded or that these masters would by rule or action bring about any condition adversely effecting the health, erficiency or value of their ~laves, - 2, :143

149 144

The spiritual and reiigiou needs of the slaves received the - attention of the saule minister who attended the like needs of the master and his family, and services were often conducted on Sunday afternoons exclusively for them at which times the minister exhorted his congregation to live lives f righteousness and to be at all times obedient, respectful and dutiful servants in the cause of both their earthly and heavenly masters, In the days of slavery, on occasion of the marriage of a couple in which the participants were members of s1ave~owning families, it was the custom for the father of each to provide the young couple with several Negroes, the number of course depending on the relative wealth or affluence of their respective femi1iea~ It seems, however, that no less than six or eight grown slaves were given in most instances as well as a like number of children front two to four years of age, ~ This provision on the part of the parents of the newly .~wedded pair was for the purpose as uncle Dock expressed it to give them a start of Negroes. The children were not considered of ia~ch value at such an age and the young master and his wife found themselves possessed with the responsibility attached to their proper care and rearing until such time as they reached the age at which they ~ould p~rtorm some useful labor, These responsibilities were bravely accepted and such children received the best of care and attentions bei~~ it is said often kept in a room provided for them in the master s own house where their needs could be administered to under the watchful eye and supervision of their owners, The food given these young children according to informants consisted mainly of a sort of gruel composed of whole milk and bread made of whole wheat flour which was set before them im a kind of trough and from which they ate with great relish and grew rapidly4 3. 144

150 145

4, 145 S1~veowners, as a raie arranged tor their Negroes to have all needed pleasure and enjoyment, and in the late sun~aer a1~ter cultivation of the crops was complete it was the custom for a number of them to give a large barbeotw for their combined groups or slaves, at which huge q~uantities o~ beef and pork were served and the care-~free hours given over to dancing and general merry~4nakiI1g. 9Jiicle Dock recalls that his n~aster, Dan Wilborn, who was a good..~natured man of large stature, derived rauch pleasure in playing his fiddle and that often in the early suniner evenings he would walk down to the slave quarters with his ~iolin remarking that he would supply the imisic and that he wished to ~ee his niggers~ dance, and dance they would ~or hours and as rrn~ch to t~e master s own delight and am~isement as to theirs, Dock Wilbbrn s pappy Sam was in some respects disobedient, prompted raainly so lt seems by his coniplete dislike for any form o~ labor and which Dan Viilborn due to the jr mutual affe et Ion appeared to tolerate for long periods or until such time that his patience was exhausted when he would then apL)1y his lash to Sam a few times and often after these periodical punish~nts Sam would escape to the dense forests that surrounded the plantation where he would remain for days or until Wilborn. would enlist the aid of Nat ~arner and his hounds and chase the Negro to bay and return him to his home, Uncle Dock* Wilborn and his wife Aunt Becky are among the oldest Citizens of Phillips County and have been married for sixty-seven years, Dan Wilborn performed their marriage ceremony, The only formality required in uniting thera as man and wife was that each jump over a broom that had be~~ placed on the floor between them~ This old couple are the parents of four children, the eldest of whom is now sixty three. They live alone in a small white-washed cabin only a mile or so from Marvell being supported only by ~ small pension they receive each month from the Social Security Board,

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They have a garden and a few chickens and a hog or two and are happy and content as they dip their ~auff and recall those day8 long past during which they both contend that life was at its best, Aunt Becky is religiou8 and a staunch believer, a long~~time member of Mount Moriah Baptist Church while Uncle Dock who has never been affiliated with any religious organization is yet as he terms himself a sinner raan and laughingly remarks that he is ~oing to ride into Heaven on ~Aunt Becky s ticket to which comment 8he promptly replies that her ticket is good for only one passage and that if he hopes to et there he must arrange for one of his own, 5. 14G

[Interview with Wilks, Bell] 152 147

. ~ ~ ~- )~J~~tJ& I ~ ~ fj~_ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I 4 ~ Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson ~ Person thtervlswedBell W11ks~ Holly Grove Arkansas Age ~ I was raised in Pulaski Tenne ~see Guss County. The po et oft ice was at one end of the town, bout ha1~ mile was the church down at the other end ~ Yes ni, that way P~i1aski looked when I lived there My f~ master was Peter or ~Terry Garn ~ I don t know which. They brothers? Yes m My mother s ma8ter was ~Tohn Wilke and Miss Betty. Mania s name was Caille Wilk~ and papa 8 n~ was Freeman. Mama had seven children. She was a field hand. ~3he said all on their place could do nearly anything. They took turns cookln . Seems like it was a week about they took iniin dom house work, field work, and she said sometimes they sewed. ?ather told my mother one day he was going to the Yankees. She didn t want him to go rrn~tch He . They xi~ustered out drill ing one day. He had to squat right smart. He saw some cattle in the distance looked like army way otf. He fell dead. They said it was heart disease. They brought him home and some of dei~i stood close to him drillin told her that was way it happened. The man what owned my mother was sorter of a Yankee hisseif. We all stayed till he wound up the crop. He sold his place and went to Collyoka On the L. andN. Rail~ay.He give us two and one-half bushels corn, three bushels wheat, and seras meat at the very first o~ freedom. When it played out we went and he give us more lone as he stayed there.

153 148

When mama left she went to a new sorter mill town and cooked there till 1869. She carried me to a young woman to uurse for her what she nursed at Mostor Wilka beto freedom. I stayed wid her till 1876. 1 3u.re doe s remexiiber dem dates . (laughed) ~Ye8 m, I was nursin Ibor Dr. Rothrock when that Ku Klux scare was all bout. They co~~ie to our house huntin a boy. They didn t find him. I cover up ray head when they come bout our house. Soins folks they scared nearly to death0 I bein in a strange place d~ontt know much bout what all I heard they done ~ I don t vote. I don t know who to vote for, let people vote know how. I get bout ~8 and some commodities. It sure do help iue out too. I tell you it sure do. 2. 148

[Interview with Williams, Bell] 154 149

. . i4~9 interview r Miss Irexie Robertson. Person interviewed BeU Ji1iiam~ Porest ~rkans~~ ~ NWe was owned by Master 1~cker. lt seems I was about ten ysara old when the Civil Wai, started. It seems like ~ dream to me now. Mother Was a weaver, They said. she was a fine weaver. ~he wove for all on the place and a~e s~ecia1 pieces of cloth for outaic1~ers~ She wove woolen cloth too. I don t know whether they paid for the extra weaving or not, People didn t look on iacney like they do now. They was free with one another about eating and visiting and work too wheii a man got behind with the work. The fields get gone in the crass. Sometimes they would be sick or it rain d ~t xn.ucb0 The neighbor would 8end all his slavea to work till they caught up and never charge a cent. I don t hear about people doing that way now. My parents was named Clinton and Billy Bell. There was nine of us children. I never seen nobody sold, Mother was darker, Papa was light-.~-ha1f white. They didn t talk in front of children about things and I never did know, I ve Wondered, After freethxa my folks stayed on at Master Rucker 8~ ~ I got to be a Llidviife. I nursed and was a house girl after the war, Then the doctors.got to Sending for me to nurse and I got to be a midwife, ii~y fathex~ was a good Bible 8ChOlar. He preached all around Mu~rfreesboro, ~ Te~riessee, He was a Methodist0 He died when he was seventy seven years old. He ~ h;~ read the Bible through seventy..~seven timea one time for every year old he Wasp ~ .

Ex-slave tale. 155 150

r ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~. ~ ~ ~ ~ 4 ~ ~.( ~q ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -~~ ~ . ~ . A ~ Mrs. ~i1dred Thompson . ~ . ~ ~ ~ j Mrs. Carolj~hj~ . ~ . 150 ~ ~ ~1 Dorado District r :~ ~~ .. ~ Federal Writer8 P~roject ~ . ~- : . Union County, Arkansas ~arle~y~i(i11iams, Ex-~lave. Ma~nin Missy. Yo say wha AintFanny Whoolah live? ~he live right down de road dar in dat fust house. Yas rn. Dat wha she live. Yo say whut inah naine? Mah name is Charley. Yas m, Charley Williams. Did ah live in slavery time? Yas ni sho did. Mah marster wuz Dr. Reed Williams and he live at ~ew London (SE part of Union County) or ah speck ah bettuli say near New London caise he live on de Mere Saline Road, de way de soldiers went and come. Marster died befo de Civil ~17ah. Does ah membah hit? Y~s m ah say ah does. Ah wuz bo n in 1856. ~1ah ole mutha died beTh de wah too. Huh name wuz Charity. Mah young marster went tuh de wah an corne back. He fit at Vicksbur~ an his name wu.z Bennie Williams. ~t he daid. flow tho. Dere was a hep uv dem white William Chillun. Dere wuz Miss Narcissi an she am a livin now at Stong. Den dere s Mr. Charley. ~h wuz named fuh him. ~e am a livin now too. Den dere is Mr. Raco Williams. He am a livin at Strong too.. Dem wuz Miss Annie, Liise Martha Jane and Miss Maclie. Dey is all daid. When young marster would come by hcrne or any uv de udder soldiers us little niggers would steal de many balls (bullets or ~ iOt) fun dey saddul ~ and play wid em. Ah nevah did see so many soldiers in raah life. Hit looked tuh me like dey w ~z enough uv em to reach clear cross de Uiiited States. An ah nevah saw de like uv cows as they had. Dey wuz nuff uv em to rech dar to Camden. Is ah evah beau mahried and does ah have any chillun? Yes ra. Yas m. Ah s been raoLried three times. Me an raah fust wife had seven chillun. When we had six chillun ~e ~nd nah wife moved tuh Kansas. We had only been der 23 days when mali wife birthed a Cni.le and her an de chile both died. Dat left rae wid Carey Dee, Lizzie, Arthur, Richmond, Ollie and Lillie to bring back home. Ah ~ahried a~in an me an dat wife had N~e chile name Robert. ~e au nah third wife has three: Joe Verna, Lula Mae an Johnnie B. Is dey hents? Ah ve beam tBll uv ein but nevah have seed no liants. One uv mali friens ~thut lived on the Hwnrnonds place at HiUsboro could see era. His name wuz Elliott. One ti~ne rae an Elliott wuz drivin a1on~ an Elliott said: charley, somebody got hole uv xnah horse~ Sho nuff dat horse led right off inter de woods an cou~ainced to buckin sa

156 151

. ~ ~2.. ~ 151 ~1liott and his hose both saw de haint but ah couithi see hit. Yo i~ow some people : ~ ceint see em. Yas m right up dere is wha Amt Fannie live. Yas m. Goodday Missy. !9~ CUSTOMS. We found Fanniewheeler at home but not an ex-slave. ~he was making a bedspread of tobacco sacks. . Yas m chillun ah m piecing mahsef a bedspraid from dese heah backy sacks. Yas m dey sho does make er nice spraid. See dat n on xtiah baid. i~int lilt purty. hit wuz made t~am backy sacks. Don yo alithink dat yaller bodah (border) set hit off purty? Ah~m aiinin to bodah dis n wid pink er blue. . . What ara dat up dar in dat picture frame? Why dat am plaits of har (hair). Hits uv mah kin and frien s. ~1hen ~e would move way off dey would cut off a plait and give hit tuh us tuh membah dem by. Mos uv dem is daid now but tiii still membahs dem and ah kin i~ame e;ah plait now. ~e were told that Salue Sims was an old ne~ress and went to see her she ~as not ~-~~----~ . an ex-~s1ave either but she told us an interesting little story about ~ ~ Ei~I~TS~ndBODY MARKS No m, ah m purty oie but ah wuz bo n aftuh surrender. Is ah evah seen a liant? Now ah nevah did but once and mah ma said dat wuz a hant. ~h ~.uz out in de woods waukin (walking) an ah saw surnpln dat looked lak a squirrel start ~ up a tree and de fudder up hit got the bigger hit got an hit wuz bi~ as a bear when hit LOt to de top and ma said dat hit v~as a haint. Dat is de only time ah evah seed one. Now.raah ~ranchillun can all see liants and inah little great gran chile too. An e~ah one uv dem wuz bo n wid a veil ovah dey face. Now when a, chile is bo n wid s. veil ovab his face if de veil is lifted up de sho can see hauts arid see evah thing but iftfl de vail is pulled down stid up bein lifted up de won t see em. After de veil is pulLed do~n an thken off, wrap hit upin a tissue paper and put hit in de trunk and let i-it stay dar till hit di8appear and de chile won t nevah see hante. Mah grandau~hter WhLt lives up x~orth in Missouri come downheah to visit mah son s fambly an me ah

157 152

L ~ 3 ~ ~ brang huh ii l bo:,r ~jj~j huh. Dat chile is bout seben years oie an dut chile could ~3S rIants ail in. de house ah he ~ouithi go tuh bald tiil his ~raii pappy coxie home &.t_~ feilt tub :)aid ~id hirn.

[Interview with Williams, Charlie] 158 153

). . . Interviewer Mise Irene Robertson Person Interviewed Charlie Williams Age73 Brassfield, Ark. ~ ~ 0 ~ ~ ~ . I was born four miles from Holly Springs, Mississippi. My parents was named Patsy and Tom Williams. They had twenty children. Nat Williams and Miss Carrie Williams owned them both. They had four children. At freedom he was nice as could be ~ wanted em to stay on with him and they did. He didn t whip em. They liked that in him Hi s wi f e was dead. and he e orae out to Arkans as wi th us. He died at Lonoke - Mr. Tom Williams at Lonoke. ~i farmed nearly all my life. I worked on a steamboat on White Hiver five or six years - ~ III never saw a Ku Klux. Mr. Williams kept us well pro- tected~ My mother s mother couldntt talk plain. My tolerably plain. She was a Molly Glaspy woman. a loud heavy voice ; you could hear him a long ways UI have no home. I am a widower. I have no I get a small check and commodities. nI vote. I haven t voted In a long time. I ni not educated to know how that would serve us best. mother talked My father had off. land.

[Interview with Williams, Columbus] 159 154

~:~i6(;4 :154 Iitterv i.w.r__~ Samuel 8. Taylor Person Interviewed Coluabui W111L.~S Temporary:~ 4i~ U&~ ~ ~ Tt~iTif. ~ ~ : Box 12, louts 2, Oaachita County, Stvena, Arkensaa 14 NI wa3 born in Union County, Arkansas, in 1841, in Mount ~olly. My mother waa nwied Clora Tookos. My father s name ta J~ordan Took s. Bishop Tookes is supposed to b a distant relative of ouri. I don t know my mother and father a folks My mother and father were both born in Georgia. They had eight children. All of them are dsad now but ~. I am the only one left. SOld Ben Beard ~ waa my master. lie come from Mississippi end brou~t my mother and father with him. They were in Mississippi as well as in Georgia, tut they were born in Georgia Ben Heard was a right mean man. They was all mean long about then. Heard whipped hie slaves a lot. 8c~ times he would say they v~ildn t obey. Sonietiae8 he would say they easeed him. SOmatilUSa he would aay they wouldn t work. He would ti them and stake them out and whip them with a leather whip of some kind. Be would ~it five hundred licks on them before he would quit. Re would buy the whip he whipped them with out o~ the store After he whipped them, they would pit their rags on and go on about their bualneas. There wouldn t be no auch thing aa medical attention. What did he cars. Re would whip the women the same as he would the men. ~Str1p em to their waist end. l.t their rage hang down from their hips and tie thm down and lash theia till the blood ran all down over their clothes. Yea sir, he d whip the women the same as he would the men.

160 155

2. 155 ~Scine of the slaves ran away, but they vould catch them eiid bring them back, you know. Put the doge after them. The dogi would juet run them up end bay them just like a coon or poae~a. Scm~et1aea the ihits people would make the dosa bite them. You see, when the doga would run up on them, they would sometlmee fight them, till the white people got there and then the white folks would make ~ the doge bite them and make them quit tighting the doge. One man run~ oft and stayed twelve montba ones. He come back then, and they didn t do nothin to him. Fraid h. d run ott a~in, I gueaa. We didn t have no church nor nothing. No ~inday-~schoola no nothin . Worked from Monday morning till Saturday night On Sunday we clidn t do t but set right down there on that big plantation. COU1dXL t go no~ where. Wouldn t let ue go nowhere without a paaa They had the paterollera out ai . the tiz~. It they caught you o~t without a pa~, they would gi~ you twenty-five licks. If you outrun them ax~d got h~, on your niaater a plantation, you~ saved yourself the whipping. ~The black people never had no emisement They would have an old riddle--acmething like that. That was all the ~iaic I ever seen. Sc~. timsa they would ring up and play round. in the yard. I dion t re~ember the gamea. 8ing earns kind of old reel aong. I t hardly remember the words of any ot them songs. 0Wouldxi t allow none ot them to have no books nor read nor nothin . Nothin like that. They had corn huekin s in. Mississippi and Georgia, but not in Arkansas. Didn t have no quiltin s. ~cmen might q~uilt ao~ at night. Didn t have noihin to make no quilts out of. The very first work I did was to nurse babies. After that when I got a little bigger they carried me to the field..-choppin cotton.

161 156

3.. 136 Thsn I went to picking cotton. Next thing--pullin fodd.r. Then they took ma from that and pit nie to plowin , clearin land, aplittin rafla. I believ. that is about ail I did. You worked from the tim.. you could eec till the time you couldn t see. You worked from bfore sunrise till after dark. when that horn blows, you better git out of that house, cauce the overseer is commt down the line, and he ain t commt wIth nothin in hie hand. ~They weighed the rations out to the slaves. They would give you so many pounds of meat to each working person in the family. The children didn t count; they didn t git none. That would have to last till next Sunday. They would give them three pounds of meat to each workin person, I think. They would give em a little meal too, That is all they d givs em. The slaves had to cook for theirselves after they co~ haine from the field. They didn t get no flour nor no sugar nor no coffee nothin like that, They would give the babies a little milk and corn bread or a little molasses and bread when they didn t have the milk. Some old person who didn t have to go to the field would give them somethin to eat so that they would be out of the way when the folks come ~it of the field. The slaves lived in old log houses-~one room, one door onewindow, one everything. There were plenty windows though. There were windows ai . around the houas. They had cracks that let in more air than the windows would. They had plank floors. Didn t have no furniture. The bed would have two legs and would have a hole bored in the side of the house where the side rail would run through and the two legs would be out from the wail. Didn t have no springe end they made out with anything they could git for a mattress. Master wouldn t furnish them nothin of that kind.

162 157

A ~ ~ ~ ~ ~*. . The jayhaikers were white folks. They didn t bother we all auch. That was after the surrender. They go round here and there and git after white folk8 what they thought had ecm money and jeric them round. They were jus cc,~on nien and soldiers, RI was not in the army in the War. I was right down here in Union Couxity then. I don t know just when they fred b~t it was after the War was over. The old white men call us up to the house and told us now we was tree as he was; that if we wanted to stay with him it was ai . right, it w didn t and wanted to go away anywheres, we could have the privils~ to do it. ~MarriaSB waan t like now. You would court a wcmen end jus go on and marry. No license, no i~othin~, 8cnieti~s you would take up with a woman and go on with her. Didn t have no ceremony at ail. I have heard o~ thea stepping over a brocs ~t I never saw it. Par as I saw there was no ceremony at all. When the slaves were freed they expected to get forty acres and a mule. I never did hear ot anybody gettin it. Right after the War I worked on a farm with Ben Heard. I stayed with him about three years, then I moved oft with some other white folks. I worked on shares, ~ irst I worked for half and he furnished a team. Then I worked on third and fourth and furnished my own teem. I gave the owner a third or the corn and a tourth of the cotton and kept the rest. I kept that up aeTei~1 years. They cheated us out of our part, If they furnished any.~ thing, they wo~xld sure git it back. Had everything so high you. know. I have farmed ail my lite. Jarmed till I got so o d. I couldn t. I never did own my own farm. I just continued to rent. I never had any trouble about voting. I voted whenever I wanted to. I reckon it was about three years after the War whsn I bs~n to vote.

163 158

5. 158 I never went to school. One of the ihite boya elipped and learned ~ a little about readin in alave tiz~. Right after freedom come, I waa a groin man; e I bad to work. I married about four or five years after the War. I was just married once. My wife ia not living now. She s gone. ~S e ben dead for about twelve years. WI belong to the A. M. L Church and my membership is In the New Ko~m Church out in the country in Ouachita County.

[Interview with Williams, Frank] 164 159

: ~ ~ ~ _; ~J u ~ _ Interviewer~ Sarwiel .Tajlor ~ Pereon intervie,ed Prank I1111e~. County Hospital, ward eleven, Little Rock, Arlcanaaa Age ~1OO~or~or.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~m ~ ~ ~ I m a hundred year8 old. I know I m a hundred. I k~cw tro~ where they told i~ a I don t know ehen I iras born. I been took down and whipped many a t 1m~ because I didn t do my work good. They took my pants down and whipped me just the same aa it I d been a dog. Sometimes they would whip the people from Saturday night till Monday morning. I run ott with the Yankees. I was young then. I was in the Civil War. I don t know how long I 8tayed in the army. I am t never been back hc~ since. I wish I wasp I wouldn t be in this condition if I was back hc~. Mississippi was my home. I co~ up here with the Yankees and I ain t never been back since. Laconia, Mississippi was the place I used to be down there I been wanting to go home but I couldn t git off, I want to git you to write there for ~. I belong to the Baptist church. Write to the elders ot the church. I belong to the Mission Baptist Church on the other aide of Rock Creek here. They just lived in log houses in slave tim. ~ I want to go back hc3~. They made me leave Laconia. Pateroles!! Oh, my OOd~ I know nough bout them. Child, I ve heard em holler, Run, nigger, run The pateroles will catch you. am. jayhawkers would catch people and whip them. sI would be back home yet if they had t made me come away.

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They didn t have no church in slavery time. They jus had to hide around and worship God any way they could, WI used to live In Laconia. I ain t been back there since the war. I want to go back to my tolks.N Interviewer e Coement Frank Williams is like a man suffering from amnesia. He is the tiret old man that I have interviewed whose memory is so tar gone. He remembers practically nothing. He can t tell you where he was born. He can t tell you where he lived before he came to Little Rock. Only when his associates mena tion some of the things heform.erly told them can he remember that little of his past that he does state in any remote approach to detail. . j. There Is a strong emotional set which relates to his slave time experiences. The emotion surges up in his mind at any mention of slave time matters. But only the emotion remains, The details are gone forever. Names, time s places happenings are gone forever. He does not even recall the name of his father, the name ot his mother, or the name of any of his ~?elatives or masters, or old-time friends. No single definite thing rises above the horizon of his mind and defines itself clearly to him, And always after every sentence he utters, there rises the old retrain: ni want to go back home. I wouldn t be in this condition it I was back hc~. I live in Laconia. They made me come away. M~d that is the substance of the story he remembers. 2. 160.

[Interview with Williams, Gus] 166 161

10 ~~)U L~: ~J -~ - ~-- ~ f- ~18~ ~ Bussellville, rkan~saa . Was you lookin for ma t oder day? 3ure, my name s Williems-~Gus Williems~~not Wilson. ~y gits me mixed up wid dat young guy, Wilson. Ye s I remembers you sure~talks to yo brother sometinies. I was born in Chathem County, Georgia-.-~Savannah is de county seat. My niarster s name was Jim Williams. Never seen my daddy cause de Yankees carried him away dunn de War, took him away to de North. Old marster was good to h18 slaves, I was told, 1~t don t ricollect anything about em. 0f course I was too young. Was born on Christmas day, 1857..-but I don t see anything specially interestin in bein a Christmas present; never got me nothin and never will. Was workin on WPA ~.this big Tech. buiLdin .~but got laid off t other ~iay. My w~n~a brou~bt us to Arkansas in 1885 ~ but we stopped and lived for several years in Tennessee ~ Worked for twelve years out of Memphis on the old Anchor Line steamboats on de Mississippi, runnin from St. Louis to N Orleans. Plenty work in dem days. No, I ain t voted in a long time; can t afford to vote have the dollar, No dollar--no vote. ~presaion done fixed Jest me and my wife, but it takes pluggin away to get belongs to the C. M. E. Church since 1915. 1 was janitor at School for seven years, and sure liked dat job. 161 Interviewer Person interviewed Age~ 8O_~~~ because I never my votin , along. We the West Ward

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2. Don t ask me anything about dese boys and gals .ivin today. Much difference in deia and de young folks livin In my tune as between me and you. No dependence to be put in em. My eatimonj is dat de black aerv~ SILtS today workin for de whites learns things from dem white girls dat dey never knowed before, and den goes home and does things dey never done before. Don t ricollect ~.ny of de old-~time songs, ~it Am I Born to Die? And~oh, yes, lots of times we ____ how sweet de soun dat saves a race like ~ t No ~uh I alu t got no education- never had a chance to git one. one was saine n lik~e- ~ sung Amazin Grace, NOTE: The underscored words are actual quotations. Estlinony for ~opinion was a characteristic in Gus vocabulary; race for the original wretch in the sang may have been a general error in some local cone. gregations.

[Interview with Williams, Henrietta] 168 163

30910 :163 Interviewer Perneila M. AnderaOfl Person interviewed Renrietta Wililama B. Avenue El Dorado ~&rkanaaa Age~ ~4b~t 82 I am about 82 years old.. I was born in Georgia down in the eotton patch. I did not know much aboi.it slavery, for I was rai8ed in the white folks house, and. my old mistreas called me her little nigger, and she didn t aflow me to be whipped and drove around. I remember my old niaster whipped me one time and old mistress russed with him so much he never did whip nie any more. I never had to get out and do any real hard work until I was nearly grown. My mother did not have but one child, My rather was sold from my mother when I was about two years old and he was carried to Texas and I did not see him any more until I was 35 years old. So my mother marriad again when she was set free. I didn t stay with my mother very much. She stayed oft in a little log house with a dirt floor, and she cooked on. the fireplace with a skillet and lid, and the house had. one window with a shutter. ~e had to cut logs and roll them like a man and split rails and plow. I would sometimes ask old mistress to let me go out where my mother was working to see her plow and when I got to be a big girl about nine years she began learning me how to plow. n ~ often told the nigger8 the white tolks raised me The niggers tell me, Yea, the white folks raise you but the niggers is going to kill you. After fteedcm my mistress and master moved to Louisiana. They Thrmed. They owned a big plantation. I did the housework.

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~The biggeat snow I rea~nbsr was the big centennial anow. Oh, that a been years ago. The snow was so deep you couldn t get out of the house. The boys had to take the shovel and the hoe and keep the snow raked away from around the door. There was a big old oak tree that stood In the corner of the yard. People say that tree was a hundred years old. We could not get no wood, so master had the boys to cut the big old oak tree for wood. Rabbits had a scant time. The boys would go out and track six or eight rabbits at a time. We had rabbits of all descriptions. We had rabbits for breakfast rabbits tor dinner rabbits for supper tinte We had tried rabbits, baked rabbits, stewed rabbits, boiled rabbits. ~ad rabbits, rabbits, rabbits the whole six or eight weeks the snow stayed on the grouud. I remember when I was about twelve years old a woman had two small children. She went away frc~n home and ~or fear that the children would get hurt on the outside she put them in the house and locked the door. Lu some way they got a match ax~d struck it and the house caught tire All the neighbors were a long ways off and by the time they reched the house it had rallen in. Finally the mother came and looked for her children and asked the neighbors did they save thea. They said no, they did not know they were in the house. La 1 act they were too late anyway. So the fire was still hot and they had to wait for the ashes to cool and when the ashes got cool they went looking for the children and found the burned buttons that were ou their little clothes, so they began raking around in the ashes end at last found each of their little hearts that had not burned, but the little hearts were still jumping and the man who found the hearts picked them up in his hand and stood speechless. He becen~ so nervous he could not move. 2. 164W

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3. ~ 165 Thou litt .. hearts just quivered. They let their hearts lay out for a couple o~ days and when they buried their hearts they was still uinpin, That was a sad t1n~. From that day to this day I never lock no one up i~ the house.

[Interview with Williams, Henry Andrew (Tip)] 171 166

.-~~)Q~:1t) Interviewer Mi88 Irene Robertson Persoii interviewed Henry Andrew (Ti~) Williams Biscoe ~ Arkansai A~3 BO)~11 th 18 4I86 I was born three and one halt mile8 from ~Tackson, North Carolina0 I was born a slave. I was put to work at six years old. They started ins to cleaning 0~ 18~ ~rouni. I thinned corn on ray knees with my hands0 We planted six or $even. acres of cotton amd ~ot four or five cents a pound. Balance we planted was something to live ou. My master was ~Tason and Betsy Williams. He had a &aall plantation; the sraaller the plantation the better they was to their slaves. J~im 3ohnson s farm j olned ~ He had nine hundred ninety~nine ni g~ers. It was funny but every time a nigger was born one died0 When he bought one another one would die. He was noted as having nine hundred ninet~r-~ nine niggers. It ha~pened that way. He W&8 rough on his place. He had a jail on his place. It was wood but close built. Couldn t get out of there. P~it them in there and lock them up with a big padlock. He kept a male ho~ in the jail to tromp and walk over them. They said they kept them tied down in that place. Five hundred lashes and shot em up in jail was light punishment. They said it was lieht brushing. I lived up in the Piney Woods. It was big rich bottom plantations fro~ii Weldon Bridge to Halifax down on the river. They was rough on em, killed some. No, I never seen .Tim J!ohnson to know him. He lived at Edenton, North Caro1ina~ I recollect mighty well the day he died. we had a big storm, blowed down big trees. That jail was standing when I come to Arkansas forty seven years ag~o,

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It wa8 a Bill brew (stocks) they put men in when they put them in Jail. Thrned male hog in there for a blimd. Part of Tim J~Ohn8on s overseers was black and part white. Hatterway was white and Nat W&$ black. They was the head overseers and both bad meu. I could hear them cryiiig way to our place early in the morning and at nights Lansing Kahart owned ~ranthna when I was a little boys They took hands in droves one hundred fifty miles to Richmond to sell them. Riebraond and New Orleans .waa the two big $elling blocks~ My uncle was sold at Ricbnioiid and. when I corne to Arkansas he was living at Helena. I never did. ~et to see hirn but I seen. his two boys. They live down there n_ow. I don t know how my uncle ~ot to Helena but he was turned loose down in this country at ~nancipatidn. They told ins that. 1~hen a man wanted a woman he went and axed the master for her and took her on. That Is about all thora was to it. No use to want one of the women on Jirn Yobnson s, Debrose Tillery farms. They kept them on. their own and didn t want visitors. They was big fantis0 Kershy had a big farm. The Yankees never went to my master s house a time. The black folks knowd the Yankees ~vas after freedont. They had a song no ni~gers ever made up, I wanter be free. My master was too old. to ~o to war but Bill went. I think it was better times in slavery than now but I m not iii favor of bringing lt back on account of the craelty and dividing up families. My ma8ter was good to us. He was proud of us. We fared fine. He had a five or six horse farta. lUs land wasn t stroxi~ but we worked and had plenty~ *~ .~ . _ ~ ~. _Io(

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3~ 168 Mother cooked for white and colored. We had what they et cepting wheii company corne, When they left we got scraps. Then. wheu Christmas come we had cakes and pies stacked up setting about for US to cu~t. They cut down through a whole stack of piee. G~t tkem in halves and pass them ainoxig us. We ~ot huziks of cake a piece. We had plain eating er plenty all the time. You. see I m a big man, I wasn t starv ed out till I was about grown, after the War was over. Times really was hard. Eard, hard times come on us all. Mama got one whooping in her 1if~e. I seen that. 3~ason Williams whipped niy two grown folks in my life, mama and. my brother. Marrie sassed her mistress or that what they called it then. since then Pire heard worse jawin.~ not called sassing, call it arguing now. Sassing was a bad trait in them days. Brother was whooped in the field. He was seven years older than me, I didn t s~e none of that. They talked a right sraart about it. The Williams was good to us all, Master s wife heired two women and a girl, Mama cooked, ironed, and worked in the field in time of a push ( when. necessary). . ni was hau1in~ for the Rebel soldiers one rainy evening. It was dark and 1i~htning every now and then. General Ransom was at the hotel porch when sherman turned the bend on~ mile to come in the town. It was about four o clock in the evening I ju~d~e General Ransom s company was washing at Boomt ~ Mill three rails s. About one thousand men was out there cooking and in washing, resting. General Ransom went hollering, YaukeesP Went to his men. They got away I reckon. ~ierrasn killed sixty men in that town I know, General Ransom went on his horse hollering, Yankees comingi He went to his home eight miles from there. They went on through rough as could be~

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I hauled when it was so dark the team had to take me in home at :night. My circuit was ten. miles a d.ay. My young master Bill Williams come in April soon as he ot home and told us we was free but di dxii t have to leave We stayed on and worked~ He said he had nothing but the land and we had nothing. At the end of the year he paid off in corn and. a little money, Us boys left then and mother followed us about, We ain t done no better since then. We didn t go far off. ~ Forty...seven. years ago I went to Weldon, North Carolina in a wagon, took the train to Gettysburg and from there come to Biscoe, Arkansas. I been about here ever since0 }Ar. Biscoe paid our way0 We worked three years to pay him back. I cleared good money since I come out here ~ I had cattle I owned and three head of horses all my owns Age crept up on xi~e~ I ca&t work to do much good now. I gets six do1lar~-We1fare money. Times is a puzzle to me0 I don t know what to tliiiIk. Things j~ ~ all wrong some way but I don t know whether it will get straightened out or not. Folks is making the times~ It s the folks cause of all this good or bad. People not as good as they was i~orty years ago, They getting greedy. 40 169

[Interview with Williams, James] 175 170

~ \~-.( ~ ~ ~ o~ ~ ~ _I G (~~:i\~ Interviewer ~ ~ Miss Irene 1~rtson Person ~ I11~1ama~ Brink1ey~Arkanaai ~ ~ 72 ~ ~ WI come from close to Montgomery, Alabama. Man nemied sohn , Elliott sent and got a number tamlees to ~rk his lend. He ~iaa the richest man in them parts round Fryere ~int, Mississippi. I was born after the Civil War. They used. to say we what waa raisin up havin ~o much easier time an what they had In slavery times. That all old tolka could talk about, Said the on .ies time the slaves had to conb their hair was on Sunday. They would coi~b end roll each others heir at4 the men cut each others hair. That all the time they got. They would roll the childerns hair or keep it cu~t short one. Saturday morni~ was the time the men had to curry and trim i~p the horses end imilea. Clean out the lot and stalls. The w~en would sweep and scour the floors for Sunday. . I haven t voted for a long tine It used. to be so~ fli~n vot i~ Din in Mississippi the whites vote one way and. us the other. My father was a Republican. I was too. nI have cataracts growing on my eyes. That hinders my work now. I got a little garden. It help out. I ain t got no propty no kind. The young folks assit happy. I guess they gettin long fine. 8on~ folks jea lucky bout gettin ahead and stayin ahead. I can t tell no moren nothin how times goiner serve this next generation they change in

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:~ 2, all time seems lack. If the white folks don t know what golner bec~ of the next generation, they need not be asking a tellow lack nie. I wish I did know. I ain t been on. the ~A. I don t git no help ceptin. when I can work a little tor myaeLt.

[Interview with Williams, John] 177 172

~U~9O 1~I2 Interviewer Samuel S. ~L~jior ~ ~ ~ Person interviewed ~ J ohn Williams County Hospital, ward 11, ~titt1e Rock, Arkansas Age~__~ 75 I was born in 1863 In Texas right In the city o~ Dallas right In the heart Oja the town. After the War our owners brought us back to Litt .e Rock, That is where they left from. They left here on account of the War. They run off their slaves to keep the Yankees from freeing them. All the old masters were dead. ~t the young ones were Louis Fletcher, J olm Fletcher, Dick Fletcher, Yeff Fletcher, and Len Fletcher, Five brothers of them. Their home was here in Little Rock, The War was going on. It went on four years and prior to the end of it I was born. My mother s name was Mary Williams. My father s name was ~rohn Williams. I was named after him. It is funny how they changed their names. Now, his name was John Scott before he went into the army. ~t after he went in, they changed his name into ~ohn Williams. His master a name was Scott but I don t know the other part of it, All five of the brothers was named for their mother s masters. She raised them. She always called all of them master. Cordin to what I hear ~rom the old folks when one of them come ~ round you better call him master. In slave im, my father was a field hand I know that Thit I know more about my mother. I heard her say she was always a cook. I heard her speak about having cruel treatment from her first masters ; I dont t know who they were ~it after the Fletehers 1~th~i~ht them,

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2 ~ ~ . they had a good t1I~ They come all the way out o~ Louisiana up here~ My mother was sold from her mother and a1ater ~..io1d some two or three tiinea~ She ziever did get no trace of her sister, . but she Thuind her grandmother In Baton Rouge, Louisiana axid brought her here. Her sister s name was Fannie and her grandmother a name wee Creole Lander. That is an Indian name I couldn t understand nothing she would say hardly. ~ie was bright All my :f olks were bright but z~. My mother had hair way down her shoulders and you couldn t tell my tinole from a dago. My grandmother was a regular Indian color. She spoke Indian too. You couldn t understand nothing she said. ~ ~ . When I woke up, they had these homemade beds. I could~n t hardly describe them, but they put the sides into the posts with legs. They were stout things too what I ein talkint bout. They made cribs tor us little children and put them under the bed. They would p~1l the cribs out at night and run them under the bed during the day. They called them cribs trundles, They called them trundles becau8e they run them under the bed. For chairs and tables accordin to what I heard my mother say, she was cook and they had everything in the big house and et pretty much what the white tolks et. But we just had boxes in the cabins. Them that was in the white folks house had pretty good meals, ~it them that was in the field they would teed just about like they would the hogs. They had little wooden trays and they would put little fat meat and potlIq~uor and corn bread in the tray, and hominy and such as that. Bis-e cuits cwx~ just on Sunday. They had old ladies to cook for the slave children and old ladies to cook for the hands. What was in the big house stayed in the big house. *1 . the slave men ate in one place and all the slave women ate in one place,

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3. i7~. They weren t supposed to have any food in their homes unle a they would go out roraging. Sometime3 they would get it that way. They d go out and steal ma s sweet potatoes and roast them In the fire. They d go out s~nd steal hog and kill lt. All o~ lt was theirn; they raised lt. They . wasn t to say stealin it; they just went out and got lt. If~ old master eau~ht them, he d give em a little brushin 1f he thought they wouldn t run off. Lots ot times they would run oft, and it he thought they d run off because they got a wh1~ he was kinda slow to catch em. If one run off, he d tell the res , If you. see so and so, tell mi to come on back. I ain t goin to whip lin. If he couldn t do nothin with en, he d sell . em. I guess he would say to hisseif, I can t do nothin with this nigger. If I can t do nothing with lui, I U sell him and git my money outa im WI have heard my mother say that some of the slaves that ran away would get destroyed by the wild anli~ie1s and some of them would even be glad to come back home. Right ~nart of then. gct clean way and went to free states, Acter the ~ar was over, they all was brought back here and the owners let then know they was tree. They had to #let ~tbem know they were~ free. I never heard my m~other tell the details. I never heard her say just who brought her word or how it was told to her when they was freed. UI never heard her say much about the church because she was a sinner. After they was freed, I would go many a night and set down in a corner where they was having a big dance. The paterolea and jayhawkers were bad. Many of them got hurt too. They tried to hurt the niggers and sometimes the niggers hurt them. Right after the Wer, my folks farmed for a living. They farmed on shares. They didn t have nothing of their own. They never did get nothing

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4. out of their work.0 I know they didn t get a thing. They tarmed at first about seven miles out from Little Rock, below Fourche I~m on the Fletcher place0 There ain t th~t one of the Fletchers living now, and that is Molly Daniels. She is old Louis Fletcher s daughter. All their brothers is dead0 She s owning all the land now we used to till, It s over a thousand acres. (mo+I~e~c ) j She stayed downtlzere for about twenty or thirty years. Then she nioved A here to town. Itere she cooked for white folks. My mother died about forty years ago--forty-~two or three years ; she a been dead sometime My wife has been dead now for twelve years0 ItI didn t get but a little schooling, for ray father used to send me after the mules, One day the wheelbarrow had a load of bricks on it, It was upset0 They had. histed the bricks up on a high platform. It turned over as I wa passing underneath, and one fell on me and ~tri~ick my head, It was a long time after that before they would let nie go to school again. After that I never got used to studying any mores My first teacher was Lottie Andrews (Charlotte Stephens). I had some more teachers too. Len~ae see.~Professor Fish was a white man. We had colored teachers under hua. Then we had R. B. White. He was Reuben Thite s brother. R. B. Whitets ~jfe was a teacher. Professor Fish was the superintendent. There ain t no tr~ith to the tale that Reuben White was put in a coffin before he was dead. Reuben ~1hite built the First Baptist Church here and Milton Yihite built a big church in Helena. They were brothers~ Them was two sharp darkie s . ~hen I first started working, I drove teams. I raised crops a while and farmed. Then. I left the country and ccnie to town. and got up to be a quarry man for years. Then I quit that and went to driving teams for the Merchant Transfer Company for years. Then I quit that and run on the road~

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5. the Mountain--~for four years. Then~ I taken a coal chute on the Rock Is1an~ and run it for four years. Then. I q~xit and went to working as an all- rour3.d man in the shop. I stayed with them about nine years. Then I taken dom in the shape that I am now~ I have been out here to this hospital for twenty.i four years going on twenty five Been down so that I could.n t hit a lick of work for twenty-i five years. I have been in this building ror eleven yearso I get along tolerable tair. As the old man says, we can just live, I think the young people are going wild and it something isn t done to head them oft pretty soon, they ll go too far. They ain t looking at what s going on up the road; they just call theirselves having a good time. They ain t looking to have nothing. They ain t looking to be nothing. They ain t looking to get nothing for the future0 Don t know what they would do if they had to work part of the time for nothing like we did. I see men working now for ten dollars a month. I could take. a fishing line and go fishing and beat that when I was young. Times is getting back almost as hard as they used to be. I at!i a Christian. I belong to $huloh Baptist Church in North Little Rock. I helped build that church. Brother Hawkins was the pastor.

[Interview with Williams, Lillie] 182 177

~ ..~- i~ ~ Interviewer jitas Irone Robert son P ra n interviewed 1411iS 11111 ~Mad1aon,j~rkanaas Ags~__~ 69 _ .~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ RI was born some place down in Mississippi. My papa s papa come ftc~ Georgia. He had a tar kiln; he cut splintera put thm on it. It would ~nok blackest ~noke and drip for a week. He used lt to grease the hubs of ths ~agona. We drunk pine tar tea for coughe. He split rails, made boards and shingles all winter. He had a draw-knife, a mall and wedgea to 1L80 In hie work. He learned that where he come from in Georgia. He sold boarde, p4la ~ Inge when I can recollecte. Grandma made tallow candles for everybody on our place in the tall when they killed the tiret yearling. They cooked up beewax when they robbed beea. when I was a child I picked up pine knote ~or torches to quilt and. knit by. We raiaed everything we lived on. I pulled sage gra~a to cure for bro na Grandpa planted some broom corn and we swept the yards and lots with brooms made out of brush. Grandma kept a barrel to make locust and persiimnon beer in. We dried apples and peaches ail sumner and put chinaberry seed mongst them to keep out worms, If we rode to church, it was in a steer wagon (ox wagon) Our oxen named &tck, Brandy Barley. Grandma rai sed m two more girls and a boy. lLama worked out ~ Our pa died. Mama worked mongat the white folks. ~ andma was old tiz~y. She zi~de our dresses to pick cotton in every sw~r. They was hot and stubby. They looked pretty. We was proud of them. Mama washed and irond.

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2. 1 ~) .~ ~ She kept us clean, too. Grandma made US card and apin. I never could learn to spin but I waa a good. knitter. I could reel. I did love to hear it crack. That waa a cut. We had a winding blade. We would fill the quills for our grandma to weave Grandma was mighty quiet and particular. She come from Kenturkey. We all ploughed. I ve ploughed and ploughed. WI had three little children to raise and now I have nine grandchildren. I got five here now to look after when their mother is out at work. I have worked. We farmed in. 1923 up till 1951 and got this house paid out. (Fairly good squareiboxed, unpainted house-ed.) My mother in..law was sold in Aberdeen, Mississippi on a tall stump. She clam up a ladder. Her ma was at the sale and said she was awful uneasy. But she was sold to folks dosa by. She could go to see her. RFreedcin come on. The colored folks slip about from place to place and whisper, We goiner be set free. I think my mama left at freedom and ccme to twenty or twenty-4wo miles from Oxtord, Mississippi. I don t know where I was born. But in Mississippi someiiheres. There is scmething wrong about the way we are doing sa~nehow. It is front hand to mouth. We buys too many paper sacks. They say work is hard to get One thing now didn t used to be you have to show the money before you can buy a thing. Seem like we all gone money crazy. Automobiles and silk stockings done ruined us all. White folks ought to straighten this out.

[Interview with Williams, Mary] 184 179

Interviewer Person interviewed A~e ~ I8 ?2 My tather was a slavery man two and one~..ha1f miles from Somer ville, ~nnessee. Colonel RiVer owne d him. r~i1e Rivera was papa s naine, He went to wara His job was hauling food to the soldiers, He lay out in the woods getting to his soldiers with provisions. He d rtin hide under the feed wagon from the shot~ Him and old master would be together sometimes, His master died, or was hurt and died after the War a long while. He said his master was good to him all t line The y had to work hard. He raised one boy and me. Miss Irene Robertson ~ - ~- Mary ~ Clarendon~ ~k!n~.s~aS1 ~ - - _~~ght~ color ~ ~ #677~A I ;~9

Ex-slave - herbs. "Hant" experiences. 185 180

~&i~M~ . . Little Rock District ~ Naine of Interviewer Irene Robertson Subj ect ~ -~ ~ - ~ ~:~1~:!!~ ~ Story ~ Inforinction (If not enough space on this page add p~go) Mary Williams mother s name was Mariah and before she married her master forced herto go wrong and she had a son by him. They all called him Jim Rob. He was a mulatta. Then Mariah married Williams on General Garretts farm. The Rob Ro~farm and the Garrett farm joined. Mary was born at Rob Roy, Arkansas ne~r Humphrey. ~ry s~id the master darried her mother and father after her mother was stood up on a stump and. auctioned~off. Her mother was e. house girl. Soon there were rumors of freedom but their family lived on where they were0 Her father said when he was a boy he attended the draw bars and met the old master to get a ride up behind hirn. Once when her father was real small he was eating biscuit with a hole in it made by a grown person stickingfiriger down in it, then fill the hole with molasseso That was a rarity they had just cooked molasses. He was sitting in front of the fire place. Big White Bobby stuck his nose and mouth to take a bite of his bread. He picked the cat up and threw it in the fire. The cat ran out, smutty, just. flying. The old mi st res s ca~me in the re and got aft e r him about throwing the o at in the fire. This inforiration given by ~Ma~y ~ ~ Place of residence Hazen~Arkan~aa. Occu~tion ~--~----- ~. FieldWorker _~Age 69.

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~2- 181 Oris time when my father was going to ~e my mother . Before they got married, across the field. He had a bag of potatoee. He felt something, felt like s orne one had caught his bag and was pulling him back. He was ~nich off a n~n and thought he could whip nearly every body around but he was t oo scared to run and c ouldn t hardly get away. ~ . ~ .~ Mary s mother, 1~riah two children had been tone off. They were coming in on the boat some time in the night . The master sent two of the big boys down to build a fire andi~.it at the landing till they cames They went in the wagon. There was an old empty hous~ up on the hill. So they went up there and built a fire end put their quilts down for pallets by the fire place. They heard hante outside, they peeped out the log cracks. They saw something white out there all the doors were buttoned and propped. When the boat caine it blew and blew. The master wondered what in the world was the matt e r d own t he r e ~ The capt ian said he hat e d t o put t hem out and nobody to meet them. It was after midnight. So some of the boat crew built them a fire and next morning when they got up on the hill they noticed somebody asleep as they peeped thro~gh the cracks and called them. Saw their wagon and knew it too. They said they was ~fraid of them hante around the house, too afraid to go down to the boat landing i.f they did hear the boat. 1-~nts can t be seen in day~ t~ine only b~~people what born with veils over their faces.* Her fathe r was going to mill ~to have corn ground. It was befors day light. He was driving an ox wagon.

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-.3 In front of him he saw a sweet maple limb moving up and down over the road in front of him. He went on and the ox butted and kicked at it and it followed them nearly to the mill. It sounded like somCbody crying. it turned and went backstill crying. Her father said there wer hante up in the tree and cut the limb off and followed him carrying it between themselves so he couldn t . see what they looked like. It is a sign of death for a hoot owl to corne hollow in your yard. ... . s.. .* . . . ..

[Interview with Williams, Mary] 188 183

Interviewer Mrs.Bernice Bowden. Person lntervi wed MarjWllliaxiis ~ ~ North Hickory, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Age 82 Yes mata, I sure would be glad to talk to you bout slavery times0 I can eure tell about it I certainly can, lady. I am so proud bcut ray white folks cause they learned rue how to work and tell the truth. I had a good master and mistress. Ye$ rn, I sure did. I was oorned in middle Georgia and I just love the name of Georgia. I was the second born of leven children and they is all dead cept me ~ I m the only one left to tell the tale. Then the ginnin started I was always glad cause I could ride the crank they had the mules hitched to. And then. after the cotton was ginned they took it to th~ press and you could hear that screw go z~m ra~m and dreckly that block and tickle come down. Y88 mata, I sure did have good times. You ain t never seen a spinnin wheel has you? Well, I used to card and spin. I never did weave but I hope dye the haxiks. They weaved it into cloth and called it muslin. t, I can member all I v;ant to bout the war. I member when the Yankees corne through Georgia. I walked out in the yard with em and fly white people just as scared of em as they could be. I heered the horses feet, then the drums, and then bout twenty~five or thirty bugles. I was so ~azed when the Yankees come. I heered their songs but I coul dxi t member em.

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2.. 184 One thing I member je st as ~e11 as if twas thi s raornin That was the day young master Henry Lee went off to war. ~1isba Pearrrian hired him to go and told him that when the war ceasted he would ~1ve him two or three darkies and let him marry his daughter. Young master Henry (he was just eighteen) he say he goin to take old Lincoln the fir8t thins and ~win~ him to a limb and let him play around awhile and then shoot his head off. 3ut I member the morriin~ old mistress got a letter that told how young master Henry was in a pit with the soldiers and they begged him not to stick his head up but he did anyway and they shot it off. Old mistress jest cry so. One thing I know, thoYankees took a lot of things. I member they took Mrs. Fuller to the well and said they soin hang her by the thumbs ~ but they just done it for mischievous you know. They didn t take nothin from my white people cept some chickens and a hog, and cut down the harns. They put the old rooster in the sack and he went to scjuawkin so they took him out and wrung his neck. My white people used to carry me with em anywhere they ~o. That s how come I learn so much. I sure did learn a heap when I was small. I member the first time my old mistress and my young mistress carried me to church. When the preacher ~ot through preachin (he was a big fine lookin man with white gray hair) he come down from the pulpit and say Come to nie, you sinners, poor and needy. And he told what J~esus said to Nicodenius how he must be born again. I wanted to go to the mourners bench so bad, but old mistress wouldn t let me. When I got horns I told my mother to borned me again. You see I was jest little and didn t know no better.

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~. 185 I never seen no Ku Klux but I could have, They never bothered us but they whipped the shirttails off some of em. some darkies is the meanest things God ever put breath in. Most generally the white folks was good to their darkies. My young master used to sneak out his Blue Back Speller and learned my father how to read, and after the war he tau~1it school. He started me off and then a teacher from the North corne down and taught i.~a. I ve done pitty near every kind a work there is to do. There Is some few white people here can identify nie. I most always work for ristocratie people. It seems that was just my luck. t I don t think of thi s he re younger ~enerat ion. They ain t nothin to em. They say to nie Why don t you have your hair straightened but I say I ve got alone this far without p&inted jaws and straight hair. And I ain t goin wear my dresses up to my knees or trail em in the mud, either. I been married four times and every one of em is dead and buried, My las husband was in the ~panish-knerican War and now I gets Ei pension. Yes m it sure does help. I UI only had two children is all I is had. They is both dead and when God took my last one, I thought he wasn t jest but I see now God knows what s best ~ause if I had my grandchildren now I d sure beat em I d lovo em, but I sure wouldn t let em run around. The biggest part of these niggers puts their mistakes on the white folks. It s easier to do right than wrong cause ri~ght whips wrong every time into a frazzles

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40 I don t read much now since my eyes ain t so good but tell me whatever become of Teddy Roosevelt? I m sorry I can t offer you no dirmer but I m just cookin myself some peas. Well, lady, I sure am glad you come. I jest knew the Lord was ~oint send somebody for nie to talk to. I loves to talk so well. Good bye and corne back again soraet une .

[Interview with Williams, Mary] 192 187

#710 j 8? Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person interviewed MaryWilliams 409 Hickory, Pine Bluff, . rkan~as ~e84 ~ Yes ma am, I know all about slavery. I ll be eighty~$our the twi~n.ty.~ fifth of this month. I was born in 1855. My mother had eleven children and they all said I could remember the best of a11~ I m the second o1c1est~ And they all dead but me. I used to spin and on Friday I d set aside my wheel and on Saturday morn1n~ we d sweep yards0 And Saturday even.in~ was our ho11day~ I belonged to the I~e$ and my white folks was good to rae. I was the aptest one among tem,so they d give ue a basket and a ginger cake and. I d ~o to the Presly s after sc~uabs0 They d be just nine days old cause they said if they ~.ias any older they d be tough. Now, when the Yankee ~ corne through ever body was up in the house cept me~ I was out in the yard with the Yankees. No, I wasn t scared of em~-. I had better sense. This is all the joyment I have now is to think back in. slavery t line s0 In slavery times white folks used to carry me to church. They d carry me to church in preference to anybody else. WLen they d sing I d be ~o happy I d hop and skip. I m one of the stewardess sisters of St. John s Methodist Church. We takes care of the sacrement table, I believe in visions0 I m a great revisionist. I don t have to be asleep either. Now if I see a vision of a black snake, it s a 8i~i

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I got a black enemy. And if lt s a li~1it colored snake, it e a sign I got a white enertly. ~nd if it s a kinda of a yellow snake, I got a enemy is a yellow nig~era Now, here s a true si~ of death. If brou dream of seem nakethiess, somebody sure soin to die in your family or maybe your neighborst~ In slavery times they mostly wove their own dresses. Wove goods called rriu.slin. nd they wore bonne t s in slavery time s made out of bull ru sh grass. Called em bull rush bonnets, I knowed how to weave but they had ~e spiimin all the tinie0 Pire always worked for the ristocrat white people.a~~lawyers, doctors, and bankers, Mr~ Prank Head was cashier of that old I~rchant and Planters Bank. He was a northern man. Oh, from away up North~ When I cooked, the greatest trouble I had was ~ettin ~ way. Nobody wanted me to leave0 And I tell you those northern ladies wanted to call me Mrs. Williams. I d say, Don t do that. You know these southern people don t like that~don t bel ieve in that . ~.it you know she would call me Miss Mary. But I said, Don t do that. I m just an old darky and can t spress myself but I try to d.o what s right and I think that s the reason the Lord has let me live so long. Interviewer s Comment Husband was a soldier in the Spanish-Ar~erican War ~nd she receives a pension. 2~

[Interview with Williams, Rosena Hunt] 194 189

~)ki (U~s Interviewer Misa IreneRobertaon ?Or Ofl ifltel VieWOd Rosena Hunt Williams - ~ Li?. ., Brinkley, Ai~kansas ~ ~ My mother was Arnanda McVey. She was born two years, six months after freedoen in Corinth, Mississippi. My rather was born in slavery. Grandma lived with us at her death. Her naine was a~mily MeVey. She was sold in her girThood days. Uncle George was sold to a man lu the settlement named Lee, His name was Joe Lee (Lea?). Another of my uncles was sold to a man named Washington~. His name was George Washington. They were sold at different tinies, Being sold was their biggest dread. Some of them wanted to be sold trust1n~ to be treated better. Mother and grandma didn t have a hard time like xuy father said he come up under. Ee said he was brought up hard, He was raised (reared) at 3~aok son, Tennessee, He was never sold. Master Alf Hunt owned him and his young master, Willie Hunt, inherited him. He said they never put him in the field till ha was twelve years old. He started ploughing a third part of a day. A girl about crown and another boy a little older took turns to do a buck s (a grown man) work. They was lotted of a certain tract and if it stay clear a certain time to get it all done. He said they got whooped and half fed. When the V~ar was on, his white folks had to half feed their own selves. He talked like if the War had lasted much longer it would been a famine in the land. He hit this world in time to have a hard time of it. After freedom was worse time in his life.

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In August when the crops was laid by Master Hunt house at one o clock by so many taps of the Th.rxn bell. big tree. He read a paper from his side porch telling been free several month s then and idn t a one ot them called them to the It hung in a great them they free, They know it. 2. ~.& ~

[Interview with Williams, William Ball (Soldier) III] 196 191

30822 . ~ ~ 191 Interviewer Miss Irene, Robrts~p~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Person interviewed Soldier ~ ~I1~8~-- Age~~~j~ w name is William BaU Williams t11. I was born in Greensburg. My owners was Robert and Mary Ball. They had four children I knowd~ Old man Ball bought ma and two children for one thousand five hundred dollars. I never was solde I W~11t to live to be a hundred years old, I m nthety~ eight years old now. Ma was Margarett Ball ~ Pa was ~iilLisxa Anderson, Ma was a cook and pa a field hand. They whooped a plenty on the place where I come up, 8 ne of em run off0 Some they tied to a trea, Bob Ball didn t use no dogs, V~hen they got starved out they d come outen the woods, Of course they would. Bob Ball raised fine tobaoeo, fine Negroe8, fine horses. He made us go to church, Four or five of us would walk to the white folks Baptist church. The master and his family rode. It was a good piece, We had dances in the cabins every once in a while. We dance more in winter time 80 We could turn a pot dowii in the door to drown out the xioi8e, We had plenty plain grab to eat. ~ n ~ run away to Loui sville t o j ~ ins the Yankees one day. T was soared to death all the time. They put us in front to shield themselves. They said they was fighting Cor us-..4or our freedom. Piles of them was killed. I got a fie sh wound. I m scarred up soins ~ We got plenty to eat I was in two or three hot battles, I wanted to quit but they would catch them and shoot them if they left. I didn t know how to get out and get away.

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2, :19,2 I rm~atered out at. Yaoksouvilla FLorida and walked every step of the way back, ahen I got back it was fall of the year. My folks still at my master s . ~: ~ on pi oket giw.rd at 3aoksonville Florida. We fought a little at Pezisacola, Florida. . flit the end of th War provis ions got mighty scaree, If we ditha t have enough t o eat we took it They hadn t raised nothing to eat the la8t two years~ Before I got back to Kentucky the Ku ~ ux was about a~d it was hard to get enough to eat to keep traveling on. I was scared nearly to death all the time. I m not in favor of war. I didn t stay on with the master but my folks lived on. They didn t want to hire Negro soldiers~ I traveled about hunting a good place and got to Osceola, Arkansas, I been here in Forrest City twenty ard years. The best people in the world live in Arkansas, . . . flI?m going to try to go to the Yankee Reunion. They sent me a big letter (invitation). They going to send ins a ticket and pay all my expenses. It is at Gettysburg. It is from Tune 29th to July 6th. My grandson is going to take care of me. ni get one hundred dollars a month pension. It keeps us mighty well. I want to live to be a hundred years old.

[Interview with Williamson, Anna] 198 193

I ~ ~ ~ ~ r:.: ~j ~4 t ~ J~ a ~ ~ ~ Interviewer . Mia~ Irene Robertson Person interviewed AnnaW11iiamson,Ho11~y 9r?ve~,~ Arkansas AgeBetween 75 and 80 Grandma ccrriui from North Carolina. Her master was Rodes Herndon, then Cager Booker. He owned my marna. My nai~ Is Anna Booker. I married Wee WllliaIn8on0 My papa s master was Calvin fie. He come froxa Virginia. Me and Bert Winfree (white) raised together close to Somerville1 Tennessee. Grandma and grandpa was named Maria and Allen. Her master was Rodes Herndon. I was fourth to the oldest ot mat~m s children. She give me to ~randina. That who raised me. Marna took to the field after freedom. Mama had seven or eight children. Mama muster been a pretty big sorter woman, when she young. A ridin boss went to whoopin her once and she tore every rag clothes he had on offen him. I heard em say he went home strip start naked. I think they said he ~ot turned oi~f or quit, one. When mama was in slavery she had three girl babies and lone wid them she nursed some of the white babies. She cooked some but wasn t the regular white folks cook. Another black woman was the regular cook. I heard her say she was a field hand mostly dunn slavery. Folks was tree two or three years tore they knowed it. Nobody told WI used to have to go up the road to get milk for the old mistre8s, She boxed my ears., That vthen I was a child reckly after the war.

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2. 194. They had a latch and a hart bar croas the door. I never waa out but once after dark. I never seen no Ku Klux. My folks didn t know they waa free. Dr. Washington lived in Somerville, Tennea~ee and brought us to Arkansas to farm. He owned acres and acres of land here I was grown and had a house full of children. I got five living now. I don t vote. I don t know who to vote for. I would vote for the worst kinder officers maybe and 1 wouldn t wanter make times harder on us all an they is. I been cookin and farrnin all my life Now I get $10 a month from the Sociable Welfare. I used to pick up chip8 at Mrs. Wiliforms ~ pick up a big cotton basket piled up tore I quit. I seen the Yankees, they camped at the fair grounds. I thought they wore the prittiest clothes and the brass buttons 80 pretty on the blue suits. I hear ein beat the drum. I go peep out when they COTIIO by. My old mistress slapped me till my eye wa~ red cause one day I says t Ai t them men pretty? They camped at what is now the Pair Grounds at Somerville, Tennessee, at sorter rig~it of town. My papa was a ox driver, That is all he done bout. Seem like there was haulin to be done all the time. The folks used to be heap better than they is now. Some of the masters was mean to the slaves but they mortally had plenty to eat and wear and a house to live in. Some of the houses was sorry and the snow come in the cracks but we had big fire places and plenty wood to cook and keep warm by. The children all wore flannel clothes then to keep em warm. They raised sheep.

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30 195 It i8 a shame what folks do now. Thoae young darky girls marries a boy and they get tired each other. They quit. They ain t got no 3i~1 of divorceZ Cour8e they ain t never been married~ They jes take up and live together, then they both go on livin with some other man an wcman. It ain t r1ght~ Folks ain t good like they used to be, We old folks ain t got no use for such dom s. They done too smart to be told by Us old folks. I do best I can an be good as I knows how to be. The times is fine as I ever seen in my life. I wish I was young and strong. I wouldn t ask nobody for sistance. Tey ain t nuthin wrong wid. this yftar s crop as I sees. Times is fine.

[Interview with Williamson, Callie Halsey] 201 196

)~ :~j~p;(, Interviewer ~ Irene Robertson Person interviewed Cailielialso7Willizmison, Biscoe~ Arkansas L~e~ ~ _ QQ ~ tt~other was born in ~abama during slavery. Her name was Levisa 1~alsey. Neither of my parents were sold. Mother was tranferred (trans~ ferred) to her young mistress0 She had iio children aiid still lived in the home with h~r people. Her mother, Exnaline, was the cook, Liaster Bradford owned graudr~iother and grandfather both and ray own father ail Mother was the oldest and only child. I don t knOW whether they was mean to ail the slaves or not. Seems they were not to my folks. The old man died sometime before freedom. The young master went to get a overseer. He brought a new nan to take his own Place. He whooped ~randma and auntie and cut ~r~uidm& s long hair off with his pocket-4cnite. fl~~~jn:; that time ~randpa slip up on the house top arid take some boards off. Grandma would sit up in her bed and knit by moonIi~ht through the hole. :~ie h~d to put the boards back. ~ihe had to work in the field in day~ t me, ~ring the ~Mr they were scared nearly to death of the soldiers ~md would i~uii dov~n in their rnaster!s big orchard artd hide in t1~e tall broom sage. They rode her young master on a rail ~nd killed him. A drove of soldiers come by and stopped. They said, ~ ~ can you ride a young horse? They Gathered hin and took him out and brought him in the yard. He died. They hurt him and scared liira to death. ~ i~.* ~i~:YU

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2. ~ Another train come and loaded up all the slaves and somehow when. freedom come on, my Thlks was here at Arkadeiphia. They said they lived in fear of the soldiers all the time, Mother said a woman corne first and. stuck a flag out a upstairs window and the Yankees shot the guns off and sortie of t~ern made talks on freedom to the Negroes and white folks0 They seen that at Arkadelphia0 Maxiia, grandma, and grandpa started on their way back home fol1owin~ soldier camps. They never ~ot back to their hones. They never did like the Yankees and grieved about the way they done their young master. He was like one of my father s own children. They seen hard times after freedom0 It was hard to live and they was used to work but they had a good living. They had to die in Arkansas0 How come I m here now.

[Interview with Willis, Charlotte] 203 198

~1 I ~ . L:IL ~ : 1S8 Interviewer Misa Irene Robertson Person interviewed Charlotte Willis, $~spn,, Arkansas ~ Age 63 - ~ ~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ Grandpa said he walked every step of the way from old Virginia to Mississippi. They camped at night, cooked and ted them.. They didn t eat no more till they camped next night. They was walked in. a peart pace and the guards and traders rode. They stop every now and then for to be cried off and some more be took on. Grandpa said he didn t w&riter be sold but they never ax em no dif.~ tuzence Sold em and took e~ right along. They better keep their feelings hid, for them traders was seine kind er stock these cattle men is today judging from the way he say it was then. Grandpa loved Virginia long as he have breath In him. We used to sing Old Virginia nigger say he love hot mu~sh; Alabama nigger say, good God nigger, hush. (She sang it very fast and in a fashion Negroes only can do-.sed. ) He wore a big straw hat and d get up and tan us out the way. Graxi&na was brought from South Carolina by the Willises to Misai ssippi. I heard her say her and him was made to jump over the bro a. Called that getting ~$331 married. Grandpa said that was the way ~hite folks had of showing off the couples. Then it would be nounced from the big house steps they was man and wife. Scmetimes more than two be nounced at the gatherin . They had good t iraas sometime s. They talked bout corn. shuckings corn shellings, cotton traumpin s, C packing cotton. in. wagon beds by walking on it over and over, she said -ed. ) an~d dances.

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14~ 2. ~ Mother said she nver waa sold. Sh.e b long to the Wllllsea in Miaeia8ippi. e1 reckon I sure do m6~Dber8 my grandpa and grandma bof. Seventeen of us all lived at Grandpa lash Hoilivy a hcsi~. He was paying on it and died. The house have three rooms in it. In the tall ot the year grendtua took aU. the rancid grease and skins and get the drippings from the ash hopper and make soap nou~h to do er till someti~ next year. She made it In the iron washpot. He raised meat to do us till sometime next year. We never run short on nothing to We never had but bout two dresses at the ea~ time. Mien I com on, dresses was scarce. If we tore our dresses, we wore patches. We was sorter shamed to have our dresse8 patched up. I heard em say grandpa s houae was gtiarded to keep off the Ku Kiuck one night. They come aU right nou~gh bat went to another house. They started whooping, The guards left gr~dpat ~ house and went dom there and shot into them. Scnie of them was killed and the horses um off, Some run off quick and got oi~t the way. I never caught on to what they guarded grandpa for0 *1 had one girl baby what died. I been married once in my life. We rents our house. I never plied to the Welfare yit. We been faming my enduring life. Still taiming; I says we is, Old i~olks give out and can t run on wid the work. Young folks no count and works to sorter git by their own selfs. Way I see it. We got so tar off the track and can t git back. Starve fore we git back like we used to be. We used to git credit. Now there ain t no place to git it. We down and can t git up. Way I sees it, Young generation is so uneasy, ain t still a miunte. They wanter be going all the time. They don t marry; they goes lives together. Then they qjiita and take up wid somebody else. I t know what make em do thater way. That the way the right young ones doing now.

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3. 200 My pa looked on ~ ~ten I was three days old and left US. I ain t neyer seen him since.

[Interview with Wilson, Ella] 206 201

Interviewer Samuel S. Ta~or Person interviewed Ella Wilson 161 . McGowan Street, Little Rock, Arkansas ge~~ ~ I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. I don t renember the raonth0 B~t when the Civil War ceased I was here then and sixteen years old. I m a hundred years old0 Some folks tries to make out like it ain t so~ ~.it I reckon I oughter knowa The white folks moved out from Georgia and went to Louisiana. I was raised in Louisiana, but I was born in Georgia, I have had several people c~oun~bin up my age and they all say I is a hundred years old. I had eight children. All of them are free born0 Four of them died ~rhen they were babies0 I lost one just a few days ago. I had such a hard time in slavery. Them white folks was slashing me and whipping me and putting me in the buck, till I don t want to hear nothin about it0 An old man named Dr. Polk got a dime from r~ie and said it was for the Old Age Pension0 He lived in Magnolia, Arkansas, They ran him out of 1~agnolia for ruining a colored girl and I don t know where he is now. I know he got ten cents from ~. The first work I ever did was nursing the white chillren, My old mis called me In the house and told me that she wanted me to take care of her children snd from then till freedom came, I stayed in the house nursing, I had to get up every morning at five when the cook got up and make the coffee and then I had to go in the dining.~room and set the tables # ?42 2():t

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2. Then I served breakfast. Thon I went into the house and cleaned it up.~ Then I tended to the white children and served the other raeals during the days I never did work In the fields much. My old mars said I was too damned slow, They carried ras out to the field one evening, He never did show me nor tell rae how to handle it and when I found myself, he had knocked rae down0 hen I ~ot up, he didn t tell me what to do, but when I picked up my things and started droppin the seeds ag in, he picked up a pine root and killed ins off with it. ~4hen I come to, he took xi~e up to the house and told his wife he didn t want me into the fields becaase I was too damned slow, My mars used to throw ins in a buek and whip me~ He would put roy hands together and tie them. Then he would atrip rae naked. Then he would make me squat down0 Then he would run a stick through. behind my knees and in front of my elbows. My knees was up against my ches~0 My hands was tied together just in front of my shins0 The stick between my arms and my knees held. rie in a squat0 That s what they called a buck0 You could~stamd up an you couldn t git your feet out0 You couidn1t do nothin but just squat there and take what he put on you. You couldn t move no way at alle LIUSt try to. You just fall over on one side and have to stay there till you turned over by h irn~ tlIe would whip ins on one side till that was sore and lull of blood and then. he would ~iiip me on the other s ide t ill that was all tore up0 I got a scar big as the place my old mis hit rae. She took a bull whip once~ the bull whip had a piece of iron in the handle of it-~ and she got raad0 She was so mad she took the whip and hit me over the head with the butt end of it, and the blood flew. It ran all down ny back and dripped off ray heels. &~t I wasn t dassent to stop to do nothin about lt. Old ugly thing

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3. )(~) The devil s got her right nowU They never rubbed no salt nor nothin in your back, They didn t need to~ When the war come, they made him serve, He would go there and. run away and come back home One day after he had been took away and had come back, he wa~ settin down talkin to old n1~i$ and I was huddled up in the corner listenin , and. I heered him tell her, Tain t no use to do all them things. The aiggers 11 soon be free And she said, I U be dead before that happens, I hope. ~Xnd she died just one year before the slaves was freed, They was a mean couple. Old mars used to strip my sister naked and make her lay down, and he would lift up a fence ra il and lay it down on her neck. Then he d whip her t ill $he was bloody. She dn t go t away becau se the rail held her head down. If she squirmed and tried to git looae, the rail would choke her. Her hands was tied behind her. And there wasn t nothin to do but jus lay there and take it0 I ani almost a stranger here in Little Rock, My father was named Lewis Hogan and I had. one sister named Tina and one named Harriet, His white folks what he lived with was Mrs. Thomas. He was a carriage driver for her. Pleas Collier bought hirn from her and took him to Louisiana. All the people on my mother s side was left in Georgia. My grandmother s name was Rachel. Her white folks she lived with was named Dardens. They all lived in Atlanta, Georgia. I reniember the train we got on when we left Georgia. O~ andma Rachel had one daughter narred Siney. Siney had a son named Billie and a sister named Louise. And my grandmother was free when I first got big enou.gh to know myself. I don t know how come she was free, That was a long time before the war. The part of Georgia we lived in was where chestnuts grow,

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4. 2(11 but they wasn t no chinkapins, All my grandmother~ s people 8tayed in Atlanta, and they were living at the time I left there~ My mother s name wa~ Dinah Hogans and my father s nair~ was LeWia Ho~an8. I don t know where they were borned. Rit when I knowed him, they was in Georgia. My mother s mars bought my father cause my mother heard that Collier was soin to break up and go to LouislanaQ My father told his mars that if he (Collier) broke up and left, he never would be no more good to hirn. Then my mother found out what he said to Collier, so she told her old mist if Collier left, she never would do her no more good. You see, my mother was give to ~ira. Collier when old Darden who was 1~1rs. Collier s father died0 So Collier bought my father. Collier kept us all till we all got tree. White folks corne to ins sometimes about all that, You Jus oughter hear me answer theme I tells them about it just like I would colored folks0 t, t Them your teeth in your ~ Whose you think they Is? Suttinly they re my teeth0 t Am t you s orry you fr What I m gain to be sorry for? I ain t no fool, How old is you? nI tells them, Some of em want to argue with me and say I am t that old. Some of em say, the Lawd sure has blessed Sure he s ble ssed me t I know that? I t ~ ~ en ein run away from . There was a white man that 1 ived close to us who had just one slave and he couldn t keep him out the woods to save his soul. The white man was nsined Jim Sales and the colored boy was named~.shucks I an t reriember h is naine ~it I know ~Tim ~3ale s uldn t keep that nigger out the woods nohow,

210 205

5 . I was freed endurin the CiVil War. We was In at dinner and my old mars had been. to town. Old man Pleas Collier, our niean mars, called my daddy out and then he said, All you cane out here. I said. to myself, I wonder what e s a coin to do to my daddy, and I ~1 ipped into the front room and listened, And he said, All of you come. Then I went out too, And he unrolled the Government paper he had In his hand and read lt and told us lt meant that all of us was free1 Dldn t tell us we was free as he was ~ Then he said the Government a go ing t o send you corne money to I ive on. ait the Government never did do it, I never did see nobody that got it, Did you? They didn t give me nothin and they didn t give my father nothin . They just sot us free and turned us loose naked. ~Right after they got through reading the papers and told us we was free, my daddy took me to the field and put ri~ to work, I d been workin in the house before that. Then they wasn t payin nob dy nothin , They just hired people to work on halves, That was the first year. ~it we didn t get no half0 ~e didn t git nothin ~ ~Tust time we got our crop laid by, the white man run us off and we didn t get nothin . We had a fine crop too. We hadn t done nothin to him. He just wanted ail the crop for hisseif and he run us off, That s all. ~Well, after that my daddy took and hired me out up here in Arkansas, He hired me out with some old poor white trash. We was livin then in Loui s lana wit1~ a old white man named Mr. &nlth. I couldzi t tell what part of Louisiana it was no more than it was down there close to Homer, about a mile from Homer. My mother died and my father corr~ and got me and took ~ home to take care of the chIlIen.

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u. I have been married twice, I married first time down there within four miles of Homer. I was ~narried to my first husband a number o~ year8a His naine was Wesley Wilson0 We had eight children. My second husband wae named Lee ~omepin or others I niarried hirn on Thursday night and he left on Monday niorning0 I guess he. r~rust have been taking the white folks things and had to clear out0 His name was Lee Hardy. That is what his nerne was0 I didn t figure he stayed with nie long enough for rie to take his names That nigger didn t look right to me nohow. He just married nie cause he thought I was a working woman and would give hirn money. He asked nie for money once but I didn t give lin none. That I m goin to give im money for? That s what I d like to know0 After my first husband died, I cooked and went on for them white folks0 That was the only thing I could do. I was cooking before he died. I can t do no work now0 I ain t worked for more than twenty years0 I ain t done no work since I left Magnolia. I belong to the Collins Street Baptist Church~Nichols church. I don t git no pension. I don t git nothin . I been down to see if I could git it but they ain t give ma nothin ylt, I m goin down ag in when I can git somebody to carry xne,~ Interviewer s Comment ~lla Wilson insists that she is one hundred years old and that she was born sixteen years before freedom. The two statements conflict. From her appearance and manner, either might be true.

[Interview with Wilson, Robert] 212 207

I ~i ~ t~J j Interviewer - )43?8. Bernice Bowden Person interviewed RobertWilson 811 West Pullen Street, Pine B1U~f, Arkansas Age~9~ My name is Robert Wilson. 1 was born in Halifax County, Virginia. How old em I? Accordin to my recollection I was twenty~three years old beTh the war started. Old master tole nie how old I was. l in a hundred and one now. Yes m I knows I sin. Yes m I been sold. They put u.s up on the auction block jest like we was a hoss. They put me up and white man ax Who want to buy this y? One man say ten dollars and then they n~n it up to a hundred. And they buy a girl to match you and raise you up together. When you want to ~et married you jump over the broc~atick. I used to weigh one hundred and fifty-~six pounds and a he . f standin we iglit I could pick four a~ad five hundred pounds of cotton in a day. When the Yankees come, old xna8ter n~ake us boys take the sack of money and hide it in the bi~ pond. Yes m, we drove the bi~g~gy right in the water. Dunn the time of the war I used to ride lone side of the Yankees, They give me a blue coat with brass buttons and a blue cap and brass-.toed boots. I usel to saddle and curry the hoases. I member Compeny Fifth and Sixth. They tole us the war was to make things better. We didn t know we was free till bout six months after the war was over. I didn t care whether I was free or not.

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2 208 ~ Bout alavsry ~ w. ., I thinke like this. I think they fared better than. They didn t hare to worry bout apeneea. We had plenty chicken and evei~ythin~ Nowdaya when you pay the rent you am t got nothin left to buy somethin to eat. Yes m, I been to achool. I ae a preacher (showing me hie certificate of ordination). I lives close to the Lord. The Lord done left me here foi a pirpose. willen W used to pray we put our heads under the wash pot to keep old master from hearin us. Old master make us ~t the chillun to bed t dark. I member one song he make us sing ~ Th~wa in Mobile, down In Mobile k How I love dat pretty yellow gal, She rock to suit me ~ Down in Mobile, down in Mobile. You member when Grant took the fort at Viekeburg? I member he and that general on the ihite hoes yes m, General lee, they eat dinner together and then after dinner they go to figh . Oh Lordl Don t talk about them Ku Klux. Cose I believes in spirits. Don t you? leU you ain t never been skeered. After freed i my folks reti.tgeed from Virginia to Tenness e so I went to Memphis. We got things frc~ the Bureau. Yea, Lord I had everything I wanted. I wouldn t care 1f that time would come back now. t Did you ever vote? Me? Yes m I voted. Never had no trouble tall. I voted for Garfield. I member when Garfield was shot. I was setttn out in the yard. The moon was in the clips. li never to rget .

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3. 209 RI think the oo1o~sd tOlkB should bave a legal i~1ght to vote, cause 1f ever they come another war ~ now listen ~ them darkies a1i~ t never goin to France again. The nigger ain t got no country . this is white man s town. . What I been dom since the war? Well, I m a good cook. When I puts on the white apron, I knows what to do. Then I preaches. The Lord done revealed things to me. ~ I 11 tell you bout thi 8 ~O11fl~e~ generat ion. They I s goin to destruction. They is riot envelopin (developing) their education, Well I done tole you all I know. Qaess I tole you bout a book, ain t I ?

[Interview with Windham, Tom] 215 210

2H) Mra. Bernice Bowden . 1 -. _ -_.- j i ~_____i z ~_.__._-_ s._.__. . -___1___.___ - -_- .- .. Toni Windham . 7~~k o~ I ~ ~iii2~Lt,~ ~sa ~ ~ ~ ~ I was twenty~one years old when the war was settled. My mother end. my grandmother kep my age up and after the death of them I knowed how to handle It myself. My old master s name was ~tler and he was pretty fair to hie darkies. He give em plenty to eat and wear. I was born and raised In Indian Territory and emigrated from there to Atlanta, Georgia when I was about twelve or thirteen. We lived right in Atlanta. I cleaned up round the house. Tes ma ni, that s what I followed, When the Yankees come to Atlanta they just forced us Into the ax~r, After I ot Into the army and got used to it, it was fun ~ just like meat and bread. Yankees treated me good. I was sorry when it broke up, When the bugle blowed we knowed our business, Sometimes the age I is now, I wish I was in It. J~ther Abraham Lincoln was our Pre3ident. I knowed the war was to free the colored folks. I ru.n away from my white folks Is how come I was In the Yankee army. I was in the artillery. That deafened me a whole lot and X lost these two ingera on my left hand - that s ai . of my joints that got broke. Before the war my white folks was good to us. I had a better time than I got now, w father and mother was sold. away from me but old mistress couldn t rest wi thout em and went and ot em back, Interviewer Person Interviewed Age92

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2. 211 They stayed right there till the7 died. Us folks wee treated ioU. I think we should have cur liberty ow~se us ain t hogs or horses ~ us la human flesh. Then I was with the Yankees, I done some Ilvin . I went to aohool two months in my life. I should a gone longer but I found ~~iere I could get next to a dollar so I quit. If I had education now lt might a done me somia good. I used to be in a brasa band. I like a brass band don t make no differenee where I hear it. 0There was one song we played when I was in the army. It waa; ~Baaalin ~ acob, t weep ~eepin Mary, don t weep. Eetore I d be a slave I d be burled In my grave, Go home to my father and be saved. The Rebels was hot after us then. Another one we used to sing waa: My old mistress prcmiaed ma When she die, she d set me free. After the war I continued to work around the ihits folka end yes ma m, I seen the Ku Klux many a tima. They bothered me sometimes but they soon let IM alOfle They was a few Yankeea about and they coma together and made th. Lu Klux stay in their place. One tima after the wer I went to Ohio and stayed three months but it was too cold for ma. Men I worked for was named Harperand as good a man as ever broke a piece of bread. *1 come back 8outh and learned how to farm. I been here in this country of Arkansas a long time. I hoped clean up this place (Pine Bluff) and make a town of lt.

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3. . tt~sd ~ I got a daughter and two sisters alive in Africa today -~ in Liberia. I went there after we waa tree. I liked lt. J~uat the thoughta of bein where ~2triat traveled ~ that a the good part ot it. They furnished na transportation to go to Lfriaa after the ~ar arid a lot of the colored folka went. I oc~e baok cause I had a lot of kin here, but I sent my daughter and two aistors there and they re alive thre today.

Ex-slave. 218 213

~)CtQ r~#~ ~~j~it~Ji1 . Pine Bluff 1~istrict FOLKLORE SUBJECTS Name of interviewer Martin Barker Subject ~ ~ Story. My master was an Indian. Lewis ~ut1er of Oklahoma. I was born and raised in Muskogee, Okia. All of marse Butlerts people were Creek Indians~ They owned a large plantation and raised vegetables. They lived in tepees, had floors and. were set on a lot and a wall boarded up around them. This was done so that they could hide the slaves they had stolen. I was twelve or thirteen years old, when the Indians had a small war. They wouldnt allowfus to fight. If we did, vie were punished. They had a place and made us work. I went to school ~io months also a little at night. Cant read nor write. I am all alone now here in America. I have a daughter in Ethiopia, teaching school, also two sisters. I served in several wars and I have been to Ethiopia. 7T~ left lonroe, La., took water, then went back by gun boat to Galveston. The Governrlent tookus over and brought us back. After the Civil war was over the Indians let the slaves go., Ton ~7ii~d~ham

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FOLKLORE SUBJECTS I had. an Indian wife and. wore Indian dress and when I went to i~ii1ford, Term. I had to send the outfit horiia to Okia. I had long hair until 1931. My Indianr~ believed in our God. in a large tent. They believed and. in Heaven and Hell. My idea of Heaven is that it is a ;7e will walk ~ Heaven just as on believe, so shall we see. The earth shall burn, and the old earth shall pass away and the new earth will be created. The saints vrill rettirn and live on, that is the ones who go away now~ The new earth is when Jesus will come to earth and reign. Every one has two spirits. One that God kills and the other an. evil spirit. I have had com~unication ~vith my wife twice since I been in Pine Bluff. Her spirit come ne at n ight ca 1 1 ing me asking whar wuz baby? That meant our daughter whut is across the water. iCy first wifes name was Aria ~uindham. My second v~ife was just part Indian. I have seen spirits of friends just as they were put away. I shore believe in ghosts, Their language is different from ours I knew my wifet ~ vo ice cause she ~ca 11e d me Tornm~,rtt. Information by Tom ~findham Place of residence 122 . Georgia St. Age 87 2. They held their in salvation and meetings daxnnat ion, holy place earth. As with God. inhimwe dead to

Apparitions. 220 215

i M&~L J : ~O88~ TO1~KLORE. SUBJECTS Naine of Interviewer Beri~ieeBowdeu _____________ ~ -~ ~ ~ Story Inforn~.tiot (If not enough space on this pages add jage.) Yes ma Ili ~ I believe in epitits ~ you got two spirite ~ one bad and one goode a~1~ when ycu die your bad spitit here on this earth. Now my mothe r come~s t o see me once in awhile at night . She been dead till her 1 nes 15 bleached, but she comes and telle~ me to b e a good boy. I always been obedient to old and young ~ She tell me to be good. and she banish from me. My graridinotkier been t o sse irie once. Old ?ather Abraham Lincoln1 I ve seen him since he been dead. too. :i: got a gun~ old ?a~ther Abraham give me right out o hie own hard ai Vicksburg. It~ goin to keep it till I die too. Yes ina m, :r: know they is spirite. ) This information given by~ TornWinctha~ J~qJ~ Place of Residence J23Miesouri St~Fine BluZ~ Ark. Oc~upation~e~ ~ ~ ~ 92 ~) ________ ..~i

[Interview with Wise, Alice] 221 216

~: ( ~~ I2~terviewer Mrs. Bombe Bowden ~ is~*r_a_*_r1Si~U ~ws~ v ~s~--i--s~s -- -wwi*i.-ap--- u ~r- .~ s ~ ~ ~z- ii m Per~oii int;erv ieuired Allee Wise - ___~ B ~U -i_s-- ~ _._. -s ~e ~u-~sa ~ ~i ~: ~!ana~e,ei1uff, Ar~kansas ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .. II ~as born in South Carollim, and I sont and got n~ age and the man sont iae 2~ age. Ee said he r~neznbored me~ He said, Ton married Marcus Wise, I know you is seventy..nine t cause Itm sevenby. four and you re older n me. W1;y, I got a boy fifly.. three years ol~ t ~1e belonged bo Daniel DraTh.~ His wife was named Maud. And x~ fathert s people ~vas named Wesley Caug1~an and his ~ifo was Catherine Caugh maui. tu ~ recollec~t hearin the folks hollerin ~ the Yankees oo~e through and sth.~iut this old oorriIield soxig t It:ai a goin aivay tomorrow floodle do, hoodle do. That s all I can rooolleot, T ~ can recollect when we move~1 from the w~tite ~ol cz, 1~r father driv a wagon end hauled lumber to Columbia fron Lexin~toxt. n ~ dont t kriovr how old I was when I o i~o here, ~r ago got away from me~ that ~ how 003fl0 I had to write hc~ae for it, but I had three ohillun when I corne to this couni~j; . I )a~ow that. IiI went; to school a little, biii~ ohiflun in that days had to work. I ~was always apt about washint and iroriint and sev~int and so if anybod~r was stopped from school I was stopped. ~ I used to set pooke~s in pants for matna~ In thoet days the~r i~reaved and made their ovix~

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2. ~Tho~j d do better if the~r bad a factory here now s Things wouldn t be sohigh. t Oh Lord, yes, I oould ica11~. I d sit up some nights and i~.it a half a soak and spin and card3 t ~, mother s boys ~ou1d oard and spin a broach ~then they wasn b dom nothin else, bi.d; now~4a~rs you oan t get ~ ~m to bring you a bucket of water. tThc~r ~a~r the~j is ~w~a1cer and~ iriser, but I say they is weaker and foo1ishex ~ That s whab I thizk You i o~r they ain t like the old folks was. Folks w ork nowada~rs and beeps their ohillun ~ ~.n sohool till th ~r re growi~i, and it don t do emi much good .. s ne of t~m,~

[Interview with Wise, Frank] 223 218

30603 Thtervlew.r 8a~iue)~ 8. Tajlor ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Person interviewed ~ Frank lias ~_io~ Victory Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Aga~~~81~ tO85~ Birth and Parents . I was born In ~irehCounty, Georgia, In 1854. 1 came to this state In 1871; I think I was about sixteen years old then. My father was named 31m Wise and my mother was naned Harriet Wise. My tather belonged to the Wiaea, and my mother to the Crawfords. They didn t live on. the same plantation. When they married, she was a Crawford. Her old master was named Jim Crawford.. I don t know how she and my father happened to meet up. Wise and Crawford had adjoining plantations. Both of them was In ~ County. My father s father was named Yacob Wise and his mother was named Martha. I don t reniember the names of their master. I don. t remember the names of my mother a people. War Memories nI remember the year the War ended. I remember when the Yankees earn. on the place that day the War ended. We children was all settin ou.t in the yard. Some of them ran under the house when they saw the soldiers. They were shooting the chickens and everything, taking the horses, and anything else they thought they could use. They said to the old lady, Leimne kill them little gg Old miss said No wait till you set them free. He said, No, when we set them free, we ain t goin to kill them. They ot around in the house under the house and in the yard. They asked the old lady, Where is the horses? She said, I don t kn

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2 a They said, ~ Go down in the WOOdS azid get em Scmebodl went down and brought back a mare and a mule and a colt. They knocked the colt in the head and allot him. They took the mare and the mule. They took all the meat out oe the aIilOkehOUSe. They didn t set US free, and they didn t teil us anything about freedom. Not then. How freedc*n Came I don t remember how we got the news of freedom. I don t remember what the slavea expected to get I don t know what they got if they got anything. I don t remember nothin about that. Sehooling ni went to school about eight daya. a all the schooling I ever got. I had a brother and sister who went to school, but I never went much. I went to school what little I did right here in Lonoke County, Arkansas. My teacher was Tom Fuller. He was a colored man. He came from down in Texas. I learned. everything I know by watching people and listenin to them. Occupational ~xperiences The first thing I ever did was farming. I farmed ail up till 1879. I worked on steamboat till 1881, and then I went out railroading. I worked at that a long time. I married in 1883. 1 was about twenty-seven years old then, and a few months over. ~While I was farming, I d~ 1d acme sharecropping, but I never got cheated out of anything.

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. K~ Klux ~ I remember the folks had been~ off to see their people and the Ka Klux taken the stock while they were gone I doz. t remember the Ku Klux Kien Interfering with the Negroes much. I never saw them. Voting ni never voted. till Cleveland began his campaign for President. I voted for eight presidents. Nobody ever bothered me about it. Yamily There were six children iii my mother s family. My father had six brothers. He made the seventh. I had nuis childreii in all. Four ot them are living now. One is hers; one, in St. Louis; and two, in Chicago. ~ boy is in Chicago. Opinion. The majority of the young people are just growing up. I~ts of them are not getting any raising at aU. Interviewer e Comment Wise ja between eighty-~one and eighty-five years old The data he gives conflict, acme of lt indicating the earlier and some of it later years. . He doesn t talk much and has to be pumped. He doesn t lose the thi~ead ot the discourse, His failure to talk on details of his early life seem to the interviewer due to unwillingness rather tban lack of memory,

226 221

4. L) ) While his age is advanced, his minl la sharp tor one who haa had auch . limited training. lie has no definite means ot support but atatea that he has beezi promised a pension in September..-~he means old age asaistance,

[Interview with Withers, Lucy] 227 222

~e~1 cb~ t, ~ 1~ t~1 Interviewer - I 1~ ~~~Mi8p ;iFefl~e~ ~b.i!tepji. ~_ .- -~ -a--- P8i~aon interviewed Iaq~ !~th.1!a~ Brin~j. ~Az~kanso~a Age 86 .il~- e--- ~ I was born 3* mil.a trcDL AbbYillS, South Carolina, in eight of Little )(ouutatn. I do raembsr the Civil War. I nver su tbe~ fight. They eome to about twenty or thirty miles ~rc~i where I lived. They didn t bother ~ch in the part8 where I lived, r. . the ~it men folke went to war. My ~e~a a iz~aater waa Zdward Roach and his wife was Mise Sarah Roach. My papa s master was Peter Radclitt and Mies N~ncy Radoliff. They give ~ to hern.iece, Mies J ennie ~elitoe. When ehe married she wanted me. Atter freedom I married. In 1866 we come to a big farm close to Pine Bluff. Then we lived close to Mes.. phie and I been living hexe in Brinkley a long ti. The Ku Kli~x put down a Governor in South Carolina right after the war. They rode everywhere night and day scaring everybody. They wouldn t l~t no colored people hold office. That governor was a colored man. The ~i Klux whipped both bLack and white folks. They run the Yankees plumb out er that country. . No air rie I never voted and I ain t never goner votsi Won is tearing dia world up. The ex-slaves was told that they would get thing., ditferent things. I don t know what all. I know they didn t gt nothing and when treedoa cos~ they took their clothea and left,

228 223

2. o,~ ~ ~ ~ t~1 Thsy aaatter.d out and vsnt to different placea. It waa hard to gst wo~k and there was no aonsy cept what th. Yanke,a give sm. When they all got run off there wai no money. My husband 1a8 a Yank~ ~o .diez and he decided he ianter co~ to this country. We come on the train and. on the boat to Pine Bluff. we farmed. I got three chilth en but just two iiving. One boy live a at Fargo and the girl liv s at Chicago. My huaband died. M and ay aieter lives here. I bought ~ place with ~y pen.ahion money. That aince my hueband died. The present time. la hard. I don t kn w rn2thin about th e young tolk. I tende to my own business. I ain t got nothing to do with the young folka. I don t know what cauaea the times to be eo hard. bike used to ~e aor clothes than they do and let oolorsd folks have n~re ii~ oning and bigger waahinge too. The wash Inge bout played oet. Soma few folks hire cooks. I farmed ai4 washed and ironed and I have cooked along eo~ here in BrinU.y. I eR supported by my pension my husband left me. It ain t much but I make out with it, Et la Union Soldiers Pension.

[Interview with Woods, Anna] 229 224

30324 .~ . ~ . AT ~ 2~4 In~terviev~er Ma~,yD.Thx&gmns Person Interviewed ~maWoods Eonie 426 Grand Avenue ~Yes nia aflib ~Oonie on in, Is you takiug lists of folks for old age pensions ? Can you. tell us v~hat we going to get &id. ~henit s ~oin~ to conie ? No.? Thea~-~ Oh, I see 3r011 is writing us up. well iaaybe that wiLl help us to Get attention~. Cause ~ e sure does need the pension. . : To be sure I remembers slave days. My gi~andinother~ she was give away in. the tra~in~ yard. ~he was aflioted~ What was the raatter with her ? Was she la~ie ? No iIla aIll, she had the scro~Cula. $oher xaother was sold ai~ay froiii her, but she was give ~a~~~She ~as give av~ay to a ~omau n~am.ed OElover4 ~ s Glover w as a old w oman ~h eu I knov~ ed her ~ She V2&S an old, old woman. She sort of studied before she 4 say anytliing4 She was a pretty good old woman though, Mrs. Glover ~was. She v~iouidn t let hei colored folks be whipp ed, She wculdn t let rae w ork iii the fields Old Donovan wanted me to work In the fie1d~-~but she

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~dgins (~ nna Woods) wouldia t let him make me. Doiiovax~. was Mary s husband. MaI~y was ~ Giover s girl s girl. ~ Gloverts irl was named rate . Mrs. Glovei. had a whole flock of slaves, My mother and another woxnar~ named Saille cocked and did the washing. ~ann1e she was my sister, was old Mrs. Glover s maid, Robert and Sally and Luoy~-- ~they was my brother and sisters-~-~a1l of them worked in the field, I~hey had to begin early and work late. They got them out way tore days They worked thera tu d~ark, I remembers that Sally and Lucy used to wear boots and roil their skirts up nearly to their waists~s, ~ you see sometimes it was muddy. Did we raise riee~-~--~o, ma am. We niostly raised corn and cotton, like everybody else, We lived near Natehez, No ma ata, I never see but one colored person whipped. Iris name. was Robert. They la~d hii~i down on his stomaeh to whip him~ N~ever d1~ hear what he had d~one~ ~aybe he run off. They asually whipped them for that, No ma axa, I was right. Mrs. Glover didn t let her colored folks be whipped. Robert, you see, was Donovan s man. He didn t belong to Mrs. Glover. Ker f o~ks never ~ot ~vhipped,

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(Anna Woods) ~dgins 3 Maybe Rob ert run off . I do t t know The folks did one thing special to keep them frora running. They. f~ztened a sort of yoke around they neek . From. it there run up a sort of piece a~d there ~as a bell on the top of that . lt was so high the folks v~ho wor~e it c~ou1dnt t reec~ the bell. But if they ran it i~ou1d tinkle and folks could find theni. I don?t pute know ho~v It worked-~~ I dust slightly renierubers. No, nia eni, I was just sort of a little girl before the war. You might say I was never a slave, Cause I didntt have to ~vork. ~&rs.~ Glover wouldn t let ne work in the field and I didn t bave much work to do in the house either, ~iiX~s. Glairer was an. old widow v~oraar~, but she was shore good. :~1iss Kate ~ias her onliest child, Kate s daughter was nanied. Mary~ Was I afraid of the soIdiers ~ No ma em. I wasntt. Lots of theta thst came through were eolor d soldiers. I remember that they ~iore lone tai ed coats. They had brase buttons on they coats, But we had to move fron Natchez, First the soldiers run us off to Vsnnisaw Parish~~an island tbere~ ( ~. check on raaps in tue atlas of gnoyclojedla Britannica reveals a Tensas Parish, Louisiana~-~across the river and.a ~ei~ nilles north of Natchez.) We coul&att even stay tiler e . They drove us along ~and finally we wound up in Texas,

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Auna W~oods Eudgins 4 Is, 1~ :~ ~ We wasn t there in Texas~when the soldier.s rriarched in to tell us that we was free. Seems to melike it was on a Monday morning wher~ they cozn.e in. Yes, it was a Monday. They went out to the field and told them they vas free. Marcdted them out of the fiel&s, They corne a shoutirig. I reziienthers one woman, she ~jumped. up ou a barrell and she shouted. She jurr~ped off and she shouted. She ~urnped baek on again an d s hout ed s onie zn.or e . 5h e kep t tu a t Up for a long binie, just ~jurapiag on a barreil. and back of~ agein.~ ~ Yes niat~in, we children played~ I remembers that the grown folks used to have chuch~~out behild an old. shed, They d shout and they~ts sing. We children didn t know what it all meant, But every Monday niorn.ing we d ~et up and. niake a piay house in an old wagon bed~-~and we d shout and. sing too. We didn t know what it meant, or what we was supposed to be doing. We just aped. our elders. When the war was over niy brother, he drove the carriage, he drove the white folks back to Natchez. $ut we didn t go~~ ItLy faITiily. We stopped. part way to Natchez~ Never did see Miss Kate or ~rs. G .over again. Never did see thea again. Lots later nty brother learned where we was. Ire carae back for us and took us to Natchez. But we x~ever did see Mrs. G~lover again,

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5 I 1ived~ on in. Natehez. I v~orked for white fOlkS_i._ cooked for theni~ I did a lot of traveling. Even went up into Virginia~ Traveled rnost of t he time. I d~ go vdth one taiaily ~nd whexi v~e d get beck, there d be another one who wanted nie to ~o and iake care of their chiida~en, Been in Rot springs since 1905, Worked. for Dr. flrst~ Staye& ri~Lt in the house. Never did see such fine folks as Dr. - ~----~ ( prominent Ioc~a1 surgeon) and his wife. Then I worked for Mr. ~-~-~ ( DronLinent re~i1tor) Yes, and. l s worked at the j~my and Navy Hospital too. LUghty iaice. up there. Worked in the officer s iaess-~- --$inest place up thereb Ps i~orked for the officers too. Then i s worked for the Levi Eospital. Worked for lots of folks~, It s v~orked f I~ lots of folks and in lots of places, But I t got anything now ~ Hov~ soon. do you think they will begin paying u~s ? I get just ~1O from the county every month, $5 of that goes for my houses Folks gives me clothes, but if they d. only give nie groceries too, I could get along. When do you think they will begin. to pay us ?

[Interview with Woods, Cal] 234 229

\\ 30518 ~ ~ 229 Interviewer Misa Irsne Robertson J-. - ~ ~ ~ I_~~ ~ L ~ Per~aoa ~ RJ.D..~Biecos. Arkenaaa A~e_~_ 5~~ - t I don t know zaet .y how old I is. I was good size boy when the. war co~ on. le all b.lon~d to a z~n named John Woods. We lived in South carolina during slavery. Slavery was pratty bad itaelf but th bad tiiie come after the war. The land was hilly some red and e~ pors and eSlldy. Had to plough a aile or horse. Hard to ~.ke a living. oD~ fOlkS waa rich, had heap of elavsa and some bout one fiaily. ~eU tarmsr have 160 acres and ons family of elave.. Ihen a man had one or two slave familiee he treated e* bettsr an it he had a great big acre age and fifteen or twenty tsniili ~. The ihite folks trained the black ~an and woman. If h. haie ao many they didxI t learn hoi to do bit one or two things. Maa generally they all worked in the fieldi in the busy -~: seasons and sonetluies the ihite folks have to work out there too. Some ~. times they get in debt and have to ee .l oft some slave to pay the d.bt. t Things seemed heap ~ plentiful. Before the war folks wors f in clothes. They go to their nearest tradin point and i.1l cottoa. Thsy had fi2~ Silk cloths. and fine knives and forks. They would buy a whole case o cheese at one time and a barrel of molasses. Folks sat more and worked harder than they do now. 803M folks was mean to their slaves and some slaves nean. It is lack it i$ now, some folks good no matter what dey color, other folks bad.

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2. Black folks never knowsd there waa trsdo~ till they waa fighting end going to war. Some aay they wee fi~htin to eave their slaves, aoae say the Union broks. The slave never been free since he come to dis wox 4, didn t know mithin bout treedo~ii till t1t~y to .e em bout it. \ I recollect bout the Li Klux after the wer. 8cms folks come over~ the country end tell you you free and equal now. They till you what to do an how to i~in the country and then if you listen to thee come the ~a Klux all dressed half aile down the road, That Ku Klux sprung up after the wer bout rotin an offis .holdin mong the white folks. The white folks ain t then nor now havin no black man miin over him. Them K~a KLux walked bout on high aticka and drink ail the uater you have from the sjg. Seem lack they meddled a whole heap. Course the black folks knowed they was white mn. They hung aome elave8 and white Yankees too if they be very mean. They beat om. sear em hollowing and they hollow too. They shoot all directions round and up an down the road. That s how you know they comm close to yo houa. It you go to any ~&therins they come break it up an run you home fast ae you could mn and set the dogs on you. Course the do 8 bite you. They eay they was not goiner hare equalization it they have to kill all the Yankeee and niggera in the country. The masters sometime give em a home, My mother left Yohrt Woods then. The family went back. He give her an my papa twenty acres their lifetime. Where dey 8tayed on the old folks had. a little at eo~ places. They didn t divide up no plantations I ever heard of. They never give em no mules. If ec~ tole em they would I know they sho didn t. Didn t give em mithin I tell you. My mother e name was Sylvia and papa 8 naine was Hack Woods.

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5. 231 I c~ to Arkansaa so ~y little boys would have e hc. I had a little home en sold it to corne out hers. Agen* acme round ahowin picturea ho~ big the cotton grow. They say it grow like tree8 out hers. The children climb the stalks an set on the limb lack birde to pick it. They ehow piCtUres Like that. Cotton basket way dein under it on the ground. 8.. drorea of wild hogs cowing up, look bi~ aa na~ es. Men ridin em. No I didn t know they said it was so fins. we co~ in ~ reig~t care iid our ~rniture and everything we brought. we had our provision in basketa and big buckets. ~ It lasted tifl paased Atlanta. le nearly 8tarved the reBt of the way. When wi dU tOp you ziever hear m~cb a hoiloixi. le cone two days and night. herd ae we could oc~. le stayed up and eat, cooked meat en eggs on th atove in the atore till dsybrak, Then they showed us wiLe to go to our places the next day. I been here ever since. ~\ ~ hab toted. I don put lettin votin bother me up. All E see it do is give one fellow out of two or three a job both ot them ~bs ought to have. The zeane~t man often gete lected. It the money they a1 ~ after not the work in it. I heard em say ihat all they do ~d then they got lected they torg~t to do all they say they ~uld do. ~\ i never knowed bout no slave uprisins. Thed had to uprose wid rocks an red clods. The black man couldn t shoot He had no gina. They had so naich work they dldn t know how to have a uprisin. The better you be to your aaater the better he treat you. The whits f preachers teach that in the church.

[Interview with Woods, Maggie] 237 232

30503 ~ ~ ~ . Q ) InterviewerMisslrene Robertson Person interviewed Ma~~ie ~1oods~~ ~ ~ ~ ~:~TeTa:, ~ ArE ~ ~ ~ Age7O Deaner Farm. . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ My parent s was Fannie and Aifre d Douglas ~ They had three children, then he died and my mother married a ~an name Thompson, My parents belong to the Douglasses at Sumznerville Tennessee. They had six children in their family. 1 was born the second year o1~ the surrender that make me seventy years old. My folks was ai . i ield hands They was all pure African s took All black folks like me . Grandma . Liney Doug~lass said she was sold and Grandpa was sold too. My own parentsnev r was so1d~ The Douglass men- folks whooped the slaves ut they was good masters outside of that. ~ They would steal off and have preachin at night Had; preachi& nearly ai . night sometimes. They d hurry and get in home fore the day be breakin . From the way they talked they done more prayin than o . Whenever they be sick they would send to the Douglasses to know what to do They would t ake them up to the tr hous e and doctor them or come down to the quarters and wait on whoever be sick. They had some doctors about but not near enough. They trained black women to be midwives~ WI think my folks had enough to eat and clothes too I recken. They eat meat to give them strength to work. My old stepdaddy always make us eat piece of meat if we eat garden

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~. t~s1L)~ stuff. He say the meat have strength in it. Cort~bread, meat, peas and potatoes u3ed to be the biggest part of folks livin in o1d~en days They had plenty milk. . Children when I come on di~dn thave no use for money. We eat rnola8 S e ~ Had a lit t le e andy once in a while That be the best thing Santa Clau8 would bring me. We get ginger o kea in our new atooking8 too. Santa Claus been commt ever since I been in the world, Seem like Christmas never would come round agixi. It t se em ne ar s o lone now. . t, I was too young to know about freedom We was j1 on Douglas farm when George Fleno . (white) come ~ brought us to Indian Bay. We worked on Dick Mayo s place I don t know what they expe oted from freedom but I ru pretty sure they never got nothing. When the black. folks come free then the Ku Klux took it up and made em work and s tay at home . ~ I heard that some folks wanted to stay in the road all the time. The Ku Klux nearly scared me to death to see pass by. They never did bother us. . u : don t vote 1 ~ know no thing about it,. I T like the way that is fixed for us to . live now. We pay house rent and works as day laborers. It ni~kes the work too heavy at some times and no work to do nearly all the time. it is making times hard Cotton and corn choppin time and cotton pickin time is all the times a woman like nie can work. I raised a shoat. I got no room for garden and chickens. . MI gotone girl, she way from here, she sent me ~2.OO for fly Christmas.

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3. The young generation i~ weaker in body than us old folks has been. They ain t been raised to liard work and. they don t hold out. . tI~j1 ~~~ j5 salve l in making. What do it smell like? It sine Il like chit lings . In that 8 ack 5. s the ins ide of the chitlings (hog manure). ~ I boil lt down and strain it, then boll lt down, put camphor gum and fresh lard in it, boil it down low and pour it up. It is a green salve. It Is flneforpl .es, rub your back for lumbago, and swab out your throat for sore throat. It is a good salve. I had a sore throat and a black woman told me how t o make lt ~ It eures the sore Uroat right now. HI live on what I am abl to work and make. I never have got no help from the government.

[Interview with Word, Sam] 240 235

#1747 Interviewer Mra. Bernice Bowdeu. Person interviewed Sam Word ~1~1l22 MisaoiTri ~t~it, Pink B1id~ ~iiaa. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ s I m a sure enough Arkansas man, born in Arkansas County near ~ Witt. Born February 14, 1859, and belonged to Bill Word. I know Marmaduke cc~ down through Arkansas County and pressed Bill Word s son Tom into the service. I n~mber one &ng they used to sing called the Bonnie Blue Flag. Jeff Davis is our President And Lincoln is a tool; Jeff Davis rides a fine white horse While Lincoln rides a mule. Hurrahi Huxrah~ tor Southern rights, Hurrahi Hurrah for the Bonnie KLt~e Flag That bears a Single Stan ( The atove verse ~ae sung to t~e tune of ~The Bonnie Blue flag.~ Fr i the Library of Southern Literature I find the toflowing notation about the original song and its author, Harry McCarthy: Like Dixie, this famous song originatd in the theater and first becema popular in New Orleans. The tune was borrowed trcm The Irish Jaunting Car a popular Kibernian air, Harry McCarthy was an Iris1~an who enlisted in the Gonfederate anny from Arkansas. The song was written in 1861 It was pibliahed by . ~ Blacicinar iho declared General Ben ~tler made it very profitable by fining every man, ~ or child who aang~ whistled or played it on any inatrumant twenty. five dollars. Blackme.r was arrested, his music destroyed, and a fine of fire hundred dollars imposed upon him.~)

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2 . *1 stayed in Arkansas County till 1866. I was ab~t seven yeara old ~nd ~ moved here to Jeffer8on County. Then my mothsr married again and ~e went to Conway County and lived a few years, and then I eo~ back to ~efferaon County, 80 I ve lived in ~Tettereon County sixty . elght years. ~In Conway County when I waa a small boy livin on the Milton Poieli place, I n~mber they sent i~ out in the field to get so~ peaches about a helf mile from the slave quarters. It was about three o clock, late ~ and I saw something ix~ the tree~.a black lookin concern. 8eem like it got bigger the closer I got, and then just disappeared all of a ~idden and I didn t see it go. I know I went back ~ithcut any peaches. And another thing I can tell you. In the spring o~ the year we was hoein and when they quit at night they d leave the hoes in the field, etickin down in the ground. And next morning they wouldxi t be where y~i left ent. You d have to look for em end they d be lyin on top of the ground and crossed just like sticks. I ll tell you what I do know. When ~ was livin in Conway County old man Powell had about ten colored f~tniliea he had emigrated frcm Jefferson County. c~ii folks was the oEIy colored people in that neighborhood. And he had a white man that was a tenant on the place and he died. Now my mother and his wife used to visit one another. In them days the ihite folk. wasn t like they are now. ~&nd so mother went there to sit up with his wife~ And while she was sittin up the house was full of people.. white and colored. They begin to hear a noies about the coffin. So they begin to investigate the worse it got and moved around the roc~ and it lasted till he was took out of the se. ~ Now I ye heard white and col6red say that was trues They never did see it 1~.it they heard it. RI don t think there is any ghosts now but they was in the past generation.

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5. .-~ e_J, ~I know many tin~e n~ and my 3tepfather would be p10km cotton end ~y dog would be up at tba far end of the row and ~uat befors dark h&d start barkin and ccs~ towards us a barkin and vo never could see anything. He d do that every day. It was a dog nemed Natoh..a sn IILg1iIh ~iU trriar. Hs He was a eure enough bu11do~ and he could ~hip aay was give to ix~ a puppy. clog I ever saw. Be was an in~ported dog. ~I remember a house up in Conway County made ~it of 1og~. .ea two.etory one just this side ot Cadron Creek on the Military Road. Then they called it the Wire Road because the telegraph wire run along lt. The house was vacant after the people that owned it had died, and people comm1 along late at night would stop to spend the night, and In the middle of the night they d have to get out Now ye heard that with my own ears. There wab a spring not far froia the hause. It had been a fine house and was a beautiful place to stop. :~it in the night they d hear chairs rattlin and fall down. It s UL~ belief they h~d spooks in them old days. Now I ll tell you another incident. This was in slave times. My mother was a great hand for nice quilts. There ias a white lady had died and they were goi& to have a sal.. Now this is true stuff. They had the sale and i~ther sent and bought two quilts. And l t me tell y~i, we cou~ldn t aleep under em. What happened? 1.11, they d pinch y~r toec till you oouldrt t stand it. I was just a boy and I was sleepin with my ~ther when it happened. Now that s straight stu~ff. What do I think was the cause? Well, I think that white lady didn t want no nigger to have them quilts, I don t know what mother did with em, 1~t that white lady Just uldn t let her have em. Now I m pitt in the oil out of the can..~I mean that what I say is true. People now will say they ain t nothin to that story,

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4. (.~ -~ ~ At that tine the races wa~t malgated. ~it people aDe differsut now.~ ain t 11k. they was aerenty- fiv. ysara ago. ~Viaiona? Well, now I m glad you a ~ed n~ that. I ll teks pleasure i!1 teflin you. Two years before I moved to this place I had a vision and I think I saw every colored person that was ever born in America, I belie~s0 I Was OU the east aide of my house and this niiltitude of people was about tour feet from n~ and they was as thick a~ sardines In a box aud they wa~ :trcm little tots up. 8o~e bad on derby hats and ao~ wa~ bareheaded. I talked with one w Mn.~~~ a brown skinned wc~n. They was eitting on seat s just like circus seats just as far as my eyes could behold. Looked like they reached clear up iii the sky. That was ehen I tust ient blind. You ve read about how John saw the nultituds a hundred forty and four thousand end I think that was about oneafourth of what I saw. They was happy and talkin and nothin t~it colored people.~ono whtt~e people. Another vision I had. I drs~d that the day that I lived to be sixty.. :tlve, that day I would ~ixely die. I thought the man that told ~ that was a little old dried.~up white z~n up in the air and he had scales 11k. the monkey and the cat weighed the cheese. I thought he said, That day you will surely die, and one side of the scales tipped just a little and then I woke up. You know I believed this strong. That was in 1919 and I went out and bought a lot in Beliwood Cemetery. B.~t I m still livin . ROld Major Crawley who owned what they called the Reeder place on this aide of the river, tour miles east of ~xter, he was supposed to have mOney buried on his place. B~ owned it during alavery and after he died his relatives rroii Mississippi n~ here and hired a carriage driver n~d J~ackaon zones, He married my second cousin. And he took em up there to dig for the money, ~xtt I don t know i.f they ever sound it, Sosie psopis said the place was ha nted,~

[Interview with Word, Sam] 244 239

~i ~ 239 ~ ~. ~ ~ ~ ~- ~ n11c~!d~ ~i-- 1~~ - Person interviewed: .~ r ~ ~ - ~- : 1 2~ Mias ~i ~ ?inS~ Bluff, ~rksnsas (/~ ~ ?8~_~ q. ~ ~ ~ *1 was born February 14, 1859. My birthplace was Ax ke~usas County. Born iii Arkansas and lived in Arkansas eevsnty ~ etght years. i ve kept up with my a~e ~ didn t rais. it non, didn t lower it nOne. *1 can remestbsr all about th. war, ay nenory s ben good. Old men Bill Word, that was my old master, had a 80fl fl~1!~d ?cm lord and lone about in 63 a g,neL sl cc.. end prssssd him into the Civil Jar. I saw the Blue and the ck sy and th gray clothes had lxitton that said C.8..~ that meant aecessioners. Yenkes hat U.S. on their bittona~ 8cme of em acme there so regular they got femilie~ with me. Ta~keae come and wented to hang old ~ster cause he wouldn t t.ll where the money was. They tied his hands behind him end had a rope si ound his neck. Now this te ths straight goods. I was just a boy and I was oryin cause I didn t went em to hans old master. A Yankee lieutenant ocme up end made em quit they was just the privates you know. My old master drove a ox wagon to the gold fields in California in 49. That s what they told me -~ that vai fore I was born. ~Good? Ben lord good? My God laighty, I wish I had one-hUndredth part of what I got then. I didn t exist .. I lived. ~Bsn Word bOught my mother frcm Rtil lord up in Isz~tuoky. ~e ~ wee the housekeeper after old mistrese died, I ll tell you something ... r

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2. 24() that may bs amusing. Mother had lots of nice things, quilts eM thinge, and kept em in a chs~ in her littl old ahack~ One day a Yankee soldier climbed in the back window and took so~ of th. quilts. ifs roll.d en up and was walking out of tho yard ~sfl mother saw him end said, shy you nasty, etinkin rascal. You say y~ acme down . hers to fight for ths nig . ~ra, and now you r etsalin from en. He said, You re a C D lier, I m fightin for $14 a month end the Union. WI member there was a young men naasd J~n Bro~ end they celled him Red lox. He d slip up on the Yank... and shoot i~, so the Yankees was alwaya lookin for him. ils ussd to go over to Dr. Allen s to get a shave and his wife would ait on the front porch and watch for th Yankees. ~ day the Yankees slipped up in the back end hie wits said, Lord, ~n, re a the anke Course he mn and they shot him. One of the Yankees was tryin to help him up and he said ~n t you touch ~ oeil ~. Allen. Yes ma in, that was in Arkansas County. RI never been anywhere cept Arkansas, ~ efterson, sud Conway Co~intiee. I was in Conway County when they went to the precinct to vote for or against the Port anith k Little Rock Railroad. The precinct where they went to vote waa Sprin~ield. It u~d to be the county ~at of Conway County. . While the war was goin on and ~en young Tou Word would cc hc from school, h learned ~ and uhen th war ended, I could read in XcGiffy a Third Reader. After that I want to school thres ~onthe for sb~it four years. ~ ~ ~ ~Directly after Imencipation, th white zn in th~ South had to teks th. Oath of 4U..gjsnce. Old waater took it ~it he hated to do it. Joy these are stubborn facts I m givin y~ but they s true.

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5. 241 After freedc~ mothr brought her to Pine Blutf and put ~ in the tiold. I pick.d up corn atlka and brtiah end carried water to the hands. ~i1dr n in them days worksd. After they come fx c*n achoo1~ vsn the white children ha~ work to do. Trouble with the colored folks now, to ay way of nk, is they are top heavy with literary learntng and - feather light with oc~on sense and domestic training. *1 remember a eong they used to sing duiring the wr$ ~ 31ff ~vis ia our Preaident Lincoln ii a fool; Zeff Da~ie ridea a fine white horee While Lincoln rides a nmle. And hero e another one: . Rarrah for southern rights, hurrah! flarrah for the Bonny Blue Flag That bore the single ater. *T.e, they was haflta sixty yern ago. The generation they ~ intareated has b~sd s~t out. AiZL~t none now, ~I never did cars much for politice, ~zt I ve always ben for the SotLth. I lore the Southland. Only thing I don t like is they don t give a eq~uare deal ehen it oo~e between the colored and the Ihitse. Pen yesre ago, I was worth $15,000 and now I m not worth fifteen cents, The real estate men got the best of ~. I ve been blind now for fou.z years and all my wife and I have is what we get from the Ielfers,~

[Interview with Worthy, Ike] 247 242

Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden~ ~ Person interviewed lice Worthy 24i3~ I. 11th ~ Pine Bluft, Arlcin.as Age ~ ~ ~ ~ I was born in Selma, Alabama on Qiriatmas day and I m goin on 75. nI can member old mi sais name Misa Liza Ann Bussey. I never wili forget her name . Fed us in a troQgh-.elgbteen of ~ u.. Her husband was named J~im Thisaey, but they ail dead now, ~When I got large enough to ~ernemaber we went to Louisiana. I was aix~ teen ihen we left Aiabaina ~aix huadred head of us. Dr. Bonner emigrated us there for hisselt and other ~iite men. - . There was nine of us boys iii my parents family. We worked every day and cleared land t ill twelve clock at ni~,ht. On Saturday we played baU. and on &nday we went to ~inday school. ~ ~ We worked on the shares.-..~ot hal~-..~and in the tall we paid our debts. Sometimes we had as much as ~l5O in the ei ear, ~O8t Money I ever had was tannin . I taimed 52 years and never did buy no teed. Raised my own meat end lard and molasses. Had four milk cows and titt en to twenty hogs. You see, I had eigkt children in the family. Never went to school but one dey iii my life, then my father put us to work. Never learned to read, You see everybody in the pen now days got a education. I don t think too much etheation is good for em. I was 74 G~iristmas day. .~ ~Th~Th (_j &~~ ~ ~ (~j

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2. ~ ~A: ~ Garland, Brew8ter.i ~the ~as~iff and the j~idgs ~I nussed them boy. when they was little. Wot ked at the bric cyard~ nI got shot accidental and lost my right leg 32 yeaxs ago when I vas :f armin . I ve chopped cotton and pi ked cotton with this ~e~1eg. Mr. Lnory say he don t see how I can do it but I goes right along. I made $21 pickin and ~l8 choppin last year. I picked up until Thanksgiving night. I ~ worked at the Long~.Bell Lumber Company since I had this peguhle.g too. I stayed in Little Rock 23 year., Had a wood. yard and hauled wood. Yes xiia am, :t voted the Pitblicen ticket0 No ma am, I nover did hold any office0 I don t know what goin c~e of the younger generation. To ~y idea I don t think there s anything to em, They is goin tc suffer when all the old ones is dead.. ni gQea to the Zion Methodist Church. No ma am, I m not a preacher~iaa. just a bench ~amber.

[Interview with Wright, Alice] 249 244

Interviewer Person interviewed ~ About 74 -----I-- -- - ~ -U---~_.~ ~ ~W ~ ~ ~ ~ ~- . ~. - 4m ~ r~- ~ Alice Wr~ t ~ ~ - ~ ~ - 2418 ~nter Street, Little Rock, Aricansas I was born way yonder in slavery time. I don t know what part of Alabama nor exactly when, but I was born in slavery time and it was in Alabama. My oldest boy would be fifty-six years old if he were living, father said he was born in slavery time and that I was born in slavery time. I was a baby, my papa said, when he ran off from his old master and went to Mississippi. He lived in the thickets for a year to~Ic~eep his old n~aster from finding out where he was. . S Father, Mother and Family My father s name was Yeff Williams. He s been dead a long time, Nobody living but ins and i~y children. My mother s name was Malinda Williams. My father had seven children, four girls and five boys. the boys were buried on the Cuimuins (?) place. It used to be the of old Man Flournoy s. My oldest brother waa natned Isaac. RI had sixteen children; tour of them are still living- two boys and two girls. The boys is married and the daughters is sick. No, honey, I can t tell how many of em all was boys and girls. House My folks lived right in the white folks yard. I don t know what kind of house it was. My mother used to cook and do for the white folks~ She caught her death of cold going backward and forward milking and 80 on. My Four of old place 30956

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2. 245 How the Children were led wThey~d pu~t a trough on the floor with ~oodeii apoons and aa many children as could get around that trough got there and eat they would. Bow Ireedain Came - Dolly and~ ~ve1yn were upstairs spinning thread and ovrheard the old master saying that peace was declared but they didn t want the niggers to know it. Father had them to throw their clothes out the windows. Then he slipped out with them. Malinda Williama, my mother, came with them. Dolly and Xvelyn were my aistera. I don t know my master s name, btit it must have been Williams because all the slaves took their old master s names when they were treed. I was a baby in my daddy s arms when he ran away. Patrollera I heard my papa talk about the patroflara. He said they used to/ run them in many a time. That is the reason he had to cross the bridge that night going oper the Mississippi into Georgia. The slaves had been set fre in Georgia, and he wanted to get there from Alabama. ~ * What the Slaves Got The slaves never got nothin when they were freed. They just got . oet and went to work for themselves. Marriage My father tended to the white folks mules. Be wasn t no soldier, When he married my mother, he was only fifteen years old. Eis master told him to go pick himself out a wife tr i a drove of slaves that were passing through, and he picked out my mother. They married by stepping over the broom. The old master pronounced them master and wife.

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3. Slave DrOves The drove passed through Alabama, but my father du t know wher lt came frcin nor where it vent. They wer sefling slaves. They would pick up a big Lot of them somewhere, and they would drive them across the couiitry sefling some every place they stopped. My master bought my mother out of the drove. Droves came throii~h very often. I don t know where they ce~ from0 War Memories ~ . My father reimbered coming thrOugh Alabama. 11e remembered the soldiers coming through Alabama. They didn t bother any olored people but they killed a lot of white people, tore up the tci~n and took some White babies OUt and bu8ted their brains out. That is what my father said. ly father died in 1910. He was pishing eighty then and maybe ninety. He had a house full of drown children and grandchildren end great grandchildren. Ho wasn t able to do no work when he died. It was during the War that my father ran away Into Georgia with me too. Breeding I(y father said they put medicine in the water (cisterns) to make the young slaves have raore children. If his old master had a good breeding woman he wouldn t sell her. He would keep her for himself. . Worship When they were praying for peace they used. ~ to turn down the wash kettles to keep ~the sound down. In the master s church, the biggest thing . that was preached to them was how to serve their master and mi4tias,

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A l~ Indiana My grandmother was a tull-~blood Indian. I don t know from ~hat $ribe. ~iried rrea~ir. *People used to bury their money in iron pots and chests and thinga in ~ cArk:~ order to keep the soldiers trc~ getting lt. In Eabbaaeka~~there they had money ~xiried. They burled their money to keep the soldiers tr~ getting it. Ku Klux ~The Ku Klux Klan cerne after treed i. They used to take the peop .e out and nip thea. . J~ust Atter the Jar ~Iiiediately atter the War, papa farmed. Most of it was down at the OLlnvninp place Ihen he rau away to Georgia, he thi t stay there He left and caine back to Mississippi. I don t know just when my papa came to the Oii~~4~p place. It was just after the War. After be left the Cum mina place he worked at the ~ith place Then he was farming agent tor a~ti for old man Cc~ok in ~Tetferaon County Es would aee after the handa. Voting I ain t neyer voted In my life. I know plenty men that uad to vot 1:~it I didri t I never heard of no w~n voting. Occupation WI used to do field work. I washed and Ironed until I got too old to . do anything. I can t do anything now. I am t abl ,

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5. 248 8u~pport *1 . get the old age peneiox~ and the Wei~re give me some con~nodities for m~se1f and my sick daughter. She am t ben able to walk for a y ar. Marriage ~ RI married Willie Wright in ~u1y 1901. He did farming mostly. When he died in 1928, he was working at the Southern Oil Mill. He didn t 1ea~e aiiy property.~

[Interview with Wright, Hannah Brooks] 254 249

30738 ~.# 219 ~ . Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person interviewed Hannah BrookaWr1g~t w. 17th, Highland Addition, PIne Bluff, Arkansa8 Age~~ ~~_85 ~ ~ - Occupat Ion Laundress Yes iaa azn, I was born. in slavery times. I was born on Elsa Brooks plantation in Mississippi. I don t know ~aat year twas but I know twas in slavery times. I was a great big ~a1 when the Yankees come through. I was Elsa Brook$ house gal, I remember when a raan cane through to vascinate all the chillun that was born in slavery times. I out up worse than any of em--I bit him. I thought he was gwine cut off my arra. Old misais say our names gwine be sent to the White House. Old iaissis was gwine aro~ind with him tryin to calm em down. And the next day the Yankees come ~ through. The Lord have mercy! I think I was bout twelve years old when freedom cc~.e We used to ask old misais how old we was. She d say, Go on, if I tell you how old you is, your parents couldn t do nothin with you. 3us tell folks you.was born in slavery times! Oremma wouldn t tell ins neither. She d say, You hush, you wouldxi t work if you knowed how old you i I used to sit on the lever a many a day and drive the male at the gin. You t know anything bout that do yo~t? n ~ remember - one time when. the Yankees was comm through I was up on top of a rail fence so I could see better. I said, 3~ust look a there at them bluebirds. 1~hen the Yankees come along one of em said,

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2. 250 You ~et down from there you little 80fl of a b. I didn t wait to climb down~ I jus fell down from there. Old mlasi8 come ~omi to the quarters in her earriage-.-didn t have buggies in them days, just carriages~ to ~ee who was hurt. The Yankees had done told her that one of her gals had fell off the fence and got hurt I said I am t hurt but I thought them Yankees would hurt me She said They won t hurt you they is comin through to tell you you I 8 free She said. 1~ they had hurt me she would j about done them Yankees up. ~he said Teff Davis had done give up his seat and we was free. ~r folks stayed with old misais as long as they lived. My m~uxuny cooked and I stayed in the house with mi ssis and churned and cleaned up. Old master was named Toxa Brooks a~d her name was elsa Brooks, Sometimes I jus called her misais. Old misais told the patrollers they couldn t come on her place and interfere with her hands ~ I don t know how many hands they had but I know they had a heap of ~ em. S netimes misais would say it looked like I wanted to get away and. t d say Thy, Hannah you don t suffer for a thins. You stay right here at the house with me and you have plenty to eat. I was the oldest one in ray rnernrny 3 fami1y~ I just went to school a week and mairiny said they needed me at the house. Then my daddy put me in the field to plow. Old misais come out one day and say, BIll, how cciae you got Hannah plowin ? I don t like to see her in the field. He d say, Well, I want to learn her to work. I ain t gwine be here always and I want her to kx~ow how to work. They had nie throwin the ahickles (shuttles) iii slavery times. I used to handle the cyards (cards) too. Then I used to help clean up the milk dairy~

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3. 251 I d be so tired I woulth t know what to do. Old misais would say, Well, Hannah that s your j ob. . Vie used to have pLenty to eat, pies aiid cakes and cuatards. More than we got now, q o~n this place if I can keen payin the taxes. Old missis used to say, You swine think about what I m tellin you after I m dead and gone. Young Thlks call us old church folks old lam folks t ~ old fogies. They say, You was born. in slave ry ~t you don t know nothin . You can t tell em n.othin , I follows my mind. You ain t gwine go wrong if you does what your mind tells you.

[Interview with Yates, Tom] 257 252

:30716 . . . ~ ~ ~ ~ .~ j Inteririewer Miss Irene Robertson Person interviewed ~oniYates~, Mariaziaa.~ ~s ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I- I was born in 1872 in Mississippi, on Moon I~ke. Me~ said she was orphan, She was sold. when she was a young woman. She said she come from Ricbraond, Virginia to Charleston, Sottth Carolina. Then she was brought to Mississippi and married before freedom1 She had two husbands. Her owners was Master At~iood and. Master Curtis Burk. I don t know how it corne about nor which one bought her. She had four children and Pm the youngest. My sister lives in Memphis. My father was sold in Raleigh, North Carolina. His master was Tcm Yeates. I rfl named fer same of them. Papa s name was William Yeates. He told us how he corne to be sold. He said they was fixing to sell grandm~.. He was one of the b1~ggest children and he ask his mother to sell him and let gra:adma raise the children. She wanted to stay with the little ones. He said he cried and cried long after they brought him away. They all cried when he was sold, he said~ I don t know who bought htni. He must have left soon after he was sold, for he w~s a soldier. He run away and went in the War. He was a private and mustered out at I~Val1s Bluff, Arkansas. That is how come my mother to come here. He died in 1912 at Ililson, Arkansas. ife ~ot a fedora pension, thirty.~six dollars, ~every three months. He wasn t wounded, or if he was I didn t hear him speak of it. He didn t praise war.

[Interview with Young, Annie] 258 253

~e ~ ~ ~J ~~LJL~ o #;1iJt~) ~# . . ~p Interviewer Mre. Bernice Bowden ~ - ~ . u u u ~ ~__. i_ u_ u ~ ----m. ~) ~J Person interviewed Annie Yoi~ft ~ ~ ~ -~ . 913 Weat Seuil Street Pine KLuft Arkansaa ~~ a ~ My old rnaste~ a name was Sam Knox. t members all my white people. ; 1 My mother was the cook. . We had a good na8ter a3ld a good mlstres8 too. I wish I could ~tnd some of iiiy master s family now. But after the war they broke up and went up North. I member well the day my old master s son got killed. My mother was workin In the field and I know she come to the house a cryin . I member well when we was out in the plum nursery and could he ar the cannons. My white girl ~annie told me Now listen, that s the war a fightin . . . The soldiers u~sed to come along and sometimes they were in a hurry would grab something to eat and go on and then sometitites they would down to a long table. r I could hear my ~eat grandmother an~ my mother talkin We li be free after awhile. After the war my atep ather cone and got my mother and we moved out ~ ~: jU the piney woods. My stepfather was a preacher and Sometimes he was a hundred miles from home. My mother hired out to work by the day. I was the oldest of seven chillun and when I got big enough to work they worked me in the field. When we cleaned up the new ground we got fifty cents a and sit day.

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2. ei was between ten and twelve years old. when I went to school. My first teacher warn white. Bit I tell you the truth, I learned most after my childrefl started to school, I worked twentythree years for the police headquarters. I was janitor and matron too. I wa8hed and ironed too. I been here in Pine Bluff about fifty or sixty years. If jt~stice was done everybody would have a living. I earned the money to buy this place and they come and wanted me to sign away my home so I could get the old age pension but I just bad sense enough noi to do it. I m not ~oii~ sign away my home just for some meat and bread.

[Interview with Young, John] 260 255

:~r~ ~ ~ c~ ~ ~- .- ~ :.:~ . ~ - Int,rt.wr~~ JL,r~B.rniCe Bowden P~r5on interviewed lohn Youn~ ~ ~9231.1bthAve., Pine Bluff, Ark. . I~gS~2 ~ ~ ~ Wien, I don t know hoi old I :ta. I waii bom in Virginia, but ~y mother 118 eold. She iae bought by a apecu .ator and brought here to Arkansas. ~te brought me with her ezid her old master a name was RHgell. le lived down around Monticello. I wac big enough to plow and chop cotton and drive a yoke of oxen end han . ten-foot xaile. Oh Lord, I don t know how men~ acres old master had. He had a territory .. he hatt a heap a land. I remember he had a big old carriage and the carriage man waa Little Alfred. The reason they called him that wa3 beoaus there was another man on the place called Big lfre~. They t t no relation ~- just happen to be the e~e ne~. r remember when the Yankese cone end killed old master s hoge and chickens and cooked em. There was a good big bunch of Yankees. They said they was fightin to free the niggera. After that I runned away and COEBS up here to Pine Bluff end stayed awhile and then I ~nt to Little Bock and jined the 57th colored infantry. I was the kittle drwiinr. We marched. right in the center of the army. We went frc~ Little Rock to Port ~ith. I never was in a big battis, just one little scrw~uage. I was at Fort &iith when they surrendered and I was ~ietered out at LeavenWorth, Kansas. My grandfather went to war as body~iard for his mast r, hat I was with the Yankees.

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2. ~j %j ~I relMmber when the In Klux oo~ to ay grsndmoth.r a houes They nearly ecared us to death. I run and hid ander the bed. They didn t do nothin just the looki of em scared us. I Irnow they had the old folk. totin water for t5~~ 8eeaed like they ooi~1dn t ~et enough. After the war Z ccn~ home and went to fariniit Then I ateamboated for four years. I waa on the Kate Adam., but I ~it just fors it burned, bout two or thre weeka. . I never went to ichool a minute In uiy,lite. I had a ahanes to go but I just didn t. ~No m I can t rsxneiaber nothin elas. It s been so long it dons elipped my memory.

[Interview with Young, John] 262 257

. #671 N 4t) j ~ ~ ~ -f---~ ------- ~ ;rohn Young w- -~-. _~~ .~---i - - ~1~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ i~ 923 E. Fifteenth, Pine BLuff, Arkansii - - ~ ~ ~ --~ ~ - - - - ~. I know I was born in Arkansas. The first place I recollect t was in Arkansas. *1 was a drummer in the Civil War. I played the little drum. The bass druii~er was Rheuben Thrner, ni rua off from borne in Drew County. Five or six of us mn off here to Pine Bluff. We hearl if we could get with the Yankees is d be free so we r~in off here to Pine Bluff and got with acme Yankee soldiers--the twenty-eighth Wiaconsin. Then we went to Little Rock and I j t med the fifty 8eveath colored infantry. I thought I was good and safe then. We went to Fort ~nith froca Little Rock and freed~ come on~ us while we was between New Mexico and Fort &aith. ~They mustered us out at Fort Leavenworth and I went right back to~ my folks in Drew County, Monticello. I ve been a farmer all my life till I got too Interviewer Person in~ervieved Age89 old. -