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	Re-seai,oh Worker~	. ~
	1()014(;	~	‚	25


~~$1.ave ~ - Ike Thomas

Interviewed


Ike Thomas was born uear Monticello lu Jaspez‘ County on the Thomas plantation. His mother and~ father were 801d when he was a little boy, and “M1S8u~s“ Phomas4n picking

her hou~ae boy~ took Ike to raise for a carriage boy. She

pioked~ her little niggers by ttie way they wore their hats. i:e they set them on the back of their heads, they grew up to be “highibminded“, but if they pulled them over their

eyes, they‘d grow tip to be “sneaky and steal“. f~Mr‘8.	‚ Thomas let him sleep on a tt‘undle bed pulled. Out at night and put under her beil in the day ana, fed him under the

table. She‘d pat a piece o:t meat in a biscuit and. hand.

it down to him and warned him if they had. company not to holler when he wa~ thru. ~o he‘d touch her on the knee but hi s mouth was so bi g and h e ‚ d e at so fas t th at h e “j es

kep‘ on teohing her on the knee.“

~	During the war )when they got word. the ‘~nkeea were coming,

\	Mrs. T~iomas wo~xia. hide her “little niggers“ sometimes in

\the wardrobe back of her clothes, sometimes between the
‚~.