. He was easy to work for. Land
wasn't cleared out much. He was here before the Civil War. Good many
people, in fact all over there, died of yellow fever at Indian Mound. Me
and my brother waited on white folks all through 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.
Smallpox 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
Edmondson. Named for Master Henry--Edmondson, Arkansas.

"Mrs. Cynthia Ann Earle wrote a diary during the Civil War. It was
partly published in the Crittenden County Times--West Memphis
paper--Fridays, November 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.E. Weaver of Edmondson owns copies
if they cannot be obtained at the printing office at West Memphis."

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Sarah Wells
1012 W. Sixteenth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 84
Occupation: Field hand

"I was born in Warren County, Mississippi, on Ben Watkins' plantation.
That was my master--Ben Worthington. I don't know nothin' about the year
but it was before 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 name was Jane Irby. My name is Wells because
I have been married. Willis was my husband's name. I have just been
married once. I was married to him fifty years. He has been dead
thirteen years the fifteenth of October. I don't know how old I was when
I was married. But I know I am eighty-four years old now. I must 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 had any. The slaves
didn't have to cook much. Mars Ben had a slave to cook for them. They
all et breakfast together, and lunch in the fiel'.

Food and Cooking

"There was a great big shed.