ankees couldn't make
much out in the woods and canebrakes. We stayed in Texas about a year.
Four years after freedom we didn't know we was free. We was on his farm
up at Wittsburg. That is near Madison, Arkansas. Mother wouldn't let the
children 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 folks and
children all kept around home unless you had business and went on a
trip.

"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. We 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. During of the war it got burnt and lots of bales of
cotton went 'long with it.

"The Ku Klux come about and drink water. They wanted folks to stay at
home and work. That what they said. We done that. We didn't know we was
free nohow. We wasn't scared."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Robert Wesley, Holly Grove, Arkansas
Age: 74

"I was born in Shelby County, Alabama. My parents was Mary and Thomas
Wesley. Their master was Mary and John Watts.

"John Watts tried to keep me. I stayed round him all time and rode up
behind him on his horse. He 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.

"The Ku Klux sure did run some of em. Seem like they didn't know what
freedom meant. Some of em 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 whoopin's
for doin' too much visitin'. I was a baby so I don't know.

"I do not vote. I voted for McKinley in Mississippi.

"I been farmin' all my life. I got one hog and a garden, three little
grand babies. M