urnish them
nothin' of that kind.

"The jayhawkers were white folks. They didn't bother we all much. That
was after the surrender. They go 'round here and there and git after
white folks what they thought had some money and jerk them 'round. They
were jus' common men and soldiers.

"I was not in the army in the War. I was right down here in Union County
then. I don't know just when they freed me but it was after the War was
over. The old white man call us up to the house and told us now we was
free as he was; that if we wanted to stay with him it was all right, if
we didn't and wanted to go away anywheres, we could have the privilege
to do it.

"Marriage wasn't like now. You would court a woman and jus' go on and
marry. No license, no nothing. Sometimes you would take up with a woman
and go on with her. Didn't have no ceremony at all. I have heard of them
stepping over a broom but I never saw it. Far 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 of 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 off with some other white folks. I
worked on shares. First I worked for half and he furnished a team. Then
I worked on third and fourth and furnished my own team. I gave the owner
a third of the corn and a fourth of the cotton and kept the rest. I kept
that up several years. They cheated us out of our part. If they
furnished anything, they would sure git it back. Had everything so high
you know. I have farmed all my life. Farmed till I got so old 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 when I began to vote.

"I never went to school. One of the white boys slipped and learned me a
little about readin' in slave time. Right after freedom come, I was a
grown man; so I had to work. I married about four or five years after
the War. I was just married once. My wife is not living now. She's gone.
She's been dead for about twelve years.

"I belong to the A.M.E. Church and my membership is in the New Home
Church out in the country in Ouachita County."

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Frank Williams
County Hospital, ward eleven, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 100, or more

"I'm a hu