were six children in my mother's family. My father had six
brothers. He made the seventh. I had nine children in all. Four of them
are living now. One is here; one, in St. Louis; and two, in Chicago. My
boy is in Chicago.

Opinions

"The majority of the young people are just growing up. Lots of them are
not getting any raising at all."

Interviewer's Comment

Wise is between eighty-one and eighty-five years old. The data he gives
conflict, some of it indicating the earlier and some of it later years.

He doesn't talk much and has to be pumped. He doesn't lose the thread of
the discourse. His failure to talk on details of his early life seem to
the interviewer due to unwillingness rather than lack of memory. While
his age is advanced, his mind is sharp for one who has had such limited
training.

He has no definite means of support, but states that he has been
promised a pension in September--he means old age assistance.

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Lucy Withers, Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 86

I was born 5-1/2 miles from Abbeville, South Carolina, in sight of
Little Mountain. I do remember the Civil War. I never seen them fight.
They come to about twenty or thirty miles from where I lived. They
didn't bother much in the parts where I lived. All the white men folks
went to war. My mama's master was Edward Roach and his wife was Miss
Sarah Roach. My papa's master was Peter Radcliff and Miss Nancy
Radcliff. They give me to her niece, Miss Jennie Shelitoe. When she
married she wanted me. After freedom I married. In 1866 we come to a big
farm close to Pine Bluff. Then we lived close to Memphis and I been
living here in Brinkley a long time.

The Ku Klux put down a Governor in South Carolina right after the war.
They rode everywhere night and day scaring everybody. They wouldn't let
no colored people hold office. That governor was a colored man. The Ku
Klux whipped both black and white folks. They run the Yankees plumb out
er that country.

No sir ree I never voted and I ain't never goner vote! Women is tearing
dis world up.

The ex-slaves was told that they would got things, different things. I
don't know what all. I know they didn't got nothing and when freedom
came they took their clothes and left. They scattered out and went to
different places. It was hard to get work and there was no money cept
what the Yankees give em. When they all got run off there was no money.

My h