Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Sam Word
1122 Missouri, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 78

"I was born February 14, 1859. My birthplace was Arkansas County. Born
in Arkansas and lived in Arkansas seventy-eight years. I've kept up with
my age--didn't raise it none, didn't lower it none.

"I can remember all about the war, my memory's been good. Old man Bill
Word, that was my old master, had a son named Tom Word and long about in
'63 a general come and pressed him into the Civil War. I saw the Blue
and the Gray and the gray clothes had buttons that said C.S., that meant
secessioners. Yankees had U.S. on their buttons. Some of em come there
so regular they got familiar with me. Yankees come and wanted to hang
old master cause he wouldn't tell where the money was. They tied his
hands behind him and had a rope around his neck. Now this is the
straight goods. I was just a boy and I was cryin' cause I didn't want em
to hang old master. A Yankee lieutenant comes up and made em quit--they
was just the privates you know.

"My old master drove a ox wagon to the gold fields in California in '49.
That's what they told me--that was fore I was born.

"Good? Ben Word good? My God Amighty, I wish I had one-hundredth part of
what I got then. I didn't exist--I lived.

"Ben Word bought my mother from Phil Ford up in Kentucky. She was the
housekeeper after old mistress died. I'll tell you something that may be
amusing. Mother had lots of nice things, quilts and things, and kept em
in a chest in her little old shack. One day a Yankee soldier climbed in
the back window and took some of the quilts. He rolled em up and was
walking out of the yard when mother saw him and said, 'Why you nasty,
stinkin' rascal. You may you come down here to fight for the niggers,
and now you're stealin' from em.' He said, 'You're a G-D--liar, I'm
fightin' for $14 a month and the Union.'

"I member there was a young man named Dan Brown and they called him Red
Fox. He'd slip up on the Yankees and shoot em, so the Yankees was always
lookin' for him. He used to go over to Dr. Allen's to get a shave and
his wife would sit on the front porch and watch for the Yankees. One day
the Yankees slipped up in the back and his wife said, 'Lord, Dan,
there's the Yankees.' Course he run and they shot him. One of the
Yankees was tryin' to help him up and he said, 'Don't you touch me, call
Dr. Allen.' Yes ma'm, that was in Arkansas Count