ard that my grandpa used to make a
little something. He was a wagoneer you know. He would carry a little
extra on his load and sell it. His old master never did find it out.
People knew he had stole it, but they would buy it just the same.

"The old boss man came down in the quarters and told them they were free
when freedom came. Right after freedom they stayed there on the old
place for a year or more. My mother wasn't grown and she and my father
married after that. Afterwards they had kind of a fight to get away from
the old man. He was carrying them the same way he was going before the
War and they had a row (quarrel), and left him. I don't know just what
terms they worked on. I don't think they did themselves. They took just
what they could get and didn't know just how they was paid.

"If a man made a good crop, they would run him away and make him leave
his crops behind.

"My folks continued to farm all their lives. They had trouble with the
night riders. They had to vote like they were told. If you voted the
wrong way they would get behind you and run you off. There were some
folks who would take pay for voting and then vote different, and when
the night riders found it out, there would be trouble. I don't believe
in taking money for voting, and I don't believe in lying.

"My mother and father didn't get any schooling. That was allowed after
slavery, but it wasn't allowed in slavery time. They learned a little
from other people. They would slip and learn to read.

"My great-grandmother was considered pretty when she was young. She had
glossy black hair and was a little short. She was brownskin and had big
legs. Her master would take her out behind the field and do what he
wanted. When she got free, she gave both of her children away. She had
two children by him--a boy named Eli and a girl named Anna. She didn't
want them 'round her because they reminded her of him."

Interviewer's Comment

The subject did not wish to state her age. It is probably around
sixty-five. Her mother was married shortly after freedom. And eight
years is probably a liberal allowance for the distance of her birth from
emancipation.

Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person Interviewed: Henry Smith
702 Virginia, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 79
Occupation: Odd jobs

"Yes mam, I was here in slavery times. I was born in Tennessee on a
plantation near Jackson. I was eight years old when peace was declared.