no harder
'en we do now if you have a living.

"Master waited till all there. He had a horn made sorter like a bugle
for that business. Called us to our meals. We stayed a year. Went to his
brother's one year, then to Major Lane's big farm. We had to work about
the same as b'fore freedom. Not much change.

"The Ku Klux come 'round right smart. Some had on skin coverings, cow
heads and horns. Some wore white sheets and black dresses on white
horses. They was scary looking. They would whoop and kill too. I was too
scared to get caught off at night.

"Mother died. I was traveling about. I spent thirteen months in
Mississippi. Three winters right in Memphis. I married in Mississippi. I
left two daughters in Georgia. My wife died. I come to Arkansas in 1902.
I live all alone.

"This present generation is traveling too fast. It-is-to-be. Fast
traveling and education. Times not good as it always have been b'fore
that last war (World War). When the white folks start jowing we black
folks suffers. It ain't a bit our fault. Education causes the black man
to see he is bit (cheated) but he better not say a word. It very good
thing if it is used right. Fast traveling is all right in its place. But
too many is traveling and they all want to be going. We got into pretty
fast time of it now. It-is-to-be and it's getting shoved on faster."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Ida Rigley, Forrest City, Arkansas
Age: 82

"I was born in Richmond, Virginia. Colonel Radford and Emma Radford
owned my mother. They had a older girl, Emma and Betty and three boys. I
called her Miss Betty.

"My mother was Sylvia Jones and she had five children. Bill Jones was my
father. He was a born free man and a blacksmith at Lynchburg, Virginia
in slavery times.

"He asked Colonel Radford could he come to see my mama and marry her.
They had a wedding in Colonel Radford's dining room and a preacher on
the place married them. They told me. My father was a Presbyterian
preacher. I heard papa preach at Lynchburg. He had a white principle but
no white blood. I never knew him very much till long after freedom.

"Miss Betty Radford was raising me for a house girl. I was younger
than her children. Mother was a weaver for all on the place. Old aunt
Caroline was the regular cook but my mother helped to cook for hands he
hired at busy seasons of the year. My sisters lived in the quarters and
mama slept with them. She helped them. T