id of dem patrollers. Used
to say, 'If you don't watch out de patrollers'll git you.' Dey'd catch
de slaves and tie em up to a tree or a pos' and whip em wid buggy whips
and rawhides.

"Some of de slaves was promised land and other things when dey was
freed, and some wasn't promised nothin'. Some got land and a span of
mules, and some didn't get nothin'. No suh, my daddy didn't farm none at
first after he was freed because he didn't have no money to buy land,
but he done odd jobs here and there till he come to Arkansas seven or
eight years after the War.

"Yes, I owns my own home; been livin' in it for ten years, since I've
been workin' as janitor at dis Central Presbyterian Church. I belongs to
de Missionary Baptis' Church, but my parents were both Methodists.

"Sure did have lots of good songs in de old days, like 'Old Ship of
Zion' and 'On Jordan's Stormy Banks.' Used to have one that begins
'Those that 'fuse to sing never knew my God.' It was a purty piece; and
then there was another one about a 'Rough, rocky road.'

"De young people today has much better opportunities than when I was a
child, and much better than dey had in slavery days, because dar ain't
no patrollers to whip em. Most of em dese days has purty good behavior,
and I think dey're better than in de old days.

"I has always voted regularly since I come of age--votes de Republican
ticket. Can't read but a little, but I never had any trouble about
votin'."

NOTE: George Govan is an intelligent Negro, fairly neat in his dress,
very tall and erect in stature. Brogue quite noticeable, and occasional
idioms that make his interview interesting and personal.

#712
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Julia Grace
819 N. Spruce Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 75

"I was seventy-four this last past fourth of July. I was born in Texas.
My mother was sent to Texas to keep from bein' freed.

"Ad March and Spruce McCrary is the onliest white folks I remember bein'
with. I don't know whether they was our owners or not.

"My father was sent to North Carolina and I never did see him no more.

"After freedom they brought us back here from Texas and we worked on the
McCrary plantation.

"In slavery days mama said she and my father stayed in the woods most of
the time. That's when they was whippin' 'em.

"My mother come from Richmond, Virginia. Petersburg was her town. She
belonged to the Wellses o