ut. I off'n think ob deze diff'nt men dat I wuk'd fuh but dey ez all
de'd. De las' job I had wuz buildin' fiers en odd jobs fuh a lady up
de street. She would gib me food en coal. She ez de'd now."

"I'se not able ter wuk now en all I has ez a small groc'ey order dat
de relief gibs me. Dey keep promisin' ter gib me de Old Age Pension en
I wish dey would hurry hit up."

_SUBJECT_
_SLAVE STORIES_

ROBERT FALLS
608 South Broadway
Knoxville, Tennessee

Interviewed by

Della Yoe, Foreman
Federal Writers' Project,
First District, WPA
Room # 215 Old YMCA Building
State and Commerce Streets.
Knoxville, Tennessee

Robert Falls was born on December 14, 1840, in the rambling one-story
shack that accomodated the fifteen slaves of his Old Marster,
[HW: Harry] Beattie Goforth, on a farm in Claiborne County, North
Carolina. His tall frame is slightly stooped, but he is not subjected
to the customary infirmities of the aged, other than poor vision and
hearing. Fairly comfortable, he is spending his declining years in
contentment, for he is now the first consideration of his daughter,
Mrs. Lola Reed, with whom he lives at #608 S. Broadway, Knoxville,
Tennessee. His cushioned rocking chair is the honor seat of the
household. His apology for not offering it to visitors, is that he is
"not so fast on his feet as he used to be."

Despite Uncle Robert's protest that his "mind comes and goes", his
memory is keen, and his sense of humor unimpaired. His reminiscences
of slave days are enriched by his ability to recreate scenes and
incidents in few words, and by his powers of mimicry. "If I had my
life to live over," he declares, "I would die fighting rather than be
a slave again. I want no man's yoke on my shoulders no more. But in
them days, us niggers didn't know no better. All we knowed was work,
and hard work. We was learned to say, 'Yes Sir!' and scrape down and
bow, and to do just exactly what we was told to do, make no difference
if we wanted to or not. Old Marster and Old Mistress would say, 'Do
this!' and we don' it. And they say, 'Come here!' and if we didn't
come to them, they come to us. And they brought the bunch of switches
with them."

"They didn't half feed us either. They fed the animals better. They
gives the mules, ruffage and such, to chaw on all night. But they
didn't give us nothing to chaw on. Learned us to steal, that's what
they done. Why we would take anything we could lay our hands on, when
we