"The biggest thing I can tell you ever happened to us more than I told
you was in 1878 I had yellow fever. Dr. Milton Pruitt come to see me.
The next day his brother come to see me. Dr. Milton died the next day.
I got well. At Grand Junction both black and white died. Some of both
color got well. A lot of people died.

"How am I making a living? I don't make one. Mr. Ashly lets me live in
a house and gives me scrap meat. I bottom chairs or do what I can. I
past heavy work. The Welfare don't help me. I farmed, railroaded
nearly all my life. Public work this last few years."

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Oscar Felix Junell
1720 Brown Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 60

"My father's name was Peter Junell, Peter W. Junell. I don't know what
the W. was for. He was born in Ouachita County near Bearden, Arkansas.
Bearden is an old town. It is fourteen miles from Camden. My dad was
seventy-five years old when he died. He died in 1924. He was very
young in the time of slavery. He never did do very much work.

"His master was named John Junell. That was his old master. He had a
young master too, Warren Junell. His old master given him to his young
master, Warren. My father's mother and father both belonged to the
Junells. His mother's name was Dinah, and his father's name was
Anthony. All the slaves took their last names after their owners. They
never was sold, not in any time that my father could remember.

"As soon as my father was large enough to go to walkin' about, his old
master given him to his son, Master Warren Junell. Warren would carry
him about and make him rassle (wrestle). He was a good rassler. As far
as work was concerned, he didn't do nothing much of that. He just
followed his young master all around rasslin.

"His masters was good to him. They whipped slaves sometimes, but they
were considered good. My father always said they was good folks. He
never told me how he learnt that he was free.

"Pretty well all the slaves lived in log cabins. Even in my time,
there was hardly a board house in that county. The food the slaves ate
was mostly bread and milk--corn bread. Old man Junell was rich and
had lots of slaves. When he went to feed his slaves, he would feed
them jus like hogs. He had a great long trough and he would have bread
crumbled up in it and gallons of milk poured over the bread, and the
slaves would get round it and eat. Sometimes they would get