their master. They told the Yankees 'yes' 'cause they was afraid
they would be run off and no place to go. They said Master Hood paid
them well for their work at cotton selling time. He never promised
them nothing. She said he never told one of them to leave or to stay.
He let 'em be. I reckon they got fed. I wore cotton sack dresses. It
wasn't bagging. It was heavy stiff cloth.

"Mother and her second husband come to Forrest City. They hoped they
could do better. I come too. I worked in the field all my whole life
'cepting six years I worked in a laundry. I washed and ironed. I am a
fine ironer. If I was younger I could get all the mens' shirts I could
do now. I do a few but I got neuralgia in my arms and shoulders.

"I don't believe in talking 'bout my race. They always been lazy folks
and smart folks, and they still is. The present times is good for me.
I'm so thankful. I get ten dollars and some help, not much. I don't go
after it. I let some that don't get much as I get have it. I told 'em
to do that way."

Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: William Jackson
Route 6, Box 81, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 84

"Me? Well, I was born July 12, 1853. Now you can figure that up.

"I was sold four times in slavery times. I was sold through the nigger
traders and you know they didn't keep you long.

"I was born in Tennessee, raised in Mississippi, and been here in
Arkansas up and down the Arkansas River ever since I was fifteen.

"A fellow bought me in Tennessee and sold me to a fellow named Abe
Collins in Mississippi. He sold me to Dr. Maloney and then Winn and
Trimble in Hempstead County bought me. They run a tanyard.

"I went to school one day in my life. My third master's children
learned me my ABC's in slavery times. I'm not educated but I can read.
Read the Bible and something like that.

"The Ku Klux run me one night. They come to the door and I went out
the window. They went to my master's tanyard in broad open day and
took leather. Oh, I been all through the roughness. But the Lord has
blessed me ever since I been in this world. I can see good and hear
good and get about.

"I come here to Arkansas with some refugees, and I been up and down
the river ever since.

"In slavery times I had plenty to eat, such as 'twas. Had biscuits on
Sunday made out of shorts.

"I lived with one man, Dr. Maloney, who was pretty cruel. I run away
from him once, but he caught me f