“There was a big old oak tree that stood in the corner of the yard.  People say that tree was a hundred years old.  We could not get no wood, so master had the boys to cut the big old oak tree for wood.

“Rabbits had a scant time.  The boys would go out and track six or eight rabbits at a time.  We had rabbits of all descriptions.  We had rabbits for breakfast, rabbits for dinner, rabbits for supper time.  We had fried rabbits, baked rabbits, stewed rabbits, boiled rabbits.  Had rabbits, rabbits, rabbits the whole six or eight weeks the snow stayed on the ground.

“I remember when I was about twelve years old a woman had two small children.  She went away from home and for fear that the children would get hurt on the outside she put them in the house and locked the door.  In some way they got a match and struck it and the house caught fire.  All the neighbors were a long ways off and by the time they reched the house it had fallen in.  Finally the mother came and looked for her children and asked the neighbors did they save them.  They said no, they did not know they were in the house.  In fact they were too late anyway.  So the fire was still hot and they had to wait for the ashes to cool and when the ashes got cool they went looking for the children and found the burned buttons that were on their little clothes, so they began raking around in the ashes and at last found each of their little hearts that had not burned, but the little hearts were still jumping and the man who found the hearts picked them up in his hand and stood speechless.  He became so nervous he could not move.  Their little hearts just quivered.  They let their hearts lay out for a couple of days and when they buried their hearts they was still jumpin’.  That was a sad time.  From that day to this day I never lock no one up in the house.”

Interviewer:  Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed:  Henry Andrew (Tip) Williams
                    Biscoe, Arkansas
Age:  Born in 1854, 86

“I was born three and one-half miles from Jackson, North Carolina.  I was born a slave.  I was put to work at six years old.  They started me to cleaning off new ground.  I thinned corn on my knees with my hands.  We planted six or seven acres of cotton and got four or five cents a pound.  Balance we planted was something to live on.  My master was Jason and Betsy Williams.  He had a small plantation; the smaller the plantation the better they was to their slaves.

“Jim Johnson’s farm joined.  He had nine hundred ninety-nine niggers.  It was funny but every time a nigger was born one died.  When he bought one another one would die.  He was noted as having nine hundred ninety-nine niggers.  It happened that way.  He was rough on his place.  He had a jail on his place.  It was wood but close built.  Couldn’t get out of there.  Put them in there and lock them up with a big padlock.  He kept a male hog in the jail to tramp and walk over