“Don’t tell me ’bout old Jeff Davis—­he oughta been killed.  Abraham Lincoln thought what was right was right and what was wrong was wrong.  Abraham was a great man cause he was the President.  When the rebels ceded from the Union he made ’em fight the North.  Abraham Lincoln studied that and he had it all in his mind.  He wasn’t no fighter but he carried his own and the North give ’em the devil.  Grant was a good man too.  They tried to kill him but he was just wrapped up in silver and gold.

“I remember when the stars fell.  Yes, honey, I know I was ironin’ and it got so dark I had to light the lamp.  Yes, I did!

“It’s been a long time and my mind’s not so good now but I remember old Comer put us through.  Good-bye and God bless you!”

Interviewer:  Samuel S. Taylor
Subject:  Ex-slavery
Story:  Birth, Parents, Master.

Person Interviewed:  J.M.  Parker, (dark brown)
Address:  1002 Ringo Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Occupation:  Formerly a carpenter
Age:  76
[TR:  Information moved from bottom of first page.]

“I was born in South Carolina, Waterloo, in Lawrence County, [HW:  Laurens Co.] in 1861, April 5th.  Waterloo is a little town in South Carolina.  I believe that fellow shot the first gun of the war when I was born.  I knew then I was going to be free.  Of course that is just a lie.  I made that up.  Anyway I was born in 1861.

“Colonel Rice was our master.  He was in the war too.  The name Parker came in by intermarriage, you see.  My mother belonged to Rice.  She could have been a Simms before she married.  My father’s name was Edmund Parker.  He belonged to the Rices also.  That was his master; Colonel Rice and him were boys together.  He went down there to Charleston, South Carolina to build breastworks.  While down there, he slipped off and brought a hundred men away from Charleston back to Lawrence County where the men was that owned them.  He was a business man, father was.  Brought ’em all through the swamps.  They were slaves and he brought ’em all back home.  They all followed his advice.

“My mother’s name was Rowena Parker after she married.

“Colonel Rice was a pretty fair man—­a pretty good fellow.  He was a colonel in the war and stood pretty high.  Bound to be that way by him being a colonel.  Seemed like him and my father had about the same number of kids.  He thought there was nobody like my mother.  He never whipped the slaves himself but his overseer would sometimes jump on them.  The Rice family was very good to our people.  The men being gone they were left in the hands of the mistress.  She never touched anybody.  She never had no reason to.

Pateroles

“Patterollers didn’t bother us, but we were in that country.  During the war, most of the men that amounted to anything were in the war and the patrolers didn’t bother you much.  The overseer didn’t have so much power over me than.  That pretty well left the colored people to come up without being abused during the war.  The white folks was forced to go to the war.  They drafted them just like they do now.  They’d shoot a po’ white man if he didn’t come.