When de Wah broke out we could heah li’l things bein said.  We couldn’ make out.  So we begin tuh move erbout.  Later we learnt we wuz runnin fum de wah.  In runnin we run intuh a bunch uv soldiers dat had got kilt.  Oh dat wuz terrible.  Aftuh mah brudders foun out dat dey wuz fightin tuh free us dey stole hosses an run erway tuh keep fum bein set free.  Aftuh we got tuh Morris Creek hit wuz bloody an dar wuz one uv de hosses turnin roun an roun in de watuh wid his eyes shot out.  We nevah saw nuthin else uv Joe nor Henry nor de othuh horse from dat day tuh dis one.  But we went on an on till we come tuh a red house and dat red house represented free.  De white fokes wouldn go dat way cause dey hated tuh give us up.  Dey turnt an went de othuh way but hit wuz too late.  De news come dat Mr. Lincoln had signed de papuhs dat made us all free an dere wuz some ’joicing ah tells yo.  Ah wuz a grown woman at dat time.  Ole Moster Amos brought us on as fur as Fo’dyce an turnt us a loose.  Dat’s wha’ dey settled.  Some uv de slaves stayed wid em an some went tuh othuh places.  Me an mah sistuh come tuh Camden an settled.  Ah mahried George Morris.  We havn’ seen our pa an ma since we wuz ’vided and since we wuz chillun.  When we got tuh Camden and settled down we went tuh work an sont back tuh de ole country aftuh ma an pa.  Enroute tuh dis country we come through Tennessee an ah membuh comin through Memphis an Pine Bluff to Fordyce.

As we wuz comin we stopped at de Mississippi Rivuh.  Ah wuz standin on de bank lookin at de great roll uv watuh high in de air.  Somebody snatched me back and de watuh took in de bank wha ah wuz standin.  Yo cound’n stand too close tuh de rivuh ’count uv de waves.

Der wuz a col’ wintuh and at night we would gather roun a large camp fire an play sich games as “Jack-in-de-bush cut him down” an “Ole gray mule-out ride him.”  Yaul know dem games ah know.  An in de summer times at night we played Julands.  On our way tuh Arkansas we drove ox-teams, jinnie teams, donkey teams, mule teams an horse teams.  We sho had a good time.

Interviewer:  Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed:  Emma Morris, Forrest City, Arkansas
Age:  71

“My parents was Jane and Sam McCaslin.  They come from close to Atlanta, Georgia to Hernando, Mississippi after slavery.  Ma was heired and they bought pa before they left North Carolina.  They bought pa out of a nigger drove after he was grown.  He raised tobacco and corn.  Pa helped farm and they raised hogs.  He drove hogs to sell.  He didn’t say where they took the hogs, only they would have to stay up all night driving the hogs, and they rode horses and walked too and had shepherd dogs to keep them in a drove.

“Pa was a Böwick (B(our)ick) but I never heard him say nothing bout Master Bowick, so I don’t know his other name.  He said they got in a tight [TR:  missing word?] and had to sell some of the slaves and he being young would bring more than one of the older men.  He was real black.  Ma was lighter but not very light.