“Pa was a slave too.  He was a low man.  He was a real bright man.  He was brighter than I is.  He belong to a widow woman named Tedford.  He renamed his self after freedom.  He took the name Brown ’stead of Tedford.  I never heard him say why he wasn’t satisfied with his own name.  He was a soldier.  He worked for the Yankees.

“After the War pa and ma got back together and lived together till she died.  There was five days’ difference in their deaths.  They died of pneumonia.  He was 64 years old and she was 54 years old.  I was at home when pa come from the War.  All my sisters was light, one sister had sandy hair like pa.  She was real light.  Ma was a good all ’round woman.  She cooked more than anything else.  She nursed.  Dr. Harrison told her to stay till her husband come back or all the time if he didn’t ever come back.  Ma never worked in the field.  When pa come he moved us on a place to share crop.  Ma never worked in the field.  He was buying a home in Grant County.  He started to Mississippi and stopped close to Helena and ten or twelve miles from Marianna.  He had a soldier friend wouldn’t let him go.  He told him this was a better country.  He decided to stay down in here.

“I heard a whole heap about the Ku Klux.  One time when a crowd was going to church, we heard horse’s feet coming; sound like they would run over us.  We all got clear out of reach so they wouldn’t run over us.  They had on funny caps was all I could see, they went so fast.  We give them the clear road and they went on.  That is all I ever seen of the Ku Klux.

“I seen Dr. Harrison’s wife.  She was a little old lady but we left after I went there.

“I used to sew for the public.  Yes, white and colored folks.  I learnt my own self to sew.  I never had but one boy in my life.  He died at seven weeks old.  I raised a stepson.  I married twice.  I married at home both times.  Just a quiet marriage and a colored preacher married me both times.

“The present conditions is hard.  I want things and can’t get ’em.  If I had the strength to hold out to work I could get along.

“The present generation—­young white and black—­blinds me.  They turns corners too fast.  They going so fast they don’t have time to take advice.  They promise to do better but they don’t.  They do like they want to do and don’t tell nobody till they done it.  I say they just running way with their selves.

“I get $8 and a little help along.  I’m thankful for it.  It is a blessing I tell you.”

Interviewer:  Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed:  Henry Nelson
                    904 E. Fifth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age:  About 70

“My name is Henry Nelson.  I was born in Arkansas—­Crittenden County near Memphis, Tennessee.  I was born not far from Memphis but on this side.

“My mother’s name was Adeline Taylor.  That was her old slavery folks’ name.  She was a Taylor before she married my father—­Nelson.  My father’s first name was Green.  I don’t remember none of my grandparents.  My father’s mother died before I come to remember and I know my mother’s mother died before I could remember.