“I come here in 1892 and I been here ever since—­forty-six years.  Oh, whole lots of these white folks know me.

“I worked at the Standard Lumber Company and Bluff City Lumber Company and Dilley’s Foundry.  Then I went to the oil mill.  I was the order man.  I was the best lumber grader on the place.

“Course I knows lots of white folks and they knows me too, I done a heap of work ’round here in different places in forty-six years.

“I went to school a little but I didn’t learn nothin’.

“My mother said they come and pressed my daddy in the War.  ’Course I don’t know nothin’ ’bout that but my mother told me.

“Now, what is this you’re gettin’ up?  Well, I was born in slavery times.  You know I was when my daddy was in the War.

“Oh Lord yes, I voted.  I voted Republican.  I didn’t know whether it would do any good or not but I just voted ’cause I had a chance.  My name’s been in Washington for years ’cause I voted, you know.

“My way is dark to the younger generation now.  I don’t have much dealin’ with them.  They are more wiser.  Education has done spread all over the country.

“God intended for every man in the world to have a living and to live for each other but too many of ’em livin’ for themselves.  But everything goin’ to work out right after awhile.  God’s goin’ to change this thing up after awhile.  You can’t rush him.  He can handle these people.  After he gets through, with this generation, I think he’s goin’ to make a generation that will serve him.”

Interviewer:  Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed:  Wester Thomas, Marianna, Arkansas
Age:  79

“I was born in Sumpter County (Mississippi?).  My mother was sold to Dr. and Miss Kate Hadley.  My mother’s name was Lettie Williams and she married Wesley Thomas.  My name is Wester Thomas.  I’m seventy-nine years old.  Mistress Kate raised me.  Dr. Hadley had more than a hundred slaves.

“I can tell you about freedom.  Two men in uniforms come and told master.  He had the farm bell rung.  They told them the Civil War was over.  They was free.  The niggers went back to their quarters.  Some moved later.  My folks never left.  Dr. Hadley died.  Mistress Kate took all that wanted to go to Louisiana then.  We cleared up land down there.  Later I farmed.”

Interviewer:  Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed:  Annie Thompson, Biscoe, Arkansas
Age:  55?

“I was raised by my father’s sister and my grandmother.  Later on I come to my daddy here and my stepmother had other children.  I soon married.  I’ve had a hard time.

“My grandparents was Harriett Edwards and William Snow.  Grandmother said they were nice to her.  She was Master Edwards’ house girl.  She cooked and was a spinner.  When I was a girl she had her spinning-wheel and she taught me to spin and knit.  She spun thread for caps, mittens, stockings, socks, suspenders, and coats.  We knit all those things when I was a girl.  Grandmother said the white folks never whooped her.  Grandmother was her old master’s own girl and she nursed with one of his white wife’s children.  She was real light.