“General Shelby and Captain Blank, they whetted their swords together when peace was declared.  Captain said, ’General, I’m not crazy and neither am I a coward.  I looked up and seem like a man was comin’ out the clouds, and so I’m goin’ to surrender.’

“Them cavalry men—­they’d say, ‘Ride!’ and how they’d go.

“I seen em when they was enlistin’.  Said they was goin’ to whip the Yankees and be back for breakfast in the morning.

“Marse Ben was goin’ and Miss Susan say, ’Virginia, if you think he ain’t goin’ come back you ought to kiss him goodbye.’  I said, ’I ain’t goin’ to kiss no white man.’

“Miss Fanny went up the ladder and sot rite on the roof and watched the soldiers goin’ by.  Yes’m.  Old master whipped me with a little peach stick cause I let Frankie—­we called her Frankie—­go up the ladder.  I said I couldn’t stop her cause she said if I told her papa, she and Becky goin’ to whip me.  He whipped Miss Fanny.  Old miss come in and say, ‘Ain’t you goin’ whip this nigger?’ She was mean as the devil.  Oh, God, yes.  She so mean she didn’t know what to do.  But old master kep her down.  You know some of these redheaded women, they just as devilish as they can be.  We had some neighbors, Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Daniels and old miss would be out there on the lawn quarrelin’ till it was just like a fog.  Us niggers would be out there listenin’.

“But I was always treated good.  You know if I had been beat over the head I couldn’t recollect things now.  My head ain’t been cracked up.  Nother thing.  I always been easy controlled.

“I never went to school a day.  After we was freed we stayed right on the Murphy place.  They paid us and we worked on the shares.  That’s the reason I say I done better when I was a slave.”

Interviewer:  Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed:  Senya Singfield
                    1613 W. Second Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age:  74

“I was born in Washington, Virginia right at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  My mother was sold when I was a babe in her arms.  She was sold three times.  I know one time when she had four children she was sold and one of my brothers was sold away unbeknownst to her.  Her old master sold her away from her mistress.  She was a cook and never was mistreated.

“I ain’t never been to school.  When I got big enough, my mother was a widow and I had to start out and make a living.  I’ve always been a cook.  Used to keep a boarding house, up until late years.  I’ve washed and ironed, sewed a right smart and quilted quilts.  I’ve done anything I could to turn an honest living.  Oh I’ve been through it but I’m still here.  I’ve been a widow over forty years.

“I think the folks nowdays are about run out.  They are goin’ too fast.  When I was comin’ up, I had to have some manners.  My mother didn’t low me to ’spute nobody.”

Interviewer:  Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed:  Peggy Sloan
                    2450 Howard Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age:  About 80, or more
Occupation:  Farming