“After papa died that left no one to work but mama and I tell you time brought about a change.  A house full of little children—­we lived from hand to mouth.  Not enough corn to feed one mule.  No syrup, no hogs, no cows.  Oh! we had a hard time.  I remember hearing my mama many a night ask God to help her through the struggle with her children.  The more my mama prayed the harder times got with her.  Wasn’t no churches around so she had to sing and pray at home.  The first Sunday School I remember going to was in 1892.  I went to school and got as high as fifth grade, then I ran away from my mama.

“Just becaise I let old bad man overpower me I got grown and mannish.  Couldn’t nobody tell me a thing.  I would steal, I would fight, I would lie.  I remember in 1896 I went to church—­that was about the fourth time I had been to church.  The preacher began preachin’ and I went outdoors and cut the harness off of his mule and broke one of his buggy wheels.  I went down in the woods and cut a cow just for meanness.  I stole a gun, and I would shoot anytime and anywhere, and nobody bothered me because they was scared to.  I stole chickens, turkeys and anything.

“I got in trouble more times than a little, so the last time I got in trouble some white people got me out and I worked for them to pay my fine out.  While working for them I made shoes.  They taught me to do carpenter work.  They taught me to paint; to paper; to cook; work in the field and do most anything.  I came to my senses while working with those people and they made a man out of me.  When I left there I was a first class carpenter.  Those white people was the cause of me getting independent.  I didn’t get no book sense, but if you get with some good white people, that will be worth more than an education.”

Interviewer:  Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed:  Emma Hulett Smith; Hazen, Arkansas
Age:  66

“I was the first colored baby born here or very near here.  There was only three houses in this town (Hazen).  I think they muster been log houses.

“My folks belong to Dr. Hazen.  He brought families from Tennessee.  When the war broke out he took em to Texas.  Then he brought em back here.  When they was freed I heard my mother say they worked on for him and his boys (Alex and Jim Hazen) and they paid them.  He was good to them.  They had er plenty always.  After the war they lived in good log houses and he give em land and lumber for the church.  Same church we got cept a storm tore it down and this one built in place of it.  He let em have a school.  Same place it stands now.  My mother (Mandy Hulett) got a Union pension till she died.  She cooked at the first hotel in Hazen for John Lane.  She washed and ironed till she died.  We girls helped and we wash and iron all we can get now.  None of us not on relief (Fannie nor Emma).  I can’t wash no more.  My hands and arms swell up with rheumatism.  I still iron all I can get.