“I never will forgit de Klu Klux Klan.  Never will [TR:  “I” deleted] forgit de way dat horn soun’ at night when dey was a-goin’ after some mean Nigger.  Us’d all run an’ hide.  Us was livin’ on de Troup place den, near old Hamilton, in one o’ de brick houses back o’ de house whar dey used to keep de slaves.  Marse Alec Troup was one o’ de Klu Klux’s an’ so was Marse Thad Willis dat lived close by.  Dey’d make plans together sometime an’ I’d hear ’em.  One time dey caught me lis’nin’, but dey didn’ do nothin’ to me, ’cause dey knowed I warnt gwine tell.  Us was all good Niggers on his place.

“Lawd, Miss, dese here young folks today is gwine straight to de Devil.  All dey do all day an’ all night is run ‘round an’ drink corn likker an’ ride in automobiles.  I’se got a grand-daughter here, an’ she’s dat wil’.  I worries a right smart ’bout her, but it don’t do no good, ’cause her mammy let her do jus’ lak she please anyhow.

“Den I tells you, de one thing I worries ‘bout mos’.  Dat is de white folks what lives here ’mongst de Niggers.  You know what kinda folks dey is, an’ it sho’ is bad influence on ’em.  You knows Niggers aint s’posed to always know de right from de wrong.  Dey aint got Marsters to teach ‘em now.  For de white folks to come down here an’ do lak dey do, I tells you, it aint right.  De quality white folks ought-a do somethin’ bout it.

“I’s had a right hard life, but I puts my faith in de Lawd an’ I know ever’thing gwine come out all right.  I’s lived a long life an’ will soon be a hund’ed, I guess.  I’s glad dat slav’ry is over, ’cause de Bible don’t say nothin’ ’bout it bein right.  I’s a good Christian.  I gits sort-a res’less mos’ o’ de time an’ has to keep busy to keep from thinkin’ too much.”

Pet Franks, Ex-Slave, Monroe County
FEC
Mrs. Richard Kolb
Rewrite, Pauline Loveless
Edited, Clara E. Stokes

Pet Franks
Aberdeen, Mississippi

Uncle Pet, 92 year old ex-slave, is the favorite of Ackers’ Fishing Lodge which is situated 14 miles north of Aberdeen, Monroe County.  He is low and stockily built.  His ancestry is pure African.  Scarcely topping five feet one inch, he weighs about 150 pounds.  Though he walks with the slightest limp, he is still very active and thinks nothing of cooking for the large groups who frequent the lodge.  He has his own little garden and chickens which he tends with great care.

“I knows all ‘bout slav’ry an’ de war.  I was right dere on de spot when it all happened.  I wish to goodness I was back dere now, not in de war, but in de slav’ry times.  Niggers where I lived didn’ have nothin’ to worry ’bout in dem days.  Dey aint got no sense now-a-days.  All dey b’lieves in now is drinkin’ an’ carousin’.  Dey aint got no use for nothin’ but a little corn likker an’ a fight.  I dont b’lieve in no such gwine-on, no sir-ree.  Dat’s de reason I stays out here by myse’f all de time.  I don’t want to have nothin’ to do wid ’em.  I goes to town ’bout once a mont’ to git s’pplies, but I don’ never fool ‘roun’ wid dem Niggers den.  I gits ‘long wid my white folks, too.  All da mens an’ wimmens what comes out to de club is pow’ful good to me.