“I think times is queer.  I work and makes the best of ’em. (Ten dollars a month house rent.) I work all the time washing and ironing. (She has washed for the same families years and years.  She is a light mulatto—­ed.)

“Young folks is lost respect for the truth.  Not dependable.  That is their very worst fault, I think.

“No-oom, I wouldn’t vote no quicker ’en I’d smoke a cigarette.  But I haben never smoked narry one.”

Interviewer:  Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Subject:  Ex-Slaves
Story:—­Information

This information given by:  Winnie Davis (C)
Place of residence:  304 E. Twenty-First Street
                    Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Occupation:  None
Age:  100
[TR:  Personal information moved from bottom of first page.]

“Katie Butler was my old missis ’fore I married my husband.  His name David Davis.  I cooked for Jeff Davis and took care of his daughter, Winnie.  I stayed with old missis, Jeff Davis’ wife, till she died.  She made me promise I’d stay with her.  That was in Virginia.”

(I have made three trips trying to get information and pictures of Winnie Davis.  Her granddaughter said that a good many years ago when Winnie’s mind was good, she was down town shopping and that when she gave her name, the clerk said, “Were you named after Jeff Davis’ daughter?” and that Winnie replied, “She must have been named after me ’cause I cooked for Jeff Davis ’fore she was born.”

Her mind is not very good at times, but the day I took her picture, I asked who she used to cook for and she said, “Jeff Davis.”

She is rather deaf, nearly blind and toothless, but can get around the house quite well.  The neighbors say that she has been a hard worker and of a very high-strung temperament.

The granddaughter, Mattie Sneed, says her grandmother said she was sold in Virginia when she was eight years old.)

Interviewer:  Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed:  Leroy Day (c)
Age:  80
Home:  123 N. Walnut Street, Pine Bluff, Ark.

“Good Lord yes, lady, I was here in slavery days.  I remember my old marster had an overseer that whipped the people pretty rapid.

“I remember when the soldiers—­the Yankees—­come through, some said they was takin’ things.

“Old Marster, his name was Joe Day, he was good to us.  He seemed to be a Christian man and he was a Judge.  They generally called him Judge Day.  I never seen him whip nobody and never seen him have no dispute.  I tell you if he wasn’t a Christian, he looked like one.

“I was born in Georgia and I can remember the first Governor we had after freedom.  His name was Governor Bullock.  I heard it said the people raised a lot of sand because they said he was takin’ the public money.  That was when Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia.

“I used to vote after freedom.  I voted Republican.  I went to school a little after the war and then emigrated to Louisiana and Arkansas.