been pretty good to me 'cause I done what they told me.

"I went to school a little 'long about '70. I learnt how to read and
kept on till I could write a little.

"I used to vote 'til they stopped us. I used to vote right along, but I
stopped foolin' with it. 'Course we can vote in the president election
but I got so I couldn't see what ticket I was votin', so I stopped
foolin' with it.

"I farmed till 'bout '94, then I worked at the compress and brick work."

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: J.T. Tims
111 Mosaic Temple, Ninth and Broadway
Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 86
Occupation: Cook, waiter, and farmer

"I was born in Jefferson County, Mississippi in 1853. That would make me
eighty-six years old. I was born six miles from Fayette--six miles east
of Fayette. I was eighty-six years old the eleventh day of September.

"My father's name was Daniel Tims, and my mother's name was Ann Tims. My
mother was born in Lexington, Kentucky. Ma's been dead years and years
ago, and my father is gone too. My mother's name before she married was
----; she she told it to us all right but I just never can think of it.

"I don't know the name of my mother's master. But my father's master
was named Blount Steward. Pa was born on Blount's plantation and Blount
bought my ma because they brought her from Kentucky for sale. They had
her for sale just like you would sell hogs and mules. Then my father saw
her and liked her and married her. She was a slave too.

Master

"Blount Steward was kinder good. He was very well till the war
started--the Federal War. Miss Ann went to whip me for nothing.

Whippings

"I was carrying her daughter to school every day except Saturdays and
Sundays. One day, Miss Ann was off and I was at the back steps playing
and she decided to whip me. I told her I hadn't done nothing but she put
my head between her legs and started to beatin' me. And I bit her legs.
She lemme loose and hollered. Then she called for William to come and
beat me. William was one of the colored slaves. William come to do it.
Ma had been peeping out from the kitchen watchin' the whole thing. When
William come up to beat me, she came out with a big carving knife and
told him, 'That's my child and if you hit him, I'll kill you.'

"Then she sent for Tully to come and whip me, I mean to whip my mother.
Tully was my young master. Tully came and said to my mother, 'I k