Civil War, and I was about nine years old when the War ended. I was
about ten when my mother died and my father taken charge of me. I was
taken from South Carolina when I was about four years old and carried
into Georgia and stayed there until emancipation. My mother didn't tarry
long in Georgia after she was emancipated. She went back into South
Carolina; but she died in a short time, as I just said. Then my father
taken charge of me. I got married in South Carolina in 1885, and then I
came out here in 1886--to Arkansas. Little Rock was the first place I
came to. I didn't stay here a great while. I went down to the Reeder
farm on the Arkansas River just about sixteen miles above Pine Bluff. I
started share cropping but taken down sick. I never could get used to
drinking that bottom water. Then I went to Pine Bluff and went to work
with the railroad and helped to widen the gauge of the Cotton Belt Road.
Then the next year they started the Sewer Contract, and I worked in that
and I worked on the first water plant they started. In working with the
King Manufacturing Company I learned piping.

"I stayed in Pine Bluff sixteen years. My wife died August 1, 1901. A
couple of years after that, I came back to Little Rock, and have been
here ever since. I went to work on the Illinois Central Railroad just
across the river, which is now the Rock Island Railroad. After it became
the Rock Island, the bridge was built across the river east of Main
Street. They used to go over the old Baring Cross Bridge and had to pay
for it. The Missouri Pacific enjoined the Rock Island and wouldn't let
it go straight through, so they built their own bridge and belted the
city and went on around. I got stricken down sick in 1930 and haven't
been able to do heavy work since. You know, a plumber and steam-fitter
have to do awful heavy work.

"I get a little old age assistance from the state. They are supposed to
give me commodities but my card got out and they ain't never give me
another one. I went down to see about it today, and they said they'd
mail me another one."

How the Little Children Were Fed

"My mother was always right in the house with the white people and I was
fed just like I was one of their children. They even done put me to bed
with them. You see, this discrimination on color wasn't as bad then as
it is now. They handled you as a slave but they didn't discriminate
against you on account of color like they do now. Of course, the