ction with
our master.

"When the master came back from the war, they told the slaves they were
free. After slavery my people stayed on and worked on the old
plantation. They didn't get much. Something like fifty cents a day and
one meal. My folks didn't work on shares.

"Back there in North Carolina times got tight and it seemed that there
wasn't much doing. Agents came from Arkansas trying to get laborers. So
about seven or eight families of us emigrated from North Carolina. That
is how my folks got here.

"The Ku Klux were bad in North Carolina too. My people didn't have any
trouble with them in Arkansas, though. They weren't bothered so much in
North Carolina because of their owners. But they would come around and
see them. They came at night. We came to Arkansas in the winter of 1897.

"I went to public school after the war, in North Carolina. I didn't get
any further than the eighth grade. My father and mother didn't get any
schooling till after the war. They could read a little but they picked
it up themselves during slavery. I suppose their Master's children
learned it to them.

"My father never did see any army service. I have heard him speak of
seeing soldiers come through though. They looted the place and took
everything they wanted and could carry.

"When I first come to this state, I settled in Drew County and farmed. I
farmed for three years. During the time I was there, I got down sick
with slow fever. When I got over that I decided that I would move to
higher ground. There was a man down there who recommended Little Rock
and so I moved here. I have been here forty-nine years. That is quite a
few days.

"I belong to the Presbyterian Church and have been a member of that
church for fifty-five years. I have never gotten out publicly, but I
even do my little preaching round in the house here.

"When I came to Little Rock, I came in a very dull season. There wasn't
even a house to be rented. It was in the winter. I had to rent a room at
"Jones" hall on Ninth and Gaines streets and paid one dollar a day for
it. I stayed there about a month. Finally there was a vacant house over
on Nineteenth street and Common and I moved there. Then I commenced to
look for work and I walked the town over daily. No results whatever.
Finally I struck a little job with the contractor here digging ditches,
grubbing stumps, grading streets and so forth. I worked with him for
three years and finally I got a job with the st