54.

"I been workin' this mornin'. I been diggin' up the ground to bed up
some onions. No I don't work every day. Sometimes I feel ailin'--don't
feel like doin' nothin'.

"I wasn't big enough to 'member 'bout the war. All I 'member is seein'
the soldiers retirin' from the war. They come by my old master's
plantation. The Yankees was in front--they was the horsebackers. Then
come the wagons and then the southern soldiers comin' along in droves.

"I was born in Arkansas. My mother and father belonged to Dr. Jordan. He
was the biggest slaveholder in Arkansas. He was called the 'Nigger
Ruler'. If the overseer couldn't make a slave behave, the old doctor
went out with a gun and shot him. When the slaves on other plantations
couldn't be ruled, they was sold to Dr. Jordan and he ruled 'em or
killed 'em.

"I don't 'member much else 'bout my old master but I 'member my old
mistress. The last crop she made before freedom, she had two plantations
with overseers on 'em and on one plantation they didn't 'low no kind a
slave 'cept South Carlinans. But on the other plantation the slaves come
from different places.

"After the war we went to Texas and I 'member my old mistress come down
there to get her old colored folks to come back to Arkansas. Lots of 'em
went back with her. She called herself givin' 'em a home. I don't know
what she paid--I never heard a breath of that but she hoped 'em to get
back. I didn't go--I stayed in Texas and growed up and married there and
then come back to Arkansas in 1882.

"Oh yes'm--the Ku Klux was plentiful after peace. They went about
robbin' people.

"Some of the colored folks thought they was better off when they was
slaves. They was the ones that had good masters. Some of the masters
didn't 'low the overseers to 'buke the slaves and some wouldn't have
overseers.

"I never did vote for no President, just for home officers. I don't know
what to say 'bout not letting the colored folks vote now. They have to
pay taxes and 'spenses and I think they ought to have something to say
'bout things.

"'How did you lose your arm?' It was shot off. I got into a argument
with a fellow what owed me twenty-four dollars. He decided to pay me off
that way. That was when I was 'bout seventy. He's dead now.

"I think the people is more wickeder now. The devil got more chances
than he used to have and the people can't do right if they want to."

Name of interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Subject: Humor