s been--I came out of the
back door something hung their teeth in my ankle. I hollered and
looked down and it was a big old rattlesnake. I cried to my sister to
get him off of me. She was scared, so all I knew to do was run, jump
and holler. I ran about--oh, I don't know how far--with the snake
hanging to my ankle. The snake would not let me go, and it wasn't but
one thing for me to do and that was stop and pull the snake off of me.
I stopped and began pulling. I pulled and pulled and pulled and
pulled. The snake would not let me go. I began pulling again. After
awhile I got it off. When I pulled the snake away the snake brought
his mouth full of my meat. You talk about hurting, that like to have
killed me. That place stayed sore for twenty years before it healed
up. After it had been healed a couple years I then scratched the
place on a bob wire that inflamed it. That has been about 25 or 30
years ago and it's been sore ever since. Lord, I sure have been
suffering too. As soon as it gets well I am going back to Caledonia. I
am praying for God to let me live to get back home. Mack Ford is the
cause of me being up here.

"I was born in slavery time way before the War. My name is Millie
Johnson but they call me Bill."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Rosie Johnson,
Holly Grove, Arkansas
Age: 76

"I was born and raised on Mr. Dial's place. Mama belong to them. My
papa belong to Frank Kerr. His old mistress' name Jane Roberts in
Alabama. His folks come from Alabama. He say Jane Roberts wouldn't
sell her slaves. They was aired (heired) down mong the children. David
Dial had sebral children and mama was his house girl and nurse. They
was married in Dial's yard. My papa name Jacob Kerr. They took me to
Texas when I warn't but two years old. We rode in the covered wagon
where they hauled the provisions. They muster stayed a pretty good
time. I heard em talkin' what all they raised out there and what a
difference they found in the country. They wanted to go. They didn't
wanter be in the war they said. It was too close to suit them.

"I recken I was too small to recollect the Ku Klux. I heard em talk
bout how mean the Jayhaws was.

"I never voted. What business I got votin' I would jes' lak you tell
me? I don't believe in it no more'n nuthin'.

"I been farmin' all my life. I had fourteen children. Eight livin'
now. They scattered bout up North. It took meat and bread to p