ut in
their mouths and somebody workin' to get it there I tell you. There
ain't a lazy bone in me. I jes' give out purty nigh. I wash and iron
some when I ken get it.

"I got a hog and a garden. I ain't got nuthin' else. I don't own no
house, no place. I got a few chickens bout the place what eat up the
scraps what the pig don't get.

"I signed up three years ago. I don't get nuthin' now. What I scrape
round and make is all I has.

"I was born in June 1861. I don't recollect what day they said. Pear
lack it been so long. When it come to work I recken I is had a hard
time all my life. I never minded nuthin' till I got so slow and no
count."

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Saint Johnson
Izard Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: --
Occupation: Drayman

"As far as slavery is concerned I know nothing about it except as the
white people told me. My mother would ask me what they told me and I
would tell her that Miss Annie said I didn't have to call her father
'Master' any more. And she would say, 'No, you don't.'

"My father's name was Wiley Johnson. He was ninety years old when he
died. He was born in Cave Spring, Georgia, in Floyd County. My mother
was born in the same place. Both of them were Johnsons. They were
married during slavery times. I don't know what her name was before
she married.

"Anyway, I've told you enough. I've told you too much. How come they
want all this stuff from the colored people anyway? Do you take any
stories from the white people? They know all about it. They know more
about it than I do. They don't need me to tell it to them.

"I don't tell my age. I just say I was born after slavery. Then I
can't be bothered about all this stuff about records. Colored people
didn't keep any records. How they goin' to know when they were born or
anything? I don't believe in all that stuff.

"You know these young people as well as I do. They ain't nothin'.

"I ain't got nothin' to say about politics. You know what the truth
is. Why don't you say it? You don't need to hide behind my words.
You're educated and I'm not; you don't need to get anything from me.

"Yes, I had some schoolin'. But you know more about these things than
I do."

Interviewer's Comment

At first, I thought I wouldn't write this interview up; but afterwards
I thought: Maybe this interview will be of interest to those who want
the work done. It represents the attitude of a very