small, but
definite, minority. About five persons out of a hundred and fifty
contacted and more than eighty written up have taken this attitude.

Johnson is reputed to have been born in slavery, but he says not. He
had a high school education. He is a good man, wholesome in all his
contacts, despite the apparent intolerance of his private remarks to
the interviewer.

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Willie Johnson (female)
1007 Izard, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 71

"My father said he had a real good master. When he got up large enough
to work, his master learned him a trade. He learned the mechanic's
trade, such as blacksmithing and working in shops. He learned him all
of that. And then he learned him to be a shoemaker. You see, he
learned him iron work and woodworking too. And he never whipped him
during slavery time. Positively didn't allow that.

"My father's name was Jordan Kirkpatrick. His master was named
Kirkpatrick also. My father was born in Tennessee in Sumner County.

"My father married in slave time. You know, they married in slave
time. I have heard people talking about it. I have heard some people
say they married over 'gain when freedom came. My father had a
marriage certificate, and I didn't hear him say anything about being
married after freedom. I have seen the certificate lots of times. I
don't know the date of it. The certificate was issued in Sumner
County, Tennessee.

"My father and mother belonged to different masters. My mother's
master was a Murray. She had a good many people. Her name before she
married was Mary Murray. I don't know just how my mother and father
met. The two places weren't far apart. They lived a good distance from
each other though, and I remember hearing him tell how he had to go
across the fields to get to her house after he was through with the
day's work. The pateroles got after him once. They didn't catch him,
so they didn't do anything to him. He skipped them some way or
another.

"I have heard them say that before the slaves were set free the
soldiers were going 'round doing away with everything that they could
get their hands on. Just a while before they were set free, my father
took my mother and the children one night and slipped off. He went to
Nashville. That was during the War. It wasn't long after that till
everybody was set free. They never did capture him and get him back.

"During the War they went aroun