e yoke, she couldn't find
it. Negroes were all going through every which way then. Peace was
declared before she could get another chance. Word came then that the
government would carry all the slaves where they wanted to go. Mother
came to Little Rock in a government wagon.

"She left Cordelia. Cordelia was her daughter by Archie Hays. Cordelia
was supposed to join us when the government wagon came along but she
went to sleep. One colored woman was coming to get in the wagon and
her white folks caught her and made her go back. Them Yankees got off
their horses and went over there and made them turn the woman loose
and let her come on. They were rough and they took her on to Little
Rock in the wagon.

"The Yankees used to come looking for horses. One time Master Archie
had sent the horses off by one of the colored slaves who was to stay
at his wife's house and hide them in the thicket. During the night,
mother heard Archie Hays hollering. She went out to see what was the
matter. The Yankees had old Archie Hays out and had guns poked at his
breast. He was hollering, 'No sir. I don't.' And mother came and said,
'Reuben, get up and go tell them he don't know where the horses is.'
Father got up and did a bold thing. He went out and said, 'Wait,
gentlemen, he don't know where the horses is, but if you'll wait till
tomorrow morning, he'll send a man to bring them in.' I don't know how
they got word to him but he brought them in the next morning and the
Yankees taken them off.

"Once a Rebel fired a shot at a Yankee and in a few minutes, our place
was alive with them. They were working like ants in a heap all over
the place. They took chickens and everything on the place.

Master Archie didn't have no sons large enough for the army. If he
had, they would have killed him because they would have thought that
he was harboring spies."

Interviewer's Comment

Mrs. A. (Adrianna) W. Kerns is a sister to Charles Green Dortch. Cross
reference; see his story.

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: George Key,
Forrest City, Arkansas
Age: 70 plus

"I was born in Fayette County, Tennessee. My mother was Henrietta
Hair. She was owned by David Hair. He had a gang of children. I was
her only child. She married just after the surrender she said. She
married Henry Key.

"One thing I can tell you she told me so often. The Yankees come by
and called her out of the cabin at the quarters.