freed 'bout two years. They took care of me; I was
raised motherless.

"I farmed all my life. Never done public work two weeks in my life.
Don't know what it is.

"Old master had them blue back spellers and 'fore freedom sometimes
he'd make us learn our ABC's.

"And he'd let you go to church too. He'd ask if you got 'ligion and
say, 'Now, when the preacher ask you, go up and give him your hand and
then go to the back.' In them days, didn't have any but the white
folks' church. But I was pretty rough in them days and I didn't j'ine.

"But I tell you, you'd better not leave the plantation without a pass
or them paddyrollers would make you shout. If they kotch you and you
didn't have a pass, a whippin' took place right there.

"Oh Lord, that's been a long time. I sits here sometimes and looks
back and think it's been a long time, but I'm still livin'.

"I've always tried to keep out of trouble. 'Co'se I've had some pretty
tough times. I ain't never been 'rested fer nothin'. I ain't never
been inside of a jail house. I've had some kin folks in there though.

"I've been a preacher forty years. Don't preach much now. My lungs
done got decayed and I can't hold up. Some people thinks preachin' is
an easy thing but it's not.

"Prettiest thing I ever saw when the Yankees was travelin' was the
drums and kettledrums and them horses. It was the prettiest sight I
ever saw. Them horses knowed their business, too. You couldn't go up
to 'em either. They had gold bits in their mouths and looked like
their bridles was covered with gold. And Yankees sittin' up there with
a sword.

"Old boss had a fine saddle horse and you know the Yankees had a old
horse with the footevil and you know they turned him loose and took
old boss's saddle horse. He didn't know it though; he was in the
woods.

"I believe there is people that can give you good luck. I know a woman
that told me that I was goin' to have some good luck and it worked
just like she said. She told us I would be the onliest man on the
place that would pay out my mule and sure 'nough I was. I cleared
forty dollars outside my mule and my corn. She said I was born to be
lucky. Told me they would be lots of people work agin me but it
wouldn't do no good."

Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: William Lattimore
606 West Pullen Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 78

"Yes'm I was a slave--I was born in 1859 in Mississippi. During the