up and made stumps for him. Some folks was
mean.

"My mother was Rachel and my father was Andrew Jackson. I had three
brothers fought in the War. I was too young. They talked of taking me
in a drummer boy the year it ceased. My nephew give me this uniform.
It is warm and it is good. My breeches needs some repairs reason I
ain't got them on. [He has worn a blue uniform for years and
years--ed.]

"There was nine of us children. I got one girl very low now. She's in
Memphis. I been in Arkansas 45 years. I come here jes' drifting
looking out a good location. I never had no dealings with the Ku Klux.
I been farming all my life. Yes, I did like it. I never owned a home
nor no land. I never voted in my life. I had nine children of my own
but only my girl living now.

"Nine or ten years ago I could work every minute. Times was good!
good! Could get plenty work--wood to cut and ditching. It is not that
way now. I can't do a day's work now. I'm failing fast. I feel it.

"Young folks can make a living if they work and try. Some works too
hard and some don't hardly work. Work is scarcer than it ever was to
my knowledge. Times changed and changed the young folks. Mother died
two or three years after the War. My father died first year we come to
Mississippi.

[We went by and took the old Negro to West Memphis. From there he
could take a jitney to Memphis to see his daughter--ed.]

"I ain't never been 'rested. I ain't been to jail. Nearly well be as
so confined with the mud. [We assured him it was nicer to ride in the
car than be in jail--ed.]

"I couldn't tell how many I ever seen sold. I seen some sold in
Virginia, I reckon, or Maryland--one off the boats. They kept them
tied. They was so scared they might do anything, jump in the big
waters. They couldn't talk but to some and he would tell white folks
what he said. [They used an interpreter.] Some couldn't understand one
another if they come from far apart in the foreign country. Slavery
wasn't never bad on me. I never was sold off from my folks and I had
warmer, better clothes 'an I have now. I had plenty to eat, more'an I
has now generally. I had better in slavery than I have now. That is
the truth. I'm telling the truth, I did. Some didn't. One neighbor got
mad and give each hand one ear of corn nine or ten o'clock. They take
it to the cook house and get it made up in hominy. Some would be so
hungry they would parch the corn rather 'an wait. He'd give 'em meal
to make