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3319 W. Second Avenue Age 78 Pine Bluff, Arkansas
"I was born in Mississippi and I can member seein' the Yankees goin' by. I was a little bit of a girl and Betsy Hardy,
that was old Miss, she kep' the Yankees from gettin' me. She told me many a time if it hadn't been for her I'd a had
my brains beat out against a tree. When I didn't do to suit her, she'd tell me bout dat. I stayed right in the house.
"I member when they was lookin' for Johnson's brigade and when they saw it was the Yankees they just flew. The
Yankees was goin' through there doin' what they wanted.
"I never got no further than the third grade."
(El Dorado District)
Name of Interviewer Mildred Thompson & Carol Graham
Subject Uncle Jack Inland - Ex-slave.
Yas'm ah membuhs a lil'l bit bout slavery days. Ah was jos a chap don. Ah'm 73 now. Ah was such a chap dat ah
didn' do much work. Dey use tuh cook on de fiuh place an ah'd tote in bark an wood fuh em tuh cook wid an git up
is aigs (eggs) an sich li'l things as dat.
Mah ole marster was Marse Bullock an we lived in de Lisbon community.
Mistress' baby chile was a boy an he was jes six months olduh dan ah was. Ah was de only boy chile in de whole
business uv slaves. Evah evenin bout a hour by de sun day would feed us an by sundown wo bettuh be in baid. bat
was tuh git us outn de way when de grown fokes come in. Ley was six uv us chillun an dey would feed us in a big
wooden tray. Dey'd po' hot pot liquor in do tray an crumble braid in hit. Dey'd give us each a spoon an we would all
git roun an eat. Dere was Lizzie, Nancy, Sistuh Julis, Sistuh Lu and Martha. Der was six uv us. Aftuh dey fed us we
would go tuh baid an tuh sleep. Dey had ole fashion wheels. Some nights de woman would spin. We wouldn' heah
dem when dey come in but when dat ole wheel started tuh goin hit'd wake me up an ah'd lie dar a while un watch
em spin den ah'd go tuh sleep ergin, an leave an spinnin'. Sometimes wo wouldn' see our mamas fun Sunday night
till next Sunday mornin. Mah mistress wove cloth. Bout do biggest thing ah done was help huh wid huh weavin. Ah
would pick up de shickle (shuttle) an run hit through fuh huh. Dat bout de biggest thing ah'd do sides feedin the
chickens an bringin in bark. In dem days wuznt no buckets much. We used hand gourds dat would hold two or three
gallons uv watuh. An ah'd carry one uv dem gourds uv watuh tuh de fiel' tuh em while day was pickin cotton. One
yeah de cotton worms was so bad an ah hadn' nevah seen none. Ah'd started tuh de fiel' wid de gourd uv watuh an
saw dem worms an oh, ah jes bawled. Mah mama had tuh come an git me. Ah didn' know nothin bout dem worms.
De nearest battle in do wah was at Vicksburg. Ah membush one day hit pot so smoky an ah could heah de guns. Ah
thought hit was thunderin an said tuh ole missus dat hit was gointer rain seen but ole missus say: Oh lawdy, dat aint
thunder. Ah wish hit was. Dat's gums and dat, dat yo sees is smoke an not clouds." Aftuh de wah was ovah we
stayed on wid ole marster. Soon aftuh de wah was ovah marster died an missus mahried Ed Oakley. a spare built
man. Dey lives in Arcadia, Louisiana new. Ah stayed on ther till ah was bout fo'teen an ah lef' dere. was gone bout a
yeah an ah learnt sumpin too. When ah got off ah had tuh go to work. bout all ah had tuh do at home was tuh take
keer uv de stock aftuh ah got big nough tuh but ah sho nuff worked den. Ah stayed way bout de car don ah went
back an stayed dere too till an was bout twenty-one. Ah been mahried three times. Ah had five chillun by mah fust
wife an dem is all de chillan ah evah had. One uv dem lives in town, one in Tomas, one Dubach, La., one is daid an
ah don' knew de where-bouts uv do othuh one. De las' time ah heerd anything bout him he was in Not Springs. Mah
present wife's name is Talitha. Ah has one gran'chile livin wid us. He bout fifteen an is at school ovah dar crost de
road wha yo sees dat house. Oh missy dem times we been tawkin bout wun de good times. Dese times are lard.
STATE--Arkansas
NAME OF WOEKER--Mrs. Carol Graham
ADDRESS--El Dorado, Arkansas
DATE--December, 1938
1. Name and address of informant--Jack and Talitha Island, Route 1, El Dorado, Arkansas.
2. Date and time of interview--December, 1938
3. Place of interview--Route 1, El Dorado, Arkansas.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant--
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you--
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.--
STATE--Arkansas
NAME OF WOEKER--Mrs. Carol Graham
ADDRESS--El Dorado, Arkansas
DATE--December, 1938
NAMES --Jack and Talitha Island, Route 1, El Dorado.
1. Ancestry--
2. Place and date of birth--Talitha was born April 14, 1864 in Arcadia, Louisiana. Jack was born in 1863.
3. Family--Talitha had three children and Jack and three children.
4. Places lived in, with dates-- Talitha lived in Arcadia, Louisiana until freedom. Jack and Talitha now live in El
Dorado.
5. Education, with dates--
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates--
7. Special skills and interests--
8. Community and religious activities--Goes to church in schoolhouse across the road.
9. Description of informant--
10. Other points gained in interview--They tell some of their childhood days.
Talitha: "Howdy, chillun, come in. Naw suh, Jack ain't heah right now. He down tuh the thicket back uv de house
gittin' some wood. Naw suh, he won't be gone long. He seen be back. You all come in and set on the gallery. Here's
a cheer, missy. He be back in no time tall.
"You wants to know how old I am? I was born April 14, 1864 before the niggers was freed in '65.
"My mother was a field woman (worked in the field) and had seven chillun when set free. Her mistress raised her
from three weeks old. Her mother burned to death in a house on the plantation. Our home was 'bout four miles east
of Arcadia, Louisiana, or rather Miss Sarah Given's house was, and we stayed on wid her until I was a big girl,
plowin' and hoeing.
"No ma'am, I never did go to no parties. I was never 'lowed to go. I been a member of the church since I was ten and
now I'm seventy-three.
"I first married a man by the name of Williams and had three chillun by him, two boys and one girl. Then I was a
widow fifteen years before I married Jack. We ain't never had no chillun, but Jack had three chillun and I helped to
raise them and I've helped raise a bunch of his gran'chillun.
"I believes I hear Jack back there now."
Jack: "Howdy, howdy! So you is back for more tales 'bout long ago. I'se seventy-three and I been in this world a
long time I tell you."
Talitha: "Now, Jack, you knows you is heap older 'name and I'm seventy-three and I was born jes 'bout a year befo
the War closed and you say you was a big chap then."
Jack: "Wall, I guess I was around six years old when the War started. I was a good big chap. I 'member one evening
'bout three o'clock I was settin' out in the yard playin' with a mate of mine--Johnnie Cook. I guess you would call
him my mate; he was my mistress's boy and 'bout my age and we played together all the time even if I was black. I
was the only black boy on the place, all the other cullud chillun was gals. Us chaps was out in the yard making frog
nesties with our bare feet in the sand. They was fightin' in Vicksburg then. They was doing a whole lot of shooting.
You could hear it one right after the other and it got so smoky. I thought it was thunder and said something 'bout hit.
Mistress was setting on the gallery sewing and when I said that she said, 'Aw Lawd, that ain't no thunder,' but she
didn' tell us what hit was."
Talitha: "Course I wasn't old enough to know anything 'bout hit but I heard my mother say it got so smoky the
chickens didn't get off the roost while they was bustin' all them big cannons."
Jack: "All us chillun was just as fat and healthy as hogs. Warn't never sick. They'd feed 'bout this time every
evening (4 p.m.) and by sundown I was in bed. My mother worked in the field and I've heard her say that sometime
she didn't see her chillun from Sunday to Sunday.
Old lady Hannah Banks done the cooking for everybody and she cooked on a big fireplace. They didn't have no
stove.Why, I got here before the stoves did. Ma and pa and all the grown ones would get up at four o'clock and eat
breakfast and be in the field workin' by sunup. They had a box with shelves drove up on the side of the wall to the
cabin where we slept and old lady Hannah Banks would put our breakfast in that and when we woke up we would
get it and eat. One morning I woke up before the other chillun did and 'cided I'd git my breakfast first 'fore they did.
I clem up, rech up and got holt of that box and I was so heavy I pulled it down and broks all the old blue edge
plates, That woke the other chillun up all right, and I can jes see them old blue edge plates now. For dinner they
would give us boiled greens or beans wid bread and for supper they would save the slop (liquor), cram it full of
bread, pour it in a tray and give it to all the chilluns and me, sister Julia, Nancy, Lizzie, Marthy, and all the little
nigger chillun."
Talitha: "Huh! Old man Givens had so many little nigger chillun couldn' feed 'em in no tray. Had to have troughs.
They'd take a log and hollow it out and make three tubs in a row and put peg legs on it and a hole in the bottom of
each one with a pin in it. They would use these tubs to wash the clothes in and pull the stem up to let all the water
run out, clean 'em out real good, fill with bread and pot-licker or bread and milk, and feed the nigger chillun."
Jack: "You say our nephew wants to come out and bring a bunch of young folks and wants me to take them 'possum
hunting some moonlight night? Sho, sho, I'll go."
Talitha: "I don't know how he'd go lesson we totes him. Why, he got the rheumatism so bad he can't hardly git
'round in the daytime much less at night. Why, the other day he was out in the field follerin' the boy that was plowin'
up the potatoes and we was goin' on pickin' them up. First thing I know I hear somethin' behind me go 'plop' and I
looked roun and there lay Jack jes stretched out. Fell down over his own feet. So what would he do out nights? And
you sees that knot on his ankle. Hit was broke when he was a boy an' hit still gives him trouble when his
rhaumatism starts up."
Jack: "You say how did I do it? I was jumpin'. A bunch of us boys was jumpin' 'cross a ditch jes to see how far we
could jump. I was a young chap 'bout seventeen or eighteen then. I was doin' purty well with my jumpin' when I
made a misjump an' jumped crooked crooked and hit my ankle on a big old iron rock. My but hit hurt bad. I didn' do
no more jumpin' that day. The next day I was down in the woods getting a load of lider. Had put on a few pieces on
the wagon when I started to turn aroun and down I went. I jes lay there and hollered till someone come an' got me.
That was in the winter just before Christmas and I didn't get out no more till in the spring. The woods looked right
purty to me when I got out. The leaves was great big. And that ain't all, I ain't jumped no more since. 'Sides that I
ain't never been sick to 'mount to anything. Had the whooping cough at the same time that Joe and Tom Snyder had
hit. Still got my natchel teeth, lost four up here and got one that bothers me some, 'sides that I have 'em all. Yes suh,
that the schoolhouse 'cross the road there. We has preachin' there sometimes too. Does Ab preach there? He, he, he!
sometime he do. Did I ever tell you 'bout the time Ab was preaching out here at ___________ and got to stampin'
roun wid that peg-leg of his'n an' hit went through the rotten floor and we had to pull him out? He, he, he!"
Talitha: "Now, Jack Island, you knows that is jes 'nother one uv yo tales. I is been to hear Ab preach lots of times
and he does storm roun mighty bad and I ain't got no faith in his religion tall but I warn't there when he fell through
the floo'."
Interviewer Pernella M. Anderson"
