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1116 E. Twelfth Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 85?
"I don't know exactly how old I am. I was here when the war was goin' on. I know I used to see the soldiers come
by and come in, but I wasn't big enough to work. I was born in Richmond, Virginia.
"My owners moved from Virginia to Mississippi. My mother and I lived on one place and my father lived on
another plantation. I remember one Sunday he come to see me and when he started home I know I tried to go with
him. He got a little switch and whipped me. That's the onliest thing I can remember bout him.
"Billy Cole was my master and I didn't have any mistress cause he never was married.
"My mother worked in the field and I was out there with her when the cannons commenced shootin' at Helena. We
said they was shootin' at us and we went to the house. Oh Lord, we said we could see em, Lord yes!
"After surrender, our owner, Billy Cole, told us we was free and that we could go or stay so we stayed there for four
or five years. I don't know whether we was paid anything or not. After that we just went from place to place and
worked by the day.
"I never did see any Ku Klux but they come to my mother's house one night and wanted my stepfather to show 'em
where a man lived.
He went down the road with 'em a piece. They wanted a drink and, oh Lord, they'd drink mighty nigh a bucket full.
"Oh Lord, when I was young goin' to parties and dances, that was my rule. Oh Lord, I went to them dances.
"I went to church, too. That was one thing I did do. I ain't able to go now but I'll tell anybody when I could, I sure
went.
"I went to school mighty little -- off and on bout two years. I never learned nothin' though.
"I lived right in Memphis mighty nigh twenty years then I come to Arkansas bout thirty-two years ago and I'm
mighty near right where I come to Pine Bluff.
"I don't know of anything else but all my days I believe I've worked hard, cookin' and washin' and ironin'."
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
