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R.F.D., Rrinkley, Arkansas
Age 56
"My mother was Amanda McVey. She was born two years, six months after freedom in Corinth, Mississippi. My
father was born in slavery. Grandma lived with us at her death. Her name was Emily McVey. She was sold in her
girlhood days. Uncle George was sold to a man in the settlement named Lee. His name was Joe Lee (Lea?). Another
of my uncles was sold to a man named Washington. His name was George Washington. They were sold at different
times. Being sold was their biggest dread. Some of them wanted to be sold trusting to be treated better.
"Mother and grandma didn't have a hard time like my father said he come up under. He said he was brought up
hard. He was raised (reared) at Jackson, Tennessee. He was never sold. Master Alf Hunt owned him and his young
master, Willie Hunt, inherited him. He said they never put him in the field till he was twelve years old. He started
ploughing a third part of a day. A girl about grown and another boy a little older took turns to do a 'buck's' (a grown
man) work. They was lotted of a certain tract and if it stay clear a certain time to get it all done. He said they got
whooped and half fed. When the War was on, his white folks had to half feed their own selves. He talked like if the
War had lasted much longer it would been a famine in the land. He hit this world in time to have a hard time of it.
After freedom was worse time in his life.
"In August when the crops was laid by Master Hunt called them to the house at one o'clock by so many taps of the
farm bell. It hung in a great big tree. He read a paper from his side parch telling them they free. They been free
several months then and didn't a one of them know it."
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson"
