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1112 Indiana Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 80 Occupation Cotton Picker
"My father belonged to Mr. Ben Martin and my mother and me belonged to the Slaughters. I was small then and
didn't know what the war was about, but I remember seein' the Yankees and the Ku Klux.
"Old master had about fifteen or twenty hands but Mr. Martin had a plenty --- he had bout a hundred head.
"I member when the war was goin' on we was livin' in Bradley County. We was goin' to Texas to keep the Yankees
from gettin' us. I member Mr. Gil Martin was just a young lad of a boy. We got as far as Union County and I know
we stopped there and stayed long enough to make two crops and then peace was declared so we come back to
Warren.
"While the war was goin' on, I member when my mother took a note to some soldiers in Warren and asked em to
come and play for Miss Mary. I know they stood under a sycamore and two catawba trees and played. There was a
perty big bunch of em. Us chillun was gled to hear it. I member just as well as if 'twas yesterday.
"I member when the Yankees come and took all of Miss Mary's silver --- took every piece of it. And another time
they got three or four of the colored men and made em get a horse apiece and ride away with em bareback. Yankees
was all ridin' iron gray horses, and lookin' just as mad. Oh Lord, yes, they rid right up to the gate. All the horses was
just alike --- irom gray. Sho was perty horses. Them Yankees took everything Miss Mary had.
"After the war ended we stayed on the place one year and made a crop and then my father bought fifty acres of Mr.
Ben Martin. He paid some on it every year and when it was paid for Mr. Ben give him a deed to it.
"I'm the only child my nother had. She never had but me, one. I went to school after the war and I member at night
I'd be studyin' my lesson and rootin' potatoes and papa would tell us stories about the war. I used to love to hear him
on long winter evenings.
"I stayed right there till I married. My father had cows and he'd kill hogs and had a peach orchard, so we got along
fine. Our white folks was always good to us."
Interviewer Thomas Elmore Incy"
Coleman, Betty -- Additional Interview
"I got a birthmark on my thigh. My mother said my father dressed a chicken for her and put it in a basket. She didnt
have time to cook it and it spoiled so she had to throw it away. She said she happened to scratch her thigh about that
time and there's a place looks just like the breast of a chicken - it's more whiter than the rest of my skin."
Name of Interviewer: C.W. Pettigrew Pine Bluff District Arkansas (2-6-37)
