"Oh yes ma'am, I seed the Yankees. They stopped there. I wasn't askeered
of nobody. I have went to the well and drawed water for em.
"I member when the War was gwine on. I didn't know why they was
fightin'. If I did I done forgot--I'll be honest with you. I didn't know
nothin' only they was fightin'. Most of my work was around the house. I
never paid no tention to that war. I was livin' too fine them days. I
was livin' a hundred days to the week. Yes ma'am, I did get along fine.
"Oh yes ma'am, I had good white folks. I never was sold. No ma'am, I
born right on the old home place.
"Patrollers? Had to get a pass from your master to go over there. Oh
yes, I know all about them. I have seed the Ku Klux too. Yes ma'am, I
know all about them things.
"I never been to school but half a day. I went to work when I was eight
years old and been workin' ever since.
"My father died in slave times and my mother died the fourth year after
surrender.
"After freedom, I worked there bout the course of three or four years.
Then I emigrated and come on to Mississippi. The most I done them times
was farmin'. Reckon I stayed in Mississippi five or six years.
"The most work I done here in Arkansas is carpenter work. I'm the first
colored man ever contracted in Pine Bluff.
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