Prev | Current Page 61 | Next

Work Projects Administration

"Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Arkansas Narratives, Part 7"

The men lay dead in
rows and rows and rows. The dead men covered whole fields. And General
Lee said that there wasn't any use doing any more fighting. General
Grant let all the rebels keep their guns. He didn't take nothin' away
from them.
I saw General Grant when he came to Little Rock. There was an old white
man who had never been to Little Rock in his life. He said "I just had
to come up here to see this great general that they are talking about."

Occupations
We always worked in the field in slave time. I don't know nothin about
share cropping because I always did days work. I used to get four and
five dollars a week for washing. But now they wants the young folks and
they don't pay them five dollars for everything. I can't get a pension.
Why you reckon they won't give me one. They don't understand that that
little house I own doesn't even keep itself up. My daughter-in-law is
good to me but she needs everything she makes. I can't get much to do
now, and what little I gets, they don't pay me much for.
I don' remember nothin' else.


Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Jennie Washington, DeValls Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 80

"My mother was a slave and my father too I recken. They belonged to Jack
Walton when I remembered. I was born at St.


Pages:
49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73