"Freedom! Master Campbell Jones come to us and said, 'You free this
morning. The war is over.' It been over then but travel was slow. 'You
all can go back home, I'll take you, or you can go root hog or die.' We
all got to gatherin' up our belongings to come back home. Tired of no
wood neither, besides that hard work. We all share cropped with Captain
R. Campbell Jones two years. I know that. We got plenty wood without
going five or six miles like in Texas. After freedom folks got to
changing 'bout to do better I reckon. I been farmin' right here all my
life. We didn't have a lot to eat out in Texas neither. Mother was a
farm woman too.
"I never seen a Ku Klux. Bad Ku Klux sound sorter like good Santa Claus.
I heard 'em say it was real. I never seen neither one.
"I did own ten acres of land. I own a home now.
"My father drove a grub wagon from Memphis to Lost Swamp Bottom--near
Edmondson--when they built this railroad through here.
"Father never voted. I have voted several times.
"Present times is tougher now than before it come on. Things not going
like it ought somehow. We wants more pension. Us old folks needs a good
living 'cause we ain't got much more time down here.
"Present generation--they are slack--I means they slack on their
parents, don't see after them.
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