They can get farm work to do. They waste
their money more than they ought. Some folks purty nigh hungry. That is
for a fact the way it is going.
Edmondson, Arkansas
"Master Henry Edmondson owned all the land to the Chatfield place to
Lehi, Arkansas. He owned four or five thousand acres of land. It was
bottoms and not cleared. They had floods then, rode around in boats
sometimes. Colored folks could get land through Andy Flemming (colored
man). Mr. Henry Edmondson and whole family died with the yellow fever.
He had several children--Miss Emma, Henry, and Will I knowed. It is
probably his father buried at far side of this town. A rattlesnake bit
him. Lake Rest or Scantlin was a boat landing and that was where the
nearest white folks lived to the Edmondsons. I worked for Mr. Henry
Edmondson, the one died with yellow fever. He was easy to work for. Land
wasn't cleared out much. He was here before the Civil War. Good many
people, in fact all over there, died of yellow fever at Indian Mound. Me
and my brother waited on white folks all through that yellow fever
plague. Very few colored folks had it. None of 'em I heered tell of died
with it. White folks died in piles. Now when the smallpox raged the
colored folks had it seem like heap more and harder than white folks.
Pages:
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101