They let her an' that mule both be. Nother
thing they had a wall built in betwix er room and let hams and all kinds
provisions swing down in thor. It went unnoticed. I recken it muster
been 3 ft. wide and long as the room. Had to go up in the loft from de
front porch. The front porch wasn't ceiled but a place sawed out so you
could get up in the loft. They used a ladder and went up there bout once
a week. They swung hams and meal, flour and beef. They swung sacks er
corn down in that place. That all the place where they could keep us a
thing in de world to eat. They come an' got bout all we had. Look like
starvation ceptin' what we had stored way."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Joe Whitaker, Madison, Arkansas
Age: 70 plus
"I'm a blacksmith; my pa was a fine blacksmith. He was a blacksmith in
the old war (Civil War). He never got a pension. He said he loss his
sheep skin. His owners was George and Bill Whitaker. Mother always said
her owners was pretty good. I never heard my pa speak of them in that
way. They was both born in Tennessee. She was never sold. I was born in
Murray County, Tennessee too. My mother was named Fronie Whitaker and pa
Ike Whitaker. Mother had eleven children. My wife is a full-blood
Cherokee Indian. We have ten children and twenty-three grandchildren.
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