Farmed till I got so old I
couldn't. I never did own my own farm. I just continued to rent.
"I never had any trouble about voting. I voted whenever I wanted to. I
reckon it was about three years after the War when I began to vote.
"I never went to school. One of the white boys slipped and learned me a
little about readin' in slave time. Right after freedom come, I was a
grown man; so I had to work. I married about four or five years after
the War. I was just married once. My wife is not living now. She's gone.
She's been dead for about twelve years.
"I belong to the A.M.E. Church and my membership is in the New Home
Church out in the country in Ouachita County."
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Frank Williams
County Hospital, ward eleven, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 100, or more
"I'm a hundred years old. I know I'm a hundred. I know from where they
told me. I don't know when I was born.
"I been took down and whipped many a time because I didn't do my work
good. They took my pants down and whipped me just the same as if I'd
been a dog. Sometimes they would whip the people from Saturday night
till Monday morning.
"I run off with the Yankees. I was young then. I was in the Civil War. I
don't know how long I stayed in the army.
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