Prev | Current Page 238 | Next

Work Projects Administration

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


"I'll tell you what I do know. When we was livin' in Conway County old
man Powell had about ten colored families he had emigrated from
Jefferson County. Our folks was the only colored people in that
neighborhood. And he had a white man that was a tenant on the place and
he died. Now my mother and his wife used to visit one another. In them
days the white folks wasn't like they are now. And so mother went there
to sit up with his wife. And while she was sittin' up the house was full
of people--white and colored. They begin to hear a noise about the
coffin. So they begin to investigate the worse it got and moved around
the room and it lasted till he was took out of the house. Now I've heard
white and colored say that was true. They never did see it but they
heard it.
"I don't think there is any ghosts now but they was in the past
generation.
"I know many times me and my stepfather would be pickin' cotton and my
dog would be up at the far end of the row and just before dark he'd
start barkin' and come towards us a barkin' and we never could see
anything. He'd do that every day. It was a dog named Natch--an English
bull terrier. He was give to me a puppy. He was a sure enough bulldog
and he could whip any dog I ever saw. He was an imported dog.
"I remember a house up in Conway County made out of logs--a two-story
one just this side of Cadron Creek on the Military Road.


Pages:
226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250