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

Then they
called it the Wire Road because the telegraph wire run along it. The
house was vacant after the people that owned it had died, and people
comin' along late at night would stop to spend the night, and in the
middle of the night they'd have to get out. Now I've heard that with my
own ears. There was a spring not far from the house. It had been a fine
house and was a beautiful place to stop. But in the night they'd hear
chairs rattlin' and fall down. It's my belief they had spooks in them
old days.
"Now I'll tell you another incident. This was in slave times. My mother
was a great hand for nice quilts. There was a white lady had died and
they were goin' to have a sale. Now this is true stuff. They had the
sale and mother went and bought two quilts. And let me tell you, we
couldn't sleep under 'em. What happened? Well, they'd pinch your toes
till you couldn't stand it. I was just a boy and I was sleepin' with my
mother when it happened. Now that's straight stuff. What do I think was
the cause? Well, I think that white lady didn't want no nigger to have
them quilts. I don't know what mother did with 'em, but that white lady
just wouldn't let her have 'em.
"Now I'm puttin' the oil out of the can--I mean that what I say is true.
People now will say they ain't nothin' to that story.


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