SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Interviewer Mrs* Beraice Bowden
Person Interviewed Henry Stoith
702 Virginia, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age 79 Occupation Odd Jobs
"Yes mam! I was here in slavery times* I was born in Tennessee on a
plantation near Jackson, I was eight years old when peace was declared*
All I member is when they beat the folks pit near to death*
"My old master was Tom Staith. Mean? Cose he was mean* Old mistress
was aorta good to us but old master was the devilo Used to make the men
hold the women while they whipped em* Make em wear old brogan shoes with
buckles across the instep* Had the men and women out fore day plowing I
member they had my mother out many a day so dark they had to feel where the
traces was to hitch up the mules*
"My mother worked in the field and I stayed in front and helped her
up when she got behind*
"I member when the Yankees had thousands and thousands of bales of
cotton in the streets right here in Pine Bluff and take a knife and cut
it open and put a matoh to it, and bum peoples houses and the gin houses
and everything* Take the bosses and mules and run em off*
"Old master and mistress carried us to Texas till peace was declared*
I member one morning the mail come and old master had a long paper and he
called all us colored folks up and told us we was free* He told us we
could go or stay* They all wanted to stay so he brought em all back here
to Arkansas* He give each one three acres of ground and all they could
Mice on it* That f s the nicest thing he ever done, but he didn't do that