SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

They took my mother to her nation in Oklahoma* She was sick a good
while and they took her to wait on her. Then come and took her after
she died. There show is a fambly. My father had twenty-two in his
fambly. My mother had five boys and three girls and me. My step-
mother had fourteen more children. That f s some fambly aint it? All
my brothers and sisters died when I was little and they was little*
My father's other children jess somewhar down round Pine Bluff. I
guess I f d know em but I aint seed none of them in I don f t know how
long.
The first work I ever done was sawmilling at Pine Bluff. Then
I went down in Louziana, still sawmilling - I followed dat trade five
t
or six years. Den I got to railroading. I was putin down cross ties
A
and layi^ steel• I got to be straw boss at dat. I worked at dat fif-
teen years. I worked doing that in six different states. That was
show fine livin - we carried our train right along to live in. I
married and went to farming. Then I come to work at this oil mill here
{in Des Arc;. The reason I quit. I didn f t quit till it went down and
moved off. I aint had ntithin much to do since. I been carryin water
and wood fur Mrs. Norfleet twenty years and they cooks fur me now. My
wife died bout a year ago. She been dead a year last January. She was
sick a long time fore she died. Well the relief gives me a little to
eat, some clothes and I gets #5.00 a month and I takes it and buys my
groceries and I takes it up to Mrs. Norfleets. They says come there
and eat. They show is good to me cept I aint able to carry the wood up
the steps much no more. It hurt me when I worked at the oil mill. I
y
helped them bout the house all the time.
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