SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

I made four bales cotton, one hundred pounds seed cotton. My place is half
mile from town* I have to get somebody to do all the work*
n My father did vote* He voted a Republican ticket* I have voted but I
don't vote now* I voted a few days ago for a little cotton this year* It
was the cotton control election* I voted a Republican ticket* I found out
Democrat times is about the best time for us in the South. I quit voting
because I f m too old to keep up with it. If a woman owns anything—land or
house—she ought to be allowed to vote#
n The times is mighty hard* I need a little money now and I can f t get
it nowhere. It looks like bad times for me* The young folks don't work
hard as I did. I kept study (steady) at farming* I liked it* My race is
the best fitted for farming and that is ?&ere we belong. I never been in
jail* I never been arrested in my whole life*"
Interviewer 1 s comment
I stopped this clean, feeble, old Negro—humble as could be—on the
edge of town* He had a basket of groceries taking to his old wife* It was
a srmll split basket* His taxes worried him* He couldn f t get a holt on any
noney, so I told him about the Farmers f Loan* He was so scared looking I
felt he didn f t tell me all he knew. He looked tired* I gave it up and
jokingly asked him if he had ever been in jail* He said, "I never been in
Ml* I never been arrested in my whole life** I laughed good and thanked
'aim* I told a young woman who had curiously been trying to catch the
conversation from her yard that I feared I frightened the old man till he
couldn't think to tell me all he knew* She said, "Maybe so but he has a
deputation of being good as gold and his word his bond**
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