SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Leastwise, the colored people called it that* Bush and a lots of other big
niggers used to go there and get free lodgings until they were able to get
along alone without help. The niggers they call BIG NIGGERS now stayed in
wagon yards when they first come here*
Former Morals
"There was a time when a low-down person, colored or white, couldn't
stay in the community. They would give him a ticket and send him to
Memphis or somewhere else*
"Reuben ?/hite built the First Baptist Church. In those days, people
/ere Christian. Y/hite baptized one hundred fifty people twice a month*
You didn f t have to put a lock on your door then*
Bachelor
W I haven 1 1 been married; marriage holds a man back* A woman won f t do
as she is told*
Successful Negroes in Little Rock
"They had three Negro aldermen in this city: one of them was Green
Thompson; but the Negroes butchered him. He was murdered as he came in
«!rom a festival. M. W* Gibbs, Land Office Man for the Government, was the
only nigger here who wasn f t bothered by no one—by no colored person* Dr*
3mith was the leading colored dentist once, and the, leading dentist of the
city in his day* Almost all the white people went to him* Colored people
had the barber shops* McNair had a barber shop on Main between Second and
Third. His boy killed him-—no good reason* His boy went to school with
iris; he was always stubborn and mean*