SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

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Interviewer Mies Irene Robertson
Person Interviewed Wade Thermon
B.FeDe (FWA Reservation). Pes Arc, Arkansas
Am 67
*I was born In Bo swell, Oklahoma* My aether and father waa both
slaves some wha In the eastern states* Soon as freedom was declared they
kept going till I was born* They finally coma back and farmed round Pine
Bluff♦ My folks last time I heard from them was at Garland City* There 1 s
wha my mother died* I had three brothers and one sister, but one brother
died long time ago* Oklahoma was pore farmin f * The family could do pretty
good farmin 1 in Arkansas* I come here from Pine Bluff* I got a wife, two
girls and a little grandohild* When I first come to die county I done
public work —» piece work* I handled cotton and cross tifas* I used to
help load and unload the boats and I worked helpln 9 build railroads* Then I
had to farm about a little fur a living* I worked on Victor Gates place six
years* Then I worked on the widow Thomas place till the Government bought
it* Then the last eighteen months I got work wid the PHA on the reser/va/
tion* They turned me off now and I ain't got no place to work*
"I voted the Republican ticket the last time* I don 9 t know nothing
1 bout stricted sufage* I voted in Oklahoma some and here seme* No I sho
don't think the women needs to vote* They won 9 t let us vote in the Pri-
mary* No I wouldn f t know who would suit in dam high offices* I reckon it
is all right* We is in you might say a foreign country* What I blames f em
fur la not puttin 1 us In a country all to our selves and den let us run it
all to our selves. It is gettin' us all mixed up here every year worse and
worse*