SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

."30890 33
Interviewer Miss Irene Robertsoa
Person interviewed Mike Thompson, Widener» Arkansas
Age 79
*I was born near Honey Grove, Texas* I remember my grandparents on
both side«H^they were all Thompsons* They were cotton and corn farmers* I
don f t know where they come from* I was so small and as soon as the War was
done a whole gang of us come from Texas to Dardanelle, Arkansas*
*The Bushwhackers was so bad we was guarded to the line and they went
back* We come in wagons* Bushwhackers was robbers* I remember that* My
grandparents and parents all come in the gang* Clem Thompson, my owner*
died* He had a family. I don't know what become of none but Ed Thompson*
We was the same age and growed up together* I worked for him at Dardanelle
but I don't know how he come from Texas* He butchered and peddled meat and
had a shop too* I don't think Ed owned land over at Dardanelle but my
father owned eighty acres over there when he died. My father was Cubit
Thompson. His father was Plato Thompson* My mother was Harriett Thompson*
"The Thompsons was fairly good to their niggers, I recken. Ed was
good to me* He promised me I should never want bit I don f t know if he be
dead or not* I wish I could hear from him*
*!hen I was about twenty-five years old I was coming in home from town
one night. I seen his house on fire* I kept going fast as I could run.
woke him up. He run out but his wife didn f t. He said, 'My wife! my wife!
my wifel 1 I run in where he run out. She was standing back in a corner the
flames nearly all around her* I picked her up and run out and about that time