SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

0 0---3 OP Texarkana District
O k^ .iL S> C3 - *
Name of Interviewer Cecil Copeland
FOLKIOEE SUBJECTS J^*
Subject Social Customs - Reminiscences of an Ex-Slave
Story - Information (if not enough space on this page add page)
Several months a go, I called at 1217 Ash Street, Texarkana, Arkansas
where I had been informed a voluble old negro lived. An aged, gray-haired,
negro wman came to the door and informed me her father was in the wood shed
at the back of the house* Going around to the wood shed I found him busily
engaged in storing his winter supply of wood. TOien I made known my mission
he readily agreed to answer all my questions as best he could. Seating himself
on a block of wood, he told this almost incredible story, along with lengthy
discourses on politics, religion and other current events:
*I wuz born March 15, 1843, in Monroe County, Mississippi, near Aberdeen*
Mah Mahster wuz Colonel Ogburn, one ob de bigges 1 planters in de state of Miss-
issippi. Manys de time he raised so much cotton dat dem big steamers just could-
nt carry it all down to N f Awl ins in one year. But den along came de Civil War
an 1 we didn't raise nothin 1 fo f several years* Why? Becase most uf us jined
tte Confederate Army in Colonel Ogburn 1 s regiment as servants and bodyguards*
An 1 let me tell yo f somethin', whitefolks. Dere never wuz a war like dis war*
Why I ' member dat after de battle of Corinth, Miss., a five acre field was so
thickly covered wid de dead and wounded dat yo* oouldn't touch de ground in
walkin 1 across it* And de onliest way to bury dem wuz to cut a deep furrow wid
a plow, lay de soldiers head to head, an 1 plow de dirt back on dem. 11
About a year after de war started de Mahster got one ob dese A#¥.O.L.s
frum de Ariqy so we could come to Miller County, where he bought de place on Red
River now known as de Adams Farm*
.-- -"* ; '
This Information given by Poo Quinn
: '■■ ■ ■■.••:;:■.; -■■ 7-". •"•* - .. ;
Place of Residence 1217 AshStreet, Texarkanaft Arkansas
Occupat ion None AGE 95
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