SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

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) Interviewer Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed Oscar James Rogers, Wheatley, Arkansas
Age Up in 70 y s
n I come to dis state in 1885. I run off from my parents back in
North Carolina* They was working in a turpentine forest there*
*When freedom was declared my folks heard 'bout a place where money
was easy to make* So they walked from down close to Charleston up there
and carried the children. I was f bout nine or ten years old* I liked the
farm so I left the turpentine farm* I got to rambling round and finally
got to Arkansas* I run off from my folks cause they kept staying there*
I was a child and don f t recollect much 'bout slavery* I was at the
quarters wid all the children* My mother b'longed to Bob Plat and my
father to a man named Rogers* My father could get a pass and come to see
us every Sunday providin' he didn't go nowhere else or stop long the road*
He carae early and stay till bedtime* We all run to meet him. He kiss us
all in bed when he be leaving
"I heard them say they 'spected a home and freedom but when the time
come they muster forgot f bout home cause they just took the few clothes in
bundles and left* Then they had a hard time 'cause they never thought how
freedom would ben They never axed for nothin' and they never got nothin 1 •
They didn't understand how to hustle lest somebody tell them what to do
aextt They did have a hard time and it was cold and rocky up in North
Carolina to what they had been used to down close to Charleston*
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