SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"When I got out to Arkansas I like it better than any country I
seed and I say Tin stayin 1 here* 1 I naant to go back but I married and
didn't get no money ahead for a long time* Then I had a family of 11
children* Jes f f fore I married I got to go to school four months 1 close
to Cotton Plant, where I married*
"When I was young I sho could knock off de work* I cumraulated 80
acres land in Lee County• I paid #900 for it, got in det and had let it
fur f bout ($247* 50} Two hundred forty-seven and a half dollars» All I got
outen it* I had a bad crop and had a little provision bill,I made on time,
man agreed to run me on then took it f bout all*
ft Then I still was a strong man an 1 we bought 40 acres 14 miles from
Cotton Plant and I had it 27 years* Then lost it*
,r My second wife owned a house and garden at Wheatley half a mile or
so from town* We live over there* Our children all gone* She say she
cooked and washed and farmed for it* It cost $100*00*
"I could do heap work if I could get it* Old man can f t get f nuff
regular work to cover my house or buy me a suit closes* The Government
gives xae $10,00 a month* That f s a help out but it don't go fir high as
provisions is* Me an 1 the old woman both too feeble to do much hard
work, I gets all the odd jobs the white folks give me* Misses I ain f t
lazy, I jess gettin* old and not able to hold out to do much* Whut I
could do they give it to the young fellows cause they do it in a hurry.
"I used to vote right srft&rt when they needed me to help out* I
voted Tor Hoover* Don't think it right the way the men settin 1 round
I
^.d deir wives workin 1 fer livin 1 and votin 1 * The women can vote if they
*ant to but I don't think it right* Seems lack the cart in front ob de
horse now*
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