Bearing Witness: Memories of Arkansas Slavery

Desha County

Desha County Tillman, Joe Age: 79 W. 10th and Highway No. 79 Pine Bluff, Arkansas Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden [M:10: pt. 6: 334–35] “I was born in 1859 down here at Walnut Lake. The man what owned us was Crum Holmes. “All I can remember was the patrollers and the Ku Klux. I reckon I ought to, I seed ’em. I got skeered and run. I heered ’em talk about how they’d do the folks and we chillun thought they’d do us the same way. “I ’member hearin’ ’em talk ’bout the Yankees—how they’d come through there and how they used to do. “I guess we had plenty to eat. All I know was when I got ready to eat, I could eat. “My parents were brought from Tennessee but all the place I know anything about is Walnut Lake. “I know my mother said I was the cause of her gettin’ a lot of whippin’s. I’d run off and the boss man whipped her cause she wasn’t keepin’ me at home. If he didn’t whip her, he’d pull her ears. “When we was comin’up they didn’t ’low the chillun to sit around where the old folks was talkin’, and at night when company come in, we chillun had to go to bed out the way. Sometimes I’m glad of it. See so many chillun now gettin’ into trouble. “I never been arrested in my life. Been a witness once or twice—that’s the only way I ever been in court. If I’d a been like a lot of ’em, I might a been dead or in the pen. “In them days, if we did something wrong, anybody could whip us and if we’d go tell our folks we get another whippin’. “After freedom my parents stayed there and worked by the day. They started me bustin’ out the middles till I learnt how and then they put the plowin’ in my hands. “White people been pretty good to me ’cause I done what they told me. “I went to school a little ’long about ’70. I learnt how to read and kept on till I could write a little. 111 Lankfordtext:Lankford / Final Pages 7/14/09 10:06 AM Page 111 “I used to vote ’til they stopped us. I used to vote right along, but I stopped foolin’with it. ’Course we can vote in the president election but I got so I couldn’t see what ticket I was votin’, so I stopped foolin’ with it. “I farmed till ’bout ’94, then I worked at the compress and brick work.” Winston, Sarah Age: 83 2728 Ave. M Galveston, Texas Interviewer: Mary E. Liberato, P.W. 6 December 1937 [S2:10 (TX, pt. 9): 4258–59] Sarah Winston, 2728 Ave. M, was born a slave of the Ford family near Arkansas (probably Arkansas City),Arkansas,about 1854.In 1864 when slavery was abolished in Arkansas, she and her family were brought to Montgomery, Texas, to the Yvoch Plantation. After the war she helped her father farm a small section of land on the former Yvoch Plantation until her marriage at the age of 19. She then helped her husband farm his section of land near Montgomery, Texas, until his death at the age of 104 years in 1932. Since that time she has been living in Galveston, Texas, with her daughter. “I ’clare I hate to ask anybody to come in de house in de fix it’s in, but dese chillun jes’ tear it up faster’n I can keep it clean. Look at ’em now in de middle of de room I jes’ got finish sweeping jes’ ’fore you come! Pick up dat paper, you Sammy! Ain’ I tol’ you to go out on de front porch when you tear up any paper? Ain’ I? Ain’ you ’shamed of yourself? What de white lady going to think ’bout your house all tore up like dis? Chillun is shore dif’runt den dey use to be. When I was little I had to work, I ain’ had no time to mess up de house. Git out of here now an’ chase up a chair for de lady. An’, Sammy, if I catch you on dat fence again en de new pants you Ma jes’got you, I’m going to beat you. I done warn you now an’ you...