Bearing Witness: Memories of Arkansas Slavery

Calhoun County

Calhoun County Ricks, Jim Age: 79 517 E. 22nd Avenue Pine Bluff, Arkansas Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden [M:10: pt. 6: 37–38] “I was born in slavery times. I ’member runnin’ from the Yankees when they wanted to carry me off. Just devilin’ me, you know. You know how little chillun was ’bout white folks in them days. “I went to school three weeks and my daddy stopped me and put me to work. “Old master was named Jimmie Ricks.They named me after him,I think. “My mother said he was a mighty good master. Didn’t ’low his niggers whipped. “Yes’m,I was born and raised in Arkansas,down here in Calhoun County. “I had a chance to learn but I was a rowdy. I wanted to hunt. I was a mighty huntsman. “I was a good worker too. White folks was all stuck on me ’cause I was a good worker. “I did farm work and then did public work after the crops was laid by. But now I got too old to work. “I seen the Ku Klux once or twice when they was Ku Klukin’ around. Some of ’em would holler ‘Kluk, kluk, kluk.’ I was quite small, but I could remember ’em ’cause I was scared of ’em. “I farmed all my life till year before last. I was a good farmer too. “I used to vote years ago. I voted Republican. Yes ma’am. “Younger generation ain’t near like they was when I was young.I was well thought of.Couldn’t be out after sundown or they’d bump my head.My stepfather would give me a flailin’. I thought he was mean to me but I see now he right by whippin’ me. “I know in slavery times they got plenty of somethin’ to eat. Old master fed us well.” 49 Lankfordtext:Lankford / Final Pages 7/14/09 10:06 AM Page 49 Robinson,Augustus Age: 78 2500 W. Tenth Street Little Rock, Arkansas Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor [M:10: pt. 6: 55–59] “I was born in Calhoun County,Arkansas in 1860,January 15th.I am going according to what my daddy told me and nothing else. That is all I could do. How the Children Were Fed “My grandmother on my mother’s side said when I was a little fellow that she was a cook and that she would bring stuff up to the cabin where the little niggers were locked up and feed them through the crack.She would hide it underneath her apron. She wasn’t supposed to do it. All the little niggers were kept in one house when the old folks were working in the field. There were six or seven of us. Sold “My daddy was a white man, my master. His wife was so mean to me that my master sold me to keep her from beating me and kicking me and knocking me ’round. She would have killed me if she could have got the chance. My daddy sold me to a preacher who raised me as though I were his own son. Whenever he sat down to the table to eat, I sat down. He made no difference at all. He raised me in El Dorado, Arkansas. His name was James Goodwin. He sent me to school too. Visited by Father “When Harrison and Cleveland ran for President, my father came to Little Rock. Some colored people had been killed in the campaign fights, and he had been summoned to Little Rock to make some statements in connection with the trouble. He stopped at a prominent hotel and had me to come to see him. When I went up to the hotel to meet him, there were a dozen or more white men at that place. When I shook hands with him, he said, ‘Gentlemen, he’s a little shady but he’s my son.’ His name was Captain I. T. Robinson. He lived in Lisbon, Arkansas. Mother “My mother’s name was Frances Goodwin. She belonged to Captain Robinson. I don’t know but I think that when they came to Arkansas, they 50 Calhoun County Lankfordtext:Lankford / Final Pages 7/14/09 10:06 AM Page 50 came from Georgia. They were refugees. When the War started, people that owned niggers ran from state to state to try to hold their niggers. House...