Bearing Witness: Memories of Arkansas Slavery

Union County

Union County Ames, Josephine Age: ? Fordville, Arkansas Interviewer: Pernella Anderson [M:8: pt. 1: 44–45] Ah wuz bo’n de first year niggers wuz free. Wuz born in Caledonia at de Primm place. Mah ma belonged tuh George Thompson. After mah ma died ah stayed wid de Wommacks, a while. Aftuh dat mah pa taken me home. Pa’s name wuz Jesse Flueur. Ah worked lak er slave. Ah cut wood, sawed logs, picked 400 pounds uv cotton evah day. Ah speck ah married de first time ah wuz about fo’teen years ole.Ah been mahried three times.All mah husband’s is daid. Ole man England and old man Cullens run business places and ole man Wooley. His name wuz reason Wooley. De Woolies got cemetery uv dey own right dar near de Cobb place. No body is buried in dar but de fambly uv Wooleys. Ole man Allen Hale. He run er store dar too. He is yet livin right dar. He is real ole. De ole Warren Mitchell place whar ah use tuh live is Guvment land.Warren Mitchell,he homesteaded the place.We lived dar and made good crops. De purtiest dar wuz around, but now hit’s growed up. Don lived dar and made good crops. De purtiest dar wuz around. Dar is whah all mah chillun wuz bo’n.Ah use tuh take mah baby an walk tuh El Dorado to sevice. Ah use tuh come tuh El Dorado wid a woman by de name of Sue Foster. Nothin but woods when dey laid de railroad heah.Dey built dem widh hosses and axes. Ah saw em when dey whoop de hosses and oxen till dey fall out working dem when dey laid dat steel. Ah wuz at de first burying uv de fust pussen buried in Caledonia graveyard. Huh name wuz Joe Ann Polk. We set up wid huh all night and sing and pray.An when we got nearly tuh de church de bells started tolling and de folks started tuh singin. When evah any body died dey ring bells tuh let ya know some body wuz daid. Ah wuz born on Christmas day, an ah had two chilluns born on Christmas Day.Dey wuz twins and one uv em had two teeth and his hair hung down on her shoulders when hit wuz born but hit did not live but er week. Arbery, Katie Age: 80 815 W. Thirteenth 358 Lankfordtext:Lankford / Final Pages 7/14/09 10:06 AM Page 358 Pine Bluff, Arkansas Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden [M:8: pt. 1: 64–67] “I am eighty years old. My name ’fore I was a Arbery was Baxter. My mother was a Baxter. Born in Union County. “My mother’s first people was Baxter and my grandmother was a Baxter and they just went by that name; she never did change her name. “The boss man—that was what they called our master—his name was Paul McCall. He was married twice. His oldest son was Jim McCall. He was in the War. Yes ma’am, the Civil War. “Paul McCall raised me up with his chillun and I never did call him master ,just called him pappy,and Jim McCall,I called him brother Jim.Just raised us all up there in the yard. My grandmother was the cook. “There wasn’t no fightin’ in Union County but I ’member when the Yankees was goin’ through and singin’ ‘The Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah We’ll rally ’round the flag, boys, Shouting the battle cry of freedom.’ (She sang this—ed.) And I ’member this one good: ‘Old buckwheat cakes and good strong butter To make your lips go flip, flip, flutter, Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.’ “Pappy used to play that on his fiddle and have us chillun tryin’to dance. Used to call us chillun and say,‘You little devils, come up here and dance’and have us marchin’. “My cousin used to be a quill blower. Brother Jim would cut fishin’canes and plat ’em together—they called ’em a pack—five in a row, just like my fingers .Anybody that knowed how could sure make music on ’em. Tom Rollins, that was my baby uncle, he was a banjo picker. “I can remember a heap a things that happened, but ’bout slavery, I didn’t know one day from another.They treated us so nice that when they said freedom...