some of us clear out in Texas to keep the Yankees from gettin' em. Miss
Liza was Miss Netta's daughter and she was mean as her old daddy. She
said, 'Oh, yes, you little devils, you thought you was goin' to be free!
She had a good brother though. He wanted to swap a girl for me so I
could be back here with my mammy, but Miss Liza wouldn't turn me loose.
No sir, she wouldn't.

"After freedom I hired out--cooked, milked cows and washed and ironed.

"I went back to Mississippi and stayed with my father. Old Henry Ralls
sold my father fore we come to Arkansas.

"I never been married. I could have married, but I didn't. I don't know
hardly why.

"I been makin' my own livin' pretty much since I left my father.

"Biggest majority of younger generation looks like they tryin' to get
a education and tryin' to make a livin' with their brain without usin'
their hands. But I'd rather use my hands--cose I would.

"I went to school some after the war, but I had to pay for it.

"I been disabled bout five or six years. Got to have somethin' to take
us away, I guess."




Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson