Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Augustus Robinson
2500 W. Tenth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 78


"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. He
[HW: 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.