Person interviewed: Jeff Davis
R.F.D. five miles south, Marvell, Arkansas
Age: 78


"I'se now seventy-eight year old an' gwine on seventy-nine. I was borned
in de Tennessee Valley not far from Huntsville, Alabama. Right soon
atter I was borned my white folks, de Welborns, dey left Alabama an'
come right here to Phillips County, Arkansas, an' brung all the darkies
with 'em, an' that's how come me here till dis very day. I is been here
all de time since then an' been makin' crops er cotton an' corn every
since I been old enough. I is seen good times an' hard times, Boss, all
endurin' of those years followin' de War, but de worst times I is ever
seen hab been de last several years since de panic struck.

"How-some-ever I is got 'long first rate I reckon 'cause you know I owns
my own place here of erbout eighty acres an' has my own meat an' all
such like. I really ain't suffered any for nothin'. Still they has been
times when I ain't had nary a cent an' couldn't get my hands on a dime,
but I is made it out somehow. Us old darkies what come up with de
country, an' was de fust one here, us cleared up de land when there
wasn't nothin' here much, an' built de log houses, an' had to git 'long
on just what us could raise on de land an' so on. Couldn't mind a panic
bad as de young folks what is growed up in de last ginnyration.

"You see, I was borned just three years before de darkies was sot free.
An' course I can't riccolect nothin' 'bout de slavery days myself but my
mammy, she used to tell us chillun 'bout dem times.

"Like I first said, us belonged to de Welborns an' dey was powerful