How Freedom Came

"All I remember is that they boxed us all up in covered wagons and
carried us to Texas and kept us there till freedom came. Then they told
us we were free and could go where wanted. But they kept me in bondage
and a girl that used to be with them. We were bound to them that we
would have to stay with them. They kept me just the same as under
bondage. I wasn't allowed no kind of say-so.

"After Dick Fletcher died, his wife and his two children fetched us
back--fetched us back in a covered wagon.

"I am a Arkansas man. Was raised here. I am very well known here, too.
Some years after that she turned us loose. I can't remember just how
many years it was, but it was a good many.


Right After the War

"After Mrs. Fletcher turned us loose, we worked with some families. I
was working by the year. If I broke anything they took it out of my
wages. If I broke a plow they would charge me for it. I was working for
niggers. I can't remember how much they paid, but it wasn't anything
when they got through taking out. I'm dogged if I know how much they
were supposed to pay; it has been so long. But I know that if I broke
anything--a tool or something--they charged me for it. I didn't have
much at the end of the year. It would take me a lifetime to make
anything if I had to do that.