"The first murder ever I saw was Violet Harris killed Warren Fewell. It
come over a family quarrel some way. They fell out over something. She
was not related to him. It was done right at the fence at her gate. She
cut him with a butcher knife--stuck him just once right through the
heart. That is the first murder I ever saw. They were both colored. The
War was just winding up. It happened in Ebenezer. I don't recall that
they punished her.
"I have seen a white man killed by a white man, and I have seen a
colored man killed by a colored man; but I have never seen a colored man
killed by a white man or a white man killed by a colored man. I have
seen them after they were killed, but I never seen the killing. I have
seen both races killing their own, but I have never seen them killing
across the races.
"About fifty years ago, I saw a young man come in the church and kill
another one. Just come in and shot him. That is been fifty years
ago--back in 1881 in Ebenezer.
"Rock Hill, South Carolina, from 1876 to a while later, bore the name
'Bloody Town.' They killed a man there every Saturday night in the
year--fifty-two times a year they killed a man. They had to send for the
Federal troops to bring them down. They didn't just kill colored people.
They killed anybody--about anything."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Frances Smith
2224 Havis Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 77
"I specs I was born in slavery times. I remember seein' the Yankees.
That was in Mississippi. I'm seventy-seven--that's my age.
"Spencer Bailey was old master. Just remember the name was 'bout the
biggest thing I knowed about. I seen him all right but I didn't know
much about him 'cept his name.
"Mother belonged to him, yes'm.
"I tell you the truf, what little I used to remember I done forgot it. I
just didn't try to keep up with it. I wasn't concerned and just didn't
try to keep up with it.
"I know our folks stayed there a while. First place we went to after the
War was Tennessee.
"I don't know how long I been here--I been here a time though.
"Yes'm, I went to school several terms.
"I was married in Arkansas. My folks heard about Arkansas bein' such a
rich country, so they come to Arkansas.
"I farmed a long time and then I done housework.
"Deal a times I don't know what to think of this younger generation. I
sits down sometimes and tries to study 'em out, but I fails.
"Well, what the old folks goin' to get out of this?"
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Henrietta Evelina Smith
1714 Pine Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age:
"I was born in Louisiana in East Felicie Parish near Baton Rouge on the
twenty-eighth day of December. My mother's name was Delia White. Her
maiden name was Delia Early. My father's name was Henry White. My
mother's father was named Amos Early. My mother's mother's name was
Julia. My father's father was named Tom White and his mother was named
Susan.
"My father and mother both belonged to the Eason's. I don't know how
they spelled it. Eason's daughter married Munday and my uncle bought
this white man's place years after freedom. That is not far from
Clinton--about four or five miles. It is three miles from Ethel,
Louisiana.
"Amos, my grandfather, was the wagoneer on the old place. Father, he
used to drive the wagon too. He'd haul cotton to Baton Rouge and things
like that. He would run off and stay five or six months. I have heard
them talk about how he used to come back and bring hogs and one thing
and another that he had found out in the woods. He would run off because
the overseer would whip him. But he was such a good working man that
once or twice, the boss man turned off his overseer on account of him.
There wasn't nothing against his work. He just wouldn't take a blow.
Most of the times after he had been out a while the boss man would tell
the hands to tell Amos that if he would come on home they wouldn't whip
him for running off.
"My grandmother's mother on my father's side was named Melissa. I think
that was her name. My father's mother was named Susan like I told you.
She was part Indian--better work hand never was. But she wouldn't be
conquered neither. When they got ready to whip her, it would be half a
day before they could take her. When they did get her, they would whip
her so they would have to raise her in a sheet. The last time they
whipped her, it took her nearly a year to get over it. So the white man
just turned her loose and told her she was free. She went on off and we
never did know what became of her.
"The Easons were farmers and they had a large plantation. I don't know
just how many slaves they owned.
"My father and mother were fed like pigs. They had an old woman that did
the cooking. She was broke down from work. They would give the slaves
greens and the children pot-liquor. My parents were field hands. My
mother was too young to carry a row when she was freed, but she worked
on an older person's row. They worked from can till can't. You know what
I mean, from the time they could see till the time they couldn't. Reb
time was something like the penitentiary now. It never got too cold nor
too hot to work. And there wasn't any pay. My parents never were given
any chance to earn any money. I heard that my grandpa used to make a
little something. He was a wagoneer you know. He would carry a little
extra on his load and sell it. His old master never did find it out.
People knew he had stole it, but they would buy it just the same.
"The old boss man came down in the quarters and told them they were free
when freedom came. Right after freedom they stayed there on the old
place for a year or more. My mother wasn't grown and she and my father
married after that. Afterwards they had kind of a fight to get away from
the old man. He was carrying them the same way he was going before the
War and they had a row (quarrel), and left him. I don't know just what
terms they worked on. I don't think they did themselves. They took just
what they could get and didn't know just how they was paid.
"If a man made a good crop, they would run him away and make him leave
his crops behind.
"My folks continued to farm all their lives. They had trouble with the
night riders. They had to vote like they were told. If you voted the
wrong way they would get behind you and run you off. There were some
folks who would take pay for voting and then vote different, and when
the night riders found it out, there would be trouble. I don't believe
in taking money for voting, and I don't believe in lying.
"My mother and father didn't get any schooling. That was allowed after
slavery, but it wasn't allowed in slavery time. They learned a little
from other people. They would slip and learn to read.
"My great-grandmother was considered pretty when she was young. She had
glossy black hair and was a little short. She was brownskin and had big
legs. Her master would take her out behind the field and do what he
wanted. When she got free, she gave both of her children away. She had
two children by him--a boy named Eli and a girl named Anna. She didn't
want them 'round her because they reminded her of him."