I votes the Republican ticket. The last I voted was for Hoover. Sure
they have tried to change my way of voting but I ain't goiner change.
I ain't heard nothin' 'bout no restrictions 'bout votin'. If a woman
wanter vote it's all right. My girs and my boy votes right along. They
are all Republicans.
The most money I ever has at one time was $600.00. I did save it. I
spent it on my girls' clothes and education. They did go to college at
Pine Bluff but they went to the Catholic High School first down at Pine
Bluff. No'm they don't help me. They say it's all dey can do to get
along. They never have told me how much they make.
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: James Spikes
2101 Bell Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 91
"Good morning. Yes'm I remember the Civil War. I was a soldier. I was
between sixteen and seventeen when I enlisted in the war.
"'Why did you enlist?'
"I didn't know no better. I thought I would be took care of. They told
us the war was sposed to set the darkies free. My old master didn't want
me to go--cose not. But they was very good to me. I regard them just the
same as myself.
"I enlisted in the 55th regiment of colored soldiers. Then I went off
with the Yankees. I was with them when they had the battle at Corinth,
Mississippi.
"I was with them when the Yankees taken Corinth and whupped. The rebels
tried to take it back and the Yankees whupped 'em again. The regiment I
was with whupped 'em away from several places and kept 'em runnin'.
"When we was in Fort Pickens I 'member they had a poll parrot--some of
the officers had trained it to say 'Corporal of the guard, Jim Spikes,
post No. 1." Sometimes I would draw my gun like I was going to shoot and
the poll parrot would say, 'Jim, don't you shoot me!' They got plenty a
sense.
"The war was funny and it wasn't funny. Well, it was funny for the side
that won when we had scrummishes (skirmish). I never was captured but I
hoped capture a lot.
"I stayed in the war till I was mustered out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
I was a good big fellow then. Oh Lord yes, I knowed most anything.
"After that I went to Memphis and then I come to Arkansas and went to
farming with some white fellows named French. The river overflowed and
we lost 'bout all the cotton.
"The government gives me a pension now cause I was a soldier. Yes'm it
comes in right nice--it does that."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Kittie Stanford
309 Missouri Street; Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 104
"Yes'm, I used to be a slave. My mother belonged to Mrs. Lindsey. One
day when I was ten years old, my old mistress take me over to her
daughter and say 'I brought you a little nigger gal to rock de cradle.'
I'se one hundred and four years old now. Miss Etta done writ it down in
the book for me.
"One time a lady from up North ask me did I ever get whipped. Honey, I
ain't goin' tell you no lie. The overseer whipped us. Old mistress used
to send me to her mother to keep the Judge from whippin' me. Old Judge
say 'Nigger need whippin' whether he do anything or not.'
"Some of the hands run away. Old Henry run away and hide in the swamp
and say he goin' stay till he bones turn white. But he come back when he
get hongry and then he run away again.
"When the war come some of the slaves steal the Judge's hosses and run
away to Pine Bluff and he didn't never find 'em. The Judge think the
Yankees goin' get everything he got so we all left Arkansas and went to
Texas. We in Texas when freedom come. We come back to Arkansas and I
stay with my white folks awhile but I didn't get no pay so I got a job
cookin' for a colored woman.
"I been married fo' times. I left my las' husband. I didn't leave him
cause he beat me. I lef' him cause he want too many.
"No'm I never seen no Ku Klux. I heard 'bout 'em but I never seen none
that I knows of. When I used to get a pass to go to 'nother plantation I
always come back fo' dark.
"This younger generation is beyond my onderstanding. They is gettin'
weaker and wiser.
"I been ready to die for the last thirty years. 'Mary (her granddaughter
with whom she lives), show the lady my shroud.' I keeps it wropped up
in blue cloth. They tells me at the store to do that to keep it from
turning yellow. 'Show her that las' quilt I made.' Yes'm I made this all
by myself. I threads my own needle, too, and cuts out the pieces. I has
worked hard all my life.
"Now the Welfare gives me my check. My granddaughter good to me. I goes
to church on the first and third Sundays.
"Lady, I glad you come to see me and God bless you. Goo' bye!"
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person Interviewed: Tom Stanhouse
R.F.D.
Brinkley, Ark.
Age: 74
"I was born close to Greenville, South Carolina. I lived down close to
Spartanburg. My mother was named Luvenia Stanhouse and Henry Stanhouse.
They had nine children. Grandma belong to Hopkins but married into the
Stanhouse family. Grandpa's name was Tom. They set him free. I guess
because he was old. He lived about mong his children.
"When they was set free old man Adam Stanhouse was good to em. He
treated em nice but they never got nothing but their clothes. They moved
on another place and started working sharecropper.
"Before freedom old man Adam Stanhouse would give my pa a pass or his
pocket knife to show to go to see my ma. She lived at Dr. Harrison's
farm five miles apart. They all knowed Adam Stanhouse's knife. I don't
know how they would know it. He never let his Negroes be whooped unless
he said so. Owners didn't 'low the Ku Klux whoop hands on their place.
"Adam Stanhouse brought my pa from Virginia with him. Some of them men
thought might near much of his slaves as they did their children. Or I
heard em say they seem to. My pa married my ma when she was thirteen
years old. They had nine children.
"I heard ma say Dr. Harrison practiced medicine. His wife was named Miss
Lizzie. They had two boys and three girls.
"Ma was a house girl. Pa was a field hand. One time traders come round
and ma's owner wanted to sell her and his wife objected. She wasn't sold
that time. I don't know if she was sold or not.
"I don't know no more about that war than I do about the German war
(World War). I was a little boy when it was all over. I left South
Carolina in 1888. Ma was a part Red Indian and pa was a half Black Creek
Indian. I had two children before I left South Carolina. I was married
back there. I paid my own way and come to Fargo. I was trying to better
my condition. In 1896 I come to Brinkley. Before that I lived at Dark
Corner eight years. In 1920 ma and pa come to me and died with me. I
paid $25.00 for my second class ticket to Fargo--in 1888.
"Since 1864 to 1937 I farmed, sawmilled, threshed, run a grist mill, run
a cotton gin and worked about em. I farmed eight or nine years across
the bayou here.
"I own a home. My wife is living. I get 'demodities', no money. I got
two girls living. One girl is in New Jersey and one in Michigan. They
make their living.
"I think the world is going on worse than ever I seen it. Folks can't
live without money. They don't try to raise their living no more. I
ain't no prophet. The world going to nothing way I see it."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Isom Starnes, Marianna, Arkansas
Age: 78
"I was born in Marshall County, Alabama near Guntersville. Father belong
to the Starnes. They bought him in Alabama. My parents' name was Jane
and Burrel Starnes. They had two children I knew of. When they was set
free they left and started renting. I don't remember much that happened
before freedom. I picked up chips and put them in a split basket I just
could chin. I'd fill all the baskets and they would haul them up to put
under the iron skillet. Other chaps was picking up chips too. They used
some kinds to smoke the meat. I could tote water on my head and a bucket
in each hand. They was small buckets. We had to come up a path up the
hill. I stumped my toe on the rocks till they would bleed; sometimes it
looked like the nail would come off. My mother was a good cook. I don't
know what she was doing in slavery.
"I been farming all my life. Yes, I owned ninety-eight acres in Alabama.
I had a home on it. I lost it. We brought a suit for water damage. We
lost it, I reckon. They fixed a dam that ruined my place. I left and
went to the North--to Springfield, Ohio. I started public work and
worked three or four months in a piano factory. I liked farming the best
and come back to it. My boys hope me down hill. I got two boys. My girl
left me all I got now. She is dead. I got a home and twenty-five acres
of ground. She made the money washing, ironing and farming. I 'plied for
the old folks' pension but didn't get it and give it up. I made four
bales cotton, one hundred pounds seed cotton. My place is half mile from
town. I have to get somebody to do all the work.
"My father did vote. He voted a Republican ticket. I have voted but I
don't vote now. I voted a few days ago for a little cotton this year. It
was the cotton control election. I voted a Republican ticket. I found
out Democrat times is about the best time for us in the South. I
quit voting because I'm too old to keep up with it. If a woman owns
anything--land or house--she ought to be allowed to vote.
"The times is mighty hard. I need a little money now and I can't get it
nowhere. It looks like bad times for me. The young folks don't work hard
as I did. I kept study (steady) at farming. I liked it. My race is the
best fitted for farming and that is where we belong. I never been in
jail. I never been arrested in my whole life."