"It was over forty years ago. Me and my wife lived at a big sawmill near
Elliott, Arkansas, just ten miles outside of Camden. White folks used to
come up there and catch niggers and carry them back to Louisiana with
them, claiming that they owed debts. One time two white men came to
Elliott looking for a nigger. They came through the Negro quarters and
all the men were off that day because it was a holiday. The nigger saw
them first and ran to the woods. They ran after him and caught him. They
came back through the quarters and tied him to one of the horses and
then went on to Louisiana--them ridin' and him walkin' tied up with his
arms behind him and roped to the horse like he was some kind of cattle
or something. The niggers followed them with guns a little distance, but
one nigger telephoned to El Dorado and the officers there were on the
lookout for them. At night, the officers in plain clothes went over and
chatted with them white men. When they saw the nigger, they asked what
it was they had there. They told the one that asked that it was a damn
nigger that owed money back in Louisiana and got smart and run away
without paying up. The officers drew their guns and put handcuffs on
them and carried them and the nigger away to Jail.
"They put everybody in jail that night. But the next morning they
brought them to trial and fined the white men a hundred and fifty
dollars apiece and after the trial they turned the nigger loose. That
broke up the stealing of niggers. Before that they would come and take a
Negro whenever they wanted to.
"Niggers were just beginning to wake up then, and know how to slip away
and run off. We had whole families there that had run off one by one.
The man would run away and leave his children, and as they got old
enough, they would follow him one by one.