The men who bother Omelia Thomas probably take her for a young woman.
She hasn't a gray hair in her head, and her skin is smooth and must be
well kept. She looks at least twenty-five years younger than she is, and
but for the accident of her presence at another interview, I would never
have dreamed that she had a story to tell.
I went to see her in the quarters where she lives--over the garage in
the back yard of the white people she works for. When I got halfway
up the stairs, she shouted, "You can't come up here." I paused in
perplexity for a moment, and she stuck her head out the door and looked.
Then she said, "Oh, I beg pardon; I thought you were one of those men
that visit downstairs." I had noticed the young lady below as I entered.
She is evidently a hot number, and as troublesome as a sore thumb to the
good old lady above her.
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Tanner Thomas
1213 Louisiana, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 78
"I was born down here at Rob Roy on the river on the Emory place. My
mother's name was Dinah Thomas and my father's name was Greene Thomas.
He taken sick and died in the War on the North side. That's what my
mother told me. I was born under Mars Jordan Emory's administration.
"I 'member somebody brought me here to Pine Bluff to Lawyer Bell's
house. I stayed two or three months, then Mars Jordan sent for me and
carried me back out to Rob Roy and I stayed with my mother. She had done
married again but I stayed with her all the time till I got grown and I
married.
"I come here in 1892 and I been here ever since--forty-six years. Oh,
whole lots of these white folks know me.
"I worked at the Standard Lumber Company and Bluff City Lumber Company
and Dilley's Foundry. Then I went to the oil mill. I was the order man.
I was the best lumber grader on the place.
"Course I knows lots of white folks and they knows me too, I done a heap
of work 'round here in different places in forty-six years.
"I went to school a little but I didn't learn nothin'.
"My mother said they come and pressed my daddy in the War. 'Course I
don't know nothin' 'bout that but my mother told me.
"Now, what is this you're gettin' up? Well, I was born in slavery times.
You know I was when my daddy was in the War.
"Oh Lord yes, I voted. I voted Republican. I didn't know whether it
would do any good or not but I just voted 'cause I had a chance. My
name's been in Washington for years 'cause I voted, you know.
"My way is dark to the younger generation now. I don't have much dealin'
with them. They are more wiser. Education has done spread all over the
country.
"God intended for every man in the world to have a living and to live
for each other but too many of 'em livin' for themselves. But everything
goin' to work out right after awhile. God's goin' to change this thing
up after awhile. You can't rush him. He can handle these people. After
he gets through, with this generation, I think he's goin' to make a
generation that will serve him."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Wester Thomas, Marianna, Arkansas
Age: 79
"I was born in Sumpter County (Mississippi?). My mother was sold to
Dr. and Miss Kate Hadley. My mother's name was Lettie Williams and she
married Wesley Thomas. My name is Wester Thomas. I'm seventy-nine years
old. Mistress Kate raised me. Dr. Hadley had more than a hundred slaves.
"I can tell you about freedom. Two men in uniforms come and told master.
He had the farm bell rung. They told them the Civil War was over. They
was free. The niggers went back to their quarters. Some moved later. My
folks never left. Dr. Hadley died. Mistress Kate took all that wanted to
go to Louisiana then. We cleared up land down there. Later I farmed."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Annie Thompson, Biscoe, Arkansas
Age: 55?
"I was raised by my father's sister and my grandmother. Later on I come
to my daddy here and my stepmother had other children. I soon married.
I've had a hard time.
"My grandparents was Harriett Edwards and William Snow. Grandmother said
they were nice to her. She was Master Edwards' house girl. She cooked
and was a spinner. When I was a girl she had her spinning-wheel and
she taught me to spin and knit. She spun thread for caps, mittens,
stockings, socks, suspenders, and coats. We knit all those things when
I was a girl. Grandmother said the white folks never whooped her.
Grandmother was her old master's own girl and she nursed with one of his
white wife's children. She was real light.
"My father's mother was a squaw. I don't know her name. She was sold
from grandpa and he went to Master Snow. He never seen her any more.
He took another wife and jumped over the broom on the Snow place. He
thought some of his owners was terrible. He had been whooped till he
couldn't wear clothes. He said they stuck so bad.
"My own father whipped me once till my clothes stuck to my back. I
told you I had seen a pretty hard time in my own life. I was born in
Starkville, Mississippi.
"Since I was a girl there has been many changes. I was married by Rev.
Bell December 14, 1902. My husband is living and still my husband. I can
see big changes taking place all the time. I was married at De Valls
Bluff."