*Interview with Louis Hamilton,*
*Fredericktown, Missouri.*
_Never Sold His Vote_
"I is 90 years old and was born right dere in Whittenburg, Cape
Girardeau County, Missouri, across de creek. We was stayin' with
Greenvilles den. My father was named Nathan and my mother was Mary. She
died right after de war was over. My grandmother was born in West
Virginia and I had three brothers and three sisters. Dey is all dead but
me. My father drove an old ox team around dere hauling coal. He fought
in de war and come back and went right to work and den bought him a farm
back of Whittenburg and lived dere until he died.
"De first work I done was on de farm. Den I worked at Mine la Motte, and
Buck Eye. Was a tie inspector and also worked in de car shop at Madison,
Illinois. On de farm I got $1 a day. In de mines I got $12 a week. In de
car shop I made about 40 cents a hour. I bought dis property here with
my money and have been on it for 18 years. I give $450 for dis property.
I've paid $11 taxes for eight or nine years and now pay $5 a year. De
master had a big farm of two or three hundred acres and had four or five
slaves. Sometimes my father would take me down dere in de woods to a
white picnic. After my father's first wife died he did not let us run
around much. We used to fight with de white kids but had no trouble with
de old folks. At Christmas time, man dey treated us with fun; eats of
all kinds, dat you could pack home.
"When de war was over we moved across de creek to ourselves and my
father bought 25 or 30 acres. I felt like a new man when de war was
over. I stayed with my grandfather until I was 21 and got married in
Perry County when I was 32. I had 4 children and dey is all dead. My
wife has been dead about 14 years. I've lived 25 years in Fredericktown.
De young Negroes ain't no account as compared to when I was a boy. De
parents nowadays don't make dem work hard enough. Dey can sleep all day
if dey want to. Some of de young Negroes around here work in de shoe
factory. Some load ties.
"Once when I was a baby, my sister was sitting by de fireplace rocking
me and she fell asleep and let me fall in de fireplace and I was burned
on de hand. Four of my fingers was burned and have never come out
straight. When I was a boy I did not know what a stove looked like. We
had dese old corded beds. Dere used to be a lot of wild hogs around dere
and dey would eat anything dey got hold of. We would put up ice from de
Mississippi River. It was over a foot thick. We wore home-made clothes
and did not buy no clothes. We wore copper-toed shoes called brogans. De
first time I voted was for Teddy Roosevelt. I been voting ever since.
Lots of dem have told me how to vote but I never sold my vote."