Lucas told his story very fluently but with deliberation and care. The
statement about his father on the first page was not a slip. He told
what he wanted to tell but he discouraged too much effort to go into
detail on those matters. One senses a tragedy in his life and in the
life of his mother that is poignant and appealing. Although he states
no connection, one will not miss the impression that his stepfather
was hostile. Suddenly we find his mother sending him to his father.
But after he reached his father, there is little to indicate that his
father did anything for him. Then, too, it is evident that his father
deliberately neglected to remarry his mother after freedom.
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Lizzie Luckado,
Hazen, Ark.
Age: 71
"I was born at Duck Hill, Mississippi. There was three of us children.
All dead now but me. My parents was Molly Louden and Jake Porter. One
master my parents talked about was Missis Molly and Dr. McCaskill. I
don't think my mother was mixed with Indian. Her father was a white
man, but my father said he was Indian and African. My father was in
the Civil War.
"When the war was coming on they had the servants dig holes, then put
rock on bottom, then planks, then put tin and iron vessels with money
and silver, then put plank, then rocks and cover with dirt and plant
grass on top. Water it to make it grow. They planted it late in the
evening. I don't know what become of it.
"When I was eight or nine years old I went to a tent show with Sam and
Hun, my brothers. We was under the tents looking at a little Giraffe;
a elephant come up behind me and touched me with its snout. I jumped
back and run under it between its legs. That night they found me a
mile from the tents asleep under some brush. They woke me up hunting
me with pine knot torches. I had cried myself to sleep. The show was
"Dan Rice and Coles Circus" at Dednen, Mississippi. They wasn't as
much afraid of snakes as wild hogs, wolves and bears.
"My mother was cooking at the Ozan Hotel at Sardis, Mississippi. I was
a nurse for a lady in town. I took the children to the square
sometimes. The first hanging I ever seen was on Court Square. One big
crowd collected. The men was not kin, they called it "Nathaniel and
DeBonepart" hanging. They was colored folks hung. One killed his
mother and the other his father. I never slept a wink for two or three
nights, I dream and jump up crying. I finally wore it off. I was a
girl and I don't know how old I was. Besides the square full of
people, Mrs. Hunter's and Mrs. Boo's yards was full of people.
"We cooked for Capt. Salter at Sardis, Mississippi.
"The first school I went to was to Mrs. J. P. Settles. He taught the
big scholars. She sent me to him and he whooped me for singing:
"Cleveland is elected
No more I expected."
I was a grown woman. They didn't want him elected I recken the reason
they didn't want to hear it. Nobody liked em teaching but the last I
heard of them he was a lawyer in Memphis. If folks learned to read a
little that was all they cared about."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: John Luckett
Highway No. 65, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 83
"I was born in Mississippi up above Vicksburg. I 'member the old Civil
War but I was just a little boy.
"Oh, I've seen the Yankees in Vicksburg where the battle was.
"I was 'bout ten when freedom come--nothin' but a boy.
"Clara Luckett was my mother. When the War was in Fort Pillow, I was a
small boy. I don't know 'bout nothin' else--that's all I know about
it.
"I been workin' at these mills ever since surrender. I been firin' for
'em.
"I voted the Republican ticket. I voted for General Grant and
Garfield. I was a young man then. I voted for McKinley too. I never
did hold no office, I was workin' all the time. I knowed Teddy
Roosevelt--I voted for him.
"They wouldn't let me go to school I was so bad. I went one day and
whipped the teacher. I didn't try--I whipped him and they 'xpelled me
from school.
"Since I been in this country, firin' made me deaf."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: John Lynch,
Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 69
"My mother was a slave of Buck Lynch. They lived close to Nashville,
Tennessee. My father run away from Buck Lynch before the Civil War. He
lived in the woods till he nearly went wild. My mother fed him at
night. I was twenty-one years old before I ever seen him. My mother
worked several years and didn't know she was free. She come with some
traders from close to Nashville out here. I was born at Cotton Plant.
I got two living brothers in Memphis now.
"I was raised a farmer. The first work I ever done away from home was
here in Brinkley. I worked at the sawmill fur Gun and Black. Then I
went to Ft. Smith and worked in er oil mill. I come back here and
farmed frum 1911 till 1915. Then I worked in the Brinkley oil mill. I
cooked the cotton seed meal. One of my bosses had me catch a small cup
full fur him every once in awhile. The oil taste something like peanut
butter. It taste very well while it is hot and smells fine too. I quit
work when they quit the mill here. It burned up. I do like the work.
They got some crazy notion and won't hire old fellows like me no more.
Jobs are hard to get. Younger men can get something seems like pretty
easy. I make a garden. That is 'bout all I can do or get to do.
"My mother's name was Molly Lynch. She cooked some at Cotton Plant and
worked in the field. She talked a right smart bout the way she had to
do in slavery times but I don't recollect much.
Shes been dead a long time. I heard folks say times was awful hard
right after the war, that times was easier in slavery for de reason
when they got sick they got the best of care. She said they had all
kinds of herbs along the side of the walks in the garden. I don't
guess after they got settled times was near as hard. She talked about
how hard it was to get clothes and something to eat. Prices seemed
like riz like they are now.
"I don't know 'bout my father's votin' cause I didn't know him till
after I was grown and not much then. He was down about Marianna when I
knowed him. I did vote. I vote the Republican ticket. I like the way
we voted the best in 1886 or '87. It was called Fair Divide. Each side
put his man and the one got most votes got elected. I don't think it
necessary fur the women to vote. Her place is in the home. Seem like
the women all going to work and the men quit. About 40 years ago R. P.
Polk was justice of the peace here and Clay Holt was the constable.
They made very good officers. I don't recollect nothing 'bout them
being elected. Brinkley is always been a very peaceable town. The
colored folks have to go clear away from town with any rowdiness."
(The Negroes live among the whites and at their back doors in every
part of town.)
"I live with my son-in-law. He works up at the Gazzola Grocery
Company. He owns this house. He _is_ doing very well but he works
hard.
"The young generation so far as I knows is getting along fairly well.
I don't know if times is harder; they is jes' different. When folks do
right seems there's a way provided for 'em.
"I signed up with the PWA. I signed up two or three times but they
ain't give us nothing much yet. They wouldn't let me work. They said I
was too old. I works if I can get any work to do."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Josephine Scott Lynch,
Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 69
"Josephine Scott Lynch is my name and I sho don't know a thing to tell
you. I don't remember my father at tall. The first thing I can
remember about my mama she was fixing to come to Arkansas. She come as
a immigrant. They paid her fare but she had to pay it back. We come on
the train to Memphis and on the boat to Gregory Point (Augusta). We
left her brother with grandma back in Tennessee. There was three
children younger than me. The old folks talked about old times more
than they do now but I forgot all she said too much to tell it
straight.
"We farmed, cleared land and mama and me washed and ironed and sewed
all our lives. I cooked for Mr. Gregory at Augusta for a long time. I
married then I cooked and washed and ironed till I got so porely I
can't do much no more.
"I never voted and I wouldn't know how so ain't no use to go up there.
"Some of the younger generation is better off than they used to be and
some of them not. It depends a whole heap on the way they do. The
colored folks tries to do like the white folks far as they's able.
Everything is changing so fast. The present conditions is harder for
po white folks and colored folks than it been in a long time. Nearly
everything is to buy and prices out of sight. Work is so scarce."