“The place they refugeed Charlie and Lewis was to Opelousas, Louisiana. It was about the first part of the country the Yankees took.
“Ku Klux—They never bothered us but in 1876 I seen them pass. My nephew was a little boy. He said when they passed there was Jack Slaughter on his horse. He knew the big horse. They went on. The colored men had left their wives and children at home and went up to Red Bud Church (colored). We seen five pass but others joined on. They had bad times. A colored man killed a Ku Klux named Tom Middlebrook. One man got his foot cut off wid a ax. Some called them ‘white caps.’ I was scared of whatever they called theirselves.
“The younger set of folks seems more restless than they used to be. I noticed that since the last war (World War). They ain’t never got settled. The women is bad as the men now it seems. Times is better than I ever had them in my life.”
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Tanny Hill
Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 56? No record of age
“‘Uncle Solomon’ we all called him but he wasn’t no kin to us, he was the funniest old man I ever heard tell of. He was a slave. He belong to Sorrel Crockell I heard him say. He didn’t go to no war.
“When the War ended he was a fisherman in Arkansas. He used to tie his own self to a tree keep the fish from pulling him in the river. He caught big fish in the early times. He’d come to our house when I was nothing but a child and bring ’nough fish for all our supper. Ma would cook ’em. Pa would help him scale ’em. We’d love to see him come. He lived thater way from house to house.
“One time he made me mad. I never had no more use for him. We’d give him tomatoes and onions. He told us to go bring him thater watermelon out of the garden. He cut and eat it before us. Never give us a bite. He was saying, ‘You goiner get your back and belly beat black and blue.’ I didn’t know what he was saying. Grandma found the watermelon was gone. I owned up to it. Ma got switches and whooped us. I was singing what he was saying. Grandma tole me what he meant. From that on we had no more of his good fish.”
Interviewer’s Comment
Large, medium black.