“They’re sending the young people to school and all like that but they don’t seem to me to have their minds on any industry. They have got to have backing after they get educated. Now, they’ll bring these foreigners in and use them. In the majority of states now the colored man ain’t no good unless he can get some kind of trade education and can go into some little business.
“In slavery times, a poor white man was worse off than a nigger. General Lee said that he was fighting for the benefit of the South, but not for slavery. He didn’t believe in slavery.”
Occupation and Present Support of Hopkins
“I came to Arkansas in 1886. I got married in 1885 in South Carolina. I never had but the one wife. I have done a little railroading, worked in machinery. I have planted one crop. Did that in 1887 but got sick and had to sell out my crop. For forty-six years, I worked as a plumber and piper. I worked in piping oil, gas, water, and I worked with mechanics who didn’t mind a colored man learning. They would let me learn and they would send me out to do jobs.
“Nothing hurts me but my age. If I were younger, I could get along all right. But the work is too heavy for me now.
“I get old age assistance from the state. They pay me eight dollars. I have to pay four dollars for the use of this shack. So that don’t leave much for me to live on. I’m supposed to get commodities too, and I am waiting for my order now.”
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Jeff Davis captured May 10, 1865, outside Irwinsville, Ga.