“When freedom—my mama said old master called all of ’em to his house and he said: ‘You all free, we ain’t got nothing to do wid you no more. Go on away. We don’t whoop you no more, go on your way.’ My mama said they go on off then they come back and stand around jess lookin’ at him an’ old mistress. They give ’em something to eat and he say: ‘Go on away, you don’t belong to us no more you been freed.’
“They go way and they kept coming back. They didn’t have no place to go and nothing to eat. From what she said they had a terrible time. She said it was bad times. Some took sick and had no ’tention and died. Seemed like it was four or five years before they got to places they could live. They all got scattered.
“She said they did expect something from freedom but the only thing old master give Jesse was a horse and bridle and saddle. It was new. Old master every time they go back say: ‘You all go on away. You been set free. You have to look out for your selves now.’
“The only way I know this is I remembers from hearin’ my dear old mama tell me when she come here to see me. I was too little. I guess I wasn’t born till two or three years, maybe longer than that, after freedom.
“After my son died here I get $2.50 a month, just my house rent. I work out when I can get something to do. Work is so scarce I hardly get a living.
“If you could see my brother in Little Rock he could tell you a heap he remembers. He is white headed, keeps his hair cut close and goes dressed up all the time. They say he is a good old man. He does public work in Little Rock. Henry Travis is his son. His phone is 4–5353. His street is 3106 Arch. My brother is really born a slave, I ain’t. Ask for E. K. Travis, that is his name. He can tell you bout all you want to know.”
JAN 29 1938
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Molly Hudgens
DeValls Bluff, Arkansas
Age: Born in 1868
“I was born in Clarendon in 1868. My mother was sold to Judge Allen at Bihalia, N. C. and brought to Arkansas. The Cunninghams brought father from Tennessee when they moved to this State. His mother died when he was three months old and the white mistress had a baby three weeks older en him so she raised my father. She nursed him with Gus Cunningham. My father had us call them Grandma, Aunt Indiana, and Aunt Imogene.
“When I was seven or eight years old I went to see them at Roe. When I first come to know how things was, father had bought a place—home and piece of land west of Clarendon and across the river. I don’t know if the Cunninghams ever give him some land or a mule or cow or not. He never said. His owner was Moster John Henry Cunningham.