"
Interviewer: Watt McKinney
Person interviewed: Jeff Davis
R.F.D. five miles south, Marvell, Arkansas
Age: 78
"I'se now seventy-eight year old an' gwine on seventy-nine. I was borned
in de Tennessee Valley not far from Huntsville, Alabama. Right soon
atter I was borned my white folks, de Welborns, dey left Alabama an'
come right here to Phillips County, Arkansas, an' brung all the darkies
with 'em, an' that's how come me here till dis very day. I is been here
all de time since then an' been makin' crops er cotton an' corn every
since I been old enough. I is seen good times an' hard times, Boss, all
endurin' of those years followin' de War, but de worst times I is ever
seen hab been de last several years since de panic struck.
"How-some-ever I is got 'long first rate I reckon 'cause you know I owns
my own place here of erbout eighty acres an' has my own meat an' all
such like. I really ain't suffered any for nothin'. Still they has been
times when I ain't had nary a cent an' couldn't get my hands on a dime,
but I is made it out somehow. Us old darkies what come up with de
country, an' was de fust one here, us cleared up de land when there
wasn't nothin' here much, an' built de log houses, an' had to git 'long
on just what us could raise on de land an' so on.
Pages:
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144