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Work Projects Administration

"Arkansas Narratives, Part 2"

He knowd where they all went. Her sister was
Mary Wright at Milan, Tennessee. Grandma was twelve years old when that
sale come off. She shouted and they cried. She couldn't eat for a week.
"She said old man Walls was good to them. When my mama was a little girl
she was short and fat and light color. Old man Walls would call them in
his parlor, all dress up and show them to his company. He was proud of
them. He'd give them big dances ever so often. In the evening they had
their own preaching in white folks' church. Grandma was good with the
needle. She sewed for the mistress and her own family too. She had
twelve children I think they said. They said her mistress had a large
family too.
"Grandpa belong to Mike Cash. He give her husband what he made on
Saturday evening. I think grandpa was sold from the Walls to Mike Cash.
He took the Cash name and my mother was a Cash and she married Isaac
Johnson. She was raised in Arkansas. Papa was married twice. I was
raised around Holly Grove, Arkansas. That is where my folks lived in the
last of slavery--that is mama's folks. Papa come to Arkansas at a later
time.
"I think times is queer. I work and makes the best of 'em. (Ten dollars
a month house rent.


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