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Work Projects Administration

"Arkansas Narratives, Part 2"

Food was kept in a smokehouse.

Relatives
"The whole family of Fletchers is dead. I think that there is a Jef
Fletcher living in this town. I don't know just where but I met him
sometime ago. He doesn't do nothing for me. Nobody gives me anything for
myself but the man I used to work for--the concrete man. He's a man.

How Freedom Came
"All I remember is that they boxed us all up in covered wagons and
carried us to Texas and kept us there till freedom came. Then they told
us we were free and could go where wanted. But they kept me in bondage
and a girl that used to be with them. We were bound to them that we
would have to stay with them. They kept me just the same as under
bondage. I wasn't allowed no kind of say-so.
"After Dick Fletcher died, his wife and his two children fetched us
back--fetched us back in a covered wagon.
"I am a Arkansas man. Was raised here. I am very well known here, too.
Some years after that she turned us loose. I can't remember just how
many years it was, but it was a good many.

Right After the War
"After Mrs. Fletcher turned us loose, we worked with some families. I
was working by the year. If I broke anything they took it out of my
wages.


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