They heard
they goiner be free and knowed they was fightin'. They didn't know what
freedom be like. When they was set free at DeValls Bluff they signed up.
They went back and went on farmin' lack nothin' ever happened. That what
I heard em say when I was small boy.
"I voted--Republican ticket, I believe. If I vote that what I vote. I
reckon the women ought to vote. I still vote that is if I sees fit to
vote.
"My father run from the soldiers. He didn't go to the war as I ever
knowd of.
"I been farmin' all my life till I got so nocount I ain't able to do
nothin' no more. I worked on the section bout six months. I worked some
off an on at the veneer mill till it shut down. I does a little janitor
work now and the Welfare help me a little.
"The present conditions good if a fellow able to pick cotton but if they
run through with it times be hard in the heart of the winter cause they
cain't git no credit. Times is hard for old folks."
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Judia Fortenberry
712 Arch Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 75
Occupation: Field hand
[May 21 1938]
[HW: Slaves Allowed to Visit]
"I was born three miles west of Hamburg in Ashley County, Arkansas, in
the year 1859, in the month of October.
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