“His name was Tom Eldridge.  They called him ‘Uncle Tom’.  They was the mother and father of twelve children.  Six lived and six died.  One boy and five girls lived.  And one girl and five boys died—­half and half.  He died at the age of seventy-five, June 6, 1908.  She died January 1920.

“I came out here in January 1907.  I lived in Pine Bluff.  From Louisiana I came to Pine Bluff in 1906.  In 1907 I went to Kerr in Lonoke County and lived there eight years and then I came to Little Rock.  I farmed at Kerr and just worked ’round town those few months in Pine Bluff.  Excusing the time I was in Pine Bluff and Little Rock I farmed.  I farmed in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.”

Interviewer:  Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed:  Nannie P. Madden
                    West Memphis, Arkansas
Age:  69

“I am Martha Johnson’s sister.  I was born at Lake Village, Arkansas.  I am 69 years old.  I was born on Mr. Ike Wethingtons place.  Pa was renting.  Mother died in 1876 on this farm.  We called it Red Leaf plantation.  Father died at Martha Johnson’s here in West Memphis when he was 88 years old.

“Mother was not counted a slave.  Her master’s Southern wife (white wife) disliked her very much but kept her till her death.  Mother had three white children by her master.  After freedom she married a black man and had four children by him.  We are in the last set.

“We was born after slavery and all we know is from hearing our people talk.  Father talked all time about slavery.  He was a soldier.  I couldn’t tell you straight.  I can give you some books on slavery: 

  Booker T. Washington’s Own Story of His Life and Work,
  64 page supplement, by Albon L. Holsey

    Authentic Edition—­in office of Library of Congress,
    Washington, D.C., 1915, copywrighted by J.L.  Nichols
    Co.

  The Master Mind of a Child of Slavery—­Booker T. Washington,
  by Frederick E. Drinker, Washington, D.C.

I have read them both.  Yes, they are my own books.

“I farmed and cooked all my life.”

Interviewer:  Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed:  Perry Madden, Thirteenth Street, south side,
                    one block east of Boyle Park Road, Route 6,
                    Care L.G.  Cotton, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age:  About 79

Birth and Age

“I have been here quite a few years.  This life is short.  A man ought to prepare for eternity.  I had an uncle who used to say that a person who went to torment stayed as long as there was a grain of sand on the sea.

“I was a little boy when slavery broke.  I used to go out with my brother.  He watched gaps.  I did not have to do anything; I just went out with him to keep him company.  I was scared of the old master.  I used to call him the ‘Big Bear.’  He was a great big old man.