Absolom Jenkins
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Absolom Jenkins,
R.F.D., Helena, Arkansas
Age: 80
[Date Stamp: MAY 31 1938]
"I was born a few years before the break out of the old war (Civil
War). I had a boy fit in this last war (World War). He gets a pension
and he sends me part of it every month. He don't send me no amount
whatever he can spare me. He never do send me less than ten dollars. I
pick cotton some last year. I pick twenty or thirty pounds and it got
to raining and so cold my granddaughter said it would make me sick.
"I was born durin' slavery. I was born 'bout twenty-five miles from
Nolan, Tennessee. They call me Ab Jenkins for my old master. He was A.
B. Jenkins. I don't know if his name was Absolom or not. Mother was
name Liddy Strum. They was both sold on the block. They both come to
Tennessee from Virginia in a drove and was sold to men lived less than
ten miles apart. Then they got consent and got married. I don't know
how they struck up together.
"They had three families of us. We lived up close to A. B. Jenkins'
house. He had been married. He was old man when I knowed him. His
daughter lived with him. She was married. Her husband was brought home
from the war dead. I don't know if he got sick and died or shot. The
only little children on the place was me and Jake Jenkins. We was no
kin but jus' like twins. Master would call us up and stick his finger
in biscuits and pour molasses in the hole. That was sure good eating.
The 'lasses wouldn't spill till we done et it up. He'd fix us up
another one. He give us biscuits oftener than the grown folks got
them. We had plenty wheat bread till the old war come on. My mother
beat biscuits with a paddle. She cooked over at Strum's. I lived over
at Jenkins. Grandma Kizzy done my cooking. Master's girl cooked us
biscuits. Master Jenkins loose his hat, his stick, his specks, and
call us to find 'em. He could see. He called us to keep us outer
badness. We had a big business of throwing at things. He threatened to
whoop us. We slacked up on it. I never heard them say but I believe
from what I seen it was agreed to divide the children. Pa would take
me over to see mama every Sunday morning. We leave soon as I could get
my clean long shirt and a little to eat. We walked four miles. He'd
tote me. She had a girl with her. I never stayed over there much and
the girl never come to my place 'cepting when mama come. They let her
stand on the surrey and Eloweise stand inside when they went to
preaching. She'd ride Master Jenkins' mare home and turn her loose to
come home. Me and papa always walked.
"When freedom come on, the country was tore to pieces. Folks don't
know what hard times is now. Some folks said do one thing for the
best, somebody said do another way. Folks roved around for five or six
years trying to do as well as they had done in slavery. It was years
'fore they got back to it. I was grown 'fore they ever got to doing
well again. My folks got off to Nashville. We lived there by the
hardest--eight in family. We moved to Mississippi bottoms not far from
Meridian. We started picking up. We all got fat as hogs. We farmed and
done well. We got to own forty acres of ground and lost two of the
girls with malaria fever. Then we sold out and come to Helena. We
boys, four of us, farmed, hauled wood, sawmilled, worked on the boats
about till our parents died. They died close to Marion on a farm we
rented. I had two boys. One got drowned. The other helps me out a
heap. He got some little children now and got one grown and married.
"The Ku Klux was hot in Tennessee. They whooped a heap of people. The
main thing was to make the colored folks go to work and not steal, but
it was carpet-baggers stealing and go pack it on colored folks. They'd
tell colored folks not to do this and that and it would get them in
trouble. The Ku Klux would whoop the colored folks. Some colored folks
thought 'cause they was free they ought not work. They got to rambling
and scattered out.
"I voted a long time. The voting has caused trouble all along. I voted
different ways--sometimes Republican and sometimes Independent. I
don't believe women ought to vote somehow. I don't vote. I voted for
Cleveland years ago and I voted for Wilson. I ain't voted since the
last war. I don't believe in war.
"Times have changed so much it is lack living in another world now.
Folks living in too much hurry. They getting too fast. They are
restless. I see a heaps of overbearing folks now. Folks after I got
grown looked so fresh and happy. Young folks look tired, mad, worried
now. They fixes up their face but it still show it. Folks quicker than
they used to be. They acts before they have time to think now. Times
is good for me but I see old folks need things. I see young folks
wasteful--both black and white. White folks setting the pace for us
colored folks. It's mighty fast and mighty hard."
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Dora Jerman
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Ellis Jefson
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