Andrew Gregory
From:
More Arkansas
DEC -- 1937
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Andrew Gregory
Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 74
"I was born in Carroll County, Tennessee. My mother was owned by
Houston. She said when war was declared he was at a neighbor's house. He
jumped up and said, 'I gonner be the first to kill a Yankee.' They said
in a few minutes he fell back on the bed dead. My father owner was
Tillman Gregory. After freedom he stayed on sharecroppin'. From what he
said that wasn't much better than bein' owned. They had to work or
starve. He said they didn't make nobody work but they didn't keep nobody
from starvin' if they didn't go at it. They was proud to be free but
that didn't ease up the working.
"My people stayed on in Tennessee a long time. When I was nineteen years
old they was making up a crowd to come here to work. Said the land was
new. I come wid them. It was a big time. We come on the Hardcash
(steamboat). I farmed and cleared land all my life. I sold wood, hauled
wood. I've done all kinds of form work. I get $12 from the Welfare
Association.
"The young generation is a puzzle to me. That why I stand and watch what
they do. The folks make the times. It's a puzzle to me too."
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Annie Griegg
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George Greene
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