Charlie Huff
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Charlie Huff
Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: Born 1864
"I was born close to Charlotte, North Carolina. Alex Huff owned my
parents and me. My pa was a dark man. He was named Alex Huff too. Ma was
named Sarah Huff. She was ginger cake color they called it. Both her
parents was part Creek Indian. I seen the block at Richmond, Virginia
where they sold pa. They kept him three weeks away from me before he was
sold. They sold him at the last of slavery for $1,500. Ma never seen him
no more. After freedom she brought me and immigrated to Arkansas. My
sister wouldn't come, she was fixing to marry. We come on the train,
paid our own way. We heard it was a fine country and ma heard somebody
out here bought pa. We kept inquiring till after she died. I heard where
he was. I went to see him. He told me what I told you. He was sold and
brought to Louisiana. He was a cross-eyed man and named Alex the best
way I found him. My ma never was sold as she remembered.
"Master Alex Huff owned a turpentine factory and pa worked at it. Ma
washed and cooked. Master Alex Huff raised Palmer Christy beans. I think
he sold the seed to keep moles out of the land. Moles was bad in new
cleared land. When they found a mole hill they opened it and put in a
few beans so the mole would eat them and die. He sold the beans.
"The Ku Klux never bothered us.
"We come to Arkansas as soon as we could after freedom. We wanted to
find pa. When we first come I worked on a steamboat, then I mined at
Pratt City, Tennessee--coal mines--a year and a half. Then for
forty-five years I worked on the railroad section as a hand. I made two
crops in all my life. The first year I did fine and not so bad the next.
But since three years ago I had these two strokes. I am here and not
able to work. My wife draws $12 from the Welfare Order.
"It has been a long time since I voted. I voted last time for President
McKinley. I didn't like the strict franchise laws."
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Louvenia Huff
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Molly Hudgens
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