Dan Newborn
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Dan Newborn
1000 Louisiana, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 78
"I was born in 1860. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee. I suppose it was in
the country.
"Solomon Walton was my mother's owner and my father belonged to the
Newborns. My grandmother belonged to the Buggs in Richmond, Virginia and
she was sold to the Waltons. When my mother died in '65 my grandmother
raised me. After she was freed she went to the Powell Clayton place. Her
daughter lived there and she sent up the river and got her. I went too.
Me and two more boys.
"I never went to school but about thirty days. Hardly learned my
alphabet.
"In '66, my grandmother bound two of us to Powell Clayton for our
'vittils' and clothes and schoolin', but I didn't get no schoolin'. I
waited in the house. Stayed there three years, then we come back to the
Walton place.
"My grandmother said the Waltons treated her mean. Beat her on the head
and that was part of her death. Every spring her head would run. She
said they didn't get much of somethin' to eat.
"I was married 'fore my grandmother died--to this wife that died two
months ago. We stayed together fifty-seven years.
"To my idea, this younger generation is too wild--not near as settled as
when I was comin' up. They used to obey. Why, I slept in the bed with my
grandmother till I was married. She whipped me the day before I was
married. It was 'cause I had disobeyed her. Children will resist their
mothers now.
"I think the colored people is better off now 'cause they got more
privilege, but the way some of 'em use their privilege, I think they
ought to be slaves.
"My grandmother taught me not to steal. My white folks here have trusted
me with two and three hundred dollars. I don't want nothin' in the world
but mine.
"I been workin' here for Fox Brothers thirty-eight years and they'll
tell you there's not a black mark against me.
"I used to be a mortar maker and used to sample cotton. Then I worked at
the Cotton Belt Shops eight years.
"I've bought me a home that cost $780.
"I don't mind tellin' about myself 'cause I've been honest and you can
go up the river and get my record.
"Out of all due respect to everybody, the Yankees is the ones I like.
"Vote? Oh yes, Republican ticket. I like Roosevelt's administration. If
I could vote now, I'd vote for him. He has done a whole lot of good."
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Sallie Newsom
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Mattie Nelson
