Jim Davis
From:
More Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Jim Davis
1112 Indiana Street
Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 98
"Well, I've broke completely down. I ain't worth nothing. Got rheumatism
all over me.
"I never seen inside a schoolhouse--allus looked on the outside.
"The general run of this younger generation ain't no good. What I'm
speakin' of is the greatest mass of 'em. They ain't healthy either. Why,
when I was comin' along people was healthy and portly lookin'. Why, look
at me. I ain't never had but two spells of sickness and I ain't never
had the headache. The only thing--I broke these three fingers. Hit a
mule in the head. Killed him too.
"Yes'm, that was in slavery times. Why, they passed a law in Raleigh,
North Carolina for me never to hit a man with my fist. That was when I
was sold at one thousand nine hundred dollars.
"Ever' time they'd make me mad I'd run off in the woods.
"But they sure was good to their darkies. Plenty to eat and plenty good
clothes. Sam Davis was my owner. And he wouldn't have no rough
overseer."
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