Lewis Johnson
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Lewis Johnson
713 Missouri Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 87
"I'll be eighty-seven the eighteenth of this month if I live.
"They's a heap of things the human family calls luck. I count myself
lucky to be livin' as old as I is.
"Some says it is a good deed I've done but I says it's the power of
God.
"I never had but two spells of sickness when I was spectin' to die.
Once was in Mississippi. I had a congestis chill. I lay speechless
twenty-four hours and when I come to myself they had five doctors in
the house with me.
"But my time hadn't come and I'm yet livin' by the help of the good
Master.
"I stole off when I was eighteen and got my first marriage license.
They was a white fellow was a justice of the peace and he took
advantage of my father and he stood for me 'cause he wanted me to work
on his place. In them days they'd do most anything to gain labor.
"When they was emigratin' 'em from Georgia to these countries, they
told 'em they was hogs runnin' around already barbecued with a knife
and fork in their back. Told 'em the cotton growed so tall you had to
put little chaps up the stalk to get the top bolls.
"But they tole some things was true. Said in Mississippi the cotton
growed so tall and spread so it took two to pick a row, and I found
that true.
"Old master always fed his hands good so they could meet the demands
when he called on 'em. He worked 'em close but he fed 'em.
"He raised wheat, corn, peas, rye, and oats, and all such like that.
Oh, he was a round farmer all right. And he raised feed for his stock
too.
"My old boss used to raise sweet potatoes enough to last three years.
"The people of the South was carried through that sweat of freedom.
They was compelled to raise cotton and not raise much to eat. They
told 'em they could buy it cheaper than raise it, but it was a
mistake.
"I used to have a wood yard on the Mississippi and when the steamers
come down the river, I used to go aboard and quiz the people from the
North. Heap of 'em would get chips of different woods and put it away
to carry home to show. And they'd take cotton bolls and some limbs to
show the people at home how cotton grows.
"To my idea, the North is wiser than the South. My idea of the North
is they is more samissive to higher trades--buildin' wagons and
buggies, etc.
"Years ago they wasn't even a factory here to make cloth. Had to send
the cotton to the North and then order the cloth from the North, and
time they got it the North had all the money.
"In the old days they was only two countries they could depend on to
raise tobacco and that was Virginia and South Carolina.
"I can remember a right smart before the War started. Now I can set
down and think of every horse's name my old boss had. He had four he
kept for Sunday business. Had Prince, Bill, Snap, and Puss. And every
Saturday evening he had the boys take 'em in the mill pond and wash
'em off--fix 'em up for Sunday."
Next:
Lizzie Johnson
Previous:
Letha Johnson
