Louis Johnson
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Louis Johnson
721 Missouri Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 86
"My father said I was fifteen when peace was declared. In slavery days
they didn't low colored folks to keep their ages and didn't low em to
be educated. I was born in Georgia. I went to a little night school
but I never learned to read. I never learned to write my own name.
"I never did see no fightin' a tall but I saw em refugeein' goin'
through our country night and day. Said they was goin' to the Blue
Ridge Mountains to pitch battle. They was Rebels gettin' out of the
way of the Yankees.
"Old master was a pretty tough old fellow. He had work done aplenty.
He had a right smart of servants. I wasn't old enough to take a record
of things and they didn't low grown folks to ask too many questions.
"I can sit and study how the rich used to do. They had poor white
folks planted off in the field to raise hounds to run the colored
folks. Colored folks used to run off and stay in the woods. They'd
kill old master's hogs and eat em. I've known em to stay six months at
a time. I've seen the hounds goin' behind niggers in the woods.
"We had as good a time as we expected. My old master fed and clothed
very well but we had to keep on the go. Some masters was good to em.
Yes, madam, I'd ruther be in times like now than slavery. I like it
better now--I like my liberty.
"In slavery days they made you pray that old master and mistress would
hold their range forever.
"My old master was Bob Johnson. He lived in Muskoge County where I was
born. Then he moved to Harris County and that's where the war ketched
him. He become to be a widower there.
"I member when the Yankees come and took old master's horses and
mules.
"I had a young boss that went to the war and come home with the
rheumatism. He was walkin' on crutches and I know they sent him to a
refugee camp to see to things and when he come back he didn't have no
crutches. I guess the Yankees got em.
"Childern travels now from one seaport to another but in them days
they kept the young folks confined. I got along all right 'cept I
didn't have no liberty.
"I believe it was in June when they read the freedom papers. They told
us we was free but we could stay if we wanted to. My father left Bob
Johnson's and went to work for his son-in-law. I was subject to him
cause I was a minor, so I went with him. Before freedom, I chopped
cotton, hoed corn and drapped peas, but now I was big enough to follow
the plows. I was a cowboy too. I tended to the cows. Since I've been
grown I been a farmer--always was a farmer. I never would live in town
till I got disabled for farming.
"After we was free we was treated better. They didn't lash us then. We
was turned loose with the white folks to work on the shares. We always
got our share. They was more liberal along that line than they is now.
"After I come to this country of Arkansas I bought several places but
I failed to pay for them and lost them. Now my wife and me are livin'
on my daughter.
"I been married three times. I married 'fore I left Georgia but me and
her couldn't get along. Then I married in Mississippi and I brought
her to Arkansas. She died and now I been married to this woman
fifty-three years.
"I been belongin' to the church over forty years. I have to belong to
the church to give thanks for my chance here now. I think the people
is gettin' weaker and wiser."
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Mag Johnson
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Lizzie Johnson
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