Maggie Snow
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Persons interviewed: Maggie Snow and Charlie Snow
R.F.D., Brinkley, Arkansas
Ages: 69 and 75
"My parents' names was Mary and Henderson Kurkendall. They had seven
children. Mama died when I was three years old. Papa was a Yankee
soldier.
"They belong to the same white folks, Moster Jake and Peggy Kurkendall.
They had a big farm.
"My papa told me that one morning they woke up and looked out over the
field. The Yankees had pitched their camps far as you could see on
Moster Jake's farm. They come up to his house. Moster Jake had a big
house and a big family. The Yankees come up there and throwed out all
they had and told the slaves to take it. No, they didn't; they was
scared to take it and it belong to them. They didn't want it all wasted
like they was doing. Papa said they rode their horses up to the house.
They took all the soldiers on the place to the camp. They was scared not
to go.
"Papa left mama at the old home place and Moster Jake let them work all
they could. Papa stayed in the war till after the battle at Vicksburg.
Then he come home. They stayed awhile at Moster Jake's and worked. He
got his knee hurt and his health ruined. He never was no count after he
got back home. Mama could pick six hundred pounds of cotton a day he
said. They worked from daybreak till pitch dark in them days.
"Little Jake Kurkendall is living now Enoch or Harrison Station,
Mississippi. He is older than I am. He got a family. But he is all the
son old Moster Jake had that I know living now.
"Papa said the Yankees made all the slaves fight they could run across.
Some kept hid in the woods. Seem like from way he told bout it they
wanted freedom but they didn't want to go to war.
"When we heard bout Arkansas being so rich and a new country, we wanted
to come. Some white and some colored come. We come to Aubrey, Arkansas.
We got six living, five dead children. I been here fourteen years (at
Brinkley). I hired out to cook in Mississippi but I wash and iron
and work in the field till I bout wore out. My husband in a terrible
condition. He picked some cotton. He got rheumatism in his legs.
"We own a little home bout a mile from town and a pig. I wish I could
get a cow. I ain't got the money to buy one. Jess can't get one no way.
We had a fine garden. Two of us get $10 and commodities. Times so far
this year been good. When it gets cold times may be hard. Times better
this year than last or it been for a long time.
"I didn't know I could vote. Guess my husband done my part of the
voting."
"I am seventy-three years old. There was two boys and two girls of us.
My aunts and uncles raised me. My mother died when I was little and fore
that my papa went to the army and never come home. They said he got
killed or died--they didn't know. My parents belong to Berry Bruce. He
had a family I heard em say. He lived at Louisville, Mississippi.
"I recollect the Ku Klux. I heard em talk a whole lot about em. One time
they rode round our house and through the hall of our house. Yes ma'am,
it scared us so bad it most paralyzed us all. They went on. We didn't
know what they wanted. We never did find out.
"I don't vote. I never voted in my life. I don't recken I ever will. I
have been a hard worker all my life. I farmed. I loaded and unloaded on
a steamboat with my family farmin' in the country. The boat I run on
went from Memphis to New Orleans.
"My family farmed at Batesville in the country out from there. For a
long time I made staves with the Sweeds. They was good workers. We would
make 1,000, then load the barge and send or take them to Vicksburg. I
got my board and $1 a day.
"The present conditions for the cotton farmer has been better this year
than last. When it gets cold and no work, makes it hard on old men. I
got no job in view for the winter.
"I would like to have a cow if I could raise the money to get one. I
been tryin' to figure out how to get us a cow to help out. I can't make
it.
"I suffer all the time. I can't sit still, I can't sleep I suffer so wid
rheumatism. Nobody knows how I do suffer. My general health is fine.
"This President has sure been merciful to the poor and aged. Surely he
will be greatly rewarded hereafter."
Next:
Robert Solomon
Previous:
John H Smith
