Reuben Jones
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Reuben Jones
Ezell Quarters, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 85
"Well, I'm one of em. I can tell you bout it from now till sundown.
"I was born at Senatobia, Mississippi, this side of Jackson. Born in
'52 on April the 16th. That's when I was born.
"Old man Stephen Williams was my master in time of the war and before
the war, too. He was pretty good to me. Give me plenty of something to
eat, but he whipped me. Oh, I specked I needed it. Put me in the field
when I was five years old. Put a tar cap on my head. I was so young
the sun made my hair come out so they put that tar cap on my head.
"I member when they put the folks on blocks as high as that house and
sell em to the highest bidder. No ma'm, I wasn't sold cause my mother
had three or four chillun and boss man wouldn't sell dem what had
chillun cause dem chillun was hands for him.
"They made me hide ever'thing they had from the Yankees. Yes'm, I seen
em come out after the fodder and the corn. We hid the meat and the
mules and the money. Drove the mules in the cave. Kept em der till the
Yankees left. We dug the hole for the meat but old marse dug the hole
for the money.
"I used to help put timbers on the bridge to keep the Yankees out but
dey come right on through just the same. Took the ox wagon but dey
sent it back.
"Couldn't go nowhere without a pass. Had a whippin' block right at the
horse trough. Yes ma'm, they'd eat you up. I mean they'd whip you, but
they give you plenty of somethin' to eat.
"My mother was the weaver and they had a tanyard on the place.
"In slavery days couldn't go see none of your neighbors without a
pass. People had meetin' right at the house. Dey'd have prayer and
singin'. I went to em. I could sing--Lord yes. I used to know a lot of
old songs--'Am I A Soldier of the Cross?'.
"Lord yes, ma'm, don't talk! When the soldiers come out where we was I
could hear the guns. Had a battle right in town. Rebels just as scared
of the Yankees as if twas a bear. I seed one or two of em come to town
and scare the whole business.
"I never knowed but one man run off and jined the Yankees. Carried his
master's finest ridin' hoss and a mule. He always had a fine hoss and
Yankees come and took it. When the Yankees come out the last time, my
owners cleaned out the smoke house and buried the meat.
"I helped gin cotton when I wasn't big enough to stand up to the
breast. Stood upon a bench and had a lantern hung up so I could see
fore daylight. Yes ma'm, great big gin house. Yes ma'm, I sho has
worked--all kinds and plowin'.
"Now my old boss called me Tony--that's what he called me.
"When peace come, we had done gathered our crop and we left there a
week later. You know people usually hunts their kinfolks and we went
to Hernando. Come to Arkansas in '77. Got offin de boat right der at
de cotehouse. Pine Bluff wasn't nothin' when I come here.
"I used to vote. I aimed to vote the Republican ticket--I don't know.
"Oh yes ma'm, I seed the Ku Klux, yes ma'm. They're bad, too. Lord I
seed a many of them. They come to my house. I went to the door and
that's as far as I went. That was in Hernando. I went back to my old
home in Hernando bout three months ago. Went where I was bred and born
but I didn't know the place it was tore up so.
"This younger generation whole lot different from when I was comin'
up. Yes'm, it's a whole lot different. They ain't doin' so well. I
have always tended to my own business. Cose I been arrested for
drivin' mules with sore shoulders. Didn't put me in jail, but the
officers come up. That was when I was workin' on the Lambert place. I
told em they wasn't my mules so they let me go.
"I can't tell you bout the times now. I hope it'll get better--can't
get no wusser."
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Vergil Jones
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Nannie Jones
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