Robert Lofton
From:
Arkansas
FOLKLORE SUBJECTS
Name of Interviewer: S. S. Taylor
Subject: Biographical Sketch of Robert Lofton
Story--Information (If not enough space on this page add page)
This information given by: Robert Lofton
Place of Residence: 1904 Cross Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Occupation: Farmer (no longer able to work)
Age: 82
[TR: Personal information moved from bottom of form.]
Robert Lofton was born March 11, 1855 in McDonogh, Georgia. His master
lived in town and owned two Negro women and their children. One of
these was Lofton's mother.
His father was a Negro who lived back of him and belonged to the local
postmaster. He had a wagon and did public hauling for his master, Dr.
Tie. He was allowed to visit his wife and children at nights, and was
kept plentifully supplied with money by his master.
Lofton's master, Asa Brown, bought, or acquired from time to time in
payment of debts, other slaves. These he hired out to farmers,
collecting the wages for their labor.
After the war, the Lofton family came to Arkansas and lived in Lee
County just outside of Oak Forest. They were share croppers and
farmers throughout their lives. He has a son, however, a war veteran
and unusually intelligent.
Robert Lofton is a fine looking old man, with silky white hair and an
octoroon appearance, although the son of two colored persons.
He remembers scarcely anything because of fading mental powers, but
he is able to take long walks and contends that only in that way can
he keep free from rheumatic pains. He speaks of having died recently
and come back to life, is extremely religious, and is fearful of
saying something that he should not.
"I was in McDonogh, Georgia when the surrender came. [HW: That is
where I was born on March 11, 1855.] There was plenty of soldiers in
that little town--Yankees and Rebels. And they was sending mail out
through the whole country. The Rebels had as good chance to know what
was in the mail as the Yanks (his mother's husband's master was
postmaster) did.
How Freedom Came
"The slaves learned through their masters that they were free. The
Yankees never told the niggers anything. They could tell those who
were with them that they were free. And they notified the people to
notify their niggers that they were free. 'Release him. If he wants to
stay with you yet, he may. We don't require him to go away but you
must let him know he is free.'
"The masters said, 'You are free now, Johnnie, just as free as I am.'
Many of them put their things in a little wagon and moved to some
other plantation or town or house. But a heap of them stayed right
where they were.
"My father found out before my mother did. He was living across town
behind us about one-fourth of a mile. Dr. Tie, his master, had a post
office, and that post office was where they got the news. My father
got the news before my master did. He got on to it through being on
with Dr. Tie. So my father got the news before my master, Asa Brown,
did and he come over and told my mother before my master did. But my
master came out the next thing and told her she could go or come as
she pleased. She said she'd stay right along. And we got along just as
we always did--until my father came and told us he was going to
Atlanta with a crew of Yankees.
Employment and Post-War Changes in Residence
"He got a wagon and a team and run us off to the railroad. He got a
job at Atlanta directly. After he made a year in Atlanta, he got
dissatisfied. He had two girls who were big enough to cut cotton. So
he decided to go farm. He went to Tennessee and we made a crop there.
Then he heard about Arkansas and came here.
"When he came here, somehow or other, he got in a fight with a colored
man. He got the advantage of that man and killed him. The officers
came after him, but he left and I ain't never seen nor heard of him
since. He went and left my poor mother and her five children alone.
But I was getting big enough to be some help. And we made crops and
got along somehow.
"I don't know what we expected. I never heerd anyone say a word. I was
children you know, and it was mighty little that children knew because
the old folks did not talk with them much.
What They Got
"I never heerd of anything any of them got. I never heerd of any of
them getting anything except work. I don't recollect any pension or
anything being given them--nothing but work.
Folks on this place would leave and go over on that place, and folks
on that place would come over here. They ate as long as the white
folks ate. We stayed with our old master and mistress, (Mr. Asa Brown
and Mrs. Sallie Brown).
Good Master and Mistress
"They did not whip us. They didn't whip nobody they had. They were
good white folks. My mother never was whipped. She was not whipped
after the surrender and she wasn't whipped before. [We lived in the
same house as our master] [HW: (in margin) see p. 6] and we ate what
he ate.
Wives and Husbands
"There was another woman my master owned. Her husband belonged to
another white man. My father also belonged to another white man. Both
of them would come and stay with their wives at night and go back to
work with their masters during the day. My mother had her kin folks
who lived down in the country and my mother used to go out and visit
them. I had a grandmother way out in the country. My mother used to
take me and go out and stay a day or so. She would arrange with
mistress and master and go down Saturday and she would take me along
and leave her other children with this other woman. Sunday night she
would make it back. Sometimes she wouldn't come back until Monday.
"It didn't look like she was any freer after freedom than she was
before. She was free all the time she was a slave. They never whipped
her. Asa Brown never whipped his niggers.
Letting Out Slaves
"Asa Brown used to rent out his niggers, sometimes. You know, they
used to rent them. But he never rented my mother though. He needed her
all the time. She was the cook. He needed her all the time and he kept
her all the time. He let her go to see grandmother and he let her go
to church.
"Sometimes my mother went to the white church and sometimes she went
to the colored folks church. When we went to the white folks church,
we took and sat down in the back and behaved ourselves and that was
all there was to it. When they'd have these here big
meetings--revivals or protracted meetings they call them--she'd go to
the white and black. They wouldn't have them all at the same time and
everybody would have a chance to go to all of them.
"They wouldn't allow the colored to preach and they wouldn't even call
on them to pray but he could sing as good as any of them.
"Generally all colored preachers that I knowed of was slaves. The
slaves attended the churches all right enough--Methodists and Baptists
both white and black. I never heard of the preachers saying anything
the white folks did not like.
"The Methodists' church started in the North. There was fourteen or
fifteen members that got dissatisfied with the Baptist church and went
over to the Methodist church. The trouble was that they weren't
satisfied with our Baptism. The Baptists were here before the
Methodists were thought of. These here fourteen or fifteen members
came out of the North and started the Methodist church going.
Share Cropping
"Share cropping has been ever since I knowed anything. It was the way
I started. I was working the white man's land and stock and living in
his house and getting half of the cotton and corn. We had a garden and
raised potatoes and greens and so on, but cotton and corn was our
crop. Of course we had them little patches and raised watermelon and
such like.
Food and Quarters
"We ate whatever the white man ate. My mother was the cook. She had a
cook-room joined to her room [which reached clear over to the white
folks' house.] [HW: see p. 4] Everything she cooked on that stove, we
all ate it, white and black--some of the putting, [HW: pudding] some
of the cakes, some of the pies, some of the custard, some of the
biscuits, some of the corn bread--we all had it, white and black. I
don't know no difference at all. Asa Brown was a good old man. There
was some mean slave owners, but he wasn't one.
Whippings
"You could hear of some mean slave owners taking switches and beating
their niggers nearly to death. But I never heard of my old master
doing that. Slaves would run away and it would be a year or two before
they would be caught. Sometimes they would take him and strip him
naked and whip him till he wasn't able to stand for running away. But
I never heard of nothing like that happening with Asa Brown. But he
sometimes would sell a hand or buy one sometimes. He'd take a nigger
in exchange for a debt and rent him out.
Voting
"There wasn't any voting by the slaves. But ever since freedom they
have been voting. None of my friends ever held any office. I don't
know anything about the niggers not voting now. Don't they vote?
Patter Rollers, K. K. K., White Carmelias, Etc.
"My mother and father knowed about Patter Rollers, but I don't know
nothing about them. But they are dead and gone. I have heard of the Ku
Klux but I don't know nothing about it. I don't know what I used to
know. No sir, I am out of the question now.
"There is one thing I keep straight. When I wants to drink or when I
wants to eat--oh yes, I know how to go to bed.
"You know I have seen the time when they would get in a close place
and they would make me preach, but it's all gone from me now. I can't
recollect."
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John H Logan
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Aunt Minerva Lofton
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