Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume II, Arkansas Narratives, Part 6

In Short

This volume collects first-person interviews with formerly enslaved men and women living in Arkansas during the late 1930s. Through direct reminiscences, the informants detail their childhoods in bondage, the arrival of Union troops, the sudden shift to emancipation, and their lifelong struggles to secure land, employment, and shelter. Unfiltered and deeply varied, the collection stands as an irreplaceable historical record of ordinary people navigating profound historical trauma, preserving their personal reckonings with freedom, family loss, labor, and aging in the American South.

The Story

The narrative arc traced across these interviews begins in the antebellum South, where informants recall childhoods marked either by relative stability or severe mistreatment. Many remember simple domestic chores, like gathering chips for fires, playing in quarters, or tending to livestock, while others carry vivid memories of violent overseers, hounds, and paddyrollers. Family life was constantly precarious; parents were sold away across state lines, while fathers on neighboring plantations required passes merely to visit their children on Sunday evenings.

The outbreak of the Civil War shatters this fragile order. Informants recall the sudden appearance of Union and Confederate troops, the sound of distant cannon fire at battles like Marks' Mill, and the panic of white slaveholders fleeing toward Texas or inner territories. Enslaved men were impressed into military service or sent as substitutes, while women cooked overnight for hundreds of soldiers or fled through muddy roads with young children. Union forces seized livestock, quilts, and silverware, often forcing enslaved people to march alongside cavalry or sending them to Federal garrisons like Fort Smith for refuge.

Emancipation arrives not as a grand, organized event, but as a sudden, confusing realization. Some owners simply notify their workers they are free, while others attempt to withhold the news or threaten violence if workers leave. Released with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, newly freed people set out on foot to reunite with lost relatives—walking hundreds of miles across state lines to track down spouses and children separated years earlier by the slave trade.

In the post-war decades, the narratives follow a relentless effort toward self-reliance. Former slaves take whatever work is available: clearing timber, farming, cooking, washing, grading lumber, or working in planing mills and shoe shops. A few manage to acquire small farms or homes, only to lose them later to crop failures, high interest, and predatory credit systems. As the decades pass, they relocate across the South, build churches, raise large families, and adapt to industrial labor. By the 1930s, aged and often disabled by injuries or illness, the informants reflect on the young generation, evaluate government relief checks, and prepare quietly for the end of their lives, maintaining a fierce pride in the hard labor that sustained them.

How It Unfolds

Life under bondage The early memories detail the routines of plantation life, from gathering corn cobs for soda to witnessing the brutal violence of overseers. Informants describe the constant threat of being sold away, alongside memories of cabin dances, fiddle music, and family visits made possible only by written passes.

The war arrives Union and Confederate armies sweep through plantations, confiscating stock, foraging for food, and impressing enslaved men into military service. Families hide under houses or in swamps, while others are marched off by troops or forced to flee with fleeing owners.

The dawn of freedom News of emancipation reaches the quarters through word of mouth, Union troops, or reluctant announcements from former owners. With no money or property provided to them, former slaves gather their meager belongings in bundles and set out into an uncertain landscape.

Reclaiming family and labor The post-emancipation years are marked by long journeys on foot to track down sold relatives and reunite broken families. Individuals enter the wage labor market, farming on shares, cooking on riverboats, building houses, or working in lumber mills to support children and elderly parents.

Reflections in old age In their seventies, eighties, and nineties, the informants look back from modest porches and rented rooms in 1930s Arkansas. Dependent on small relief checks or odd jobs, they evaluate modern youth, reflect on their spiritual faith, and offer final, unvarnished judgments on their long journey from slavery to freedom.

The People

• James Reeves: A preacher and former farm worker who remembers the arrival of Union troops and his family's post-war migration from South Carolina. Driven by a desire for independence, he works tirelessly to acquire 80 acres of land, only to lose it to bad crops and store debts. In his old age, he relies on a small government pension and odd jobs, remaining proud of his lifelong work ethic.
• Roberta Shaver: Raised near Natchez, Mississippi, she holds the story of her grandmother, who was sold away from her family but walked back after freedom to reunite with her husband after five years. Roberta lives through wartime chaos, wades through mud to tend a sick husband at Marks' Mill, and maintains a sharp, critical view of modern customs.
• Kittie Stanford: A 104-year-old woman given away at age ten to rock a cradle, who survived overseer beatings and lived through wartime relocation to Texas. Having outlived four husbands and worked hard her entire life, she threads her own needles, sews her own quilts, and keeps her burial shroud neatly wrapped in blue cloth, completely prepared for death.
• Sneed Teague: A skilled tradesman and farmer whose family belonged to French owners who manufactured their own tools and furniture. Leaving home at twelve after a family dispute, he builds a life working on railroads and farms, eventually acquiring ten acres of land and a house while remaining fiercely independent of government relief.

In Its Own Voice

"They were so 'fraid that the overseer would catch them that they would be watching for him with one eye and looking for God with the other. But the Lord understood."

This vivid image captures the constant terror under which enslaved people attempted to practice their faith, snatching moments of prayer at daybreak while fearing the overseer's return.

"They never thought how freedom would be. They never axed for nothin' and they never got nothin'. They didn't understand how to hustle lest somebody tell them what to do next."

A stark summary of the immediate aftermath of emancipation, highlighting the total lack of material support provided to formerly enslaved people as they entered a cash economy.

"I left my las' husband. I didn't leave him cause he beat me. I lef' him cause he want too many."

A crisp, unsentimental statement of personal agency from a woman asserting her independence in her marital life.

What It's Really About

At its core, this volume is about survival, human agency, and the profound economic dislocation that followed emancipation. It explores how individuals maintained their humanity, faith, and family bonds under a system designed to strip them of all three. Beyond the physical realities of bondage, the narratives present a candid look at the complexity of post-slavery life: the persistent struggle for economic self-determination in the face of debt, crop liens, and age. The interviews present an argument about memory itself—how trauma, resilience, and personal pride are carried across decades, shaping how an elderly generation understood both their past bondage and their present freedom.

Why Read It Today

This collection is an essential read for anyone seeking an unmediated, deeply human view of American history. Reading these pages feels like sitting on a porch in 1930s Arkansas, listening to elderly men and women speak directly across time in their distinct vernacular. The power of the book lies in its raw variety; no single narrative speaks for all, as accounts of harsh cruelty sit directly alongside memories of quiet resilience and industrious self-reliance.

Readers should be prepared for historical difficulties, including the phonetic transcription of dialect by WPA interviewers, which can occasionally feel dated or intrusive, as well as the candid descriptions of racial violence and wartime deprivation. Yet these challenges are far outweighed by the intimacy and historical weight of the voices themselves. What stays with you long after reading is the dignity and stubborn independence of the informants—people who built churches, cleared land, raised generations, and retained their sense of self through some of the darkest chapters of the American experience.