Solomon P. Pattillo
1502 Martin Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age 76
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor
Occupation Formerly farmer, teacher, and small dealer---now blind
"I was born November 1862. I was three years old at the time of the surrender. I was born right here in Arkansas --- right down here in Tulip, Dellas County, Arkansas. I have never been out of the state but twice.
Refugeeing
"My daddy carried me out once
when they took him to Texas during the war to keep the Yanks
from setting him free.
"Then I went out once long after slavery to get a load of send. On the way back, my boat nearly sank. Those are the only two times I ever left the state.
Parents
"My father's name was Thomas
Smith, but the Pattillos bought him and he took the name of
Pattillo. I don't know how much he sold for. That was the only
time he was ever sold. I believe that my father was born in
North Carolina. It seems like to me I recollect that is where
he said he was born.
"My mother was born in Virginia. I don't know how she got here unless she was sold like my father was. I don't know her name before she got married. Yes, I do; her name was Fannie Smith, I believe.
Houses
"We lived in old log cabins. We
had bedsteeds nailed to the wall. Then we had them old fashioned
cordboard springs. They had repes made into springs. That was
a high class bed. People who had those cord springs felt themselves.
They made good sleeping. My father had one. Ropes were woven
back and forth across the bed frame.
"We had those old spinning wheels. Three cuts was a day's work. A out was so many threads. It was quite a day to make them. They had hanks too. The threads were all linked together.
"My mother was a spinner. My father was a farmer. Both of them worked for their master, --- old Massa, they called him, or Massa, Mass Tom, Mass John or Maesta.
War Recollections
"I remember during
the war when I was in Texas with a family of Moody's how old
Mistiss had me packing rocks out of the yard in a basket and
elsaning the yard. I didn't know it then, but my daddy teld
me later that that was when I was in Texas, --- during the
war. I remember that I used to work in my shirt tail.
"The soldiers used to come in the house somewhere and take anything they could get or wanted to take.
Pateroles
"When I was a boy they had
a song, 'Run, Nigger, run; The Pateroles will get you.' They
would run you in and I have been told they would whip you.
If you overstayed your time when your master had let you go
out, he would notify the pateroles and they would hunt you
up and turn you ever to him.
Church Meetings
"Way long then, my father and mother used to say that man
doesn't serve the Lord --- the true and living God and let it
be known. A hunch of them got together and resolved to sarve
Him any way. First they sang in a whisper, 'Come ye that love
the Lard.' Finally they get bold and began to sing in tones that
could be heard everywhere, 'Oh for a thousand tougues to sing
my Great Redeemer's praise."
After the War
"After the war my father
farmed --- made share crops. I remember case how some one
took his horse and left an old tired horse in the stable. She
looked like a nag. When she got rested up she was better than
the one that was took.
"His first farm was down here in Dallas County. He made a share crop with his former master, Pattille. He never had no trouble with him.
Ku Klux
"I heard a good deal of talk
about the Ku Klux Klan, but I don't knew anything much about
it. They never bethered my father and mother. My father was
given the name of being an obedient servant --- among the best
help they had.
"My father farmed all his life. He died at the age of seventy-twe in Tulip, near the year 1885, just before Cleveland's inauguration. He died of Typhoid Pnsumonis. My mother was ninety-six years old when she died in 1909.
Little Rock
"I came to Little Rock in
1894. I came up here to teach in Fourche Dam. Then I moved
here. I taught my first school in this county at Cato. I quit
teaching because my salary was se peor and then I want into
the butchar's business, and in the wood business. I farmed
all the while.
"I taught school for twenty-one years. I always was a successful teacher. I did my best. If you contract to do a job for ten dellars, do as much as though you were getting a hundred. That will always help you to get a better job.
"I have farmed all my life in connection with my teaching. I want into other businesses like I said a moment age. I was a caretaker at the Haven of Rest Cemetery for sometime."I was postmaster from 1904 to 1911 at Sweet Home. At one time I was employed on the United States Consus.
"I get a little blind pension now. I have no other means of support.
Loss of Eyes
"The doctor says I lost
my eyesight on account of cataracts. I had an operation and
when I came home, I got to stirring around and it ocused me
to have a hemorrhage of the eye. You see I couldn't stay at
the hospital because it was costing me $3 a day and I didn't
have it. They had to take one eye clean out. Nothing can be
done for them, but somehow I feel that the Lord's going to
let me see again. That's the way I feel about it.
"I have lived here in this world this long and never had a fight in my life. I have never been mistreated by a white man in my life. I always knew my place. Some fellows get mistreated because they get out of their place.
"I was told I couldn't stay in Benton because that was a white man's town. I went there and they treated me white. I tried to stay with a colored family way out. They were scared to take me. I had gone there to attend to some business. Then I went to the sheriff and he told me that if they were scared to have me stay at their home, I could stay at the hotel and put my horse in the livery stahle. I stayed out in the wagna yard. But I was invited into the hotel. They took care of my horse and fed it and they brought me my meals. The next morning, they cleaned and curried and hitched my horse for me.
"I have voted all my life. I never had any trouble about it.
"The Ku Klux never bothered me. Nobody else ever did. If we live so that everybody will respect us, the better class will always try to help us."
Source Information:
Works Project Administration. Federal Writers Project. Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. Washington, D.C.: n.p.