During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration and its employees under the Federal Writers’ Project interviewed surviving former slaves around the country about their lives. Miss Irene Robertson interviewed William Ball Williams III, age 98 years, in Forrest City, Arkansas. He told about the Civil War:
“I run away to Louisville to j’ine the Yankees one day. I was scared to death all the time. They put us in front to shield themselves. They said they was fighting for us—for our freedom. Piles of them was killed. I got a flesh wound. I’m scarred up some. We got plenty to eat. I was in two or three hot battles. I wanted to quit but they would catch them and shoot them if they left. I didn’t know how to get out and get away. I mustered out at Jacksonville, Florida and walked every step of the way back. When I got back it was fall of the year. My folks still at my master’s. I was on picket guard at Jacksonville, Florida. We fought a little at Pensacola, Florida”
He continued about life after the War:
“At the end of the War provisions got mighty scarce. If we didn’t have enough to eat we took it. They hadn’t raised nothing to eat the last two years. Before I got back to Kentucky the Ku Klux was about and it was hard to get enough to eat to keep traveling on. I was scared nearly to death all the time. I’m not in favor of war. I didn’t stay on with the master but my folks lived on. They didn’t want to hire Negro soldiers. I traveled about hunting a good place and got to Osceola, Arkansas. I been here in Forrest City twenty ard years. The best people in the world live in Arkansas.
“I’m going to try to go to the Yankee Reunion. They sent me a big letter (invitation). They going to send me a ticket and pay all my expenses. It is at Gettysburg. It is from June 29th to July 6th. My grandson is going to take care of me.
“I get one hundred dollars a month pension. It keeps us mighty well. I want to live to be a hundred years old.”
On this Veterans’ Day, one must take time to remember all of the soldiers who have fought for the United States throughout its history. It is through their sacrifices that we continue to have the freedom that makes this nation great.
SOURCE:
“Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938,” digital images, Library of Congress, American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html : accessed 11 November 2010), narrative of “Soldier” Williams [William Ball Williams III], Forrest City; Arkansas Narratives, vol. II, pt. 7.
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