Karen Ferguson: This is the man, you were working on his land? Andrew Strong: Yeah. Karen Ferguson: Yeah? Andrew Strong: He's the one that owned the land. Karen Ferguson: Right. Andrew Strong: You know, he sold me really about 100 acres of the land and that's where I stayed. Karen Ferguson: Right, right. Now, how did you pay him for the land? Andrew Strong: I worked and sold tobacco. Yeah, I got about broke the farm. I worked and sold them [indistinct 00:00:30] Greenville and sell it. Karen Ferguson: So, he loaned you some—so you had to pay him? Andrew Strong: Yeah, I paid him for the land. Karen Ferguson: No, but did you buy it outright, or did you have to continue paying him? Andrew Strong: Yeah, that was about five, six years I paid it. Karen Ferguson: Plus interest. Andrew Strong: Based on working. Get paid, pay the note off. You see, he'd give me a note and I paid the last note off. Then he marked it off, gave me my deed for it. Karen Ferguson: Now when you were growing up, do you remember the furnishing agents or storekeepers, or anybody like that not treating you or your grandfather fairly? Andrew Strong: No, they treated all right. Karen Ferguson: They did? Andrew Strong: Yeah. No, they didn't mistreat me. Karen Ferguson: Uh huh. Were they fair in their accounts? Andrew Strong: Yeah, yeah. Keep up with it, yeah. I kept up with it. Yeah, they did. They take a book and put it down. He got one, you got one. Yeah. Karen Ferguson: Right, right. So you think you were paid enough for your crops? Andrew Strong: Yeah. I was satisfied with it. Yeah, paid enough for the crops. When I'd go sell tobacco, go all the, go in there and I'd be there when it sold. Karen Ferguson: Right. So you knew how much. Andrew Strong: Yeah, he'd give me money to live on till I got it all sold. Then he'd give me a receipt for all of it. Yeah, I was treated all right. I was a good farmer; best farmer he had. Best farmer he had. I know he was and he told me I put him on his feet. He told me that I went there and runned it. Karen Ferguson: Right, so he was grateful to you for doing this? Andrew Strong: Yeah. Karen Ferguson: Now, how did he help you out? He helped you buy the farm, he helped with what? Andrew Strong: He bought the farm, and then he— Karen Ferguson: Oh, okay. And then you paid him? Andrew Strong: Yeah, turned around and sold it to me. Karen Ferguson: Oh, okay. Do you think, was there a way that Black farmers could buy land themselves back then? Andrew Strong: Yeah, some of them could. They tried. A lot of them tried. I worked hard for mine, and my wife did, children did together. Worked hard. Karen Ferguson: Why did you want to own your own land? Andrew Strong: Well, I wanted somewhere to stay. I wanted somewhere to stay. Yeah, I got a big house right here, my home where I stay at. Now I got a pretty good sized house to stay in. Karen Ferguson: Yeah. How do you think your life would be different if you hadn't bought land? Andrew Strong: Well now, man, woman, what are you talking about? Where I'm going to stay at? Where am I going to stay at if I hadn't bought nowhere? Yeah, big difference when you own your own land and your own home. Karen Ferguson: Yeah, but what is the difference? Just tell me a little bit about the difference. Andrew Strong: Huh? Karen Ferguson: Tell me the difference. Andrew Strong: Well, you own somewhere, I couldn't tell you where to stay. I'm my own boss and everything. Nobody can't tell me to move. The children inherit it after I die. Son and them, he's a preacher. Karen Ferguson: Oh, he is? Andrew Strong: Yeah, AME Zion Methodist preacher, born over the Bible too. Didn't doubt that. Yes, knows the Bible. Karen Ferguson: Now, when you were growing up, who was the boss at home? When you were young, before you left home. Andrew Strong: Papa, he's the boss. Karen Ferguson: Oh, yeah? Now, did he discipline you? Did he whip you if he needed to? Andrew Strong: Oh, yeah. He did and my mother did. Karen Ferguson: Oh, she did too? Andrew Strong: Both of them. Both. He ain't never known to hit me. Karen Ferguson: Oh, he didn't hit you? Andrew Strong: No. Karen Ferguson: Okay, so your mother did it? Andrew Strong: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Karen Ferguson: How about money? Who took care of the money at home? Andrew Strong: Huh? He took care of that. Karen Ferguson: Was it your mother or your father? Andrew Strong: Papa. Karen Ferguson: Oh, okay. Andrew Strong: He took care of that. He took care of that. Karen Ferguson: Right, and who got groceries? Who went and bought the groceries? Andrew Strong: He done all of that. Yeah, he done all the groceries. Karen Ferguson: What was your father like? Papa like? Andrew Strong: [indistinct 00:06:14]. Yeah, write and read a little bit. Low. Just keep it there and he'd watch that head. Throw on that hat and stay like that all day long. And I don't care how cold it was, he washed his face in that cold water. Break the ice. Karen Ferguson: Yeah, but what kind of person was he like? Were you close to him? Did you feel— Andrew Strong: Yeah, yeah, I was close to him. Yeah, I was. Daddy wasn't mean, Papa wasn't mean to me. Treated me all right. After I got grown, I went out on my own. Bought me a horse and buggy. Wasn't no cars made back there then, 100 years ago. Didn't even know what a car was. Didn't know what a plane was. First plane ever I see, 1905. Big company man come across with a low plane. Chickens though that was the biggest hawk they ever seen. Talking about run under the back house and then shot. The house, they went under that. Yes, they didn't know what in the world that was. They thought that the biggest hawk every they seen. Karen Ferguson: Right, mm-hmm. Andrew Strong: Yep, that it was. Karen Ferguson: When did you first get a car? Andrew Strong: Well, after I got married. Karen Ferguson: And how did that change your life? How did things change? Andrew Strong: Well, it changed your whole way around, like the rest of them did. You had to walk before. I walked many times to church, but after I was able to buy the car, why, drive it to church. Anybody wanted to go. Drive to Vanceboro in the back of the car. Sun coming out, getting ready to go to Vanceboro to buy himself one. Carried it, he came in there to get it. Karen Ferguson: What other things could you do that you couldn't do before, when you got a car? Andrew Strong: Had the farm and the wheat come, if I wanted to go to Vanceboro somewhere, I get in, they'd get in and go on driving. Put a gas bucket in there and drive it. Drive it to Vanceboro. Karen Ferguson: Did you do your grocery shopping in a different place when you— Andrew Strong: Well, it's where I do my shopping at, the Vanceboro. Karen Ferguson: Okay, okay. Right. Andrew Strong: Yeah, where I do my shopping at, the Vanceboro. That they do. Karen Ferguson: Right, right. When you were growing up, but after you got grown, do you remember people ever going to jail or to prison for things they hadn't really done? Andrew Strong: Well, there ain't too much of that done around here. But you can always tell and I got a radio, and always hear talk of that. But ain't much of it down around Vanceboro. I don't even see nobody put in jail around Vanceboro. Karen Ferguson: Right, right. Even when you first came here? Andrew Strong: Little different when I first come here, but all that's changed now. Karen Ferguson: How was it different when you first came here? Andrew Strong: Well, little fighting down there then. A little, very little. Not much down there. Vanceboro's always pretty good, easy place. Don't much fighting down around here. I know one man, it was the sheriff and he went to lock a man up. They had to beat him and things, what I see. But this man, he worked for some company or nother. I think he come from north; I know he did. Sam went and put him in jail, and that man took his gun out and marched him in. Marched the man, went on about his business. Andrew Strong: I don't know where he come from, but one Saturday I was in Vanceboro and I see them waving, going on back up north. Sam, he didn't ever get him. Don't much down there, none of that. Every now and then there'd be a drunk, but I ain't never been drunk. Raised all my children and they ain't never seen me drunk and they ain't never hear me cuss. They never would've forgiven me. What in the world why they want to cuss for, I don't see. Ain't nothing to it. Karen Ferguson: Were there ways in which White folks tried to keep Black folks down? Keep them from prospering? Andrew Strong: Well, some places I imagine they did. Well, when I was right young, people telling you, "Negroes stayed under slavery about 300 years." And where you would read, you know? But they stayed under slavery about three years. I mean, about 300 some years. Clear land. They're just sold you. They'd buy them, trade them, one thing or another. Place you with the people. You say you don't know who your people is; place there and there. Where they sold them at. North and South Carolina. Andrew Strong: Yeah, a big building. July it's looked like. They go down there and sell them there. They go up there and they say they put them on a block and bid them off to the highest bidder. That was one of them places. I just seen it, that's all. Karen Ferguson: Right, but how about after slavery? Did White folks always deal fairly with Black folks after that? Andrew Strong: Well, you see after slavery, where were the Black man going? Didn't have no land. What we going to do? I stayed right there with them, the way I see it. I wasn't even born then, but I know that's what they had to do. Karen Ferguson: Right. Were there ways, though, that White folks tried to keep Black folks from owning land? Andrew Strong: Well, even what he going to buy it with? Karen Ferguson: Yeah. Andrew Strong: What are they going to buy it with? Didn't have no money. Karen Ferguson: Right. But do you think there were ways in which they tried to keep them from having money? Andrew Strong: Well, some of them did, you know? Karen Ferguson: How did they do that? Andrew Strong: Well, if they don't sell you nothing, what are you going to do? Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm, so some people wouldn't sell land to Black folks? Do you remember that happening? Andrew Strong: No, but I know who had land and who didn't. Karen Ferguson: Right. Andrew Strong: Know who had land and who didn't. No, take Greene—a place called Greene County. They're rough up there and that's where my granddaddy moved, left from up there. A whole lot of them left, some of them walked from here to Numa out there. They went working right on for another. Karen Ferguson: So they walked over? A bunch of them came over here? To this way? Andrew Strong: I reckon so. Karen Ferguson: Now why was it rough in Greene County? What did people do? What happened there? Andrew Strong: I don't know, but I know they worked them hard or something. Didn't give them no chance. That's reason. People tell me that's the reason. My granddaddy left and came down here. A lot of folks coming down here. Yep, a lot of folks coming down here. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm. Do you remember there being a Ku Klux Klan in these parts? Andrew Strong: Yeah. Karen Ferguson: Yeah? And what did they do? Andrew Strong: To tell you the truth, yeah, I don't know. There was some scattered around in here somewhere. There was some over here, come through there shooting and one thing and the other. Some of them Klan boys. Run away from that. They run in there and they accused them. Karen Ferguson: Huh. So, what were they accusing these Black boys of doing? Andrew Strong: Well, I don't know. They get leaning is all I know. Karen Ferguson: Right. Were they accused of having relations with White girls? Or was there—no? No. Andrew Strong: No, not that I know. Yeah. Karen Ferguson: When was this? When did this happen? Andrew Strong: Oh, yeah. I don't know, a few years ago since I been down here. Karen Ferguson: Right. When did you move down here? Andrew Strong: I moved down here in—see, all my children, Ledru was born in Pitt County. I don't know— Karen Ferguson: That's all right if you can't remember. That's all right. And what did you do when this happened? Were you afraid? Andrew Strong: No. Oh, no one ain't bothering me. Just scared about places, certain places. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm. Andrew Strong: Yeah, a place up the road here, during the summer they would come up there and shoot. And that crowd talked to them one night. Come through there and they shot at them, and they run them out of there. They'd go in there and shoot. The board took over [indistinct 00:19:30] and run them out of there. Some of them arrested them, put them in jail. Another man turn them out and turn them loose. That stopped that. Karen Ferguson: Right. Andrew Strong: I wasn't in there, though. I only share it. There's certain places they'd come. See, where I'm at, there ain't nobody in there much. All that in there, I know them, they know me. You be one man I'd stayed out on the farm behind him. He on the farm out there on the road. If I want anything, I go there and get it. That just was the difference. He'd say, "Andrew, you get so-and-so?" I told him, "Yeah. Just haven't brought it back." Wasn't nothing said. Andrew Strong: If he wanted to go off, go north up somewhere, he'd tell me would I feed his hogs, tend to them while he gone? And I'd tell him yeah, and that was it. Karen Ferguson: Right. So you're saying relations between White folks and Black folks are better where you are, than in some other places? Andrew Strong: Oh, yeah. Definitely. We know we're good. They were all right there on, what you say? He own the front, and I own the back. We was all right. If he want to go to the North with his wife, he'd say, "Andrew," be sure to tell me. Yeah, he'd go on and I'd feed his hog. Get all the eggs out, that was it. He were just that much near me. Andrew Strong: It's different than how you live. Karen Ferguson: What? Sorry? Andrew Strong: Different how you live. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Andrew Strong: Difference, what I mean, I went to church. They won't be more scared to trust me with nothing in the world. Karen Ferguson: Right, right. So is that how you stayed out of trouble, too? Andrew Strong: Yeah. No, I ain't never been in no trouble. That I ain't. Karen Ferguson: Do you ever remember men, young men, getting in trouble for supposedly looking at White women the wrong way? Or for having—no? Andrew Strong: No, there ain't none of that down here. Not that I know of. Ain't none of that down around here. And used to be some White women, the White stayed right under me. I could call and they'd hear me. Stayed there all the time. They were poor, didn't work, come there and knock on the door, want a little meal, a little flour, a little this, a little that. Stayed there and they was kind of low graded people. Men's wanting at them, til White folks run them out one night. Andrew Strong: The men, young men, were trotting there. You know, at them. Some of the White folks went down, shot the house up. Karen Ferguson: Now, they shot the house of these poor White people? Yeah, okay. Andrew Strong: Yeah, they shot at them and they run down clear to my house. Hollering, "Andrew, Andrew, Andrew!" They went, when they got back, their things was all in the yard and their house was burnt up. That run them away from around there. They wanted to get rid of them. And that's how they got shed of them. Karen Ferguson: Now why do you think they were shooting at them to get them away? Andrew Strong: Get them out, yeah. Karen Ferguson: Why did they want to get them away? Andrew Strong: People tell when you're low grade. Men's running at them, young boys running at them. Karen Ferguson: So, the people were low grade or these people who were coming after them were low grade? Andrew Strong: No, the whole lot, I reckon. All I know, they were [indistinct 00:24:07]. Karen Ferguson: Right, right. Now, were these people living in a—was your section mostly Black people? Andrew Strong: No, no. No, White. They were running at them. They were all White. No Colored were going in there. Karen Ferguson: Did you have much relationship with White people when you were growing up? Did you play with White children? Andrew Strong: No. Karen Ferguson: No? Okay. Andrew Strong: Wasn't none around there. All was brought up around there, there's plenty [indistinct 00:24:44]. There's a few White around there on the farm. Not many White round there, no how. And they brought up with Colored. Yeah, I was raised that way. There was one, he had one boy I played with all the time, but everybody got along fine and all that. In that day, got along fine. Karen Ferguson: When did you leave home? Andrew Strong: Whoa. Karen Ferguson: How old were you, do you remember? Andrew Strong: 24. Karen Ferguson: And why did you decide to leave home? Andrew Strong: Well, I got married. Karen Ferguson: Oh, you got married? Now, where did you meet your wife? Andrew Strong: Right down here. I was on the highway. Karen Ferguson: Now, was this in Pitt County? Andrew Strong: Yeah. I'd go down there in Pitt County. And I married her and carried her back into Pitt County. Stayed down there until I decided to move down here. We owned some of the land, no brand land. Yeah, where my house is. No brand land. Karen Ferguson: Now, had you been courting? Did you court other girls too, before her? Andrew Strong: Oh, yeah. Karen Ferguson: Yeah? Andrew Strong: Promised to marry them. Karen Ferguson: Pardon me? You married one of them? Andrew Strong: I promised to. Karen Ferguson: Oh, no! What happened then? Andrew Strong: Sherry beat her to it. Yeah, I married her. I was already going to her for, runaway before I did them. Yeah. Name was Kenzie Laken. Karen Ferguson: Okay, that was your wife's name? Or the woman you were supposed to marry? Andrew Strong: The one I was supposed to marry. Karen Ferguson: So, were you popular with girls? Andrew Strong: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Karen Ferguson: And why did you decide to marry your wife instead of this girl? Andrew Strong: Well, I liked her better than I did the other one. Yeah, I ain't lied something about her. Karen Ferguson: Right, right. Andrew Strong: Promised to be there Sunday and I wouldn't be there. Karen Ferguson: Did she get angry? Andrew Strong: What they going to get angry for? Couldn't do no better. No, couldn't do no better. Karen Ferguson: Now, what did your papa tell you about being a good husband? Did he tell you anything about that? Andrew Strong: No. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm, what do you think makes a good husband? Andrew Strong: I don't know. I ain't never been no bad person, no how. Ain't never been in a fight and I ain't never cussed, and ain't never been drunk. And ain't many can say that. No, ain't many can say it, but this cussing ain't nothing in my book. I be hearing folks cuss, but I'll never do it. Nope, ain't never been nothing with me. I'm just trying to serve the Lord and live a clean life. Karen Ferguson: Right, yeah. Andrew Strong: But this certain thing going to Heaven when I die is what I want to do. That'll do. Karen Ferguson: Now, when you started working on a farm then, the two of you lived on a farm in the Bland place, is that right? After you got married? Andrew Strong: Yeah, that's all I've ever done. Karen Ferguson: Oh, okay. And he's the one you bought the land from then? Andrew Strong: Who? Karen Ferguson: Mr. Bland? Andrew Strong: No. That's my wife's daddy. Karen Ferguson: Oh, okay. Andrew Strong: The people there, I bought this [indistinct 00:28:58]. Karen Ferguson: Uh huh. Oh, so you were working with your wife's daddy after you got married? Andrew Strong: Huh? Karen Ferguson: Sorry, I don't understand. Andrew Strong: No, the farms joined, but they tend their land and I tend mine. Karen Ferguson: Okay, okay. Uh huh, and how long did you stay there? Andrew Strong: I'm there now. Karen Ferguson: You're there now? Okay. Andrew Strong: Tending it right now. Karen Ferguson: So that's the land that you bought then? Okay. Andrew Strong: Mm-hmm, that's the land I bought. Karen Ferguson: Did your wife work in the fields with you? Andrew Strong: Yeah, children too. I learned them all how to work. Yes, they had to work or else. Karen Ferguson: Right. Or else what? Andrew Strong: They had to work or else put that switch on them. They all worked. None of them ain't never been in no trouble. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Now, how many children did you have? Andrew Strong: Estelle. The oldest girl's name Estelle. Next one named Vernon, and Vernon's dead. Estelle living right up the road here. Maura stayed in Washington DC. She the baby girl. And Ledru, one boy, he's the baby all of them. Yep, baby of all of them. Karen Ferguson: Right. Now, did you ever have to keep your children out of school for working in the fields? Andrew Strong: My decision. Karen Ferguson: Pardon me? Andrew Strong: My decision. I try to let them stay in school. Yeah, my decision if I kept them home. Karen Ferguson: And what made a good father? What kinds of things did you do for your children? Andrew Strong: Well, I tried to treat them right. Tried to raise them in the right way. Karen Ferguson: What kinds of things did your wife do for them as a mother, and what did you do for them as a father? What were the differences? Andrew Strong: Oh, well, everybody depend on Papa. Everybody depend on Papa. Wife didn't have much to do with my business. Couldn't tend to no business. No, she couldn't. She looked to me for everything, like the children did. I did everything and all the business, everything. I tend to it all. That, I did. Tend all of it. Rode the children and my wife, because she a little bit backwards. Mind wasn't as strong as mine. She looked to me for everything. That, she did. Karen Ferguson: Right, mm-hmm. Were there any things that she did in the house that you didn't do? Was she in charge of anything? Andrew Strong: No, she cleaned the house up, but in the business, she looked at me for all of that. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm, right. Now, did you belong to any organizations after you got married in church, or outside of church? Any lodges or— Andrew Strong: Yeah, I belong to a lodge right now. Karen Ferguson: What is it called? Andrew Strong: Shiva Lodge 94. Karen Ferguson: Okay. Is this a Masonic one? Andrew Strong: Masons, yeah. Karen Ferguson: Masons, okay. Andrew Strong: Been secretary there for about 25 years till I quit. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm, and why did you join the Masons? Andrew Strong: I don't know, just because the rest joined, I reckon. I wish I'd never joined. Karen Ferguson: Why is that? Andrew Strong: Because it costs too much. Joined the Odd Fellows. Karen Ferguson: You were in the Odd Fellows, too? Andrew Strong: I was, but I ain't now. Karen Ferguson: Right, and why did you join that? For the same reasons? Andrew Strong: Well, I got tired of it and quit. Karen Ferguson: Why did you get tired of it? Andrew Strong: I don't know. Just got tired of going, but I stayed secretary there for years and years. Karen Ferguson: You were the secretary? Okay. Andrew Strong: Yeah. Karen Ferguson: Right. Andrew Strong: That, I did. Karen Ferguson: Okay, what kinds of things did you do in the Odd Fellows? I know you're not supposed to tell— Andrew Strong: You're going too far now. Karen Ferguson: Okay, all right. Andrew Strong: You're going too far now. Karen Ferguson: All right, I realize that now, so I'm sorry. Andrew Strong: You got to quit. You're going too far now. Karen Ferguson: Okay, well let me ask you this then. What kind of men joined the Masons and the Odd Fellows? Andrew Strong: Well, yeah. You had to have a good reputation. Ain't everybody going to take them. That they won't. They don't take any and everybody. Karen Ferguson: Right. Andrew Strong: No, no. Karen Ferguson: Do you remember there being any kind of burial societies? Andrew Strong: I'm in it. Karen Ferguson: You were in one? Andrew Strong: I'm in it. Karen Ferguson: Okay, what's it called? Andrew Strong: Oak Carlton Funeral Homes. Karen Ferguson: Okay, but was it in the church or in other places, do you remember there being little societies where members just paid money to each other? Andrew Strong: No, no. Karen Ferguson: Okay, do you remember anything called the Pound Society? Andrew Strong: Mmm-mm. Karen Ferguson: No? Okay. Andrew Strong: Nope. Karen Ferguson: In what way did people help each other out? How did people help each other out in the old days? Andrew Strong: Well, ain't most of that done around here. Everybody lived pretty good as far as I know around this part of the section. Karen Ferguson: Mm-hmm, okay. All right, Mr. Strong, I think I'm about finished with my questions.