Andrew Strong interview recording, 1993 August 03

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Karen Ferguson	—telling me where you grew up and a little bit about the people you grew up with? Okay.	0:01
Andrew Strong	Want me to tell you now?	0:05
Karen Ferguson	Yeah. Sure, sure.	0:05
Andrew Strong	Name is Andrew Strong.	0:05
Karen Ferguson	Right, okay. Mm-hmm.	0:05
Andrew Strong	I grew up in Pitt County.	0:19
Karen Ferguson	In Pitt County, okay.	0:20
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm, on a place called Ayden, North Carolina.	0:25
Karen Ferguson	Ayden, North Carolina?	0:28
Andrew Strong	That was the closest town I was to, yep.	0:29
Karen Ferguson	How far away was Ayden from the place you grew up?	0:30
Andrew Strong	About six miles.	0:33
Karen Ferguson	Six miles, six miles.	0:34
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm.	0:36
Karen Ferguson	What did your family do for a living?	0:36
Andrew Strong	Farmed.	0:39
Karen Ferguson	Farmed?	0:39
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm.	0:40
Karen Ferguson	Did they have their own place, or were they working on somebody else's land?	0:41
Andrew Strong	Well, to start with, it was working on somebody else's land, but where I grew up at, they had a border farm.	0:46
Karen Ferguson	Sorry. A border farm? Okay.	0:58
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm, yeah.	1:01
Karen Ferguson	Now what does that mean? What does a border farm mean?	1:01
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	1:04
Karen Ferguson	What does that mean?	1:04
Andrew Strong	That's what they tend the land. Tending tobacco, corn, potatoes. Stuff like that.	1:06
Karen Ferguson	Okay, okay, all right and who did you grow up with?	1:16
Andrew Strong	Who, the people?	1:17
Karen Ferguson	Yeah, your family.	1:20
Andrew Strong	Taylor Strong.	1:21
Karen Ferguson	Okay. Taylor Strong. But who in your family did you grow up with?	1:23
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	1:30
Karen Ferguson	Did you grow up with your mother and father?	1:31
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	1:32
Karen Ferguson	Yeah and how many kids were in the family?	1:34
Andrew Strong	How many kids?	1:35
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm.	1:36
Andrew Strong	Well I was the youngest. Yeah. Yeah, my granddaddy raised me and I grew up with the older children, which was Ayden Strong, Clay Strong and Amonetta Strong and Abby Strong and the oldest one named Lula Strong.	1:38
Karen Ferguson	Lula, okay.	2:14
Andrew Strong	Yep.	2:16
Karen Ferguson	So did you know your parents?	2:17
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm.	2:20
Karen Ferguson	Where were they?	2:20
Andrew Strong	I'm telling you now.	2:21
Karen Ferguson	Okay. I'm sorry.	2:24
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm. Taylor Strong.	2:26
Karen Ferguson	Okay. So everybody lived on your grandfather's farm. Is that right?	2:30
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah, we were all raised there.	2:34
Karen Ferguson	Okay. Did they own this land, on the farm, this farm?	2:43
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	2:47
Karen Ferguson	Okay. Were there a lot of Black landowners in Pitt County?	2:47
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	2:53
Karen Ferguson	Were there many Black landowners in Pitt County?	2:53
Andrew Strong	No, no.	2:56
Karen Ferguson	Okay. So what did most people do?	2:57
Andrew Strong	They rented land.	3:01
Karen Ferguson	Rented, okay.	3:01
Andrew Strong	Not a whole lot of them now.	3:01
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm.	3:01
Andrew Strong	Things were kind of tight back then. You know what I'm saying?	3:07
Karen Ferguson	Right.	3:07
Andrew Strong	See, I was born in 1897.	3:07
Karen Ferguson	So you're—	3:07
Andrew Strong	I'm about 64 years old.	3:07
Karen Ferguson	You're 94?	3:07
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	3:08
Karen Ferguson	94 years old.	3:31
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm, yeah. Born in 1897.	3:31
Karen Ferguson	1897, okay.	3:31
Andrew Strong	Groundhog Day.	3:36
Karen Ferguson	Groundhog Day, okay.	3:37
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	3:38
Karen Ferguson	So March—	3:38
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	3:40
Karen Ferguson	March 27th. What is Groundhog Day?	3:41
Andrew Strong	It's April, I mean, February 7th you know is Groundhog Day.	3:42
Karen Ferguson	February, okay. Okay.	3:46
Andrew Strong	Groundhog Day.	3:46
Karen Ferguson	Right, okay. Now do you know anything about your grandparents?	3:53
Andrew Strong	Yeah, told you he raised me.	3:54
Karen Ferguson	Okay. Yeah, where did they come from? Do you know anything about their history?	3:58
Andrew Strong	Oh well—that's going to be in a paper, you're going to put that down there on the paper?	4:02
Karen Ferguson	Well it's all coming out on the tape. We're picking up your voice.	4:15
Andrew Strong	What are you going to do with it then?	4:19
Karen Ferguson	Well it's going [INTERRUPTION 00:04:20]—so you were talking about the things that you grew on the farm. What kinds of things again were you, you grew tobacco?	4:19
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	4:29
Karen Ferguson	And what else?	4:30
Andrew Strong	I raised a little cotton.	4:31
Karen Ferguson	Cotton?	4:34
Andrew Strong	Yeah, raised a little cotton, but I didn't like cotton. I wasn't no cotton picker.	4:35
Karen Ferguson	Why was that? Why didn't you like cotton?	4:41
Andrew Strong	I just didn't like it. You get down there and bend your back. I just didn't like it. My back would hurt. The old folks would whip me. I didn't like that. [indistinct 00:05:03] up and grown I wouldn't go out and pick it.	4:45
Karen Ferguson	Right, so you refused to pick it after you got grown?	5:03
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I'm quick. After I was up and grown. I tended tobacco and corn, [indistinct 00:05:16]. Sweet potatoes and all like that.	5:06
Karen Ferguson	Now the sweet potatoes, did you sell those, or did you keep them to eat yourself?	5:24
Andrew Strong	Well, I did sell a few, after I got grown. I had a tater house and I had a thermometer to hang up there to tell how much heat is. Just so we didn't let it get below 35, they would keep all right. But you could get them up in the 50s, but that's too high of heat. You just want it so they wouldn't freeze and if it turned cold, sure enough I'd go out there and light the heater, so to keep them warm. Yeah, that's the way I regularly done them.	5:30
Karen Ferguson	Now, when you said you had, you built yourself a sweet potato house when you got grown and you were on your own place? Is that right?	6:13
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	6:21
Karen Ferguson	What did you do when you were a boy and you were living on your grandfather's farm?	6:22
Andrew Strong	Well, I had to do what he said to do.	6:25
Karen Ferguson	Right. Well no, but what did you do with the sweet potatoes then?	6:29
Andrew Strong	Huh?	6:33
Karen Ferguson	What did you do with the sweet potatoes?	6:33
Andrew Strong	We ate them.	6:34
Karen Ferguson	Oh you ate them? But did you have a house for them?	6:34
Andrew Strong	Yeah, yeah.	6:37
Karen Ferguson	You had a house there too.	6:37
Andrew Strong	Yeah. I sold a few of them after I was about grown and got big enough to do my own business. I raised them and dig them out, before they would bruise them. [indistinct 00:06:59] and skin them up. Actually, I raised them and put the slips in there. You had to put the small taters in there and dig them over and then the spring come. The bed about last til March and April. May, you go to setting them out again and start a new crop for next year. That's the way we raised the taters.	6:38
Karen Ferguson	Right. Now did your grandfather raise a lot of cotton?	7:37
Andrew Strong	No.	7:38
Karen Ferguson	No?	7:38
Andrew Strong	No. He didn't raise much cotton. Think about it, he didn't do much farming no how.	7:48
Karen Ferguson	He didn't?	7:49
Andrew Strong	No. He didn't know how to farm. He was old-timing slave.	7:50
Karen Ferguson	Right, oh okay, okay.	7:54
Andrew Strong	He was brought up from South Carolina, I believe, as a slave up in a place called Greene County, on the other side of Ayden and they had to work for old master. They stayed a slave a long time. Then whatever they said to do, had it good with the land, [indistinct 00:08:32] and treat yourself to that. He was a part Indian.	7:58
Karen Ferguson	He was, okay.	8:34
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	8:35
Karen Ferguson	Well did he tell you what tribe?	8:35
Andrew Strong	No.	8:38
Karen Ferguson	No?	8:38
Andrew Strong	I don't know what he was. All I know, he was Indian. His hair, he could, I ain't never seen him wash his face and he'd break the ice and wash his head I never seen it, he'd break that ice and wash his head and he'd comb that hair back, kind of stiff black hair and it'd lay like that all day long. Yeah, he was part Indian. He was brought up as a slave. See they [indistinct 00:09:23] way back yonder and turn around and sell him, to a place yonder Federal. You ever hear of Federal?	8:48
Karen Ferguson	The Federal? Is this during the Civil War?	9:31
Andrew Strong	Mm-mm.	9:33
Karen Ferguson	Oh okay. No, what is that?	9:34
Andrew Strong	I'm talking about a place, a town.	9:35
Karen Ferguson	Oh okay. Oh okay.	9:35
Andrew Strong	Called Federal.	9:35
Karen Ferguson	Called Federal, okay. Is this in South Carolina, or North Carolina?	9:40
Andrew Strong	Right on the edge.	9:42
Karen Ferguson	Okay, mm-hmm. Okay and what would they do there?	9:48
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	9:49
Karen Ferguson	What happened there in Federal?	9:50
Andrew Strong	They worked them. They had to go out to the land and plow it up. Great big fields. Take a [indistinct 00:10:26] barn—[indistinct 00:10:26] barns and then they had to go in there and [indistinct 00:10:26] and that was the bad part about it and they treated the women just like [indistinct 00:10:32] dog and put a man right in the bed with them and they'd never seen them. That's the way they done them.	9:54
Karen Ferguson	So that's what he did in slavery?	10:40
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. That's what he did in slavery. Yeah, they'd put them right in there, bring them in at 1:00 at night and put them right in the bed with a woman and he doesn't know who he's getting in there with. [indistinct 00:10:55], is what he told me. Yeah. That's the way they done it. Some of them beat them. That's what he said. Didn't do their job, they told him they would beat him. That's what he said, way back yonder. I don't know. Of course, I don't know nothing about it. I'm just going with what they said they did. Yeah. What they do for them.	10:41
Karen Ferguson	Now was your grandmother, do you know anything about your grandmother?	11:26
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm.	11:29
Karen Ferguson	Was she in slavery as well?	11:30
Andrew Strong	Yeah, all of them in slavery.	11:31
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. Did she tell you any stories about that?	11:34
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	11:36
Karen Ferguson	Did she tell you any stories about that?	11:37
Andrew Strong	No.	11:39
Karen Ferguson	No?	11:39
Andrew Strong	No. Probably [indistinct 00:11:39] anybody else.	11:39
Karen Ferguson	Your father, uh-huh.	11:39
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	11:45
Karen Ferguson	What did he tell you?	11:46
Andrew Strong	I'm just telling you what he told me.	11:47
Karen Ferguson	Okay, so this was your grandfather. Okay.	11:50
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	11:51
Karen Ferguson	All right. Now you said your grandfather wasn't a very good farmer. He didn't know anything about farming.	11:51
Andrew Strong	No, uh-uh.	12:02
Karen Ferguson	So what did he do for a living?	12:03
Andrew Strong	Well, he farmed.	12:03
Karen Ferguson	He farmed, but he didn't know—	12:07
Andrew Strong	Yeah, cotton and corn. When I was young. Yeah, cotton and corn, but really, he won't much of a, didn't know how to farm like I did. Whole lot of things he done it, I wouldn't have done it.	12:08
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm. What kinds of things?	12:39
Andrew Strong	Well, farming.	12:39
Karen Ferguson	Okay. Now but what kinds of things did he do that weren't—	12:39
Andrew Strong	Well, he rose too much for one thing and he [indistinct 00:12:40] corn [indistinct 00:12:40] and I wouldn't have done that. What you didn't do it [indistinct 00:12:43] farming. Corn kept hitting him in the face. He went right on farming. Yeah. They'd get out to the ends, the roots would be on the pile and he'd have to take them over and turn around and go back again. I didn't do that. My corn [indistinct 00:13:06]. But he didn't know how.	12:39
Karen Ferguson	So how did you learn how to do these things properly?	13:11
Andrew Strong	Well, I just looked at it. I had the sense to look at what he was doing wrong. What I had, I looked and seen what was wrong. See, he was plowing too much. Worked too hard. You know if you got corn hitting in you in the face, the rows big enough and deep rows here. Yeah, I just looked at it and it would be too long. Yeah.	13:17
Karen Ferguson	Now you said he owned his own land? Is that right?	13:42
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	13:45
Karen Ferguson	Did he own his own farm?	13:46
Andrew Strong	Yeah, when I was growing up, he did.	13:48
Karen Ferguson	Do you know how he got to owning it?	13:51
Andrew Strong	Yeah, bought it.	13:52
Karen Ferguson	How did he buy it? Did he save money?	13:54
Andrew Strong	Bought it from somebody else. White folks. That's the way I bought mine. Yeah, I bought mine from a man I farmed with, for about seven years and he sold me a farm. I own it now. That's the way you had to get land. Won't many people able to go right out and get land. They had to plow it out and that's a job. Yeah. Yeah, I bought mine. I say about three miles from here. [indistinct 00:14:38] Highway.	13:57
Karen Ferguson	Now, when you were growing up, when did you start working in the fields?	14:43
Andrew Strong	Oh, when I was right young. Right young, started then. Yeah, right young. Started then. Got a many whipping, picking cotton. [indistinct 00:15:02], until I was up and grown and I didn't have to pick it. Yeah. [indistinct 00:15:12] that job. Not easy. No, I ain't going to pick no cotton.	14:46
Karen Ferguson	Was there anybody in your family who was a good cotton picker?	15:20
Andrew Strong	No.	15:23
Karen Ferguson	No? Uh-uh.	15:24
Andrew Strong	No.	15:26
Karen Ferguson	No.	15:26
Andrew Strong	Mama could pick cotton right well, but they was old. They could do right well, but I couldn't pick it.	15:29
Karen Ferguson	Uh-huh. Yeah. What job did you like to do on the farm? What was the better crop for you?	15:40
Andrew Strong	Oh I tended tobacco and corn. [indistinct 00:15:44] and peas. Garden. I'd garden. I always had a garden and then I had a lot of sweet potatoes, was the biggest thing I had. I did cane a few years. You know cane, you know what it makes? Molasses comes out of that. I used to tend that. The biggest thing I tend. [indistinct 00:16:20] I tended them. That's about all I tended.	15:44
Karen Ferguson	Do you remember any, did you work with mules?	16:24
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	16:27
Karen Ferguson	Did you work with mules?	16:28
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	16:30
Karen Ferguson	Yeah?	16:30
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	16:30
Karen Ferguson	What made a good mule?	16:31
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	16:33
Karen Ferguson	What made a good mule?	16:33
Andrew Strong	What?	16:34
Karen Ferguson	What made a good mule?	16:37
Andrew Strong	[indistinct 00:16:40]?	16:38
Karen Ferguson	Or what, how was—let me think of how to—how would you know you had a good mule? What would a good mule do?	16:40
Andrew Strong	Had to work them before I could find out.	16:54
Karen Ferguson	Yeah. Do you remember any good mules you had?	16:57
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I had good mules.	16:59
Karen Ferguson	Why was it good?	17:03
Andrew Strong	Yeah, her name was Little Kate.	17:03
Karen Ferguson	Little Kate?	17:03
Andrew Strong	Yeah, yeah. A good mule. Yeah, that was as good a mule ever I owned.	17:13
Karen Ferguson	Why was she good?	17:15
Andrew Strong	Because, she'd do what I tell her. Just she was a good mule. Some of them ain't nothing. Some of them all right. I had one that died. He won't nothing, but this mule, I kept her and she got so old she couldn't even eat corn hardly. She do me just as good as anything. Somebody else get [indistinct 00:17:50] and she didn't like them and she'd go just as hard as she could. No, she was a good mule. Yep.	17:16
Karen Ferguson	Yeah. Now in Pitt County, were there a lot of White farmers?	17:54
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	18:00
Karen Ferguson	Yeah?	18:00
Andrew Strong	Many farmers in Pitt County. One of the best states, one of the best places you could farm at was Pitt County. Better land up there than [indistinct 00:18:16] the land. Now this land down here is good land. But there's more good land in Pitt County than in Craven County. Regular farming place there. Yep.	18:00
Karen Ferguson	Now, can you tell me a little bit about the people you grew up around? Were there other people living close by—	18:37
Andrew Strong	Oh yeah, we went to school with them. Yeah, went to school with them.	18:42
Karen Ferguson	What would you do with your friends?	18:54
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	18:56
Karen Ferguson	What would you do with your friends?	18:57
Andrew Strong	Played.	18:58
Karen Ferguson	What would you play?	18:59
Andrew Strong	Well, we went out there and played and see we'd have recess. Yeah, 12:00 we'd have recess and then we'd eat and [indistinct 00:19:14]. Then we'd go back in the school and turn out about 4:00 and then we'd go home. But a big difference, we had to walk.	19:07
Karen Ferguson	You had to walk home.	19:24
Andrew Strong	We had to walk home. Now, these children got it gravy. They ride. There wasn't no riding there.	19:28
Karen Ferguson	How far away was your school from [indistinct 00:19:37]—	19:34
Andrew Strong	Well different. Now I didn't have quite a walk. Some of them had two or three miles to walk. [indistinct 00:19:45] back there then. Maybe it wasn't so many maybe had to walk a long way. A lot of them walked a long way. I didn't have to, I was lucky enough I didn't have quite a walk. Go to snowing and teacher turn you out and have you go home. We had it rough. These children back there, there wasn't no such thing as riding way back then. 100 years ago. [indistinct 00:20:19] quite 100, but I'm 96. I know all about it.	19:38
Karen Ferguson	Right, right, right. Now how many rooms did your school have?	20:28
Andrew Strong	One.	20:29
Karen Ferguson	One room? And how many grades?	20:31
Andrew Strong	We didn't have no grades.	20:35
Karen Ferguson	Oh, you didn't?	20:37
Andrew Strong	No. No, there weren't no grades. We didn't know what a grade was. It was different than what it is now. No, we didn't know what no grades was. Old teacher call and come in there and read your lesson, [indistinct 00:21:01] put in that day and that was it.	20:37
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. Did you like school?	20:37
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I liked it all right.	20:37
Karen Ferguson	What did you like about it?	20:37
Andrew Strong	Well, I was trying to learn something. We had a rough time learning it, but it'd take the teachers back there and the way they done, they didn't go to none of these colleges, or nothing like that. There won't none for them to go. They'd go to school til they get grown and then they'd turn around and go to teaching you and didn't know nothing to teach you. That was tough. They didn't know nothing to teach you. After I was about grown, I learned what I learned after I about grown and gotten married a lot of it. I learned, I'd get a teacher every now and then that was a good teacher and that would boost me up a little. One teacher would come, I don't know how she come, but I loved arithmetic, what we called it, that was figuring.	21:44
Karen Ferguson	Sorry, the what?	22:16
Andrew Strong	Arithmetic.	22:16
Karen Ferguson	Oh, okay. Right. Okay, you liked that?	22:16
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I liked that. She learned me how to work—you ever hear of fractions?	22:34
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yep.	22:39
Andrew Strong	She learned me that and I loved it and that's what hooked me. Then I turned right around, maybe next year, that same teacher be right back and turn you to the first of the book. Can't learn nothing like that.	22:43
Karen Ferguson	Right. So you go right back to the beginning again?	22:50
Andrew Strong	Yeah. But I kept on going. Then the man favored the White man, about I don't know how long and he learned me a whole lot.	22:51
Karen Ferguson	He did?	23:12
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	23:13
Karen Ferguson	Now who was he?	23:13
Andrew Strong	A White man. Phinny Wayne. Mr. Phinny. I knowed him all my days. He learned me a whole lot.	23:15
Karen Ferguson	Now why did he help you? Why do you think he did that? Why did he help you learn?	23:29
Andrew Strong	Well, he learned me how to measure the land. [indistinct 00:23:36].	23:31
Karen Ferguson	Right. Was this someone you were working for?	23:40
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I farmed with him and then I raised [indistinct 00:23:45], where I was raised at, all he had to do was cross the road and be right in your yard. So if I was [indistinct 00:24:01], I could go there and tell Mr. [indistinct 00:24:01] give me a biscuit. They was good people. All of them just good people. We stayed in a place that they didn't try and mistreat you or nothing. They treat you just like a human being. Yeah.	23:45
Karen Ferguson	Were there ever people that you worked for who didn't treat you like a human being?	24:17
Andrew Strong	Oh, all I worked for treated me all right. But I said they didn't, they would act nothing like that. No, all I worked for. I've stayed in places with White folks just as good to me as [indistinct 00:24:40]. Yeah, they was.	24:23
Karen Ferguson	Did you know of people though who were mistreated by White people?	24:42
Andrew Strong	No.	24:46
Karen Ferguson	No?	24:53
Andrew Strong	We stayed in sections that treated you all right. That was after Negroes got free. They was slaves at one time, I just told you. That was after we got free, when that happened.	24:53
Karen Ferguson	Now were there White sharecroppers and tenants in Pitt County?	25:08
Andrew Strong	Yeah, there were some. Yeah. Not all of them didn't own land. No, there was some poor just like I was. Yeah, they ran the land.	25:13
Karen Ferguson	Now when you, going back to school a little bit, were you able to go to school every day, or were you—	25:32
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	25:41
Karen Ferguson	Did you have to go work in the fields sometimes?	25:41
Andrew Strong	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We went every day.	25:43
Karen Ferguson	Okay. So you never were held back to stay and work on the fields?	25:45
Andrew Strong	Mm-mm.	25:50
Karen Ferguson	No?	25:50
Andrew Strong	No.	25:50
Karen Ferguson	How long did school last during the year?	25:51
Andrew Strong	Oh, Lord it's been so long. Let's see. Well, about four months, I reckon.	25:56
Karen Ferguson	Four months?	26:13
Andrew Strong	It's been so long. It was some of them that were longer than others.	26:14
Karen Ferguson	Some schools?	26:15
Andrew Strong	Some of us went longer than others. But I don't know if it was five months, four months, now what, it's been so long. But some of the children had to stay home and pick cotton and I didn't have to do that as far as that goes. Been so long, woman, I don't know how it worked out now.	26:21
Karen Ferguson	Was school important to your parents?	26:49
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	26:52
Karen Ferguson	Was education important to your parents?	26:52
Andrew Strong	Yeah, they wanted us to learn something.	26:54
Karen Ferguson	Had they gotten any learning themselves?	26:57
Andrew Strong	No.	26:58
Karen Ferguson	No, okay.	26:58
Andrew Strong	No, no learning. I told you, they were slaves. The one that raised me. Some couldn't learn nothing. Some could. Some just couldn't learn nothing.	26:59
Karen Ferguson	Where did your teachers come from? Did they come from around—	27:21
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	27:28
Karen Ferguson	Were they from Pitt County?	27:34
Andrew Strong	Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Come from right around, I knew them.	27:34
Karen Ferguson	Oh, so you knew them?	27:34
Andrew Strong	Known them. Known where they stayed at, as far as that go. Every now and then, you get a teacher come from [indistinct 00:27:37]. But some of them, I knowed them. They quit going to school there and go right to teaching me. I mean, they go to teaching right there.	27:36
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. Now the people who had to stay home from school, do you know why they had to do that?	27:59
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	28:04
Karen Ferguson	Why? They had to work in the cotton?	28:05
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	28:07
Karen Ferguson	Yeah, but who was telling them to do that, do you think? Was it different—	28:08
Andrew Strong	Their mother and father. Their daddy, [indistinct 00:28:15]. Yeah, some of them had to stay home. Had to stay there and work.	28:12
Karen Ferguson	Did you go to church when you were a child? Yeah?	28:26
Andrew Strong	Oh yeah.	28:30
Karen Ferguson	Where did you go to church?	28:30
Andrew Strong	Right there at home. The church won't far from where I was raised at, yeah.	28:33
Karen Ferguson	What was it called?	28:38
Andrew Strong	Huh?	28:38
Karen Ferguson	What was the church called?	28:39
Andrew Strong	Solomon Chapel. The church is Methodist. AME Zion, Methodist. Belong to Ayden right now. Go there the 2nd and 4th Sunday.	28:42
Karen Ferguson	Was church important?	29:07
Andrew Strong	Yeah. It is to me.	29:09
Karen Ferguson	Right. Why?	29:10
Andrew Strong	Well, I'm trying to be saved, when I come down to die. Doubt that. My day is getting short. You get 96 years old. I ain't got many more. No, that I ain't. I'll be 97 if I live to see 7th of February. Ain't many that old. No, that ain't. I know all the children not raised up to be, went to school. They ain't nary one living. No, but I take it back. I got a cousin living and I got two, [indistinct 00:30:18] and Mary. I have a sister. [indistinct 00:30:28] that I went to school and played with, is all gone but me. [indistinct 00:30:31], but Mary.	29:14
Karen Ferguson	Now when you went to church, what did you do there at church, other than the service? Were you involved in anything else?	30:45
Andrew Strong	No.	30:53
Karen Ferguson	No?	30:53
Andrew Strong	Just went to service. Went to service and take up collections. They want you to pay the preacher. That's all that we done. We'd have quarterly meetings, we'd call it. We'd have quarterly meetings in September, 2nd Sunday in September.	30:55
Karen Ferguson	What would happen at the meeting?	31:25
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	31:26
Karen Ferguson	What would happen at meeting?	31:27
Andrew Strong	At that meeting?	31:28
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm.	31:30
Andrew Strong	Well they'd preach.	31:30
Karen Ferguson	Oh okay. But how was it different than other Sundays?	31:32
Andrew Strong	Huh? Oh you didn't have no service that Sunday. No, we didn't have no, I moved two Sundays to the month. I hardly ever go to the other church. No, yeah. See we don't have, there ain't enough people to have no service every Sunday.	31:39
Karen Ferguson	Have you gone to church all through your life? Have you gone regularly all through your life to church?	32:01
Andrew Strong	Huh?	32:05
Karen Ferguson	Have you gone to church all through your life?	32:07
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I mean all my life. I've been going all my days. But I just show you, we don't have church but two Sundays. But the church is small and members is small. No, the church was always, it was a big church. But the members there, I think we got about 10 head of members. They died out. We ain't getting no young ones. Yeah, it did have a right good crowd at one time, but they all died out and died out and died out. [indistinct 00:32:55].	32:14
Karen Ferguson	Could you describe the house that you grew up in?	32:58
Andrew Strong	Oh, woman. Oh. Oh wow. Way back yonder. It won't no fine house, as much as it was [indistinct 00:33:17]. The one I growed up in was an old house. It didn't have no weatherboarding—	33:07
Karen Ferguson	No weatherboarding.	33:22
Andrew Strong	Around it. Nothing like that. Like my house. My house probably got air conditioning, heat. Turn that heat on and warm the house right up. But nobody had nothing, do nothing like that then. They [indistinct 00:33:49] 500 pound bale of cotton [indistinct 00:33:54]. Way back there then, houses was old. That they was. Big difference than what it is now. No, my house is air-conditioned. Got [indistinct 00:34:17] oil in it, to keep it warm. All they do is just go down and turn the switch. The heater come on, go to heating the house up.	33:24
Karen Ferguson	How did you heat your house when you were a boy?	34:27
Andrew Strong	Kept some wood and [indistinct 00:34:34] wood and had a chimney. Yeah. Put the wood in and plenty [indistinct 00:34:44] back there then. You won't find that now. Go and cut wood and set up that chimney. You know a house is old, leaves be burning up. Get back it'd be cold. Yeah. That's the difference. Yeah.	34:31
Karen Ferguson	How about in the summer, when it was hot? How did you stay cool?	35:11
Andrew Strong	Oh well, there won't no cool. You got there in the sun and go to work. [indistinct 00:35:23] hole. Yeah. Stand in it and cool my feet. Then you ever seen [indistinct 00:35:32]?	35:13
Karen Ferguson	Sorry? A what?	35:18
Andrew Strong	You ever seen anybody prime tobacco?	35:18
Karen Ferguson	No. You can tell me about that.	35:18
Andrew Strong	Lord. It's a hard job.	35:18
Karen Ferguson	So what now, tell me about priming tobacco. How do you do it?	35:46
Andrew Strong	You ever seen it in a row?	35:50
Karen Ferguson	I know what it looks like, yeah.	35:52
Andrew Strong	Well, you chop it out and when it get ripe enough, you go out there and go to priming it and put it in the truck. Bring it to the shelter and drive under and the women go out there and they were what we called horses and put a stick on your horse, we called them. Then they'd go out there and they'd grab it, you ain't never seen it?	36:01
Karen Ferguson	I've heard people talking about it before, but I've never seen it.	36:36
Andrew Strong	Well the stick is about four foot and a half long. You tie it, lay it down and you get what you want in there, right, for that time. Now we always had [indistinct 00:37:04] and hang it on there, sticks on there [indistinct 00:37:08] and hang it up in the barn and the heat, the flues, you had the furnace, we called it that the furnace runs this way and no, furnace, let me get it right. The furnace run this way and sticks run this direction. When you hang them in there and you get your barn as full as you want it, then you put your heat in there and run your furnace, you run this way and you run your wood in there and they'd fill it out about five days.	36:54
Andrew Strong	Get it ready for another barn and fill it out and [indistinct 00:38:24] Friday. On a Friday night, then we'd go to open the door and let the air out and then you go there and take it out, Monday morning. That Sunday always took it out and put it in the pack house, we called it, the building. Then we'd go back Monday morning and start again. Keep on [indistinct 00:38:54], get it all pulled off the stalk. Take about five weeks. You get it off the stalk and then you cut your stalk down. That was it, right there for the market. I always carried mine to Greenville. I won't staying down here. [indistinct 00:39:16] where I sold all my tobacco at. No I didn't. I got it wrong. I farmed here seven years. Now well anyhow, I sold all my tobacco to Greenville, North Carolina. There won't no market down here.	38:08
Karen Ferguson	Now when you went to market, did you get the same price for your tobacco as a White farmer did?	39:33
Andrew Strong	Yeah, well we got about the same price. [indistinct 00:39:46] got a good price and if you didn't, well that was a different story. I know I stayed here with a man, yeah, I farmed here. I had 10 acres in tobacco and the other 10 I had, 15 and somewhere I sold the highest tobacco there was on the market. [indistinct 00:40:25] try to get me to tend some Virginia Brightleaf. I wouldn't do it. I told him I didn't know nothing about it. The other man, he didn't say nothing. But I told him I didn't know nothing about it, [indistinct 00:40:52], no, no, no, no, no, no. What I said about went with him. He was the boss, but he didn't go against me. That man, my tobacco would go about 50 cents a pound [indistinct 00:41:05] just as red as it could be, he sold it for 10 cents a pound.	39:40
Karen Ferguson	10 cents. Now, you sold yours for 50 cents, right and now this was the other tenant, or the owner, the White owner of the farm? It was the White man?	41:15
Andrew Strong	Yeah, the one that didn't sell it but for 10 cents.	41:26
Karen Ferguson	Okay. He sold it for 10 cents?	41:30
Andrew Strong	Yeah. [indistinct 00:41:36]. No, he wouldn't go against me and what I said. He didn't bother me.	41:31
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. So you sold your own tobacco?	41:41
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	41:45
Karen Ferguson	You sold your own tobacco?	41:47
Andrew Strong	No, that was for the boss man.	41:51
Karen Ferguson	Oh okay. I see. So he gave you 50 cents—	41:51
Andrew Strong	No, no. To the warehouse. Auctioneers did it all. See, they put it out on the row. A great long row. Some of them as long as, over here, they be long as, see that building yonder?	41:54
Karen Ferguson	Right.	42:05
Andrew Strong	It'd be a great big warehouse. You'd put that on the floor in rows and then the auctioneer and the barter come along and bid [indistinct 00:42:20]. That's the way tobacco was sold.	42:07
Karen Ferguson	So the other tenant who only got 10 cents, should he have gotten 50 cents?	42:26
Andrew Strong	Well, if he had tended tobacco like I did, he would.	42:32
Karen Ferguson	Okay. So yours was higher quality?	42:36
Andrew Strong	Yeah, mine was better tobacco than his was.	42:40
Karen Ferguson	Right. Now when people were working on the fields in tobacco, or cotton, or doing some of these other things, priming. How did they pass the time? Did they talk to each other? Or did they tell each other stories? Or sing, or what did they do?	42:40
Andrew Strong	They worked hard as they could.	42:54
Karen Ferguson	Right. So you didn't talk while you were working?	42:56
Andrew Strong	It was as hot as I don't know who. No, you stayed out there and worked. You didn't have time to talk. Actually, went out there and worked. [indistinct 00:43:15] and honest truth. I had to dig a hole to stand in to cool my feet off. Won't such a thing as [indistinct 00:43:23] back there then. Buying shoes. You went barefooted, you worked.	43:01
Karen Ferguson	Yeah. Did you ever have shoes?	43:30
Andrew Strong	Hmm?	43:33
Karen Ferguson	Did you ever wear shoes?	43:33
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I wore shoes in the wintertime.	43:35
Karen Ferguson	In the wintertime?	43:38
Andrew Strong	Yeah. Of course, I wear them year round now. No, you weren't wearing no shoes back there then. Never did.	43:42
Karen Ferguson	Do you remember any really hard times when there wasn't enough, when things were tight, really tight for your family?	43:49
Andrew Strong	Yeah, hard times?	43:59
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm.	43:59
Andrew Strong	Yeah. Yeah. 19 and, of course you don't know nothing about that.	43:59
Karen Ferguson	When was it?	43:59
Andrew Strong	1933. Them was the roughest years I ever seen in my life.	44:07
Karen Ferguson	Right. What happened then?	44:16
Andrew Strong	Well the Hoover time we called it. President Hoover. He tight as I don't know who. Man furnished me 8 dollars a month. You buy food and I had some meat and stuff, but that's what I traded on. That year—I think 1933. I don't think we—I don't think I've got that year about, it's been so long, I've forgot. But I know he furnished me 8 dollars a month to buy groceries. A man come down here from [indistinct 00:45:38] and you could buy fish [indistinct 00:45:54] six cent a pound and he was standing around and of course I stayed right down the road there.	44:19
Andrew Strong	And he brought fish around and six cent a pound. I was standing around a little later and get them for five cent a pound and he wouldn't sell out, then he'd go sell them cheap. I could get meat [indistinct 00:46:16]. It was kind of get the scraps of meat. It was all right and that was what I fed my family, the meat, [indistinct 00:46:29]. So that's where I made it. I stayed here. Stayed there seven years, on this farm.	45:58

Karen Ferguson	This is the man, you were working on his land?	0:01
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	0:06
Karen Ferguson	Yeah?	0:06
Andrew Strong	He's the one that owned the land.	0:06
Karen Ferguson	Right.	0:06
Andrew Strong	You know, he sold me really about 100 acres of the land and that's where I stayed.	0:12
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. Now, how did you pay him for the land?	0:19
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.	0:20
Karen Ferguson	So, he loaned you some—so you had to pay him?	0:34
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I paid him for the land.	0:37
Karen Ferguson	No, but did you buy it outright, or did you have to continue paying him?	0:40
Andrew Strong	Yeah, that was about five, six years I paid it.	0:43
Karen Ferguson	Plus interest.	0:46
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.	0:51
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?	0:56
Andrew Strong	No, they treated all right.	1:16
Karen Ferguson	They did?	1:21
Andrew Strong	Yeah. No, they didn't mistreat me.	1:21
Karen Ferguson	Uh huh. Were they fair in their accounts?	1:25
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.	1:27
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. So you think you were paid enough for your crops?	1:44
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.	1:47
Karen Ferguson	Right. So you knew how much.	2:04
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.	2:06
Karen Ferguson	Right, so he was grateful to you for doing this?	2:46
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	2:49
Karen Ferguson	Now, how did he help you out? He helped you buy the farm, he helped with what?	2:50
Andrew Strong	He bought the farm, and then he—	2:55
Karen Ferguson	Oh, okay. And then you paid him?	2:58
Andrew Strong	Yeah, turned around and sold it to me.	2:59
Karen Ferguson	Oh, okay. Do you think, was there a way that Black farmers could buy land themselves back then?	3:01
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.	3:14
Karen Ferguson	Why did you want to own your own land?	3:28
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.	3:30
Karen Ferguson	Yeah. How do you think your life would be different if you hadn't bought land?	3:52
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.	3:56
Karen Ferguson	Yeah, but what is the difference? Just tell me a little bit about the difference.	3:58
Andrew Strong	Huh?	3:58
Karen Ferguson	Tell me the difference.	3:58
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.	4:35
Karen Ferguson	Oh, he is?	4:43
Andrew Strong	Yeah, AME Zion Methodist preacher, born over the Bible too. Didn't doubt that. Yes, knows the Bible.	4:44
Karen Ferguson	Now, when you were growing up, who was the boss at home? When you were young, before you left home.	5:01
Andrew Strong	Papa, he's the boss.	5:09
Karen Ferguson	Oh, yeah? Now, did he discipline you? Did he whip you if he needed to?	5:11
Andrew Strong	Oh, yeah. He did and my mother did.	5:20
Karen Ferguson	Oh, she did too?	5:24
Andrew Strong	Both of them. Both. He ain't never known to hit me.	5:26
Karen Ferguson	Oh, he didn't hit you?	5:33
Andrew Strong	No.	5:34
Karen Ferguson	Okay, so your mother did it?	5:34
Andrew Strong	Oh, yeah. Yeah.	5:36
Karen Ferguson	How about money? Who took care of the money at home?	5:39
Andrew Strong	Huh? He took care of that.	5:42
Karen Ferguson	Was it your mother or your father?	5:44
Andrew Strong	Papa.	5:45
Karen Ferguson	Oh, okay.	5:45
Andrew Strong	He took care of that. He took care of that.	5:52
Karen Ferguson	Right, and who got groceries? Who went and bought the groceries?	5:53
Andrew Strong	He done all of that. Yeah, he done all the groceries.	6:01
Karen Ferguson	What was your father like? Papa like?	6:11
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.	6:14
Karen Ferguson	Yeah, but what kind of person was he like? Were you close to him? Did you feel—	6:51
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.	6:55
Karen Ferguson	Right, mm-hmm.	8:04
Andrew Strong	Yep, that it was.	8:04
Karen Ferguson	When did you first get a car?	8:09
Andrew Strong	Well, after I got married.	8:11
Karen Ferguson	And how did that change your life? How did things change?	8:20
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.	8:22
Karen Ferguson	What other things could you do that you couldn't do before, when you got a car?	8:43
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.	9:07
Karen Ferguson	Did you do your grocery shopping in a different place when you—	9:33
Andrew Strong	Well, it's where I do my shopping at, the Vanceboro.	9:35
Karen Ferguson	Okay, okay. Right.	9:35
Andrew Strong	Yeah, where I do my shopping at, the Vanceboro. That they do.	9:42
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?	9:54
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.	10:06
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. Even when you first came here?	10:29
Andrew Strong	Little different when I first come here, but all that's changed now.	10:34
Karen Ferguson	How was it different when you first came here?	10:38
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.	10:40
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.	11:49
Karen Ferguson	Were there ways in which White folks tried to keep Black folks down? Keep them from prospering?	12:43
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.	12:50
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.	13:42
Karen Ferguson	Right, but how about after slavery? Did White folks always deal fairly with Black folks after that?	14:13
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.	14:23
Karen Ferguson	Right. Were there ways, though, that White folks tried to keep Black folks from owning land?	14:51
Andrew Strong	Well, even what he going to buy it with?	14:56
Karen Ferguson	Yeah.	14:58
Andrew Strong	What are they going to buy it with? Didn't have no money.	14:58
Karen Ferguson	Right. But do you think there were ways in which they tried to keep them from having money?	15:09
Andrew Strong	Well, some of them did, you know?	15:12
Karen Ferguson	How did they do that?	15:13
Andrew Strong	Well, if they don't sell you nothing, what are you going to do?	15:13
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm, so some people wouldn't sell land to Black folks? Do you remember that happening?	15:21
Andrew Strong	No, but I know who had land and who didn't.	15:31
Karen Ferguson	Right.	15:33
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.	15:33
Karen Ferguson	So they walked over? A bunch of them came over here? To this way?	16:04
Andrew Strong	I reckon so.	16:09
Karen Ferguson	Now why was it rough in Greene County? What did people do? What happened there?	16:11
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.	16:17
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm. Do you remember there being a Ku Klux Klan in these parts?	16:46
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	16:52
Karen Ferguson	Yeah? And what did they do?	16:53
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.	16:57
Karen Ferguson	Huh. So, what were they accusing these Black boys of doing?	17:33
Andrew Strong	Well, I don't know. They get leaning is all I know.	17:42
Karen Ferguson	Right. Were they accused of having relations with White girls? Or was there—no? No.	17:46
Andrew Strong	No, not that I know. Yeah.	17:50
Karen Ferguson	When was this? When did this happen?	17:56
Andrew Strong	Oh, yeah. I don't know, a few years ago since I been down here.	17:58
Karen Ferguson	Right. When did you move down here?	18:03
Andrew Strong	I moved down here in—see, all my children, Ledru was born in Pitt County. I don't know—	18:23
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?	18:39
Andrew Strong	No. Oh, no one ain't bothering me. Just scared about places, certain places.	18:45
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm.	18:53
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.	18:54
Karen Ferguson	Right.	19:47
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.	19:48
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.	20:31
Karen Ferguson	Right. So you're saying relations between White folks and Black folks are better where you are, than in some other places?	20:46
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.	20:52
Andrew Strong	It's different than how you live.	21:23
Karen Ferguson	What? Sorry?	21:27
Andrew Strong	Different how you live.	21:27
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.	21:27
Andrew Strong	Difference, what I mean, I went to church. They won't be more scared to trust me with nothing in the world.	21:31
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. So is that how you stayed out of trouble, too?	21:39
Andrew Strong	Yeah. No, I ain't never been in no trouble. That I ain't.	21:42
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?	21:51
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.	21:59
Andrew Strong	The men, young men, were trotting there. You know, at them. Some of the White folks went down, shot the house up.	22:57
Karen Ferguson	Now, they shot the house of these poor White people? Yeah, okay.	23:14
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.	23:18
Karen Ferguson	Now why do you think they were shooting at them to get them away?	23:43
Andrew Strong	Get them out, yeah.	23:44
Karen Ferguson	Why did they want to get them away?	23:46
Andrew Strong	People tell when you're low grade. Men's running at them, young boys running at them.	23:49
Karen Ferguson	So, the people were low grade or these people who were coming after them were low grade?	23:59
Andrew Strong	No, the whole lot, I reckon. All I know, they were [indistinct 00:24:07].	24:02
Karen Ferguson	Right, right. Now, were these people living in a—was your section mostly Black people?	24:09
Andrew Strong	No, no. No, White. They were running at them. They were all White. No Colored were going in there.	24:13
Karen Ferguson	Did you have much relationship with White people when you were growing up? Did you play with White children?	24:29
Andrew Strong	No.	24:33
Karen Ferguson	No? Okay.	24:39
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.	24:40
Karen Ferguson	When did you leave home?	25:12
Andrew Strong	Whoa.	25:13
Karen Ferguson	How old were you, do you remember?	25:16
Andrew Strong	24.	25:17
Karen Ferguson	And why did you decide to leave home?	25:20
Andrew Strong	Well, I got married.	25:22
Karen Ferguson	Oh, you got married? Now, where did you meet your wife?	25:24
Andrew Strong	Right down here. I was on the highway.	25:29
Karen Ferguson	Now, was this in Pitt County?	25:33
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.	25:34
Karen Ferguson	Now, had you been courting? Did you court other girls too, before her?	26:00
Andrew Strong	Oh, yeah.	26:03
Karen Ferguson	Yeah?	26:04
Andrew Strong	Promised to marry them.	26:08
Karen Ferguson	Pardon me? You married one of them?	26:10
Andrew Strong	I promised to.	26:12
Karen Ferguson	Oh, no! What happened then?	26:13
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.	26:18
Karen Ferguson	Okay, that was your wife's name? Or the woman you were supposed to marry?	26:36
Andrew Strong	The one I was supposed to marry.	26:39
Karen Ferguson	So, were you popular with girls?	26:44
Andrew Strong	Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.	26:50
Karen Ferguson	And why did you decide to marry your wife instead of this girl?	26:52
Andrew Strong	Well, I liked her better than I did the other one. Yeah, I ain't lied something about her.	26:54
Karen Ferguson	Right, right.	26:54
Andrew Strong	Promised to be there Sunday and I wouldn't be there.	27:07
Karen Ferguson	Did she get angry?	27:11
Andrew Strong	What they going to get angry for? Couldn't do no better. No, couldn't do no better.	27:13
Karen Ferguson	Now, what did your papa tell you about being a good husband? Did he tell you anything about that?	27:27
Andrew Strong	No.	27:32
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm, what do you think makes a good husband?	27:33
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.	27:38
Karen Ferguson	Right, yeah.	28:15
Andrew Strong	But this certain thing going to Heaven when I die is what I want to do. That'll do.	28:15
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?	28:36
Andrew Strong	Yeah, that's all I've ever done.	28:47
Karen Ferguson	Oh, okay. And he's the one you bought the land from then?	28:51
Andrew Strong	Who?	28:55
Karen Ferguson	Mr. Bland?	28:55
Andrew Strong	No. That's my wife's daddy.	28:57
Karen Ferguson	Oh, okay.	28:57
Andrew Strong	The people there, I bought this [indistinct 00:28:58].	28:57
Karen Ferguson	Uh huh. Oh, so you were working with your wife's daddy after you got married?	28:58
Andrew Strong	Huh?	29:07
Karen Ferguson	Sorry, I don't understand.	29:08
Andrew Strong	No, the farms joined, but they tend their land and I tend mine.	29:20
Karen Ferguson	Okay, okay. Uh huh, and how long did you stay there?	29:20
Andrew Strong	I'm there now.	29:21
Karen Ferguson	You're there now? Okay.	29:24
Andrew Strong	Tending it right now.	29:24
Karen Ferguson	So that's the land that you bought then? Okay.	29:28
Andrew Strong	Mm-hmm, that's the land I bought.	29:30
Karen Ferguson	Did your wife work in the fields with you?	29:34
Andrew Strong	Yeah, children too. I learned them all how to work. Yes, they had to work or else.	29:36
Karen Ferguson	Right. Or else what?	29:36
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.	29:53
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Now, how many children did you have?	30:04
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.	30:10
Karen Ferguson	Right. Now, did you ever have to keep your children out of school for working in the fields?	30:50
Andrew Strong	My decision.	30:53
Karen Ferguson	Pardon me?	30:53
Andrew Strong	My decision. I try to let them stay in school. Yeah, my decision if I kept them home.	30:55
Karen Ferguson	And what made a good father? What kinds of things did you do for your children?	31:17
Andrew Strong	Well, I tried to treat them right. Tried to raise them in the right way.	31:24
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?	31:33
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.	31:42
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?	32:45
Andrew Strong	No, she cleaned the house up, but in the business, she looked at me for all of that.	32:51
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—	33:01
Andrew Strong	Yeah, I belong to a lodge right now.	33:16
Karen Ferguson	What is it called?	33:18
Andrew Strong	Shiva Lodge 94.	33:19
Karen Ferguson	Okay. Is this a Masonic one?	33:25
Andrew Strong	Masons, yeah.	33:25
Karen Ferguson	Masons, okay.	33:25
Andrew Strong	Been secretary there for about 25 years till I quit.	33:25
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm, and why did you join the Masons?	33:33
Andrew Strong	I don't know, just because the rest joined, I reckon. I wish I'd never joined.	33:39
Karen Ferguson	Why is that?	33:41
Andrew Strong	Because it costs too much. Joined the Odd Fellows.	33:44
Karen Ferguson	You were in the Odd Fellows, too?	33:50
Andrew Strong	I was, but I ain't now.	33:53
Karen Ferguson	Right, and why did you join that? For the same reasons?	33:54
Andrew Strong	Well, I got tired of it and quit.	33:58
Karen Ferguson	Why did you get tired of it?	34:03
Andrew Strong	I don't know. Just got tired of going, but I stayed secretary there for years and years.	34:10
Karen Ferguson	You were the secretary? Okay.	34:13
Andrew Strong	Yeah.	34:16
Karen Ferguson	Right.	34:16
Andrew Strong	That, I did.	34:16
Karen Ferguson	Okay, what kinds of things did you do in the Odd Fellows? I know you're not supposed to tell—	34:18
Andrew Strong	You're going too far now.	34:30
Karen Ferguson	Okay, all right.	34:33
Andrew Strong	You're going too far now.	34:33
Karen Ferguson	All right, I realize that now, so I'm sorry.	34:33
Andrew Strong	You got to quit. You're going too far now.	34:44
Karen Ferguson	Okay, well let me ask you this then. What kind of men joined the Masons and the Odd Fellows?	34:48
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.	34:56
Karen Ferguson	Right.	34:57
Andrew Strong	No, no.	34:57
Karen Ferguson	Do you remember there being any kind of burial societies?	35:15
Andrew Strong	I'm in it.	35:23
Karen Ferguson	You were in one?	35:23
Andrew Strong	I'm in it.	35:24
Karen Ferguson	Okay, what's it called?	35:27
Andrew Strong	Oak Carlton Funeral Homes.	35:31
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?	35:32
Andrew Strong	No, no.	35:41
Karen Ferguson	Okay, do you remember anything called the Pound Society?	35:43
Andrew Strong	Mmm-mm.	35:48
Karen Ferguson	No? Okay.	35:50
Andrew Strong	Nope.	35:50
Karen Ferguson	In what way did people help each other out? How did people help each other out in the old days?	35:51
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.	35:57
Karen Ferguson	Mm-hmm, okay. All right, Mr. Strong, I think I'm about finished with my questions.	36:13

Item Info

Title:

Andrew Strong interview recording, 1993 August 03

Date:

August 3, 1993

Creator:

Strong, Andrew

Contributor:

Ferguson, Karen

Description:

Name: Andrew Strong; Date of birth: 1897-02-02; Place of birth: Pitt Co., NC; Occupation(s): agriculture; Residence: New Bern, Nc
Informant ID: 281; Interviewed by: Karen Ferguson.

Occupation:

Agriculture

Location:

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-2004

Series:

Related Resources:

See below

Provenance:

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

Identifier:

Interview number: 723
76fda19c-5178-4400-af52-1dec8f092f13
behindtheveil
btvnc06022
ark:/87924/r4q819731
242148ac-6cbd-46cc-81d8-86e0fef64dc0

Permalink:

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Andrew Strong interview recording, 1993 August 03

Transcript

Item Info

1. Andrew Strong administrative file, 1993

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Andrew Strong interview recording, 1993 August 03

Transcript

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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