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Johnson / About His Great-Grandfather, John Andrew Pickens

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Interviewer: Because when you hear that type of stuff, it makes you angry and you just immediately start to react and so you feel like your great-grandfather was one of those people that just didn’t react in those sorts of ways? Johnson: Well he reacted in a realistic way. What could he do? Interviewer: What was his name? Johnson: Andrew. He took on—it’s another interesting—He said his name was John Andrew Pickens McKenny Henderson Johnson. So, he would pass through—he took the names of all the people who owned him. Of course, I think John—sometimes I think Andrew might have been given names, but the others were those who had owned him, and he was proud of it and he would often point this out. John Andrew Pickens McKenny Henderson Johnson. Interviewer: Was he from Texas, mostly? Did he spend most of his— Johnson: I think he might have originated in Tennessee. So far as I can know, there was a great migration of slaves. I’m not sure about the time period, but others that I know, my wife’s parents, she talk about the great-grands and the migration. They walked to Texas from basically Tennessee and some other state farther up and settled in different places. My bunch apparently settled in and around Rockdale. Out from Rockdale, Milam butts up against Burleson and Lee County and somewhere back out in there, my bunch settled on both sides of my family. I think they originated in Tennessee, my bunch.

Interview Interview with James E. Johnson
Subjects Oral Tradition
Oral Tradition › Oral Tradition of Slavery
Family › Family Histories and Traditions
Family › Extended Family Networks
Family › Childhood Experiences
Migration
Historic Periods › Jim Crow Period
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Interview date 2015-07-21
Interview source CRBB Summer 2015
Interviewees Johnson, James E.
Interviewers Acuña-Gurrola, Moisés
Bynum, Katherine
Locations Rockdale, TX
Milam County, TX
Tennessee
Duration 00:02:26
Citation "About His Great-Grandfather, John Andrew Pickens ," from James E. Johnson oral history interview with Moisés Acuña-Gurrola and Katherine Bynum,  July 21, 2015, Prairie View, TX , Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/716/john-andrew-pickens-grandfather, accessed March 19, 2024