The Magic Wagon Quotes

“When I was a boy, Little Buster, I was the son of an ex-slave during the worst time you can imagine, next to slave days themselves. It was called Reconstruction, and I know you've heard of it. We coloreds was supposed to be freemen that could work for our living, just like whites, but wasn't too many folks would hire us, not for any kind of work. Most of them had gotten used to getting it from us for free, and wasn't in the mood to start paying for it. Part of it was the Yankee government. They was telling folks they was supposed to hire us cause the Yankee president said so, and people didn't cotton to that much. "Lot of whites blamed us coloreds for their misery, cause of the way the Yankees was pushing on them. And to tell it true, Little Buster, them Yankees hurt us all in the long run cause they turned their winning into such a mean thing.”
― Joe R. Lansdale, The Magic Wagon