*Annie Osborne, 81, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, a slave of Tom Bias.
She was 'refugeed' to Louisiana by the Bias family, before the Civil
War, and remained there with them for two years after she was freed. She
has lived in Marshall, Texas, since 1869.*
"Yes, suh, I's a Georgia nigger. I 'longed to Massa Tom Bias, and he
lived in Atlanta. I couldn't state jus' how old I is, but I knows I was
eleven years old when we come to Marshall, and that's in 1869.
"Mammy was Lizzie and born in Atlanta, and I's heared her say she was
give to Tom Bias to settle a dept her owner owed. I don't know nothin'
'bout my daddy, 'cept he am named Tom Bias, and that am massa's name. So
I guess he's my daddy. But I had two brothers, Frank and James, and I
don't know if Massa Bias was they daddy or not.
"Massa Bias refugees me and my mammy to Mansfield, in Louisiana when I's
jus' a baby. They come in wagons and was two months on the way, and the
big boys and men rode hossback, but all the niggers big 'nough had to
walk. Massa Bias opens a farm twelve mile from Mansfield. My mammy
plowed and hoed and chopped and picked cotton and jus' as good as the
menfolks. I allus worked in the house, nussin' the white chillen and
spinnin' and housework. Me and my brother, Frank, slep' in Missy Bias
house on a pallet. No matter how cold it was we slep on that pallet
without no cover, in front the fireplace.
"Old man Tom never give us no money and half 'nough clothes. I had one
dress the year round, two lengths of cloth sewed together, and I didn't
know nothin' 'bout playin' neither. If I made too much fuss they put me
under the bed. My white folks didn't teach us nothin' 'cept how they
could put the whip on us. I had to put on a knittin' of stockin's in the
mornin' and if I didn't git it out by night, Missy put the lash on me.
"My mammy was sceered of old Tom Bias as if he was a bear. She worked in
the field all day and come in at night and help with the stock. After
supper they made her spin cloth. Massa fed well 'nough, but made us wear
our old lowel clothes till they most fell off us. We was treated jus'
like animals, but some owners treated they stock better'n old Tom Bias
handled my folks. I still got a scar over my right eye where he put me
in the dark two months. We had a young cow and when she had her first
calf they sent me to milk her, and she kicked me and run me round a li'l
pine tree, fightin' and tryin' to hook me. Massa and missy standin' in
the gate all the time, hollerin' to me to make the cow stand still. I
got clost to her and she kicked me off the stool and I run to the gate,
and massa grab me and hit me 'cross the eye with a leather strap and I
couldn't see out my right eye for two months. He am dead now, but I's
gwine tell the truth 'bout the way we was treated.
"I could hear the guns shootin' in the war. It sound like a thunder
storm when them cannons boomin'. Didn't nary one our menfolks go to war.
I know my brother say, 'Annie, when them cannons stops boomin' we's
gwine be all freed from old Massa Tom's beatin's.
"But massa wouldn't let us go after surrender. My mammy pretends to go
to town and takes Frank and goes to Mansfield and asks the Progoe
Marshal what to do. He say we's free as old man Tom and didn't have to
stay no more. Frank stays in town and mammy brings a paper from the
progoe, but she's sceered to give it to Massa Tom. Me and James out in
the yard makin' soap. I's totin' water from the spring and James
fetchin' firewood to put round the pot. Mammy tells James to keep goin'
next time he goes after wood and her and me come round 'nother way and
meets him down the road. That how we got 'way from old man Bias. Me and
mammy walks off and leaves a pot of soap bilin' in the backyard. We sot
our pails down at the spring and cuts through the field and meets James
down the big road. We left 'bout ten o'clock that mornin' and walks all
day till it starts to git dark.
"Then we comes to a white man's house and asks could we stay all night.
He give us a good supper and let us sleep in his barn and breakfast next
mornin' and his wife fixes up some victuals in a box and we starts to
Mansfield. We was sceered most to death when we come to that man's
house, fear he'd take us back to old man Bias. But we had to have
somethin' to eat from somewheres. When mammy tells him how we left old
man Bias, he says, 'That damn rascal ought to be Ku Kluxed.' He told us
not to be 'fraid.
"We come to Mansfield and finds Frank and mammy hires me and James out
to a white widow lady in Mansfield, and she sho' a good, sweet soul. She
told mammy to come on and stay there with us till she git a job. We
stayed with her two years.
"Then old man Charlie Stewart brung us to Marshall, and when I's
eighteen I marries and lives with him twenty-six years. He worked on the
railroad and helped move the shops from Hallsville to Marshall. He
laughed and said the first engine they run from here to Jefferson had a
flour barrel for a smokestack. He died and I married Tom Osborne, but
he's dead eight years.
"I raises a whole passel chillen and got a passel grandchillen. They
allus brings me a hen or somethin'. My boy is cripple and lives with me,
and my gal's husband works for Wiley College. Old man Bias' son got in
jail and sent for me. He say, 'Annie, you is my sister, and help me git
out of jail.' I told him I didn't help him in and wouldn't help him out.
I washed and ironed and now gits $9.00 pension. My boy got his leg cut
off by the railroad. He can't do much."