Mollie Dawson was born into slavery in 1852 in Texas, after her owner migrated there from Tennessee. When Dawson related the story of her life during and after slavery to an interviewer in the 1930s, she was eighty-five years old.

MOLLIE DAWSON

Mah maw was de slave of Nath Newman and dat made me his slave. Mah maw’s name was Sarah Benjamin. Mah father’s name was Carrol Benjamin, and he belonged ter different white folks. …

Mah mother and father was slavery time married darkies. Dat didn’t mean nuthin’ dem days, but jest raisin’ mo’ darkies, and every slave darkie woman had ter do dat whether she wanted to or not. Dey would let her pick out a man, or a man pick him out a woman, and dey was married, and if de woman wouldn’t have de man dat picks her, dey would take her ter a big stout high husky nigger somewhere and leave her a few days, jest lak dey do stock now’days, and she bettah begin raisin’ chilluns, too. …

Mah mother and father never did love each other lak dey ought to, so dey separated as soon as dey was free. Mah father married another woman by law. Mah mother married George Baldwin, and dey lives together fer about twelve years. Dey separated den, and she married Alfred Alliridge and dey lives together till she dies. …

I was too young ter do much work durin’ slavery time, but I picks lots of cotton, and all de pay we got fer it was a place ter stay, water ter drink, wood ter burn, food ter eat, and clothes ter wear, and we made de food and clothes ourselves. We eats corn pones three times a day, ‘ceptin’ Sunday and Christmas mornings; Maser Newman lets us have flour fer biscuits, den. In de summah we wore cotton clothes. All of dem was made on de plantation. Some of de women would spin and some would weave and some would make clothes. …

Maser Newman was a tall, slender man nearly six foot tall and was blue-eyed. He sho’ was good ter all us slaves, but we all knew he means fer us ter work. He never whipped any of us slaves, but he hit one of de men wid a leather line ‘bout two times once,’ cause dis slave kinda talked back ter him. …

Maser Newman was a slow easy-goin’ sort of a man who took everything as it comes, takin’ bad and good luck jest alak. … Maser Newman was lots older dan his wife. She was a real young woman, and they ‘peared ter think quite a bit of each other. … Maser and Missus Newman jest had two chilluns and both of dem was little girls. … Dey sho’ was pretty little gals and dey was smart, too. Dey played wid de little slave chilluns all de time, and course dey was de boss, same as deir mother and father.

Maser Newman was a poor man, compared wid some of de other slave owners. He only had about seven slaves big enough ter work all de year round in de fields. … He didn’t have no drivah; he would jest start dem all out ter work, and dey kept at it all day. But he generally worked around pretty close ter dem.

Source : James Mellon, ed., Bullwhip Days (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988), 421–428.