Henrietta Jackson
From:
Indiana
Virginia Tulley
District #2
Fort Wayne, Indiana
EX-SLAVE OF ALLEN COUNTY
[MRS. HENRIETTA JACKSON]
References:
A. Ft. Wayne News Sentinel November 21, 1931
B. Personal interview
[TR: There are no 'A' and 'B' annotations in the interview.]
Mrs. Henrietta Jackson, Fort Wayne resident, is distinguished for two
reasons; she is a centennarian and an ex-slave. Residing with her
daughter, Mrs. Jackson is very active and helps her daughter, who
operates a restaurant, do some of the lighter work. At the time I
called, an August afternoon of over 90 degrees temperature, Mrs.
Jackson was busy sweeping the floor. A little, rather stooped, shrunken
body, Mrs. Jackson gets around slowly but without the aid of a cane or
support of any kind. She wears a long dark cotton dress with a bandana
on her head with is now quite gray. Her skin is walnut brown her eyes
peering brightly through the wrinkles. She is intelligent, alert,
cordial, very much interested in all that goes on about her.
Just how old Mrs. Jackson is, she herself doesn't know, but she thinks
she is about 105 years old. She looks much younger. Her youngest child
is 73 and she had nine, two of whom were twins. Born a slave in
Virginia, record of her birth was kept by the master. She cannot
remember her father as he was soon sold after Mrs. Jackson's death [TR:
birth?]. When still a child she was taken from her mother and sold. She
remembers the auction block and that she brought a good price as she was
strong and healthy. Her new master, Tom Robinson, treated her well and
never beat her. At first she was a plough hand, working in the cotton
fields, but then she was taken into the house to be a maid. While there
the Civil War broke out. Mrs. Jackson remembers the excitement and the
coming and going. Gradually the family lost its wealth, the home was
broken up. Everything was destroyed by the armies. Then came freedom for
the slaves. But Mrs. Jackson stayed on with the master for awhile. After
leaving she went to Alabama where she obtained work in a laundry
"ironing white folks' collars and cuffs." Then she got married and in
1917 she came to live with her daughter in Fort Wayne. Her husband, Levy
Jackson, has been dead 50 years. Of her children, only two are left.
Mrs. Jackson is sometimes very lonesome for her old home in "Alabamy",
where her friends lived, but for the most part, she is happy and
contented.
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