Rosa Barber
From:
Indiana
Submitted by:
William Webb Tuttle
District No. 2
Muncie, Indiana
SLAVES IN DELAWARE COUNTY
ROSA BARBER
812 South Jefferson
Muncie, Indiana
Rosa Barber was born in slavery on the Fox Ellison plantation at North
Carden[TR:?], in North Carolina, in the year 1861. She was four [HW: ?]
years old when freed, but had not reached the age to be of value as a
slave. Her memory is confined to that short childhood there and her
experiences of those days and immediately after the Civil War must be
taken from stories related to her by her parents in after years, and
these are dimly retained.
Her maiden name was Rosa Fox Ellison, taken as was the custom, from the
slave-holder who held her as a chattel. Her parents took her away from
the plantation when they were freed and lived in different localities,
supported by the father who was now paid American wages. Her parents
died while she was quite young and she married Fox Ellison, an ex-slave
of the Fox Ellison plantation. His name was taken from the same master
as was hers. She and her husband lived together forty-three years, until
his death. Nine children were born to them of which only one survives.
After this ex-slave husband died Rosa Ellison married a second time, but
this second husband died some years ago and she now remains a widow at
the age of seventy-six years. She recalls that the master of the Fox
Ellison plantation was spoken of as practicing no extreme discipline on
his slaves. Slaves, as a prevailing business policy of the holder, were
not allowed to look into a book, or any printed matter, and Rosa had no
pictures or printed charts given her. She had to play with her rag
dolls, or a ball of yarn, if there happened to be enough of old string
to make one. Any toy or plaything was allowed that did not point toward
book-knowledge. Nursery rhymes and folk-lore stories were censured
severely and had to be confined to events that conveyed no uplift,
culture or propaganda, or that conveyed no knowledge, directly or
indirectly. Especially did they bar the mental polishing of the three
R's. They could not prevent the vocalizing of music in the fields and
the slaves found consolation there in pouring out their souls in unison
with the songs of the birds.
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