Far More Terrible for Women: Personal Accounts of Women in Slavery

“De massa call me and tell me, ‘Woman, I’s pay big money for you, and I’s done dat 'cause I wants you to raise me chillum. I’s put you to live with Rufus for dat purpose. Now, if you doesn’t want whippin’ at de stake, you do what I wants.’ I thinks ‘bout Massa buyin’ me off de block and savin’ me from bein’ separated from my folks, and ‘bout bein’ whipped at de stake. Dere it am. What am I to do?” So asks Rose Williams of Bell County, Texas, whose long-ago forced cohabitation remains as bitter …