Ank Bishop

Ank Bishop was born August 16, 1849, at Ward, Alabama, to Amy Larkin and Tom Bishop. He had three brothers, Alf, Volen and Jim, and two sisters, Cely and Matildy. They were enslaved by Eliza Larkin near Coke's Chapel. His mother had been brought from South Carolina in a speculator's drove and sold at auction at Coke's Chapel, the only one of her family bought. She never saw her parents again. She worked as house girl, cook, washer and milker. Ank's job was minding the calves.

He remembered a man named Caesar Townsy who ran away. The slave-catcher's dogs never caught him: he stayed hidden until after the war ended. Mothers of nursing babies had to work in the fields and could come in only at set hours; one woman, called Mammy Larkin, cared for all the babies, and she sent Ank to fetch the mothers when the children cried with hunger. They were not allowed to go to church or to learn anything.

When interviewed in Livingston at nearly 90, he could not read, had no coat, and said he couldn't see that his life was better than slavery: "Ain't got nothing." He was a firm believer, and explained that when Judgment comes, Gabriel will blow his trumpet softly for the saved and loudly for the lost.