Annie Caborne

Annie Osborne (her name appears as "Caborne" in the photograph record) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, enslaved by Tom Bias. Her mother, Lizzie, had been handed to Bias to settle a debt. Annie believed Bias was also her father. She had two brothers, Frank and James.

Before the war Bias moved his household to a farm near Mansfield, Louisiana, a two-month trip on which every enslaved person old enough had to walk. Her mother plowed, hoed and picked cotton as hard as any man, then spun cloth after supper. Annie worked in the house, caring for the white children and spinning, and slept on a pallet by the fireplace with no blanket. She had one dress for the whole year. She was whipped if she failed to finish knitting a stocking by nightfall, and when a young cow kicked her off the milking stool, Bias struck her across the eye with a leather strap. She could not see out of that eye for two months and carried the scar for life. "He am dead now," she said, "but I's gwine tell the truth."

Bias would not let them go after the war. Her mother slipped away to Mansfield and got a paper from the provost marshal saying they were free. Too afraid to show it to Bias, the family left a pot of soap boiling in the yard, walked off through the fields, and walked all day. A white man let them sleep in his barn and fed them on the way. In Mansfield her mother hired the children out to work. In 1869, when Annie was about eleven, they moved to Marshall, Texas, where she still lived when interviewed.