Annie Little

Annie Little was born in January 1856 in Springfield, Missouri, to Howard and Annie, who were enslaved by Bill Gooden. While she was still a baby, Gooden sent the family to his plantation in the Mississippi Delta, where she said the cotton grew so tall she climbed trees to reach the top of the stalks. She remembered hearing bloodhounds baying when they had chased a runaway up a tree. The Gooden family never sold any of her relatives. As a girl she stood by the looms and picked up the shuttles when they fell.

After freedom her family stayed until she was grown and married. Her husband, about twice her age, told her he had been taken from the fields by Union cavalry to care for their horses, had been at Bull Run, and had been captured and escaped. His favorite song was "Down by the Riverside," and he died in 1916. She loved telling ghost stories by the winter fire. She was 81 and living in Mart, Texas, when she was interviewed.