Bart Strong

Bert Strong was born in 1864 in Harrison County, Texas, enslaved by Dave Cavin, whose family and about thirty enslaved people had come from Montgomery, Alabama, in a three-month wagon journey. Cavin had bought Bert's grandfather, Gloster, off a tobacco farm in Richmond, Virginia; Gloster lived to 105. Bert's grandmother was the cook. The plantation's enslaved people were taught to read and write at night and on Sundays, had their own preacher, and buried their dead with care. An overseer was fired for cutting and slashing the workers, and Bert's uncle Freeman was made foreman. Bert heard people on neighboring farms crying out when they were beaten.

He remembered Christmas stockings hung on the gallery and Saturday-night dances where his cousin called the steps. When the war ended, the young enslaver came home and told everyone they were free. Bert and his mother stayed ten more years for wages. He farmed in Harrison County his whole life and raised two sons, both of whom died before him. When interviewed he lived alone on Long's Camp Road, twelve miles northeast of Marshall, on a $15-a-month pension.