Betty Farrow

Betty Farrow was born June 28, 1847, on Alex Clark's plantation in Patrick County, Virginia, where about twenty people were enslaved. Her mother told her the date, since she never went to school and could not read or write. Her mother's family had five boys and four girls; Betty did not remember her father. At about ten she was put to work around the house, and she grew up playing with the Clark children.

About three years before the war, Clark sold the plantation and moved everyone to Texas in three covered wagons. It felt like a celebration to the children at first, but not by the end of the long trip. They settled near Sherman. About a year later a neighbor named Shields, who had been arguing with Clark about crossing his yard, shot and killed him while Betty and the other children were playing nearby. The family then moved to Fort Worth, and the war began. Clothing grew scarce, but there was enough food to share with soldiers.

She didn't remember being told she was free. She stayed on the farm, the only home she knew, until she married at 27. She and her husband rented land and raised ten children. When interviewed at 90 she lived with a son in Mosier Valley, a Black settlement northeast of Fort Worth, and was happily caring for a great-grandchild.