Betty Powers

Betty Powers was born in Harrison County, Texas, about 25 miles from Marshall, on the plantation of Dr. Howard Perry, which held more than two hundred enslaved people in three rows of cabins half a mile long. She was one of twelve children. Her mother cooked for all fourteen of them after a full day in the fields, by pine-knot torchlight, and wove at night. Her father made shoes. Rations were handed out on Sunday and had to last the week, so people went hungry or stole food and took the whipping if caught.

She said the overseer and his wife were merciless, and that her long ears came from having them pulled. Workers were tied to logs and lashed, and salt was rubbed into the cuts. There were no real weddings; the enslaver simply ordered couples to live together. She said overseers and other white men abused enslaved women as they pleased, and she thanked God freedom came before she was old enough to face that.

After the war her family worked on shares for about four years, then her father bought land five miles away. They cleared it and built a cabin, proud to have a place of their own. Betty left the next year and married Ross Powers when she was only thirteen. When interviewed at about 80 she lived at 5237 Fletcher Street in Fort Worth.