Campbell Davis

Campbell Davis was born in the northeast corner of Harrison County, Texas, on the Louisiana line, enslaved by Henry Hood. His parents, Campbell and Judy Davis, had been brought from Alabama by traders and sold to Hood. Among his siblings were Ellis, Hildaman, Henderson, Henrietta, Georgia, Harriet and Patsy. He was old enough to remember the morning conch shell and the sound of whips. He saw one of his sisters stripped and lashed with a rawhide quirt for not spinning enough, and his Uncle Lewis whipped in the field for not picking enough cotton.

He also remembered Fourth of July barbecues, Saturday-night fiddle and banjo music, children making mud people and frog holes, and learning some reading among themselves in the quarters. He once saw a white shape by the road at night, walked up to it, and found only a big spiderweb, which settled the ghost question for him.

After freedom, he and his mother stayed with the Hoods about three years, then farmed in Louisiana. In 1873 he married under the big oak tree in front of Leigh Church and returned to Harrison County, where he farmed until old age. When interviewed at 85 he lived with his nephew near Karnack on a $13-a-month pension.