Cornelia Robinson

Cornelia Robinson was only about four when slavery ended, so much of what she knew came from her family. Her parents, George and Harriett Yancey, were enslaved first by a Mrs. Baugh and later sold to a Dr. Trammell near Lafayette, Alabama. Her brothers and sisters were Charlie, Willie, Albert and Ann. Her mother had been taught to read and write and read the Bible to the children.

Her clearest memory was what she called a hurricane, which was really the Union army coming through. The soldiers emptied the smokehouse, poured the syrup out until it ran down the road like water, and tore up whatever they couldn't carry, while her enslaver hid his best horses and mules in the swamp and her mistress hid her jewelry in the cabins of the enslaved. A small boy sent to find the cows was so frightened he hid in a hollow stump and nearly froze.

After slavery she went to a school taught by George Hawkins and his wife. She married Robert Benson, had four children, and when interviewed was living, always smiling, with a grandchild in Opelika.