Daniel Phillips

Daniel Phillips was born in 1854 at Stringtown, five miles south of San Marcos, Texas, just after his parents arrived from Georgia in wagons with the Dailey family, who brought about twenty-five enslaved people and sold some after reaching Texas. He was enslaved by Dr. Dailey and his son, Dr. Thomas Dailey. As a boy he worked on their ranch on the Blanco River, driving and branding wild horses. His sister Maria worked in the house, and his father, a handy man, built the family's loom and spinning wheel.

He was herding horses when Thomas Dailey rode up and told him he was free, which meant, he explained, that Daniel could live with his mother and father and keep what he earned. Daniel left the horses and went home. He never forgot finding his mother praying in a corner of the fence while milking: "Oh Lord, set us free!" His brother, a cook in the Confederate army, lived to 108. When interviewed Daniel lived at 704 Virginia Street in San Antonio. He said life was better after freedom.