George Selman

George Selman was born in 1852 five miles east of Alto, Texas, one of nine children of Martha and John Green Selman. His father was born in Virginia and his mother in South Carolina. They were enslaved by Tom and Polly Selman, who held five families in cabins set in a half circle behind a big hewn-log house. George was a favorite and often rode to town with the enslaver. He learned to plow by holding the handles while his mother walked beside him. In summer Aunt Dicey, the cook, fed all the children supper under the big trees from one large wooden tray.

He heard people on a neighboring place cry out when they were whipped. A weaver there named Sallie was made to wear a chain, and after she died he said he heard her ghost night after night, screaming and dragging her chain.

When freedom came he went to work for the enslaver's sister. He never learned to read or write, but after several years he learned to preach and became a Baptist minister, and he said he had founded most of the Baptist churches in his county. When interviewed he lived in Jacksonville, Texas.