John Barker

John Barker told his interviewer in Houston that he was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, enslaved by the Barker family, who later moved to Missouri and then to Texas. He called himself a "Malagasser," saying his people came from Madagascar. His parents, named Goodman, died when he was little, and the Barkers' wife raised him on their plantation near Houston.

He remembered his grandfather drying horned toads, grinding them to powder, and rubbing it on his shoes to throw the dogs off his trail when he ran away. Ordinary hounds lost the scent, but bloodhounds tracked him more than a hundred miles over three or four days and found him under a bridge. John saw runaways whipped until the blood ran and then salted. He also saw people yoked in pairs like steers and sold. Enslaved people were not allowed to marry, since they could be sold apart.

When his grandmother told them they were free, they stayed with the Barkers a while for little pay. He married at about 20, in a big wedding with a black alpaca frock coat, patent-leather shoes and a bag of rice thrown over the couple. He married his third wife at Eagle Pass, worked for the army at the Seminole reservation, and then worked 23 years for the Patterson family in Houston, where he and his wife lived in a neat cottage.