John Price and wife Miranda

John Price was about five when the war ended. He was born in Morgan City, Louisiana, enslaved by George and Felice Bryan, who had bought his father, George, as an eighteen-year-old from St. Louis and came to trust him to run the place in the owner's absence. His mother, Lizette, called Lisbeth, was mostly French. His siblings were Sally Hughes, Liza Jones, Celina, Pat Whitehouse and Jim Price. When John was a year old the Bryans moved everyone to Texas, settling a mile south of Raywood near Liberty.

Whenever his father went to whip him, John ran to the big house and crawled under the old enslaver's bed. The man would wake in the night, call "Boy, I know you under that bed," and throw his old coat down to make him a pallet. At freedom the enslaver told everyone they could keep the Bryan name or take another, and John's father chose Price.

When interviewed, John and his wife, Miranda, who had also been enslaved, lived in a well-kept home in Liberty, Texas. Miranda had suffered a stroke and could no longer speak well enough to tell her own story.