Phoebe Henderson

Phoebe Henderson was born in Macon, Georgia, enslaved by the Bradley family. Her father, Anthony Hubbard, belonged to another family; she never heard from him again after she was taken from Georgia. When the mistress died, Phoebe passed to a daughter, Mrs. Wiley Hill, who moved to Panola County, Texas, in 1859, bringing Phoebe and her mother.

In Texas she plowed and hoed in the fields, and also worked in the house, spinning seven cuts of thread a day and running looms at night to make plow lines. She said the overseer was kind, let tired children rest in the shade, and did not whip the young men for fear they would run away. A man in the shop made each person two pairs of shoes a year. Families kept gardens and chickens, and on Saturday nights there were parties and ring plays in the woods.

She married David Henderson, who was enslaved on the same place. "Master Hill didn't have nothin' to do with bringin' us together," she said. "I guess God done it." They were married in the house by a Black Baptist preacher; she wore a white cotton dress, and the mistress gave her a pan of flour as a wedding present. She remembered a young man named Toby who joined the Union army as a messenger and had his horse shot from under him. "I guess it's a good thing we was freed, after all," she said. In old age she lived with her daughter, Mary Ann Butler, near Marshall, Texas.