Priscilla Gibson

Priscilla Gibson was born about 1856 in Smith County, Mississippi, to Mary Puckett. She never knew her father, who she believed was Native or part Native. They were enslaved by Jesse and Katie Puckett, whose big two-story frame house on the Strong River, on the road from Raleigh to Brandon, also took in travelers, since there were no hotels. She was old enough to climb the fence and watch the troops muster in when the war began. Her only brother she ever knew, Jake, was taken to the war to cook for the white sons and died of pneumonia.

She worked in the house, running errands and fanning her mistress, and when the mistress fell asleep she would lie down on the thick flowered rug and stop fanning. Little boys wore long shirts and no pants until grown, and no one had shoes. The enslaved were not taught to read, and those who tried to run away were whipped hard. She remembered a neighbor named Means who set his dogs on a woman named Sylvia who had fled to the woods, letting them bite her and tear her clothes.

After freedom everyone left but Priscilla, whose mistress claimed she was bound to her until she came of age. One restless night her sister Georgy Ann came for her, and they ran off together. No one came after her. When interviewed she lived in Jasper, Texas.