Rosa Washington

Rosa Washington was 90 and living in her own small adobe house at 3911 Manzana Street in El Paso, Texas, when she was interviewed. She was born on Bill and Ann Watson's large plantation seven miles from St. Joseph, Louisiana; her parents had come from Georgia. She went to work in the fields at ten, hoeing her row every day, and said her mistress would not let anyone whip her.

One day, while they were working in the field, Union soldiers came for them. Everyone threw up their hands and ran. The soldiers broke open a hogshead of sugar and gave everyone all they wanted, poured out the milk, and took the enslaver by force to jail in Vicksburg while his wife wept. The soldiers moved Rosa and her parents to a fine house about three miles away and fed them there until the war ended.

After the war she left the Watsons, later went back, and stayed with them until they died. Her husband, Joe Washington, had died long before. She came to Texas in 1921, and her three surviving children supported her; her son Le Roy had worked 27 years for the U.S. immigration service in El Paso.