Sallie Wroe

Sallie Wroe was born Sallie Burdette on Mike Burdette's cotton plantation at Burdette Prairie, near Austin, Texas. Her parents, Het and John Burdette, were field workers. The overseer was so rough she thought his name must be "Debbil." Her sister Mollie, the weaver, was tied up and whipped whenever she failed to finish her day's weaving, until her shoulders were covered with scars. The cabins had dirt floors and no windows. The enslaver's children taught the Black children from blue-back spellers at night, but Sallie never learned much.

During the war her father and three uncles were sent with ox wagons of cotton to Brownsville. Instead they left the wagons on the riverbank, rolled a bale of cotton into the Rio Grande, climbed on and paddled across to freedom in Mexico. Her father returned after emancipation, having learned to speak Spanish, and brought back money to buy clothes for the family.

Freedom came on June 19, and the enslaver promised everyone an eggnog if they stayed to gather the crops; they did, and the eggnog made her sick. A cousin then rented a farm at Chapel Hill and looked after them until her father returned. In 1874 she married John Wroe, who farmed rented land until his death in 1927. They raised eleven children. Her grandchildren called her "Big Mama," though she joked she was so small now they should call her "Li'l Mama." She owned a small farm on the outskirts of Austin that she and John had saved for.