Susan Merritt

Susan Merritt was born in Rusk County, Texas, near Henderson, enslaved by Andrew Watt. She was a good-sized girl spinning all the thread for the household when freedom came. Her father, Rob Rollins, came from North Carolina and belonged to Dewe Blakely; her mother came from Mississippi and had eleven children, seven of whom lived to grow up: Elbert, Rob, John, Emma, Anna, Lula and Susan. Watt made the shoes, furniture, saddles and harness himself and ran a grist mill and a whiskey still. When he pulled the bell rope before day, she said, the workers "falls out them bunks like rain falling," and they had to be in bed when the bell rang at nine.

Watt had no white overseer, but his Black driver was "just as bad." She saw him tie people to a tree and cowhide them until blood ran onto the ground. When women grew too worn out to keep up, they were made to lie face down in a body-length hole and were beaten nearly to death. Children were beaten for falling behind the lead man in the cotton rows, and some workers were made to drag long chains in the field. She saw people sold from a high scaffold at a neighbor's slave market, stripped to the waist to show their strength. At night they gathered around the fireplace to pray, sing and cry in secret. "Thank the Lord us can worship where us wants nowadays."

A year after freedom her family moved to Harrison County, and she stayed on their farm until she married Will Merritt. They worked land on shares and raised fifteen children. When interviewed she lived with her son Willie west of Marshall on the Hynson Springs road.