Texas Slave Narratives

Texas Slave Narrative

  Ransom Rosborough

Ransom Rosborough , retired farmer and ex-postmaster of old Wamba, Texas, was born April 4, 1861 as a slave of the late Captain J.T. Rosborough , who lived in Davis County (now Cass). He was brought with his parents to Bowie County in 1862 and lived on the old Rosborough Plantation, on Red River, until 1922. Ransom Rosborough circulated the petition which was presented to the Postoffice Department requesting a postoffice at Wamba on the Rosborough plantation, and served fifteen years as postmaster there. He now lives alone on James Street, in Texarkana, Texas. "I was bo'n a slave of Cap'n Rosborough , April 4, 1861, an' lived with him fer sixty years. Master Rosborough owned 'bout 500 slave when the war was over. Mos' of the Niggers stayed on with him. What was the use of leavin' him when he was so good to us? He was the biggest-hearted man I ever seen. I don't 'member much 'bout the war only 'bout the time it was over some of the Niggers got smart an' left. 'Bout that time, Cullen Baker was makin' it hot fer some of the Niggers. I would run my las' limit if I heard he was in the neighborhood. We had all rail fences them days, and I could fin' a crack in the fence heap quicker when I hear Baker was aroun'. I knowed he hung Ike Duncan clos' to where I liv'. We liv' in same house after the war that we allus did. They was 16X20 log-cabins, wid a chimney an' big wide fire places. We had plenty of warm woolen clothes fer winter, an' cotton clothes fer summer. The Niggers had plenty of meat, an' everything else raised on the farm to eat. Cap'n Whitiker owned the jinin' plantation to Cap'n Rosborough , and owned lots of slaves. They stayed on wid him after the war. They lowd the Niggers clear new groun' an' giv' them what they make off it the first yeah. Cap'n had several overseers. I don't 'member hearin' of any beatins' they giv' the Niggers. I suppose some of them got it though, cause they was unruly at times. The Niggers 'tended the same chu'ch wid the white fo'ks 'fore an' after slavery. I went to school to four white teachers there on the plantation. Henry Robertson was the first. Then Parson Carson come frum the No'th, but he didn't understan' the fo'ks down here, so didn't last long. 'Fessor Brown and Cap'n Noble was my other teachers. I liked 'Fessor Robertson the best. He sho' rule the school he taught. They didn't get too big fer him to handle. We all lived there on the Rosborough place sorta like a town. Some of the wimmin' was wo'kin' all time weavin' cloth an' makin' other garments. I helped with the looms. Cap'n Rosborough had a Nigger carpenter he say he pay $2,300 fer. There was lots of fiel' han's. Cap'n Whitiker had a large cotton shed, close to what is now Rosborough Lake, where we sto'ed cotton till the boats come fer it. When I was a boy Red River run where the lake is now, an' I've seen four or five steamboats at a time comin' down the river.


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