My name is Mariah Nicole and I was born in Shelby County, Texas on July 20, 1850. Or at least this is what my mother tells me: see she has it all written down in that bible of hers. She has to hide her bible under her bed because if the white people find her bible she will get into a lot of trouble. The white people are afraid if we blacks learn to read and write we will learn how to run away.
Scott Hooper Texas Slave Narrative Page 1-2; William Watkins Texas Slave Narrative Page 1-3
<Tab/>We lived on a plantation that had four hundred acres and our master Thomas Jones lived…
