Sally Miller

Grandma Sally’s Story

As told by Arlonzia, her granddaughter

“After Dinah had Sally, they took her out of the field and she became a cook and housecleaner for the boss man’s wife in a placed called Vredenbergh, over near Camden. After that she went back out in the fields and worked until Grandmama Sally got about seventeen years old.”

Arrival in Gee’s Bend

“Sally came into Camden, and that’s where she met Esau and married him. Later on, they came across the river to Gee’s Bend and worked on the Pettway Plantation.”

My Uncle John Henry

“Dinah had another baby, a son, John Henry. He was Sally’s half brother. They didn’t have the same daddy. But I believe John Henry had a Indian daddy. He was red skinned and had that pretty hair. He became the foreman on the old Pettway plantation. And at the end, the government let John Henry live in the plantation house till they tore it down. They they gave him a new house.”

Grandma Sally, The Midwife

“Sally became a midwife when she was thirty-six years old, that’s what she said. She was the main person people would call here when they get in labor. They get a wagon pulled by two mules and get Sally, take her back to their house to deliver the baby.