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Nancy Antwine, 84 years old, living at 3503 Holman Ave., Houston, was born a slave on the plantation of Will
Heald located on the Bernard River near W. Columbia, Tex. Although only 12 years old when freed, her story of
how her mother was brought to this country from Africa is quite interesting.
"You all will have to 'scuse me iffen I don't talk so good, 'cause I had a stroke some time back, an' sometimes I can't
think so good no mo'.
"But I was bo'n on Marse Willie Heald's plantation on the Bernard River, an' Marse Willie an' Mrs. Annie, thats' his
wife, was the ones what owned my mother an' me.
"My pappy belong to Marse Tom Heald, that was Marse Willie's brother, an' he was a Guinea nigger so I hear my
mammy say. 'Cose I don't remember, him, 'cept what mammy tole me, 'cause he died when I was a baby. But
mammy say he was so strong his veins was big as rope.
"Cose what I tells you now, I was tole by my mammy, 'cause I was jes a baby and don't remember nothin' 'cept from
Mrs. Annie Burnett's place. She was Mrs. Annie Heald's daughter, and when she got married to Marse Burnett my
mammy an I went with her, an' when her chillen came, I nursed 'em.
"Tha's where I remember from, an' those chillen, they was four altogether, jes' was carried away with me, an' I loved
'em too. I guess that's why my white folks was so good to my mammy an' me.
"My mammy she came from Africa, in a boat, an' here's how come she got here.
"It seem like she and her sister, had took a basket of peanuts down to the river bank to wash and clean 'em, an' in the
water was a boat an' on it was white folks.
"They had lots of red cloth an' things, an' a boat come to land an' they say they wants to trade the cloth for peanuts,
an' gets mammy an' her sister to get in the little boat an' to come out to the big boat. Then while they was lookin'
round, the boat it starts goin' and they is put down in a big place an' sees lots of more black folks down there, an'
that is how she come here.
"But after they got here, she didn't know where they landed, an' she never did see her sister no more. She was
brought by Marse Willie, and then she tell me, her an' my pappy got married.
"Cose like I say, I don't remember nothin' before Mrs. Annie Burnett's house, but I knows they was real good white
folks. I still has the bell what Mrs. Annie used to ring when she wanted something, 'cause when I wasn't in the
house with the chillen, I was in our little house in the yard, and when I heerd that bell, I sure would get up an' go.
"One day a man come to our place an' say we is all free. Mrs.
Annie she ask him iffen I couldn't stay an nurse the chillen, an' he say 'no', but I fooled him an' stayed for three
years, till I got married when my mammy died, an' raised ten chillen of my own.
"No, I never had no learnin', but I used to dance when I was nursin' Mrs. Annie's chillen, an' I remembers Miss
Annie an' the folks would laugh when I would 'sally 'long,' that was what they called my dancin'".
Hatcher, Letha, PW Jasper, Dist. #3"
