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Sarah Frances Shaw Graves

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves “Aunt Sally” (born March 23, 1850) was an African American woman who was a slave during the late 1850s and early 1900s. Her name came from the slave-owners who owned her. According to an oral interview that Graves gave to a Works Progress Administration interviewer in 1937, Graves says she was born somewhere near Louisville in Kentucky [1]. Graves was eighty-eight years old at the time when she gave that interview. After Kentucky, Graves was brought to Missouri with her mother (who was also a slave) when she was six months old. Graves overcame the obstacle of being born into slavery and owned a one hundred-twenty acre farm near Skidmore Nodaway County [2] in Missouri.

Contents

1.Early Life

2.Career

3.Family

4.Death

5.External Links

Early Life

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves was born on March 23, 1850 near Louisville in Kentucky. [1] When she was six months old, Graves moved with her mother and her mother’s owner to Missouri. Graves’ mother Virginia Barber whom she refers to as ‘mama’ was a slave owned by a man by the name of Shaw. Her father was allotted before they left Kentucky. Graves made it clear in her WPA (Works Progress Administration) interview that her mother never once sold her. “I was never sold. My mama was sold only once, but she was hired out many times. yes'm when a slave was allotted, somebody made a down payment and gave a mortgage for the rest. A chattel mortgage.” [3] In 1861 Shaw allotted Graves’ mother to a man named Jimmie Graves who went to Missouri to live with his daughter Emily Graves. Graves’ slave-owner would be Emily Graves Crowdes and Sarah Frances Shaw Graves said in her WPA interview that she would always live with Emily Graves Crowdes. [3] Graves’ mother would remarry and her stepfather and mother had their own tobacco and grain garden that they would tend to. [1] They money from this would then help Graves later in life.

Career

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves was an African American slave. Her mandatory duty as a slave for Emily Graves Crowdes was to work inside of the house rather than the field alongside the African American men slaves. [4] “Mama worked in the field and in the house too. They nearly always kept a girl in the house.” [4] Graves would also sew dresses and she described it during her interview as being very tedious. “We would shear the sheep, wash the wool, card it, spin it and weave it.” [1]

Family

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves had a mother and a father whom she referred to in her WPA interview as “mama” and “papa.” Her mother’s name was Virginia Barber. Graves’ mother was allotted with her to Missouri when she was six months old after living in Kentucky. When they both left, her father stayed behind because he was allotted to another slave-owner. Graves discussed how the slave-owners did not want her mother to know where her father was at any given time because they wanted her mother to move on, marry again and raise more children; despite what her mother wanted. “My papa never knew where my mama went, an' my mama never knew where papa went. They never wanted mama to know, 'cause they knowed she would never marry so long she knew where he was.” [1] Graves’ mother married again to Trattle Barber. Barber was sick and “could never be a father” [1] according to Graves. Barber was so sick that he could not work which causes Sarah Frances Shaw Graves and her mother to pick up his work. Graves had a husband, Joseph H. Graves whom she had known all her life because they had grown up in the same area. Together they would have one son, Arza Alexander Graves. [3] Arza never married and lived with her until her death.

Death

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves died July 3, 1942.

External Links

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35379/35379-h/35379-h.html#sarah-frances-shaw-graves-aunt-sally

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21832364

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snvoices02.html

http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/mesnbib:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28mesn/100/131126%29%29

http://irreverentpsychologist.blogspot.com/2012/01/slave-narratives-sarah-frances-shaw.html

http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html

References

1.Federal Writer's Project, United States Work Projects Administration (USWPA); Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

2.“The Irreverent Psychologist: Slave Narratives: Sarah Frances Shaw Graves.” The Irreverent Psychologist: Slave Narratives: Sarah Frances Shaw Graves. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

3.“Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938.” Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

4.“Ex-Slave Stories.” Pg. 134. Print. Apr. 2, 2014.