Spartan Echo

Section: News

The Wall Family, including Mae Miller, were slaves until 1961. That's almost 100 years after slavery was abolished.

As Mae Wall Miller was slowly helped to the podium, the years of slave labor showed in her broken pace. An eerie hush and nervous calm fell over students, staff, faculty and guests gathered in the L. Douglas Wilder Center Thursday afternoon.

"I am your former slave" said Miller whose family wasn't released from slavery until 1961, almost a hundred years after slavery was abolished.

"The Last Slaves of Mississippi" presentation was hosted by the Office of Residential & Housing and the NSU Honors Program.

The stout and determined woman took the podium and recounted her story timidly and sometimes loudly. She spoke matter-of-factly sometimes, signaling with her hands to illustrate her story. Emotions of the painful past fluttered in her voice. Her dialect, broken and slurred, much like one would assume a slave or former slave would speak.

Miller, a woman who admittedly "can't read or write that much" told the story of being enslaved along with her mother, father and eight siblings until 1961. She shared how she picked cotton from sunrise to sunset.
"I learned the hard way, picking cotton in the field, not much rest." "You had to keep your back bent at all times," she explained. "If you raised up he [the master] had his whip and baby, when he touched that whip over there, seemed like he had fifty lashes on one, not just for the children, for my daddy too!"

She told shocking stories of abuse and even murder. One such story involved her father,who was beat in the head with chains that "split his head open and there wer'nt no doctors." Surprisingly, Miller's father, Cain Wall is still living today at 113 years old. Miller also told the horrific story of a young boy being gutted and used for fishing bait. She also alleges rape at the hands of her master; these were her experiences as slave.

Severely deprived, she talked about her family's living conditions; living in tents with no bed, no heat and fertilizer sacks for clothes. Food was scarce, when they weren't eating insects, wild reptiles or raw chicken they got a mixture of water, bread and tea, much like pig slop.
Finally at the age of 18 (at the time she didn't know her own age) she refused to work, subsequent to her refusal her father beat her; he knew it would mean death for her, but she didn't care. She ran from one plantation to another finally getting in touch with an uncle. To her shock, she was free.

Continued...

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