| Richard Miller was the son of an Indian mother and an enslaved father. In this excerpt he describes his family’s experiences after Emancipation and how his family was separated even after becoming free. |
Excerpt:
Richard Miller was born January 12, 1843 in Danville, Kentucky.
His mother was an English subject, born in Bombay, India, and was brought into America by a group of people who did not want to be under the English government. They landed in Canada, came on to Detroit, stayed there a short time, then went to Danville, Kentucky. There she married a slave named Miller. They were the parents of five children.
. . .When slavery was abolished, a group of them started down to the far south, to buy farms, to try for themselves, got as far as Madison County, Kentucky and were told if they went any farther south, they would be made slaves again, not knowing if that was the truth or not, they stayed there, and worked on the Madison County farms for a very small wage. This separated families, and they never heard from each other ever again.
These separations are the cause of so many of the slave race not being able to trace families back for generations, as do the white families.
| Interviewee Formerly enslaved person | Birth Year (Age) | Interviewer WPA Volunteer | Enslaver’s Name |
| Richard Miller | 1843 | Sarah H. Locke | Unknown |
| Interview Location | Residence State | Birth Location |
| Marion County, IN | Indiana | Danville, KY |
| Themes & Keywords | Additional Tags: |
| Emancipation, Family | Third person, separation, |
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