Freed Here, At Last

Freed Here, At Last. . , Booker Taliaferro, his mother Jane, elder brother John Henry, younger sister Amanda, aunt Sophia, uncle Monroe, and cousin Sally were freed here in 1865. You can walk down to the site of emancipation, where the "Big House" was located. You can stand where Booker and his family first heard they were free., "For some minutes there was great rejoicing, and thanksgiving, and wild scenes of ecstasy.... They wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated colored people lasted for a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seem to take possession of them.", After emancipation, Booker's family left this plantation for good. They joined his stepfather in Malden, West Virginia, to start their lives as free people. Booker T. Washington would visit the former plantation only once during the remainder of his life, in 1908., "I recall vividly the picture that the slaves on our plantation presented the morning we were declared free. All were drawn up in a line before the "big house" and some papers were read, and after that I heard mother say we were free.", "After the coming of freedom there were two points upon which practically all the people on our place were agreed...that they must change their names, and that they must leave the old plantation for at least a few days or weeks in order that they might really feel sure that they were free."