The following data is extracted from Georgia Slave Narratives.
[TR: A significant portion of this interview was repeated in
typescript; where there was a discrepancy, the clearer version
was used. Where a completely different word was substituted,
'the original' refers to the typewritten page.] Mrs. Mariah
Callaway sat in a chair opposite the writer and told her freely
of the incidents of slavery as she remembered them. To a casual
observer it will come as a surprise to know the woman was blind.
She is quite old, but her thoughts were clearly and
intelligently related to the writer. Mrs. Callaway was born in
Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia probably during the year
1852, as she estimated her age to be around 12 or 13 years when
freedom was declared. She does not remember her mother and
father, as her mother died the second day after she was born, so
the job of rearing her and a small brother fell on her
grandmother, Mariah Willis, for whom she was named. Mrs.
Callaway stated that the old master, Jim Willis,