Mary Armstrong
*Mary Armstrong was born on June 7, 1847. She was a Black slave and nurse.
She was born Mary Adams into slavery near St. Louis, Missouri, on a plantation to Sam Adams and Silby. Mary, her baby sister, and her mother belonged to plantation owners William and Polly [Pauline] Cleveland. Mary's father belonged to William Adams, a slave trader who lived on a connected plantation. Cleveland traded her mother to another owner in Texas when she was young. Cleveland's wife, Polly, whipped Adam's 9-month-old sister to death. She tried to do the same to her, but Adams threw a rock at her eye and sent her off, howling in pain.
When she was about 17, Adams was set free by her new owners, Polly Cleveland's daughter and son-in-law. Olivia Cleveland Adams was the daughter of William and Polly Cleveland and the wife of William Adams. According to Mary, she was the opposite of her parents as she was loving, kind, and adored by blacks and whites alike. Olivia liked Mary, and William Adams purchased Mary from his in-laws for $2,500. It was 1863, two years into the American Civil War. Mary lived with the Adams family until when William Adams emancipated his enslaved persons after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
William Adams gave her official, sealed documents declaring her freedom and lectured her on what to expect in the Deep South. Adams headed south into the heart of battle, where, as far as the Confederacy was concerned, slavery remained legal. She carried only a basket of food and clothing when she set out by steamboat to New Orleans. From there, she went to Texas by boat to Galveston and Houston, then by stagecoach to Austin. Soon after disembarking in Austin, Armstrong was captured and put up for auction.
After being handed over to Mr. Charley Crosby, her new owner, she pulled out the papers showing she'd been freed. Crosby turned out to be a legislator who took her to his property, where he allowed her to stay and paid her for her work. After the war ended, she hunted for her mother and found her in Wharton County near Wharton. They stayed together until Mary married John Armstrong in 1871.
The three then moved to Houston, where Mary worked as a nurse for Dr. Rellaford during the Yellow Fever pandemic. Mary was 91 at the time of her August 8, 1937, interview and died almost two months later, on September 23, 1937, from "senility," according to her death certificate.
