Non-fiction. Writing an extraordinary Black man back into our histories.
Born a slave in Kentucky, William Gibson served in both the famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War under his alias John Saunders and as a Bu...
William "Billy" Gibson was born into slavery in the 1840s in either Virginia or Kentucky. He was enslaved in Oldham County, Kentucky by Sarah (Taylor) Mallory and Gibson "Gip" Mallory.
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William Gibson, 9 March 1899:
My mistress name was Sarah Taylor until she married Mallory.
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Deposition B of Sallie Gibson, mother of William Gibson, June 1900:
I was a slave in the family of Gip Mallory [...] He married my young Miss in Va - Miss Elizabeth Gibson and I belonged to her. She died at Madison Va. and my old Boss Mallory brought me from Va & married Sarah Taylor. All my children except the oldest 3 were born in Madison Co. Ky. I brought 3 children from Va viz Sandy & Cyrus & Billy. [...] None of my children were ever sold. They all belonged to Mallory till we got free - except Billy who ran off and got to Canada. [...] Billy was his first name. I heard he altered his name to John Sanders when he went into the army from Canada. [...] I reckon Billy just made that name up for fear someone would cross him that knew his master.
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Affidavit of William Gibson, 8 May 1914:
There is no public, church or bible record of my birth. I was born a slave and in 1850 I live with my owner "Gip Malry" and wife Sarah, in the village of Westport, Oldham Co., Ky.
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Alfred Buckner, 11 March 1899:
[...] his father William Gibson, who belonged to Gip Mallory , and was my fellow servant and he died at Hanover years ago, but his son, young William Gibson, now of Hanover, Ind., ran away from Gip Mallory when he was a boy - not more than 14 or 15 years old when he ran away - too young to go himself and he was helped away by some abolitionist man, and escaped to Canada - Chatham something, he has told me [...]
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William Gibson, 9 March 1899:
I thought I might be captured and when my right name would be known I might be taken back into slavery. So I enlisted under the name of John Sanders so they would not know my name.
