Johnson: Were any older brothers born during slavery?
Bethune: Oh, yes. Some of my older sisters and brothers belonged to slave masters….some were scattered….
My father was a McLeod – my mother was a McIntosh; they handed her on down to Ben Wilson who was one of the family – I think (?) the husband of one of the girls, one of the daughters, and it was this Ben Wilson for whom she continued to cook.
Johnson: How did the family reassemble after slavery, or do you remember.…?
Bethune: Oh, yes. They were not sold very far apart and after slavery they all reassembled on the old McLeod place where my father was and took their stations in life.
Johnson: Do you remember anything, their telling any stories about how the first got together after freedom?
Bethune: My oldest brother Samuel, and my oldest sister, Satira – odd names, eh! – heard tell when freedom came. They did not know they were actually free until called together a few days after, and they eventually found their way back to where my father was and father brought mother home on the McLeod plantation and they all assembled for a family reunion. They brought the grand children that mother and father had not seen.
