Talbert said long life ran in her family. Her mother lived to be 120.
She’d
been sold three times in her 66 years as a slave. Her second owner, a man
named Alford, sold Talbert and one of her daughters to John Bird Hamilton of La
Grange, Missouri. Hamilton paid $1,000 for Talbert and $500 for her daughter.
The sale separated her from her other children.
When
Hamilton moved west, he sold Talbert to a man named Price, who also owned her
husband. Hamilton kept four of her children—two sons and a daughter.
One
of her sons joined the army and was killed. Another son, John Hays, also served
in the army and later fought with Custer in the Big Horn. By 1924, Hays was 90
years old. One of Talbert’s daughters, then 87, was living in Kentucky. She did
not know what had become of her other daughter.
