SANKOFA'S SLAVERY DATA COLLECTION
(Sobe) Love Farm
Location: near the Red River below Fort Washita, Bryan Co., Oklahoma
Founded: 1844
History: According to the narrative of ex-slave Mary Lindsay, Sobe Love, along with his relatives Benjamin Love, Henry Love, and a large group of Chickasaw Indians left Mississippi for Oklahoma in 1844 under stipulations of a treaty. The group settled at the Red River, below Fort Washita. There they endured low swampy land ridden with malaria and smallpox until eventually Sobe's settlement flourished into a large farm with about one hundred slaves.
Without the approval of her father, Sobe's daughter Mary married a poor white blacksmith named Bill Merrick. They moved to Texas, along with Mary's servant Vici, where Bill established a blacksmith shop, on the big road between Bonham and Honey Grove. Mary and her servant returned to the Love Farm for a brief stay. Mary Love, daughter of William and Mary Love, was sperated from her family when Sobe gave her to his daughter Mary Love Merrick before her return to Texas.
After the end of the Civil War, Mary had reunited with her brother Franklin in Texas, and returned to her birthplace at the Love Farm to live with her mother and sisters.
Associated Surnames: Love, Merrick
Associated Free Native American and White Names
Associated Black Slave Names
Slaves of Sobe Love
From "Voices From Slavery", narrative of Mary Lindsay, edited by Norman R. Yetman, 2000
- William Love: slave of Chick-a-lathe; purchased by Sobe Love
- wife Mary Love
- dau. Mary "Ka-Chubbe" Love Lindsay: b. Sept. 20, 1846; given to Mary Love Merrick (Texas) when she was a little girl
- son Franklin"Bruner" Love
- dau. Hetty Love
- dau. Rena Love
- Vici Love: Mary's personal servant
- Note: Mary Lindsay recalls that Sobe Love owned about a hundred slaves
Agriculture
Description of Associated Architecture
Other People Researching This Plantation
RESOURCES