Free
The baby’s name was Sarah. She was born in Delta, Louisiana. The year was 1867.
Her parents were Owen and Minerva Breedlove. Both were former slaves. They worked as sharecroppers on a cotton plantation. Sarah was their fifth child. She was the first to be born free (after the Emancipation Proclamation). Just six years after Sarah’s birth, yellow fever swept through the area. It was – and is – a deadly disease. The fever took both her parents. By the time Sarah was seven, she was an orphan.
