This tag was created by Hai In Jo. The last update was by Daniel G. Tracy.
Sallie Mayfield
Sallie Mayfield (Freedmen applicant) was enslaved by “Miss Sallie Mayfield" and moved with her to Texas around 1847, when she was six years old. George Starr, young Jess Mayfield, and Tom Mayfield also moved to Texas together. Sallie married Miles Mayfield, and they had a son named Thomas Mayfield. Miles died at the start of the war, and their second son, Emberry Mayfield, was born after the war had already begun. Sallie attested that she returned to the Cherokee Nation in June or July of 1866 with her son, Emberry. She recalled, “Just as soon as they told me peace [sic] was made I run away from there [Texas] by night and come back here.” On her way back, she stopped in the Choctaw Nation before staying with Henry West(Mayfield), a Cherokee Freedman who had raised her and was still living in the Cherokee Nation.
The timeline of Sallie’s move to Texas and return is not very clear. According to George.W.Vann, who first knew Sallie in Fort Gibson, he remembered taking two of his sisters to Texas with Miss Mayfield a little after the war started. He also corrected his previous testimony to say that he saw Sallie in August 1870 and not in 1866, as he had first mentioned. However, George Amos Mayfield (Cherokee Freedman) testified that Sallie did come back in 1866. He was certain of this timeline because he confirmed it with George Adair and Dick Fields. He also remembered seeing her at Walk Mayfield’s place with Henry West at this time.
Sallie stated that after her husband died, she knew nothing about the roll. Consequently, she found out later that her name was not on the 1880 roll.