"O'NEAL, William, author, former slave. Born, December 6, 1827, to a slave named Laura and an unknown father, probably white, at Woodville, Miss. Laura with her infant was rented by a Cheneyville planter named William Scott. The slave boy was apprenticed to a cooper. Later, working nights and Sundays, he earned enough money which, with more borrowed from Scott, he purchased Ellen, his wife. He later sold his wife to a trusted white family and purchased himself in order that they could have his wages. Dictated his story to a ghost writer, Annie Mitchell Grace Burges, in 1896. The ghost writer was the daughter-in-law of Mary McCoy of Northup fame. The book, William O'Neal: The Slave Who Bought His Wife was published in 1896. O'Neal died December, 1907, at his home adjoining Edgefield Cemetery for which he gave the land and where he was interred. He had become a successful merchant and landowner. When he and his wife died, their property was willed to Ellen's former white owners. S.E. Source: Author's research."
"O'NEAL, William, author, former slave. Born, December 6, 1827, to a slave named Laura and an unknown father, probably white, at Woodville, Miss. Laura with her infant was rented by a Cheneyville planter named William Scott. The slave boy was apprenticed to a cooper. Later, working nights and Sundays, he earned enough money which, with more borrowed from Scott, he purchased Ellen, his wife. He later sold his wife to a trusted white family and purchased himself in order that they could have his wages. Dictated his story to a ghost writer, Annie Mitchell Grace Burges, in 1896. The ghost writer was the daughter-in-law of Mary McCoy of Northup fame. The book, William O'Neal: The Slave Who Bought His Wife was published in 1896. O'Neal died December, 1907, at his home adjoining Edgefield Cemetery for which he gave the land and where he was interred. He had become a successful merchant and landowner. When he and his wife died, their property was willed to Ellen's former white owners. S.E. Source: Author's research."