TOUGH START

Walker started working in the cotton fields when she was five years old. There was little time for school. She became an orphan two years later. Both her parents died. She needed money to live. So, she washed clothes for money. Walker was young when she got married. She had a baby when she was seventeen.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society

In 1867, Walker was born in this cabin. The cabin was on a Louisiana plantation.