Adapted from reenactment done during tour of National Buffalo Soldiers’ Museum in Houston, TX www.buffalosolidermuseum.com – Tyler D. Biggs was born a slave. His father was a Blacksmith and Muslim. Of his parents he was the last of four boys. Due to the value of his father’s skill as a Blacksmith, he was given his own small home that was adjacent to the smith shop. This caused him to be away from his family days at a time.
Tyler’s birth name was not Tyler but the single letter “D”; for that is how his “master” named his slaves using the alphabet. His master caught a fancy to his mother and so one day Tyler remembers seeing his father being placed in the back of a wagon and waving to him. The next day he saw the wagon return, however his father didn’t. Five new slaves were added to the plantation.
His master went to fight for the Confederates, leaving with all fanfare as any Southern gentleman would going off the defend house and home. However, he never returned home. His mama now widowed and without a son to handle the books of the plantation, was at a lost. This is how Tyler learned how to run a plantation / agricultural business.
One day the Union army came to free “D” and his fellow slaves…that was the day that he began his true journey that lead him to become a Buffalo Soldier named… Tyler D. Biggs.
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