LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS SEVEN YEARS Qigong tlje Ffeedipn. M. WATERBURY. T.B. AKNOL.D, CHICAGO/ILL.: 1890. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DEDICATION, To rny Associate Teachers in Heaven and on Earth, to the Suqday Schools that have Helped me in my Work /\mong the Freedmen, and to the Y, M. C. A. of Scotland, which supplied me with Books this volume is dedicated by the author, M. WATERBURY. Copyright, 1880, by Maria Waterbury. ONE OF THE THREE TEACHERS. Above is a picture of a teacher, a graduate of one of the colleges of Michigan. She used to say the freedmen work was her hus band arid children. She has just passed to her reward in heaven. The following lines are affectionately inscribed to her by the au thor of this book, her associate teacher for two years: (lone to Canaan, entered in. Freed from every snare and sin; We on this side Jordan's shore See thy friendly face no more. No more talks about our Lord No more searchings of his word, No more longings for his grace, She hath seen him face to face. Finished all the teaching years, Finished all the prayers and tears, Sword, and shield, and helmet on, Gone to Canaan, for the crown. All her toils on earth are done, Through the cross the victory won. She the golden streets hath trod, Gone to Canaan, gone to God. CHAPTER I. JOURNEYING. "In perils by mine own countrymen." 2 Cor. xi. 26. The instructions of the missionary society, are, "go south about eight hundred miles, until you find the plantation school waiting for you." The last week of November two of us start from near Chicago. Our Saratoga trunks are heavy with books. Our friends in the northern churches, have sent us with many prayers and blessings, and our gray-haired pastor has given us letters of introduc tion to churches at the South, wherever we may find a home. We are to teach our first .Freedmen's school, on a plantation, twenty-five miles from a rail road. From Cairo, Illinois, we go down the Mis sissippi, and across to Paducah, Kentucky. The marks of the bomb-shelling the town received in wat time, are still visible. The houses are unpainted, gloomy-looking habitations, some of them with ball holes in them. 10 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. From the large steamer we have crossed the river in, we ascend the bluffs, and take the cars on the M. & O. railroad. All day we have been trav eling with a party of southern ladies, who have been north to attend a wedding; one of them walks with crutches. We have been through the train in Illi nois, distributing tracts, and the sweet-faced lady on crutches, says to us: "Oh! you have tracts. Yes, I'll take some tracts, and I'll join your company too. I'm a preacher's wife, and I do that kind of work some times." "Indeed! Do you work among black and white both?" "Yes; I tell 'em they're all bound for the same place. The grave'll soon hold us all." Directly one of the southern ladies, two or three seats distant, says in a loud voice, "You'll soon see some nigger teachers. My husband says they all wear spectacles, and read newspapers." We laugh in our sleeves to think the high-toned southrons sought our society, and don't dream they are traveling with hated nigger teachers; but we say nothing. Arriving at Jackson, Tennessee, the lame lady, and all but one of the others, change cars for New Orleans. The lady now left alone, draws a little nearer to us, and we adjust ourselves to continue our journey. "Tickets ! tickets !" says the conductor, and takes our government passes, which show we are traveling under protection of the government. He looks at JOURNEYING. II them, and at us, and with an "all right," passes on. As a thunder cloud quickly gathers blackness some times, so the face of our southern traveling compan ion grows darker and more gloomy, until with a sudden jerk, she bounds to her feet, and handing her small baggage to a brakeman near, says, "Show me out of this car," and we lose our company. Nearing Corinth, a southern woman, who has seen the performances of the day, comes down the aisle of the car, and with a scornful look, points out of the window towards the soldiers' cemetery, ex claiming, "Yon's where the Yanks is buried, about ten thousand of 'em. Yon's the flag a flyin' over 'em, an' yon was the battle of Shiloh, about twelve miles away. Yon's the road they made to bring 'em on, when they buried 'em." Seating herself for a few minutes, she waits until the train stops, and many of the passengers go out to lunch, then begins walking up and down the aisle of the car, and in a tragic manner says, half crying, "My son was killed! I can't stand it yet, when I think of it. Oh! if I only had'' em P d make a finish of em /" Seeing one of the teachers in tears, she says, "May be you uns lost some too?" "Yes," is the reply; "starved to death!" "My God!" says the woman; "that's worse than mine." After that, we have one sympathizer on the train. We reach the end of our railroad ride at mid night, and find at the shed-like depot only a white man with a lantern, and a dozen half-grown colored boys dressed in cotton sacks and cast-off clothes of 12 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. union soldiers. The man with the lantern repre sents the only hotel in the place, and we follow him on foot, less than half a mile, to the hotel kept by two women, both widows. They give us the best room, and light a fire in the fire-place for us, which smokes and goes out. The night air has chilled us through, and the hostess kindly comes in to see if she can improve things. She puffs away at the pipe she has in her mouth, but the fire does nothing but smoke. The hotel is full of boarders, and among them, the livery stable keeper, who is to send us twenty-five miles into the country. He re quires pay in advance, and we give him twelve dol lars and a half, and retire; but not to sleep much as the bed is preoccupied by vermin. Breakfast con sists of corn bread, bacon, and sweet potatoes, and ere long we are loading up for our ride. For a driv er we have a one-legged ex-confederate soldier, of the poor white class. Our conveyance is a cart with two wheels. A pair of mules and two splint-bot tomed chairs complete our outfit. Wedged in, so that every inch of room is occupied with our chairs and trunks, we wonder where the driver will sit; but he swings up on a trunk, and hangs his one leg down, very near the mules' tails. With all the boarders in the house standing on the veranda, and the two widows smoking their pipes, with their heads out of the windows, we start. Did ever mules snail like those? It was fully twelve o'clock, ere we had gone six miles, then our driver stopped his team, and demanded of us how much we paid the stable keeper for "totin' us, over JOURNEYING. 13 thar"; drawling out, "I'll be darned, if ye all don' tell me, I'll go plum back this minute." Of course we tell him, twelve dollars. "Wall now ef he ain't took twelve dollar from ye, an here he don't guv me mor'n five. I'm gwine back"; and he turned his mules toward our place of starting in the morning, all the while darning every thing and everybody. At length after many persuasions on our part, and promise of more pay, he turned again, and be gan the journey. To divert his mind from his bar gain, we inquired the cause of his having but one leg. "Lost it in the war, ma'arm; an' wuz took a prizener tu, an' carried outer a gun-boat! Been all up thar, tu de norf ; seen all dat country, an' loikes it tu; been tu Chicagur, an' couldn't a' been treated better by my own brudder; had fresh bread every day, an' a good bed, an' preachin in camp o' Sun days, an' dem people used us like we had allers bin thar neighburs." In the midst of a muddy ravine just here, down went the cart, and the trunks being too heavy for it, the bottom fell out; trunks, chairs, and all began to sink, down, down, until we were fast in the mud, and for once the driver forgot to grumble. One of the wagon wheels was broken, and all the one leg ged driver could do was to hold fast to the mules Soon one of the teachers said to the other, "I feel sure help is coming! Don't you believe it?" "I believe you say so," s:iid the other teacher. She had hardly uttered the words, when a stout col- 14 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. ored man made his appearance, but was going past us without stopping. "Help us now yer," said the driver; and the Boston teacher began pulling bright covered books out of her traveling bag, saying, "You shall have a book if you help us out with the trunks." All of us lifting together, we, with some difficulty, placed the trunks on the ground. Was it a special providence that at that moment sent a man with a stout pair of mules and a big wagon towards us, just as our one-legged driver with his broken cart was driving off to leave us in the pine woods alone, and night coming on? This time we rode in what at the West is called a prairie-schooner. The driver was a poor white, who earned his living by "doin' haulin'," as he called it. He could only tote us a few miles he said, but knew of a Mr. Maybee, a man who kept entertain ment for man and beast, and after much grumbling about having to go plum out of the way he meant to go, and after promise of large pay, he took us three miles farther on our journey, we talking of the country, of the war, of the crops, and of the great question, "What must I do to be saved?" "Did you never think you owed any service to God ?" said one of the teachers to him, by way of beginning the con versation. "Wall, no ma'arm. Neow ef I ever'd tho't I owed God anything I'd be darned, I'd pay it," was the reply. The depth of this man's ignorance was dreadful ! No Bible, no idea of his Maker, not much more than one of his mules. There are many thousands of these JOURNEYING. 15 poor whites, at the South. In a white school of our acquaintance, one of them undertook to send a child to the school, but the child never had any notice ta ken of it by the teacher, who was employed to teach upper-ten whites. The white people of the country never associate with poor whites any more than with colored people. Snailing along in the rain, we arrive at Mr. Maybee's, but his wife is sick, his house is being re built, and he can't keep us, but refers us to the Arm strong sisters, a mile away, where we -can surely find a place for the night; and he helps us persuade the driver to take us there. The ladies are relatives of the planter who has sent for us to teach his ex-slaves. They have heard of the proposed school, and proceed to ventilate their opinions of it and us, freely. "You are ladies, and before I'd teach a nigger school, I'd beg my bread from door to door. No you can't come into our house, and Mr. Maybee is a black-hearted wretch to send you here! Nigger teachers, indeed! As though we would disgrace ourselves having them in our house!" These ladies were not uneducated, or low, but were of the highest class in the South. We respect ed their prejudices, but were amazed at their hatred. After some more conversation, leveled at us from the windows, out of which they stuck their heads to talk, they consented to let the driver set our trunks inside their yard, and informed us Colonel Jedson lived a mile farther on, and he would doubtless keep us all night. Once more we started, this time on foot, to l6 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. complete our day's journey, in the rain, and very near night-fall. Soon we were joined by a young colored woman who lived on the Jedson plantation, and we felt in good company, and "happy on the way." At the colonel's gate the colored woman gave a loud call, as is the custom South, as some one must ward off the dogs, before it is safe to enter any yard. Very soon the gentleman of the house makes his appearance, coming out to the gate to meet us; and it seems, after our weary day, we are to see what southern hospitality is. "Walk in ladies and deposit your bundles," says the ex-rebel colonel, "and I will see that you are cared for." We are shown into the best room of the house, the first plastered wall we have seen in the state, as many of the houses are ceiled in the style of a hun dred years ago. Exit Colonel Jedson, and a colored girl comes in, bearing two glasses of water on a server. We had heard of this beautiful custom at the South, of receiving strangers, and we drink and begin to rest. The colonel's little son and two serv ants, bring each a log of wood for the fire, on their shoulders, lay them down in the fire-place, and march out with a military step, all in line. Next comes a colored woman, bringing fire, and "fat-pine" kindlings, and soon the colonel comes in to see that fire started. In half an hour, the lady, Mrs. Jedson, comes in with a long gossamer veil floating from the back of her head, reaching nearly to her knees, and spends half an hour entertaining us. After her JOURNEYING. i>J exit, comes the grown daughter of the family to sit with her embroidery, and, by small talk, make it pleasant for the strangers. The fragrant fat pine from the fire, the blaze of which flickers out upon the whitewashed wall, the restful-looking great couch in the corner, the white sanded floor, and easy splint-bottomed chairs, and the whole fam ily vying with each other to entertain us, we begin to think after all, the South is a part of our grand country, and we are near of kin to these Christian people. A few weeks afterwards, we met the daughter, who treated us so handsomely at home, in church, and at the close of service, we attempt to speak to her, and inquire after her father's family, and she in stantly and abruptly turns her back upon us, ignoring our presence. Wanted. A new dictionary to ex plain southern prejudice. "It's Gog and Magog, yet ma'am, for quite a while I reckon," says a northern person, who has spent several years South. Morning, and breakfast over, the colonel would take us the remaining six mites of our journey; but this plantation, where once lived two hundred slaves, and much stock, now has only one mule and one or two cows. "Only one mule, ma'am," says the colonel, "and we are using that in the cotton-gin, every day." A walk of a mile back to the Armstrong sisters, to know what has become of our trunks, and see if we can find another mule. Half way on our walk stands a mule with a saddle on it, tied to a gate. We accost l8 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FUEEDMEN. the stranger who owns it, tell him our situation, and ask if the mule can be hired for the drive. He is a neighbor of the colonel's, and consents to ride up to his house, and soon we are off for the place of our year's work. The colonel has a Yankee market- wagon. He drives for us, and Mrs. Jedson accom panies us part of the way, to visit her brother who is very ill. Arriving at the plantation, we find a store, a shop or two, a white school, and an immense build ing, used in slave times for a white boys' school. We are to have living rooms in the upper story of the large building, and school rooms in the lower. A col ored woman is employed as cook for us; and at our first Sunday-school, the next morning, over a hun dred black people, men and women, join in singing so grandly, that it brings tears to our eyes to hear the wonderful pathos of their music. The white planter believes the school will please the blacks, and be a means of helping him keep the better class of them to do his work. At the first Sunday-school, he brings his newspaper, and sits in the chapel near us to hear our instruction. They tell us he is a class- leader, and we ask him to open the school with prayer. He peers at us over his spectacles and says, "That's your business, ma'am," and we two teachers go on with the school, giving oral instruction, as not ten of the hundred before us can read. In the afternoon we go to the first colored meet ing we have ever attended. Five ministers are in the pulpit. The church building is far inferior to the barns at home. A young preacher, very black, JOURNEYING. 19 reads from Revelation vi., of "an angel with a pair of banisters in his hand." The ignorant sermon is done, and the praying! oh! that is enough to pay us for our journey of eight hundred miles, mule rides, poor whites, and all. We are lifted on those prayers heavenward, and the songs reach to the depths of our souls. As the benediction is pronounced, the only white man in the large audience, wearing lem on-colored kid gloves, rises and says he has heard of a school to be opened for the people, that he has thought of teaching a school himself, and will begin in the morning. The young preacher of the day, says, "We has got our teachers here, from de norf, with much trouble, an' de good book says, ef we put our hand to de plow, an' look back, we aint fit fur de king dom. An' we is goin' tu stick tu our teachers." But the war against us has begun, and we are threatened with many things. "The building will be burnt I fear," says the planter. "You all can come to my house for awhile." In the upper story of the plantation house, we are guarded by freedmen, not daring to begin our school. Here we pass the Christmas holidays, cared for by the planter's family, and guarded at night by colored people, who built great bonfires, and we hear them in their night watches, talking, and some times singing. They are paying dear for their first attempt at starting a school. On Christmas morning before breakfast, a colored woman, bearing two glasses of egg-nog, comes up stairs, saying, "Mrs. S. sends her compliments, and wishes you a merry 20 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FKEEDMEN. Christmas." We thank her and say, "Tell the lady we never drink anything of the kind." The astonished girl goes down, and again re turns, saying, "The missus wants to know if you will take some wine." We tell her we never drank a glass in our lives, and ask her to excuse us, saying, "Our church at home has the temperance pledge, as a part of the creed." We pass the day writing, and towards evening, go down to chat a little with the family. The planter rises and begins telling us we needn't fear, as he has his gun loaded, and dogs ready, and if there is any fuss, he can soon stop it. We notice his gun standing in the corner of the room, and soon he be gins to stagger towards it, so drunk he nearly falls down. Alas! this is our protection! We hope it is better with the freed men, but find many of them too, have been drinking. The planter has a wine cellar, and to cheer them up in their trouble, has taken one or two favorite ex-slaves into it, and dealt out liquors to them, and they have given to others, until many on the place are drunk. We retire to our room, realizing that our "weap ons are not carnal." Before the holidays are over, we see children drunk, for the first time in our lives. In a week we begin school, and immediately start a temperance society. Before the five months of school are closed, there are over a hundred members to our Band of Hope, and over thirty are hopefully converted. "Peter was of doubting mind, About the work he came to do. JOURNEYING. 21 Simon Peter, go your way, And never mind what the world'll say. Hold out, your troubles will be over. Hold out, your troubles will be over. Hold out, your troubles will be over. Hope I'll jine the band." CHAP TE R II. KU-KLUX AND PRAYER. A large brick house with a lovely garden in the rear, walks bordered with box, fig trees with green and ripe figs on them, tall pines down the walk, lovely roses, and climbing vines one of the homes of aristocracy in slave times. The planter who lived here owned several hundred slaves. Now a family from the North reside here, and we two "nigger teachers" board with them. The family have been visiting twenty miles away for a day or two, and we teachers are keeping house for them, with a colored family of six persons living in the kitchens, three rods in the rear of the house, and doing all the work for us. We are in charge of two colored schools a mile away. We have heard of the Ku-Klux being on their night raids of late,, and this morning as the clock struck two, we heard a low whistle outside the gate, and Miss C and the writer woke the same moment, each saying to the other, "Did you hear 22 KU-KLUX AND PRAYER. 23 that?" We struck a light, pulled down the shades of the windows, and hastily dressed, but not before we heard the tramp of heavy feet on the porch out side. Our room opened into another room kept for storage purposes, where was a large box of shelled corn. 'Twas the work of a moment for us to slip a package containing a large sum of money, that had been left by an officer under government, in care of the lady of the house, into the box of corn, and drag our Saratoga trunks against the door. The money was left in our care in the absence of the family, and for a moment we supposed the night riders had found it out; but afterwards learned they knew nothing of it, but were trying to impress upon the teachers, and northern family, the fact that "this is a white man's government." Tramp, tramp went the feet, first on the north porch, then on the south, and ever and anon a whistle, and we expected them to enter, but God heard our prayers for safety. We sat, one on each side of our little table, with our lamp lighted, and our Bibles in our hands, and read aloud the promises of our God, so mighty to save. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from hence forth even forever." Psa. cxxv. 2. "If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Matt, xviii. 19. We said, "Lord, we do agree, and we ask that the intruders may not enter this room." 24 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FRKEDMEN. Together we repeated the same prayer, over and over, and soon one of us said, "I have the assurance that they will not enter." Tramp, tramp went the feet on the porch, and we heard them try the locks of the doors, and whistle to each other, and thus for over two hours we watched and waited, and only until the morning began to dawn, did they go to their carriages and ride away. In the morning we saw the tracks of horses, and of many people. The next night a guard from the town, a mile away, came and staid on the plantation. We afterwards heard there were two wagon loads of Ku-Klux, but they dared not enter to molest us, as they feared we were armed, and so we were, and guarded, too, for "the angel of the Lord encamp- eth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." We had only proved God's faithfulness. CHAPTER III. DOGS. "This way, ma'am, if you please. You'll need to get acquainted with the dogs, or it won't be safe for ye to stay on the place." At this juncture the old planter went througn with the ceremony of introducing the dogs to us, as he called it. A number of savage-looking hounds were told to put their noses on our dresses, which they did; then told they must guard us, but mustn't hurt us; and we were told to throw them some crumbs of food, and after a pat or two from the planter, they seemed to consider us as belonging to the place. "There's nine of 'em on the plantation, and it takes more to feed 'em than to bread my family," said he. "When you come into the yard, throw 'em a few crumbs, and they'll guard ye!" The nine dogs were only a small portion of the dog family we saw, for every family seemed to pride 2 5 26 DOGS. 27 themselves more on the number of dogs they owned, than on the appearance of the plantation. One of the teachers gave names to the dogs that called daily to get the crumbs from the school yard, and some times she told us that the lame dog had made its ap pearance, or the very large dog, or the long-tailed dog, or the spotted hound had come; or the sneaking dog or the fox-tailed dog had left, and the yellow dog and the leanest dog were just coming. Having occasion to visit a dressmaker once, we were beset by a monstrous bull-dog, and as we thought, but just escaped being devoured, when the mistress made her appearance and ordered the dog to "git," and he went under the house with a bound, and remained there until called out to be introduced to us. "That dog," said .the seamstress, "went through the war with me, and when General Grierson and his staff rode up to the door, I said, 'Gentlemen, if you want a decent meal of victuals in my house, you can have it; but if you've come to ransack as some of the soldiers do, you can't do it, for my dog'll tear at least one of ye in pieces the minute I say the word. t The soldiers talked together a little, then rode away. They didn't know I had nigh onto ten thousand dol lars worth of silver plate hid in my chamber, that my neighbors had trusted me with, or more'n three thousand dollars in confederate money on my person. My neighbors knew my grit, an' they knew that dog'd protect me, an' they felt safer'n though they kept their silver themselves. But I don't want no more war. 28 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. "My father and mother was from Germany, and I never had no stuck-up notions about work, so I worked with my needle, and six months before the war broke out, I bought Jane for twelve hundred dollars in gold, I had earned at the end o' the needle, but now she's free, an' I aint a carin' for that, but thar's my hard work gone. I don't take no stock in slavery now. Jane's the only one I ever owned, and since the surrender, I've been to New York every year to get goods, an' I see the difference 'tween free labor an' slave labor. An' I tell you, slavery's what's been the curse of this country, and we didn't get to know it, 'til we'd been beat nearly as fine as powder. "I maae a rebel flag once, that cost a hundred dollars, all of silk, and the Yanks fought and took it, and I aint carin' fur that. I see now the leaders in that war was all wrong. They thought we could split off from the north. I tell you, they might as well think of doing without one eye; an' I think it's like provoking Providence to go on hating the North, when nearly everything we wear on our backs, comes from there. "An' jest let me tell you, when I went into a Yankee kitchen, an' see the things they used there, it was like a new world to me. I didn't know the names of half the traps they had to cook with; two story kettles to cook things by steam, and ranges to burn hard coal in, and here we mostty have our fire places, and a few pot hooks and cranes, such as their great-grandmothers used a hundred years ago. I tell ye slavery's dun it ! An' that aint ajl it's dun, DOGS. 29 neither. "Here's our young men, all they're brought up to's to pitch quoits, an' hunt foxes, an' ride around fur the nigs tu wait on, an' they haint been fetched up tu think they ought tu work; and the gals aint a bit better afraid tu wash and iron fur fear o' low- erin' their dignity. I tell ye, when God put Adam and Eve in the garden, an' told 'em to dress it, they had tu work for a livid ', and didn't have nobody to order around neither; and the good book says, 'if any would not work, neither should he eat,' and the sooner we git at it the better. "Here's swarms of our girls, good, and kind, and all o' that, but they scarcely know how to git into their close, without some Chloe, or Aunt Lu- cinda to help 'em; an' there up North the women are book-keepers, and telegraphers, and saleswomen, and teachers. Why it jest beats all my 'rithmetic, to see how they get around, and they drive horses for themselves too. Think o' that! I bet nobody south o' Mason an' Dixon's line'd think o' ridin' if they couldn't have a coachman. That's what's the mat ter. "I was born in Georgia, an' I aint ashamed o' my state nuther; but I tell you, afore I went North an' seen 'em work, I didn't know much more about it 'an a last year's crow's nest; an' wen I went onto them western farms, an' see 'em histin' nigh onto a ton o' hay into a great barn that looked like one o' our meetin 1 houses, and two men a duin' with the new-fangled machinery, more'n ten niggers would du here, I sez that's ivorkiri '. An 1 books an 1 3 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. larnin' helps 'em tu; book larnin 1 don't make men set up above theyselves by no means; it jes larns 'em how tu du things. "Well, thinks I, wen I get back, I'll give all a piece o 1 my mind about work. Jes tu see how contented like them hired men was; an' wen they come into the house, the minute they sot down tu rest, they had a book or a paper, an' wen we sot down tu the table every one on 'em sot down an 1 eat with the family. An' tu hear 'em talk so kind o' learned like, I jest declar' tu you now, I tho't some on 'em wuz preachers, they had so much larnin'. An' there they wuz a teachin school in winter, an' a workin' on farms in summer, 'n no one tho't any the less on 'em. An' now / say let them northerners come on yer, an' let 'em live among us, the more the better; 'n ef they can't find no other place to roost, they may mash my bread an* meat all winter" The dog had stealthily made his appearance again, and was behind his mistress' chair, his hair rising like a porcupine airing his quills, and evident ly going for the school ma'am. "Thar! take that," said the mistress, giving him a slap with her press board, as she drew it from the sleeve of a dress she was pressing, "an' now come yer, an' be introduced to the lady." The dog that had whined away with his tail drooping, turned instantly and obeyed his mistress, putting his nose on our clothing when told to, and wagging his tail, showing signs of pleasure, and said his mistress, "Ye must guard 'em, an' mustn't bite 'em. D'ye hear? An' now git? at which he DOGS. 3 1 went under the house with a bound, and we were told to 'tote a biscuit' for him, when we came into the yard. By this time, Jane, the former slave, and a fine looking woman she was too, had risen to go. "There, take that," said the former mistress, giving her a piece of money. "Thankee, ma'am," said Jane. "Good evenin', miss. Good evenin', ma'am. I's mightily obleeged tu ye." "That gal," continued the woman, "is a better Christian 'an I am. Ef I get sick, 'long comes Jane tu see me. I never struck her a lick in my life, though she wuz mighty peart sometimes. No worse 'n I'd be, ef I'd been sold an' bo't an' toted round, her ole man in one place an' she in another. "Laws! let the by-gones go; but I never did see no religion in goin' back on the Lord 'cause he made more'n half the people some other color'n white! 'Taint half o' this world that's white, now is it? 'Pears like it's ahead o' my 'rithmetic. There's the Chinese, they aint white, an' there's heaps o' others, they tell me, sides the Injuns,jthat's red, or yaller, or sunthin'; an' I jes don't see no use o' fallin' out with God, cause he didn't ax us what color he should make people. "Actions is what duz the bizziness; all else aint wo'th a stuffed 'possum skin. 'Taint all our people, you min', as is quarrelin' cause folks aint so white as they is; but there is a set of 'em, women an' gals, an' men tu, 'taint no wise 'spectin' tu du much but loll round in good close, an' read Scott's novels an' sich. 3 2 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. An' I'm sick o' the hull bizziness." With a "good evening," we left the industrious southern woman pounding her flat-iron on her press- board, vigorously, her niece running her Boston sew ing machine with a will, and her monstrous cat asleeep near her, in a basket of cotton seed. POOR WHITE, CHEWING A DIP-STICK. 33 CHAPTER IV. DIP-STICKS. "How d'ye, ma'am," says a bright little girl of eight, with a woolly head, and coal-black skin, and a stick three inches long protruding from her mouth. "I cum by de gum tree dis mornin', to bring you some dip-sticks tooth brushes," says the little Af rican, handing me a bundle of small sticks. "What did you say they were, and what are you doing with the one in your mouth, child?" "Dis yer one, ma'am? Jes chewin' some snuff, dey giv me up to de big house. Miss Sallie an' all de white 'uns dips, an' Massar Jim dun giv me a dime tu buy snuff wid, an' I dun bought a heap fur Chloe an' me; hev shore! Don' dey dip up at de Norf, ma'am?" said the little snuff chewer, aston ished at the marks of disgust, which by this time amounted to loathing, in the countenance of her northern friend. A teacher sitting near by, said, "The child is 34 DIP-STICKS. 35 correct. Miss Sallie and the white ones do chew snujf 'on the end of such sticks, and so do most of the white southern ladies. I never saw more than two or three who would speak against it. Yesterday 1 saw Miss Armstrong, who wore an elegant silk dress, made in the height of style, with just such a stick in her mouth, and saw her take out her stick, and snuff box, and dip the stick into the snuff, and chew, and dip again; and I saw Miss Sallie taking an afternoon nap, with her dip-stick in her mouth." One end of the stick is chewed until it resem bles a small brush, then dipped into the snuff, and chewed and dipped with evident satisfaction; and in parlor and in kitchen, in street and in church, I have seen the practice prevail. In fact, like the bow-wow meat of China, it's the custom of the country. The old geographies used to say the productions of North Carolina were tar, pitch, turpentine, and lum ber, but if asked what are the productions of the country now, we should say tobacco and whisky, in this part of the country. Axiss Armstrong, a member of a Christian church, and a lady high in society, invited us, when we called there, to take a whisky toddy to keep the chills off; and when for the twentieth time we re fused, and told her the church at home would turn her members out for drinking toddies, and rather than drink toddies we would shake until all our teeth flew out. She was amazed at such radical teetotalism, and still clinging to her ideas of good breeding, says: "Well, you know where the jug is; it's there by 36 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. the side of the molasses jug; help yourself." Oh! how we wished for some Samson to carry off these barriers of worse than heathenish customs, and deluge this land with temperance; and we make bold to say: "Madam, you are on the crater of a volcano that threatens to engulf you and all your dear ones, with these fumes of toddies. The dip-sticks and all are conjured up from the bottomless pit to ruin you, and" "Who pays you for lecturing," says my south ern lady friend. "Have a dip-stick?" CHAPTER V . "OLE MISS." "If you 'uns'll get a driver, you can have my carriage and a pair o' mules, to go and visit ole Miss Sumpert. She's sent word to me, to have you all come and see her. She takes mightily to the north ern people. You'll see the trees with the union soldiers' names cut on 'em, as you go through the pines. 'Twas Grierson's raid, ma'am, that wen through these parts, and hefore I'd see another war they might take niggers an' white trash, cotton mules, an' all, ma'am. Them's my sentiments about war! The Yanks wa'nt a bit worse than our men It was all war. If they wanted victuals, they had to have 'em, whether we had anything left or not; and war in a country, means starvation generally, I reckon. "You all don't need to talk to mc^ about free la bor bein' the best, though. You ought to been down to the cotton-gin to-day, an' seen 'em work. Dennis, 37 38 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. and Saul, and Arthur and a few more of 'em, turned off more work to-day, of paid labor, than a whole gang of 'em did, at the end o' the lash a few years ago." 'Twas the old planter talking, with his broad- brimmed hat, and homespun clothes on. He had been overseeing the work of paid laborers, who, in stead of a peck of corn meal a week, and two suits of clothes a year, as in slave times, expected to have their pay at the end of the week ; and although not working much himself, was around among his men, and really pleased, to think paid help was better than slave labor. "Fool! as I have been, and all the rest of us, down here! We've been feeding a gang of slaves, an' had 'em to take care of, and doctor when they's sick, and no end to the expense o' runnin' 'em, and here paid labor is more profitable than all of it. They work better, and I feel better about it, that's a fact; an' I'd lie if I didn't say so. "But here comes Parson. He'll drive over to the old lady's. It's nine miles as the crow flies. May be you'll find some o' the streams a little rough to cross; but you all'll have a good time, an' ye can take one o' the hounds along to protect ye. That's our custom. A dog's a useful animal down yer." A corduroy road nearly half the way, built of round logs, lying so close as to touch each other, built by the soldiers in war time. We went bump ing over it, our mules, and black driver, a young Methodist Episcopal preacher, all in style, though we declined taking the dog. Oh, the road! When U OL,E MISS. 39 we left the corduroy, we found ourselves so deep in mud, we wished we were bumping on it again; and when we were on it, we thought the mud prefer able. Soon we saw the names of soldiers, hundreds of them, cut in the bark of trees, five years ago: Company I. New York Volunteers, E. S., Company E. Illinois Cavalry. Some of them had been de faced, but most of them were cut high up on the trees, and would doubtless stand many years to come. "Dem's de people as fought for we 'uns," was the interpretation of the black driver. "Dem's Mas- ser Lincum's men." Arriving at the old lady's, as most of her neigh bors called her, we found a widow, of about seventy years, living alone, with only her former slaves around her. She too, had found paid labor the best*, and so kind was she to her help, that none of them could be hired to leave her. They were so attentive to her, that her wish was their law. Some of them were paid, and still lived in their cabins, as in slave times; others worked a part of her land on shares; all seeming to value "Ole Miss," and defer to her wishes, as to a mother. Her large plantation house, with its white washed walls, and wide fire-place, filled with fra grant pine boughs, was not furnished in great style; but the old-fashioned splint bottomed chairs were comfortable, and we rested. At table we had the usual dish to please northerners, viz. fried chicken, with its accompaniment of sweet potatoes and corn bread; behind our chairs, as is the invariable custom 40 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. South, a waiter standing, ready to pass our glasses of milk, or help us to anything on the table. "I tell my people," said our hostess, "now they're free, and they can go if they want to, and work for themselves; but every one of them 'stick by,' and it 'pears like they can't spare me, and /can't spare them" Ah! here was the secret of holding them by love. "Ole Miss" was to every one of them as a mother, and the outcropping of this too scarce arti cle, in this world, didn't stop with me and mine. After we had dined, and were sitting on the veranda, she continued: "There is the smoke-house I hid a sick Yankee soldier in, for six months, until he got well enough to go up North after the surrender, and I took care o' the southern soldiers, too." Noble woman! The prince of peace had found too deep a lodging place in that soul, to be affected by war; and wherever she saw a fellow creature/she saw some one to bless and benefit. "Every wise woman buildeth her house," said one of the teachers on our homeward ride. "Yes; but do you think these former slave-holders would succeed as well in governing by love as she? They might try it; perhaps it wouldn't fill their coffers so fast, but the woman has the 'true riches,' with her soul full of love to every-body. She's rich anyway." "Dat's jes so," chimed in the young colored preacher . CHAPTER VI. AUNT PEGGY. "How d'ye, ma'am! I cum tree mile dis morn- in', tu tell ye de Lawd stood by me last night, an' he tell me you all is safe! He aint gwine tu let ye get 'sturbed by de white 'uns, honey. You jes go on teechin' de skule, an' de good Massa tote you in his bosom. "I got shoutin' happy last night, an'my ole man says, 'Peggy, what ails ye?' I says, ( Ole man, wake up! de Lawd is yer! He done jes filled me, an' he aint gwine tu let dat are skule be broke up.' Hon ey, de Lawd jes showed me how he shet de lions' mouths, an' he got ye all in de holler ob his hand; dey can't touch a hair o' you heads. Hallelujah! Massar Jesus got sumthin' tu du wid dis skule. You jes go on teechin', honey. De Lawd dun sent de angels, tu stan' by ye. He cover ye wid his feathers." A prayer-meeting fifty black people some 4 1 COPY OF A KU-KLUX LETTER. Scipio. Miss W We send you a picture of the way we treated a Yankee school ma'am in this county last year. Beware lest you shear the same fate. Regnlaters. 42 AUNT PEGGY. 43 gray-headed, who were stolen from Africa when they were infants; some whose mothers had been sold and run off to the sugar plantations, before they were a year old. Ah! how such had learned to pray Now the school had been threatened by Ku Klux. A letter had been written to a teacher, with the pict ure of a white girl tied to a tree, and a man standing on each side, with an overseer's whip, laying strokes on her back. "On the side of their oppressors there was power." Under the picture was written, "This is the way we serve northern ''nigger teach ers? Beware! lest you shere the same fate." This is not a fancy picture, reader, but an actual fact. Old Aunt Emeline begins the prayer-meeting by singing in the old slavery wail, trotting her foot to keep time, and all join in singing, swaying their bodies from side to side, as if overwhelmed with grief. "'Rastlin' Jacob! an' I will not let thee go! 'Rastlin' Jacob! an' I will not let thee go!" Still wailing out the song, they fall upon their knees, and with sobs and prayers, tell Jesus about "dem people who's tryin' tu brake up de skule." "Masser Jesus, put dy hand ober our teachers. Jesus, aint you de same God as took Jonah out ob de belly ob de whale? Shine in our hearts, Masser Jesus, and help us tu lub our enemies. Ain't you de same God as 'livered Dan'l from de den ob lions? 'Liver us, good Lawd, an' tote us in yo' bosom, an' hedge us 'bout, an' plant us out anew fur de king- dum. Masser Jesus, set down de right foot ob dy power hea? ! an' keep dis skule in de holler ob you' 44 SEVEN YEAKS AMONG THE FKEEDMEN. hand. Cum dis way, Masser, an' bind us all in de bundle ob life." A brickbat or two thrown into the school-yard just here, but the singing and praying go on. A young preacher who began to lead the meeting, falls over, and lies like a dead man until long past mid night. Two or three others fall under the power of God, and loud shouts of glory rend the night air. The aged gray-haired preacher calls on the teacher to read from the good book, and a little hush is made while she reads: "For the oppression of the poor, for the sigh ing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." Ps. xii. 5. "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?" Ps. xxxv. 10. "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trou ble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."- Na- hum i. 7. "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble." Malachi iv. I. "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, * * * pray for them which despitefully use and persecute you." "Dat's it," says old Uncle Harvey. "Read dat again. Dat's what Ps a doin'. I done tote young masser in my bosom now dese forty years, an' he mighty peart tu me; but I lubs him, an' I's tellin' Jesus 'bout hiiti. I aint gwine tu guv up, till I hear him callin' on Jesus tu save his soul. Ps wantin him tu turn tu de stronghold, 'fore de day ob tribu- AUNT PEGGY. 45 latiou cum. Lawd, turn de sinner man, an' give him a hang-down head, an' a heavy heart, 'til he find Jesus. Let de waters ob salvation tru his soul, an wash away all de devil's lies; drive ole Satan out oh dis country, an' chain him down in de pit of 'struc- tion where he 'longs, an' save de poo' sinner man for Jesus' sake." Soon the fallen ones begin to wake up, shouting "glory!" and all shake hands vigorously. Surely, the dove of peace sits on the dusky faces of these who have taken the kingdom of heaven by violence. Aunt Peggy was right, and the school went on until the end of the year, and closed with an exhi bition, at which some of the ex-slaveholders sat, listening to scholars who had learned to read well in one short year. Here we taught a young woman, who walked twenty-five miles to find a school, and learned the alphabet perfectly in three days. Here were taught young colored preachers, who had been preaching some time, but couldn't read a word, and their conferences had now voted they should learn to read. CHAPTER VII. HOMEWARD BOUND. Our first year of school is over. We have taught over two hundred colored people, only two lady teachers, of all ages, sizes, and colors, from jet- black to pure white-looking, and many of the class called by the jet-black ones "yaller ones." We have lived in an old school building, used for a white school in slave times, now a harbor for rats by day, and dogs by night. We have cooked much of our food, because we couldn't eat food cooked the way our cook prepared it. We have either cooked by a fire-place, such as was used a hundred years ago in the northern states, or done worse, paid an enormous rent for an old shell of a smoky stove, almost always using green pine wood. No one seems to think it worth while to keep wood seasoned and cut, ready for use; and we have never seen a wood-house in the South. Now the school is done, and the people have come to say good-by's. We are to start at HOMEWAKD BOUND 47 four o'clock in the morning, for another twenty-five mile ride, this time in a large carriage the planter has never had out of his carriage-house since the surrender. A closed carriage, with a seat on the top for a driver. "Dennis'll drive for ye, ma'am," says the plant er. "I'll trust him with the team before I would myself. Be ready at four o'clock in the morning; reckon you all will want your time to drive, before the heat o' the day comes on." Next in order is a prayer-meeting, to pray for our safe journey home. They pray for everything we shall ever need, if we live a thousand years. They remind Masser Jesus of all his promises. "Lawd, don' ye say you'll stan' by dem as trusts in ye? Cum right down yer now, Masser Jesus, an' take a walk troo dis country, an' see what de debbil's duin' in de kingdom." "Lawd, place blessings by de wayside fur our teachers." "Tote 'em safe down de stream o' time, Masser Jesus, an' let de ole ship o' Zion Ian' 'em high up in heaven, an' crown 'em dine." "Lawd, plant 'em out anew fur de kingdom, an' w'en dey can't do no mo', give 'em a happy hour tu die, an' seat 'em at dy right hand in de jedgment;" varying the exercises with songs, such as, "Sinner, you'd better watch an' pray, An' keep yo' garments clean, Ef you don' mind you'll fall in hell, An' judgment'll roll between." A minister gives a short exhortation, wants all KEV. It. D. HOMEWARD BOUND. 49 to keep ready to meet the teachers in heaven, reads the parable of the foolish virgins, says the virgins must have had their lamps once lighted, or they never could have gone out! Says also, that back sliders have got into the ignorant part of God's glory! All are solemn and tearful; but the good- by's can't be described. Here is a boy we once saw drunk, lying in the road, and his mother came and carried him away; now he is a member of our temperance society. Here are over a hundred, large and small, who have joined the temperance society during the year, and many give evidence that they have oassed from death unto life. "The carriage is ready, ma'am." The children are giving us great bouquets, and some give us cakes and candy, and the blacks almost push each other, for the privilege of stowing our luggage. The good-by's come between sobs and tears. Some reach up to touch our hands, after we are seated in the carriage, and one calls out, "My God, is they gone!" As we drive off, some one starts in the old slavery wail, "Zion's ship is on the ocean, Zion's ship is on the ocean, Zion's ship is on the ocean, Bound for Canaan's happy shore." Two things we have asked to be kept from dur ing the year, are snakes and dogs. We see the first snake just as we begin to see the sunrise; a large black snake, near the road. It gets away speedily. Three miles on our journey, and a halloo an- 50 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. nounces to us that we are followed by one of our young men scholars Robert, a young Methodist Episcopal preacher, has determined to go North with us to get an education. Some of the white peo ple have found it out, and all night he has been hunted by those who have threatened to kill him. He rides a mule, has lost his hat, and left all his books and most of his clothing behind. One of the teachers pays his fare, and he comes on with us. Jackson, Tennessee the end of our first day's railroad travel. No trains have passed out of this place for three days. There is a strike on the road. Many passengers and trains are waiting. The workmen claim they haven't had their pay for two years, and as our train nears the depot, a committee of three or four men loosen the engine, and run it into an engine house near by. Two or three hun dred of excited people are on the platform, and all is confusion. We go to the nearest hotel, and to another, and another, but everywhere are refused a night's lodg ing, or a meal of victuals. We go back to the train. Evening: Lamps lighted in the cars. Passengers, all but us, seem to have found some place for the night. Soon we hear the familiar title, "nigger teachers /" hissed out near us. The conductor tells us there are soldiers on board the train, who have come to guard the engines. He brings the head officer of the staff to us; we show him the commis sions of the American Missionary Association recom mending us to the protection of the government, and immediately we are under guard. Enter the post- HOMEWARD BOUND. 51 master on the train a northern gentleman. He tells us the people of this place say they have never sur rendered. Instantly he comprehends the situation. Some outside are calling out our names. Pounding on the cars, some one calls out, "Miss W- , Miss T , you'd better come out. There's goin' to be a nigger killed!" The soldiers raise the window, and threaten to shoot the next man who moves his tongue against us. The postmaster, with his arms full of velvet cush ions off the seats, followed by one or two colored helpers, proceeds to fit up the postal car, and soon orders our trunks into it, and we follow him out of doors, and around to the end of the car. The mob by this time has increased; but one soldier is behind us, another near by, and the brave postmaster is fully armed. He makes a way through the crowd, and we are locked into our quarters among the mail bags, and could sleep if we knew what had become of Robert, and if the mercury was not up to 90, and ihefaas 'would keep still. As it is, we hear the mocking-birds and whip-poor-wills sing all night, and the soldier's "who goes?" if any one passes. Our food is cooked at a cabin near by, and brought to us by a colored girl. Just at dark, the fifth day of our imprisonment, a lady comes on board the train, guarded by a soldier. She has heard of our situation, and comes to invite us to spend the night with her, out in a house, half fall en down, where she lives alone. She is a teacher of freedmen; has a pass from Governor Brownlow, to go where she pleases, and pleases to stay in this 52 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FKEEDMEN. place, because her only son, all she has left since the war, is a soldier, and quartered here. We thought we had seen poverty before, but here is abject poverty; no comforts in her room, no Bible. Her education is so poor she can hardly talk correctly. She tells us she has never studied gram mar; wants us to spend the night with her, and help her teach the school on the morrow. The woman, in her endeavors to have us enjoy our prison life, fairly outdoes herself; gives us her small couch, suit able only for one person, finds a blanket or two among the freed men, brings in a lamp and a few sticks, lights a fire, and asks us to read our Bibles and have family worship. Together we read, and draw water from the wells of salvation. God seems so near we don't either fear or feel lonely. The new-found friend rolls herself up in a blanket, lays her loaded revolver by her pillow, and lies on the floor at night, saying, "I've often done it since that war," and gives us two teachers her bed. Morning: Our food is provided by some of the f reed- men a few biscuits, coffee, and milk. We eat in singleness of heart, and are thankful. We have at least found Christian companionship, and we go into the school and teach for an hour or two; but soon a colored man comes to inform us we are being fol lowed and are unsafe, and we go back to our car and remain another day under guard. In the evening, a lady closely veiled, and guard ed by a soldier, comes on the train to see us a northern woman, bound for New York a sympa thizer with us. She proposes a walk around the fortifications. The next day, we three ladies, with a HOMEWARD BOUND. 53 soldier following not far from us, go out to view the earth- works and rifle-pits; not as much to see the lions, as to get fresh air. We are returning to our train, but on the way, stop at the hotel where the lady boards, and, for a few moments, rest in her room. The proprietor of the hotel, very soon knocks at the door, calls the lady into the hall, and tells her he will not have us in his house; and if she associates with nigger teachers, she must also leave his house. He says we ought to marry niggers, and quite a little more of that kind of talk. We are now three ladies on the train, under guard. For nine successive days and nights we have endured the tropical heat, but our courage holds out. Many have been on the train to see us, much as we have seen animals exhibited in a menagerie. Men and women have come in and passed through the cars, looking at us, as if we were there for show. To all who would accept them, we have given tracts, and most of them go away reading. Sunday morning: Everybody going to church we think. A Methodist minister makes his appear ance, bowing, and telling us who he is; points to his house, not far away, and asks us if we will go home with him and rest; or, if we would like to go to church with his family, we are at liberty to do so. He sits on the steps of the car, and talks of schools for the people, both colored and white; wants to know if we could send him teachers, and wants to know how northern schools are taught, and many other things we gladly tell him. Here, at last, is a person who has tlTe best sense of all, common sense. 54 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. He says, "The time is soon coming, madam, when the North and South must forgive each other, and we must have free schools and paid labor. The white people South need to be emancipated from wrong ideas about many things, on this school question and work. Brotherly love and good-will ought to be in all our borders, and he who won't be governed by these principles, ought to be made to submit to good laws, be they black or white. Slavery has been like the deadly upas, in all our country, madam- No man can domineer over his fellow, without it's being an injury to himself. Free schools are to help us out of this mixed question. We must have them. Ladies, I am really sorry for your discomfort so long in this close car; and if you will go to my house, you shall be entirely safe and quite welcome." We thank him, and decline his hospitality, pre ferring not to run further risks. As all things come to an end in time, on the tenth day -the strike is over. The train is about to pull out, when our colored young preacher makes his appearance. Some of the people have offered him twenty-five dollars to leave the teachers and stay with them ; but he prefers to continue his jour ney northward, and is allowed to ride in the smoking- car. Several hundred people are on the platform ; as th train is to move on, some attempt to open the door, and find it locked. The soldiers are on duty, and safely we leave the Jackson friends, to meet them, perhaps, in another world. Who shall say where? "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto CHAPTER VIII. FROM CAIRO TO NEW ORLEANS. We came by steam-boat from Cairo, Illinois, to this southern city, a distance of twelve hundred miles by steamer; not so far by railroad. The Mississippi river is so low, we heard a man say it didn't look larger than a mill-race, and the pilot's messenger, who measured the water very often, to see if it was deep enough for the boat to pass, called out, "Seven feet scant," one evening. Our boat was a large one, with three decks. The lower deck was like a floating barn, for there was a large quantity of hay in it; also, about a hundred horses and mules, and nearly fifty Germans or Swedes, apparently of the very poor class. As they could understand English, we had the pleasure of "going below," as the captain said, who seemed astonished when we asked him for the privilege. "Four hundred barrels of lime are stowed down there," said the captain, who politely helped us 55 56 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. down, remarking, he "didn't see why we wanted to git among them mules and their drivers." We told him we were hunting jewels, and as he saw our bundle of the American Tract Society am munition, he lifted his hat and said, "My mother was a Christian." After that we had the freedom of the boat, and as we went to and fro, speaking to one and another on the great question, "What must I do to be saved?" we heard him saying to the mate of the boat: "I don't know, but I think they're nigger teachers, for every nigger on board lifts his hat to 'em." Our big bundle of tracts diminished as the eager hands reached out for them, and many a "God bless you!" came from the people in the hold, who took special care not to let the mules molest us. There we saw mothers from Germany, going to their sons in New Orleans, who had come to our free country years ago, and out of their scanty earnings had paid the fare of their parents to get them to America. How scantily they were clothed, and how glad to take tracts printed in the German language. There were sisters going to the South to find brothers, who thought their lives would be easier in a free country than where a king ruled. "The work is more plenty, ma'am, and pay bet ter than in our country," said one. As we came up on deck, two southern ladies were talking to each other, and with a look of su preme scorn, one picked up the trail of her dress and shook it at us, the other spat towards us, but with FROM CAIRO TO NEW ORLEANS. 57 the joy of the Master almost bubbling into hallelu jahs, we looked up and saw the American flag waving at the forward end of the boat, and we knew we were in a free country. "Down here a lookin' after our niggers" said the woman who had shaken her trail at us, the trail was of calico, as we passed up. Soon one of us took her seat at the piano, and we heard the mate say, "If I had their edication I wouldn't mind that" \Vhen we arrived at Memphis it was Sabbath evening, and we went on shore, and to church. In the vestibule of the church was a running fountain of pure cold water. A little girl was drinking as we went in, and offered us glasses of water. We thought it a lovely way to receive strangers. After church, we went to our boat, and to our little state rooms, opening out of the beautiful cabin, at one end of which sat a number of men playing cards, with a big black bottle, and two or three glasses on the ta ble. We thought we could see " Beware!" printed on the bottle, as we heard an oath from one of the men. While we were asleep, our boat started down the river, and in the morning we saw only poplar trees, with once in a while a lonely looking cabin, with a few black children playing near it. The children on the boat thought nine days a long time to stay off the land, but soon had a half day's recreation, for the wind blew such a gale, there was danger of the waters blowing on the lower deck and slaking the lime; so the captain stopped, and a party of men, women and children, went on 5 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. shore to see a sugar plantation. Before we got to the "fields where the sugar-cane grew," we saw large trees full of pecans, the small brown nuts we buy at the groceries at home. The planter who came out to meet us told the children they could have all they were a mind to pick up, and they rilled pock ets, and some of them hatfuls. The sugar house was a long, low building, whitewashed inside and outside, containing many deep vats in which to store the juice of the sugar-cane; all very clean looking. A little colored boy and girl were there, with hands full of sugar-cane, cut in pieces as long as your fin ger, out of which they sucked the juice, and also sup plied us. Teddie declared it was as good as candy. We went into the house of the planter, after he had told his two big dogs to lie down, which they did, and a tall black woman, with a red handker chief on her head, brought us glasses of milk on a waiter. As we went back to the boat we passed near the negro quarters, a long row of whitewashed rough buildings. Many of the colored people stood outside their doors, and some made bows to us, and said, "How d'ye," the usual salutation for "How do you do?" in the South. When we got back to the boat, the polite plant er had sent a box of pecans on board, for the chil dren to crack at their leisure , and the little ones had a fine time eating their sugar-cane, and cracking pecans. "How strange it is!" said a northern man; "these southern people use such splendid manners, and are so hospitable, but here it is six years after the FROM CAIRO TO NEW ORLEANS. 59 close of that horrid war, and if you attempt to teach a colored person, they'll have nothing to do with you, and wonder what you're down here interfering with 'our niggers' for." New Orleans: In the war of 1812 General Jack son saved this city by piling cotton bales in a wall of breastworks along the harbor, which were impervi ous to British guns. Our grandfather used to tell us when a big cot ton merchant grumbled about their taking his cotton, the general handed him a gun, and told him to go and defend his cotton. We judge from the cotton bales along the shore> there is nothing doing in any other business. Each cotton merchant has a small flag flying from his own bales of cotton. All the flags are of a different color* so the appearance is as of a hundred Fourth of July's. Ships of all nations are lying in the harbor. Colored people seem to be doing most of the work; they are everywhere, trundling wheelbarrows, car rying loads of things large enough for a mule, on their heads. Here comes a tall woman, as black as night, with a monstrous basket of ironed clothes, balancing it on her head, and walking as straight as a pine tree; colored women for nurses and for wash women, for cooks and chamber-maids, for dress makers and maids of all work. This is a city of 168,000 people, we are told, and by the number of sisters of charity we see in the street, we wonder if they are all Catholics. The nice little streams of water running each side of the streets, are the work of a general in the war just 60 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE closed. Many thousands of inhabitants were glad to get government employment, and they made these sewers; so the general's works praise him, if the people don't. Orange trees are growing in the yards, laden with fruit, and blossoms are on them too. We see colored boys carrying trayfuls of brown-looking fruit on their heads, and crying, "Here's your sweet Jamaica oranges!" The health officer tells us we can't go on to Texas, as we expected, for the boats are in quaran tine, because of yellow fever. "Come home with me," says a kind-faced wom an, whose acquaintance we have formed on the boat; "my family have all had the fever, and I know how to treat it. We have seen the time," she continued, "when there were not well ones enough to take care of the sick, and once when my nephew, husband, and two children were sick, I went to the front gate to see if I could find a watcher. The only person I saw was an old colored man. 'How much will you charge to watch to night, Uncle?' 'Five dollars, ma'am.' It was the only chance I had for help. I gave the directions about the medicines, and left him with Harry. In the night I heard a tremendous noise, and ran in. Harry had thrown a boot-jack at his nurse to waken him. But the best of it was, we all got well." I forgot to mention that at Natchez there were five persons sick with yellow fever, near the landing, and seven had died the day before. At Vicksburg the streets were strewed with lime, and fifty guns FROM CAIRO TO NEW ORLEANS. 6l were fired every morning as sanitary measures. A colored woman showed us a yellow fly which always makes its appearance before the yellow fever comes. The sisters of charity have hospitals and nurses trained to treat yellow fever patients, and we are told their charges are often a hundred dollars per week, but that they often raise their patients. UNCLE HARVEY. CHAPTER IX. THANKSGIVING AMONG THE BLACKS. A large, barn-like church, whitewashed on the outside, benches of rough boards, windows without glass, and rough board shutters to admit the light; colored people of all shades of complexion, from jet- black, to flaxen-haired, rosy-cheeked little girls, with blue eyes; but all pass for colored people. The church is well filled, men sitting on one side, women on the other, all singing with enthusiasm : "I'm going down Jorden, Going down Jorden, Going down Jorden, To never return again." After the singing, a gray-haired black man, born in AfrLa more than seventy years ago, begins the sermon thus: "Friends and fellow sinners! the powers dat be, has invited us to jine in thanksgiving an' we is mighty glad to be able to respond ; for ef dere is a people which has a right to be thankful, it is we poor, low- 63 64 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. down 'uns, which aint neber had noffin' in dis world. Bein' poor down herein dese low grounds ob sorrow, don't cut me out ob a house and lot in heaben; an' my house thar is made ob all manner ob jewelry dat heaben can afford. De blessed Master, he was poor, too, though he took his hand an' throwed out de curtain ob de universe, he didn't hab whar to lay his head. Let's al) pack up an' go to glory! "Bredren, I aint much time to tarry here. I's a runnin' for de prize! When we git to dat heabenly atmosphere, we'll sing de doxology for eber. Now ? let ebery one of you all stop stealin', an' live as dis free people ought to. How hard some of you work to get land, an' property. Let me offer you a piece ob land in glory! Is it a healthy country? Yes; nobody ever dies thar. Bime-by, de great Master'll say, 'Gabriel ! blow shrill and easy, an' wake up all my people fust.' Den he'll say, 'Michael! tell my people to step out on de right hand.' Den you'll know which side you is on ; an' ef you is on de right hand side, you'll play de golden harp ob de New Je rusalem for eber. "Bredren, less be thankful for what we has, an' more 'specially for our freedom, an' live with 'specta- tions ob de glorious home; an' lets tote our burdens here a little longer, an' bime-by we'll set down wid Paul, for he went to glory in de chariot ob salva tion, de fore wheels a rollin 5 in de grace ob God, an' de hind wheels a rollin' in love. "De audience please rise an' sing, an' take de partin' hand, an' be dismissed. "Bredren, de text is 'Be thankful.' Set your THANKSGIVING AMONG THE BLACKS. 65 minds on it, an' remember dis is an inquisition into citizenship! "De audience rise an' sing an' be dismissed: " 'Roll, Jorden, roll; roll, Jorden, roll. You'd better be sittin' in de kingdom, To hear ole Jorden roll.' " CHAPTER X. AUNT FANNY. A woman field-hand used to getting up before daylight, at the sound of the overseer's horn, cook ing her breakfast of hoe-cake and bacon, the hoe- cake made of corn meal and water, baked on a hoe, taking the remnants of her breakfast into the field for dinner, and with the heavy plantation hoe, falling into line with the gang, one chained to another, leav ing the baby with twenty other babies at a cabin, for one woman to care for them, and marching off to the field to hoe cotton or corn. Now the field hand, at six dollars per month, and her board, cooks for the northern teachers. Her home is in a cabin in the rear of the school-mam's home. Northern teachers are obliged to keep house at the South mostly, as no one cares to board them. The only thing Fanny can cook well, is corn bread, but she learns to cook light bread, cookies, and gems, and her former missus at the big house gets a taste of her cookies, and wants the receipt for them, also sends for the 66, AUNT FANNY. 67 sack patterns the teachers wear, and wants to know who made our hats. We gladly send her the desired pattern, and tell Fanny to inform her old missus we made our own hats. Fanny reports, "de missus tanks ye all fur de cookies, an' w'en I tell her ye made ye own hats you'selves, she jes' cried, tu see dem '-nigger teach ers' gwine ahead o' she; an' she says people as works is jes' as good as dem dat laze. An' Miss Sallie wants tu know whar ye all get sich a heap o 7 larnin'?" We inform Miss Sallie, through Fanny, that our learning was mostly obtained at the free schools at the North; that we had nothing to pay for it. Again Fanny reports: "Ye jes' ought tu see how she took on 'bout it; dun said de free schools mout a been down yer tu, ef it hadn't a been fur de leaders in dat war! Dey all wrong, spite o' Stunwall Jackson's prayin' an' all de rest on 'em. Free schools don' hurt white nur black, an' she jes' 'gun tu see it. 'Spec's Miss Sallie's wantin' tu cum tu de school herself, am shore." Fanny learned to cook "right smart," as she termed it, but spoiled all our morning naps, for, "just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined," and long before daylight, she would be up smoking her cob pipe, and singing: "Go down Moses, Way down, to Pharioh's Ian', Tell ole Pharioh, 'Let my people go,' " or some plantation song. In vain did we try to teach her that we must have our rest in the morning, 68 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. as we taught night school, and we were unused to rising before daylight. She would be hacking kind lings under the house, which stood up five feet from the ground, on sections of timber, or pounding around at break of day. But Fanny was a diamond in the rough ; for after we had been home on a va cation, and returned, she hastened to tell us she didn't have no peace, "'til she found Masser Jesus, an' she dun took him for her king, foreber." Tally one for Jesus. Lord, polish this black gem, until she shall shine in thy diadem forever. "And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." Luke xiii. 29. RESURRECTION SONG. "I hear my Jesus say, 'Father, these are mine Coming up through great tribulation From every grave-yard.' Oh, just to behold that number! Oh, just to behold that number! From every grave-yard." "In that judgment day. I'll hear my Jesus say, 'Go down and wake my nations, From every grave-yard. ' Oh, rise, every nation! Oh, rise, every nation! From every grave-yard. "I'll see my mother there, Who used to jine in prayer, Coming up through great tribulation, From every grave-yard. Oh, just to behold that number! Oh, just to behold that number! From every grave-yard. AUNT FANNY. 69 "Put on your !ong white robe, And wear the starry crown, Walk up and down dem golden streets, From every grave-yard. Oh, just to behold that number! Oh, just to behold that number! From every grave-yard. "Put on your silver slippers, And wear the starry crown, Come slippin' an' a elidin' dem golden streets, From every grave-yard." CHAPTER XI. TWO PICTURES. "Ef you please, ma'am, de colonel done sent de carriage fur ye, an' says come over to Sister Lucy's; she's^mighty bad off; done dropped a big lamp, and burned herself most to def." Black Sam stood, hat in hand, while a pair of mules and a carriage were near by. A short ride brought us to the hut of the poor woman, who was moaning pitifully, while many colored women were standing around, and a beautiful white woman was fanning the sufferer, and intent on carrying out the doctor's orders, who had just gone. Summoning a colored girl to the next room, we asked, "Who is this white lady, and why don't she read to Lucy ?" "She's her ole missus, ma'am, lives in de big white house over yon'; but she can't read." With the sufferer groaning out prayers for mercy, and the white missus plying her fan, and giving the sympathy of her kind heart, and the room 70 TWO PICTURES. yi lined with colored women, who stood around the wall like statues, we read as requested, "Let not your heart be troubled," and wondered at the depth of ignorance that could keep so good a missus from learning to read. Day after day we called to read at the bedside, until death came to the relief of the sufferer. ********* "Please, ma'am, come in and see Miss Annie, and ask her tu let me go to your school; come right in; de dogs aint gwine tu touch ye." She held the gate open, and drove back two or three great hounds, that were barking at a deafen ing rate. On our way up the lane she explained to me, "Missus done keep me in slave times totin' milk, an' pickin' cotton, an' now de black 'uns is free, an' gwine tu de skule 'cept us 'uns, an' 'pears like we hev tu tote all de milk, an' pick de cotton, an' work jes' de same. Don' see no difference 'tween slave times an' freedom ; but honey, you jes' ax her tu let we 'uns go tu de Sunday-school, an' I reckun dere'll be right smart chance o 7 us gettin' dere 'fore long." Poor Chloe! we spoke a good word for her, and obtained half a promise from the missus, who kept her colored people, now that they worked for wages, as strictly as when in slavery, that the eager girl should go to school. But, alas! for human prom ises. We never saw her except when she was "totin' " milk to the customers of her mistress. After vacation, on our return to the school, one 72 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. said to us, "Chloe's dun gone home, an' she made 'em bury de nice Bible you gave her in de coffin wid her, an' said you should meet her in heaven. Miss Annie's mighty sorry she didn't let her go tu de skule, an' she's mighty feared she'd see Chloe's ghost, ef she didn't min' ebery word she said, an' she hadde Bible buried wid her. Afore Chloe died she sung, " 'Swing low, sweet chariot, I's goin' to leave you now.' "An' den she done went tu sleep, an' I reckon Miss Annie's mighty sorry she didn't let her go tu de Sunday-school, nohow." CHAPTER XII. LETTER WRITING. "Ef you please, ma'am, yere's Aunt Cassie's Tom wants tu git ye tu write a letter fur him tu his sweetheart; he's feared tu ax ye, an' I jes' cum tu tell ye 'bout it, so's he'll git tu hear from her; he aint had no word from her sence de surrender, an' he's feared she's gone back on him for shore." Tom, a field hand, with his slouch hat in hand, bowing, and scraping his right foot, until one would think it was a queen, instead of Yankee school ma'ams he is being introduced to, sits in the nearest chair, in a scared kind of manner, and begins: "A love letter, ma'am, an' I don't know jes' how tu git at it; but 'pears like ye can't git it any tu luvin'. You jes' write while I'm tellin' it off: u< My Dear Tabitha Jane: I aint heered nothin' frum ye in so long, I's feared ye is dead, an' I can't keep my min' so's to eat my vittals, 'cos you didn't send me no letter dis long time no ways. My dear 73 74 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. sweet sugar-plum, I luvs ye better'n a magnolia, so I duz. Ye know, honey, I luvs ye better'n corn- pones.' "An' well now, teacher, you jes' tell off de rest on't, fur I 'druther hoe cotton, or tote brush 'n tu write letters, bein' I aint nowise used tu de bizziness; but be sure an' git it as luvin' as ye can. Aint no danger o' gittin' it tu luvin 1 . "Teecher, duz ye 'specs dis chile kin rite like dat are ye's a doin'? An' what'll becum o' dese yer people, wot nebber let us 1'arn nothin'? Dey done kep' us a workin' day an' night, an' neber guv us a chance tu larn nothin'!" Here the young lover broke down, and actually cried like a baby, to think he couldn't write, and must needs get some one to write to Tabitha Jane, away in another state, and must get some one to read her letters to him. In due time the letter was finished, though we found this rather new business for teachers, and won dered if the missionary society who sent us to work for the freedmen, would approve of our writing love letters. Tom, with the promise of being taught how to read and write, went away, and we heard him going down the lane, singing: "Way down upon de Swanee riber, Far, far away, Der's where my heart am turning eber, Der's whar de ole folks stay." It is Saturday, and no end to letter writing . Here comes a real old slave mother, with marks of sorrow so inwrought on her face, that instinctively LETTER WRITING. J$ we rise and give her a chair in the corner by the fire. "Never min', ma'am," she says; "Aunt Suke aint carin' where she sets, ef she gits ye tu write dis lettah!" She brings a sheet of dirty foolscap, and a big yellow envelope. "What's the address, ma'am?" "Ellen Cummins; least dat 'was her name, w'en dey dun toted her off to Florida." "How long ago? And where shall I direct to, Auntie?" "Jes' Ellen, tu Florida, ma'am; dat's all I knows. An' she was fo' yea's ole, w'en dey dun took her from me. Twenty yea's ago, dey say it is, ma'am. An' honey, duz ye t'ink I eber heered de wind a blowin', an' de rain a fallin', w'en I didn't wonder ef my chile wuz housed, an' whar she wuz?" "Didn't you ever hear from her, Auntie? I fear my letter won't reach her, if you don't know what town and county to direct to." "Dat's what dey all say; an' I don't git no satis faction uv any o' de teachers, ivritin* tu her"\ and the sorrowful woman began rocking herself from side to side, and crying as if her heart would break. This was too much for one of the teachers, who rose from her seat at ^the writing table, and left the room. At length, after many kind words and sug gestions, the letter was written, and directed to Flor ida, with the half guessed address, and request that the postmaster should forward it ; and the auntie left* after taking a cup of tea and lunch, with perhaps a shade less of sorrow than when she came, but with 76 SKVKN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. the longing look in her eves, which for twenty years had been looking for Ellen. "Another letter?" "Yes'm, ef you please. Dis yer's tu my brud- der in ole Virginny. I's got de direction, shoo, an' he aint heered from me sen' de surrender. Recken he'll stan' a chance tu see me sum time, ef de good Lawd spares my life. You please begin, ma'am " 'Dear Jack: I is well, an' duin' well, an' hope dese few lines fin's you enjoy in' de same gre't blessin'. I's mighty well pleased wid freedom, an' I find it means freedom tu work a heap tu, an' I aint gwine back on work by no means, an' I aint turned into one o' dem triflin' no count niggers, as can't aim dere salt, an' aint wuth a coon skin. I's mighty well pleased tu git my eatin' by de 'sweat o' my face,' like de good book sez, Genesis iii. 19; an' all I ax o' ole masser's tu jes' keep he hands off o' de Lawd Almighty's property, fur dafs me; an' I's gwine tu buy a lot, an' build me a hut on it; an' den, Jack, you is wanted down yere, tu see you' ole brudder. Fur de last time he seed you, he wuz standin' on de auction block, an' Mass'r Bill was a turnin' he round, like a 'possum on de spit, so's de driber'd see me fa'r an' squar'. Neber min', Jack. I's tryin' tu let by-gones go, an' jes' look out fur number one; an' I's power ful glad I's a free man now, for shore. Come a Christmas, ef ye kin, Jack. Your free brudder, Manuel.' " For the satisfaction of the reader, we add, this letter found Jack in Old Virginia, and he traveled over eight hundred miles to spend Christmas with LETTER WRITING. 77 the brother from whom he parted at the auction block, nearly twenty years before. CHAPTER XIII. A BARBECUE. Uncle Seth's going to roast an ox whole! He's got a deep pit dug, and has just what grandmother used to say when we put in too much wood, "fire enough to roast an ox" ; and he's got red pepper, and black pepper, and vinegar, and stuff enough for a small grocery. The colonel was a northern man well educated, and a real Christian gentleman, in the revenue employ for the goverment. He lived in a fine brick mansion, where once lived a man who owned four hundred slaves. Here northern teachers found a home of comfort. Here for two years, we rode to school in a northern market wagon, with black Sam as driver of a pair of fine mules. Eman cipation day was to be celebrated, and the colonel had permitted the colored people to do the barbecue work on his plantation, which was near the city. Uncle Seth, an old colored man, had charge of the barbecue, and sat up all night to keep the fire 7 s A BARBECUE. 79 burning. He built an arcn of stones over the pit, and by means of much fire underneath the arch, made the stones very hot, laid the meat on in quarters, and cooked it,until those who were judges,pronounced it "done to a turn." Swarms of colored children were on hand to see the ox barbecued, and ever and anon, Uncle Seth would order them off to the cabins, tell- them he "hadn't no use for 'em." After we had slept several hours, we rose to look out of the window, and see the old man with his big fire, and monstrous fork, attending to his cooking. The meat was as black as ink, and had a flavor of no other we ever tasted. When the celebration came off, at the big town- hall, Uncle Seth presided at the table, where the meat was carved, with evident pride and satisfaction. Here we saw many specimens of fine cake, and other southern cookery, and altogether the patriotic songs and speeches made it seem very like a Fourth of July celebration at the North ; and what with banners waving, and people marching, etc., it was a real red- letter day to the colored race. CHAP TER XIV. UNCLE BILLY. Four years after the close of the war, a Sun day-school of a hundred and twenty colored people in the state of Mississippi. We are singing "In the Christian's home in glory," just as Uncle Billy, a venerable-looking colored man, with his hat in hand, stands bowing to us, and smiling at the scholars, who all seem to know him. "You're a little late," says one of the teachers to him, "and didn't get in to hear the verses recited." "Yes'm ; but ye see, honey, I's dat 'shamed, tu see all dese youngsters gittin' on so mighty fine in der books, I's feared tu cum tu de skule much. If ye please, ma'am, jest guv me one o' dem little pict- ur papers, ye guv to de chillen, an' I'll git my boy John tu read it tu me; an' I'll jes' larn right smart from dat 'are; will shore. Ye see, ma'am, I's mor'n fifty years old ; an' dat's mor'n half a hundred, aint it? An* it du seem as if it aint no sort o' use, fur me So UNCLE BILLY. 8l tu larn tu pick out dem letters, da all look alike tu me; but ef I du say it, I can shoe a boss, as well as de heft o' blacksmiths, but when it cums tu larnin' a book, I aint no whar. "Ef ye only knowed how we is sufferin' tu larn, reckun ye all wouldn't get homesick tu go back tu de Norf , till ye'd teached us a heap for shore. "Ole missus used tu read de good book tu us, black 'uns, on Sunday evenin's, but she mostly read dem places whar it says, "Sarvints obey your masters," an' didn't stop tu splane it like de teachers; an' now we is free, dar's heaps o' tings in dat ole book, we is jes' sufferin' tu larn. Ma'am, ye reckon larnin's gwine tu make us onsatisfied an' onruly? Tell ye dafs alia mistake, larnin' puts idees in people's heads, an' makes 'em kinder satisfied 'bout what da is doin'; an' ef dis ole sole kin in any way, jes' larn de readin' lessons enough tu spell out de name ob good Massar Jesus, den I's satisfied wid dis lower world, shore, an' nobody don hear no more grumblin' from Uncle Billy, 'til he gits home tu glory." We gave the desired paper, and after the day's toil went home with lighter hearts, as we thought of the privilege of teaching those whose thirst for a knowledge of the way of life, was so all-absorbing; and ever and anon for days, we thought of the pleas ure we should have of teaching Uncle Billy to read. But alas! the time never came; for not long after his visit to our Sunday-school, the Ku-Klux made a raid into the town, and among a number who were killed, Uncle Billy was the first one, and we left the school and the place until the reign of terror was over; 82 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. and as we came away, some one in speaking of the death of many of our pupils, whose only crime was that they were learning fast, and could vote intelli gently, *aid, **The martyrs are not all dead yet, are they?" C H AP T E R XV. LAME JOE. On Sabbath morning, we were sitting on the piazza, sorting Sunday-school papers for the school which was to begin that day, when Joe made his ap pearance from the kitchen, coming along the porch with a limping, shuffling gait; his only garments were a shirt much too large for him, and minus one sleeve, and a pair of pants so dirty one could scarcely tell the material they were made of. He was a boy of twelve, probably, and his pants were the cast-off ones of his brother, a man in size, and hung in great slouchy folds, and turned up at the bottom. "Can you read, Joe?" said the teacher, passing a paper to him. "Not yit, ma'am; but Brother Ben can read right smart, an' he's gwine tu teach me a heap o' 1'arnin', an' I reckon I's gwine tu 1'arn tu read dis yer' sum time, shore." Joe took his first lesson in learning bv means of 83 84 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. the word method, and limped off spelling the word "so," and picking out all the so's in his paper. In a few days we interviewed his mother, and broached the subject of his going to school ; but found the chances were against him, for being the youngest of ten children, there were so many to feed and clothe, she never got to Joe, and he had to "tote wood an' water for her, when she cooked at de big house." After repeated attempts at getting Joe started in his education, one of the teachers set about clothing the boy, but was soon put to her wits' end to find a pattern for boy's pants, and as tailoring was not her forte, there were obstacles to be overcome. Hap pily a plan was hit upon, and Joe pulled off his di lapidated pants and went to bed, while his new clothes were cut by the use of the old ones for a pat tern, and very soon the happy boy was a daily at tendant at school. A week or two of study passed, when the gen tleman who had provided Joe with hat and book, ac costed him with, "How do you get on, Joe?' "Mighty well, thankee; done got past the pict ure o' de ox; have, shore, done got past him.' No pupil was more constant in attendance than our protege, and with rapid strides he passed the boys of his age, learning well whatever he studied; and in four years from the time he learned his word on the piazza, we left him doing examples in higher arithmetic, before a large audience of parents and friends of education. His mother, who could never get to Joe, was de lighted. She said Joe had a stroke of paralysis when LAME JOE. 85 a baby, and he could never be a farmer, couldn't walk well enough to hoe, or plow and his education would make him independent. Many of our pupils in that school came to the Good Shepherd, and told of their joy in the Saviour; but Joe was so engrossed with study, nothing seemed to move him, and we left him a little saddened that he was, as he expressed it, "in the outstanding army." This summer while the yellow fever prevailed came a letter from Joe, saying he had found Jesus and taken him for the Captain of his salvation; and now he loved everybody, and his teachers better than ever, and amidst all the fever he wasn't afraid. Later: The last we heard of Joe he was teach ing a school at forty dollars per month, and in a fair way to be one of the prominent educators of his race. CHAPTER XVI. INCIDENTS. WRITTEN IN BLOOD. "Right this way ; take a good look at that man passing; there isn't another just like him in in these parts, ma'am," said the colonel. Just after the close of the war , he wrote a pledge for his only daughter, a girl of sixteen, pledging her never to marry a Yankee, and opened a vein on her arm, and persuaded her to sign it with her own blood. ****** "The fathers have eateu sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Eze. xviii. 2. SHOUTING AUNT CHLOE. A colored woman past seventy always at the prayer meetings always shouting happy has but one eye, because at a prayer meeting, when she was jumping and clapping her hands, she came down on a chair post, and put one eye out. No one would 86 SHOUTING AUNT CHLOE. 87 think Aunt Chloe ever missed her eye, or anything else. Clad in poor homespun goods, with an old green sun-bonnet on her head, she is always shouting, or jumping, or praising Massar Jesus. Her life is always tuned to hallelujah meter. She gives us her version of the surrender, as most of the blacks call emancipation. "Honey, whar ye s'pose I wus when Sherman's army dun cum troo dese parts? S'pose I'se skeered ? No, sir! we all heered dey's cumnin' weeks 'afo' dey dun cum, an' de overseer he kept slappin' roun' an' crackin' de lash. S'pose Is'e af eared o' he? He tell 'em, go on pickin' de cotton. I jes' picked a little, an' den I got down under the bush, an' kep' a pray- in' 'Massar Jesus, send de Lincum army down yer! Send 'em down yer, good Lawd!' An' wen dey all cum,de balance o'de white 'uns, wot hadn't took tu de swamps, dey jes' pint fer de woods; an' de black 'uns da brake fur de quarters; but Is'e on top o' a pine stub, ten feet high, an' Is'e jes' shoutin' *Glory tu God! take me wid ye! Glory to God! Glory Glory!' An' now my chillens dun growed up, an' dey aims a bite fur de ole mammy, so's I aint spectin' tu starve, an' Is'e satisfide wid f reedum ; don' have no trouble in dis world, only 'caus sinners don' turn tu Jesus. I totes mo'ners in my bosom ebery day! An' praise de good Lawd, Is'e gittin' on right smart inde Sunday-skule; am shore." Aunt Chloe went on to her cabin singing, 88 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. "We'll walk an' talk with Jesus, We'll walk an' talk with Jesus, So early in the morning. Hope I'll jine the band." PRAYED THROUGH AT LAST. John was picked up by a teacher, near a battle field, and brought to one of the first Freedmen schools in the city. From exposure, and being half starved, he had contracted pneumonia. He was cared for by the teacher till he recovered, and subsequently was employed as a chore-man for some years, at Emerson Institute, Mobile. One day he came to one of the teachers, saying he wanted to be taught a prayer; all the scholars had a prayer to say, and he wanted one. John was past mid dle life, and was never endowed with much sense, in fact was almost an idiot. The teacher began with the Lord's Prayer, teaching a sentence at a time, slowly, and explaining as the lesson progressed. "Thy king dom come," was learned, and when she gave out the sentence, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." "What 'dat mean?" said the pupil. "That you must forgive everybody, or God will not forgive you." "Stop teacher, can't do dat," said John, and went his way. After vacation our pupil made his appearance, saying, "Now, go on wid de prayer. I dun forgive him. Ole massar dun give me five hundred lashes, an' den hit me wid a crow bar, an' trow me out fur PRAYED THROUGH AT LAST. 89 dead, an' I met him on de street, an' wouldn't speak at him; but to-day I met him, an' I said 'How d' ye'! Now go on wid dat prayer." THE UNIFORM OF THE KU-KLUX. The soldiers who are guarding this town have had a squabble with a Ku-Klux-Klan, and captured some of their uniform ; went with several teachers to see the uniform this evening a sack of black, the yoke striped with white; pants of black muslin with a stripe of white down the side; the mask of white for the head, of the same material as the sack; holes for the eyes and mouth trimmed with black. The disguise for the horse was of the same material as the man's, with a large white star in the forehead. THE SLAVE PEN. It was a long, low building, a mile and a half from the city, built of heavy plank and containing no windows. Two colored families were living in it. A white-haired colored man said, he shouldn't live in it if he could get anywhere else to live. On the outside of the building hung the year's crop of tobacco, in the process of drying. Large green worms, the size of one's finger were crawling over it, which the colored man said were the tobacco worm. It was a forbidding-looking place, and with in sight of it, were three whisky saloons. "Thus saith the Lord; * * * deliver him th#* is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings." Jer. xxi. 12. 90 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. A PUPIL DRUNK. Teacher on the platform, a large class in reading standing before her, each one reading as his turn comes. Hiram, a large boy of fifteen, begins to read, hesitates, drops his book, begins to stagger, and but for the help of a school-mate, would fall before he gets to his seat. The boy's father has given him cherry brandy, and he is drunk. A COSTLY BURIAL. A log cabin with a stick chimney, sticks laid up in mud; cabin so old and open a dog might come through the broken places; a colored woman and three children living in it. The owner of the hut has given the woman notice to leave the next day, because she cannot pay the rent. Her sister's dead body lies in one corner of the room, awaiting burial. A white sheet is thrown over the corpse, and sprigs of evergreen are pinned on it. She shows us the face of her sister, looking peaceful in her last long sleep. The hands of the sleeper have costly white gloves on them, the cost of which might pay the house rent for some time, but the afflicted sister has imitated the white people, and followed the custom, of putting gloves on the dead, we have seen so often in the South. ONE ELECTION DAY. The colored voters met at their church, and went to the polls preceded by a band of music. The ONE ELECTION DAY. 9! colored women formed a line of one hundred or more, and ran up and down near the line of voters, saying, "Now, Sandy, ef you don'vote de radical ticket I won't live wid ye." "Now, Jack, ef you don' vote for Lincum's men I'll leave ye." As the blacks came near the place for voting, the democrats came out with their tickets, and bought the votes of several. One man sold his vote for a suit of clothes; one sold his for a gallon of whisky. The democrats declared they would have gained the day, if it hadn't been for the women . The noise and the unfairness in voting seemed more like an Indian pow-wow, than like intelligent American citizens making laws; and some one said, rather than have such a farce going on, it would be wiser for the government to keep a standing army, as they do on the continent. At this election the republicans gained the vic tory, and in a few days the colored school was told that General Grant was elected president. The whole school rose and sang the doxology. THE DISGUSTED CHURCH MEMBER. A large Presbyterian church South, in a town of twelve thousand inhabitants, doctor of divinity in the pulpit, gold-headed cane, black kid gloves, white neck-tie, dignity and gentlemanly bearing in the doctor's make-up. The session of the church are at the front, also two northern teachers, who have just handed in their letters to the church, given them b\ a northern Presbyterian church, recommending them 92 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. to the fellowship of any sister church South. The minister has read the letters, and the session, also in black kids, and well dressed, have given to the teachers the right hand of fellowship. The teachers are in one end of a front pew, and a white lady sits in the opposite end of the pew. There is a little flurry in the seat, as the white sister in the pew rises m great haste, gathers her skirts close in her hands for fear of touching the teachers, flings herself out into the aisle, and takes a seat alone. The doctor stops the talk he is giving them, but di rectly goes on, telling his flock he has just returned from an extensive tour among the northern cities, and that the Presbyterian friends at the North have promised him help to re-build their church, which has been somewhat defaced during the war, and reads the hymn for morning service. The choir immediately begin singing. The chorus of the hymn is, "Hallelujah to Jesus! Who purchased our pardon, We'll praise him again, When we pass over Jordan." CHAPTER XVII. METHODIST FLEAS, BAPTIST RATS. "There's a clinch on the play-ground, ma'am, an' ef you don' cum quick, dey'll tear dare eyes out," says a little colored girl in breathless haste, running to a teacher. Straightway the Michigan teacher collars a large boy of her department, and marches him into the school-room, and the Illinois teacher marches her pupils off the play-ground, and in a moment the school-bell rings, and all fall into line and are seated in the chapel. An Irishman is driving a pair of oxen in the road, near by; he stops his. team, and with his great whip in his hand, stands waiting to see the tussle. Over a hundred scholars are on the ground, many of them large ones, but they wait the teachers' orders. It is the public school, taught in a large building, with upper and lower departments. The fight has been so severe, and so many are engaged 93 94 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. in it, the whole school is called together. The five teachers are on the platform, one playing the organ, and the scholars sing with a will. When the song is done, the scholars repeat in concert after the teacher, "Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God hath made them so. Let bears and lions growl and fight, For 'tis their nature, too. "But, children, you should never let Your angry passions rise: Your little hands were never made To tear each other's eyes." After quiet is restored, the scholars are allowed to give their testimony about the fighting. One says, "Ye see, ma'am, we wuz hangin' Jeff, an' we had jes' got troo de song, " 'We'll hang Jeff Davis tu de sour apple tree, As we go marchin' 'long,' an' we dun had de rope on Jeff, an' had him mos 5 hung, an' dat yaller gal cum 'long an' guv him a h'ist, an' den de wah was in, an' I couldn't stan' bein' called a rat." Explanation: There were two churches, both containing many members, and sectarianism was so rampant, the common terms they called each other, were "Methodist fleas, Baptist rats"; this among the parents, and what wonder the children were tinct ured with a sectarian spirit. We shamed them thoroughly ; and after there had been quite a revival among the people, old Uncle Manuel one day said, "I see you teachers, five or six of ye, b'longs tu METHODIST FLEAS. BAPTIST RATS. 95 different 'nominations, an' I don' see ye fall out 'bout it either, an' sum on ye I don' jes' know what church ye duz belong tu, an' I's 1'arned a lesson. I reckon it'll all be de same church in heaven." After that, we heard no more of "Methodist fleas, and Baptist rats." CHAPTER XVIII. DECORATION DAY IN MOBILE. Thousands of people throng the cemetery. The graves of the union soldiers are just in sight of those of the southern army. The long rows of dead are buried, and each grave is marked with a whiteboard, in imitation of a marble slab. The names are in black letters. Most of them have name, company, and regiment. Some are marked unknown. Near the center of the union cemetery, is a large mound, surmounted by a flag-staff. Near by the mound is a small house, for the keeper of the grounds, whose business it is to show visitors through the grounds, and to keep the American flag always on the flag staff. We allow scholars who wish to go to see the decoration. The next day, we ask a little colored girl about it, she says: "Yes; I went to tote flowers; a white lady dun guv me a heap o' flowers to put on de graves, but I dun put 'em on de Yantts graves ! DECORATION DAY IN MOBILE. 97 'Twas Decoration Day; Far on a southern plain, I walked amid the graves, Of many thousand slain. Rare trailing vines, and flowers, Decked all the Rebel dead; Songs filled the balmy air, And sorrowing tears were shed. Close by my side, a child, Of Africa's sable race, With arms brimful of flowers, And childhood's happy face. Humming a loyal song, Among the ranks of dead, Stopped near five hundred graves, "Dese Norveners," she said. I watched the dusky child, Humming the John Brown song, While hundreds strewed their flowers, Amid the silent throng. What brings her here? I mused; Her choicest flowers she saves, "Why, ma'am, I strow dese flowers, Upon dem Yankees' graves." DECORATION DAY AGAIN. Long lines of ladies, accompanied by colored servants, pass near the school-house to a cemetery a hundred yards away. Their arms are full of garlands, and baskets of flowers. The colored school is out at recess. One of the teachers puts her head out of a recitation room, and says, "The scholars are sing ing? " 'John Brown's body lies rnoldering in the grave, But his soul is marching on.' " Instantly the school-bell is rung, and the pupils, 98 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE P^REEDMEN. over a hundred of them, march relunctantly into the house, and to their seats. A lecture from the teacher, who tells them we must respect the feelings of peo ple, when they go to the graves of friends ; that this school is trying to work by the golden rule, and she hopes after this they will remember to do as they would be done by, and begins singing a temperance song, in which the school join with a will, all but a few boys of ten or twelve; they are putting some thing under their desks. They have stones picked up, they were just ready to throw at the decorating procession, and one of them growls out "Rebs" We have just escaped a small rebellion, and are thankful. FKIENDS WHO STOOD BY US. CHAPTER XIX. INCIDENTS. Of the many aged ones, who came, some of them many miles, to hear us read and explain the Scriptures, we mention one a very stout, and very old colored woman; her hair white with age. She is carried up the stairs by two of her sons, stout men. We suppose she has come for clothing, as we have many garments, sent by northern friends to give away. One woman says she rode a mule twenty- one miles, all for a pair of spectacles. But this aged one comes for a different purpose. She begins her story thus : "Honey, I's dun had a vision las' night, an' I aint a wantin' nothin', only tu hear de good book read. I's seen de ribber, an' de long golden street, an' I seed Jesus, an' he tell me it's in a book, an' I's hungry to hear it. Read quick, now, honey." "And he shewed me a pure river of water of 100 INCIDENTS. 101 life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." "Yes; dat's it! Fs seen it, an' dat's whar it tells ob it, in de good Book: I's got it in hea'," putting her hand on her breast; "go on, oh! go on." "In the midst of the streets of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." "Yes; I seed de tree dar; what dat 'mean, honey? You 'splane dat". "Some think it means the fruits of the Spirit love, joy, peace, holiness, truth, salvation; and aunty, some think it means the books, and tracts, and hymns, we all have. What do you think it means? "Oh ! I aint a saying, honey. I see'd the tree, an' de ribber, an' Jesus done turned de hull ribber down troo my ole soul, an' den I jes' shouted, till I woke 'em all up; but dey's got so used to my shoutin', dey don' pester me, I jes' shouts, mostly like de springs o' water, natiral like, an' cant help it. Go on. I'se so hungry fu* dat readin', I ain't wantin' tings tu war, or tu eat; I jes' wantin' tu hear de good Book." "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God, and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there ; and they need no can dle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever." 102 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. "Yes, that's it again. It's gwine tti be furever. Is'e gwine tu be dar! In dat kingdum, honey, dese heaps o' tings Is'e gwine tu tell Masser Jesus. An' you all is one on 'em, in de kingdum. I sees it in yo' face, honey. I sees it arter dey poo' bodies is all still an' cold, an' I kin jes' tell by de 'spressions ob de countenance, ef dey has de kingdom in dere souls; don' you all b'leve dat?" "Yes; but you can't always tell a Christian by the joy-look in his face. 'Ye must be born again,' said Jesus, 'or ye cannot see the kingdom of God.' 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' The actions are the fruits. If you steal and lie, get drunk, and commit adultery, you are not a Christian, if you do shout." "Yes, honey, I know, dat's so shore, but de well; aint it in de book? 'Bout de well in us? Read it. Is'e so hungry to hear it out o' de good Book. John iv.i/j.: "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring ing up into everlasting life." "Yes; a well! An* Ps got it! An' it's like a sheep wid a tail so long dar aint no end tu it; /y'e got it\ De ribber, an' de well, an' all! Good-by, honey! Boys, tote me down the steps. Is'e cumin in tu yo' preachin' agin, honey! Bress de good Lawd!" AMOB C., A PROMISING PUl'IL. CHAPTER XX. A FREEDMEN SCHOOL CALLING THE ROLL. George Washington ? John Adams? Abraham Lincoln? James Madison? Jefferson Davis? Daniel Webster? Samuel Lee? Benjamin Franklin? Henry Clay? Noah Hatch? James Jackson ? Margaret Mitchell? Martha Washington. Virginia Lee? Here. Present. Present. Present. Here. Here. Present. Here. Present. Here. Here. Present. Here. Here. Two hundred and fifty scholars, of all shades of complexion, and of all ages, from five to seventy- five, the roll-call goes on until representatives of the names of many of the presidents and eminent 104 A FREEDMEN SCHOOL. 105 statesmen, are found to be studying in the "nigger school" and with arms folded, and in order in their school desks, that have been sent from the North, for the school, they answer "present!" at the call of their names. A building one hundred and fifty feet long, built twenty years ago for a boy's school in Mississippi this is a high school. Yonder is a flax en-haired mulatto girl studying out of the same book with a middle-aged woman, as black as midnight; here is a gray-haired man who has been the slave 'of an ex-general, trying to master the alphabet. We accost him with the usual salutation in the South "How d'ye, Uncle? Is this your first chance at school, and how do you get on?" "Mighty well, thankee, ma'am. Yes'm;dis yer's de bery fust 'pertunity I's had fur book 1'arnin', an' I's jammed nigh onter a hundred years." There sits a father and his little five year old child, studying out of the same book. Recess and the two hundred and fifty scholars file out into the yard, each carrying his lunch, con sisting of corn bread, sweet potatoes, and a bottle of molasses, or one of buttermilk, one of the universal drinks at the South, and very good for the health in that climate. Here is the hoe-cake, made of corn meal, water, and a little salt, and baked the size of a large dinner plate in a skillet, and there is a bit of a corn loaf with rice in it. The best cooks in the land have made this bread, and baked it by fire places, as did our great-grandmothers over a hundred years ago. The bread is fit for a king, but the use of so much bacon, and so much swine's grease in nearly all the cookery, spoils it for us. 106 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE PREBDMEN. The corn meal of the South is as fine as flour, and of a much nicer quality than we have seen man ufactured at the North, and this hoe-cake, which takes its name from the haste in which the slaves used to bake it upon their hoes, is a favorite bread for breakfast on the tables of both rich and poor. The five teachers are on the platform, and scholars singing a temperance song, when visitors are announced a poor white woman and her little girl. The mother, and child of ten years, are both dressed in coarse cotton cloth, made by the poorest of the people, and colored with the bark of trees. Neither of them have any covering for head or feet. They cannot read a word, and don't know what county they live in. The woman has a bag with some mustard leaves in, she wishes to sell to the teachers for greens. Her words are so drawled out, we can only understand her by giving the closest at tention. She represents a class of many thousands at the South, ranking far below the negro in point of thrift or intelligence. Some of them eat clay, and are called clay-eaters. They appear to be descend ants of the Spanish race, and never mingle with the negro: are a class distinct, both from whites and blacks. They invariably use tobacco; men, women and children chew it, or dip. The woman accosts us thus: "M-o-r-n-i-n', m-a-r-m. Du ye bile a pot? Have a snack o' greens? Take tea fur 'em, or any notion ye hev; haint seen no tea in a dorg's age. Ye needn't pay de sponju- leps," meaning money. "Ye's got a right smart skule yere, a mighty A FRKEDMEN SCHOOL. 1C sight o' niggers! Drefftil pest, tu; orter be teeched. 'Xante no sin tu teech 'em tu reed, but dey's niggers, an' ye must keep 'em under; min* an* keep *em under" "Can you read, madam, and will you take a Testament?" says a teacher to her. "A Terstament? What is it?" "A part of the Bible ma'am. Shall I write your name in it?" "Yas. De Bible? I know what 'tis; my father had one onct! Write its name in it," meaning the child. "She don* go tu no skule. You all cum down yer' an' teech dese black 'uns, but who'll teech my chillen? Dey needs tu Varn tu reedtu" "Can't your little girl come to Sunday- school?" "Wai, no marm ; she could if 'twa'n't fur her he'd an' feet; haint no hat an' no shuse. Reckon 'taint no use fur we 'uns tu 1'arn. Dat book tells de wurld's gwine tu be burnt up, an' tells 'bout de jedgement day, don' it? Du ye reckun we'll be in de same he'ven wid you all as can rede? an' what'll be dun tu dese yer rich 'uns, as keep de 'nolege away from us 'uns? Reckun de jedgement day'll set that all right?" The woman and child both had dip-sticks in their mouths, and the tobacco juice was running down at the corners of their mouths, and altogether the squalor and filth of their appearance was in describable. "Poo' white trash," whispered a young black boy, with a look of contempt, who came to show them up to the platform. 108 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. The greens exchanged for tea, the woman began a series of rising on her toes, and coming down on her heels, called in olden times courtesying, which lasted until she reached the door, but came back to tell us, "Yer's is a mighty fine skule, an' 'taint no sin tu teech 'em ; dey orter be teechedj but dey's niggers an' ye must min' an' keep 'em under, ma'am ; an* keep ''em under /" A FREEDMKN SCHOOL. io 9 The writing; scholars were allowed to write little O letters to the teachers, all sealed and ready to post, to teach them how to write. The little girl whose pict ure appears above, wrote: "Dear Teacher, I love the school and to study and learn, and I have learned to love my Saviour since this school began. Yes, poor little Joyce has learned to love you and Jesus." Affectionately, your pupil, Joyce Turner." CHAPTER XXI. CARPET BAGGERS. A northern man living south, with an office under the United States goverment. "The doctor thinks Mrs. W. can't live until morning," said the colonel; will you go to her? She has lived all summer in the place, and been visited hy none of her neighbors; members of the same church to which she belongs have staid as much away from her, as though she were a mad dog." A ride of a mile, and we are at the bedside of the sufferer, who moans in her delirium, and calls for her mother. On opening her eyes she thinks the northern teacher is her mother, and smiles, saying, CC I thought you'd come." For two days and nights, we watch the sick one, helping the patient doctor fight malarial fever. At the end of the second day, as we look into the doctor's face for hope, he shakes his head, and says, "She will die to-night!" The doctor seemed a no CARPET BAGGERS^ Ill gentleman and a Christian. The tears stood in his eyes, as he heard the sufferer call for her mother. Before morning, gleams of intelligence dawned :n the mind of the sick one, and she said, "I thought you were mother; you're the teacher. Will I get well? and why don't mother come?" "If she don't come, what shall I tell her," said the watcher, "and will it be all right if you don't get well?" "Oh, yes! Jesus is with me, and tell mother I thought of her, and loved her just as well as ever." Again the languid eyes closed, and when she awoke from the next sleep, the fever and delirium were on her again, and soon, as the doctor had pre dicted, she went into an unconscious state, and ere sunrise was sleeping the sleep that knows no wak ing, until the morning of the resurrection. "On India's plains, by Lapland's snows, Believers find the same repose." There were present at the death bed, the husband, the colonel, the doctor, Aunt Caroline, an old colored woman, and the teacher; also by this time the white neighbors, who lived many of them very near, began to come in, and sit around the outside of the room, until the room was nearly full of them. One said to another, "We'd have come in before, if we'd have known it." As the sufferer breathed her last sigh, the colonel fell on his knees, and said, "Let us pray," and poured out a prayer for the afflicted husband, and the stricken mother, so far away. The southern woman helped lay the cold form 112 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. in the casket, after putting on the best dress they could find in the woman's wardrobe, and all the icwelry she had, putting her rings over her white gloves, and placing the infant child, which like a morning dew-drop had opened its eyes in this world, and been exhaled to heaven, by the side of its mother. The colonel accompanied the sorrowing husband with his dead treasures to the northern home of the mother. CHAPTER XXII. A NIGHT ON THE GULF. United States mail steamer, the last trip she makes this season, sails at six o'clock, and reaches Mobile in the morning "Right this way, madam,' t and we follow the noisy waiter, who carries our small baggage on board of one of the largest Amer ican vessels, and steam away from New Orleans, sing ing, "We are out on the ocean sailing." A sunset on the ocean is better seen than de scribed. The waves on the gulf are much shorter than in mid-ocean, which causes a greater shaking about of all kinds of craft, and more sea-sickness. The spy-glasses are leveled at the receding shores, the band of music does its best, the passengers are all enjoying the scene. ******* Midnight and all are gone to their rooms, except the faithful sailors. The night-watch paces the deck, the giant engine labors against the rolling waves, 114 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. carrying us nearer our destination at every revolution of its ponderous wheel. Hark! a deafening crash, a roar of thunder, a tremendous shake of the vessel, that awakens every one on board ; a thunder storm at sea, and that isn't the worse of it. Our craft has drifted out of the way and is fast on the oyster reefs. About seventy or more miles from Mobile is a long, deep channel in the midst of the bay, called Grant's Pass, which was dredged in the last war at great expense to make a way for the war vessels to pass through the oyster reefs, and woe unto the ships that get out of this channel. A friendly light-house is near by, and we cast anchor and wait for daylight. The falling rain drenches the deck, and finds its way into our state room, and patience is the only quality we need. Grand! sublime! are the only words that begin to describe the war of the elements. Morning dawns and the captain sends hot coffee to all who wish it, but no one cares for anything but to be rid of the dreadful sea-sickness. At this moment a feeling as of something awful aboutto happen, came over the writer, who was sit ting in the cabin as were many ladies, with their feet up on chairs to keep them from the water now roll ing over the deck. No one had mentioned anything to be afraid of, yet the sense of horror was so borne in upon the soul, the writer arose and staggering into her state-room, fell on the floor in agony of prayer, crying aloud, "O God, spare his life! O God, spare his life !" Soon the sense of terror left, and a mighty peace known only to the one who holds communion A NIGKT ON THK GULF. 115 with God, was felt, and on going out on deck where many of the passengers were peering over the side of the vessel, we saw a small boat containing one person, and the young man teacher of our company, asked, "Did you^hear the man swear? he nearly went under the boat." In a moment it was plain what was the cause of the inte*ise soul anguish, that had just passed over the writer. To God be the glory! She had been burdened for the profane man so near death. After four hours of tugging with ropes the wind changed, and the waters seemed to almost blow to us, the ship veered around, and we were loose. We make the harbor of Mobile forty-eight hours late. This city is put down as having 48,000 inhab itants, half of them black, and we think, as we near the shore, most of them are out to greet us. Many have friends on board, and are half wild to know if they are safe. The storm has been so severe they say the waves have washed alligators on shore, and men and boys are chasing them with sticks. The city is in the midst of an exciting political election, and revolvers are the order of the day. Our friends are among the post office officials, one of them is postmaster, and they are in the warfare. They tell us only one colored man was killed last night, and to-day one brave man has cleared the of fice of an excited mob. The street cars of this city have an iron lattice work, on one side of which the whites can ride, on the other side the colored people. A lady has taken her waiting-maid into the wrong end of the car, and Il6 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. the conductor stops the car, and gets her into her place. "Things are a little mixed here," says a half- drunken man, who is allowed to ride with the elite, "but guess they they'll get unmixed." We hope so and wonder if when women are allowed to vote, they'll have to carry revolvers, and see so many drunken men, as we have seen in our ride of six blocks. The car has stopped in front of the college, now- used as a Freedmen's school, and -we enter the yard full of live oaks and orange trees, and are thankful to see nearby the barracks of our country's soldiers, with the stars and stripes thrown to the breeze, and we rest. Here we taught several hundred colored people during the year, and saw what we never did in any other place in America, viz., a principal of a white school where we visited, smoking a cigar in school hours in the midst of his school, he walking up and down the aisles of the school-room, with a book in his hand prompting his pupils. At the risk of his displeasure, we told him he couldn't do that, and keep his place in a northern school. CHAPTER XXIII. JOURNAL 1872. Was present at the baptism of twenty-four colored people, last Sabbath -baptized by immersion in the Tombigbee river. The waters were so muddy, when the candidates came out of the water, they were covered with mud. The women wore white dresses, and all marched two by two in procession, out of the woods. We were told they had all drank whisky, to keep them from getting chilly. Some of them shouted, and threw the water, clapping their hands wildly. A thousand people, a third of them whites, stood on the high bluffs to witness the baptism. The hymn of praise from so many voices sounded grandly: "From all that dwell below the skies, Let the Creator's praise arise, Let the Redeemer's name be sung, Through every land, by every tongue." Before the baptisms, went to the large African church, to hear the experiences of the candidates. An old man said, "I started traveling an' went 117 Il8 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. on, an' on, 'til I cum tu ole hell, an' I see de devil, an asked him ef I might plow dar. He said I might, an' I plowed tu furrows on de firey mane o' hell. Den I seed an ole woman wid her hair all burnt off. Den I seed a pair 'balances, an' was weighed in 'em an' was light as a feather. Ef I'de a knowed God wus sich a sweet God, I'de a prayed my knees tu de bone." Another said, "I started travelin', an' went on, an' went on, 'til I cum to hebben, an' Peter opened de door an' let me in, an' he an' John guv me sliced water-melon, on a golden server, an' I had on golden slippers, an' went a slippin' an' a slidin' up an' down de golden streets." Another said, "I was walkin' 'long, smokin' my pipe, an' pretty soon my pipe spoke tu me, an' it said, 'Unworthy! unworthy! unworthy!' Then I was lying on the floor, and the dogs came and licked the meal off my face." A woman holding an infant child said, 'I 'gun to pray, den I stopped. One day my ole hen got sick, an' when I seed her a scringin' an' a flutterin' in death, I said, 'Lawd, ef a poo' brute scringes so in death, what'll become o' poo' me.' Den I 'gun tu play wid my baby, an' I heered a voice say, No time, no time, no time fur dat, better pray.' Den pears like I 'gun travelin', an' I got tu hell, an' I seed a little ole man, a stirrin' in a pot o' soap, dat was bilin', an' he stirred up little babies, an' I axed him what dey is, an' he dun said, 'Dey is ole souls dat had been biled down, an' I prayed Lawd hab mercy on poo' me, an 7 my head flew up, an' I felt light as a JOURNAI 1872. 119 feather, an' pears like I loved everybody; an' de tings I once hated, now I lub, an' I lub sinners tu, but I lub Christians de best, an* I lub Masser Jesus best ob all." An old man said, "I started travelin', an' pears like I had weights hung tu my feet, an' I had tu tote 'em, an' I grew so tired totin' 'em, I sweat great drops o' blood; den I prayed, an' fell into a slumber, an' I hung over hell by a slender cotton thread; an' den I prayed as I nebber prayed afore. Den I was in bed, an' I see a light cum down troo' de roof, an' I heard a voice, 'Your sins is all forgiven;' an' I knew dat voice 'longed tu Jesus, an' I aked him ef 'twant, an' he sed, 'Yes.' Den he showed me his feet wid de print ob de nails in fur me, an' I kissed dem feet, an' he tole me to tote dis ole body a leetle longer, den he'll cum fur me, an' bring me tu live in a manshum wid he. An' den Jesus sed, 'de work dat you do fur me in de world, will make a wrinkle in yo' crown in glory.' " One poor man, only said, he came to Jesus, and he took all his sins away; he could now pray for his enemies and believed the Lord saved his soul. This candidate was about to be rejected, because he had no wonders to tell, but a white friend came to the rescue, and said to the colored preacher who was tak ing the members into the church. "You'll have to let him in, for he says he trusts in Jesus to the saving of his soul. What better can any one do?" "Well," said the gray-haired African preacher, "we'll vote on his case," and he barely passed, but received a reprimand from the preacher, which ran 120 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. thus: "You have been a believer for six months, and you ought by this time, to have delivered yourself of an experience" Here the session of two hours came to an end, by the pastor's pronouncing the benediction, and all went to the river to attend the baptisms. ****** Elmira Water-cure, N. Y.: "Your throat is bad, madam. You ought to have been here six weeks ago; I don't know as I can prevent it from going to your lungs. What you been doing?" "Teaching." "Where?" "In Mobile, Alabama." "I thought so. We have the most trouble with teachers of any class of patients. They are worn out. They wear out faster than any other class of people. Orders: Hot baths; high diet beefsteak, eggs, milk, fruit, oysters, everything the health cure has on the table; ride for exercise; sleep late in the morning; never mind the breakfast bell. You can have your breakfast sent up when you waken. We'll see if you can be toned up, for some more teaching. Lizzie, show the lady to her room," says the old doctor. A lovely room, with all needful modern im provements, couches, that are so tasteful they look like resting; lovely views of the Alleghany mount ains from the windows; three room-mates all of them high-toned southern ladies, from West Virginia; stiff silk dresses, but very plain, one of them a young woman, but wears a white cap. Can it be? Yes ; they are Quakers. JOURNAL 1872. 121 Query: Wonder if I am to be haunted with southerners the rest of my life? Now if I wasn't a "nigger teacher", and had worlds of money, I could have a room alone . The young pretty lady, with the plain white cap, rises with difficulty, and says, "Is thee going down to the prayer-meeting, and would thee mind letting thy lame sister lean on thee clown the stairs?" "Certainly. Do they have a prayer-meeting here?" "Every Friday afternoon." They are carrying the sick to the couches, and rolling the chairs for those who can't walk. This way through the great hall, into a lovely parlor. A smile from a lady as we enter, who hands a Bible to the teacher and says, "Will you lead the meeting to-day." Prayers from sick ones, for those who are worse off than themselves; prayers for the strangers arriv ing; prayers for the doctors; songs from some of the sweet singers in Israel, all ladies who have come to the health resort. The meeting over, we slowly take our way back to the room of our temporary health home. The duty of one of us is plainer and plainer. These sweet Quaker women must know their associ ate is a "nigger teacher", and the teacher must tell them. Wonder if they'll bounce down the stairs, or pitch her out of the window. "Ha! ha! Thee needn't vex thyself with our displeasure, for thy calling is from heaven" says the old .mother Quaker lady. 122 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. After years of boiled down scorn, we have swallowed at the South, this tonic of the God-fearing Quaker family, is almost too much. The tears are about to fall, as the sweet mother Quaker goes on. "Dry thy tears now, and rest! Thee hath a warm place in the souls of those who see things in their true condition. All our God's creatures ought 'to be loyal to their country, and true to one another. Go on in your duties, and God is going to help raise the lowly, and bring down the high. We have had many experiences among the blacks, not long ago, but we say to those who gave up their slaves relunctantly, ''Friend, thy prey hath escaped thce! And thee will be the better for it in due time.' " ****** Cairo,* Illinois: A young man teacher from Chicago, making his way home from the South under difficulties. A gun-shot wound in his right arm. He says, "They shot me, and turned me out of my school, and burnt my school-house." Pale, and with his arm in a sling, he looks thin enough to have passed through a siege, which, in reality he has; says they took his money and watch, and he gladly got away with his life. A teacher pays his fare to Chicago, and he thankfully goes North, while we go South to continue the combat. The old doctor has been successful, for the throat seems well again; the friends at home have said the relunctant good-by's, and we are far on our way to the sunny South. Department of a large public free-school for colored people, in the state of Mississippi. Teacher sitting at her desk, scholars singing, JOURNAL. 1872 123 "Dare to be right, dare to be true, You have a work that no other can do; Do it so bravely, so kindly, so well, Angels will hasten, the story to tell. Dare to be right, dare to be true, God who created you, cares for you too; Treasures the tears, that his striving ones shed, Counts and protects every hair of your head." "There's a white man at the door, ma'am," says some one. Enter a tall well-dressed gentleman, with two beautiful little white children, finely dressed, bringing slates and dinner pails. "Good morning, madam ; I may as well intro duce myself. I am Dr. K , one of the school board of this school. I have lived over twenty years in this place; I bring you two scholars, one my own child, and one my housekeeper's daughter's child. They both live at my house; anything they need, in the way of books, will be cheerfully furnished." We are about to tell the gentleman, we are teaching a colored school, when, all uninvited bv us, he goes on to explain the situation. "As one of the school board, madam, I am highly in favor of free schools, for both white and colored. I have said when the school started, I should avail myself of it, and have promised my housekeeper, than whom a better woman never lived, I would educate these children. My wife died long years ago, and but for the interference of the southern prejudice, that child's mother would long ago have stood with me at the marriage altar. In our souls we are one, and true to each ether. I say this before God, and I am a member of DR. K S. TWO PUPILS. 124 JOURNAL. 1872. 125 a Christian church, and hope for heaven. Although the mother of this little girl is as white as most white people, yet her ancestors are known to be of African extraction. I don't deny it. I hold the only honor able way to treat our children is to educate them. Education hurts no one; it is the lack of it that makes half the turmoil among us, madam. The human mind was formed for ligrk. Darkness has covered the earth here, and gross darkness the people, and darkness breeds envy and a whole troop of vices. I have said to my neighbors, you can ostracize me if you will, my course is forward. I will be true to my fam ily. The prejudices of the South are unaccountable, madam. I bid you good morning. Anything I can do for you, as one of the school board of these free schools, so reluctantly inaugurated, I shall gladly do and you are most welcome to my house." AVe taught the scholars, and found them quite intelligent, but they did ostracize the doctor, and sometimes we didn't know who suffered the most from the mixed-up prejudices, of the mixed-up social condition of things, the doctor's family, or the teach ers. CHAPTER XXIV. EXPERIENCE. A large room with two beds in it; a great fire place extends nearly accross one end of the room ; trunks, chairs, white bare floor, two teachers are talk ing. One says, "Your throat is so bad again, you can not go on teaching; you'll have to give up your de partment. Shall I take some of your scholars?" The fire in the great fire-place roars and crack les, the teacher thinks of home and friends, of the old health cure, and wonders where she shall turn for help. The throat has been swollen all day, and with difficulty she has taught a large department. Falling on her knees she turns to the great physician. In less time than it takes to tell it, a power from above falls on her throat, the feeling is as of an elec tric shock, and the swelling is gone from her throat. She is instantly healed, and goes on in her school 126 EXPERIENCE. I2y duties until the end of the year. * * * Together we four teachers have taught in a large school all winter. The county school board have given us school warrants, the county's promises of payment but no money. One after another the teachers have been to the county treasury, but ob tained no money. Northern friends have sent us money, and we have lent stamps to each other. The rent of our cottage is as high as it would be in New York city, and the expenses of a family of four must be kept up. Again we turn to our stronghold, and betake ourselves to the weapon "all prayer." At the fam ily altar we remind our prayer-hearing God of our needs. Presently a teacher comes out of her closet with a fifty dollar warrant in her hand, saying she has had an answer to prayer, that the warrant is to be cashed in greenbacks. They were at that time paying us in state mon ey that sometimes brought seventy cts. on the dollar and sometimes less. A chorus of laughter runs around the little circle of teachers, as they tell of the number of times they have each been to that treasury for money, all to no avail; but, says one, "I'll go with you; we'll take this basket to bring the money in." "Together the Illinois and Boston teachers take the walk of a mile to the court house, and find the county treasurer, who sits near the great iron safe, while a negro sentinel, with a loaded musket paces in front of it. The school officer stops his writing, takes the warrant presented by the teacher, says, 128 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. "Have you had no pay this term ?" "No, sir; and the money is past due," is the answer. "I'll cash that warrant," says the treasurer, and counts out the greenbacks, United States money. On our return we have money to lend, and two other teachers say, "Go with me, and get mine cashed, will you?" We go and present their warrants, but fail to get them cashed. We had received a special answer to prayer, for our special time of need. To God be the glory! "Thou art coming to a king, Large petitions with thee bring, For his grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much. CHAPTER XXV. JOURNAL 1877. KU-KLUX OUTRAGKS. A well-educated man from South Carolina, who had taught all the white school in the place for four teen years; his wife not able to read a word; five children, three of whom are women in size. The mother, though not book learned, teaches her daughters to do all kinds of work. In a small cook house, in the rear of the dwelling, each of the daughters take turns in cooking. Here we saw rice used as a vegetable, eaten with meat, as in Carolina, where it grows so abundantly. The bread and cof fee were excellent, and the kindness of this family drew every one to them. Here, for want of a county poor-house, were boarded the poor, who were a county charge, and here the northern teachers found a boarding place. The family is large, and Mr. Sandsby, the father, having returned from the town, twenty-five I3 9 130 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. miles away, is standing with his back to the great fire-place, telling the home circle of the doings in the county. "The Ku-Klux have whipped the colonel, mad am," addressing the teacher, "and have sent me word they will call on you. Of course I will defend you and my family, with my gun and dogs, as well as I can," said the tall South Carolina gentleman; "but they'll burn the house immediately, and what now is our wisest course, that's the question! There are many colored people here, and very much attached to the school they are; but it isn't safe to trust them in an emergency. They are not well armed, and they haven't dogs at their command; and the Ku- Klux have both arms and dogs, and they know if they are half of them killed, there is no jury in this state that will give them justice. "It's never thought much of a sin to kill a col ored man in a southern state, and one of the proverbs of the secret society known as the Ku-Klux, is, that ''Dead men tell no tales? The other proverb, that mostly governs them, is, ''This is a 'white man's gov ernment ; and so, with some whisky on board, they manage to intimidate the blacks, and make them vote mostly their own way. "There's an election close at hand, and this raid is to scare them to vote the ticket they give them So much for freedom in old Mississippi, madam; and you'll find, too, they are bent on so scaring the blacks, that the children will be afraid to attend the school. "They've killed the colored man who ferried them over the Tombigbee, and now, what's best to KU-KLUX OUTRAGES. 131 be done? We must act promptly; they'll be here by to-morrow night." All night the blacks had a prayer-meeting, and at sunrise, sent Uncle Billy to see the teacher, and try to persuade her to stay. Morning exercises in the school-room; Scripture lesson: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: I go to prepare a place for you." "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." u The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Singing, prayer, and calling the roll. The teacher tells the scholars she is going to take a vaca tion, and will send them word when the school is to begin again; gives each pupil a beautiful Scotch Bi ble, donated by the Y. M. C. A. of Scotland, which she has been saving to give at the end of the term. Never, in all their lives, have the colored school seen Bibles like these; much less, did they ever think of possessing such books. Most of the school can read them. The school-house was an old dwelling, hired by the county school commissioner, a northern Christian man, who had just been whipped a hundred lashes by the same band of Ku-Klux, who were bent on breaking up every school in the county. "Good-by ! Good-by, ma'am," said the scholars, as they stepped into the aisle, and passed out, each carrying the chair they had brought with them at the beginning of the term, and each hugging the dear Scotch Bible. [32 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. A ride of a mile and a half on the little pony, through two streams of water, impossible to cross on foot, and the teacher soon found her pleasant board ing place, and with the help of the Sandsby daugh ters, finished packing. Bv this time the poor-house boarders had come for their good-by's. Uncle Jimmy was a white man, whose daughter was the wife of a planter in the neighborhood, the planter preferring not to be troubled with his old father-in-law, who was blind, and very aged. He came led by a child, and leaning on his staff, wiped his sightless eyes, and began his good-by speech: "Ma'am, I's lived mor'n forty years in these parts. I cum here when the Injuns had their trail all up and down the red water and the blue water. I've hunted buck with 'em many a da)-, an' / declare to you, I never see such work. It's 'worse than In juns, to drive you off from this school work. Why. them rainy days, when you all couldn't go to the school-house, an' had your Sunday-school here, I jes' thought, ef I'd a had some one to have teached me like that, I shouldn't a been where I am now. I'm almost through, ma'am; an' I'm goin' tu meet you in the city that has foundations, as you all was a tell- in' a'bout in the lesson; but I declare, ma'am, I's feared dese people as hounds ye all off from dis work'll never get thare." Here was a fourteen-year-old white boy, who had never known the story of Jesus' death. In vain we said, "You must have heard of Jesus, the God- man who died to help us gam heaven." Invariably the answer was, "Who was he? And where was it? An' did they kill him?" KU-KLUX OUTRAGES. 133 He had never once heard of Jesus. These with a dozen others of the family, had formed the little Sunday-school, when the Sundays were too rainy to get to the large school. Only five weeks of the term had passed, but the night riders had vetoed the attempts at school teaching, and amid the clinging good-by's of the negro scholars, and the tears of the Sandsbys, we got ready to take twenty-five miles of horseback rid ing, through the pine woods, with only a colored boy on a mule to show us the way, Uncle Jimmy de claring, "The good Lord sent ye here, if the devil drives ye away." We had slept but little all night, as the blacks had an all-night prayer-meeting, and we could hear their shouts, songs, and prayers, sounding on the still night air; but we made the journey without much inconvenience, save that we crossed over a dozen streams, some of them so swollen we had to jump up on the saddle, and let the hoi'se nearly swim through. A colored boy rode a mule, and went with the teach er, to show the way. Arriving at the town, which was the county seat of a large county, we found the colonel, super intendent of schools, also government officer, had been badly whipped by a hundred masked men. They detailed ten of their number to do the whip ping, which was clone with a leather strap. The colonel had gone a dozen miles from town, taking with him two northern teachers; had located them in their school, and stopped at a house three miles on his homeward journey, to stay all night. The house 134 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMDN. was surrounded by a hundred masked men on. horse back. A few of these brave ones entered the house, took the colonel, tied him to a tree, and mercilessly whipped him, he telling them if they killed him, it would bring more war to their homes, as he was a government officer, and the government was bound to punish the offense. The colonel, more dead than alive, was left at the house, while the riders returned to their homes. A driver was found to drive for the school officer, and ere morning he reached home, and soon his neighbors filled the house with their calls, proffering their sympathy, and loud in denouncing such work in their state. Here were members of the same church the colonel had joined, on going South to live; here was the grocery man who sup plied the colonel's family with eatables; here were many living close around the dwelling of this man, who, though a government officer, was devoting his hours, when not on duty for the government, to ben efiting both white and colored, in the capacity of head officer of the free-school system they were try ing to establish in this state ; all these, and some others, who had come to proffer their condolence, 'were found to be the very Ku-Klux ivho 'whipped their neighbor. The case was brought before the civil courts, but the lawyers adjourned it from time to time for three years, then a southern jury acquitted the Ku- Klux, a'nd when they returned from the trial, a com pany of ladies met them at the depot, with a flag, and band of music. Soon the colonel went to Washington, and re- KU-KLUX OUTRAGES. 135 turned with soldiers, who were quartered for three years on the country, and we taught other schools in large towns, but never returned to our plantation school. We think yet we hear the echo of the sad song the scholars sang just as we left: "And when I know that we must part, You draw like cords around my heart." C H AP T E R X XVI. ANOTHER RAID. Miss Ada was a devoted Christian girl, the daughter of a first-class lawyer in Illinois. The mis sionary spirit had fired her soul, and filled with de sires to benefit the ex-slaves, she left a home of lux ury to come South and be a despised teacher of the colored race. She lived in one room of an old- house. Aunt Melinda, a colored woman occupied a part of the house, cooked the food of the teacher, and carried it to her room. The school taught by the lady was a short distance away, in an uncomfortable shed-like building. The scholars were learning fast, and greatly attached to the teacher. A night school for adults was taught, and good progress was being made by all the pupils. The school had gone on not yet two months, when at two o'clock in the morning, the sound of 136 ANOTHER RAID. 137 many horsemen was heard, and soon a rap at the door announced the presence of the Ku-Klux. They or dered the door opened immediately, speaking in a guttural tone, behind a mask, saying they were in haste, as they had a long ways to go. ^Yes, yes;" said Miss Ada, who had sprung from her bed at the first rap, and thrown on a wrap per, "as soon as I light a lamp," taking the precaution to secrete her gold watch and chain, which lay on the table. "Open the door or we'll break it open," came from the hasty night riders, and with a prayer for help, the teacher opened the door, to be greeted by a dozen masked and armed men. Masks of white, trimmed with black, and their pistols at half cock, they entered the room. The lady invited them to sit down, and said she felt such a sense of the presence of God with her, that a thought of fear never entered her mind. With pistol in hand the captain of the band gave his orders for her to leave in three days saying, "This is a white man's government," also inquiring if she had a home, and why she should leave it to engage in so mean a calling. "We will not have white people mixed up with niggers," said the Captain, and after inquiring the time of her, thinking to get sight of her watch, said they must go. As they went out, one said to another, "She wa'n't scared a bit." Miss Ada in relating it, said, "I shed tears when they were gone, to think I was worthy to feel the mighty presence of God so much." "The angel of 138 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. the Lord encampeth round about them them that fear him, and delivereth them." STATE SENATOR. CHAPTER XXVII. THE STATE SENATOR. "Good morning, madam! The session at the capital have let me off for a few weeks, and I've come to attend your school to learn arithmetic." The speaker was the Rev. I. A , a colored representative of his district, in the state legislature. His time was divided between the sittings of the state legislature, and the sittings of the negro school. When he preached for the people, as he often did, he could read from the Bible, rather poorly, and man aged to get through the hymns fairly. His cabin was very near the school-house, and was not of the poor est as to furniture. A bit of a civilized carpet cov ered the floor, and his children wore shoes, while many did not. The ability of the man was good, but he had an idea that using large words, was the way to seem learned, and he almost used up the dic tionary in his vocabulary. "Ye see, ma'am," began the statesman, "our '39 140 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. race has to creep afore \ve can walk, and it takes a mighty sight of speculation to raise the ideas of our minds to the citizenship of the comprehension of the situation of ignorance. A little learning makes us hanker after the dish. "Now, ma'am, these white people wants you away from here. They's more afraid o' you five or six wimmen, than a whole company o' soldiers. They 'spects you'll teach these risin' generation to vote, an' to rise above themselves." We inform the senator that their fears are groundless; that we differ with President Lincoln about voting; we think no man, North or South, should be allowed to vote, who cannot read his ballot. "Qh! ah! yes'm; but the understanding of the comprehension of our relation to the necessary con ditions of the freedom of a government, don't make no sort o' difference with the compulsion of the former conditions of servitude to the present ideas of the citizens Of this republic, ma'am. "Ye see, ma'am, I wants to learn 'rithmetic. I aint gwine to steal or murder, and I'm a citizen of this republic gettin' knowledge under difficulties. I'm a blacksmith by trade, an' I aint a carin' ef I don't hev only half enough to eat, ef I can learn 'rithmetic. The Lord willin', I'll preach the Sunday follerin', an' will you jest 'splain de text? It's in Genesis ii. 7: 'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.' "They tell me names has a meanin'; what's the THE STATE SENATOR. 141 meanin' of Adam, ma'am? The dictionary says 'earth-man; red earth.' Does you s'pose Adam was a red man? So it says; read it for yourself. Yes'rn ; well, then, ef all sprung from Adam, an' he was a red man, what's all this fuss about color fur, among the white 'uns? Don' they know they's got ances try's vya'n't so white as some on 'em? Tell ye what, dere is some good southern folks, an' dere is dem as wants de Lord Almighty tu ax dere pardon fur makin 1 us black 'uns, an' tu step down an' let dent rule; an' I's 'feared dey'll fetch up where 'taint alto gether a 'white man's government,' 'cause dere idees is 'noxious tu de Lord, an' de heft o' de angels. "Now, ma'am, is dere any government as is gwine tu help dis union have cleyselves, an' let us have, de chance to breathe God's air, an' not ax dere pardon fur it? Whar's it dey used tu run tu a foller- in' de Norf star, an' find pertection?" "England, in the queen's dominion; to Canada." "Yes'm; is that North o' Mason and Dixon's line? Whar duz the queen hold her state, an' who is she?" "The queen is a woman, governor of England and Canada, and much more. She has freed the last slave in her dominions, not many years ago. An African prince has lately been brought over to see her, and when he saw her in the midst of her happy subjects, he asked her the cause of all her peace, and she brought out a Bible and gave him, and told him that book contained it all. It is the boast of En gland that " 'Slaves cannot live in England, They touch her shores, and their shackles fall.' " <4 'Stonishin', ma'am! .Was she related to the Queen o' Sheba, as de good book tells about? When you go North, ef you meet up with her, give her my best respects, ma'am." Exit state senator; school bell rings. CHAPTER XXVIII, JOURNAL. A year ago we taught arithmetic to a state sena tor of Mississippi, the Rev. I. A - . Sometimes he studied with his little girl, the two using the same books, because he was too poor to get books for both. The school of one hundred and twenty pupils had been taught three years in that place. There was good improvement, and we hoped for the best. Marion was a young man of twenty-two years. He walked three miles every morning to school. He built the fires for the school, and helped take care of the large school building that had been erected, just as the war closed, by the Freedmen's Bureau. ********** Election day! The blacks voted all right in the morning. Ere noon, a raid on the polls was an nounced. Suddenly the street is full of armed men, yelling, "Hang the niggers! Shoot 'em!" Frank was the first one shot ; was killed in the, street. He 142 JOURNAL. 143 was peaceably distributing- tickets, not far from the place for voting. Uncle Billy is shot, pitched clown stairs, and his ears cut off. Wesley, a young man, one of our scholars, and in the employ of the Ameri can Missionary Association, is poisoned, but recovers and flees for his life. One voter runs home from the polls, jumps into his cabin, and into bed, and pulls a blanket over him. The "election regulators" follow him, and shoot him in his bed. Our state senator runs away, his house is burnt down, so is the school-house, he runs on, hiding day times, and run ning nights, until he reaches the state capital, a dis tance of one hundred and fifty miles, and begs of his associate representatives, protection and help. "History repeats itself in the South," said a speaker, lately, on the floor of Congress at Washing ton, "and if half the scenes going on in some parts of our United States were to-day written up, they would hardly be believed." Yes; but the authorities must remember that these scenes can be proved. Every incident written in this book can be proved, and most of them by many witnesses. And now, patient reader, ere we part, a word or two to you. Some of you who see the need of teachers at the South, where for so long they have measurably been deprived of the free-school system the North has been blest with, will doubtless be teachers; and you may one day be welcomed, as we hope, in the sunny South, and pursue your "heaven- born calling," as the sweet Quaker lady called it, un molested. If so, we bid you Godspeed. 144 SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FREEDMEN. Many have said to the writer, "/$ it true that there are Ku-Klux at the South, and did you ever see any of their work?" To such we say, we have given you only a part of what we know, of their shameful actions against the laws of this govern ment; but doubtless one day you may know even more of their depredations, for in Ecclesiastes xii. 14, we read, "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." "When the general roll is called you'll be there." 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