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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17864-8.txt b/17864-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e809868 --- /dev/null +++ b/17864-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2391 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days, by Annie L. Burton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days + +Author: Annie L. Burton + +Release Date: February 26, 2006 [EBook #17864] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDHOOD'S SLAVERY DAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Memories of Childhood's + Slavery Days + + + + By + + + Annie L. Burton + + + + + BOSTON + + ROSS PUBLISHING COMPANY + + + 1909 + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF A HAPPY LIFE + + +The memory of my happy, care-free childhood days on the plantation, +with my little white and black companions, is often with me. Neither +master nor mistress nor neighbors had time to bestow a thought upon +us, for the great Civil War was raging. That great event in American +history was a matter wholly outside the realm of our childish +interests. Of course we heard our elders discuss the various events of +the great struggle, but it meant nothing to us. + +On the plantation there were ten white children and fourteen colored +children. Our days were spent roaming about from plantation to +plantation, not knowing or caring what things were going on in the +great world outside our little realm. Planting time and harvest time +were happy days for us. How often at the harvest time the planters +discovered cornstalks missing from the ends of the rows, and blamed +the crows! We were called the "little fairy devils." To the sweet +potatoes and peanuts and sugar cane we also helped ourselves. + +Those slaves that were not married served the food from the great +house, and about half-past eleven they would send the older children +with food to the workers in the fields. Of course, I followed, and +before we got to the fields, we had eaten the food nearly all up. When +the workers returned home they complained, and we were whipped. + +The slaves got their allowance every Monday night of molasses, meat, +corn meal, and a kind of flour called "dredgings" or "shorts." Perhaps +this allowance would be gone before the next Monday night, in which +case the slaves would steal hogs and chickens. Then would come the +whipping-post. Master himself never whipped his slaves; this was left +to the overseer. + +We children had no supper, and only a little piece of bread or +something of the kind in the morning. Our dishes consisted of one +wooden bowl, and oyster shells were our spoons. This bowl served for +about fifteen children, and often the dogs and the ducks and the +peafowl had a dip in it. Sometimes we had buttermilk and bread in our +bowl, sometimes greens or bones. + +Our clothes were little homespun cotton slips, with short sleeves. I +never knew what shoes were until I got big enough to earn them myself. + +If a slave man and woman wished to marry, a party would be arranged +some Saturday night among the slaves. The marriage ceremony consisted +of the pair jumping over a stick. If no children were born within a +year or so, the wife was sold. + +At New Year's, if there was any debt or mortgage on the plantation, +the extra slaves were taken to Clayton and sold at the court house. In +this way families were separated. + +When they were getting recruits for the war, we were allowed to go to +Clayton to see the soldiers. + +I remember, at the beginning of the war, two colored men were hung in +Clayton; one, Cæsar King, for killing a blood hound and biting off an +overseer's ear; the other, Dabney Madison, for the murder of his +master. Dabney Madison's master was really shot by a man named +Houston, who was infatuated with Madison's mistress, and who had hired +Madison to make the bullets for him. Houston escaped after the deed, +and the blame fell on Dabney Madison, as he was the only slave of his +master and mistress. The clothes of the two victims were hung on two +pine trees, and no colored person would touch them. Since I have grown +up, I have seen the skeleton of one of these men in the office of a +doctor in Clayton. + +After the men were hung, the bones were put in an old deserted house. +Somebody that cared for the bones used to put them in the sun in +bright weather, and back in the house when it rained. Finally the +bones disappeared, although the boxes that had contained them still +remained. + +At one time, when they were building barns on the plantation, one of +the big boys got a little brandy and gave us children all a drink, +enough to make us drunk. Four doctors were sent for, but nobody could +tell what was the matter with us, except they thought we had eaten +something poisonous. They wanted to give us some castor oil, but we +refused to take it, because we thought that the oil was made from the +bones of the dead men we had seen. Finally, we told about the big +white boy giving us the brandy, and the mystery was cleared up. + +Young as I was then, I remember this conversation between master and +mistress, on master's return from the gate one day, when he had +received the latest news: "William, what is the news from the seat of +war?" "A great battle was fought at Bull Run, and the Confederates +won," he replied. "Oh, good, good," said mistress, "and what did Jeff +Davis say?" "Look out for the blockade. I do not know what the end +may be soon," he answered. "What does Jeff Davis mean by that?" she +asked. "Sarah Anne, I don't know, unless he means that the niggers +will be free." "O, my God, what shall we do?" "I presume," he said, +"we shall have to put our boys to work and hire help." "But," she +said, "what will the niggers do if they are free? Why, they will +starve if we don't keep them." "Oh, well," he said, "let them wander, +if they will not stay with their owners. I don't doubt that many +owners have been good to their slaves, and they would rather remain +with their owners than wander about without home or country." + +My mistress often told me that my father was a planter who owned a +plantation about two miles from ours. He was a white man, born in +Liverpool, England. He died in Lewisville, Alabama, in the year 1875. + +I will venture to say that I only saw my father a dozen times, when I +was about four years old; and those times I saw him only from a +distance, as he was driving by the great house of our plantation. +Whenever my mistress saw him going by, she would take me by the hand +and run out upon the piazza, and exclaim, "Stop there, I say! Don't +you want to see and speak to and caress your darling child? She often +speaks of you and wants to embrace her dear father. See what a bright +and beautiful daughter she is, a perfect picture of yourself. Well, I +declare, you are an affectionate father." I well remember that +whenever my mistress would speak thus and upbraid him, he would whip +up his horse and get out of sight and hearing as quickly as possible. +My mistress's action was, of course, intended to humble and shame my +father. I never spoke to him, and cannot remember that he ever noticed +me, or in any way acknowledged me to be his child. + +My mother and my mistress were children together, and grew up to be +mothers together. My mother was the cook in my mistress's household. +One morning when master had gone to Eufaula, my mother and my mistress +got into an argument, the consequence of which was that my mother was +whipped, for the first time in her life. Whereupon, my mother refused +to do any more work, and ran away from the plantation. For three years +we did not see her again. + +Our plantation was one of several thousand acres, comprising large +level fields, upland, and considerable forests of Southern pine. +Cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, wheat, and rye were the +principal crops raised on the plantation. It was situated near the +P---- River, and about twenty-three miles from Clayton, Ala. + +One day my master heard that the Yankees were coming our way, and he +immediately made preparations to get his goods and valuables out of +their reach. The big six-mule team was brought to the smoke-house +door, and loaded with hams and provisions. After being loaded, the +team was put in the care of two of the most trustworthy and valuable +slaves that my master owned, and driven away. It was master's +intention to have these things taken to a swamp, and there concealed +in a pit that had recently been made for the purpose. But just before +the team left the main road for the by-road that led to the swamp, the +two slaves were surprised by the Yankees, who at once took possession +of the provisions, and started the team toward Clayton, where the +Yankees had headquarters. The road to Clayton ran past our plantation. +One of the slave children happened to look up the road, and saw the +Yankees coming, and gave warning. Whereupon, my master left +unceremoniously for the woods, and remained concealed there for five +days. The niggers had run away whenever they got a chance, but now it +was master's and the other white folks' turn to run. + +The Yankees rode up to the piazza of the great house and inquired who +owned the plantation. They gave orders that nothing must be touched or +taken away, as they intended to return shortly and take possession. My +mistress and the slaves watched for their return day and night for +more than a week, but the Yankees did not come back. + +One morning in April, 1865, my master got the news that the Yankees +had left Mobile Bay and crossed the Confederate lines, and that the +Emancipation Proclamation had been signed by President Lincoln. +Mistress suggested that the slaves should not be told of their +freedom; but master said he would tell them, because they would soon +find it out, even if he did not tell them. Mistress, however, said she +could keep my mother's three children, for my mother had now been gone +so long. + +All the slaves left the plantation upon the news of their freedom, +except those who were feeble or sickly. With the help of these, the +crops were gathered. My mistress and her daughters had to go to the +kitchen and to the washtub. My little half-brother, Henry, and myself +had to gather chips, and help all we could. My sister, Caroline, who +was twelve years old, could help in the kitchen. + +After the war, the Yankees took all the good mules and horses from +the plantation, and left their old army stock. We children chanced to +come across one of the Yankees' old horses, that had "U. S." branded +on him. We called him "Old Yank" and got him fattened up. One day in +August, six of us children took "Old Yank" and went away back on the +plantation for watermelons. Coming home, we thought we would make the +old horse trot. When "Old Yank" commenced to trot, our big melons +dropped off, but we couldn't stop the horse for some time. Finally, +one of the big boys went back and got some more melons, and left us +eating what we could find of the ones that had been dropped. Then all +we six, with our melons, got on "Old Yank" and went home. We also used +to hitch "Old Yank" into a wagon and get wood. But one sad day in the +fall, the Yankees came back again, and gathered up their old stock, +and took "Old Yank" away. + +One day mistress sent me out to do some churning under a tree. I went +to sleep and jerked the churn over on top of me, and consequently got +a whipping. + +My mother came for us at the end of the year 1865, and demanded that +her children be given up to her. This, mistress refused to do, and +threatened to set the dogs on my mother if she did not at once leave +the place. My mother went away, and remained with some of the +neighbors until supper time. Then she got a boy to tell Caroline to +come down to the fence. When she came, my mother told her to go back +and get Henry and myself and bring us down to the gap in the fence as +quick as she could. Then my mother took Henry in her arms, and my +sister carried me on her back. We climbed fences and crossed fields, +and after several hours came to a little hut which my mother had +secured on a plantation. We had no more than reached the place, and +made a little fire, when master's two sons rode up and demanded that +the children be returned. My mother refused to give us up. Upon her +offering to go with them to the Yankee headquarters to find out if it +were really true that all negroes had been made free, the young men +left, and troubled us no more. + +The cabin that was now our home was made of logs. It had one door, and +an opening in one wall, with an inside shutter, was the only window. +The door was fastened with a latch. Our beds were some straw. + +There were six in our little family; my mother, Caroline, Henry, two +other children that my mother had brought with her upon her return, +and myself. + +The man on whose plantation this cabin stood, hired my mother as +cook, and gave us this little home. We children used to sell +blueberries and plums that we picked. One day the man on whom we +depended for our home and support, left. Then my mother did washing by +the day, for whatever she could get. We were sent to get cold victuals +from hotels and such places. A man wanting hands to pick cotton, my +brother Henry and I were set to help in this work. We had to go to the +cotton field very early every morning. For this work, we received +forty cents for every hundred pounds of cotton we picked. + +Caroline was hired out to take care of a baby. + +In 1866, another man hired the plantation on which our hut stood, and +we moved into Clayton, to a little house my mother secured there. A +rich lady came to our house one day, looking for some one to take care +of her little daughter. I was taken, and adopted into this family. +This rich lady was Mrs. E. M. Williams, a music teacher, the wife of a +lawyer. We called her "Mis' Mary." + +Some rich people in Clayton who had owned slaves, opened the Methodist +church on Sundays, and began the work of teaching the negroes. My new +mistress sent me to Sunday school every Sunday morning, and I soon got +so that I could read. Mis' Mary taught me every day at her knee. I +soon could read nicely, and went through Sterling's Second Reader, +and then into McGuthrie's Third Reader. The first piece of poetry I +recited in Sunday school was taught to me by Mis' Mary during the +week. Mis' Mary's father-in-law, an ex-judge, of Clayton, Alabama, +heard me recite it, and thought it was wonderful. It was this: + + "I am glad to see you, little bird, + It was your sweet song I heard. + What was it I heard you say? + Give me crumbs to eat today? + Here are crumbs I brought for you. + Eat your dinner, eat away, + Come and see us every day." + +After this Mis' Mary kept on with my studies, and taught me to write. +As I grew older, she taught me to cook and how to do housework. During +this time Mis' Mary had given my mother one dollar a month in return +for my services; now as I grew up to young womanhood, I thought I +would like a little money of my own. Accordingly, Mis' Mary began to +pay me four dollars a month, besides giving me my board and clothes. +For two summers she "let me out" while she was away, and I got five +dollars a month. + +While I was with Mis' Mary, I had my first sweetheart, one of the +young fellows who attended Sunday school with me. Mis' Mary, however, +objected to the young man's coming to the house to call, because she +did not think I was old enough to have a sweetheart. + +I owe a great deal to Mis' Mary for her good training of me, in +honesty, uprightness and truthfulness. She told me that when I went +out into the world all white folks would not treat me as she had, but +that I must not feel bad about it, but just do what I was employed to +do, and if I wasn't satisfied, to go elsewhere; but always to carry an +honest name. + +One Sunday when my sweetheart walked to the gate with me, Mis' Mary +met him and told him she thought I was too young for him, and that she +was sending me to Sunday school to learn, not to catch a beau. It was +a long while before he could see me again,--not until later in the +season, in watermelon time, when Mis' Mary and my mother gave me +permission to go to a watermelon party one Sunday afternoon. Mis' Mary +did not know, however, that my sweetheart had planned to escort me. We +met around the corner of the house, and after the party he left me at +the same place. After that I saw him occasionally at barbecues and +parties. I was permitted to go with him some evenings to church, but +my mother always walked ahead or behind me and the young man. + +We went together for four years. During that time, although I still +called Mis' Mary's my home, I had been out to service in one or two +families. + +Finally, my mother and Mis' Mary consented to our marriage, and the +wedding day was to be in May. The winter before that May, I went to +service in the family of Dr. Drury in Eufaula. Just a week before I +left Clayton I dreamed that my sweetheart died suddenly. The night +before I was to leave, we were invited out to tea. He told me he had +bought a nice piece of poplar wood, with which to make a table for our +new home. When I told him my dream, he said, "Don't let that trouble +you, there is nothing in dreams." But one month from that day he died, +and his coffin was made from the piece of poplar wood he had bought +for the table. + +After his death, I remained in Clayton for two or three weeks with my +people, and then went back to Eufaula, where I stayed two years. + +My sweetheart's death made a profound impression on me, and I began to +pray as best I could. Often I remained all night on my knees. + +Going on an excursion to Macon, Georgia, one time, I liked the place +so well that I did not go back to Eufaula. I got a place as cook in +the family of an Episcopal clergyman, and remained with them eight +years, leaving when the family moved to New Orleans. + +During these eight years, my mother died in Clayton, and I had to take +the three smallest children into my care. My oldest sister was now +married, and had a son. + +I now went to live with a Mrs. Maria Campbell, a colored woman, who +adopted me and gave me her name. Mrs. Campbell did washing and ironing +for her living. While living with her, I went six months to Lewis' +High School in Macon. Then I went to Atlanta, and obtained a place as +first-class cook with Mr. E. N. Inman. But I always considered Mrs. +Campbell's my home. I remained about a year with Mr. Inman, and +received as wages ten dollars a month. + +One day, when the family were visiting in Memphis, I chanced to pick +up a newspaper, and read the advertisement of a Northern family for a +cook to go to Boston. I went at once to the address given, and made +agreement to take the place, but told the people that I could not +leave my present position until Mr. Inman returned home. Mr. and Mrs. +Inman did not want to let me go, but I made up my mind to go North. +The Northern family whose service I was to enter had returned to +Boston before I left, and had made arrangements with a friend, Mr. +Bullock, to see me safely started North. + +After deciding to go North, I went to Macon, to make arrangements with +Mrs. Campbell for the care of my two sisters who lived with her. One +sister was now about thirteen and the other fifteen, both old enough +to do a little for themselves. My brother was dead. He went to +Brunswick in 1875, and died there of the yellow fever in 1876. One +sister I brought in later years to Boston. I stayed in Macon two +weeks, and was in Atlanta three or four days before leaving for the +North. + +About the 15th of June, 1879, I arrived at the Old Colony Station in +Boston, and had my first glimpse of the country I had heard so much +about. From Boston I went to Newtonville, where I was to work. The +gentleman whose service I was to enter, Mr. E. N. Kimball, was waiting +at the station for me, and drove me to his home on Warner Street. For +a few days, until I got somewhat adjusted to my new circumstances, I +had no work to do. On June 17th the family took me with them to +Auburndale. But in spite of the kindness of Mrs. Kimball and the +colored nurse, I grew very homesick for the South, and would often +look in the direction of my old home and cry. + +The washing, a kind of work I knew nothing about, was given to me; +but I could not do it, and it was finally given over to a hired woman. +I had to do the ironing of the fancy clothing for Mrs. Kimball and the +children. + +About five or six weeks after my arrival, Mrs. Kimball and the +children went to the White Mountains for the summer, and I had more +leisure. Mr. Kimball went up to the mountains every Saturday night, to +stay with his family over Sunday; but he and his father-in-law were at +home other nights, and I had to have dinner for them. + +To keep away the homesickness and loneliness as much as possible, I +made acquaintance with the hired girl across the street. + +One morning I climbed up into the cherry tree that grew between Mr. +Kimball's yard and the yard of his next-door neighbor, Mr. Roberts. I +was thinking of the South, and as I picked the cherries, I sang a +Southern song. Mr. Roberts heard me, and gave me a dollar for the +song. + +By agreement, Mrs. Kimball was to give me three dollars and a half a +week, instead of four, until the difference amounted to my fare from +the South; after that, I was to have four dollars. I had, however, +received but little money. In the fall, after the family came home, we +had a little difficulty about my wages, and I left and came into +Boston. One of my Macon acquaintances had come North before me, and +now had a position as cook in a house on Columbus Avenue. I looked +this girl up. Then I went to a lodging-house for colored people on +Kendall Street, and spent one night there. Mrs. Kimball had refused to +give me a recommendation, because she wanted me to stay with her, and +thought the lack of a recommendation would be an inducement. In the +lodging-house I made acquaintance with a colored girl, who took me to +an intelligence office. The man at the desk said he would give me a +card to take to 24 Springfield Street, on receipt of fifty cents. I +had never heard of an office of this kind, and asked a good many +questions. After being assured that my money would be returned in case +I did not accept the situation, I paid the fifty cents and started to +find the address on the card. Being ignorant of the scheme of street +numbering, I inquired of a woman whom I met, where No. 24 was. This +woman asked me if I was looking for work, and when I told her I was, +she said a friend of hers on Springfield Street wanted a servant +immediately. Of course I went with this lady, and after a conference +with the mistress of the house as to my ability, when I could begin +work, what wages I should want, etc., I was engaged as cook at three +dollars and a half a week. + +From this place I proceeded to 24 Springfield Street, as directed, +hoping that I would be refused, so that I might go back to the +intelligence office and get my fifty cents. The lady at No. 24 who +wanted a servant, said she didn't think I was large and strong enough, +and guessed I wouldn't do. Then I went and got my fifty cents. + +Having now obtained a situation, I sent to Mr. Kimball's for my trunk. +I remained in my new place a year and a half. At the end of that time +the family moved to Dorchester, and because I did not care to go out +there, I left their service. + +From this place, I went to Narragansett Pier to work as a chambermaid +for the summer. In the fall, I came back to Boston and obtained a +situation with a family, in Berwick Park. This family afterward moved +to Jamaica Plain, and I went with them. With this family I remained +seven years. They were very kind to me, gave me two or three weeks' +vacation, without loss of pay. + +In June, 1884, I went with them to their summer home in the Isles of +Shoals, as housekeeper for some guests who were coming from Paris. On +the 6th of July I received word that my sister Caroline had died in +June. This was a great blow to me. I remained with the Reeds until +they closed their summer home, but I was not able to do much work +after the news of my sister's death. + +I wrote home to Georgia, to the white people who owned the house in +which Caroline had lived, asking them to take care of her boy Lawrence +until I should come in October. When we came back to Jamaica Plain in +the fall, I was asked to decide what I should do in regard to this +boy. Mrs. Reed wanted me to stay with her, and promised to help pay +for the care of the boy in Georgia. Of course, she said, I could not +expect to find positions if I had a child with me. As an inducement to +remain in my present place and leave the boy in Georgia, I was +promised provision for my future days, as long as I should live. It +did not take me long to decide what I should do. The last time I had +seen my sister, a little over a year before she died, she had said, +when I was leaving, "I don't expect ever to see you again, but if I +die I shall rest peacefully in my grave, because I know you will take +care of my child." + +I left Jamaica Plain and took a room on Village Street for the two or +three weeks until my departure for the South. During this time, a lady +came to the house to hire a girl for her home in Wellesley Hills. The +girl who was offered the place would not go. I volunteered to accept +the position temporarily, and went at once to the beautiful farm. At +the end of a week, a man and his wife had been engaged, and I was to +leave the day after their arrival. These new servants, however, spoke +very little English, and I had to stay through the next week until the +new ones were broken in. After leaving there I started for Georgia, +reaching there at the end of five days, at five o'clock. + +I took a carriage and drove at once to the house where Lawrence was +being taken care of. He was playing in the yard, and when he saw me +leave the carriage he ran and threw his arms around my neck and cried +for joy. I stayed a week in this house, looking after such things of +my sister's as had not been already stored. One day I had a headache, +and was lying down in the cook's room. Lawrence was in the dining-room +with the cook's little girl, and the two got into a quarrel, in the +course of which my nephew struck the cook's child. The cook, in her +anger, chased the boy with a broom, and threatened to give him a good +whipping at all costs. Hearing the noise, I came out into the yard, +and when Lawrence saw me he ran to me for protection. I interceded for +him, and promised he should get into no more trouble. We went at once +to a neighbor's house for the night. The next day I got a room in the +yard of a house belonging to some white people. Here we stayed two +weeks. The only return I was asked to make for the room was to weed +the garden. Lawrence and I dug out some weeds and burned them, but +came so near setting fire to the place that we were told we need not +dig any more weeds, but that we might have the use of the room so long +as we cared to stay. + +In about a week and a half more we got together such things as we +wanted to keep and take away with us. + +The last time I saw my sister, I had persuaded her to open a bank +account, and she had done so, and had made small deposits from time to +time. When I came to look for the bankbook, I discovered that her +lodger, one Mayfield, had taken it at her death, and nobody knew where +it might be now. I found out that Mayfield had drawn thirty dollars +from the account for my sister's burial, and also an unknown amount +for himself. He had done nothing for the boy. I went down to the bank, +and was told that Mayfield claimed to look after my sister's burial +and her affairs. He had made one Reuben Bennett, who was no relation +and had no interest in the matter, administrator for Lawrence, until +his coming of age. But Bennett had as yet done nothing for him. The +book was in the bank, with some of the account still undrawn, how much +I did not know. I next went to see a lawyer, to find out how much it +would cost me to get this book. The lawyer said fifteen dollars. I +said I would call again. In the meantime, I went to the court house, +and when the case on trial was adjourned I went to the judge and +stated my case. The judge, who was slightly acquainted with my sister +and me, told me to have Reuben Bennett in court next morning at nine +o'clock, and to bring Lawrence with me. When we had all assembled +before the judge, he told Bennett to take Lawrence and go to the bank +and get the money belonging to my sister. Bennett went and collected +the money, some thirty-five dollars. The boy was then given into my +care by the judge. For his kindness, the judge would accept no return. +Happy at having obtained the money so easily, we went back to our +room, and rested until our departure the next night for Jacksonville, +Florida. I had decided to go to this place for the winter, on account +of Lawrence, thinking the Northern winter would be too severe for him. + +My youngest sister, who had come to Macon from Atlanta a few days +before my arrival, did not hear of Caroline's death until within a few +days of our departure. This youngest sister decided to go to Florida +with us for the winter. + +Our trunks and baggage were taken to the station in a team. We had a +goodly supply of food, given us by our friends and by the people whose +hospitality we had shared during the latter part of our stay. + +The next morning we got into Jacksonville. My idea was to get a place +as chambermaid at Green Cove Springs, Florida, through the influence +of the head waiter at a hotel there, whom I knew. After I got into +Jacksonville I changed my plans. I did not see how I could move my +things any farther, and we went to a hotel for colored people, hired a +room for two dollars, and boarded ourselves on the food which had been +given us in Macon. This food lasted about two weeks. Then I had to +buy, and my money was going every day, and none coming in, I did not +know what to do. One night the idea of keeping a restaurant came to +me, and I decided to get a little home for the three of us, and then +see what I could do in this line of business. After a long and hard +search, I found a little house of two rooms where we could live, and +the next day I found a place to start my restaurant. For house +furnishings, we used at first, to the best advantage we could, the +things we had brought from Macon. Caroline's cookstove had been left +with my foster-mother in Macon. After hiring the room for the +restaurant, I sent for this stove, and it arrived in a few days. Then +I went to a dealer in second-hand furniture and got such things as +were actually needed for the house and the restaurant, on the +condition that he would take them back at a discount when I got +through with them. + +Trade at the restaurant was very good, and we got along nicely. My +sister got a position as nurse for fifteen dollars a month. One day +the cook from a shipwrecked vessel came to my restaurant, and in +return for his board and a bed in the place, agreed to do my cooking. +After trade became good, I changed my residence to a house of four +rooms, and put three cheap cots in each of two of the rooms, and let +the cots at a dollar a week apiece to colored men who worked nearby in +hotels. Lawrence and I did the chamber work at night, after the day's +work in the restaurant. + +I introduced "Boston baked beans" into my restaurant, much to the +amusement of the people at first; but after they had once eaten them +it was hard to meet the demand for beans. + +Lawrence, who was now about eleven years old, was a great help to me. +He took out dinners to the cigarmakers in a factory nearby. + +At the end of the season, about four months, it had grown so hot that +we could stay in Jacksonville no longer. From my restaurant and my +lodgers I cleared one hundred and seventy-five dollars, which I put +into the Jacksonville bank. Then I took the furniture back to the +dealer, who fulfilled his agreement. + +My sister decided to go back to Atlanta when she got through with her +place as nurse, which would not be for some weeks. + +I took seventy-five dollars out of my bank account, and with Lawrence +went to Fernandina. There we took train to Port Royal, S. C., then +steamer to New York. From New York we went to Brooklyn for a few days. +Then we went to Newport and stayed with a woman who kept a +lodging-house. I decided to see what I could do in Newport by keeping +a boarding and lodging-house. I hired a little house and agreed to pay +nine dollars a month for it. I left Lawrence with some neighbors while +I came to Boston and took some things out of storage. These things I +moved into the little house. But I found, after paying one month's +rent, that the house was not properly located for the business I +wanted. I left, and with Lawrence went to Narragansett Pier. I got a +place there as "runner" for a laundry; that is, I was to go to the +hotels and leave cards and solicit trade. Then Lawrence thought he +would like to help by doing a little work. One night when I came back +from the laundry, I missed him. Nobody had seen him. All night I +searched for him, but did not find him. In the early morning I met him +coming home. He said a man who kept a bowling alley had hired him at +fifty cents a week to set up the pins, and it was in the bowling alley +he had been all night. He said the man let him take a nap on his coat +when he got sleepy. I went at once to see this man, and told him not +to hire my nephew again. A lady who kept a hotel offered me two +dollars a week for Lawrence's services in helping the cook and serving +in the help's dining-room. When the season closed, the lady who hired +Lawrence was very reluctant to let him go. + +We went back to Newport to see the landlady from whom I had hired the +house, and I paid such part of the rent as I could. Then I packed my +things and started for Boston. On reaching there, I kept such of my +things as I needed, and stored the rest, and took a furnished room. In +about a week's time I went to see the husband of the lady for whom I +had worked at Wellesley Hills just previous to my departure for the +South. He had told me to let him know when I returned to Boston. He +said a man and his wife were at present employed at his farm, but he +didn't know how long they would stay. Before another week had passed, +this gentleman sent for me. He said his wife wanted me to go out to +the farm, and that I could have Lawrence with me. The boy, he said, +could help his wife with the poultry, and could have a chance to go to +school. I was promised three dollars and a half a week, and no washing +to do. I was told that the farm had been offered for sale, and of +course it might change hands any day. I was promised, however, that I +should lose nothing by the change. + +Lawrence was very lonely at the farm, with no companions, and used to +sit and cry. + +The place was sold about ten weeks after I went there, and I came into +Boston to look about for a restaurant, leaving Lawrence at the farm. +When the home was broken up, the owners came to the Revere House, +Boston. Barrels of apples, potatoes and other provisions were given to +me. + +I found a little restaurant near the Providence depot for sale. I made +arrangements at once to buy the place for thirty-five dollars, and the +next day I brought Lawrence and my things from Wellesley Hills. I paid +two dollars a week rent for my little restaurant, and did very well. +The next spring I sold the place for fifty dollars, in time to get a +place at the beach for the summer. + +Lawrence got a position in a drug store, and kept it four years. Then +he went to Hampton College, Hampton, Va. After finishing there, he +came back and then went to the World's Fair in Chicago. After that he +took a position on one of the Fall River line boats. At the outbreak +of the Spanish War, he enlisted in Brooklyn as powderman on the +battleship Texas. He was on the Texas when the first shot was fired. +He was present at the decoration of the graves of the American +soldiers in Havana, and also at the decoration of the battleship Maine +after she was raised. After the war, he came to Brooklyn and got an +honorable discharge. Then he served as valet to a rich New York man, +who travelled a good deal. About the middle of last November (1906) +Lawrence came to Boston to see me. He is now in Atlantic City, a +waiter in the Royal Hotel. + +In 1888, I was married, at 27 Pemberton Street, to Samuel H. Burton, +by Dr. O. P. Gifford. After my marriage, Mr. Burton got a place in +Braintree as valet to an old gentleman who was slightly demented, and +he could not be satisfied until I joined him. So I put our things +into storage and went to Braintree. I remained there ten months, and +then came back to Boston. Then I got a position as head matron in the +help's dining-room in a hotel at Watch Hill, R. I. My husband was also +there as waiter. At the end of the season we both came home, and +rented a lodging-house, and lost money on it. + + + + +REMINISCENCES + + +The times changed from slavery days to freedom's days. As young as I +was, my thoughts were mystified to see such wonderful changes; yet I +did not know the meaning of these changing days. But days glided by, +and in my mystified way I could see and hear many strange things. I +would see my master and mistress in close conversation and they seemed +anxious about something that I, a child, could not know the meaning +of. + +But as weeks went by, I began to understand. I saw all the slaves one +by one disappearing from the plantation (for night and day they kept +going) until there was not one to be seen. + +All around the plantation was left barren. Day after day I could run +down to the gate and see down the road troops and troops of Garrison's +Brigade, and in the midst of them gangs and gangs of negro slaves who +joined with the soldiers, shouting, dancing and clapping their hands. +The war was ended, and from Mobile Bay to Clayton, Ala., all along +the road, on all the plantations, the slaves thought that if they +joined the Yankee soldiers they would be perfectly safe. + +As I looked on these I did not know what it meant, for I had never +seen such a circus. The Yankee soldiers found that they had such an +army of men and women and children, that they had to build tents and +feed them to keep them from starving. But from what I, a little child, +saw and heard the older ones say, that must have been a terrible time +of trouble. I heard my master and mistress talking. They said, "Well, +I guess those Yankees had such a large family on their hands, we +rather guessed those fanatics on freedom would be only too glad to +send some back for their old masters to provide for them." + +But they never came back to our plantation, and I could only speak of +my own home, but I thought to myself, what would become of my good +times all over the old plantation. Oh, the harvesting times, the great +hog-killing times when several hundred hogs were killed, and we +children watched and got our share of the slaughter in pig's liver +roasted on a bed of coals, eaten ashes and all. Then came the great +sugar-cane grinding time, when they were making the molasses, and we +children would be hanging round, drinking the sugar-cane juice, and +awaiting the moment to help ourselves to everything good. We did, +too, making ourselves sticky and dirty with the sweet stuff being +made. Not only were the slave children there, but the little white +children from Massa's house would join us and have a jolly time. The +negro child and the white child knew not the great chasm between their +lives, only that they had dainties and we had crusts. + +My sister, being the children's nurse, would take them and wash their +hands and put them to bed in their luxurious bedrooms, while we little +slaves would find what homes we could. My brother and I would go to +sleep on some lumber under the house, where our sister Caroline would +find us and put us to bed. She would wipe our hands and faces and make +up our beds on the floor in Massa's house, for we had lived with him +ever since our own mother had run away, after being whipped by her +mistress. Later on, after the war, my mother returned and claimed us. +I never knew my father, who was a white man. + +During these changing times, just after the war, I was trying to find +out what the change would bring about for us, as we were under the +care of our mistress, living in the great house. I thought this: that +Henry, Caroline and myself, Louise, would have to go as others had +done, and where should we go and what should we do? But as time went +on there were many changes. Our mistress and her two daughters, Martha +and Mary, had to become their own servants, and do all the work of the +house, going into the kitchen, cooking and washing, and feeling very +angry that all their house servants had run away to the Yankees. The +time had come when our good times were over, our many leisure hours +spent among the cotton fields and woods and our half-holiday on +Saturday. These were all gone. The boys had to leave school and take +the runaway slaves' places to finish the planting and pick the cotton. +I myself have worked in the cotton field, picking great baskets full, +too heavy for me to carry. All was over! I now fully understood the +change in our circumstances. Little Henry and I had no more time to +sit basking ourselves in the sunshine of the sunny south. The land was +empty and the servants all gone. I can see my dainty mistress coming +down the steps saying, "Rit, you and Henry will have to go and pick up +some chips, for Miss Mary and myself have to prepare the breakfast. +You children will have to learn to work. Do you understand me, Rit and +Henry?" "Yes, Missus, we understand." And away we flew, laughing, and +thinking it a great joke that we, Massa's pets, must learn to work. + +But it was a sad, sad change on the old plantation, and the beautiful, +proud Sunny South, with its masters and mistresses, was bowed beneath +the sin brought about by slavery. It was a terrible blow to the owners +of plantations and slaves, and their children would feel it more than +they, for they had been reared to be waited upon by willing or +unwilling slaves. + +In this place I will insert a poem my young mistress taught us, for +she was always reading poems and good stories. But first I will record +a talk I heard between my master and mistress. They were sitting in +the dining-room, and we children were standing around the table. My +mistress said, "I suppose, as Nancy has never returned, we had better +keep Henry, Caroline and Louise until they are of age." "Yes, we +will," said Massa, Miss Mary and Miss Martha, "but it is 'man proposes +and God disposes.'" + +So in the following pages you will read the sequel to my childhood +life in the Sunny South. + +Right after the war when my mother had got settled in her hut, with +her little brood hovered around her, from which she had been so long +absent, we had nothing to eat, and nothing to sleep on save some old +pieces of horse-blankets and hay that the soldiers gave her. The +first day in the hut was a rainy day; and as night drew near it grew +more fierce, and we children had gathered some little fagots to make a +fire by the time mother came home, with something for us to eat, such +as she had gathered through the day. It was only corn meal and pease +and ham-bone and skins which she had for our supper. She had started a +little fire, and said, "Some of you close that door," for it was cold. +She swung the pot over the fire and filled it with the pease and +ham-bone and skins. Then she seated her little brood around the fire +on the pieces of blanket, where we watched with all our eyes, our +hearts filled with desire, looking to see what she would do next. She +took down an old broken earthen bowl, and tossed into it the little +meal she had brought, stirring it up with water, making a hoe cake. +She said, "One of you draw that griddle out here," and she placed it +on the few little coals. Perhaps this griddle you have never seen, or +one like it. I will describe it to you. This griddle was a round piece +of iron, quite thick, having three legs. It might have been made in a +blacksmith's shop, for I have never seen one like it before or since. +It was placed upon the coals, and with an old iron spoon she put on +this griddle half of the corn meal she had mixed up. She said, "I will +put a tin plate over this, and put it away for your breakfast." We +five children were eagerly watching the pot boiling, with the pease +and ham-bone. The rain was pattering on the roof of the hut. All at +once there came a knock at the door. My mother answered the knock. +When she opened the door, there stood a white woman and three little +children, all dripping with the rain. My mother said, "In the name of +the Lord, where are you going on such a night, with these children?" +The woman said, "Auntie, I am travelling. Will you please let me stop +here to-night, out of the rain, with my children?" My mother said, +"Yes, honey. I ain't got much, but what I have got I will share with +you." "God bless you!" They all came in. We children looked in wonder +at what had come. But my mother scattered her own little brood and +made a place for the forlorn wanderers. She said, "Wait, honey, let me +turn over that hoe cake." Then the two women fell to talking, each +telling a tale of woe. After a time, my mother called out, "Here, you, +Louise, or some one of you, put some fagots under the pot, so these +pease can get done." We couldn't put them under fast enough, first one +and then another of us children, the mothers still talking. Soon my +mother said, "Draw that hoe cake one side, I guess it is done." My +mother said to the woman, "Honey, ain't you got no husband?" She +said, "No, my husband got killed in the war." My mother replied, +"Well, my husband died right after the war. I have been away from my +little brood for four years. With a hard struggle, I have got them +away from the Farrin plantation, for they did not want to let them go. +But I got them. I was determined to have them. But they would not let +me have them if they could have kept them. With God's help I will keep +them from starving. The white folks are good to me. They give me work, +and I know, with God's help, I can get along." The white woman +replied, "Yes, Auntie, my husband left me on a rich man's plantation. +This man promised to look out for me until my husband came home; but +he got killed in the war, and the Yankees have set his negroes free +and he said he could not help me any more, and we would have to do the +best we could for ourselves. I gave my things to a woman to keep for +me until I could find my kinsfolk. They live about fifty miles from +here, up in the country. I am on my way there now." My mother said, +"How long will it take you to get there?" "About three days, if it +don't rain." My mother said, "Ain't you got some way to ride there?" +"No, Auntie, there is no way of riding up where my folks live, the +place where I am from." + +We hoped the talk was most ended, for we were anxiously watching that +pot. Pretty soon my mother seemed to realize our existence. She +exclaimed, "My Lord! I suppose the little children are nearly starved. +Are those pease done, young ones?" She turned and said to the white +woman, "Have you-all had anything to eat?" "We stopped at a house +about dinner time, but the woman didn't have anything but some bread +and buttermilk." My mother said, "Well, honey, I ain't got but a +little, but I will divide with you." The woman said, "Thank you, +Auntie. You just give my children a little; I can do without it." + +Then came the dividing. We all watched with all our eyes to see what +the shares would be. My mother broke a mouthful of bread and put it on +each of the tin plates. Then she took the old spoon and equally +divided the pea soup. We children were seated around the fire, with +some little wooden spoons. But the wooden spoons didn't quite go +round, and some of us had to eat with our fingers. Our share of the +meal, however, was so small that we were as hungry when we finished as +when we began. + +My mother said, "Take that rag and wipe your face and hands, and give +it to the others and let them use it, too. Put those plates upon the +table." We immediately obeyed orders, and took our seats again around +the fire. "One of you go and pull that straw out of the corner and get +ready to go to bed." We all lay down on the straw, the white children +with us, and my mother covered us over with the blanket. We were soon +in the "Land of Nod," forgetting our empty stomachs. The two mothers +still continued to talk, sitting down on the only seats, a couple of +blocks. A little back against the wall my mother and the white woman +slept. + +Bright and early in the morning we were called up, and the rest of the +hoe cake was eaten for breakfast, with a little meat, some coffee +sweetened with molasses. The little wanderers and their mother shared +our meal, and then they started again on their journey towards their +home among their kinsfolk, and we never saw them again. My mother +said, "God bless you! I wish you all good luck. I hope you will reach +your home safely." Then mother said to us, "You young ones put away +that straw and sweep up the place, because I have to go to my work." +But she came at noon and brought us a nice dinner, more satisfactory +than the supper and breakfast we had had. We children were delighted +that there were no little white children to share our meal this time. + +In time, my older sister, Caroline, and myself got work among good +people, where we soon forgot all the hard times in the little log +cabin by the roadside in Clayton, Alabama. + +Up to my womanhood, even to this day, these memories fill my mind. +Some kind friends' eyes may see these pages, and may they recall some +fond memories of their happy childhood, as what I have written brings +back my young life in the great Sunny South. + +I am something of the type of Moses on this 49th birthday; not that I +am wrapped in luxuries, but that my thoughts are wrapped in the +luxuries of the heavenly life in store for me, when my life work is +done, and my friends shall be blessed by the work I shall have done. +For God has commanded me to write this book, that some one may read +and receive comfort and courage to do what God commands them to do. +God bless every soul who shall read this true life story of one born +in slavery. + +It is now six years since the inspiration to write this book came to +me in the Franklin evening school. I have struggled on, helped by +friends. God said, "Write the book and I will help you." And He has. + +It was through a letter of my life that the principal of the Franklin +school said, "Write the book and I will help you." But he died before +the next term, and I worked on. On this, my 49th birthday, I can say I +believe that the book is close to the finish. + + My life is like the summer rose + That opens to the morning sky, + But ere the shades of evening close + Is scattered on the ground to die. + Yet on the rose's humble bed + The sweetest dews of night are shed, + As if she wept a tear for me, + As if she wept the waste to see. + + My life is like the autumn leaf + That trembles in the moon's pale ray. + Its hold is frail, its date is brief, + Restless, and soon to pass away. + Yet, ere that leaf shall fall and fade, + The parent tree will mourn its shade, + The winds bewail the leafless tree; + But none shall breathe a sigh for me. + + My life is like the prints which feet + Have left on Tampa's desert strand. + Soon as the rising tide shall beat + All trace will vanish from the sand. + Yet, as if grieving to efface + All vestige of the human race, + On that lone shore loud moans the sea. + But none, alas, shall mourn for me. + + + + +A VISION + + +There remains to be told the story of my conversion and how I came to +write the foregoing history of my life. + +In 1875 I was taken sick. I thought I was going to die, and I promised +the Lord I would serve Him if he would only spare my life. When I got +well again, however, I forgot all about my promise. Then I was taken +sick again. It seemed I had to go through a dark desert place, where +great demons stood on either side. In the distance I could just see a +dim light, and I tried to get to this light, but could not reach it. +Then I found myself in a great marsh, and was sinking. I threw up my +hands and said, "Lord, if Thou wilt raise me from this pit, I will +never fail to serve Thee." Then it seemed as if I mounted on wings +into the air, and all the demons that stood about made a great +roaring. My flight ended on the top of a hill. But I was troubled +because I could not find the light. All at once, at the sound of a +loud peal of thunder, the earth opened, and I fell down into the pits +of hell. Again I prayed to God to save me from this, and again I +promised to serve Him. My prayer was answered, and I was able to fly +out of the pit, on to a bank. At the foot of the little hill on which +I sat were some little children, and they called to me to come down. +But I could not get down. Then the children raised a ladder for me, +and I came down among them. A little cherub took me by the hand and +led me in the River of Badjied of Jordan. I looked at my ankles and +shoulders and discovered I had little wings. On the river was a ship. +The children, the cherub and I got into the ship. When we reached a +beautiful spot, the little cherub made the ship fast, and there opened +before us pearly gates, and we all passed through into the golden +street. The street led to the throne of God, about which we marched. +Then the cherub conducted us to a table where a feast was spread. Then +the children vanished. The cherub took me by the hand, and said, "Go +back into the world, and tell the saints and sinners what a Savior you +have found, and if you prove faithful I will take you to Heaven to +live forever, when I come again." + +When I recovered from my sickness, I was baptized by the Rev. Dr. +Pope, and joined the church in Macon. When I came North, I brought my +letter. Not finding any church for colored people, I came among the +white people, and was treated so kindly that I became very much +attached to them. The first church I became connected with in the +North, was in Newtonville. When I came to Boston, I went to the Warren +Avenue Baptist Church. Before my marriage I joined Tremont Temple, +when Dr. Lorimer was its pastor. When the church was burned, my letter +was destroyed, but when I went South on a visit I had the letter +duplicated, and took it to the new Temple. I am still a member of the +Temple, and hope to remain there as long as God gives me life. + +Five years ago, I began to go to the Franklin evening school. Mr. +Guild was the master. At one time he requested all the pupils to write +the story of their lives, and he considered my composition so +interesting he said he thought if I could work it up and enlarge upon +it, I could write a book. He promised to help me. My teacher was Miss +Emerson, and she was interested in me. But the next year Miss Emerson +gave up teaching, and Mr. Guild died. + +In each of the terms that I have attended, I have received the +certificates showing that I have been regular and punctual in +attendance, have maintained good deportment, and shown general +proficiency in the studies. I would have graduated in 1907, had it not +been for sickness. The following was to have been my graduating +composition. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY + +ANNIE L. BURTON + + +In a little clearing in the backwoods of Harding County, Kentucky, +there stood years ago a rude cabin within whose walls Abraham Lincoln +passed his childhood. An "unaccountable" man he has been called, and +the adjective was well chosen, for who could account for a mind and +nature like Lincoln's with the ancestry he owned? His father was a +thriftless, idle carpenter, scarcely supporting his family, and with +but the poorest living. His mother was an uneducated woman, but must +have been of an entirely different nature, for she was able to impress +upon her boy a love of learning. During her life, his chief, in fact +his only book, was the Bible, and in this he learned to read. Just +before he was nine years old, the father brought his family across the +Ohio River into Illinois, and there in the unfloored log cabin, minus +windows and doors, Abraham lived and grew. It was during this time +that the mother died, and in a short time the shiftless father with +his family drifted back to the old home, and here found another for +his children in one who was a friend of earlier days. This woman was +of a thrifty nature, and her energy made him floor the cabin, hang +doors, and open up windows. She was fond of the children and cared for +them tenderly, and to her the boy Abraham owed many pleasant hours. + +As he grew older, his love for knowledge increased and he obtained +whatever books he could, studying by the firelight, and once walking +six miles for an English Grammar. After he read it, he walked the six +miles to return it. He needed the book no longer, for with this as +with his small collection of books, what he once read was his. He +absorbed the books he read. + +During these early years he did "odd jobs" for the neighbors. Even at +this age, his gift of story telling was a notable one, as well as his +sterling honesty. His first knowledge of slavery in all its horrors +came to him when he was about twenty-one years old. He had made a trip +to New Orleans, and there in the old slave market he saw an auction. +His face paled, and his spirits rose in revolt at the coarse jest of +the auctioneer, and there he registered a vow within himself, "If ever +I have a chance to strike against slavery, I will strike and strike +hard." To this end he worked and for this he paid "the last full +measure of devotion." + +His political life began with a defeat for the Illinois Legislature in +1830, but he was returned in 1834, 1836, 1838, and declined +re-election in 1840, preferring to study law and prepare for his +future. "Honest Abe" he has been called, and throughout Illinois that +characteristic was the prominent one known of him. From this time his +rise was rapid. Sent to the Congress of the nation, he seldom spoke, +but when he did his terse though simple expression always won him a +hearing. His simplicity and frankness was deceptive to the political +leaders, and from its very fearlessness often defeated them. + +His famous debates with Senator Douglas, the "Little Giant," spread +his reputation from one end of the country to the other, and at their +close there was no question as to Lincoln's position in the North, or +on the vital question of the day. + +The spirit of forbearance he carried with him to the White House, +"with malice toward none, with charity for all." This was the spirit +that carried him through the four awful years of the war. The martyr's +crown hovered over him from the outset. The martyr's spirit was always +his. The burden of the war always rested on his shoulders. The +fathers, sons and brothers, the honored dead of Gettysburg, of +Antietam, all lay upon his mighty heart. + +He never forgot his home friends, and when occasionally one dropped in +on him, the door was always open. They frequently had tea in the good +old-fashioned way, and then Lincoln listened to the news of the +village, old stories were retold, new ones told, and the old +friendships cemented by new bonds. + +Then came the end, swift and sudden, and gloom settled upon the +country; for in spite of ancestry, self-education, ungainly figure, +ill-fitting clothes, the soul of the man had conquered even the +stubborn South, while the cold-blooded North was stricken to the +heart. The noblest one of all had been taken. + + + + +THE RACE QUESTION IN AMERICA + +BY + +DR. P. THOMAS STANFORD + +AUTHOR OF THE "TRAGEDY OF THE NEGRO IN AMERICA" + + +As a member of the negro race, I myself have suffered as a child whose +parents were born in slavery, deprived of all influences of the +ennobling life, made obedient to the will of the white man by the lash +and chain, and sold to the highest bidder when there was no more use +for them. + +The first negro fact for white thought is--that my clients, the +colored people here in America, are not responsible for being here any +more than they are responsible for their conditions of ignorance and +poverty. They suddenly emerge from their prison house poor, without a +home, without food or clothing, and ignorant. Now the enemies of God +and of the progress of civilization in our country are to-day +introducing a system of slavery with which they hope to again enslave +the colored people. To carry out their evil designs they retain able +politicians, lawyers and newspapers to represent them, such as Senator +Tillman, the Hon. John Temple Graves of Georgia and the Baltimore Sun, +and they are trying the negro on four counts which allege that the +race is ignorant, cannot be taught, is lazy and immoral. + +Now, are the negroes, as a whole, guilty of these charges? In the +first place, the negro race of America is not ignorant. In the year +1833 John C. Calhoun, senator from South Carolina, is reported to have +said that if he could find a single negro who understood the Greek +syntax, he would believe the negro was human and would treat him as +such. At that time it was a very safe test. God accepted the challenge +in behalf of the negro race, and inspired his white sons and daughters +both in the North and South to teach their brothers in black; and a +few years afterward black men were examined and the world pronounced +them scholars, while later still the schools were using a Greek +grammar written by a black man, W. S. Scarborough of Wilberforce, O. +In his class were Frederick Douglas, Henry Highland Garnett, Robert +Elliot, the Rev. J. C. Price and John M. Langstone, as defenders of +the race. Bishop Allen Payne, Bishop Hood and John B. Reaver will ever +be remembered for their godly piety and Christian example, as we shall +also remember Bishop, Sumner and Bubois for their great literary +productions, William Washington Brown as the greatest organizer and +financier of the century, Prof. Booker Washington as the greatest +industrial educator of the world, and last, but not least, Thomas +Condon, the greatest crank for the spiritual training and higher +education of the negro race. + +Under the leadership of such men, assisted by our white friends and +backed up by our colored race journals--the Christian Banner of +Philadelphia, the Christian Recorder, the Star of Zion and the +Afro-American Ledger of Baltimore, Ind., the National Baptist Union +of Pennsylvania, the Age of New York, the Christian Organizer of +Virginia and the Guardian of Boston--our onward march to civilization +is phenomenal and by these means we have reduced illiteracy 50 per +cent. + +In the South we have over $12,000,000 worth of school property, 3,000 +teachers, 50 high schools, 17 academies, 125 colleges, 10 law and +medical schools, 25 theological seminaries, all doing a mighty work +for God and humanity. + +Now as to laziness. We have now in practice 14,000 lawyers and +doctors, and have accumulated over $150,000,000 worth of church +property. In the South we have over 150,000 farms and houses, valued +at $900,000,000, and personal property at $170,000,000. We have raised +over $11,000,000 for educational purposes. The property per capita for +every colored man, woman and child in the United States is estimated +at $75, and we are operating successfully several banks and factories; +we have 7,500,000 acres of land, and the business activity of the +colored people was never as thoroughly aroused as it is to-day. + +When I come to deal with the charge of immorality I bow my head and +blush for shame, first because if the charge be true, I see they are +getting like the white man every day. I know that at the close of the +American civil war the 4,000,000 negroes had more than 25 per cent. of +white blood coursing through their veins. + +What about this new educated negro? Just ask the Pullman Car Company, +which employs hundreds of negroes, into whose care thousands of women +and children of our best American families are entrusted every day. + +Now, you cannot do without the negro, because if you send him away, +you will run after him. He is here to stay. The only way to deal +successfully with the colored race is God's way. First, recognize that +he is your guest; second, recognize that you have robbed him of his +birthplace, home, family and savings. It is these facts that are +causing so much unrest on the part of the whites in this country. The +negro loves his country, which he has proved beyond a doubt in every +American battle, in every act of loyalty to his country, and in his +long and patient suffering. Pay him what you owe him by educating him. +Give him an opportunity to live. Allow him to live in decent parts of +your city. Pay wages sufficient to support his children. Do this and +God will remove the objectionable negro from the land. + + * * * * * + +The Negro stands to-day upon an eminence that overlooks more than two +decades spent in efforts to ameliorate the condition of seven million +immortal souls by opening before their hitherto dark and cheerless +lives possibilities of development into a perfect and symmetrical +manhood and womanhood. + +The retrospect presents to us a picture of a people's moral +degradation and mental gloom caused by slavery. A people absolutely +sunk in the lowest depth of a poverty which reduced them to objects of +charity and surrounded them with difficulties which have ever stood as +impregnable barriers in their way to speedy advancement in all those +qualities that make the useful citizen. Every influence of state and +society life seems to be against their progress and like some evil +genius, these Negro hating ghosts are forever hunting them with the +idea that their future must be one of subserviency to the white race. + +Hated and oppressed by the combined wisdom, wealth and statesmanship +of a mighty confederacy who watched and criticised their mistakes +which were strongly magnified by those who fain would write +destruction upon the Emancipation; they are expected to rise from this +condition. + +The idea of giving to the newly enfranchised a sound, practical +education was considered at the dawn of freedom, an easy solution of +what as an unsolved problem threatened the perpetuity of republican +institutions. Within a year from the firing on Sumter, benevolent and +farsighted Northern friends had established schools from Washington to +the Gulf of Mexico, which became centers of light penetrating the +darkness and scattering the blessings of an enlightened manhood far +and wide. + +The history of the world cannot produce a more affecting spectacle +than the growth of this mighty Christian philanthropy which, in +beginning amid the din of battle, has steadily marched on through +every opposing influence, and lifted a race from weakness to strength, +from poverty to wealth, from moral and intellectual nonentity to place +and power among the nations of the earth. + +We have ten millions of colored people in the United States whose +condition is much better to-day than it was fifty years ago. Then he +had nothing, not even a name. To-day he has 160,000 farms under good +cultivation and valued at $4,000,000 and has personal property valued +at $200,000,000. In the Southland the negroes own 160 first-class drug +stores, nine banks, 13 building associations, and 100 insurance and +benefit companies, two street railways and an electric at +Jacksonville, Fla., which they started some few years ago when the +white people passed the Jim Crow law for that state. + +Now it is reckoned that the negroes in the United States are paying +about $700,000,000 property taxes and this is only one-fifth of all +they have accumulated, for the negro is getting more like the white +people every day and has learned from him that it is not a sign of +loyalty and patriotism to publish his property at its full taxable +value. + +In education and morals the progress is still greater. As you all +know, at the close of the war the whole race was practically +illiterate. It was a rare thing, indeed, to find a man of the race who +even knew his letters. In 1880 the illiteracy had fallen to 70 per +cent. and rapid strides along that line have been made ever since. + +To-day there are 37,000 negro teachers in America, of which number +23,000 are regular graduates of high and normal schools and colleges, +23 are college presidents, 169 are principals of seminaries and many +are principals of higher institutions. At present there are 369 negro +men and women taking courses in the universities of Europe. The negro +ministry, together with these teachers have been prepared for their +work by our schools and are the greatest factors the North has +produced for the uplift of the colored man. + +To-day there are those who wish to impede the negro's progress and +lessen his educational advantages by industrializing such colleges as +Howard University of Washington by placing on their Boards of Trustees +and Managers the pronounced leaders of industrialism, giving as a +reason that the better he is educated the worse he is; in other words, +they say crime has increased among educated negroes. While stern facts +show the opposite, the exact figures from the last census show that +the greater proportion of the negro criminals are from the illiterate +class. To-day the marriage vow, which by the teaching of the whites +the negro held to be of so little importance before the war, is +guarded more sacredly. The one room cabin, with its attendant evils, +is passing away, and the negro woman, the mightiest moral factor in +the life of her people, is beginning to be more careful in her +deportment and is no longer the easy victim of the unlicensed passion +of certain white men. This is a great gain and is a sign of real +progress, for no race can rise higher than its women. + +Let me plead with the friends of the negro. Please continue to give +him higher ideals of a better life and stand by him in the struggle. +He has done well with the opportunities given him and is doing +something along all the walks of life to help himself, which is +gratitude of the best sort. What he needs to-day is moral sympathy, +which in his condition years ago he could hardly appreciate. The +sympathy must be moral, not necessarily social. It must be the +sympathy of a soul set on fire for righteousness and fair play in a +republic like ours. A sympathy which will see to it that every man +shall have a man's chance in all the affairs of this great nation +which boasts of being the land of the free and the home of the brave +for which the black man has suffered and done so much in every sense +of the word. + +Let this great Christian nation of eighty millions of people do +justice to the Black Battalion, and seeing President Roosevelt +acknowledges that he overstepped the bounds of his power in +discharging and renouncing them before they had a fair trial, and now +that they are vindicated before the world, to take back what he called +them, Cutthroats, Brutal Murderers, Black Midnight Assassins, and +Cowards. This and this alone will to some extent atone for the wrong +he has done and help him to regain the respect and confidence of the +world. + +Now in order to change the condition of things, I would suggest: +First, that an international, industrial association be formed to help +Afro-Americans to engage in manufacturing and commercial pursuits, +assist them to buy farms, erect factories, open shops in which their +young men and women can enter and produce what the world requires +every day for its inhabitants. + +If they were able to-day to produce the articles in common use as +boots, shoes, hats, cotton and woolen goods, made-up clothing and +enterprises such as farming, mining, forging, carpentering, etc., +negroes would find a ready sale in preference to all others, because +of its being a race enterprise, doing what no other corporation does, +giving employment to members of the race as tradesmen, and teaching +others to become skilled workers. These enterprises should be started +in the southern, northern and western states, where the negro +population will warrant such an undertaking. + +I would suggest "A School History of the Negro Race" to be placed in +our public schools as a text book. The general tone of all the +histories taught in our public schools points to the inferiority of +the negro and the superiority of the white. It must be indeed a +stimulus to any people to be able to refer to their ancestry as +distinguished in deeds of valor, and particularly so to the colored +people. With what eyes can the white child look upon the colored child +and the colored child look upon himself, when they have completed the +assigned course of United States history, and in it found not one word +of credit, not one word of favorable comment for even one among the +millions of his fore-parents who have lived through nearly three +centuries of his country's history. In them he is credited with no +heritage of valor, he is mentioned only as a slave, while true +historical records prove him to have been among the bravest of +soldiers and a faithful producer of the nation's wealth. Though then a +slave to the government, the negro's was the first blood shed in its +defence in those days when a foreign foe threatened its destruction. +In each and all of the American wars the negro was faithful, yes, +faithful in battle while members of his race were being lynched to +death; faithful to a land not his own in points of rights and +freedom, all and that after he had enriched with his own life's blood, +shouldered his musket to defend, when all this was done, regarded him +with renewed terms, Black, Negro. + +Last but not least the negro needs a daily newspaper in every large +city, managed and edited by members of the race. + +Such papers are needed to deal with questions of state and reflect the +thoughts of the social world, to enter the province of ethics and +tread the domain of morals and to give their opinion on the varying +phases of religious truths and pass judgment on matters of a political +nature. + +There are hidden wrongs perpetrated by the whites against the negro +race that will never be brought to light until the race owns and +controls its own daily newspapers which alone have the power to +discover and enthrone truth, thus becoming a safe guide to all honest +seekers of facts respecting the race whether from a moral, +educational, political or religious field. To carry out the plans +suggested, whether viewed from an intellectual, industrial, +commercial, or editorial standpoint, the world must acknowledge that +to-day the negro race has the men and women, who are true to their +race and all that stands for negro progress. + + + + +HISTORICAL COMPOSITION + +BY + +ANNIE L. BURTON + + +It is only 132 years ago to-day that the British troops, who had +occupied Boston, made a riding school of the Old South church, and +otherwise sacrilegiously disported themselves, were persuaded to get +out under the compulsion of the batteries set up on Dorchester +Heights. But when the last company embarked for Halifax, it carried +the last British flag ever unfurled by a military organization on +Massachusetts soil. That was the end of foreign domination in +Massachusetts. And by a happy coincidence this is the legendary +anniversary of the birth of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, +whose memory has been an inspiration in the struggle of another race +for Liberty. + + +A QUESTION OF ETHICS + + +New York, Dec. 17.--Andrew Carnegie declared yesterday in a speech on +the negro question that the negroes are a blessing to America, and +that their presence in the South makes this country impregnable and +without need of a navy to defend itself. + +"Suppose," said Mr. Carnegie, "Great Britain were to send her war +fleets to America. It would amount to nothing. All that the President +of the United States would have to do would be to say, 'Stop exporting +cotton.' The war would be ended in four days, for England cannot do +without our cotton. + +"We don't need a navy; we are impregnable. Because we have 9,000,000 +colored men anxious and willing to work we hold this strong position, +and I am interested in the negro from this material standpoint, as +well as from the more humane point of view." + + + + +MY FAVORITE POEMS + + +Verses + + On a green slope, most fragrant with the Spring, + One sweet, fair day I planted a red rose, + That grew, beneath my tender nourishing, + So tall, so riotous of bloom, that those + Who passed the little valley where it grew + Smiled at its beauty. All the air was sweet + About it! Still I tended it, and knew + That he would come, e'en as it grew complete. + + And a day brought him! Up I led him, where + In the warm sun my rose bloomed gloriously-- + Smiling and saying, Lo, is it not fair? + And all for thee--all thine! But he passed by + Coldly, and answered, Rose? I see no rose,-- + Leaving me standing in the barren vale + Alone! alone! feeling the darkness close + Deep o'er my heart, and all my being fail. + + Then came one, gently, yet with eager tread, + Begging one rose-bud--but my rose was dead. + + +Verses + + The old, old Wind that whispers to old trees, + Round the dark country when the sun has set, + Goes murmuring still of unremembered seas + And cities of the dead that men forget-- + An old blind beggar-man, distained and gray, + With ancient tales to tell, + Mumbling of this and that upon his way, + Strange song and muttered spell-- + Neither to East or West, or South or North, + His habitation lies, + This roofless vagabond who wanders forth + Aye under alien skies-- + A gypsy of the air, he comes and goes + Between the tall trees and the shadowed grass, + And what he tells only the twilight knows ... + The tall trees and the twilight hear him pass. + + To him the Dead stretch forth their strengthless hands, + He who campaigns in other climes than this, + He who is free of the Unshapen Lands, + The empty homes of Dis. + + +Verses + + Out of the scattered fragments + Of castles I built in the air + I gathered enough together + To fashion a cottage with care; + Thoughtfully, slowly, I planned it, + And little by little it grew-- + Perfect in form and in substance, + Because I designed it for you. + + The castles that time has shattered + Gleamed spotless and pearly white + As they stood in the misty distance + That borders the Land of Delight; + Sleeping and waking I saw them + Grow brighter and fairer each day; + But, alas! at the touch of a finger + They trembled and crumbled away! + + Then out of the dust I gathered + A bit of untarnished gold, + And a gem unharmed by contact + With stones of a baser mold; + For sometimes a priceless jewel + Gleams wondrously pure and fair + From glittering paste foundations + Of castles we see in the air. + + So, I turned from the realms of fancy, + As remote as the stars above, + And into the land of the living + I carried the jewel of love; + The mansions of dazzling brightness + Have crumbled away, it is true; + But firm upon gold foundations + Stands the cottage I built for you! + + +Verses + + You do but jest, sir, and you jest not well. + How could the hand be enemy of the arm, + Or seed and sod be rivals? How could light + Feel jealousy of heat, plant of the leaf, + Or competition dwell 'twixt lip and smile? + Are we not part and parcel of yourselves? + Like strands in one great braid we intertwine + And make the perfect whole. You could not be + Unless we gave you birth: we are the soil + From which you sprang, yet sterile were that soil + Save as you planted. (Though in the Book we read + One woman bore a child with no man's aid, + We find no record of a man-child born + Without the aid of woman! Fatherhood + Is but a small achievement at the best, + While motherhood is heaven and hell.) + This ever-growing argument of sex + Is most unseemly, and devoid of sense. + Why waste more time in controversy, when + There is not time enough for all of love, + Our rightful occupation in this life? + Why prate of our defects--of where we fail, + When just the story of our worth would need + Eternity for telling; and our best + Development comes ever through your praise, + As through our praise you reach your highest self? + Oh! had you not been miser of your praise + And let our virtues be their own reward, + The old established order of the world + Would never have been changed. Small blame is ours + For this unsexing of ourselves, and worse + Effeminizing of the male. We were + Content, sir, till you starved us, heart and brain. + All we have done, or wise or otherwise, + Traced to the root, was done for love of you. + Let us taboo all vain comparisons, + And go forth as God meant us, hand in hand, + Companions, mates and comrades evermore; + Two parts of one divinely ordained whole. + + +Verses + + A widow had two sons, + And one knelt at her knees, + And sought to give her joy + And toiled to give her ease; + He heard his country's call + And longed to go, to die + If God so willed, but saw + Her tears and heard her sigh. + + A widow had two sons, + One filled her days with care + And creased her brow and brought + Her many a whitened hair + His country called--he went. + Nor thought to say good-by, + And recklessly he fought, + And died as heroes die. + + A widow had two sons, + One fell as heroes fall, + And one remained and toiled, + And gave to her his all. + She watched "her hero's" grave + In dismal days and fair, + And told the world her love, + Her heart was buried there. + + +Our Mission + + In the legends of the Norsemen, + Stories quaint and weird and wild, + There's a strange and thrilling story, + Of a mother and her child. + And that child, so runs the story, + In those quaint old Norsemen books, + Fell one day from dangerous play ground, + Dashed in pieces on the rocks; + But with gentle hand that mother + Gathered every tender part, + Bore them gently, torn and bleeding, + On her loving mother heart. + And within her humble dwelling, + Strong in faith and brave of soul, + With her love-song low and tender + Rocked and sang the fragments whole. + Such the mission of the Christian, + Taught by Christ so long ago; + This the mark that bids us stay not, + This the spirit each should know: + Rent and torn by sin the race is, + Heart from heart, and soul from soul; + This our task with Christ's sweet love-song, + Join, and heal, and make them whole. + +--_Rev. E. M. Bartlett_ + + +Verses + + Lord over all! Whose power the sceptre swayed, + Ere first Creation's wondrous form was framed, + When by His will Divine all things were made; + Then, King, Almighty was His name proclaimed. + + When all shall cease--the universe be o'er, + In awful greatness He alone will reign, + Who was, Who is, and Who will evermore + In glory most refulgent still remain. + + Sole God! unequalled and beyond compare, + Without division or associate; + Without commencing date, or final year, + Omnipotent He reigns in awful state. + + He is my God! my living Savior He! + My sheltering Rock in sad misfortune's hour! + My standard, refuge, portion, still shall be, + My lot's disposer when I seek His power. + + Into His hands my spirit I consign + Whilst wrapped in sleep, that I again may wake, + And with my soul, my body I resign; + The Lord's with me--no fears my soul can shake. + + +THE CREATION + +BY + +ANNIE L. BURTON + + The earth, the firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + Were made by God's creative power + Six thousand years ago or more. + Man, too, was formed to till the ground; + Birds, beasts, and fish to move around; + The fish to swim, the birds to fly, + And all to praise the Love most high. + This world is round, wise men declare, + And hung on nothing in the air. + The moon around the earth doth run; + The earth moves on its center, too; + The earth and moon around the sun + As wheels and tops and pulleys do. + Water and land make up the whole, + From East to West, from pole to pole. + Vast mountains rear their lofty heads, + Rivers roll down their sandy beds; + And all join in one grand acclaim + To praise the Lord's almighty name. + + + + +MY FAVORITE HYMNS + + +The Ninety and Nine + + There were ninety and nine that safely lay + In the shelter of the fold, + But one was out on the hills away, + Far-off from the gates of gold-- + Away on the mountains lone and bare, + Away from the tender Shepherd's care. + + "Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine: + Are they not enough for Thee?" + But the Shepherd made answer: "This of mine + Has wandered away from me, + And, although the road be rough and steep, + I go to the desert to find my sheep." + + But none of the ransomed ever knew + How deep were the waters crossed; + Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through + Ere he found His sheep that was lost. + Out in the desert he heard the cry-- + Sick and helpless, and ready to die. + + "Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way + That mark out the mountain's track?" + "They were shed for one who had gone astray + Ere the Shepherd could bring him back." + "Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?" + "They are pierced tonight by many a thorn." + + But all through the mountains, thunder-riven, + And up from the rocky steep, + There arose a glad cry to the height of heaven, + "Rejoice! I have found my sheep!" + And the angels echoed around the throne: + "Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!" + + +My Faith looks up to Thee + + My faith looks up to Thee, + Thou Lamb of Calvary, + Saviour divine! + Now hear me while I pray, + Take all my guilt away, + O, let me from this day + Be wholly Thine. + + May Thy rich grace impart + Strength to my fainting heart, + My zeal inspire; + As Thou hast died for me, + O, may my love to Thee + Pure, warm, and changeless be, + A living fire. + + When ends life's transient dream, + When death's cold, sullen stream + Shall o'er me roll, + Blest Saviour, then, in love, + Fear and distrust remove; + O, bear me safe above, + A ransomed soul. + + +Jordan's Strand + + My days are gliding swiftly by, + And I, a pilgrim stranger, + Would not detain them as they fly, + Those hours of toil and danger. + + +_Chorus_ + + For, O we stand on Jordan's strand, + Our friends are passing over; + And, just before, the shining shore + We may almost discover! + + We'll gird our loins, my brethren dear, + Our heavenly home discerning; + Our absent Lord has left us word, + "Let every lamp be burning." + + Should coming days be cold and dark, + We need not cease our singing; + That perfect rest nought can molest, + Where golden harps are ringing. + + Let sorrow's rudest tempest blow, + Each cord on earth to sever; + Our King says, "Come!" and there's our home, + Forever, O forever. + + +Over the Line + + O tender and sweet was the Master's voice + As he lovingly call'd to me, + "Come over the line, it is only a step-- + I am waiting my child, for thee." + + +_Refrain_ + + "Over the line," hear the sweet refrain, + Angels are chanting the heavenly strain: + "Over the line,"--Why should I remain + With a step between me and Jesus? + + But my sins are many, my faith is small, + Lo! the answer came quick and clear; + "Thou needest not trust in thyself at all, + Step over the line, I am here." + + But my flesh is weak, I tearfully said, + And the way I cannot see; + I fear if I try I may sadly fail, + And thus may dishonor Thee. + + Ah, the world is cold, and I cannot go back + Press forward I surely must; + I will place my hand in his wounded palm + Step over the line, and trust. + + +O could I speak the Matchless Worth + + O could I speak the matchless worth, + O could I sound the glories forth, + Which in my Saviour shine, + I'd soar, and touch the heav'nly strings, + And vie with Gabriel while he sings, + In notes almost divine. + + I'd sing the precious blood He spilt, + My ransom from the dreadful guilt + Of sin and wrath divine; + I'd sing His glorious righteousness, + In which all-perfect, heavenly dress + My soul shall ever shine. + + I'd sing the characters He bears, + And all the forms of love He wears, + Exalted on His throne; + In loftiest songs of sweetest praise, + I would to everlasting days + Make all His glories known. + + Well, the delightful day will come + When my dear Lord will bring me home, + And I shall see His face; + Then with my Saviour, Brother, Friend, + A blest eternity I'll spend, + Triumphant in His grace. + + +O God, beneath Thy Guiding Hand + + O God, beneath Thy guiding hand, + Our exiled fathers cross'd the sea; + And when they trod the wintry strand, + With pray'r and psalm they worshipp'd Thee. + + Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer: + Thy blessing came and still its power + Shall onward through all ages bear + The memory of that holy hour. + + Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God + Came with those exiles o'er the waves; + And where their pilgrim feet have trod, + The God they trusted guards their graves. + + And here Thy name, O God of love, + Their children's children shall adore + Till these eternal hills remove + And spring adorns the earth no more. + + +America + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty, + Of thee I sing; + Land where my fathers died, + Land of the pilgrim's pride, + From every mountain side + Let freedom ring. + + My native country, thee, + Land of the noble free, + Thy name I love; + I love thy rocks and rills, + Thy woods and templed hills; + My heart with rapture thrills + Like that above. + + Let music swell the breeze, + And ring from all the trees + Sweet freedom's song; + Let mortal tongues awake, + Let all that breathe partake, + Let rocks their silence break, + The sound prolong. + + Our fathers' God to Thee, + Author of liberty, + To Thee we sing; + Long may our land be bright + With freedom's holy light; + Protect us with Thy might, + Great God our King. + + +In the Cross of Christ I Glory + + In the cross of Christ I glory, + Towering o'er the wrecks of time; + All the light of sacred story + Gathers round its head sublime. + + When the woes of life o'ertake me, + Hopes deceive and fears annoy, + Never shall the cross forsake me: + Lo! it glows with peace and joy. + + When the sun of bliss is beaming + Light and love upon my way, + From the cross the radiance streaming, + Add more luster to the day. + + Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, + By the cross are sanctified; + Peace is there that knows no measure, + Joys that through all time abide. + + +Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah + + Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, + Pilgrim thro' this barren land; + I am weak, but Thou art mighty; + Hold me with Thy pow'rful hand; + Bread of heaven, + Feed me till I want no more. + + Open now the crystal fountain + Whence the healing waters flow; + Let the fiery, cloudy pillar + Lead me all my journey through; + Strong Deliverer, + Be Thou still my strength and shield. + + When I tread the verge of Jordan, + Bid my anxious fears subside; + Bear me through the swelling current, + Land me safe on Canaan's side; + Songs of praises + I will ever give to Thee. + + +Christ receiveth Sinful Men + + Sinners Jesus will receive; + Sound this word of grace to all + Who the heav'nly pathway leave, + All who linger, all who fall. + + +_Chorus_ + + Sing it o'er and o'er again: + Christ receiveth sinful men; + Make the message clear and plain: + Christ receiveth sinful men. + + Come, and He will give you rest; + Trust Him, for His word is plain; + He will take the sinfulest; + Christ receiveth sinful men. + + Christ receiveth sinful men, + Even me with all my sin; + Purged from ev'ry spot and stain, + Heav'n with Him I enter in. + + +Some Day the Silver Cord will break + + Some day the silver cord will break, + And I no more as now shall sing; + But, O, the joy when I shall wake + Within the palace of the King! + + And I shall see Him face to face, + And tell the story--Saved by grace. + + Some day my earthly house will fall, + I cannot tell how soon 'twill be, + But this I know--my All in All + Has now a place in heaven for me. + + Some day; till then I'll watch and wait, + My lamp all trimmed and burning bright, + That when my Saviour ope's the gate. + My soul to Him may take its flight. + + +Battle Hymn of the Republic + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loos'd the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read His righteous sentence in the dim and flaring lamps; + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel, + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you My grace shall deal"; + Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel; + Since God is marching on. + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never sound retreat, + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; + O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days, by +Annie L. 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Burton. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + +a[name] {position:absolute;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + + table { width:80%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: solid black 1px;} + .tocch { text-align: right; vertical-align: top;} + .tocpg {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i7 {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days, by Annie L. Burton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days + +Author: Annie L. Burton + +Release Date: February 26, 2006 [EBook #17864] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDHOOD'S SLAVERY DAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note: </p> +<p class="center">The table of contents is not a part of the original book.</p></div> + + + + + + + + + + + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_01.jpg" alt="Annie L. Burton" width="400" height="556" /></p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_02.jpg" alt="Cover" width="500" height="819" /></p> +<h1>Memories of Childhood's<br /> + Slavery Days</h1> + <p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>By</h3> + + +<h2>Annie L. Burton</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_05.jpg" alt="Seal" width="50" height="36" /></p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h4 >BOSTON</h4> +<h3 >ROSS PUBLISHING COMPANY</h3> +<h3 >1909</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td ><a href="#RECOLLECTIONS_OF_A_HAPPY_LIFE"><b>RECOLLECTIONS OF A HAPPY LIFE</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td ><a href="#REMINISCENCES"><b>REMINISCENCES</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td ><a href="#A_VISION"><b>A VISION</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td ><a href="#ABRAHAM_LINCOLN"><b>ABRAHAM LINCOLN</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td ><a href="#The_Race_Question_in_America"><b>THE RACE QUESTION IN AMERICA</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td ><a href="#HISTORICAL_COMPOSITION"><b>HISTORICAL COMPOSITION</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr><td ><a href="#MY_FAVORITE_POEMS"><b>MY FAVORITE POEMS</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr><td ><a href="#MY_FAVORITE_HYMNS"><b>MY FAVORITE HYMNS</b></a></td> + <td class="tocpg" ><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="RECOLLECTIONS_OF_A_HAPPY_LIFE" id="RECOLLECTIONS_OF_A_HAPPY_LIFE"></a>RECOLLECTIONS OF A HAPPY LIFE</h2> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></p> +<p> </p> +<p>The memory of my happy, care-free childhood days on the plantation, + with my little white and black companions, is often with me. Neither + master nor mistress nor neighbors had time to bestow a thought upon + us, for the great Civil War was raging. That great event in American + history was a matter wholly outside the realm of our childish + interests. Of course we heard our elders discuss the various events of + the great struggle, but it meant nothing to us.</p> +<p>On the plantation there were ten white children and fourteen colored +children. Our days were spent roaming about from plantation to +plantation, not knowing or caring what things were going on in the +great world outside our little realm. Planting time and harvest time +were happy days for us. How often at the harvest time the planters +discovered cornstalks missing from the ends of the rows, and blamed +the crows! We were called the "little fairy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> devils." To the sweet +potatoes and peanuts and sugar cane we also helped ourselves.</p> + +<p>Those slaves that were not married served the food from the great +house, and about half-past eleven they would send the older children +with food to the workers in the fields. Of course, I followed, and +before we got to the fields, we had eaten the food nearly all up. When +the workers returned home they complained, and we were whipped.</p> + +<p>The slaves got their allowance every Monday night of molasses, meat, +corn meal, and a kind of flour called "dredgings" or "shorts." Perhaps +this allowance would be gone before the next Monday night, in which +case the slaves would steal hogs and chickens. Then would come the +whipping-post. Master himself never whipped his slaves; this was left +to the overseer.</p> + +<p>We children had no supper, and only a little piece of bread or +something of the kind in the morning. Our dishes consisted of one +wooden bowl, and oyster shells were our spoons. This bowl served for +about fifteen children, and often the dogs and the ducks and the +peafowl had a dip in it. Sometimes we had buttermilk and bread in our +bowl, sometimes greens or bones.</p> + +<p>Our clothes were little homespun cotton slips,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> with short sleeves. I +never knew what shoes were until I got big enough to earn them myself.</p> + +<p>If a slave man and woman wished to marry, a party would be arranged +some Saturday night among the slaves. The marriage ceremony consisted +of the pair jumping over a stick. If no children were born within a +year or so, the wife was sold.</p> + +<p>At New Year's, if there was any debt or mortgage on the plantation, +the extra slaves were taken to Clayton and sold at the court house. In +this way families were separated.</p> + +<p>When they were getting recruits for the war, we were allowed to go to +Clayton to see the soldiers.</p> + +<p>I remember, at the beginning of the war, two colored men were hung in +Clayton; one, Cæsar King, for killing a blood hound and biting off an +overseer's ear; the other, Dabney Madison, for the murder of his +master. Dabney Madison's master was really shot by a man named +Houston, who was infatuated with Madison's mistress, and who had hired +Madison to make the bullets for him. Houston escaped after the deed, +and the blame fell on Dabney Madison, as he was the only slave of his +master and mistress. The clothes of the two victims were hung on two +pine trees, and no colored person would touch them. Since I have grown +up, I have seen the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> skeleton of one of these men in the office of a +doctor in Clayton.</p> + +<p>After the men were hung, the bones were put in an old deserted house. +Somebody that cared for the bones used to put them in the sun in +bright weather, and back in the house when it rained. Finally the +bones disappeared, although the boxes that had contained them still +remained.</p> + +<p>At one time, when they were building barns on the plantation, one of +the big boys got a little brandy and gave us children all a drink, +enough to make us drunk. Four doctors were sent for, but nobody could +tell what was the matter with us, except they thought we had eaten +something poisonous. They wanted to give us some castor oil, but we +refused to take it, because we thought that the oil was made from the +bones of the dead men we had seen. Finally, we told about the big +white boy giving us the brandy, and the mystery was cleared up.</p> + +<p>Young as I was then, I remember this conversation between master and +mistress, on master's return from the gate one day, when he had +received the latest news: "William, what is the news from the seat of +war?" "A great battle was fought at Bull Run, and the Confederates +won," he replied. "Oh, good, good," said mistress, "and what did Jeff +Davis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> say?" "Look out for the blockade. I do not know what the end +may be soon," he answered. "What does Jeff Davis mean by that?" she +asked. "Sarah Anne, I don't know, unless he means that the niggers +will be free." "O, my God, what shall we do?" "I presume," he said, +"we shall have to put our boys to work and hire help." "But," she +said, "what will the niggers do if they are free? Why, they will +starve if we don't keep them." "Oh, well," he said, "let them wander, +if they will not stay with their owners. I don't doubt that many +owners have been good to their slaves, and they would rather remain +with their owners than wander about without home or country."</p> + +<p>My mistress often told me that my father was a planter who owned a +plantation about two miles from ours. He was a white man, born in +Liverpool, England. He died in Lewisville, Alabama, in the year 1875.</p> + +<p>I will venture to say that I only saw my father a dozen times, when I +was about four years old; and those times I saw him only from a +distance, as he was driving by the great house of our plantation. +Whenever my mistress saw him going by, she would take me by the hand +and run out upon the piazza, and exclaim, "Stop there, I say! Don't +you want<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> to see and speak to and caress your darling child? She often +speaks of you and wants to embrace her dear father. See what a bright +and beautiful daughter she is, a perfect picture of yourself. Well, I +declare, you are an affectionate father." I well remember that +whenever my mistress would speak thus and upbraid him, he would whip +up his horse and get out of sight and hearing as quickly as possible. +My mistress's action was, of course, intended to humble and shame my +father. I never spoke to him, and cannot remember that he ever noticed +me, or in any way acknowledged me to be his child.</p> + +<p>My mother and my mistress were children together, and grew up to be +mothers together. My mother was the cook in my mistress's household. +One morning when master had gone to Eufaula, my mother and my mistress +got into an argument, the consequence of which was that my mother was +whipped, for the first time in her life. Whereupon, my mother refused +to do any more work, and ran away from the plantation. For three years +we did not see her again.</p> + +<p>Our plantation was one of several thousand acres, comprising large +level fields, upland, and considerable forests of Southern pine. +Cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, wheat, and rye were the +prin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>cipal crops raised on the plantation. It was situated near the +P—— River, and about twenty-three miles from Clayton, Ala.</p> + +<p>One day my master heard that the Yankees were coming our way, and he +immediately made preparations to get his goods and valuables out of +their reach. The big six-mule team was brought to the smoke-house +door, and loaded with hams and provisions. After being loaded, the +team was put in the care of two of the most trustworthy and valuable +slaves that my master owned, and driven away. It was master's +intention to have these things taken to a swamp, and there concealed +in a pit that had recently been made for the purpose. But just before +the team left the main road for the by-road that led to the swamp, the +two slaves were surprised by the Yankees, who at once took possession +of the provisions, and started the team toward Clayton, where the +Yankees had headquarters. The road to Clayton ran past our plantation. +One of the slave children happened to look up the road, and saw the +Yankees coming, and gave warning. Whereupon, my master left +unceremoniously for the woods, and remained concealed there for five +days. The niggers had run away whenever they got a chance, but now it +was master's and the other white folks' turn to run.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Yankees rode up to the piazza of the great house and inquired who +owned the plantation. They gave orders that nothing must be touched or +taken away, as they intended to return shortly and take possession. My +mistress and the slaves watched for their return day and night for +more than a week, but the Yankees did not come back.</p> + +<p>One morning in April, 1865, my master got the news that the Yankees +had left Mobile Bay and crossed the Confederate lines, and that the +Emancipation Proclamation had been signed by President Lincoln. +Mistress suggested that the slaves should not be told of their +freedom; but master said he would tell them, because they would soon +find it out, even if he did not tell them. Mistress, however, said she +could keep my mother's three children, for my mother had now been gone +so long.</p> + +<p>All the slaves left the plantation upon the news of their freedom, +except those who were feeble or sickly. With the help of these, the +crops were gathered. My mistress and her daughters had to go to the +kitchen and to the washtub. My little half-brother, Henry, and myself +had to gather chips, and help all we could. My sister, Caroline, who +was twelve years old, could help in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>After the war, the Yankees took all the good mules<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> and horses from +the plantation, and left their old army stock. We children chanced to +come across one of the Yankees' old horses, that had "U. S." branded +on him. We called him "Old Yank" and got him fattened up. One day in +August, six of us children took "Old Yank" and went away back on the +plantation for watermelons. Coming home, we thought we would make the +old horse trot. When "Old Yank" commenced to trot, our big melons +dropped off, but we couldn't stop the horse for some time. Finally, +one of the big boys went back and got some more melons, and left us +eating what we could find of the ones that had been dropped. Then all +we six, with our melons, got on "Old Yank" and went home. We also used +to hitch "Old Yank" into a wagon and get wood. But one sad day in the +fall, the Yankees came back again, and gathered up their old stock, +and took "Old Yank" away.</p> + +<p>One day mistress sent me out to do some churning under a tree. I went +to sleep and jerked the churn over on top of me, and consequently got +a whipping.</p> + +<p>My mother came for us at the end of the year 1865, and demanded that +her children be given up to her. This, mistress refused to do, and +threatened to set the dogs on my mother if she did not at once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> leave +the place. My mother went away, and remained with some of the +neighbors until supper time. Then she got a boy to tell Caroline to +come down to the fence. When she came, my mother told her to go back +and get Henry and myself and bring us down to the gap in the fence as +quick as she could. Then my mother took Henry in her arms, and my +sister carried me on her back. We climbed fences and crossed fields, +and after several hours came to a little hut which my mother had +secured on a plantation. We had no more than reached the place, and +made a little fire, when master's two sons rode up and demanded that +the children be returned. My mother refused to give us up. Upon her +offering to go with them to the Yankee headquarters to find out if it +were really true that all negroes had been made free, the young men +left, and troubled us no more.</p> + +<p>The cabin that was now our home was made of logs. It had one door, and +an opening in one wall, with an inside shutter, was the only window. +The door was fastened with a latch. Our beds were some straw.</p> + +<p>There were six in our little family; my mother, Caroline, Henry, two +other children that my mother had brought with her upon her return, +and myself.</p> + +<p>The man on whose plantation this cabin stood,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> hired my mother as +cook, and gave us this little home. We children used to sell +blueberries and plums that we picked. One day the man on whom we +depended for our home and support, left. Then my mother did washing by +the day, for whatever she could get. We were sent to get cold victuals +from hotels and such places. A man wanting hands to pick cotton, my +brother Henry and I were set to help in this work. We had to go to the +cotton field very early every morning. For this work, we received +forty cents for every hundred pounds of cotton we picked.</p> + +<p>Caroline was hired out to take care of a baby.</p> + +<p>In 1866, another man hired the plantation on which our hut stood, and +we moved into Clayton, to a little house my mother secured there. A +rich lady came to our house one day, looking for some one to take care +of her little daughter. I was taken, and adopted into this family. +This rich lady was Mrs. E. M. Williams, a music teacher, the wife of a +lawyer. We called her "Mis' Mary."</p> + +<p>Some rich people in Clayton who had owned slaves, opened the Methodist +church on Sundays, and began the work of teaching the negroes. My new +mistress sent me to Sunday school every Sunday morning, and I soon got +so that I could read. Mis' Mary taught me every day at her knee. I +soon could read<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> nicely, and went through Sterling's Second Reader, +and then into McGuthrie's Third Reader. The first piece of poetry I +recited in Sunday school was taught to me by Mis' Mary during the +week. Mis' Mary's father-in-law, an ex-judge, of Clayton, Alabama, +heard me recite it, and thought it was wonderful. It was this:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I am glad to see you, little bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was your sweet song I heard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What was it I heard you say?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give me crumbs to eat today?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here are crumbs I brought for you.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eat your dinner, eat away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come and see us every day."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>After this Mis' Mary kept on with my studies, and taught me to write. +As I grew older, she taught me to cook and how to do housework. During +this time Mis' Mary had given my mother one dollar a month in return +for my services; now as I grew up to young womanhood, I thought I +would like a little money of my own. Accordingly, Mis' Mary began to +pay me four dollars a month, besides giving me my board and clothes. +For two summers she "let me out" while she was away, and I got five +dollars a month.</p> + +<p>While I was with Mis' Mary, I had my first sweetheart, one of the +young fellows who attended Sunday<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> school with me. Mis' Mary, however, +objected to the young man's coming to the house to call, because she +did not think I was old enough to have a sweetheart.</p> + +<p>I owe a great deal to Mis' Mary for her good training of me, in +honesty, uprightness and truthfulness. She told me that when I went +out into the world all white folks would not treat me as she had, but +that I must not feel bad about it, but just do what I was employed to +do, and if I wasn't satisfied, to go elsewhere; but always to carry an +honest name.</p> + +<p>One Sunday when my sweetheart walked to the gate with me, Mis' Mary +met him and told him she thought I was too young for him, and that she +was sending me to Sunday school to learn, not to catch a beau. It was +a long while before he could see me again,—not until later in the +season, in watermelon time, when Mis' Mary and my mother gave me +permission to go to a watermelon party one Sunday afternoon. Mis' Mary +did not know, however, that my sweetheart had planned to escort me. We +met around the corner of the house, and after the party he left me at +the same place. After that I saw him occasionally at barbecues and +parties. I was permitted to go with him some evenings to church, but +my mother always walked ahead or behind me and the young man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>We went together for four years. During that time, although I still +called Mis' Mary's my home, I had been out to service in one or two +families.</p> + +<p>Finally, my mother and Mis' Mary consented to our marriage, and the +wedding day was to be in May. The winter before that May, I went to +service in the family of Dr. Drury in Eufaula. Just a week before I +left Clayton I dreamed that my sweetheart died suddenly. The night +before I was to leave, we were invited out to tea. He told me he had +bought a nice piece of poplar wood, with which to make a table for our +new home. When I told him my dream, he said, "Don't let that trouble +you, there is nothing in dreams." But one month from that day he died, +and his coffin was made from the piece of poplar wood he had bought +for the table.</p> + +<p>After his death, I remained in Clayton for two or three weeks with my +people, and then went back to Eufaula, where I stayed two years.</p> + +<p>My sweetheart's death made a profound impression on me, and I began to +pray as best I could. Often I remained all night on my knees.</p> + +<p>Going on an excursion to Macon, Georgia, one time, I liked the place +so well that I did not go back to Eufaula. I got a place as cook in +the family of an Episcopal clergyman, and remained with them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> eight +years, leaving when the family moved to New Orleans.</p> + +<p>During these eight years, my mother died in Clayton, and I had to take +the three smallest children into my care. My oldest sister was now +married, and had a son.</p> + +<p>I now went to live with a Mrs. Maria Campbell, a colored woman, who +adopted me and gave me her name. Mrs. Campbell did washing and ironing +for her living. While living with her, I went six months to Lewis' +High School in Macon. Then I went to Atlanta, and obtained a place as +first-class cook with Mr. E. N. Inman. But I always considered Mrs. +Campbell's my home. I remained about a year with Mr. Inman, and +received as wages ten dollars a month.</p> + +<p>One day, when the family were visiting in Memphis, I chanced to pick +up a newspaper, and read the advertisement of a Northern family for a +cook to go to Boston. I went at once to the address given, and made +agreement to take the place, but told the people that I could not +leave my present position until Mr. Inman returned home. Mr. and Mrs. +Inman did not want to let me go, but I made up my mind to go North. +The Northern family whose service I was to enter had returned to +Boston before I left, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> had made arrangements with a friend, Mr. +Bullock, to see me safely started North.</p> + +<p>After deciding to go North, I went to Macon, to make arrangements with +Mrs. Campbell for the care of my two sisters who lived with her. One +sister was now about thirteen and the other fifteen, both old enough +to do a little for themselves. My brother was dead. He went to +Brunswick in 1875, and died there of the yellow fever in 1876. One +sister I brought in later years to Boston. I stayed in Macon two +weeks, and was in Atlanta three or four days before leaving for the +North.</p> + +<p>About the 15th of June, 1879, I arrived at the Old Colony Station in +Boston, and had my first glimpse of the country I had heard so much +about. From Boston I went to Newtonville, where I was to work. The +gentleman whose service I was to enter, Mr. E. N. Kimball, was waiting +at the station for me, and drove me to his home on Warner Street. For +a few days, until I got somewhat adjusted to my new circumstances, I +had no work to do. On June 17th the family took me with them to +Auburndale. But in spite of the kindness of Mrs. Kimball and the +colored nurse, I grew very homesick for the South, and would often +look in the direction of my old home and cry.</p> + +<p>The washing, a kind of work I knew nothing about,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> was given to me; +but I could not do it, and it was finally given over to a hired woman. +I had to do the ironing of the fancy clothing for Mrs. Kimball and the +children.</p> + +<p>About five or six weeks after my arrival, Mrs. Kimball and the +children went to the White Mountains for the summer, and I had more +leisure. Mr. Kimball went up to the mountains every Saturday night, to +stay with his family over Sunday; but he and his father-in-law were at +home other nights, and I had to have dinner for them.</p> + +<p>To keep away the homesickness and loneliness as much as possible, I +made acquaintance with the hired girl across the street.</p> + +<p>One morning I climbed up into the cherry tree that grew between Mr. +Kimball's yard and the yard of his next-door neighbor, Mr. Roberts. I +was thinking of the South, and as I picked the cherries, I sang a +Southern song. Mr. Roberts heard me, and gave me a dollar for the +song.</p> + +<p>By agreement, Mrs. Kimball was to give me three dollars and a half a +week, instead of four, until the difference amounted to my fare from +the South; after that, I was to have four dollars. I had, however, +received but little money. In the fall, after the family came home, we +had a little difficulty about my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> wages, and I left and came into +Boston. One of my Macon acquaintances had come North before me, and +now had a position as cook in a house on Columbus Avenue. I looked +this girl up. Then I went to a lodging-house for colored people on +Kendall Street, and spent one night there. Mrs. Kimball had refused to +give me a recommendation, because she wanted me to stay with her, and +thought the lack of a recommendation would be an inducement. In the +lodging-house I made acquaintance with a colored girl, who took me to +an intelligence office. The man at the desk said he would give me a +card to take to 24 Springfield Street, on receipt of fifty cents. I +had never heard of an office of this kind, and asked a good many +questions. After being assured that my money would be returned in case +I did not accept the situation, I paid the fifty cents and started to +find the address on the card. Being ignorant of the scheme of street +numbering, I inquired of a woman whom I met, where No. 24 was. This +woman asked me if I was looking for work, and when I told her I was, +she said a friend of hers on Springfield Street wanted a servant +immediately. Of course I went with this lady, and after a conference +with the mistress of the house as to my ability, when I could begin +work, what wages I should want, etc.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> I was engaged as cook at three +dollars and a half a week.</p> + +<p>From this place I proceeded to 24 Springfield Street, as directed, +hoping that I would be refused, so that I might go back to the +intelligence office and get my fifty cents. The lady at No. 24 who +wanted a servant, said she didn't think I was large and strong enough, +and guessed I wouldn't do. Then I went and got my fifty cents.</p> + +<p>Having now obtained a situation, I sent to Mr. Kimball's for my trunk. +I remained in my new place a year and a half. At the end of that time +the family moved to Dorchester, and because I did not care to go out +there, I left their service.</p> + +<p>From this place, I went to Narragansett Pier to work as a chambermaid +for the summer. In the fall, I came back to Boston and obtained a +situation with a family, in Berwick Park. This family afterward moved +to Jamaica Plain, and I went with them. With this family I remained +seven years. They were very kind to me, gave me two or three weeks' +vacation, without loss of pay.</p> + +<p>In June, 1884, I went with them to their summer home in the Isles of +Shoals, as housekeeper for some guests who were coming from Paris. On +the 6th of July I received word that my sister Caroline had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> died in +June. This was a great blow to me. I remained with the Reeds until +they closed their summer home, but I was not able to do much work +after the news of my sister's death.</p> + +<p>I wrote home to Georgia, to the white people who owned the house in +which Caroline had lived, asking them to take care of her boy Lawrence +until I should come in October. When we came back to Jamaica Plain in +the fall, I was asked to decide what I should do in regard to this +boy. Mrs. Reed wanted me to stay with her, and promised to help pay +for the care of the boy in Georgia. Of course, she said, I could not +expect to find positions if I had a child with me. As an inducement to +remain in my present place and leave the boy in Georgia, I was +promised provision for my future days, as long as I should live. It +did not take me long to decide what I should do. The last time I had +seen my sister, a little over a year before she died, she had said, +when I was leaving, "I don't expect ever to see you again, but if I +die I shall rest peacefully in my grave, because I know you will take +care of my child."</p> + +<p>I left Jamaica Plain and took a room on Village Street for the two or +three weeks until my departure for the South. During this time, a lady +came to the house to hire a girl for her home in Wellesley Hills.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> The +girl who was offered the place would not go. I volunteered to accept +the position temporarily, and went at once to the beautiful farm. At +the end of a week, a man and his wife had been engaged, and I was to +leave the day after their arrival. These new servants, however, spoke +very little English, and I had to stay through the next week until the +new ones were broken in. After leaving there I started for Georgia, +reaching there at the end of five days, at five o'clock.</p> + +<p>I took a carriage and drove at once to the house where Lawrence was +being taken care of. He was playing in the yard, and when he saw me +leave the carriage he ran and threw his arms around my neck and cried +for joy. I stayed a week in this house, looking after such things of +my sister's as had not been already stored. One day I had a headache, +and was lying down in the cook's room. Lawrence was in the dining-room +with the cook's little girl, and the two got into a quarrel, in the +course of which my nephew struck the cook's child. The cook, in her +anger, chased the boy with a broom, and threatened to give him a good +whipping at all costs. Hearing the noise, I came out into the yard, +and when Lawrence saw me he ran to me for protection. I interceded for +him, and promised he should get into no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> more trouble. We went at once +to a neighbor's house for the night. The next day I got a room in the +yard of a house belonging to some white people. Here we stayed two +weeks. The only return I was asked to make for the room was to weed +the garden. Lawrence and I dug out some weeds and burned them, but +came so near setting fire to the place that we were told we need not +dig any more weeds, but that we might have the use of the room so long +as we cared to stay.</p> + +<p>In about a week and a half more we got together such things as we +wanted to keep and take away with us.</p> + +<p>The last time I saw my sister, I had persuaded her to open a bank +account, and she had done so, and had made small deposits from time to +time. When I came to look for the bankbook, I discovered that her +lodger, one Mayfield, had taken it at her death, and nobody knew where +it might be now. I found out that Mayfield had drawn thirty dollars +from the account for my sister's burial, and also an unknown amount +for himself. He had done nothing for the boy. I went down to the bank, +and was told that Mayfield claimed to look after my sister's burial +and her affairs. He had made one Reuben Bennett, who was no relation +and had no interest in the mat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>ter, administrator for Lawrence, until +his coming of age. But Bennett had as yet done nothing for him. The +book was in the bank, with some of the account still undrawn, how much +I did not know. I next went to see a lawyer, to find out how much it +would cost me to get this book. The lawyer said fifteen dollars. I +said I would call again. In the meantime, I went to the court house, +and when the case on trial was adjourned I went to the judge and +stated my case. The judge, who was slightly acquainted with my sister +and me, told me to have Reuben Bennett in court next morning at nine +o'clock, and to bring Lawrence with me. When we had all assembled +before the judge, he told Bennett to take Lawrence and go to the bank +and get the money belonging to my sister. Bennett went and collected +the money, some thirty-five dollars. The boy was then given into my +care by the judge. For his kindness, the judge would accept no return. +Happy at having obtained the money so easily, we went back to our +room, and rested until our departure the next night for Jacksonville, +Florida. I had decided to go to this place for the winter, on account +of Lawrence, thinking the Northern winter would be too severe for him.</p> + +<p>My youngest sister, who had come to Macon from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> Atlanta a few days +before my arrival, did not hear of Caroline's death until within a few +days of our departure. This youngest sister decided to go to Florida +with us for the winter.</p> + +<p>Our trunks and baggage were taken to the station in a team. We had a +goodly supply of food, given us by our friends and by the people whose +hospitality we had shared during the latter part of our stay.</p> + +<p>The next morning we got into Jacksonville. My idea was to get a place +as chambermaid at Green Cove Springs, Florida, through the influence +of the head waiter at a hotel there, whom I knew. After I got into +Jacksonville I changed my plans. I did not see how I could move my +things any farther, and we went to a hotel for colored people, hired a +room for two dollars, and boarded ourselves on the food which had been +given us in Macon. This food lasted about two weeks. Then I had to +buy, and my money was going every day, and none coming in, I did not +know what to do. One night the idea of keeping a restaurant came to +me, and I decided to get a little home for the three of us, and then +see what I could do in this line of business. After a long and hard +search, I found a little house of two rooms where we could live, and +the next day I found a place to start my restaurant. For house +furnishings, we used at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> first, to the best advantage we could, the +things we had brought from Macon. Caroline's cookstove had been left +with my foster-mother in Macon. After hiring the room for the +restaurant, I sent for this stove, and it arrived in a few days. Then +I went to a dealer in second-hand furniture and got such things as +were actually needed for the house and the restaurant, on the +condition that he would take them back at a discount when I got +through with them.</p> + +<p>Trade at the restaurant was very good, and we got along nicely. My +sister got a position as nurse for fifteen dollars a month. One day +the cook from a shipwrecked vessel came to my restaurant, and in +return for his board and a bed in the place, agreed to do my cooking. +After trade became good, I changed my residence to a house of four +rooms, and put three cheap cots in each of two of the rooms, and let +the cots at a dollar a week apiece to colored men who worked nearby in +hotels. Lawrence and I did the chamber work at night, after the day's +work in the restaurant.</p> + +<p>I introduced "Boston baked beans" into my restaurant, much to the +amusement of the people at first; but after they had once eaten them +it was hard to meet the demand for beans.</p> + +<p>Lawrence, who was now about eleven years old,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> was a great help to me. +He took out dinners to the cigarmakers in a factory nearby.</p> + +<p>At the end of the season, about four months, it had grown so hot that +we could stay in Jacksonville no longer. From my restaurant and my +lodgers I cleared one hundred and seventy-five dollars, which I put +into the Jacksonville bank. Then I took the furniture back to the +dealer, who fulfilled his agreement.</p> + +<p>My sister decided to go back to Atlanta when she got through with her +place as nurse, which would not be for some weeks.</p> + +<p>I took seventy-five dollars out of my bank account, and with Lawrence +went to Fernandina. There we took train to Port Royal, S. C., then +steamer to New York. From New York we went to Brooklyn for a few days. +Then we went to Newport and stayed with a woman who kept a +lodging-house. I decided to see what I could do in Newport by keeping +a boarding and lodging-house. I hired a little house and agreed to pay +nine dollars a month for it. I left Lawrence with some neighbors while +I came to Boston and took some things out of storage. These things I +moved into the little house. But I found, after paying one month's +rent, that the house was not properly located for the business I +wanted. I left, and with Lawrence went to Narragansett Pier. I got a +place there as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> "runner" for a laundry; that is, I was to go to the +hotels and leave cards and solicit trade. Then Lawrence thought he +would like to help by doing a little work. One night when I came back +from the laundry, I missed him. Nobody had seen him. All night I +searched for him, but did not find him. In the early morning I met him +coming home. He said a man who kept a bowling alley had hired him at +fifty cents a week to set up the pins, and it was in the bowling alley +he had been all night. He said the man let him take a nap on his coat +when he got sleepy. I went at once to see this man, and told him not +to hire my nephew again. A lady who kept a hotel offered me two +dollars a week for Lawrence's services in helping the cook and serving +in the help's dining-room. When the season closed, the lady who hired +Lawrence was very reluctant to let him go.</p> + +<p>We went back to Newport to see the landlady from whom I had hired the +house, and I paid such part of the rent as I could. Then I packed my +things and started for Boston. On reaching there, I kept such of my +things as I needed, and stored the rest, and took a furnished room. In +about a week's time I went to see the husband of the lady for whom I +had worked at Wellesley Hills just previous to my departure for the +South. He had told me to let him know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> when I returned to Boston. He +said a man and his wife were at present employed at his farm, but he +didn't know how long they would stay. Before another week had passed, +this gentleman sent for me. He said his wife wanted me to go out to +the farm, and that I could have Lawrence with me. The boy, he said, +could help his wife with the poultry, and could have a chance to go to +school. I was promised three dollars and a half a week, and no washing +to do. I was told that the farm had been offered for sale, and of +course it might change hands any day. I was promised, however, that I +should lose nothing by the change.</p> + +<p>Lawrence was very lonely at the farm, with no companions, and used to +sit and cry.</p> + +<p>The place was sold about ten weeks after I went there, and I came into +Boston to look about for a restaurant, leaving Lawrence at the farm. +When the home was broken up, the owners came to the Revere House, +Boston. Barrels of apples, potatoes and other provisions were given to +me.</p> + +<p>I found a little restaurant near the Providence depot for sale. I made +arrangements at once to buy the place for thirty-five dollars, and the +next day I brought Lawrence and my things from Wellesley Hills. I paid +two dollars a week rent for my little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> restaurant, and did very well. +The next spring I sold the place for fifty dollars, in time to get a +place at the beach for the summer.</p> + +<p>Lawrence got a position in a drug store, and kept it four years. Then +he went to Hampton College, Hampton, Va. After finishing there, he +came back and then went to the World's Fair in Chicago. After that he +took a position on one of the Fall River line boats. At the outbreak +of the Spanish War, he enlisted in Brooklyn as powderman on the +battleship Texas. He was on the Texas when the first shot was fired. +He was present at the decoration of the graves of the American +soldiers in Havana, and also at the decoration of the battleship Maine +after she was raised. After the war, he came to Brooklyn and got an +honorable discharge. Then he served as valet to a rich New York man, +who travelled a good deal. About the middle of last November (1906) +Lawrence came to Boston to see me. He is now in Atlantic City, a +waiter in the Royal Hotel.</p> + +<p>In 1888, I was married, at 27 Pemberton Street, to Samuel H. Burton, +by Dr. O. P. Gifford. After my marriage, Mr. Burton got a place in +Braintree as valet to an old gentleman who was slightly demented, and +he could not be satisfied until I joined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> him. So I put our things +into storage and went to Braintree. I remained there ten months, and +then came back to Boston. Then I got a position as head matron in the +help's dining-room in a hotel at Watch Hill, R. I. My husband was also +there as waiter. At the end of the season we both came home, and +rented a lodging-house, and lost money on it.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_06.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="150" height="80" /></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="REMINISCENCES" id="REMINISCENCES"></a>REMINISCENCES</h2> +<h2><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></h2> +<p> </p> +<p>The times changed from slavery days to freedom's days. As young as I + was, my thoughts were mystified to see such wonderful changes; yet I + did not know the meaning of these changing days. But days glided by, + and in my mystified way I could see and hear many strange things. I + would see my master and mistress in close conversation and they seemed + anxious about something that I, a child, could not know the meaning + of.</p> +<p>But as weeks went by, I began to understand. I saw all the slaves one +by one disappearing from the plantation (for night and day they kept +going) until there was not one to be seen.</p> + +<p>All around the plantation was left barren. Day after day I could run +down to the gate and see down the road troops and troops of Garrison's +Brigade, and in the midst of them gangs and gangs of negro slaves who +joined with the soldiers, shouting, dancing and clapping their hands. +The war was ended, and from Mobile Bay to Clayton, Ala., all along +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> road, on all the plantations, the slaves thought that if they +joined the Yankee soldiers they would be perfectly safe.</p> + +<p>As I looked on these I did not know what it meant, for I had never +seen such a circus. The Yankee soldiers found that they had such an +army of men and women and children, that they had to build tents and +feed them to keep them from starving. But from what I, a little child, +saw and heard the older ones say, that must have been a terrible time +of trouble. I heard my master and mistress talking. They said, "Well, +I guess those Yankees had such a large family on their hands, we +rather guessed those fanatics on freedom would be only too glad to +send some back for their old masters to provide for them."</p> + +<p>But they never came back to our plantation, and I could only speak of +my own home, but I thought to myself, what would become of my good +times all over the old plantation. Oh, the harvesting times, the great +hog-killing times when several hundred hogs were killed, and we +children watched and got our share of the slaughter in pig's liver +roasted on a bed of coals, eaten ashes and all. Then came the great +sugar-cane grinding time, when they were making the molasses, and we +children would be hanging round, drinking the sugar-cane juice, and +await<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>ing the moment to help ourselves to everything good. We did, +too, making ourselves sticky and dirty with the sweet stuff being +made. Not only were the slave children there, but the little white +children from Massa's house would join us and have a jolly time. The +negro child and the white child knew not the great chasm between their +lives, only that they had dainties and we had crusts.</p> + +<p>My sister, being the children's nurse, would take them and wash their +hands and put them to bed in their luxurious bedrooms, while we little +slaves would find what homes we could. My brother and I would go to +sleep on some lumber under the house, where our sister Caroline would +find us and put us to bed. She would wipe our hands and faces and make +up our beds on the floor in Massa's house, for we had lived with him +ever since our own mother had run away, after being whipped by her +mistress. Later on, after the war, my mother returned and claimed us. +I never knew my father, who was a white man.</p> + +<p>During these changing times, just after the war, I was trying to find +out what the change would bring about for us, as we were under the +care of our mistress, living in the great house. I thought this: that +Henry, Caroline and myself, Louise, would have to go as others had +done, and where should we go and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> what should we do? But as time went +on there were many changes. Our mistress and her two daughters, Martha +and Mary, had to become their own servants, and do all the work of the +house, going into the kitchen, cooking and washing, and feeling very +angry that all their house servants had run away to the Yankees. The +time had come when our good times were over, our many leisure hours +spent among the cotton fields and woods and our half-holiday on +Saturday. These were all gone. The boys had to leave school and take +the runaway slaves' places to finish the planting and pick the cotton. +I myself have worked in the cotton field, picking great baskets full, +too heavy for me to carry. All was over! I now fully understood the +change in our circumstances. Little Henry and I had no more time to +sit basking ourselves in the sunshine of the sunny south. The land was +empty and the servants all gone. I can see my dainty mistress coming +down the steps saying, "Rit, you and Henry will have to go and pick up +some chips, for Miss Mary and myself have to prepare the breakfast. +You children will have to learn to work. Do you understand me, Rit and +Henry?" "Yes, Missus, we understand." And away we flew, laughing, and +thinking it a great joke that we, Massa's pets, must learn to work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p>But it was a sad, sad change on the old plantation, and the beautiful, +proud Sunny South, with its masters and mistresses, was bowed beneath +the sin brought about by slavery. It was a terrible blow to the owners +of plantations and slaves, and their children would feel it more than +they, for they had been reared to be waited upon by willing or +unwilling slaves.</p> + +<p>In this place I will insert a poem my young mistress taught us, for +she was always reading poems and good stories. But first I will record +a talk I heard between my master and mistress. They were sitting in +the dining-room, and we children were standing around the table. My +mistress said, "I suppose, as Nancy has never returned, we had better +keep Henry, Caroline and Louise until they are of age." "Yes, we +will," said Massa, Miss Mary and Miss Martha, "but it is 'man proposes +and God disposes.'"</p> + +<p>So in the following pages you will read the sequel to my childhood +life in the Sunny South.</p> + +<p>Right after the war when my mother had got settled in her hut, with +her little brood hovered around her, from which she had been so long +absent, we had nothing to eat, and nothing to sleep on save some old +pieces of horse-blankets and hay that the soldiers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> gave her. The +first day in the hut was a rainy day; and as night drew near it grew +more fierce, and we children had gathered some little fagots to make a +fire by the time mother came home, with something for us to eat, such +as she had gathered through the day. It was only corn meal and pease +and ham-bone and skins which she had for our supper. She had started a +little fire, and said, "Some of you close that door," for it was cold. +She swung the pot over the fire and filled it with the pease and +ham-bone and skins. Then she seated her little brood around the fire +on the pieces of blanket, where we watched with all our eyes, our +hearts filled with desire, looking to see what she would do next. She +took down an old broken earthen bowl, and tossed into it the little +meal she had brought, stirring it up with water, making a hoe cake. +She said, "One of you draw that griddle out here," and she placed it +on the few little coals. Perhaps this griddle you have never seen, or +one like it. I will describe it to you. This griddle was a round piece +of iron, quite thick, having three legs. It might have been made in a +blacksmith's shop, for I have never seen one like it before or since. +It was placed upon the coals, and with an old iron spoon she put on +this griddle half of the corn meal she had mixed up. She said, "I will +put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> a tin plate over this, and put it away for your breakfast." We +five children were eagerly watching the pot boiling, with the pease +and ham-bone. The rain was pattering on the roof of the hut. All at +once there came a knock at the door. My mother answered the knock. +When she opened the door, there stood a white woman and three little +children, all dripping with the rain. My mother said, "In the name of +the Lord, where are you going on such a night, with these children?" +The woman said, "Auntie, I am travelling. Will you please let me stop +here to-night, out of the rain, with my children?" My mother said, +"Yes, honey. I ain't got much, but what I have got I will share with +you." "God bless you!" They all came in. We children looked in wonder +at what had come. But my mother scattered her own little brood and +made a place for the forlorn wanderers. She said, "Wait, honey, let me +turn over that hoe cake." Then the two women fell to talking, each +telling a tale of woe. After a time, my mother called out, "Here, you, +Louise, or some one of you, put some fagots under the pot, so these +pease can get done." We couldn't put them under fast enough, first one +and then another of us children, the mothers still talking. Soon my +mother said, "Draw that hoe cake one side, I guess it is done." My +mother said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> to the woman, "Honey, ain't you got no husband?" She +said, "No, my husband got killed in the war." My mother replied, +"Well, my husband died right after the war. I have been away from my +little brood for four years. With a hard struggle, I have got them +away from the Farrin plantation, for they did not want to let them go. +But I got them. I was determined to have them. But they would not let +me have them if they could have kept them. With God's help I will keep +them from starving. The white folks are good to me. They give me work, +and I know, with God's help, I can get along." The white woman +replied, "Yes, Auntie, my husband left me on a rich man's plantation. +This man promised to look out for me until my husband came home; but +he got killed in the war, and the Yankees have set his negroes free +and he said he could not help me any more, and we would have to do the +best we could for ourselves. I gave my things to a woman to keep for +me until I could find my kinsfolk. They live about fifty miles from +here, up in the country. I am on my way there now." My mother said, +"How long will it take you to get there?" "About three days, if it +don't rain." My mother said, "Ain't you got some way to ride there?" +"No, Auntie,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> there is no way of riding up where my folks live, the +place where I am from."</p> + +<p>We hoped the talk was most ended, for we were anxiously watching that +pot. Pretty soon my mother seemed to realize our existence. She +exclaimed, "My Lord! I suppose the little children are nearly starved. +Are those pease done, young ones?" She turned and said to the white +woman, "Have you-all had anything to eat?" "We stopped at a house +about dinner time, but the woman didn't have anything but some bread +and buttermilk." My mother said, "Well, honey, I ain't got but a +little, but I will divide with you." The woman said, "Thank you, +Auntie. You just give my children a little; I can do without it."</p> + +<p>Then came the dividing. We all watched with all our eyes to see what +the shares would be. My mother broke a mouthful of bread and put it on +each of the tin plates. Then she took the old spoon and equally +divided the pea soup. We children were seated around the fire, with +some little wooden spoons. But the wooden spoons didn't quite go +round, and some of us had to eat with our fingers. Our share of the +meal, however, was so small that we were as hungry when we finished as +when we began.</p> + +<p>My mother said, "Take that rag and wipe your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> face and hands, and give +it to the others and let them use it, too. Put those plates upon the +table." We immediately obeyed orders, and took our seats again around +the fire. "One of you go and pull that straw out of the corner and get +ready to go to bed." We all lay down on the straw, the white children +with us, and my mother covered us over with the blanket. We were soon +in the "Land of Nod," forgetting our empty stomachs. The two mothers +still continued to talk, sitting down on the only seats, a couple of +blocks. A little back against the wall my mother and the white woman +slept.</p> + +<p>Bright and early in the morning we were called up, and the rest of the +hoe cake was eaten for breakfast, with a little meat, some coffee +sweetened with molasses. The little wanderers and their mother shared +our meal, and then they started again on their journey towards their +home among their kinsfolk, and we never saw them again. My mother +said, "God bless you! I wish you all good luck. I hope you will reach +your home safely." Then mother said to us, "You young ones put away +that straw and sweep up the place, because I have to go to my work." +But she came at noon and brought us a nice dinner, more satisfactory +than the supper and breakfast we had had. We children were delighted +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> there were no little white children to share our meal this time.</p> + +<p>In time, my older sister, Caroline, and myself got work among good +people, where we soon forgot all the hard times in the little log +cabin by the roadside in Clayton, Alabama.</p> + +<p>Up to my womanhood, even to this day, these memories fill my mind. +Some kind friends' eyes may see these pages, and may they recall some +fond memories of their happy childhood, as what I have written brings +back my young life in the great Sunny South.</p> + +<p>I am something of the type of Moses on this 49th birthday; not that I +am wrapped in luxuries, but that my thoughts are wrapped in the +luxuries of the heavenly life in store for me, when my life work is +done, and my friends shall be blessed by the work I shall have done. +For God has commanded me to write this book, that some one may read +and receive comfort and courage to do what God commands them to do. +God bless every soul who shall read this true life story of one born +in slavery.</p> + +<p>It is now six years since the inspiration to write this book came to +me in the Franklin evening school. I have struggled on, helped by +friends. God said, "Write the book and I will help you." And He has.</p> + +<p>It was through a letter of my life that the principal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> of the Franklin +school said, "Write the book and I will help you." But he died before +the next term, and I worked on. On this, my 49th birthday, I can say I +believe that the book is close to the finish.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My life is like the summer rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That opens to the morning sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ere the shades of evening close<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is scattered on the ground to die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet on the rose's humble bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweetest dews of night are shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if she wept a tear for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if she wept the waste to see.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My life is like the autumn leaf<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That trembles in the moon's pale ray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its hold is frail, its date is brief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Restless, and soon to pass away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, ere that leaf shall fall and fade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The parent tree will mourn its shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The winds bewail the leafless tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But none shall breathe a sigh for me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My life is like the prints which feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have left on Tampa's desert strand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soon as the rising tide shall beat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All trace will vanish from the sand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, as if grieving to efface<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All vestige of the human race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On that lone shore loud moans the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But none, alas, shall mourn for me.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="A_VISION" id="A_VISION"></a>A VISION</h2> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></p> +<p> </p> +<p>There remains to be told the story of my conversion and how I came to + write the foregoing history of my life.</p> +<p>In 1875 I was taken sick. I thought I was going to die, and I promised +the Lord I would serve Him if he would only spare my life. When I got +well again, however, I forgot all about my promise. Then I was taken +sick again. It seemed I had to go through a dark desert place, where +great demons stood on either side. In the distance I could just see a +dim light, and I tried to get to this light, but could not reach it. +Then I found myself in a great marsh, and was sinking. I threw up my +hands and said, "Lord, if Thou wilt raise me from this pit, I will +never fail to serve Thee." Then it seemed as if I mounted on wings +into the air, and all the demons that stood about made a great +roaring. My flight ended on the top of a hill. But I was troubled +because I could not find the light. All at once, at the sound of a +loud peal of thunder, the earth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> opened, and I fell down into the pits +of hell. Again I prayed to God to save me from this, and again I +promised to serve Him. My prayer was answered, and I was able to fly +out of the pit, on to a bank. At the foot of the little hill on which +I sat were some little children, and they called to me to come down. +But I could not get down. Then the children raised a ladder for me, +and I came down among them. A little cherub took me by the hand and +led me in the River of Badjied of Jordan. I looked at my ankles and +shoulders and discovered I had little wings. On the river was a ship. +The children, the cherub and I got into the ship. When we reached a +beautiful spot, the little cherub made the ship fast, and there opened +before us pearly gates, and we all passed through into the golden +street. The street led to the throne of God, about which we marched. +Then the cherub conducted us to a table where a feast was spread. Then +the children vanished. The cherub took me by the hand, and said, "Go +back into the world, and tell the saints and sinners what a Savior you +have found, and if you prove faithful I will take you to Heaven to +live forever, when I come again."</p> + +<p>When I recovered from my sickness, I was baptized by the Rev. Dr. +Pope, and joined the church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> in Macon. When I came North, I brought my +letter. Not finding any church for colored people, I came among the +white people, and was treated so kindly that I became very much +attached to them. The first church I became connected with in the +North, was in Newtonville. When I came to Boston, I went to the Warren +Avenue Baptist Church. Before my marriage I joined Tremont Temple, +when Dr. Lorimer was its pastor. When the church was burned, my letter +was destroyed, but when I went South on a visit I had the letter +duplicated, and took it to the new Temple. I am still a member of the +Temple, and hope to remain there as long as God gives me life.</p> + +<p>Five years ago, I began to go to the Franklin evening school. Mr. +Guild was the master. At one time he requested all the pupils to write +the story of their lives, and he considered my composition so +interesting he said he thought if I could work it up and enlarge upon +it, I could write a book. He promised to help me. My teacher was Miss +Emerson, and she was interested in me. But the next year Miss Emerson +gave up teaching, and Mr. Guild died.</p> + +<p>In each of the terms that I have attended, I have received the +certificates showing that I have been regular and punctual in +attendance, have maintained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> good deportment, and shown general +proficiency in the studies. I would have graduated in 1907, had it not +been for sickness. The following was to have been my graduating +composition. </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_07.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="100" height="151" /></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="ABRAHAM_LINCOLN" id="ABRAHAM_LINCOLN"></a>ABRAHAM LINCOLN</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>ANNIE L. BURTON </h3> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></p> +<p> </p> +<p>In a little clearing in the backwoods of Harding County, Kentucky, + there stood years ago a rude cabin within whose walls Abraham Lincoln + passed his childhood. An "unaccountable" man he has been called, and + the adjective was well chosen, for who could account for a mind and + nature like Lincoln's with the ancestry he owned? His father was a + thriftless, idle carpenter, scarcely supporting his family, and with + but the poorest living. His mother was an uneducated woman, but must + have been of an entirely different nature, for she was able to impress + upon her boy a love of learning. During her life, his chief, in fact + his only book, was the Bible, and in this he learned to read. Just + before he was nine years old, the father brought his family across the + Ohio River into Illinois, and there in the unfloored log cabin, minus + windows and doors, Abraham lived and grew. It was during this time + that the mother died, and in a short time the shiftless father with + his family drifted back to the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> home, and here found another for + his children in one who was a friend of earlier days. This woman was + of a thrifty nature, and her energy made him floor the cabin, hang + doors, and open up windows. She was fond of the children and cared for + them tenderly, and to her the boy Abraham owed many pleasant hours.</p> +<p>As he grew older, his love for knowledge increased and he obtained +whatever books he could, studying by the firelight, and once walking +six miles for an English Grammar. After he read it, he walked the six +miles to return it. He needed the book no longer, for with this as +with his small collection of books, what he once read was his. He +absorbed the books he read.</p> + +<p>During these early years he did "odd jobs" for the neighbors. Even at +this age, his gift of story telling was a notable one, as well as his +sterling honesty. His first knowledge of slavery in all its horrors +came to him when he was about twenty-one years old. He had made a trip +to New Orleans, and there in the old slave market he saw an auction. +His face paled, and his spirits rose in revolt at the coarse jest of +the auctioneer, and there he registered a vow within himself, "If ever +I have a chance to strike against slavery, I will strike and strike<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +hard." To this end he worked and for this he paid "the last full +measure of devotion."</p> + +<p>His political life began with a defeat for the Illinois Legislature in +1830, but he was returned in 1834, 1836, 1838, and declined +re-election in 1840, preferring to study law and prepare for his +future. "Honest Abe" he has been called, and throughout Illinois that +characteristic was the prominent one known of him. From this time his +rise was rapid. Sent to the Congress of the nation, he seldom spoke, +but when he did his terse though simple expression always won him a +hearing. His simplicity and frankness was deceptive to the political +leaders, and from its very fearlessness often defeated them.</p> + +<p>His famous debates with Senator Douglas, the "Little Giant," spread +his reputation from one end of the country to the other, and at their +close there was no question as to Lincoln's position in the North, or +on the vital question of the day.</p> + +<p>The spirit of forbearance he carried with him to the White House, +"with malice toward none, with charity for all." This was the spirit +that carried him through the four awful years of the war. The martyr's +crown hovered over him from the outset. The martyr's spirit was always +his. The burden of the war always rested on his shoulders. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +fathers, sons and brothers, the honored dead of Gettysburg, of +Antietam, all lay upon his mighty heart.</p> + +<p>He never forgot his home friends, and when occasionally one dropped in +on him, the door was always open. They frequently had tea in the good +old-fashioned way, and then Lincoln listened to the news of the +village, old stories were retold, new ones told, and the old +friendships cemented by new bonds.</p> + +<p>Then came the end, swift and sudden, and gloom settled upon the +country; for in spite of ancestry, self-education, ungainly figure, +ill-fitting clothes, the soul of the man had conquered even the +stubborn South, while the cold-blooded North was stricken to the +heart. The noblest one of all had been taken.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_08.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="150" height="122" /></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="The_Race_Question_in_America" id="The_Race_Question_in_America"></a><span class="smcap">The Race Question in America</span></h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>DR. P. THOMAS STANFORD </h3> +<h4><span class="smcap">Author of the "Tragedy of the Negro in America"</span></h4> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></p> +<p> </p> +<p>As a member of the negro race, I myself have suffered as a child whose + parents were born in slavery, deprived of all influences of the + ennobling life, made obedient to the will of the white man by the lash + and chain, and sold to the highest bidder when there was no more use + for them.</p> +<p>The first negro fact for white thought is—that my clients, the +colored people here in America, are not responsible for being here any +more than they are responsible for their conditions of ignorance and +poverty. They suddenly emerge from their prison house poor, without a +home, without food or clothing, and ignorant. Now the enemies of God +and of the progress of civilization in our country are to-day +introducing a system of slavery with which they hope to again enslave +the colored people. To carry out their evil designs they retain able +politicians, lawyers and newspapers to represent them, such as Senator +Tillman, the Hon. John Temple Graves of Georgia and the Baltimore Sun, +and they are trying the negro on four counts which allege that the +race is ignorant, cannot be taught, is lazy and immoral.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now, are the negroes, as a whole, guilty of these charges? In the +first place, the negro race of America is not ignorant. In the year +1833 John C. Calhoun, senator from South Carolina, is reported to have +said that if he could find a single negro who understood the Greek +syntax, he would believe the negro was human and would treat him as +such. At that time it was a very safe test. God accepted the challenge +in behalf of the negro race, and inspired his white sons and daughters +both in the North and South to teach their brothers in black; and a +few years afterward black men were examined and the world pronounced +them scholars, while later still the schools were using a Greek +grammar written by a black man, W. S. Scarborough of Wilberforce, O. +In his class were Frederick Douglas, Henry Highland Garnett, Robert +Elliot, the Rev. J. C. Price and John M. Langstone, as defenders of +the race. Bishop Allen Payne, Bishop Hood and John B. Reaver will ever +be remembered for their godly piety and Christian example, as we shall +also remember Bishop, Sumner and Bubois for their great literary +productions, William Washington Brown as the greatest organizer and +financier of the century, Prof. Booker Washington as the greatest +industrial educator of the world, and last, but not least, Thomas +Condon, the greatest crank for the spiritual training and higher +education of the negro race.</p> + +<p>Under the leadership of such men, assisted by our white friends and +backed up by our colored race journals—the Christian Banner of +Philadelphia, the Christian Recorder, the Star of Zion and the +Afro-American Ledger of Baltimore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> Ind., the National Baptist Union +of Pennsylvania, the Age of New York, the Christian Organizer of +Virginia and the Guardian of Boston—our onward march to civilization +is phenomenal and by these means we have reduced illiteracy 50 per +cent.</p> + +<p>In the South we have over $12,000,000 worth of school property, 3,000 +teachers, 50 high schools, 17 academies, 125 colleges, 10 law and +medical schools, 25 theological seminaries, all doing a mighty work +for God and humanity.</p> + +<p>Now as to laziness. We have now in practice 14,000 lawyers and +doctors, and have accumulated over $150,000,000 worth of church +property. In the South we have over 150,000 farms and houses, valued +at $900,000,000, and personal property at $170,000,000. We have raised +over $11,000,000 for educational purposes. The property per capita for +every colored man, woman and child in the United States is estimated +at $75, and we are operating successfully several banks and factories; +we have 7,500,000 acres of land, and the business activity of the +colored people was never as thoroughly aroused as it is to-day.</p> + +<p>When I come to deal with the charge of immorality I bow my head and +blush for shame, first because if the charge be true, I see they are +getting like the white man every day. I know that at the close of the +American civil war the 4,000,000 negroes had more than 25 per cent. of +white blood coursing through their veins.</p> + +<p>What about this new educated negro? Just ask the Pullman Car Company, +which employs hundreds of negroes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> into whose care thousands of women +and children of our best American families are entrusted every day.</p> + +<p>Now, you cannot do without the negro, because if you send him away, +you will run after him. He is here to stay. The only way to deal +successfully with the colored race is God's way. First, recognize that +he is your guest; second, recognize that you have robbed him of his +birthplace, home, family and savings. It is these facts that are +causing so much unrest on the part of the whites in this country. The +negro loves his country, which he has proved beyond a doubt in every +American battle, in every act of loyalty to his country, and in his +long and patient suffering. Pay him what you owe him by educating him. +Give him an opportunity to live. Allow him to live in decent parts of +your city. Pay wages sufficient to support his children. Do this and +God will remove the objectionable negro from the land.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Negro stands to-day upon an eminence that overlooks more than two +decades spent in efforts to ameliorate the condition of seven million +immortal souls by opening before their hitherto dark and cheerless +lives possibilities of development into a perfect and symmetrical +manhood and womanhood.</p> + +<p>The retrospect presents to us a picture of a people's moral +degradation and mental gloom caused by slavery. A people absolutely +sunk in the lowest depth of a poverty which reduced them to objects of +charity and surrounded them with difficulties which have ever stood as +impregnable barriers in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> their way to speedy advancement in all those +qualities that make the useful citizen. Every influence of state and +society life seems to be against their progress and like some evil +genius, these Negro hating ghosts are forever hunting them with the +idea that their future must be one of subserviency to the white race.</p> + +<p>Hated and oppressed by the combined wisdom, wealth and statesmanship +of a mighty confederacy who watched and criticised their mistakes +which were strongly magnified by those who fain would write +destruction upon the Emancipation; they are expected to rise from this +condition.</p> + +<p>The idea of giving to the newly enfranchised a sound, practical +education was considered at the dawn of freedom, an easy solution of +what as an unsolved problem threatened the perpetuity of republican +institutions. Within a year from the firing on Sumter, benevolent and +farsighted Northern friends had established schools from Washington to +the Gulf of Mexico, which became centers of light penetrating the +darkness and scattering the blessings of an enlightened manhood far +and wide.</p> + +<p>The history of the world cannot produce a more affecting spectacle +than the growth of this mighty Christian philanthropy which, in +beginning amid the din of battle, has steadily marched on through +every opposing influence, and lifted a race from weakness to strength, +from poverty to wealth, from moral and intellectual nonentity to place +and power among the nations of the earth.</p> + +<p>We have ten millions of colored people in the United States<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> whose +condition is much better to-day than it was fifty years ago. Then he +had nothing, not even a name. To-day he has 160,000 farms under good +cultivation and valued at $4,000,000 and has personal property valued +at $200,000,000. In the Southland the negroes own 160 first-class drug +stores, nine banks, 13 building associations, and 100 insurance and +benefit companies, two street railways and an electric at +Jacksonville, Fla., which they started some few years ago when the +white people passed the Jim Crow law for that state.</p> + +<p>Now it is reckoned that the negroes in the United States are paying +about $700,000,000 property taxes and this is only one-fifth of all +they have accumulated, for the negro is getting more like the white +people every day and has learned from him that it is not a sign of +loyalty and patriotism to publish his property at its full taxable +value.</p> + +<p>In education and morals the progress is still greater. As you all +know, at the close of the war the whole race was practically +illiterate. It was a rare thing, indeed, to find a man of the race who +even knew his letters. In 1880 the illiteracy had fallen to 70 per +cent. and rapid strides along that line have been made ever since.</p> + +<p>To-day there are 37,000 negro teachers in America, of which number +23,000 are regular graduates of high and normal schools and colleges, +23 are college presidents, 169 are principals of seminaries and many +are principals of higher institutions. At present there are 369 negro +men and women taking courses in the universities of Europe. The negro +ministry, together with these teachers have been prepared for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> their +work by our schools and are the greatest factors the North has +produced for the uplift of the colored man.</p> + +<p>To-day there are those who wish to impede the negro's progress and +lessen his educational advantages by industrializing such colleges as +Howard University of Washington by placing on their Boards of Trustees +and Managers the pronounced leaders of industrialism, giving as a +reason that the better he is educated the worse he is; in other words, +they say crime has increased among educated negroes. While stern facts +show the opposite, the exact figures from the last census show that +the greater proportion of the negro criminals are from the illiterate +class. To-day the marriage vow, which by the teaching of the whites +the negro held to be of so little importance before the war, is +guarded more sacredly. The one room cabin, with its attendant evils, +is passing away, and the negro woman, the mightiest moral factor in +the life of her people, is beginning to be more careful in her +deportment and is no longer the easy victim of the unlicensed passion +of certain white men. This is a great gain and is a sign of real +progress, for no race can rise higher than its women.</p> + +<p>Let me plead with the friends of the negro. Please continue to give +him higher ideals of a better life and stand by him in the struggle. +He has done well with the opportunities given him and is doing +something along all the walks of life to help himself, which is +gratitude of the best sort. What he needs to-day is moral sympathy, +which in his condition years ago he could hardly appreciate. The +sym<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>pathy must be moral, not necessarily social. It must be the +sympathy of a soul set on fire for righteousness and fair play in a +republic like ours. A sympathy which will see to it that every man +shall have a man's chance in all the affairs of this great nation +which boasts of being the land of the free and the home of the brave +for which the black man has suffered and done so much in every sense +of the word.</p> + +<p>Let this great Christian nation of eighty millions of people do +justice to the Black Battalion, and seeing President Roosevelt +acknowledges that he overstepped the bounds of his power in +discharging and renouncing them before they had a fair trial, and now +that they are vindicated before the world, to take back what he called +them, Cutthroats, Brutal Murderers, Black Midnight Assassins, and +Cowards. This and this alone will to some extent atone for the wrong +he has done and help him to regain the respect and confidence of the +world.</p> + +<p>Now in order to change the condition of things, I would suggest: +First, that an international, industrial association be formed to help +Afro-Americans to engage in manufacturing and commercial pursuits, +assist them to buy farms, erect factories, open shops in which their +young men and women can enter and produce what the world requires +every day for its inhabitants.</p> + +<p>If they were able to-day to produce the articles in common use as +boots, shoes, hats, cotton and woolen goods, made-up clothing and +enterprises such as farming, mining, forging, carpentering, etc., +negroes would find a ready sale in prefer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>ence to all others, because +of its being a race enterprise, doing what no other corporation does, +giving employment to members of the race as tradesmen, and teaching +others to become skilled workers. These enterprises should be started +in the southern, northern and western states, where the negro +population will warrant such an undertaking.</p> + +<p>I would suggest "A School History of the Negro Race" to be placed in +our public schools as a text book. The general tone of all the +histories taught in our public schools points to the inferiority of +the negro and the superiority of the white. It must be indeed a +stimulus to any people to be able to refer to their ancestry as +distinguished in deeds of valor, and particularly so to the colored +people. With what eyes can the white child look upon the colored child +and the colored child look upon himself, when they have completed the +assigned course of United States history, and in it found not one word +of credit, not one word of favorable comment for even one among the +millions of his fore-parents who have lived through nearly three +centuries of his country's history. In them he is credited with no +heritage of valor, he is mentioned only as a slave, while true +historical records prove him to have been among the bravest of +soldiers and a faithful producer of the nation's wealth. Though then a +slave to the government, the negro's was the first blood shed in its +defence in those days when a foreign foe threatened its destruction. +In each and all of the American wars the negro was faithful, yes, +faithful in battle while members of his race were being lynched to +death; faithful to a land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> not his own in points of rights and +freedom, all and that after he had enriched with his own life's blood, +shouldered his musket to defend, when all this was done, regarded him +with renewed terms, Black, Negro.</p> + +<p>Last but not least the negro needs a daily newspaper in every large +city, managed and edited by members of the race.</p> + +<p>Such papers are needed to deal with questions of state and reflect the +thoughts of the social world, to enter the province of ethics and +tread the domain of morals and to give their opinion on the varying +phases of religious truths and pass judgment on matters of a political +nature.</p> + +<p>There are hidden wrongs perpetrated by the whites against the negro +race that will never be brought to light until the race owns and +controls its own daily newspapers which alone have the power to +discover and enthrone truth, thus becoming a safe guide to all honest +seekers of facts respecting the race whether from a moral, +educational, political or religious field. To carry out the plans +suggested, whether viewed from an intellectual, industrial, +commercial, or editorial standpoint, the world must acknowledge that +to-day the negro race has the men and women, who are true to their +race and all that stands for negro progress. </p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="HISTORICAL_COMPOSITION" id="HISTORICAL_COMPOSITION"></a>HISTORICAL COMPOSITION</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>ANNIE L. BURTON </h3> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></p> +<p> </p> +<p>It is only 132 years ago to-day that the British troops, who had + occupied Boston, made a riding school of the Old South church, and + otherwise sacrilegiously disported themselves, were persuaded to get + out under the compulsion of the batteries set up on Dorchester + Heights. But when the last company embarked for Halifax, it carried + the last British flag ever unfurled by a military organization on + Massachusetts soil. That was the end of foreign domination in + Massachusetts. And by a happy coincidence this is the legendary + anniversary of the birth of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, + whose memory has been an inspiration in the struggle of another race + for Liberty.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> +<h3>A QUESTION OF ETHICS</h3> + + +<p>New York, Dec. 17.—Andrew Carnegie declared yesterday in a speech on +the negro question that the negroes are a blessing to America, and +that their presence in the South makes this country impregnable and +without need of a navy to defend itself.</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said Mr. Carnegie, "Great Britain were to send her war +fleets to America. It would amount to nothing. All that the President +of the United States would have to do would be to say, 'Stop exporting +cotton.' The war would be ended in four days, for England cannot do +without our cotton.</p> + +<p>"We don't need a navy; we are impregnable. Because we have 9,000,000 +colored men anxious and willing to work we hold this strong position, +and I am interested in the negro from this material standpoint, as +well as from the more humane point of view."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="MY_FAVORITE_POEMS" id="MY_FAVORITE_POEMS"></a>MY FAVORITE POEMS</h2> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></p> +<h3> </h3> +<h3>Verses</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On a green slope, most fragrant with the Spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One sweet, fair day I planted a red rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That grew, beneath my tender nourishing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So tall, so riotous of bloom, that those<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who passed the little valley where it grew<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Smiled at its beauty. All the air was sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About it! Still I tended it, and knew<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That he would come, e'en as it grew complete.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And a day brought him! Up I led him, where<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the warm sun my rose bloomed gloriously—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smiling and saying, Lo, is it not fair?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all for thee—all thine! But he passed by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Coldly, and answered, Rose? I see no rose,—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Leaving me standing in the barren vale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alone! alone! feeling the darkness close<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Deep o'er my heart, and all my being fail.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then came one, gently, yet with eager tread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Begging one rose-bud—but my rose was dead.<br /> +</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></div></div> + +<h3>Verses</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The old, old Wind that whispers to old trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Round the dark country when the sun has set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goes murmuring still of unremembered seas<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And cities of the dead that men forget—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An old blind beggar-man, distained and gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With ancient tales to tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mumbling of this and that upon his way,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Strange song and muttered spell—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Neither to East or West, or South or North,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His habitation lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This roofless vagabond who wanders forth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Aye under alien skies—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gypsy of the air, he comes and goes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Between the tall trees and the shadowed grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what he tells only the twilight knows ...<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The tall trees and the twilight hear him pass.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To him the Dead stretch forth their strengthless hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He who campaigns in other climes than this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He who is free of the Unshapen Lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The empty homes of Dis.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Verses</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of the scattered fragments<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of castles I built in the air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I gathered enough together<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To fashion a cottage with care;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thoughtfully, slowly, I planned it,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And little by little it grew—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perfect in form and in substance,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Because I designed it for you.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The castles that time has shattered<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gleamed spotless and pearly white<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As they stood in the misty distance<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That borders the Land of Delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleeping and waking I saw them<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grow brighter and fairer each day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, alas! at the touch of a finger<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They trembled and crumbled away!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then out of the dust I gathered<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A bit of untarnished gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a gem unharmed by contact<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With stones of a baser mold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For sometimes a priceless jewel<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gleams wondrously pure and fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From glittering paste foundations<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of castles we see in the air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So, I turned from the realms of fancy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As remote as the stars above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And into the land of the living<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I carried the jewel of love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mansions of dazzling brightness<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Have crumbled away, it is true;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But firm upon gold foundations<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stands the cottage I built for you!<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></div></div> + +<h3>Verses</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You do but jest, sir, and you jest not well.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How could the hand be enemy of the arm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or seed and sod be rivals? How could light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feel jealousy of heat, plant of the leaf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or competition dwell 'twixt lip and smile?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are we not part and parcel of yourselves?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like strands in one great braid we intertwine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And make the perfect whole. You could not be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless we gave you birth: we are the soil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From which you sprang, yet sterile were that soil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save as you planted. (Though in the Book we read<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One woman bore a child with no man's aid, <br /></span> +<span class="i0">We find no record of a man-child born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without the aid of woman! Fatherhood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is but a small achievement at the best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While motherhood is heaven and hell.)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This ever-growing argument of sex<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is most unseemly, and devoid of sense.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why waste more time in controversy, when<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is not time enough for all of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our rightful occupation in this life?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why prate of our defects—of where we fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When just the story of our worth would need<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eternity for telling; and our best<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Development comes ever through your praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As through our praise you reach your highest self?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! had you not been miser of your praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let our virtues be their own reward,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span><span class="i0">The old established order of the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would never have been changed. Small blame is ours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this unsexing of ourselves, and worse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Effeminizing of the male. We were<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Content, sir, till you starved us, heart and brain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All we have done, or wise or otherwise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Traced to the root, was done for love of you.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us taboo all vain comparisons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And go forth as God meant us, hand in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Companions, mates and comrades evermore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two parts of one divinely ordained whole.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Verses</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A widow had two sons,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And one knelt at her knees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sought to give her joy<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And toiled to give her ease;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He heard his country's call<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And longed to go, to die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If God so willed, but saw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her tears and heard her sigh.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A widow had two sons,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One filled her days with care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And creased her brow and brought<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her many a whitened hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His country called—he went.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor thought to say good-by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And recklessly he fought,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And died as heroes die.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A widow had two sons,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One fell as heroes fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one remained and toiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And gave to her his all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She watched "her hero's" grave<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In dismal days and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And told the world her love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her heart was buried there.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Our Mission</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the legends of the Norsemen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stories quaint and weird and wild,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's a strange and thrilling story,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of a mother and her child.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that child, so runs the story,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In those quaint old Norsemen books,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell one day from dangerous play ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dashed in pieces on the rocks;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with gentle hand that mother<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gathered every tender part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bore them gently, torn and bleeding,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On her loving mother heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And within her humble dwelling,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Strong in faith and brave of soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With her love-song low and tender<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rocked and sang the fragments whole.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such the mission of the Christian,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Taught by Christ so long ago;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This the mark that bids us stay not,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This the spirit each should know:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rent and torn by sin the race is,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Heart from heart, and soul from soul;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This our task with Christ's sweet love-song,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Join, and heal, and make them whole.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span style="margin-left:21em;">—<i>Rev. E. M. Bartlett</i></span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<h3>Verses</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lord over all! Whose power the sceptre swayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere first Creation's wondrous form was framed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When by His will Divine all things were made;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then, King, Almighty was His name proclaimed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When all shall cease—the universe be o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In awful greatness He alone will reign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who was, Who is, and Who will evermore<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In glory most refulgent still remain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sole God! unequalled and beyond compare,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Without division or associate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without commencing date, or final year,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Omnipotent He reigns in awful state.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He is my God! my living Savior He!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My sheltering Rock in sad misfortune's hour!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My standard, refuge, portion, still shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My lot's disposer when I seek His power.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Into His hands my spirit I consign<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whilst wrapped in sleep, that I again may wake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with my soul, my body I resign;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Lord's with me—no fears my soul can shake.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> +<h3>THE CREATION</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>ANNIE L. BURTON</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The earth, the firmament on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all the blue ethereal sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were made by God's creative power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Six thousand years ago or more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Man, too, was formed to till the ground;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Birds, beasts, and fish to move around;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fish to swim, the birds to fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all to praise the Love most high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This world is round, wise men declare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hung on nothing in the air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moon around the earth doth run;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The earth moves on its center, too;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The earth and moon around the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As wheels and tops and pulleys do.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Water and land make up the whole,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From East to West, from pole to pole.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vast mountains rear their lofty heads,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rivers roll down their sandy beds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all join in one grand acclaim<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To praise the Lord's almighty name.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="49" /></p> +<h2><a name="MY_FAVORITE_HYMNS" id="MY_FAVORITE_HYMNS"></a>MY FAVORITE HYMNS</h2> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="600" height="48" /></p> +<h3> </h3> +<h3>The Ninety and Nine</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There were ninety and nine that safely lay<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the shelter of the fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one was out on the hills away,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Far-off from the gates of gold—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away on the mountains lone and bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away from the tender Shepherd's care.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are they not enough for Thee?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the Shepherd made answer: "This of mine<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Has wandered away from me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, although the road be rough and steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I go to the desert to find my sheep."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But none of the ransomed ever knew<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How deep were the waters crossed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere he found His sheep that was lost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out in the desert he heard the cry—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sick and helpless, and ready to die.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That mark out the mountain's track?"<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span><span class="i0">"They were shed for one who had gone astray<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere the Shepherd could bring him back."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"They are pierced tonight by many a thorn."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But all through the mountains, thunder-riven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And up from the rocky steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There arose a glad cry to the height of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Rejoice! I have found my sheep!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the angels echoed around the throne:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>My Faith looks up to Thee</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My faith looks up to Thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou Lamb of Calvary,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Saviour divine!<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">Now hear me while I pray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take all my guilt away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, let me from this day<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be wholly Thine.<br /> +</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">May Thy rich grace impart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strength to my fainting heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My zeal inspire;<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">As Thou hast died for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, may my love to Thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pure, warm, and changeless be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A living fire.<br /> +</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When ends life's transient dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When death's cold, sullen stream<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall o'er me roll,<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">Blest Saviour, then, in love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fear and distrust remove;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, bear me safe above,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A ransomed soul.<br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Jordan's Strand</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My days are gliding swiftly by,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I, a pilgrim stranger,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would not detain them as they fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Those hours of toil and danger.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center"><i>Chorus</i></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, O we stand on Jordan's strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our friends are passing over;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, just before, the shining shore<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We may almost discover!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We'll gird our loins, my brethren dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our heavenly home discerning;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our absent Lord has left us word,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Let every lamp be burning."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Should coming days be cold and dark,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We need not cease our singing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That perfect rest nought can molest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where golden harps are ringing.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let sorrow's rudest tempest blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each cord on earth to sever;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our King says, "Come!" and there's our home,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Forever, O forever.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Over the Line</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O tender and sweet was the Master's voice<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As he lovingly call'd to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Come over the line, it is only a step—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I am waiting my child, for thee.<br /> +"</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="center"><i>Refrain</i></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Over the line," hear the sweet refrain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Angels are chanting the heavenly strain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Over the line,"—Why should I remain<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With a step between me and Jesus?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But my sins are many, my faith is small,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lo! the answer came quick and clear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Thou needest not trust in thyself at all,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Step over the line, I am here."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But my flesh is weak, I tearfully said,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the way I cannot see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I fear if I try I may sadly fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And thus may dishonor Thee.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, the world is cold, and I cannot go back<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Press forward I surely must;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will place my hand in his wounded palm<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Step over the line, and trust.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>O could I speak the Matchless Worth</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O could I speak the matchless worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O could I sound the glories forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which in my Saviour shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'd soar, and touch the heav'nly strings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vie with Gabriel while he sings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In notes almost divine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I'd sing the precious blood He spilt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My ransom from the dreadful guilt<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of sin and wrath divine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'd sing His glorious righteousness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In which all-perfect, heavenly dress<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My soul shall ever shine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I'd sing the characters He bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the forms of love He wears,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Exalted on His throne;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In loftiest songs of sweetest praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would to everlasting days<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Make all His glories known.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well, the delightful day will come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When my dear Lord will bring me home,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I shall see His face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then with my Saviour, Brother, Friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A blest eternity I'll spend,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Triumphant in His grace.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>O God, beneath Thy Guiding Hand</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O God, beneath Thy guiding hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Our exiled fathers cross'd the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when they trod the wintry strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With pray'r and psalm they worshipp'd Thee.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy blessing came and still its power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall onward through all ages bear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The memory of that holy hour.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Came with those exiles o'er the waves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where their pilgrim feet have trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The God they trusted guards their graves.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And here Thy name, O God of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their children's children shall adore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till these eternal hills remove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spring adorns the earth no more.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></div></div> + +<h3>America</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My country, 'tis of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet land of liberty,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of thee I sing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Land where my fathers died,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Land of the pilgrim's pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From every mountain side<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let freedom ring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My native country, thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Land of the noble free,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy name I love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I love thy rocks and rills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy woods and templed hills;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart with rapture thrills<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Like that above.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let music swell the breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ring from all the trees<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sweet freedom's song;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let mortal tongues awake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let all that breathe partake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let rocks their silence break,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sound prolong.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our fathers' God to Thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Author of liberty,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To Thee we sing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long may our land be bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With freedom's holy light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Protect us with Thy might,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Great God our King.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></div></div> + +<h3>In the Cross of Christ I Glory</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the cross of Christ I glory,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Towering o'er the wrecks of time;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the light of sacred story<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gathers round its head sublime.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the woes of life o'ertake me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hopes deceive and fears annoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never shall the cross forsake me:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lo! it glows with peace and joy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the sun of bliss is beaming<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Light and love upon my way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the cross the radiance streaming,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Add more luster to the day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the cross are sanctified;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peace is there that knows no measure,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Joys that through all time abide.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pilgrim thro' this barren land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am weak, but Thou art mighty;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hold me with Thy pow'rful hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bread of heaven,<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">Feed me till I want no more.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Open now the crystal fountain<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whence the healing waters flow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the fiery, cloudy pillar<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lead me all my journey through;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Strong Deliverer,<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">Be Thou still my strength and shield.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When I tread the verge of Jordan,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bid my anxious fears subside;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear me through the swelling current,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Land me safe on Canaan's side;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Songs of praises<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">I will ever give to Thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Christ receiveth Sinful Men</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sinners Jesus will receive;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sound this word of grace to all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who the heav'nly pathway leave,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All who linger, all who fall.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center"><i>Chorus</i></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sing it o'er and o'er again:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Christ receiveth sinful men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make the message clear and plain:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Christ receiveth sinful men.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, and He will give you rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Trust Him, for His word is plain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He will take the sinfulest;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Christ receiveth sinful men.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Christ receiveth sinful men,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even me with all my sin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Purged from ev'ry spot and stain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Heav'n with Him I enter in.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>Some Day the Silver Cord will break</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some day the silver cord will break,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I no more as now shall sing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, O, the joy when I shall wake<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Within the palace of the King!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And I shall see Him face to face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tell the story—Saved by grace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some day my earthly house will fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I cannot tell how soon 'twill be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But this I know—my All in All<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Has now a place in heaven for me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some day; till then I'll watch and wait,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My lamp all trimmed and burning bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That when my Saviour ope's the gate.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My soul to Him may take its flight.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></div></div> + +<h3>Battle Hymn of the Republic</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hath loos'd the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">His truth is marching on.<br /> +</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I can read His righteous sentence in the dim and flaring lamps;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">His day is marching on.<br /> +</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel,<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you My grace shall deal";<br /> +</span> +<span class="i0">Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Since God is marching on.<br /> +</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never sound retreat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Our God is marching on.<br /> +</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">While God is marching on.<br /> +</span></div></div> +<hr style="width:65%" /> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days, by +Annie L. 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Burton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days + +Author: Annie L. Burton + +Release Date: February 26, 2006 [EBook #17864] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDHOOD'S SLAVERY DAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Memories of Childhood's + Slavery Days + + + + By + + + Annie L. Burton + + + + + BOSTON + + ROSS PUBLISHING COMPANY + + + 1909 + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF A HAPPY LIFE + + +The memory of my happy, care-free childhood days on the plantation, +with my little white and black companions, is often with me. Neither +master nor mistress nor neighbors had time to bestow a thought upon +us, for the great Civil War was raging. That great event in American +history was a matter wholly outside the realm of our childish +interests. Of course we heard our elders discuss the various events of +the great struggle, but it meant nothing to us. + +On the plantation there were ten white children and fourteen colored +children. Our days were spent roaming about from plantation to +plantation, not knowing or caring what things were going on in the +great world outside our little realm. Planting time and harvest time +were happy days for us. How often at the harvest time the planters +discovered cornstalks missing from the ends of the rows, and blamed +the crows! We were called the "little fairy devils." To the sweet +potatoes and peanuts and sugar cane we also helped ourselves. + +Those slaves that were not married served the food from the great +house, and about half-past eleven they would send the older children +with food to the workers in the fields. Of course, I followed, and +before we got to the fields, we had eaten the food nearly all up. When +the workers returned home they complained, and we were whipped. + +The slaves got their allowance every Monday night of molasses, meat, +corn meal, and a kind of flour called "dredgings" or "shorts." Perhaps +this allowance would be gone before the next Monday night, in which +case the slaves would steal hogs and chickens. Then would come the +whipping-post. Master himself never whipped his slaves; this was left +to the overseer. + +We children had no supper, and only a little piece of bread or +something of the kind in the morning. Our dishes consisted of one +wooden bowl, and oyster shells were our spoons. This bowl served for +about fifteen children, and often the dogs and the ducks and the +peafowl had a dip in it. Sometimes we had buttermilk and bread in our +bowl, sometimes greens or bones. + +Our clothes were little homespun cotton slips, with short sleeves. I +never knew what shoes were until I got big enough to earn them myself. + +If a slave man and woman wished to marry, a party would be arranged +some Saturday night among the slaves. The marriage ceremony consisted +of the pair jumping over a stick. If no children were born within a +year or so, the wife was sold. + +At New Year's, if there was any debt or mortgage on the plantation, +the extra slaves were taken to Clayton and sold at the court house. In +this way families were separated. + +When they were getting recruits for the war, we were allowed to go to +Clayton to see the soldiers. + +I remember, at the beginning of the war, two colored men were hung in +Clayton; one, Caesar King, for killing a blood hound and biting off an +overseer's ear; the other, Dabney Madison, for the murder of his +master. Dabney Madison's master was really shot by a man named +Houston, who was infatuated with Madison's mistress, and who had hired +Madison to make the bullets for him. Houston escaped after the deed, +and the blame fell on Dabney Madison, as he was the only slave of his +master and mistress. The clothes of the two victims were hung on two +pine trees, and no colored person would touch them. Since I have grown +up, I have seen the skeleton of one of these men in the office of a +doctor in Clayton. + +After the men were hung, the bones were put in an old deserted house. +Somebody that cared for the bones used to put them in the sun in +bright weather, and back in the house when it rained. Finally the +bones disappeared, although the boxes that had contained them still +remained. + +At one time, when they were building barns on the plantation, one of +the big boys got a little brandy and gave us children all a drink, +enough to make us drunk. Four doctors were sent for, but nobody could +tell what was the matter with us, except they thought we had eaten +something poisonous. They wanted to give us some castor oil, but we +refused to take it, because we thought that the oil was made from the +bones of the dead men we had seen. Finally, we told about the big +white boy giving us the brandy, and the mystery was cleared up. + +Young as I was then, I remember this conversation between master and +mistress, on master's return from the gate one day, when he had +received the latest news: "William, what is the news from the seat of +war?" "A great battle was fought at Bull Run, and the Confederates +won," he replied. "Oh, good, good," said mistress, "and what did Jeff +Davis say?" "Look out for the blockade. I do not know what the end +may be soon," he answered. "What does Jeff Davis mean by that?" she +asked. "Sarah Anne, I don't know, unless he means that the niggers +will be free." "O, my God, what shall we do?" "I presume," he said, +"we shall have to put our boys to work and hire help." "But," she +said, "what will the niggers do if they are free? Why, they will +starve if we don't keep them." "Oh, well," he said, "let them wander, +if they will not stay with their owners. I don't doubt that many +owners have been good to their slaves, and they would rather remain +with their owners than wander about without home or country." + +My mistress often told me that my father was a planter who owned a +plantation about two miles from ours. He was a white man, born in +Liverpool, England. He died in Lewisville, Alabama, in the year 1875. + +I will venture to say that I only saw my father a dozen times, when I +was about four years old; and those times I saw him only from a +distance, as he was driving by the great house of our plantation. +Whenever my mistress saw him going by, she would take me by the hand +and run out upon the piazza, and exclaim, "Stop there, I say! Don't +you want to see and speak to and caress your darling child? She often +speaks of you and wants to embrace her dear father. See what a bright +and beautiful daughter she is, a perfect picture of yourself. Well, I +declare, you are an affectionate father." I well remember that +whenever my mistress would speak thus and upbraid him, he would whip +up his horse and get out of sight and hearing as quickly as possible. +My mistress's action was, of course, intended to humble and shame my +father. I never spoke to him, and cannot remember that he ever noticed +me, or in any way acknowledged me to be his child. + +My mother and my mistress were children together, and grew up to be +mothers together. My mother was the cook in my mistress's household. +One morning when master had gone to Eufaula, my mother and my mistress +got into an argument, the consequence of which was that my mother was +whipped, for the first time in her life. Whereupon, my mother refused +to do any more work, and ran away from the plantation. For three years +we did not see her again. + +Our plantation was one of several thousand acres, comprising large +level fields, upland, and considerable forests of Southern pine. +Cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, wheat, and rye were the +principal crops raised on the plantation. It was situated near the +P---- River, and about twenty-three miles from Clayton, Ala. + +One day my master heard that the Yankees were coming our way, and he +immediately made preparations to get his goods and valuables out of +their reach. The big six-mule team was brought to the smoke-house +door, and loaded with hams and provisions. After being loaded, the +team was put in the care of two of the most trustworthy and valuable +slaves that my master owned, and driven away. It was master's +intention to have these things taken to a swamp, and there concealed +in a pit that had recently been made for the purpose. But just before +the team left the main road for the by-road that led to the swamp, the +two slaves were surprised by the Yankees, who at once took possession +of the provisions, and started the team toward Clayton, where the +Yankees had headquarters. The road to Clayton ran past our plantation. +One of the slave children happened to look up the road, and saw the +Yankees coming, and gave warning. Whereupon, my master left +unceremoniously for the woods, and remained concealed there for five +days. The niggers had run away whenever they got a chance, but now it +was master's and the other white folks' turn to run. + +The Yankees rode up to the piazza of the great house and inquired who +owned the plantation. They gave orders that nothing must be touched or +taken away, as they intended to return shortly and take possession. My +mistress and the slaves watched for their return day and night for +more than a week, but the Yankees did not come back. + +One morning in April, 1865, my master got the news that the Yankees +had left Mobile Bay and crossed the Confederate lines, and that the +Emancipation Proclamation had been signed by President Lincoln. +Mistress suggested that the slaves should not be told of their +freedom; but master said he would tell them, because they would soon +find it out, even if he did not tell them. Mistress, however, said she +could keep my mother's three children, for my mother had now been gone +so long. + +All the slaves left the plantation upon the news of their freedom, +except those who were feeble or sickly. With the help of these, the +crops were gathered. My mistress and her daughters had to go to the +kitchen and to the washtub. My little half-brother, Henry, and myself +had to gather chips, and help all we could. My sister, Caroline, who +was twelve years old, could help in the kitchen. + +After the war, the Yankees took all the good mules and horses from +the plantation, and left their old army stock. We children chanced to +come across one of the Yankees' old horses, that had "U. S." branded +on him. We called him "Old Yank" and got him fattened up. One day in +August, six of us children took "Old Yank" and went away back on the +plantation for watermelons. Coming home, we thought we would make the +old horse trot. When "Old Yank" commenced to trot, our big melons +dropped off, but we couldn't stop the horse for some time. Finally, +one of the big boys went back and got some more melons, and left us +eating what we could find of the ones that had been dropped. Then all +we six, with our melons, got on "Old Yank" and went home. We also used +to hitch "Old Yank" into a wagon and get wood. But one sad day in the +fall, the Yankees came back again, and gathered up their old stock, +and took "Old Yank" away. + +One day mistress sent me out to do some churning under a tree. I went +to sleep and jerked the churn over on top of me, and consequently got +a whipping. + +My mother came for us at the end of the year 1865, and demanded that +her children be given up to her. This, mistress refused to do, and +threatened to set the dogs on my mother if she did not at once leave +the place. My mother went away, and remained with some of the +neighbors until supper time. Then she got a boy to tell Caroline to +come down to the fence. When she came, my mother told her to go back +and get Henry and myself and bring us down to the gap in the fence as +quick as she could. Then my mother took Henry in her arms, and my +sister carried me on her back. We climbed fences and crossed fields, +and after several hours came to a little hut which my mother had +secured on a plantation. We had no more than reached the place, and +made a little fire, when master's two sons rode up and demanded that +the children be returned. My mother refused to give us up. Upon her +offering to go with them to the Yankee headquarters to find out if it +were really true that all negroes had been made free, the young men +left, and troubled us no more. + +The cabin that was now our home was made of logs. It had one door, and +an opening in one wall, with an inside shutter, was the only window. +The door was fastened with a latch. Our beds were some straw. + +There were six in our little family; my mother, Caroline, Henry, two +other children that my mother had brought with her upon her return, +and myself. + +The man on whose plantation this cabin stood, hired my mother as +cook, and gave us this little home. We children used to sell +blueberries and plums that we picked. One day the man on whom we +depended for our home and support, left. Then my mother did washing by +the day, for whatever she could get. We were sent to get cold victuals +from hotels and such places. A man wanting hands to pick cotton, my +brother Henry and I were set to help in this work. We had to go to the +cotton field very early every morning. For this work, we received +forty cents for every hundred pounds of cotton we picked. + +Caroline was hired out to take care of a baby. + +In 1866, another man hired the plantation on which our hut stood, and +we moved into Clayton, to a little house my mother secured there. A +rich lady came to our house one day, looking for some one to take care +of her little daughter. I was taken, and adopted into this family. +This rich lady was Mrs. E. M. Williams, a music teacher, the wife of a +lawyer. We called her "Mis' Mary." + +Some rich people in Clayton who had owned slaves, opened the Methodist +church on Sundays, and began the work of teaching the negroes. My new +mistress sent me to Sunday school every Sunday morning, and I soon got +so that I could read. Mis' Mary taught me every day at her knee. I +soon could read nicely, and went through Sterling's Second Reader, +and then into McGuthrie's Third Reader. The first piece of poetry I +recited in Sunday school was taught to me by Mis' Mary during the +week. Mis' Mary's father-in-law, an ex-judge, of Clayton, Alabama, +heard me recite it, and thought it was wonderful. It was this: + + "I am glad to see you, little bird, + It was your sweet song I heard. + What was it I heard you say? + Give me crumbs to eat today? + Here are crumbs I brought for you. + Eat your dinner, eat away, + Come and see us every day." + +After this Mis' Mary kept on with my studies, and taught me to write. +As I grew older, she taught me to cook and how to do housework. During +this time Mis' Mary had given my mother one dollar a month in return +for my services; now as I grew up to young womanhood, I thought I +would like a little money of my own. Accordingly, Mis' Mary began to +pay me four dollars a month, besides giving me my board and clothes. +For two summers she "let me out" while she was away, and I got five +dollars a month. + +While I was with Mis' Mary, I had my first sweetheart, one of the +young fellows who attended Sunday school with me. Mis' Mary, however, +objected to the young man's coming to the house to call, because she +did not think I was old enough to have a sweetheart. + +I owe a great deal to Mis' Mary for her good training of me, in +honesty, uprightness and truthfulness. She told me that when I went +out into the world all white folks would not treat me as she had, but +that I must not feel bad about it, but just do what I was employed to +do, and if I wasn't satisfied, to go elsewhere; but always to carry an +honest name. + +One Sunday when my sweetheart walked to the gate with me, Mis' Mary +met him and told him she thought I was too young for him, and that she +was sending me to Sunday school to learn, not to catch a beau. It was +a long while before he could see me again,--not until later in the +season, in watermelon time, when Mis' Mary and my mother gave me +permission to go to a watermelon party one Sunday afternoon. Mis' Mary +did not know, however, that my sweetheart had planned to escort me. We +met around the corner of the house, and after the party he left me at +the same place. After that I saw him occasionally at barbecues and +parties. I was permitted to go with him some evenings to church, but +my mother always walked ahead or behind me and the young man. + +We went together for four years. During that time, although I still +called Mis' Mary's my home, I had been out to service in one or two +families. + +Finally, my mother and Mis' Mary consented to our marriage, and the +wedding day was to be in May. The winter before that May, I went to +service in the family of Dr. Drury in Eufaula. Just a week before I +left Clayton I dreamed that my sweetheart died suddenly. The night +before I was to leave, we were invited out to tea. He told me he had +bought a nice piece of poplar wood, with which to make a table for our +new home. When I told him my dream, he said, "Don't let that trouble +you, there is nothing in dreams." But one month from that day he died, +and his coffin was made from the piece of poplar wood he had bought +for the table. + +After his death, I remained in Clayton for two or three weeks with my +people, and then went back to Eufaula, where I stayed two years. + +My sweetheart's death made a profound impression on me, and I began to +pray as best I could. Often I remained all night on my knees. + +Going on an excursion to Macon, Georgia, one time, I liked the place +so well that I did not go back to Eufaula. I got a place as cook in +the family of an Episcopal clergyman, and remained with them eight +years, leaving when the family moved to New Orleans. + +During these eight years, my mother died in Clayton, and I had to take +the three smallest children into my care. My oldest sister was now +married, and had a son. + +I now went to live with a Mrs. Maria Campbell, a colored woman, who +adopted me and gave me her name. Mrs. Campbell did washing and ironing +for her living. While living with her, I went six months to Lewis' +High School in Macon. Then I went to Atlanta, and obtained a place as +first-class cook with Mr. E. N. Inman. But I always considered Mrs. +Campbell's my home. I remained about a year with Mr. Inman, and +received as wages ten dollars a month. + +One day, when the family were visiting in Memphis, I chanced to pick +up a newspaper, and read the advertisement of a Northern family for a +cook to go to Boston. I went at once to the address given, and made +agreement to take the place, but told the people that I could not +leave my present position until Mr. Inman returned home. Mr. and Mrs. +Inman did not want to let me go, but I made up my mind to go North. +The Northern family whose service I was to enter had returned to +Boston before I left, and had made arrangements with a friend, Mr. +Bullock, to see me safely started North. + +After deciding to go North, I went to Macon, to make arrangements with +Mrs. Campbell for the care of my two sisters who lived with her. One +sister was now about thirteen and the other fifteen, both old enough +to do a little for themselves. My brother was dead. He went to +Brunswick in 1875, and died there of the yellow fever in 1876. One +sister I brought in later years to Boston. I stayed in Macon two +weeks, and was in Atlanta three or four days before leaving for the +North. + +About the 15th of June, 1879, I arrived at the Old Colony Station in +Boston, and had my first glimpse of the country I had heard so much +about. From Boston I went to Newtonville, where I was to work. The +gentleman whose service I was to enter, Mr. E. N. Kimball, was waiting +at the station for me, and drove me to his home on Warner Street. For +a few days, until I got somewhat adjusted to my new circumstances, I +had no work to do. On June 17th the family took me with them to +Auburndale. But in spite of the kindness of Mrs. Kimball and the +colored nurse, I grew very homesick for the South, and would often +look in the direction of my old home and cry. + +The washing, a kind of work I knew nothing about, was given to me; +but I could not do it, and it was finally given over to a hired woman. +I had to do the ironing of the fancy clothing for Mrs. Kimball and the +children. + +About five or six weeks after my arrival, Mrs. Kimball and the +children went to the White Mountains for the summer, and I had more +leisure. Mr. Kimball went up to the mountains every Saturday night, to +stay with his family over Sunday; but he and his father-in-law were at +home other nights, and I had to have dinner for them. + +To keep away the homesickness and loneliness as much as possible, I +made acquaintance with the hired girl across the street. + +One morning I climbed up into the cherry tree that grew between Mr. +Kimball's yard and the yard of his next-door neighbor, Mr. Roberts. I +was thinking of the South, and as I picked the cherries, I sang a +Southern song. Mr. Roberts heard me, and gave me a dollar for the +song. + +By agreement, Mrs. Kimball was to give me three dollars and a half a +week, instead of four, until the difference amounted to my fare from +the South; after that, I was to have four dollars. I had, however, +received but little money. In the fall, after the family came home, we +had a little difficulty about my wages, and I left and came into +Boston. One of my Macon acquaintances had come North before me, and +now had a position as cook in a house on Columbus Avenue. I looked +this girl up. Then I went to a lodging-house for colored people on +Kendall Street, and spent one night there. Mrs. Kimball had refused to +give me a recommendation, because she wanted me to stay with her, and +thought the lack of a recommendation would be an inducement. In the +lodging-house I made acquaintance with a colored girl, who took me to +an intelligence office. The man at the desk said he would give me a +card to take to 24 Springfield Street, on receipt of fifty cents. I +had never heard of an office of this kind, and asked a good many +questions. After being assured that my money would be returned in case +I did not accept the situation, I paid the fifty cents and started to +find the address on the card. Being ignorant of the scheme of street +numbering, I inquired of a woman whom I met, where No. 24 was. This +woman asked me if I was looking for work, and when I told her I was, +she said a friend of hers on Springfield Street wanted a servant +immediately. Of course I went with this lady, and after a conference +with the mistress of the house as to my ability, when I could begin +work, what wages I should want, etc., I was engaged as cook at three +dollars and a half a week. + +From this place I proceeded to 24 Springfield Street, as directed, +hoping that I would be refused, so that I might go back to the +intelligence office and get my fifty cents. The lady at No. 24 who +wanted a servant, said she didn't think I was large and strong enough, +and guessed I wouldn't do. Then I went and got my fifty cents. + +Having now obtained a situation, I sent to Mr. Kimball's for my trunk. +I remained in my new place a year and a half. At the end of that time +the family moved to Dorchester, and because I did not care to go out +there, I left their service. + +From this place, I went to Narragansett Pier to work as a chambermaid +for the summer. In the fall, I came back to Boston and obtained a +situation with a family, in Berwick Park. This family afterward moved +to Jamaica Plain, and I went with them. With this family I remained +seven years. They were very kind to me, gave me two or three weeks' +vacation, without loss of pay. + +In June, 1884, I went with them to their summer home in the Isles of +Shoals, as housekeeper for some guests who were coming from Paris. On +the 6th of July I received word that my sister Caroline had died in +June. This was a great blow to me. I remained with the Reeds until +they closed their summer home, but I was not able to do much work +after the news of my sister's death. + +I wrote home to Georgia, to the white people who owned the house in +which Caroline had lived, asking them to take care of her boy Lawrence +until I should come in October. When we came back to Jamaica Plain in +the fall, I was asked to decide what I should do in regard to this +boy. Mrs. Reed wanted me to stay with her, and promised to help pay +for the care of the boy in Georgia. Of course, she said, I could not +expect to find positions if I had a child with me. As an inducement to +remain in my present place and leave the boy in Georgia, I was +promised provision for my future days, as long as I should live. It +did not take me long to decide what I should do. The last time I had +seen my sister, a little over a year before she died, she had said, +when I was leaving, "I don't expect ever to see you again, but if I +die I shall rest peacefully in my grave, because I know you will take +care of my child." + +I left Jamaica Plain and took a room on Village Street for the two or +three weeks until my departure for the South. During this time, a lady +came to the house to hire a girl for her home in Wellesley Hills. The +girl who was offered the place would not go. I volunteered to accept +the position temporarily, and went at once to the beautiful farm. At +the end of a week, a man and his wife had been engaged, and I was to +leave the day after their arrival. These new servants, however, spoke +very little English, and I had to stay through the next week until the +new ones were broken in. After leaving there I started for Georgia, +reaching there at the end of five days, at five o'clock. + +I took a carriage and drove at once to the house where Lawrence was +being taken care of. He was playing in the yard, and when he saw me +leave the carriage he ran and threw his arms around my neck and cried +for joy. I stayed a week in this house, looking after such things of +my sister's as had not been already stored. One day I had a headache, +and was lying down in the cook's room. Lawrence was in the dining-room +with the cook's little girl, and the two got into a quarrel, in the +course of which my nephew struck the cook's child. The cook, in her +anger, chased the boy with a broom, and threatened to give him a good +whipping at all costs. Hearing the noise, I came out into the yard, +and when Lawrence saw me he ran to me for protection. I interceded for +him, and promised he should get into no more trouble. We went at once +to a neighbor's house for the night. The next day I got a room in the +yard of a house belonging to some white people. Here we stayed two +weeks. The only return I was asked to make for the room was to weed +the garden. Lawrence and I dug out some weeds and burned them, but +came so near setting fire to the place that we were told we need not +dig any more weeds, but that we might have the use of the room so long +as we cared to stay. + +In about a week and a half more we got together such things as we +wanted to keep and take away with us. + +The last time I saw my sister, I had persuaded her to open a bank +account, and she had done so, and had made small deposits from time to +time. When I came to look for the bankbook, I discovered that her +lodger, one Mayfield, had taken it at her death, and nobody knew where +it might be now. I found out that Mayfield had drawn thirty dollars +from the account for my sister's burial, and also an unknown amount +for himself. He had done nothing for the boy. I went down to the bank, +and was told that Mayfield claimed to look after my sister's burial +and her affairs. He had made one Reuben Bennett, who was no relation +and had no interest in the matter, administrator for Lawrence, until +his coming of age. But Bennett had as yet done nothing for him. The +book was in the bank, with some of the account still undrawn, how much +I did not know. I next went to see a lawyer, to find out how much it +would cost me to get this book. The lawyer said fifteen dollars. I +said I would call again. In the meantime, I went to the court house, +and when the case on trial was adjourned I went to the judge and +stated my case. The judge, who was slightly acquainted with my sister +and me, told me to have Reuben Bennett in court next morning at nine +o'clock, and to bring Lawrence with me. When we had all assembled +before the judge, he told Bennett to take Lawrence and go to the bank +and get the money belonging to my sister. Bennett went and collected +the money, some thirty-five dollars. The boy was then given into my +care by the judge. For his kindness, the judge would accept no return. +Happy at having obtained the money so easily, we went back to our +room, and rested until our departure the next night for Jacksonville, +Florida. I had decided to go to this place for the winter, on account +of Lawrence, thinking the Northern winter would be too severe for him. + +My youngest sister, who had come to Macon from Atlanta a few days +before my arrival, did not hear of Caroline's death until within a few +days of our departure. This youngest sister decided to go to Florida +with us for the winter. + +Our trunks and baggage were taken to the station in a team. We had a +goodly supply of food, given us by our friends and by the people whose +hospitality we had shared during the latter part of our stay. + +The next morning we got into Jacksonville. My idea was to get a place +as chambermaid at Green Cove Springs, Florida, through the influence +of the head waiter at a hotel there, whom I knew. After I got into +Jacksonville I changed my plans. I did not see how I could move my +things any farther, and we went to a hotel for colored people, hired a +room for two dollars, and boarded ourselves on the food which had been +given us in Macon. This food lasted about two weeks. Then I had to +buy, and my money was going every day, and none coming in, I did not +know what to do. One night the idea of keeping a restaurant came to +me, and I decided to get a little home for the three of us, and then +see what I could do in this line of business. After a long and hard +search, I found a little house of two rooms where we could live, and +the next day I found a place to start my restaurant. For house +furnishings, we used at first, to the best advantage we could, the +things we had brought from Macon. Caroline's cookstove had been left +with my foster-mother in Macon. After hiring the room for the +restaurant, I sent for this stove, and it arrived in a few days. Then +I went to a dealer in second-hand furniture and got such things as +were actually needed for the house and the restaurant, on the +condition that he would take them back at a discount when I got +through with them. + +Trade at the restaurant was very good, and we got along nicely. My +sister got a position as nurse for fifteen dollars a month. One day +the cook from a shipwrecked vessel came to my restaurant, and in +return for his board and a bed in the place, agreed to do my cooking. +After trade became good, I changed my residence to a house of four +rooms, and put three cheap cots in each of two of the rooms, and let +the cots at a dollar a week apiece to colored men who worked nearby in +hotels. Lawrence and I did the chamber work at night, after the day's +work in the restaurant. + +I introduced "Boston baked beans" into my restaurant, much to the +amusement of the people at first; but after they had once eaten them +it was hard to meet the demand for beans. + +Lawrence, who was now about eleven years old, was a great help to me. +He took out dinners to the cigarmakers in a factory nearby. + +At the end of the season, about four months, it had grown so hot that +we could stay in Jacksonville no longer. From my restaurant and my +lodgers I cleared one hundred and seventy-five dollars, which I put +into the Jacksonville bank. Then I took the furniture back to the +dealer, who fulfilled his agreement. + +My sister decided to go back to Atlanta when she got through with her +place as nurse, which would not be for some weeks. + +I took seventy-five dollars out of my bank account, and with Lawrence +went to Fernandina. There we took train to Port Royal, S. C., then +steamer to New York. From New York we went to Brooklyn for a few days. +Then we went to Newport and stayed with a woman who kept a +lodging-house. I decided to see what I could do in Newport by keeping +a boarding and lodging-house. I hired a little house and agreed to pay +nine dollars a month for it. I left Lawrence with some neighbors while +I came to Boston and took some things out of storage. These things I +moved into the little house. But I found, after paying one month's +rent, that the house was not properly located for the business I +wanted. I left, and with Lawrence went to Narragansett Pier. I got a +place there as "runner" for a laundry; that is, I was to go to the +hotels and leave cards and solicit trade. Then Lawrence thought he +would like to help by doing a little work. One night when I came back +from the laundry, I missed him. Nobody had seen him. All night I +searched for him, but did not find him. In the early morning I met him +coming home. He said a man who kept a bowling alley had hired him at +fifty cents a week to set up the pins, and it was in the bowling alley +he had been all night. He said the man let him take a nap on his coat +when he got sleepy. I went at once to see this man, and told him not +to hire my nephew again. A lady who kept a hotel offered me two +dollars a week for Lawrence's services in helping the cook and serving +in the help's dining-room. When the season closed, the lady who hired +Lawrence was very reluctant to let him go. + +We went back to Newport to see the landlady from whom I had hired the +house, and I paid such part of the rent as I could. Then I packed my +things and started for Boston. On reaching there, I kept such of my +things as I needed, and stored the rest, and took a furnished room. In +about a week's time I went to see the husband of the lady for whom I +had worked at Wellesley Hills just previous to my departure for the +South. He had told me to let him know when I returned to Boston. He +said a man and his wife were at present employed at his farm, but he +didn't know how long they would stay. Before another week had passed, +this gentleman sent for me. He said his wife wanted me to go out to +the farm, and that I could have Lawrence with me. The boy, he said, +could help his wife with the poultry, and could have a chance to go to +school. I was promised three dollars and a half a week, and no washing +to do. I was told that the farm had been offered for sale, and of +course it might change hands any day. I was promised, however, that I +should lose nothing by the change. + +Lawrence was very lonely at the farm, with no companions, and used to +sit and cry. + +The place was sold about ten weeks after I went there, and I came into +Boston to look about for a restaurant, leaving Lawrence at the farm. +When the home was broken up, the owners came to the Revere House, +Boston. Barrels of apples, potatoes and other provisions were given to +me. + +I found a little restaurant near the Providence depot for sale. I made +arrangements at once to buy the place for thirty-five dollars, and the +next day I brought Lawrence and my things from Wellesley Hills. I paid +two dollars a week rent for my little restaurant, and did very well. +The next spring I sold the place for fifty dollars, in time to get a +place at the beach for the summer. + +Lawrence got a position in a drug store, and kept it four years. Then +he went to Hampton College, Hampton, Va. After finishing there, he +came back and then went to the World's Fair in Chicago. After that he +took a position on one of the Fall River line boats. At the outbreak +of the Spanish War, he enlisted in Brooklyn as powderman on the +battleship Texas. He was on the Texas when the first shot was fired. +He was present at the decoration of the graves of the American +soldiers in Havana, and also at the decoration of the battleship Maine +after she was raised. After the war, he came to Brooklyn and got an +honorable discharge. Then he served as valet to a rich New York man, +who travelled a good deal. About the middle of last November (1906) +Lawrence came to Boston to see me. He is now in Atlantic City, a +waiter in the Royal Hotel. + +In 1888, I was married, at 27 Pemberton Street, to Samuel H. Burton, +by Dr. O. P. Gifford. After my marriage, Mr. Burton got a place in +Braintree as valet to an old gentleman who was slightly demented, and +he could not be satisfied until I joined him. So I put our things +into storage and went to Braintree. I remained there ten months, and +then came back to Boston. Then I got a position as head matron in the +help's dining-room in a hotel at Watch Hill, R. I. My husband was also +there as waiter. At the end of the season we both came home, and +rented a lodging-house, and lost money on it. + + + + +REMINISCENCES + + +The times changed from slavery days to freedom's days. As young as I +was, my thoughts were mystified to see such wonderful changes; yet I +did not know the meaning of these changing days. But days glided by, +and in my mystified way I could see and hear many strange things. I +would see my master and mistress in close conversation and they seemed +anxious about something that I, a child, could not know the meaning +of. + +But as weeks went by, I began to understand. I saw all the slaves one +by one disappearing from the plantation (for night and day they kept +going) until there was not one to be seen. + +All around the plantation was left barren. Day after day I could run +down to the gate and see down the road troops and troops of Garrison's +Brigade, and in the midst of them gangs and gangs of negro slaves who +joined with the soldiers, shouting, dancing and clapping their hands. +The war was ended, and from Mobile Bay to Clayton, Ala., all along +the road, on all the plantations, the slaves thought that if they +joined the Yankee soldiers they would be perfectly safe. + +As I looked on these I did not know what it meant, for I had never +seen such a circus. The Yankee soldiers found that they had such an +army of men and women and children, that they had to build tents and +feed them to keep them from starving. But from what I, a little child, +saw and heard the older ones say, that must have been a terrible time +of trouble. I heard my master and mistress talking. They said, "Well, +I guess those Yankees had such a large family on their hands, we +rather guessed those fanatics on freedom would be only too glad to +send some back for their old masters to provide for them." + +But they never came back to our plantation, and I could only speak of +my own home, but I thought to myself, what would become of my good +times all over the old plantation. Oh, the harvesting times, the great +hog-killing times when several hundred hogs were killed, and we +children watched and got our share of the slaughter in pig's liver +roasted on a bed of coals, eaten ashes and all. Then came the great +sugar-cane grinding time, when they were making the molasses, and we +children would be hanging round, drinking the sugar-cane juice, and +awaiting the moment to help ourselves to everything good. We did, +too, making ourselves sticky and dirty with the sweet stuff being +made. Not only were the slave children there, but the little white +children from Massa's house would join us and have a jolly time. The +negro child and the white child knew not the great chasm between their +lives, only that they had dainties and we had crusts. + +My sister, being the children's nurse, would take them and wash their +hands and put them to bed in their luxurious bedrooms, while we little +slaves would find what homes we could. My brother and I would go to +sleep on some lumber under the house, where our sister Caroline would +find us and put us to bed. She would wipe our hands and faces and make +up our beds on the floor in Massa's house, for we had lived with him +ever since our own mother had run away, after being whipped by her +mistress. Later on, after the war, my mother returned and claimed us. +I never knew my father, who was a white man. + +During these changing times, just after the war, I was trying to find +out what the change would bring about for us, as we were under the +care of our mistress, living in the great house. I thought this: that +Henry, Caroline and myself, Louise, would have to go as others had +done, and where should we go and what should we do? But as time went +on there were many changes. Our mistress and her two daughters, Martha +and Mary, had to become their own servants, and do all the work of the +house, going into the kitchen, cooking and washing, and feeling very +angry that all their house servants had run away to the Yankees. The +time had come when our good times were over, our many leisure hours +spent among the cotton fields and woods and our half-holiday on +Saturday. These were all gone. The boys had to leave school and take +the runaway slaves' places to finish the planting and pick the cotton. +I myself have worked in the cotton field, picking great baskets full, +too heavy for me to carry. All was over! I now fully understood the +change in our circumstances. Little Henry and I had no more time to +sit basking ourselves in the sunshine of the sunny south. The land was +empty and the servants all gone. I can see my dainty mistress coming +down the steps saying, "Rit, you and Henry will have to go and pick up +some chips, for Miss Mary and myself have to prepare the breakfast. +You children will have to learn to work. Do you understand me, Rit and +Henry?" "Yes, Missus, we understand." And away we flew, laughing, and +thinking it a great joke that we, Massa's pets, must learn to work. + +But it was a sad, sad change on the old plantation, and the beautiful, +proud Sunny South, with its masters and mistresses, was bowed beneath +the sin brought about by slavery. It was a terrible blow to the owners +of plantations and slaves, and their children would feel it more than +they, for they had been reared to be waited upon by willing or +unwilling slaves. + +In this place I will insert a poem my young mistress taught us, for +she was always reading poems and good stories. But first I will record +a talk I heard between my master and mistress. They were sitting in +the dining-room, and we children were standing around the table. My +mistress said, "I suppose, as Nancy has never returned, we had better +keep Henry, Caroline and Louise until they are of age." "Yes, we +will," said Massa, Miss Mary and Miss Martha, "but it is 'man proposes +and God disposes.'" + +So in the following pages you will read the sequel to my childhood +life in the Sunny South. + +Right after the war when my mother had got settled in her hut, with +her little brood hovered around her, from which she had been so long +absent, we had nothing to eat, and nothing to sleep on save some old +pieces of horse-blankets and hay that the soldiers gave her. The +first day in the hut was a rainy day; and as night drew near it grew +more fierce, and we children had gathered some little fagots to make a +fire by the time mother came home, with something for us to eat, such +as she had gathered through the day. It was only corn meal and pease +and ham-bone and skins which she had for our supper. She had started a +little fire, and said, "Some of you close that door," for it was cold. +She swung the pot over the fire and filled it with the pease and +ham-bone and skins. Then she seated her little brood around the fire +on the pieces of blanket, where we watched with all our eyes, our +hearts filled with desire, looking to see what she would do next. She +took down an old broken earthen bowl, and tossed into it the little +meal she had brought, stirring it up with water, making a hoe cake. +She said, "One of you draw that griddle out here," and she placed it +on the few little coals. Perhaps this griddle you have never seen, or +one like it. I will describe it to you. This griddle was a round piece +of iron, quite thick, having three legs. It might have been made in a +blacksmith's shop, for I have never seen one like it before or since. +It was placed upon the coals, and with an old iron spoon she put on +this griddle half of the corn meal she had mixed up. She said, "I will +put a tin plate over this, and put it away for your breakfast." We +five children were eagerly watching the pot boiling, with the pease +and ham-bone. The rain was pattering on the roof of the hut. All at +once there came a knock at the door. My mother answered the knock. +When she opened the door, there stood a white woman and three little +children, all dripping with the rain. My mother said, "In the name of +the Lord, where are you going on such a night, with these children?" +The woman said, "Auntie, I am travelling. Will you please let me stop +here to-night, out of the rain, with my children?" My mother said, +"Yes, honey. I ain't got much, but what I have got I will share with +you." "God bless you!" They all came in. We children looked in wonder +at what had come. But my mother scattered her own little brood and +made a place for the forlorn wanderers. She said, "Wait, honey, let me +turn over that hoe cake." Then the two women fell to talking, each +telling a tale of woe. After a time, my mother called out, "Here, you, +Louise, or some one of you, put some fagots under the pot, so these +pease can get done." We couldn't put them under fast enough, first one +and then another of us children, the mothers still talking. Soon my +mother said, "Draw that hoe cake one side, I guess it is done." My +mother said to the woman, "Honey, ain't you got no husband?" She +said, "No, my husband got killed in the war." My mother replied, +"Well, my husband died right after the war. I have been away from my +little brood for four years. With a hard struggle, I have got them +away from the Farrin plantation, for they did not want to let them go. +But I got them. I was determined to have them. But they would not let +me have them if they could have kept them. With God's help I will keep +them from starving. The white folks are good to me. They give me work, +and I know, with God's help, I can get along." The white woman +replied, "Yes, Auntie, my husband left me on a rich man's plantation. +This man promised to look out for me until my husband came home; but +he got killed in the war, and the Yankees have set his negroes free +and he said he could not help me any more, and we would have to do the +best we could for ourselves. I gave my things to a woman to keep for +me until I could find my kinsfolk. They live about fifty miles from +here, up in the country. I am on my way there now." My mother said, +"How long will it take you to get there?" "About three days, if it +don't rain." My mother said, "Ain't you got some way to ride there?" +"No, Auntie, there is no way of riding up where my folks live, the +place where I am from." + +We hoped the talk was most ended, for we were anxiously watching that +pot. Pretty soon my mother seemed to realize our existence. She +exclaimed, "My Lord! I suppose the little children are nearly starved. +Are those pease done, young ones?" She turned and said to the white +woman, "Have you-all had anything to eat?" "We stopped at a house +about dinner time, but the woman didn't have anything but some bread +and buttermilk." My mother said, "Well, honey, I ain't got but a +little, but I will divide with you." The woman said, "Thank you, +Auntie. You just give my children a little; I can do without it." + +Then came the dividing. We all watched with all our eyes to see what +the shares would be. My mother broke a mouthful of bread and put it on +each of the tin plates. Then she took the old spoon and equally +divided the pea soup. We children were seated around the fire, with +some little wooden spoons. But the wooden spoons didn't quite go +round, and some of us had to eat with our fingers. Our share of the +meal, however, was so small that we were as hungry when we finished as +when we began. + +My mother said, "Take that rag and wipe your face and hands, and give +it to the others and let them use it, too. Put those plates upon the +table." We immediately obeyed orders, and took our seats again around +the fire. "One of you go and pull that straw out of the corner and get +ready to go to bed." We all lay down on the straw, the white children +with us, and my mother covered us over with the blanket. We were soon +in the "Land of Nod," forgetting our empty stomachs. The two mothers +still continued to talk, sitting down on the only seats, a couple of +blocks. A little back against the wall my mother and the white woman +slept. + +Bright and early in the morning we were called up, and the rest of the +hoe cake was eaten for breakfast, with a little meat, some coffee +sweetened with molasses. The little wanderers and their mother shared +our meal, and then they started again on their journey towards their +home among their kinsfolk, and we never saw them again. My mother +said, "God bless you! I wish you all good luck. I hope you will reach +your home safely." Then mother said to us, "You young ones put away +that straw and sweep up the place, because I have to go to my work." +But she came at noon and brought us a nice dinner, more satisfactory +than the supper and breakfast we had had. We children were delighted +that there were no little white children to share our meal this time. + +In time, my older sister, Caroline, and myself got work among good +people, where we soon forgot all the hard times in the little log +cabin by the roadside in Clayton, Alabama. + +Up to my womanhood, even to this day, these memories fill my mind. +Some kind friends' eyes may see these pages, and may they recall some +fond memories of their happy childhood, as what I have written brings +back my young life in the great Sunny South. + +I am something of the type of Moses on this 49th birthday; not that I +am wrapped in luxuries, but that my thoughts are wrapped in the +luxuries of the heavenly life in store for me, when my life work is +done, and my friends shall be blessed by the work I shall have done. +For God has commanded me to write this book, that some one may read +and receive comfort and courage to do what God commands them to do. +God bless every soul who shall read this true life story of one born +in slavery. + +It is now six years since the inspiration to write this book came to +me in the Franklin evening school. I have struggled on, helped by +friends. God said, "Write the book and I will help you." And He has. + +It was through a letter of my life that the principal of the Franklin +school said, "Write the book and I will help you." But he died before +the next term, and I worked on. On this, my 49th birthday, I can say I +believe that the book is close to the finish. + + My life is like the summer rose + That opens to the morning sky, + But ere the shades of evening close + Is scattered on the ground to die. + Yet on the rose's humble bed + The sweetest dews of night are shed, + As if she wept a tear for me, + As if she wept the waste to see. + + My life is like the autumn leaf + That trembles in the moon's pale ray. + Its hold is frail, its date is brief, + Restless, and soon to pass away. + Yet, ere that leaf shall fall and fade, + The parent tree will mourn its shade, + The winds bewail the leafless tree; + But none shall breathe a sigh for me. + + My life is like the prints which feet + Have left on Tampa's desert strand. + Soon as the rising tide shall beat + All trace will vanish from the sand. + Yet, as if grieving to efface + All vestige of the human race, + On that lone shore loud moans the sea. + But none, alas, shall mourn for me. + + + + +A VISION + + +There remains to be told the story of my conversion and how I came to +write the foregoing history of my life. + +In 1875 I was taken sick. I thought I was going to die, and I promised +the Lord I would serve Him if he would only spare my life. When I got +well again, however, I forgot all about my promise. Then I was taken +sick again. It seemed I had to go through a dark desert place, where +great demons stood on either side. In the distance I could just see a +dim light, and I tried to get to this light, but could not reach it. +Then I found myself in a great marsh, and was sinking. I threw up my +hands and said, "Lord, if Thou wilt raise me from this pit, I will +never fail to serve Thee." Then it seemed as if I mounted on wings +into the air, and all the demons that stood about made a great +roaring. My flight ended on the top of a hill. But I was troubled +because I could not find the light. All at once, at the sound of a +loud peal of thunder, the earth opened, and I fell down into the pits +of hell. Again I prayed to God to save me from this, and again I +promised to serve Him. My prayer was answered, and I was able to fly +out of the pit, on to a bank. At the foot of the little hill on which +I sat were some little children, and they called to me to come down. +But I could not get down. Then the children raised a ladder for me, +and I came down among them. A little cherub took me by the hand and +led me in the River of Badjied of Jordan. I looked at my ankles and +shoulders and discovered I had little wings. On the river was a ship. +The children, the cherub and I got into the ship. When we reached a +beautiful spot, the little cherub made the ship fast, and there opened +before us pearly gates, and we all passed through into the golden +street. The street led to the throne of God, about which we marched. +Then the cherub conducted us to a table where a feast was spread. Then +the children vanished. The cherub took me by the hand, and said, "Go +back into the world, and tell the saints and sinners what a Savior you +have found, and if you prove faithful I will take you to Heaven to +live forever, when I come again." + +When I recovered from my sickness, I was baptized by the Rev. Dr. +Pope, and joined the church in Macon. When I came North, I brought my +letter. Not finding any church for colored people, I came among the +white people, and was treated so kindly that I became very much +attached to them. The first church I became connected with in the +North, was in Newtonville. When I came to Boston, I went to the Warren +Avenue Baptist Church. Before my marriage I joined Tremont Temple, +when Dr. Lorimer was its pastor. When the church was burned, my letter +was destroyed, but when I went South on a visit I had the letter +duplicated, and took it to the new Temple. I am still a member of the +Temple, and hope to remain there as long as God gives me life. + +Five years ago, I began to go to the Franklin evening school. Mr. +Guild was the master. At one time he requested all the pupils to write +the story of their lives, and he considered my composition so +interesting he said he thought if I could work it up and enlarge upon +it, I could write a book. He promised to help me. My teacher was Miss +Emerson, and she was interested in me. But the next year Miss Emerson +gave up teaching, and Mr. Guild died. + +In each of the terms that I have attended, I have received the +certificates showing that I have been regular and punctual in +attendance, have maintained good deportment, and shown general +proficiency in the studies. I would have graduated in 1907, had it not +been for sickness. The following was to have been my graduating +composition. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY + +ANNIE L. BURTON + + +In a little clearing in the backwoods of Harding County, Kentucky, +there stood years ago a rude cabin within whose walls Abraham Lincoln +passed his childhood. An "unaccountable" man he has been called, and +the adjective was well chosen, for who could account for a mind and +nature like Lincoln's with the ancestry he owned? His father was a +thriftless, idle carpenter, scarcely supporting his family, and with +but the poorest living. His mother was an uneducated woman, but must +have been of an entirely different nature, for she was able to impress +upon her boy a love of learning. During her life, his chief, in fact +his only book, was the Bible, and in this he learned to read. Just +before he was nine years old, the father brought his family across the +Ohio River into Illinois, and there in the unfloored log cabin, minus +windows and doors, Abraham lived and grew. It was during this time +that the mother died, and in a short time the shiftless father with +his family drifted back to the old home, and here found another for +his children in one who was a friend of earlier days. This woman was +of a thrifty nature, and her energy made him floor the cabin, hang +doors, and open up windows. She was fond of the children and cared for +them tenderly, and to her the boy Abraham owed many pleasant hours. + +As he grew older, his love for knowledge increased and he obtained +whatever books he could, studying by the firelight, and once walking +six miles for an English Grammar. After he read it, he walked the six +miles to return it. He needed the book no longer, for with this as +with his small collection of books, what he once read was his. He +absorbed the books he read. + +During these early years he did "odd jobs" for the neighbors. Even at +this age, his gift of story telling was a notable one, as well as his +sterling honesty. His first knowledge of slavery in all its horrors +came to him when he was about twenty-one years old. He had made a trip +to New Orleans, and there in the old slave market he saw an auction. +His face paled, and his spirits rose in revolt at the coarse jest of +the auctioneer, and there he registered a vow within himself, "If ever +I have a chance to strike against slavery, I will strike and strike +hard." To this end he worked and for this he paid "the last full +measure of devotion." + +His political life began with a defeat for the Illinois Legislature in +1830, but he was returned in 1834, 1836, 1838, and declined +re-election in 1840, preferring to study law and prepare for his +future. "Honest Abe" he has been called, and throughout Illinois that +characteristic was the prominent one known of him. From this time his +rise was rapid. Sent to the Congress of the nation, he seldom spoke, +but when he did his terse though simple expression always won him a +hearing. His simplicity and frankness was deceptive to the political +leaders, and from its very fearlessness often defeated them. + +His famous debates with Senator Douglas, the "Little Giant," spread +his reputation from one end of the country to the other, and at their +close there was no question as to Lincoln's position in the North, or +on the vital question of the day. + +The spirit of forbearance he carried with him to the White House, +"with malice toward none, with charity for all." This was the spirit +that carried him through the four awful years of the war. The martyr's +crown hovered over him from the outset. The martyr's spirit was always +his. The burden of the war always rested on his shoulders. The +fathers, sons and brothers, the honored dead of Gettysburg, of +Antietam, all lay upon his mighty heart. + +He never forgot his home friends, and when occasionally one dropped in +on him, the door was always open. They frequently had tea in the good +old-fashioned way, and then Lincoln listened to the news of the +village, old stories were retold, new ones told, and the old +friendships cemented by new bonds. + +Then came the end, swift and sudden, and gloom settled upon the +country; for in spite of ancestry, self-education, ungainly figure, +ill-fitting clothes, the soul of the man had conquered even the +stubborn South, while the cold-blooded North was stricken to the +heart. The noblest one of all had been taken. + + + + +THE RACE QUESTION IN AMERICA + +BY + +DR. P. THOMAS STANFORD + +AUTHOR OF THE "TRAGEDY OF THE NEGRO IN AMERICA" + + +As a member of the negro race, I myself have suffered as a child whose +parents were born in slavery, deprived of all influences of the +ennobling life, made obedient to the will of the white man by the lash +and chain, and sold to the highest bidder when there was no more use +for them. + +The first negro fact for white thought is--that my clients, the +colored people here in America, are not responsible for being here any +more than they are responsible for their conditions of ignorance and +poverty. They suddenly emerge from their prison house poor, without a +home, without food or clothing, and ignorant. Now the enemies of God +and of the progress of civilization in our country are to-day +introducing a system of slavery with which they hope to again enslave +the colored people. To carry out their evil designs they retain able +politicians, lawyers and newspapers to represent them, such as Senator +Tillman, the Hon. John Temple Graves of Georgia and the Baltimore Sun, +and they are trying the negro on four counts which allege that the +race is ignorant, cannot be taught, is lazy and immoral. + +Now, are the negroes, as a whole, guilty of these charges? In the +first place, the negro race of America is not ignorant. In the year +1833 John C. Calhoun, senator from South Carolina, is reported to have +said that if he could find a single negro who understood the Greek +syntax, he would believe the negro was human and would treat him as +such. At that time it was a very safe test. God accepted the challenge +in behalf of the negro race, and inspired his white sons and daughters +both in the North and South to teach their brothers in black; and a +few years afterward black men were examined and the world pronounced +them scholars, while later still the schools were using a Greek +grammar written by a black man, W. S. Scarborough of Wilberforce, O. +In his class were Frederick Douglas, Henry Highland Garnett, Robert +Elliot, the Rev. J. C. Price and John M. Langstone, as defenders of +the race. Bishop Allen Payne, Bishop Hood and John B. Reaver will ever +be remembered for their godly piety and Christian example, as we shall +also remember Bishop, Sumner and Bubois for their great literary +productions, William Washington Brown as the greatest organizer and +financier of the century, Prof. Booker Washington as the greatest +industrial educator of the world, and last, but not least, Thomas +Condon, the greatest crank for the spiritual training and higher +education of the negro race. + +Under the leadership of such men, assisted by our white friends and +backed up by our colored race journals--the Christian Banner of +Philadelphia, the Christian Recorder, the Star of Zion and the +Afro-American Ledger of Baltimore, Ind., the National Baptist Union +of Pennsylvania, the Age of New York, the Christian Organizer of +Virginia and the Guardian of Boston--our onward march to civilization +is phenomenal and by these means we have reduced illiteracy 50 per +cent. + +In the South we have over $12,000,000 worth of school property, 3,000 +teachers, 50 high schools, 17 academies, 125 colleges, 10 law and +medical schools, 25 theological seminaries, all doing a mighty work +for God and humanity. + +Now as to laziness. We have now in practice 14,000 lawyers and +doctors, and have accumulated over $150,000,000 worth of church +property. In the South we have over 150,000 farms and houses, valued +at $900,000,000, and personal property at $170,000,000. We have raised +over $11,000,000 for educational purposes. The property per capita for +every colored man, woman and child in the United States is estimated +at $75, and we are operating successfully several banks and factories; +we have 7,500,000 acres of land, and the business activity of the +colored people was never as thoroughly aroused as it is to-day. + +When I come to deal with the charge of immorality I bow my head and +blush for shame, first because if the charge be true, I see they are +getting like the white man every day. I know that at the close of the +American civil war the 4,000,000 negroes had more than 25 per cent. of +white blood coursing through their veins. + +What about this new educated negro? Just ask the Pullman Car Company, +which employs hundreds of negroes, into whose care thousands of women +and children of our best American families are entrusted every day. + +Now, you cannot do without the negro, because if you send him away, +you will run after him. He is here to stay. The only way to deal +successfully with the colored race is God's way. First, recognize that +he is your guest; second, recognize that you have robbed him of his +birthplace, home, family and savings. It is these facts that are +causing so much unrest on the part of the whites in this country. The +negro loves his country, which he has proved beyond a doubt in every +American battle, in every act of loyalty to his country, and in his +long and patient suffering. Pay him what you owe him by educating him. +Give him an opportunity to live. Allow him to live in decent parts of +your city. Pay wages sufficient to support his children. Do this and +God will remove the objectionable negro from the land. + + * * * * * + +The Negro stands to-day upon an eminence that overlooks more than two +decades spent in efforts to ameliorate the condition of seven million +immortal souls by opening before their hitherto dark and cheerless +lives possibilities of development into a perfect and symmetrical +manhood and womanhood. + +The retrospect presents to us a picture of a people's moral +degradation and mental gloom caused by slavery. A people absolutely +sunk in the lowest depth of a poverty which reduced them to objects of +charity and surrounded them with difficulties which have ever stood as +impregnable barriers in their way to speedy advancement in all those +qualities that make the useful citizen. Every influence of state and +society life seems to be against their progress and like some evil +genius, these Negro hating ghosts are forever hunting them with the +idea that their future must be one of subserviency to the white race. + +Hated and oppressed by the combined wisdom, wealth and statesmanship +of a mighty confederacy who watched and criticised their mistakes +which were strongly magnified by those who fain would write +destruction upon the Emancipation; they are expected to rise from this +condition. + +The idea of giving to the newly enfranchised a sound, practical +education was considered at the dawn of freedom, an easy solution of +what as an unsolved problem threatened the perpetuity of republican +institutions. Within a year from the firing on Sumter, benevolent and +farsighted Northern friends had established schools from Washington to +the Gulf of Mexico, which became centers of light penetrating the +darkness and scattering the blessings of an enlightened manhood far +and wide. + +The history of the world cannot produce a more affecting spectacle +than the growth of this mighty Christian philanthropy which, in +beginning amid the din of battle, has steadily marched on through +every opposing influence, and lifted a race from weakness to strength, +from poverty to wealth, from moral and intellectual nonentity to place +and power among the nations of the earth. + +We have ten millions of colored people in the United States whose +condition is much better to-day than it was fifty years ago. Then he +had nothing, not even a name. To-day he has 160,000 farms under good +cultivation and valued at $4,000,000 and has personal property valued +at $200,000,000. In the Southland the negroes own 160 first-class drug +stores, nine banks, 13 building associations, and 100 insurance and +benefit companies, two street railways and an electric at +Jacksonville, Fla., which they started some few years ago when the +white people passed the Jim Crow law for that state. + +Now it is reckoned that the negroes in the United States are paying +about $700,000,000 property taxes and this is only one-fifth of all +they have accumulated, for the negro is getting more like the white +people every day and has learned from him that it is not a sign of +loyalty and patriotism to publish his property at its full taxable +value. + +In education and morals the progress is still greater. As you all +know, at the close of the war the whole race was practically +illiterate. It was a rare thing, indeed, to find a man of the race who +even knew his letters. In 1880 the illiteracy had fallen to 70 per +cent. and rapid strides along that line have been made ever since. + +To-day there are 37,000 negro teachers in America, of which number +23,000 are regular graduates of high and normal schools and colleges, +23 are college presidents, 169 are principals of seminaries and many +are principals of higher institutions. At present there are 369 negro +men and women taking courses in the universities of Europe. The negro +ministry, together with these teachers have been prepared for their +work by our schools and are the greatest factors the North has +produced for the uplift of the colored man. + +To-day there are those who wish to impede the negro's progress and +lessen his educational advantages by industrializing such colleges as +Howard University of Washington by placing on their Boards of Trustees +and Managers the pronounced leaders of industrialism, giving as a +reason that the better he is educated the worse he is; in other words, +they say crime has increased among educated negroes. While stern facts +show the opposite, the exact figures from the last census show that +the greater proportion of the negro criminals are from the illiterate +class. To-day the marriage vow, which by the teaching of the whites +the negro held to be of so little importance before the war, is +guarded more sacredly. The one room cabin, with its attendant evils, +is passing away, and the negro woman, the mightiest moral factor in +the life of her people, is beginning to be more careful in her +deportment and is no longer the easy victim of the unlicensed passion +of certain white men. This is a great gain and is a sign of real +progress, for no race can rise higher than its women. + +Let me plead with the friends of the negro. Please continue to give +him higher ideals of a better life and stand by him in the struggle. +He has done well with the opportunities given him and is doing +something along all the walks of life to help himself, which is +gratitude of the best sort. What he needs to-day is moral sympathy, +which in his condition years ago he could hardly appreciate. The +sympathy must be moral, not necessarily social. It must be the +sympathy of a soul set on fire for righteousness and fair play in a +republic like ours. A sympathy which will see to it that every man +shall have a man's chance in all the affairs of this great nation +which boasts of being the land of the free and the home of the brave +for which the black man has suffered and done so much in every sense +of the word. + +Let this great Christian nation of eighty millions of people do +justice to the Black Battalion, and seeing President Roosevelt +acknowledges that he overstepped the bounds of his power in +discharging and renouncing them before they had a fair trial, and now +that they are vindicated before the world, to take back what he called +them, Cutthroats, Brutal Murderers, Black Midnight Assassins, and +Cowards. This and this alone will to some extent atone for the wrong +he has done and help him to regain the respect and confidence of the +world. + +Now in order to change the condition of things, I would suggest: +First, that an international, industrial association be formed to help +Afro-Americans to engage in manufacturing and commercial pursuits, +assist them to buy farms, erect factories, open shops in which their +young men and women can enter and produce what the world requires +every day for its inhabitants. + +If they were able to-day to produce the articles in common use as +boots, shoes, hats, cotton and woolen goods, made-up clothing and +enterprises such as farming, mining, forging, carpentering, etc., +negroes would find a ready sale in preference to all others, because +of its being a race enterprise, doing what no other corporation does, +giving employment to members of the race as tradesmen, and teaching +others to become skilled workers. These enterprises should be started +in the southern, northern and western states, where the negro +population will warrant such an undertaking. + +I would suggest "A School History of the Negro Race" to be placed in +our public schools as a text book. The general tone of all the +histories taught in our public schools points to the inferiority of +the negro and the superiority of the white. It must be indeed a +stimulus to any people to be able to refer to their ancestry as +distinguished in deeds of valor, and particularly so to the colored +people. With what eyes can the white child look upon the colored child +and the colored child look upon himself, when they have completed the +assigned course of United States history, and in it found not one word +of credit, not one word of favorable comment for even one among the +millions of his fore-parents who have lived through nearly three +centuries of his country's history. In them he is credited with no +heritage of valor, he is mentioned only as a slave, while true +historical records prove him to have been among the bravest of +soldiers and a faithful producer of the nation's wealth. Though then a +slave to the government, the negro's was the first blood shed in its +defence in those days when a foreign foe threatened its destruction. +In each and all of the American wars the negro was faithful, yes, +faithful in battle while members of his race were being lynched to +death; faithful to a land not his own in points of rights and +freedom, all and that after he had enriched with his own life's blood, +shouldered his musket to defend, when all this was done, regarded him +with renewed terms, Black, Negro. + +Last but not least the negro needs a daily newspaper in every large +city, managed and edited by members of the race. + +Such papers are needed to deal with questions of state and reflect the +thoughts of the social world, to enter the province of ethics and +tread the domain of morals and to give their opinion on the varying +phases of religious truths and pass judgment on matters of a political +nature. + +There are hidden wrongs perpetrated by the whites against the negro +race that will never be brought to light until the race owns and +controls its own daily newspapers which alone have the power to +discover and enthrone truth, thus becoming a safe guide to all honest +seekers of facts respecting the race whether from a moral, +educational, political or religious field. To carry out the plans +suggested, whether viewed from an intellectual, industrial, +commercial, or editorial standpoint, the world must acknowledge that +to-day the negro race has the men and women, who are true to their +race and all that stands for negro progress. + + + + +HISTORICAL COMPOSITION + +BY + +ANNIE L. BURTON + + +It is only 132 years ago to-day that the British troops, who had +occupied Boston, made a riding school of the Old South church, and +otherwise sacrilegiously disported themselves, were persuaded to get +out under the compulsion of the batteries set up on Dorchester +Heights. But when the last company embarked for Halifax, it carried +the last British flag ever unfurled by a military organization on +Massachusetts soil. That was the end of foreign domination in +Massachusetts. And by a happy coincidence this is the legendary +anniversary of the birth of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, +whose memory has been an inspiration in the struggle of another race +for Liberty. + + +A QUESTION OF ETHICS + + +New York, Dec. 17.--Andrew Carnegie declared yesterday in a speech on +the negro question that the negroes are a blessing to America, and +that their presence in the South makes this country impregnable and +without need of a navy to defend itself. + +"Suppose," said Mr. Carnegie, "Great Britain were to send her war +fleets to America. It would amount to nothing. All that the President +of the United States would have to do would be to say, 'Stop exporting +cotton.' The war would be ended in four days, for England cannot do +without our cotton. + +"We don't need a navy; we are impregnable. Because we have 9,000,000 +colored men anxious and willing to work we hold this strong position, +and I am interested in the negro from this material standpoint, as +well as from the more humane point of view." + + + + +MY FAVORITE POEMS + + +Verses + + On a green slope, most fragrant with the Spring, + One sweet, fair day I planted a red rose, + That grew, beneath my tender nourishing, + So tall, so riotous of bloom, that those + Who passed the little valley where it grew + Smiled at its beauty. All the air was sweet + About it! Still I tended it, and knew + That he would come, e'en as it grew complete. + + And a day brought him! Up I led him, where + In the warm sun my rose bloomed gloriously-- + Smiling and saying, Lo, is it not fair? + And all for thee--all thine! But he passed by + Coldly, and answered, Rose? I see no rose,-- + Leaving me standing in the barren vale + Alone! alone! feeling the darkness close + Deep o'er my heart, and all my being fail. + + Then came one, gently, yet with eager tread, + Begging one rose-bud--but my rose was dead. + + +Verses + + The old, old Wind that whispers to old trees, + Round the dark country when the sun has set, + Goes murmuring still of unremembered seas + And cities of the dead that men forget-- + An old blind beggar-man, distained and gray, + With ancient tales to tell, + Mumbling of this and that upon his way, + Strange song and muttered spell-- + Neither to East or West, or South or North, + His habitation lies, + This roofless vagabond who wanders forth + Aye under alien skies-- + A gypsy of the air, he comes and goes + Between the tall trees and the shadowed grass, + And what he tells only the twilight knows ... + The tall trees and the twilight hear him pass. + + To him the Dead stretch forth their strengthless hands, + He who campaigns in other climes than this, + He who is free of the Unshapen Lands, + The empty homes of Dis. + + +Verses + + Out of the scattered fragments + Of castles I built in the air + I gathered enough together + To fashion a cottage with care; + Thoughtfully, slowly, I planned it, + And little by little it grew-- + Perfect in form and in substance, + Because I designed it for you. + + The castles that time has shattered + Gleamed spotless and pearly white + As they stood in the misty distance + That borders the Land of Delight; + Sleeping and waking I saw them + Grow brighter and fairer each day; + But, alas! at the touch of a finger + They trembled and crumbled away! + + Then out of the dust I gathered + A bit of untarnished gold, + And a gem unharmed by contact + With stones of a baser mold; + For sometimes a priceless jewel + Gleams wondrously pure and fair + From glittering paste foundations + Of castles we see in the air. + + So, I turned from the realms of fancy, + As remote as the stars above, + And into the land of the living + I carried the jewel of love; + The mansions of dazzling brightness + Have crumbled away, it is true; + But firm upon gold foundations + Stands the cottage I built for you! + + +Verses + + You do but jest, sir, and you jest not well. + How could the hand be enemy of the arm, + Or seed and sod be rivals? How could light + Feel jealousy of heat, plant of the leaf, + Or competition dwell 'twixt lip and smile? + Are we not part and parcel of yourselves? + Like strands in one great braid we intertwine + And make the perfect whole. You could not be + Unless we gave you birth: we are the soil + From which you sprang, yet sterile were that soil + Save as you planted. (Though in the Book we read + One woman bore a child with no man's aid, + We find no record of a man-child born + Without the aid of woman! Fatherhood + Is but a small achievement at the best, + While motherhood is heaven and hell.) + This ever-growing argument of sex + Is most unseemly, and devoid of sense. + Why waste more time in controversy, when + There is not time enough for all of love, + Our rightful occupation in this life? + Why prate of our defects--of where we fail, + When just the story of our worth would need + Eternity for telling; and our best + Development comes ever through your praise, + As through our praise you reach your highest self? + Oh! had you not been miser of your praise + And let our virtues be their own reward, + The old established order of the world + Would never have been changed. Small blame is ours + For this unsexing of ourselves, and worse + Effeminizing of the male. We were + Content, sir, till you starved us, heart and brain. + All we have done, or wise or otherwise, + Traced to the root, was done for love of you. + Let us taboo all vain comparisons, + And go forth as God meant us, hand in hand, + Companions, mates and comrades evermore; + Two parts of one divinely ordained whole. + + +Verses + + A widow had two sons, + And one knelt at her knees, + And sought to give her joy + And toiled to give her ease; + He heard his country's call + And longed to go, to die + If God so willed, but saw + Her tears and heard her sigh. + + A widow had two sons, + One filled her days with care + And creased her brow and brought + Her many a whitened hair + His country called--he went. + Nor thought to say good-by, + And recklessly he fought, + And died as heroes die. + + A widow had two sons, + One fell as heroes fall, + And one remained and toiled, + And gave to her his all. + She watched "her hero's" grave + In dismal days and fair, + And told the world her love, + Her heart was buried there. + + +Our Mission + + In the legends of the Norsemen, + Stories quaint and weird and wild, + There's a strange and thrilling story, + Of a mother and her child. + And that child, so runs the story, + In those quaint old Norsemen books, + Fell one day from dangerous play ground, + Dashed in pieces on the rocks; + But with gentle hand that mother + Gathered every tender part, + Bore them gently, torn and bleeding, + On her loving mother heart. + And within her humble dwelling, + Strong in faith and brave of soul, + With her love-song low and tender + Rocked and sang the fragments whole. + Such the mission of the Christian, + Taught by Christ so long ago; + This the mark that bids us stay not, + This the spirit each should know: + Rent and torn by sin the race is, + Heart from heart, and soul from soul; + This our task with Christ's sweet love-song, + Join, and heal, and make them whole. + +--_Rev. E. M. Bartlett_ + + +Verses + + Lord over all! Whose power the sceptre swayed, + Ere first Creation's wondrous form was framed, + When by His will Divine all things were made; + Then, King, Almighty was His name proclaimed. + + When all shall cease--the universe be o'er, + In awful greatness He alone will reign, + Who was, Who is, and Who will evermore + In glory most refulgent still remain. + + Sole God! unequalled and beyond compare, + Without division or associate; + Without commencing date, or final year, + Omnipotent He reigns in awful state. + + He is my God! my living Savior He! + My sheltering Rock in sad misfortune's hour! + My standard, refuge, portion, still shall be, + My lot's disposer when I seek His power. + + Into His hands my spirit I consign + Whilst wrapped in sleep, that I again may wake, + And with my soul, my body I resign; + The Lord's with me--no fears my soul can shake. + + +THE CREATION + +BY + +ANNIE L. BURTON + + The earth, the firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + Were made by God's creative power + Six thousand years ago or more. + Man, too, was formed to till the ground; + Birds, beasts, and fish to move around; + The fish to swim, the birds to fly, + And all to praise the Love most high. + This world is round, wise men declare, + And hung on nothing in the air. + The moon around the earth doth run; + The earth moves on its center, too; + The earth and moon around the sun + As wheels and tops and pulleys do. + Water and land make up the whole, + From East to West, from pole to pole. + Vast mountains rear their lofty heads, + Rivers roll down their sandy beds; + And all join in one grand acclaim + To praise the Lord's almighty name. + + + + +MY FAVORITE HYMNS + + +The Ninety and Nine + + There were ninety and nine that safely lay + In the shelter of the fold, + But one was out on the hills away, + Far-off from the gates of gold-- + Away on the mountains lone and bare, + Away from the tender Shepherd's care. + + "Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine: + Are they not enough for Thee?" + But the Shepherd made answer: "This of mine + Has wandered away from me, + And, although the road be rough and steep, + I go to the desert to find my sheep." + + But none of the ransomed ever knew + How deep were the waters crossed; + Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through + Ere he found His sheep that was lost. + Out in the desert he heard the cry-- + Sick and helpless, and ready to die. + + "Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way + That mark out the mountain's track?" + "They were shed for one who had gone astray + Ere the Shepherd could bring him back." + "Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?" + "They are pierced tonight by many a thorn." + + But all through the mountains, thunder-riven, + And up from the rocky steep, + There arose a glad cry to the height of heaven, + "Rejoice! I have found my sheep!" + And the angels echoed around the throne: + "Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!" + + +My Faith looks up to Thee + + My faith looks up to Thee, + Thou Lamb of Calvary, + Saviour divine! + Now hear me while I pray, + Take all my guilt away, + O, let me from this day + Be wholly Thine. + + May Thy rich grace impart + Strength to my fainting heart, + My zeal inspire; + As Thou hast died for me, + O, may my love to Thee + Pure, warm, and changeless be, + A living fire. + + When ends life's transient dream, + When death's cold, sullen stream + Shall o'er me roll, + Blest Saviour, then, in love, + Fear and distrust remove; + O, bear me safe above, + A ransomed soul. + + +Jordan's Strand + + My days are gliding swiftly by, + And I, a pilgrim stranger, + Would not detain them as they fly, + Those hours of toil and danger. + + +_Chorus_ + + For, O we stand on Jordan's strand, + Our friends are passing over; + And, just before, the shining shore + We may almost discover! + + We'll gird our loins, my brethren dear, + Our heavenly home discerning; + Our absent Lord has left us word, + "Let every lamp be burning." + + Should coming days be cold and dark, + We need not cease our singing; + That perfect rest nought can molest, + Where golden harps are ringing. + + Let sorrow's rudest tempest blow, + Each cord on earth to sever; + Our King says, "Come!" and there's our home, + Forever, O forever. + + +Over the Line + + O tender and sweet was the Master's voice + As he lovingly call'd to me, + "Come over the line, it is only a step-- + I am waiting my child, for thee." + + +_Refrain_ + + "Over the line," hear the sweet refrain, + Angels are chanting the heavenly strain: + "Over the line,"--Why should I remain + With a step between me and Jesus? + + But my sins are many, my faith is small, + Lo! the answer came quick and clear; + "Thou needest not trust in thyself at all, + Step over the line, I am here." + + But my flesh is weak, I tearfully said, + And the way I cannot see; + I fear if I try I may sadly fail, + And thus may dishonor Thee. + + Ah, the world is cold, and I cannot go back + Press forward I surely must; + I will place my hand in his wounded palm + Step over the line, and trust. + + +O could I speak the Matchless Worth + + O could I speak the matchless worth, + O could I sound the glories forth, + Which in my Saviour shine, + I'd soar, and touch the heav'nly strings, + And vie with Gabriel while he sings, + In notes almost divine. + + I'd sing the precious blood He spilt, + My ransom from the dreadful guilt + Of sin and wrath divine; + I'd sing His glorious righteousness, + In which all-perfect, heavenly dress + My soul shall ever shine. + + I'd sing the characters He bears, + And all the forms of love He wears, + Exalted on His throne; + In loftiest songs of sweetest praise, + I would to everlasting days + Make all His glories known. + + Well, the delightful day will come + When my dear Lord will bring me home, + And I shall see His face; + Then with my Saviour, Brother, Friend, + A blest eternity I'll spend, + Triumphant in His grace. + + +O God, beneath Thy Guiding Hand + + O God, beneath Thy guiding hand, + Our exiled fathers cross'd the sea; + And when they trod the wintry strand, + With pray'r and psalm they worshipp'd Thee. + + Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer: + Thy blessing came and still its power + Shall onward through all ages bear + The memory of that holy hour. + + Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God + Came with those exiles o'er the waves; + And where their pilgrim feet have trod, + The God they trusted guards their graves. + + And here Thy name, O God of love, + Their children's children shall adore + Till these eternal hills remove + And spring adorns the earth no more. + + +America + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty, + Of thee I sing; + Land where my fathers died, + Land of the pilgrim's pride, + From every mountain side + Let freedom ring. + + My native country, thee, + Land of the noble free, + Thy name I love; + I love thy rocks and rills, + Thy woods and templed hills; + My heart with rapture thrills + Like that above. + + Let music swell the breeze, + And ring from all the trees + Sweet freedom's song; + Let mortal tongues awake, + Let all that breathe partake, + Let rocks their silence break, + The sound prolong. + + Our fathers' God to Thee, + Author of liberty, + To Thee we sing; + Long may our land be bright + With freedom's holy light; + Protect us with Thy might, + Great God our King. + + +In the Cross of Christ I Glory + + In the cross of Christ I glory, + Towering o'er the wrecks of time; + All the light of sacred story + Gathers round its head sublime. + + When the woes of life o'ertake me, + Hopes deceive and fears annoy, + Never shall the cross forsake me: + Lo! it glows with peace and joy. + + When the sun of bliss is beaming + Light and love upon my way, + From the cross the radiance streaming, + Add more luster to the day. + + Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, + By the cross are sanctified; + Peace is there that knows no measure, + Joys that through all time abide. + + +Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah + + Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, + Pilgrim thro' this barren land; + I am weak, but Thou art mighty; + Hold me with Thy pow'rful hand; + Bread of heaven, + Feed me till I want no more. + + Open now the crystal fountain + Whence the healing waters flow; + Let the fiery, cloudy pillar + Lead me all my journey through; + Strong Deliverer, + Be Thou still my strength and shield. + + When I tread the verge of Jordan, + Bid my anxious fears subside; + Bear me through the swelling current, + Land me safe on Canaan's side; + Songs of praises + I will ever give to Thee. + + +Christ receiveth Sinful Men + + Sinners Jesus will receive; + Sound this word of grace to all + Who the heav'nly pathway leave, + All who linger, all who fall. + + +_Chorus_ + + Sing it o'er and o'er again: + Christ receiveth sinful men; + Make the message clear and plain: + Christ receiveth sinful men. + + Come, and He will give you rest; + Trust Him, for His word is plain; + He will take the sinfulest; + Christ receiveth sinful men. + + Christ receiveth sinful men, + Even me with all my sin; + Purged from ev'ry spot and stain, + Heav'n with Him I enter in. + + +Some Day the Silver Cord will break + + Some day the silver cord will break, + And I no more as now shall sing; + But, O, the joy when I shall wake + Within the palace of the King! + + And I shall see Him face to face, + And tell the story--Saved by grace. + + Some day my earthly house will fall, + I cannot tell how soon 'twill be, + But this I know--my All in All + Has now a place in heaven for me. + + Some day; till then I'll watch and wait, + My lamp all trimmed and burning bright, + That when my Saviour ope's the gate. + My soul to Him may take its flight. + + +Battle Hymn of the Republic + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loos'd the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read His righteous sentence in the dim and flaring lamps; + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel, + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you My grace shall deal"; + Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel; + Since God is marching on. + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never sound retreat, + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; + O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days, by +Annie L. 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