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+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: 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. Burton
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