SANITARY WORK.
We found a necessity for organized work, and formed a Freedmen's Relief
Association, in Detroit, with Captain E. B. Ward, president; Rev.
William Webb, vice-president; Benjamin C. Durfee, secretary; and
Francis Raymond, treasurer. These did what they could in gathering
supplies in that city for me to take South the coming Autumn. Brother
Aldrich was engaged to act as principal of Raisin Institute, and this
gave me leisure to hold meetings in towns and county school-houses for
soliciting help for my Southern work. During vacation our two halls
were made ready for opening the Academic Year, as usual, on the first
Wednesday in September, 1863-4. The school, though smaller than before
the war, opened with fair prospects, and I felt at liberty to leave.
The institution, being in competent hands, I obtained as a companion in
labor one of the most devoted of Christian woman, my dear sister,
Letitia Backus, of Pittsford, Michigan. With a car-load of supplies we
left our homes for fields of greatest suffering, where least help was
found. Well furnished with documents from our governor, Austin P.
Blair, and two members of Congress, we secured passes to Chicago and
return, then to Cairo and return, and from thence to Vicksburg,
Mississippi. Waiting a few days at Cairo, for our supplies to reach us,
we visited the hospitals and camps. Here we met a company of men who
were called "Jay-hawkers." They were all tall, large men. One of these
carried the treasure-bag, but I do not think he was a Judas to the
government. A pillow-case was nearly half full of gold and silver
watches, diamonds, and gold jewelry, which they said was confiscated
for the government. They said wealth gave the rebellion strength, no
matter in what it consisted.
After the arrival of our supplies we took a steamer down the
Mississippi, and stopped a short time at Columbus. A little before
landing I discovered an Irish woman had in her possession a six-quart
tin pail of whisky, and a gallon jug that she seemed very careful to
keep out of sight under the sofa; I took a seat by her side, and knew I
could not be mistaken as to the contents of her pail and jug, and as I
understood it was a forbidden article, I penciled on the margin of my
official paper to the inspector to look well to the whisky the woman at
my side had in her possession. As he came to inquire for my baggage to
inspect, I told him where he would find it, and he would see by my
papers what were their probable contents. Taking a look at the lady by
my side, as he handed back my papers he remarked, "I think I'll not
take the trouble to inspect your baggage, as I see you are all right."
As we were going ashore, my red-shawled companion carefully gathered
her pail and jug under her shawl at each side of her, and hurried to
bury herself in the crowd. The inspector followed closely, and as he
took hold of the pail to see what she had hanging on her arm, in her
effort to get away from him it fell on the cabin carpet. As the cover
came off we had quite a shower of whisky about our feet. At this the
jug was seized by the inspector, amid shouts of "Good, good," and the
laughter of the crowd, with muttering and swearing by the Irish woman.
She hastened out of the crowd, leaving her pail and jug behind her.
At the Soldiers' Home we found Samantha Plummer and her excellent
assistant. The following three days we spent in visiting hospitals.
Hospital No. 2 was miserably cared for. The matron was a Southern
woman, who had lost her husband in the Confederate army, but she
professed to be a Union woman, and said her husband would never have
gone on that side but for compulsion. Our officers seemed to pity her
and her two daughters, and gave them a home in the hospital. The mother
held the position of nurse, but not one of the three was a suitable
person to be there. The sick and wounded soldiers did not look as if
their beds or apparel had been changed in two weeks. The floor was
filthy, and the scent was sufficient to sicken well people. From the
appearance of the wash-boiler, running over with dried apples that were
being boiled without care, I judged every thing to be done after the
same style. I inquired of one of the convalescents in the yard when
their supper hour was, and proposed to return to see how the brethren
fared. Sister Backus was rather fearful I might make matters worse, as
they might suspect we had an object in revisiting the hospital so soon;
but we were on hand to see the burned and sour biscuits dealt out to
those sick and wounded soldiers, with the half-stewed apples, and a
choice given between rancid butter and a poor quality of black
molasses. I hoped to see something better when the pail with a spout
appeared, out of which was turned a substance half way between pudding
and porridge, I asked if it was farina. "It's corn meal mush," and mush
it was, running all through whatever was on the plate. I passed from
one plate to another, tasting the biscuits and cutting pieces of apple
to see if I could find one without an uncooked center, but with little
success.
In going around I came to half a dozen of the boys trying to while the
time away with a pack of cards. Having an armful of Testaments, I
proposed to make an exchange. This was readily agreed to, as each of
them had left his home with one, but had lost it in battle or storm. I
gave them advice to commit at least one verse from their Testaments
daily while in the army, and each promised to do so.
All this time of investigating their supper and making this bargain,
sister Backus was busily engaging the attention of the matron. I left
that hospital with a heavy heart, and spent a sleepless night. I told
sister Backus I must remain there until that hospital was renovated. I
wanted to go into it and "make things fly," right and left, if there
was no other way. In the morning I found the medical director, and
asked if he had visited Hospital No. 2 recently. He said he had not,
but thought the surgeon having charge of that hospital a very clever
sort of a man.
"I think there is not a single officer in that establishment," said I,
"that is at all suitable to be there. Perhaps that surgeon is too
clever. I tell you he is defective, or he would not allow such a
hospital as that under his charge. But I find I am ahead of myself. You
may take me to be some nervous mother, but I only claim to be a
representative of common-sense women. Here are papers from the governor
of my State, and from two members of Congress."
After reading them he said, "I will take up that hospital within two
weeks, I think."
"Two weeks!" I exclaimed; "many of those soldiers will die before that
time. I can not leave them for two weeks."
"Then I will tell you what I will do; I will bring the sickest ones
here to this hospital, and put the rest on a boat and take them to
Mound City, to the United States Hospital, and take up No. 2 within
three days."
"That will do," I said; "I am satisfied with Mound City Hospital, and
with this one. If you will do this I will go on to-day with our
supplies for Vicksburg, Mississippi."
"Mrs. Haviland, it shall be done within three days," he replied, and I
left him with a lighter heart.
We went on our way with a number of officers and soldiers on board. As
we were on the boat over Sunday, I asked permission of the captain to
talk to the soldiers. He gave me leave, saying it was a very unsuitable
place for ladies on the rear deck, over cattle, sheep, and hogs, but
they would prepare a place as soon as possible. While preparation was
being made, a young man who had been studying for the ministry of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, proposed to the captain to address the
soldiers. As he was a minister the captain came and informed me that he
had granted his request. I told him I supposed we could attend.
"Certainly, certainly, if you like, only as I told you, it is an
unpleasant place for ladies." Unpleasant as it was, we listened to a
long sermon, and remained a few minutes longer to give the boys a
mother's advice, as they were leaving their Northern homes, not to
allow themselves to become demoralized by the many dangers and
hardships they would have to endure.
About 8 o'clock the boat stopped a little below Napoleon, Arkansas, to
wood. As it was very dark, our torches were lighted, and we saw a light
advancing so fast on the bank that I thought it must be borne on
horseback. "No, it's too low," said a woman standing near me. But it
went out as soon as it came to the landing, and our light was
immediately extinguished, the cable was drawn back, the men leaped
aboard, and the boat was wheeled so suddenly into the stream that there
was great danger of bursting the boiler. We heard many inquiries as to
what was the matter. But the fact ran quickly over the boat that there
were guerrillas after us. The running lantern we saw was carried by an
old white man, who overheard the talk of more than forty men, who were
secreted in a clump of trees and bushes near the landing. They had
planned to capture the first steamer that stopped to wood at that
place, to take all on the boat as prisoners, strip it of everything on
board, and let it float down the river. The old man told the men not to
let it be known, if we were captured, that he had informed them of
this, as it would cost him his life. Such a scene of excitement I never
witnessed; men, as well as women, turned pale, and their voices
trembled. Yet many of them flew to their card tables, expecting every
moment to be shot into, and trembling with fear so as hardly to be able
to hold their cards. The captain said if pouring tar into the furnace
would send us beyond a bayou near by before they could overtake us, he
thought we should escape. After passing that point our colonel came to
me and asked after my companion. I told him as she was not well she had
retired very early, and I thought she had better not know any thing of
this excitement until morning, If we should escape; if not, it was time
for her to become excited when we were taken.
"How do you feel in such an hour as this?" he asked.
"The God of Daniel lives at this hour," I answered, "and in him I
trust."
"I see, you take it coolly," he replied, and looked surprised. I told
him I pitied those card-players, for it was a hard play for them, while
standing face to face with danger. "You see it is an effort," he
replied, "to keep danger out of mind as much as possible."
"But see their pale faces and trembling hands. O, what a poor
substitute they have for substantial trust in an Almighty Power! You
see that gentleman and his wife sitting on the other side of the cabin.
They are calm and perfectly composed; they, too, have their pocket
Bible in hand. They are trusting children of the Most High, no doubt."
He thoughtfully looked over that crowded cabin a moment, and walked
away.
Very few retired before 12 o'clock, and those men and women were all
that time making an effort to quiet their nerves at their card-table.
The next morning our colonel called again with a little joke: "You meet
danger so coolly, I think we had better take you with us to Texas for a
general."
I was thankful for the improvement in sister Backus's health by a good
night's rest, and that we had escaped. Without further trouble we
reached Vicksburg, but learned that the loudest cry for aid was in
Natchez, and we hastened there with our supplies. We were offered a
home with Lieutenant Thirds and family, who had been invited to occupy
rooms at Judge Bullock's. The judge was too strong a secessionist to
take the iron-clad oath of allegiance, though solicited by his wife;
for she feared they might lose their property by confiscation. To save
it, he very blandly offered his parlor and best rooms in his large
three-story brick house, where we found very comfortable quarters.
Through Colonel Young, we obtained the use of a good-sized store on
Main Street for our goods, and the surgeon of the freedmen's camp
provided for us a small room near the camp, where were congregated four
thousand freedmen in condemned tents. These tents were so leaky that,
from exposure, after heavy rains and wind, we had from five to fifteen
deaths in a day. Here we found constant work for head, heart, hands,
and feet.
But few days elapsed at any time without hearing the roar of battle
near by, and sometimes the cloud of blue smoke met our eye. One battle
was fought within two miles by the negro soldiers, only a few days
after the terrible Fort Pillow massacre. They fought desperately. One
of their officers told me they had to command their soldiers to stop,
and they obeyed only at the point of the bayonet; for they mowed the
enemy down like grass, although they lowered their colors and began to
stack their arms. Their officers told them to stop firing; but a number
of soldiers replied, while reloading, "They hear no cry for quarter at
Fort Pillow," and fired again. But when the enemy stacked their arms
they were peremptorily ordered to stop. I didn't blame the boys for
feeling as they did over that awful massacre. But strange as it seems,
not one of our soldiers was killed, or even wounded. There was a white
regiment in reserve, if needed; and the colored soldiers almost
resented the idea that they needed any assistance whatever.
There was great excitement in the freedmen's camp that day over their
victory. Said one woman, whose husband and two sons were soldiers in
this battle:
"Why didn't you shoot away as long as one was lef'?"
"Our officers compelled us to stop."
"I don't care for that; they need killin', _every one_."
Said I, "You wouldn't kill the women, would you?"
"Yes, I would," she answered; "for they's wusser'n the men."
"Well, there are the innocent little children--you wouldn't kill them,
would you?"
Hesitating a little, she said:
"Yes, I would, madam; for I tell you nits make vermin."
She and all her family had belonged to Judge Bullock's wife, and she
was still living in her little cabin and doing the work for the family,
as she had done heretofore, though she did not work so hard. She would
take the time to do our washing for us. She said Judge Bullock was
harder to please than her mistress; but he was afraid of our soldiers,
and when Natchez was taken he kept hid in a thicket of bushes in the
garden a number of days. They took his meals to him when no one was in
sight, expecting the Yankees would kill every man they met; but as he
found it otherwise he came into the house, and now he talked with us
quite freely. Their slaves were mostly house-servants, and better
treated than many others. Judge Bullock was formerly from the North,
and married in the South, and his wife inherited the slaves. Their cook
was a mulatto, of more than ordinary intelligence, and she told me of
the most terrible scenes of barbarity that she had witnessed.
The marks of cruelty were in that camp so frequently seen--men with
broken shoulders and limbs--that it was heart-sickening to listen to
the recital of their wrongs.
One man I saw with a shred of an ear, and I inquired how his ear became
torn like that. He hesitated to tell me, but one of his fellow-slaves
said it was done by order of their master; that he was stripped and
fastened by a large nail driven through his ear to a tree, and the
overseer was directed to whip him on his naked body until his writhings
tore his ear out, and that only ended the punishment. One man by the
name of Matthew Lasley, living within two miles of this city, owned one
hundred slaves, and was his own overseer. He worked his slaves early
and late, and was proverbial for cruelty to them. They were not half
fed or clothed. A few days after he had sold the wife and child of his
slave Jack, they were burning log heaps and clearing off a few acres of
new ground. They had worked until about midnight, and were preparing to
"turn in." Jack had split an armful of kindling-wood, and was now ready
to go to his lonely hut. Then his utter desolation rolled in upon his
mind. When his master stooped over to light his cigar, the thought came
to him like a flash to kill him, and then he too would die, and so
would end his bitter days. No sooner was the thought conceived than the
act was done. The ax was buried in Lasley's head; and he sank, a dead
man, without uttering a word. Jack came immediately to the city, tapped
on the window of Dr. Smith's sleeping apartment, the son-in-law of
Lasley, and told him he wanted him to go at once to the new clearing
with him. When the doctor went out Jack told him that he had killed his
master.
"What did you do it for?"
"Master sole my wife and chile, an' I don't want to live any longer.
Now, master, you may shoot me, or take me to jail, or do any thing
you're a min' to."
"Well, Jack, I know you've had a hard time; but I shall have to take
you to jail, any how, and see what the court will do."
After ordering Lasley's body to be taken care of, he returned to his
wife and told her all, and added that he wondered he had not been
killed long before, as it was what he had looked for. Dr. Smith
employed one of the best lawyers in the city to plead Jack's case, and
had all the Lasley slaves brought into court, not one of whom was
without marks of cruelty--a broken arm or leg, an ear cut off, or an
eye out. They were all in a nearly nude condition, three children under
ten years of age entirely so. The daughter begged her husband to allow
better clothes for them; but the doctor and the lawyer insisted upon
their coming into court with just the clothing provided for them by
their master The lawyer made an eloquent plea for Jack, and pointed to
the hundred slaves, maimed and crippled and almost naked, and Jack was
acquitted. Lasley's extreme cruelty had created a public sentiment in
Jack's favor, so that unexpectedly to himself his life was saved. Jack
was hunting for his wife and child among the multitude, but had not yet
succeeded in finding them.
Week after week was spent in making personal investigations, measuring
and preparing bundles for those nearly naked. As new refugees were
daily coming in, the officers found it necessary to organize a new camp
over the river, in the rear of Vidalia, Louisiana, on the Ralston
plantation. As a few hundred were gathered there we went over and found
them exceedingly destitute. There were twenty families, mostly of those
recently enlisted as soldiers. Some of them were almost ready to
desert. Said one, "They say we are free, and what sort of freedom is
this, for us to see our families without a board, shingle, or canvas to
cover their heads? We are concluding to leave our regiment and build
something to shelter our wives and children. They haven't got a place
to sleep at night except in the open field." We told them we would make
their families our first care, and advised them not to leave. Upon this
they became more calm, and concluded to wait armpits, as I chose to
keep my arms out in case of tipping over. Here came brother Reed, one
of the teachers, offering to aid me; but he had no pass or
transportation, and no time to get it. I called the attention of a
passing general to my necessity for help, to be able to return before
the firing of the sundown gun. He said if he was in command he would
allow him to go with my load, and advised him to try it. On we
hastened, but met an ambulance that Captain Howe had sent to the new
camp for a sick woman with two small children. It was obliged to
return, not being able to pass through the lines, as the provost
marshal was not to be found. The supposition was very strong that the
lines were closed, as it was the weakest point in the post, and the
smoke of rebel fires was in sight on Lake Concordia. A battle had been
fought a few days before, and another attack was-daily threatened. The
driver and brother Reed were doubting the propriety of crossing the
river. "For if the lines are closed," they said, "the President himself
would not be permitted to pass." But I told them as they did not
positively know that the lines were closed, we had better cross.
"It is your load, and if you say go we shall go," said brother Reed.
"I say go," was my decision.
Soon we were in front of the provost marshal's office. But he was not
there, and no one knew where he was. After a long search, in accordance
with my plea, some of the guards discovered and brought him back,
reeling, with his head of long hair thoroughly decorated with feathers
and straws. I met him in his office and read to him my papers, holding,
them before his face as I would exhibit a picture to a two-year old
baby. After explaining all, I made my request to pass his lines with my
load of supplies.
"Who--who's there?"
I told him who he was that so kindly offered to aid me in disbursing
these supplies just as I was starting; and that a general advised me to
take him with my load, as he would pass him, if in command.
"Well, well, I don'--don't--li-like--this--whole--whole-sa-sale
business."
But I pleaded for those suffering women and children with all the
politeness I was capable of mastering, with disgust boiling over. With
stuttering and mumbling his dislikes, and shaking his head, with the
feathers and straws waving and nodding in every direction, he took his
pen and scribbled a pass that was difficult to decipher. The next line
of guards hardly knew what to do with it until I told them the provost
marshal was drunk.
"O, yes, and it's no new trick; go on."
And without further difficulty we reached the group of sufferers, who
were shivering as if in an ague fit. I threw to each family two
blankets or quilts, and more than forty children were crawling between
them within three minutes. I gave to each of those twenty women a suit
of men's clothing that day to help them out of this intense suffering.
I gave them also three rag-carpet blankets out of the four that were
sent me by a woman who took up a new rag-carpet she had just put down,
and cut it into four pieces after listening to the recital of the great
suffering in these camps. She said she should put no more carpets on
her floor as long as the war lasted.
Although I had seen so many marks of cruelty among these people, yet I
said to myself, O that these poor people had remained in their old
homes a little longer! Surely they can not suffer there like this. A
little girl came for me to go to the old blacksmith-shop used as a
temporary hospital, as her mother thought her brother was dying, and
another brother was very sick. I entered that shop, and listened to the
groans of the dying. I repeated to myself, O that they had waited a
little longer! Four men and the little son of the distressed mother
that sent for me were evidently dying, and four others were sick with
pneumonia. The mother of these two sick boys was doing all she could
for them all. I gave her ground mustard to make poultices, and ginger
for those who had chills, and told her how to use them. I had a few
pounds of each, and generally took a little package with me, especially
after a storm. This miserable shelter leaked but little, but one side
and one end were so open that we could throw a hat through the wall.
I saw a pile of irons by the door. Placing my foot on a queer double
jointed ring, I said:
"I wonder what that queer sort of a ring could have been used for,"
looking toward the old dilapidated cotton-gin near by.
"That's a neck iron," said an old woman standing near me.
"A neck-iron! What do you mean?"
"Why, it's an iron collar to wear on the neck."
"But you are certainly mistaken," said I, picking it up; "you see these
joints are riveted with iron as large as my finger, and it could never
be taken off over one's head."
"But we knows; dat's Uncle Tim's collar. An' he crawled off in dat
fence-corner," pointing to the spot, "an' died thar, an' Massa George
had his head cut off to get de iron off."
"Is it possible for a human being to become so brutal as to cut a man's
head off when he is dead?"
She looked as if she thought I doubted her word, and said: "It didn't
hurt Uncle Tim when he was dead as it did when de iron wore big sores
way down to de bone, and da got full o' worms afore he died. His neck
an' head all swell up, an' he prayed many, many prayers to God to come
and take him out his misery."
"How long did he wear it?"
"'Bout two years."
"Two years! It is impossible for any one to live that length of time
with this rough heavy iron."
[Illustration: SLAVE IRONS IN POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR]
"We work two seasons, any how, over in dat cotton-fiel'," pointing to
the two-hundred-acre cotton-field at our right.
I took up another iron, and inquired, "What sort of an iron is this?"
"A knee-stiffener, to w'ar on de leg to keep 'em from runnin' off in
dat swamp," pointing to the dark swamp bordering Lake Concordia, so
fully draped with long Southern moss that in many places in it nothing
could be discovered three feet in the thicket.
I went to the rear of the shop, with the ring under my shawl. Here
stood a dozen or more of old and crippled men and women.
"Did any of this company," I asked, "live on this plantation before the
war?"
"Yes, missus, six of us live here. I live here seven year."
I drew out the collar, and asked if any one could tell me what that
was. One looked at another, and asked where I found it.
"In that pile of irons by the door," I replied.
One said, in a low tone, "Dat's Uncle Tim's collar."
"Yes, missus, dat is iron collar to wear on de neck."
"But you see it is fastened with heavy iron rivets."
"Yes, de way you see it is 'case Massa George Ralston order Uncle Tim's
head cut off to get de collar."
"I want this collar," I said, "and another heavy iron a woman called a
knee-stiffener. This plantation is confiscated, and these irons belong
to you as much as to any body. Will you give them to me?"
Each seemed to wait for the others to speak, but the one to whom I had
mostly directed my conversation at length replied:
"I reckon you can have 'em; for we's had all we wants ov 'em."
"I thank you; and if you can find any other slave-irons in that pile I
wish you would pick them out for me to take home to Michigan, to show
what sort of jewelry the colored people had to wear down here."
They turned over the heap, and found iron horns, hand-cuffs, etc., and
explained how they were worn. They showed me also where the iron rod
upon which was suspended a bell was cut off of Uncle Tim's collar.
Among the group was a crippled man walking with two canes, clad in
tattered cotton clothes, that were hanging in frozen strings from his
arms like icicles. I selected a whole suit for him, and a soldier's
overcoat. He stepped in the rear of a cabin and changed, and came to me
weeping.
"I come to show you," he said; "dis is de best dressin' I's ever had in
my life. An' I thanks you, an' praise God."
As we were standing on the bank of the river waiting for the return of
the ferry on her last trip that day, there were thirty or forty men
waiting, who by their favorite gray appeared to be rebel citizens; but
our many bristling bayonets kept them in subjection. The ferry soon
took us over the river, and we were within our post before the sundown
gun was fired.
As I had brought the sick woman and two little children that Captain
Howe had sent his ambulance for in the morning, in one wagon, I must go
to his hospital with them. This made us so late that the guard said I
could not be allowed to enter the camp without a permit from the
officer of the night. I told him where I had been all day without a
fire; and as he knew the storm had continued until late in the
afternoon, and this sick woman whom the captain had sent for could not
get through the lines in the morning, I hoped he would read my papers.
He held up his lantern to see them; but as soon as he caught sight of
my old portfolio he said, "Go on, I know who you are; I've seen that
before." I was permitted to leave my sick family in the hospital, and
drove the two miles to our head-quarters by eight o'clock. Although
very much chilled, I felt relieved, notwithstanding I had witnessed
such scenes of suffering and dying during that eventful day.
One morning the little drummer-boy of twelve years of age marched into
camp with seven men that he had taken prisoners, ragged and almost
barefooted. The suffering men were glad to find comfortable quarters.
Occasionally we found them tamely submitting to be taken, on account of
their sufferings for want of food and clothing. One entire company, who
suffered themselves to be captured, told our officers if they would
allow them to wear out of sight some sort of a Union mark, so as not to
meet with trouble from our soldiers, they would go and bring in their
entire regiment, as they all wanted to come into our lines. They were
furnished with a badge of national colors to wear under their coats.
Soon the whole regiment were with us. One of our officers said they
were among our most efficient helps. One of them told me if they had
known the real object of the war they would never have gone into it;
for more than half of them had never owned a slave, and those who did
were better off without them. They were surprised to find an attendance
of supplies. They had always been told that all the difference between
the Northern people and their slaves was the color of their skin.
There was great excitement during the last presidential campaign. The
slave passed through terrible experiences during 1860-61. It seemed to
be accepted as a settled fact, that if Lincoln was elected it would
result in war; and in many places regular drills were instituted. In
Natchez the half-grown slave boys got together on Sunday afternoons,
and drilled with sticks for guns. At first it attracted no particular
attention, and the boys became as expert in handling their stick guns
as were their masters. Two slave men were overheard repeating what
their master said, that if Lincoln was elected he would free all the
slaves, for he was a Black Republican; and they declared that if this
was true they would go to the Yankees and help to free their nation.
This talk was sufficient to raise the report of an insurrection
throughout all that part of the State, and a large vigilance committee
was organized to meet once a week and report what they might hear by
listening outside the negro cabins. All slave men or boys who were
overheard to pray for freedom, or to say any thing indicating a desire
to be free, were marked; and in the discussions of this large committee
of a hundred men, every thing that had occurred during a few years
past, in efforts among the slaves to learn to read and write, was
magnified and construed as pointing toward a long and settled purpose
among the slaves to rise in insurrection. A majority of this committee
decided by whipping and other torture to compel confessions from all
these marked slaves, and then to hang them. A number of the committee
resigned because they would not consent to these severe measures. Many
negroes were dragged out of their cabins or yards without knowing the
cause, stripped, tied to the whipping-post or taken to the calaboose,
and given as many lashes as could be endured. At the close of each
whipping the sufferer was called upon to make a full revelation of
every sentence that he or she had heard in favor of liberty, or of the
Yankees, among their people, either in conversation or prayer, and by
whom, with a promise to be released from further punishment. Never was
one released, but on Saturday generally ten or twelve of these
sufferers were thrown into a wagon and conveyed to the gallows, where
they were placed in a row, and all were hanged at the same instant.
Some hundreds were thus hanged in the edge of the city, and on an
adjoining plantation. I carefully investigated the facts, and gathered
the following statement from both white and colored citizens. I have
good reasons for placing entire confidence in its correctness. A large
number of slaves were hanged, owned by the following persons:
Frank Susetts, 26; James Susetts, 7; Dr. Stanton, 8; Dr. Moseby, 26;
widow Albert Dunbar, 48; Mrs. Brady, 12; widow E. Baker, 28; Mrs.
Alexander, 16; Dr. George Baldwin, 8; Stephen Odell, 5; G. Grafton, 5;
James Brown, 3; Mr. Marshall, 1; Mr. Robinson, 2; Melon Davis, 1; widow
Absalom Sharp, 3; Miss Mary Dunbar, 3; Joseph Reynolds, 2; Baker
Robinson, 3; Lee Marshall, whipped to death 1; Mrs. Chase, whipped to
death 1; a total of 209.
I was told by a number of persons, both white and colored, that there
were over four hundred tortured to death in this reign of terror,
before Natchez fell into Union hands, but I put in my diary only such
as I found were proven to be facts.
Miss Mary Dunbar was very much distressed over the loss of one of her
three slaves who were hanged, and offered the vigilance committee ten
thousand dollars for his release, but to no purpose. Joseph Reynolds
also offered the committee $100,000 for the release of his two, but was
denied. One little boy of twelve years of age was taken to the
calaboose and whipped, then taken with the wagon-load of other victims
of their unrelenting cruelty to the scaffold, followed by his mother in
wild despair, praying as she went through the streets, tossing her
hands upward: "O, God, save my poor boy! O, Jesus Master, pity my poor
child! O, Savior, look down upon my poor baby!" The woman who went with
her to the scaffold said she cried these words over and over; "and when
we got there," she said, "she fell on her knees before the head man,
and begged for the life of her baby. But he kicked her on her head, and
cursed her, and told her the boy had got to die. The boy exhorted his
mother not to grieve so for him, 'for I'm going to Jesus; meet me in
heaven;' and he, with eleven others, were swung off. The mother cried
out, 'Oh, my God! my poor son!' and feinted." So perfect was this reign
of terror that not even slave-owners, in many cases, dared to protest
against this wholesale butchery. The repeated whippings mangled the
bodies of many so badly that they were taken to the gallows in a dying
state. One man died while being taken upon the scaffold; his sides were
cut through to the entrails, and even a part of them protruded. I
visited the calaboose, which had two apartments. The first entrance was
large enough for two persons to be fastened to the strong iron staples.
There was room for two men to each victim, one on each side, who,
seated on a stool, could alternate the strokes upon the writhing
sufferer. The floor of this calaboose was of hard wood, but it was so
thoroughly stained with human gore that the grain of the wood could not
be distinguished. Into the second room not a ray of light entered
except on opening the middle door.
Frank Susetts was a millionaire in the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
and made his boast that he had no fear of Yankees, for he had gold
enough to cover his front walk from the door to the gate, and could buy
up any Yankee who might attempt to trouble him. "There are two things,"
he said, "they can never do: First, make me poor; second, make me take
the oath of allegiance." He owned nine plantations, besides very much
city property. Though hundreds of his slaves had left him, he felt
himself secure in the abundance of his wealth. The government engineer,
who had been casting about for the best place to locate a fort, had
been looking over Frank Susetts's place and said it was the most
elevated and desirable location he had found in the city, but he rather
hesitated because of the magnificent buildings it would destroy. When
Susetts's independent words reached his ear he at once decided, and
took his men the second time to look over the ground. Standing near the
palatial mansion, and within hearing of the owner, he said to his men,
"Yes, yes, this is the place for our fort."
Frank Susetts approached him with the offer of thirty thousand dollars
in gold if he would spare his place.
"I can not accept it, sir," said the engineer.
"I will give you fifty thousand dollars in gold if you will save it. It
cost me one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to build this
house and the out-houses."
"Should you offer all that you say it cost you, it would be of no
consequence. We give you ten days to take away every thing movable from
your premises, for this house will then be destroyed to make room for
the fort. This is the site we have selected."
At the expiration of the time set, it was in flames. Frank Susetts and
wife stood a block distant weeping. Two of their former slaves were
looking at the conflagration.
"Ah," said one, "a little while ago it was massa Susetts's time, when
he had so many of our people hung; now it is God's time. Praise de
Lo'd, he's here to-day for sure. Glory to Jesus, massa Susetts's day is
over; he can never have any more of our people hung."
It was now the 21st day of March, 1864. Many complained of these turned
tables. Judge Bullock remarked that he couldn't even go to meeting
without a "pass;" just what used to be required of the six thousand
freed slaves who were then in this city of refuge. Painters were seen
in various parts of the city dexterously using their brushes in wiping
out standing advertisements for the sales of slaves. I saw a number of
these whitewashed signs. In some cases the paint was too thin to hide
them. "Slaves, horses, mules, cattle, plantation utensils sold on
reasonable terms." They knew these advertisements were not agreeable to
Northern eyes. But I fear the covering of many of these hearts was as
frail as the thin whitewashing over these advertisements.
On the Ralston plantation we visited families, gave tickets, and
directed them to meet us at the place and hour appointed. Hundreds in
squalid wretchedness were supplied. The following day, in the
afternoon, all orphan children were to meet us. One hundred and
twenty-two ragged children came. We placed them in two rows, the boys
on one side and the girls on the other. Selecting each an assistant, we
commenced measuring and distributing, keeping them all standing in
their respective places until we had given every one something, but yet
too little to meet their necessary wants. There were at that time
twenty-seven teachers and missionaries in the city representing nine
States. Six day-schools and three night-schools were established by
them. Two other schools were taught by colored teachers; one of these
was a slave woman, who had taught a midnight school for years. It was
opened at eleven or twelve o'clock at night, and closed at two o'clock
A. M. Every window and door was carefully closed to prevent discovery.
In that little school hundreds of slaves learned to read and write a
legible hand. After toiling all day for their masters they crept
stealthily into this back alley, each with a bundle of pitch-pine
splinters for lights. Milla Granson, the teacher, learned to read and
write from the children of her indulgent master in her old Kentucky
home. Her number of scholars was twelve at a time, and when she had
taught these to read and write she dismissed them, and again took her
apostolic number and brought them up to the extent of her ability,
until she had graduated hundreds. A number of them wrote their own
passes and started for Canada, and she supposes succeeded, as they were
never heard from. She was sold after her master's death, and brought to
Mississippi, and placed on a plantation as a field-hand; but, not being
used to field-work, she found it impossible to keep up with the old
hands, and the overseer whipped her severely.
"O, how I longed to die!" she told me; "and sometimes I thought I would
die from such cruel whippings upon my bared body. O, what a vale of
tears this was for poor me! But one thing kept me from sinking, and
that was the presence of my dear Savior."
Her health so far gave way that she reeled with weakness as she went to
and from her work; and her master saw she was failing, and gave her
permission, to go into the kitchen a part of the time.
"O, how thankful I was," she went on, "for this promotion! and I worked
as hard to keep it as any Congressman could work for some high office."
At length her night-school project leaked out, and was for a time
suspended; but it was not known that seven of the twelve years since
leaving Kentucky had been spent in this work. Much excitement over her
night-school was produced. The subject was discussed in their
legislature, and a bill was passed, that it should not be held illegal
for a slave to teach a slave.
"All this time," said this dear woman, "I constantly prayed that God
would overrule this to his own glory, and not allow those I had taught
to read his Word to suffer, as we had been threatened. I can not tell
you how my heart leaped with praise to God when a gentleman called to
me one day on the street, and said he would inform me that I could
teach my midnight school if I chose, as they found, no law against a
slave teaching a slave."
This was accepted by that trembling teacher and scholars as a direct
answer to prayer. She not only opened her night-school, but a
Sabbath-school. I found more intelligence among the colored residents
of this city than any other Southern city I had visited. Milla Granson
used as good language as any of the white people.
We found many little incidents to cheer in all our rounds of pitiable
scenes of sorrow. We sometimes met men and women among these
Southerners of correct views on secession. One man said he never
believed that slavery was right; all the arguments brought forward in
its favor never convinced him. Although he held a few slaves by
inheritance, he never could buy or sell one. His black people remained
with him, and he paid them wages now that they were free by law, and he
was glad of it. As he was nearly sixty years of age he had managed to
keep out of the army, but had to keep quiet on the subject of
secession. From the first he thought it the height of folly to resort
to arms, as the Lord could not prosper their undertaking. I believe
that man was a conscientious Christian; very different in spirit from
Judge Bullock, who said one day in rather a careless mood, "I think you
have one class of men in your North the most despicable I ever knew."
Now, thought I, we abolitionists are going to take a blessing. "Who are
they?" I asked. "They are that class you call Copperheads. They are too
dastardly to come down here and help us fight, and they are too
pusillanimous to fight for their own side."
Our daily work was very wearisome, having to walk from four to six
miles each day. Fresh arrivals daily required our attention, and after
wind or rain pneumonia and deaths were frequent. Bible-reading and
prayer were also a part of our mission. One day, while sister Backus
was opening barrels and boxes, and sorting and arranging their contents
in our store, I went with a load, in a recently confiscated stage-coach
drawn by mules. One of the mules the colonel said he was afraid to
allow me to ride after; but I thought a little mule could do but little
harm with the experienced driver, and I ventured the ride, taking in a
poor crippled man on the way, who was just coming into camp. He was
clad in a few cotton rags that he had patched with old stocking-tops
and bits of old tent-cloth, to hold them together, and it was
impossible to detect the original fabric. In passing down the "Paradise
Road" to the camp in Natchez-under-the-Hill, the unruly mule pranced,
kicked, and reared, until both of them became unmanageable, and the
dust rolled up a thick cloud, hiding the way before us, as well as the
galloping mules.
I believed that we should turn over at the short curve near the base of
the hill, where was a number of large stumps; and that if we should
strike one of them we should be dashed in pieces. But prayer for a
guiding hand seemed in a moment to bring relief. We were overturned
amid stumps, and were dragged a few rods on the side of the coach, when
the canvas covering was detached from the wheels. Our driver was
dragged a few rods farther, while the crippled man and myself were
doing our best to crawl from under the canvas. By this time fifteen or
twenty men reached us. I was out and hauling the canvas off the
groaning man, whose head and face were covered with blood. I told one
of the men to run for a pail of water, for I thought the poor man must
be dying.
"O, no, it's all right,--it'll make me a better man," said he, while
catching his breath, and wiping the blood from his mouth.
"You had better sit down yourself; you are badly hurt," said one of the
men.
"O no, I am not hurt," was my reply.
But as I was getting a little child's shirt ready for the men to wash
the crippled man's head, I found the front breadth of my dress torn
across, and I had to throw back my bonnet to see; but I knew my limbs
were all sound. Although it seemed as if we had turned many somersaults
in a second, yet I never felt more vigorous. I knew the surgeon of that
camp was within a few rods of us, and requested some one to go for him
to care for my comrade. I saw a man carefully washing out the large
gashes on his head, and I left for the surgeon, holding my torn
dress-skirt in my hand. Just as I reached his office he was jumping on
his horse, starting for me. He exclaimed in surprise, "Why, Mrs.
Haviland! I've just this moment got the word that you were nearly
killed, and I was going to see you."
"I am all right," I said; "but I wish you would go and see to that
crippled man, for I am afraid he is nearly killed."
"Very well, but I shall look after you first."
By this time he was handling my arms, and pressing here and there on my
body, I thought pretty harshly; for he either found or made some sore
places. He ordered his ambulance, in which I was taken to
head-quarters. As I was badly bruised, the surgeon urged me to take
morphine. I was sure of not needing it, but promised to call for it if
needed, and he allowed me to go without it. I found myself too lame to
resume work for a couple of days; then I commenced again moderately,
but carried marks of bruised flesh for a month or more.
About two weeks after this, while investigating a new arrival of a
company of slaves, I learned that some of them were shot by their
pursuing masters, and one woman's babe was instantly killed in its
mother's arms; but the mother succeeded in passing into our lines, with
her dead child in her arms, to be buried, as she said, "_free_." A
woman and a little boy of three years, with dresses torn with briers to
shreds, and feet and limbs swollen and bleeding with scratches, came
in, from whom I was getting her sad history. Two gentlemen passing by,
halted, and said one:
"This looks as if these would have been much better off at their old
homes. Don't you think so?"
"I think this picture shows great effort in escaping from their old
home," I replied.
"Do you live here?"
"I am only a temporary resident here. My home is in Michigan."
"May I ask your name?"
I gave it, and he continued:
"And so am I from Michigan. I've heard of you before, I thought this
was some good Samaritan," giving his hand for a hearty shake.
"And who is this?" I asked.
"I'm Dr.----, from one of our Michigan cities. And what are you doing
here?"
"I am doing just the work you see before us."
"Yes, and I saw a span of mules trying their best to kill her two weeks
ago, when they came sailing down that Paradise Road up yonder; but they
couldn't do it," said his guide.
I asked him what he was doing. He said he had just come to see if there
was any thing he could do. I told him of the new camp on the Ralston
plantation, and of this camp of four thousand. I hoped he would look
after these, as we proposed to leave soon for other fields of labor
below.
On March 24, 1864, I took letters to post-office, and found one from
our dear friend, Addie Johnson, assistant matron of Soldiers' Home, in
Columbus, Kentucky. I went to General Tuttle for an order for
transportation to Baton Rouge, and, as usual, introduced myself by
handing my official papers. Being a very large man, he was in
proportion consequential.
"What do you want?"
I told him I would like transportation to Baton Rouge.
"I don't know," he said; "that I am here to make the Government a great
benevolent society, by giving every thoroughly loyal and earnest
Christian man or woman transportation."
"Is there not an order," I replied, "from Adjutant-general Thomas,
granting us transportation, rations, and quarters?"
"I have received no such order personally."
I bade him good morning, and left his office, fully determined to bring
him an order, although I knew he must have seen one. My purpose was to
take the first boat to Vicksburg, as General Thomas was then in that
city, to see whether his order was to be honored. Passing Colonel
Young's office, I called to see if he could grant the favor, and found
that he could give the transportation desired, consequently I left the
general without troubling him further. On my return I called at the
other mission store, and met brother Burlingame and Isaac Thorne, who
also wished to go below, but were doubtful whether General Tuttle would
give them transportation They said they were waiting to learn of my
success, and were surprised to find that Colonel Young had the power to
grant it.
We took the steamer "J. H. Russell" for Baton Rouge. On March 27th
Sunday morning, we passed the mouth of Red River, where was a gun boat,
from which a few prisoners were taken aboard of our boat. A woman named
Crosly was also taken on board, to go to New Orleans for the purpose of
exposing those who had run through our lines contraband goods. There
was a woman of property and standing on the boat, who still held her
household servants, and made her boast that no one could even hire her
slaves to leave her.
"I'd like to see any one offer my niggers a book," she declared. "I
reckon they'd take it as an insult. They'd tell you mighty quick they'd
no use for books or schools. The niggers never will be as happy as they
have been. They'll soon die out. It's fearful to see them die off as
they do in these camps. They know nothing of taking care of themselves.
They are cared for by us as tenderly as our own children. I tell you,
they are the happiest people that live in this country. If they are
sick the doctor is sent for, and they are cared for in every way, they
know nothing of care."
"If they are such a happy class of people, how was it that you had such
a time of punishing and hanging them within the last two years?" I
asked.
"O, that had to be done to save our lives, because they were about to
rise in an awful insurrection."
"But what would induce them to rise in insurrection, when they are so
happy and contented as you have described?"
"O, there is always somebody ready to put the devil in their heads,"
was her ready reply.
But Mrs. Crosly's report was of a very different character. She said,
"There has never been the half told of this hell upon earth--the awful
wickedness on these Red River plantations, where I have lived ever
since I was fifteen years old. If you knew what I have passed through,
you would not wonder that there is nothing but a wreck left of me. I
married a plantation blacksmith when a young girl of fifteen, and left
my people in Indiana, as my husband was hired by a rich slave-holder,
Mr. Samuel Lay, who lived on Red River. We lived on his plantation many
years, though he used to do a great deal in ironing negroes for
neighboring planters."
I told her of the slave-irons I had found on a deserted plantation, to
take to my Michigan home.
"Don't let the people here know it," she said, "or they will take them
from you and drop them in the river; for they bury them, or throw them
in the river or creek, to put them out of sight of Yankees. When the
city was taken they sent painters all over the city, with brushes and
paint-buckets, to paint over all advertising signs of slaves for sale,
and hid all slave-irons they could lay hands on."
I told her that was done in Natchez, when that city was taken.
"And that is just what they did," she went on, "in Vicksburg. Among the
slave-irons you found, were there any of those new-fashioned gags?"
I told her that there were not.
"You ought to get some of them. If I were at home I could get you two
or three kinds; but you ought to see the new gags anyhow. They are made
with barbs, as they make on fish-hooks, and they pierce the tongue if
they attempt to speak or make a noise. They can't live many hours with
one of them in their mouths, for the tongue swells up so. Mr. Lay had
an old slave woman we called Aunt Hannah whipped, and gagged with that
new gag, and left her all night in her cabin; and when I opened her
door her tongue was swollen out of her mouth and looked so awful, I
wouldn't have known her if she hadn't been in her own cabin. I told 'em
she groaned so, I reckoned she was dying, and they sent for the doctor
to come and cut the barbs out, and he told Mr. Lay she would have died
in an hour longer. It was a long time before she recovered from it. But
as near as she was to dying, the overseer left Ben all night with that
kind of a gag; and they found him dead in the morning. You of the North
have no idea of the perfect hell upon earth we've had down here. Mr.
Lay brought Alice from Kentucky, and she'd been a kitchen-maid, and
never worked in the cotton-field till she came here. The overseer was a
mighty hard man, and he drew that long whip of his over her shoulders
so often because she couldn't keep up with the other hands, that she
ran away in the bush and was gone two days before they caught her. Then
they whipped her awfully, and in two or three days they drove her out
in the field. Within a week she ran away again, and was gone about two
weeks. They caught her with the help of bloodhounds; and when she was
brought in, her arms were torn by the dogs, and I trembled for the poor
girl, for I knew they'd nearly kill her. Sure enough, the first I knew
my husband had her at his shop, to iron her with a full set. There was
a knee-stiffener, an iron collar with a bell, and a pair of handcuffs,
with a chain between to allow her to use the hoe. When I saw the heavy
irons I went to the shop and begged Mr. Crosly not to iron Alice like
that, for it would kill her, as she was badly torn by the dogs. But he
swore at me, and told me to go back into the house, were I belonged;
this was his business. I went back and cried over it till it appeared I
couldn't live; and I went out again and begged him not to put on all
these irons; for he knew they were heavier than the law allowed, and he
would commit murder, for she could not live in this way. But he only
swore at me the more. At this Mrs. Lay came out in a rage, and said she
would see whether any one could come in and interfere with the
punishment of any of her slaves, and ordered another slave to cut
across both of her feet with a pocket-knife, through the skin, so that
blood was left in her tracks. I turned away, for I thought they would
murder the poor girl before my eyes; and I cried myself sick and
couldn't sleep, for I thought she must die before morning. The
cotton-field was opposite my window, and after breakfast I watched to
see the hands go to their work; and, sure enough, there was poor Alice
hobbling out into the cotton-field. They had been at work but a little
while when a heavy blow from the whip-handle on the back of her head
brought her to the ground. 'O, my God!' I cried, to see that overseer
hit her like that because she couldn't keep up her row. I prayed God
that Alice might die at once and be out of her misery; and, sure
enough, they brought her out of that field dead! I was glad of it. Poor
girl! she could suffer no more under their hands."
"And did not her death call forth some action from the law?" I asked.
"Nothing of the kind was ever noticed on our plantation. I tell you it
was a perfect hell on earth down here; you don't know anything about
it; and yet, if these things are told, they'll deny it, and call them
black abolition lies, when it's God's truth, and they know it. There
was Uncle Jack, poor fellow! He ran away, and they brought him in with
the bounds, after he'd been gone a week, and they made him strip and
lie down on his face, and fastened his hands and feet to iron rings.
Then a man sat on each side of him to do the whipping, alternating in
their strokes from his feet to his head, then back to his feet, and so
back and forth until they'd given him one hundred lashes. I passed by
them, and saw his back cut up to a raw jelly, and the flesh twitched as
you've seen newly killed beef. But this was not all. They took burning
pitch-pine slivers and held them over his quivering flesh, dropping the
melted blazing pitch from his head to his feet. After this awful
torture, the two men carried him to his cabin, I thought, to die; and I
had another all-night cry over Uncle Jack, He was not able to go out in
the field again for two weeks."
Mrs. Crosly related many other incidents in her own experience, some of
which are too shocking for the public eye or ear.
"My husband," she said, "bought two slave women, one of whom was the
mother of two illegitimate children, that my children were compelled by
their father to address as brother and sister. He also brought the
mother to my apartments, and occupied my parlor bedroom with her for
years--all to aggravate me. I didn't blame the woman Molly, for she
couldn't help herself. She and I cried together over this state of
things for hours, many a time. She often begged my husband to let her
live a virtuous life, but it was of no use. He would only threaten to
punish her. Poor thing! we felt sorry for each other, and she used to
do all she could for me. I am so thankful she can now go where she
pleases. She took her two children, and with the other woman went as
soon as they could get through the lines. I am so glad all the slaves
are free. Mr. Crosly has got our oldest boy with him in the army, and
threatens to take my youngest boy of fourteen. But the Union officers
say they will confiscate our property and make it over to me and my
boys, so that Mr. Crosly can not take it from me."
The terrible scenes she had passed through, and witnessed,
substantiated our oft expressed opinion that unlimited power on the
part of slave-owners was equally degrading to the slave-holder and to
the slave. Even more: it fostered the worst passions of a depraved
nature. Her experience was no isolated one. Such cases in many
localities were neither few nor far between.
On March 28th we learned, with surprise, that the bright light we saw
the evening before, as we came from the soldiers' meeting, was the
steamer "J. H. Russell" burning to the water's edge. No lives were
lost, but all the baggage of passengers and many mules, horses, cattle,
and sheep and other government supplies were destroyed. O, how thankful
we were that we exchanged boats when we did, and were safely landed
here in Baton Rouge. "Bless the Lord, O my soul! and forget not all his
benefits," was my first thought. How many favors are often bestowed in
disguise!
At three o'clock, P. M., I attended a meeting of colored people at the
Methodist Episcopal Church, which was built by themselves, and upon
invitation addressed them. I spoke perhaps twenty minutes, taking for
my theme Psalm cxi, 12: "I know the Lord will maintain the cause of the
afflicted, and the right of the poor." At the close of the meeting the
colored people gathered around us, and gave us such a hand-shaking and
"God bless you" as we seldom find outside of this oppressed people.
In the evening more than a dozen came to our lodgings and spent two
hours recounting the trials of their slave-life, which were of
thrilling interest. O, what a bitter draught was theirs, even to the
very dregs! One poor man named Henry, owned by John Reese, near Baton
Rouge, for the crime of visiting his wife and children oftener than
once a month against his master's command, was ordered to be nailed to
a tree by his ear, and whipped until it tore out. But even more awful
scenes of persecution and outrage these people passed through, which we
can not record. We closed our interview, after listening to their sad
recitals, with prayer, in which all took part. A solemn season it was,
to mingle our tears and voices with those who had passed through such
scenes of suffering and were now praising the Lord for freedom.
On Tuesday, 29th, we visited the general hospital in the noble asylum
for the mute and blind. Of the latter there were thirty inmates. They
played on the piano and sang very sweetly, and we were interested in
seeing the mutes converse with each other in their sign language. One
little fellow was asked by the matron to give us their name for Yankee.
He quickly passed his fingers through each other, and we all laughed to
see ourselves with such an unstable name. All seemed much pleased to
receive our visit.
We found here our sick and wounded soldiers with nothing but army
supplies, boiled fat pork and bread. Surgeon Pole told us they were out
of other supplies. We sent immediately to New Orleans for dried fruit,
crackers, etc., and within four days they came rolling in by the
barrel. We left this marble-faced edifice to visit a few camps
surrounding the city of Baton Rouge. By request I attended a six
o'clock meeting in the chapel for soldiers at the general hospital,
accompanied by Rev. Joel Burlingame and Rev. Mr. Merryfield.
On Wednesday, 30th, we spent some time in visiting and distributing
tracts and Testaments, and conversing with soldiers. We also visited a
colored school of two hundred and twenty-four pupils. All were much
engaged in study. We were invited to address them. Sister Backus and
myself complied, and it seemed gratifying to them and satisfactory to
us. We returned to our pleasant boarding place, wrote a letter, and
made a number of calls. We found a woman who used to sympathise with
Eliza Wilson in her slave-trials previous to her escape to the North.
Through her we heard from Eliza's little girl, whom she left with her
old master Bissel. A few days before she had come to her aunt, in
Plaquemine, about nine miles, in the night, she heard that Yankee
soldiers were in possession of that town. She had been told that a
certain road led to Plaquemine, and took it in a moonlight night and
found her aunt. Although she was only about ten years of age, and could
not remember her mother, yet this woman said the child had heard I was
going to take her to her mother, and that she was nearly insane over
it. I had previously sent word to them by a soldier who was a
dispatch-bearer, that the mother was very anxious to get her child if
she was within our lines; and when he returned to Plaquemine he found
the child and helped her to escape from Bissel with much less trouble
than her mother had had seven years before.
About the close of the month we took a long walk to Fort Williams,
where were three thousand sick and wounded soldiers. The scenes here
were indescribable. The mingled language of acute distress, in prayer,
groans, and occasional oaths from the profane, could be heard. One
young man seemed too near death's door to survive. Said he: "If I die
it will be suddenly, upon the amputation of this arm. It is too late
for me now; but if I am spared I will seek an interest in Christ." But
we had heard the cry of despair before, and could not give him up. The
arm was taken off without causing instant death, as he was fearing. He
then became an eager listener, and said he could now pray for pardon,
and believed that the merciful Redeemer would grant the earnest desire
of his soul. We found a few men, whose lives were given up by the
surgeon, who were trusting, and possessed the comforting assurance of a
glorious future. As we were about to leave, another soldier attracted
our attention, who said he was not a Christian, but wished to be, and
after repeating a few promises and praying with him we left. In tears,
he requested us to see him again.
While we were waiting for a boat for New Orleans we again visited the
hospital, and found both of those who were anxious at our previous
visit rejoicing Christians.
I went to the office to inquire for a steamer for New Orleans, and on
leaving was accosted by a young man with the query whether I was
looking for a boat. As he saw that I noticed the feather in his drab
hat, and star, with stripes on the sleeves of his gray coat, he
remarked that he was an exchanged prisoner, and was on his way to his
home at Atlanta, Georgia. Said I:
"You appear like a young man of intelligence, and I hope by the time
you reach your home you will conclude to cast your net on the right
side."
"We've been fishing on the right side these three years," he replied;
"and we'll fight three, ten, or twenty years longer, if we live so
long, but what we will have our rights--the right to hold our slave
property without interference from Northern abolitionists. You need not
judge of our strength because you have a little strip of this river,
and our folks are rather discouraged here, and tired of war. If you
could see our troops in Virginia, you'd see as hopeful and jolly a set
of fellows as you ever saw. Give up? No, never! I tell you, madam, we
are determined to have our independence if we fight till we die."
"I am sorry," I answered, "you can not be induced to adopt a course
worthy of your zeal. Young man, the worst wish I have for you is that
you may be prepared to die, for the fiat of the Almighty is against
you. The sword and the boys in blue are going to bring you to terms.
You will never again buy and sell men, women, and children like horses,
cattle, and sheep in the market. The judgments of the Lord are upon you
for these things."
"You needn't think God is on your side, for you've made our niggers our
masters. Look! within, four rods of us stand nigger pickets, with their
bayonets, and we can't pass those bayonets without a pass--and our own
niggers, too. I tell you, madam, if I could have my way, I'd have a
rope around every nigger's neck, and hang 'em, or dam up this
Mississippi River with them;" and his black eyes flashed with fury.
"Only eight or ten miles from this river slaves are working for their
masters as happily as ever."
"We know that they are remaining on many plantations; but we know of a
number of plantations that are worked by their former slaves because
their former masters are paying them wages. But if they are as happy
and contented as you describe, why do we see them daily coming into
these camps, frequently for twenty to fifty miles, wading swamps and
creeks, with swollen and bleeding feet? Why all this painstaking to get
away from their masters, if they are so attached to them?"
"They are poisoned by the Yankees. You talk about the justness of your
cause--any thing but justice to put arms in the hands of these niggers,
to be our masters--to set our slaves over us with gun and bayonet. God
Almighty will never prosper you--never."
"I see I can say nothing that will avail with you. I perceive that it
is beyond the power of man. Hoping that a Higher Power may reach you, I
bid you farewell."
With these words, I turned away; but had not advanced five feet when he
called out:
"Madam, I hope we'll get the same boat. I'd like to see you again; for
I like to meet people who stand up for their own principles."
Widely differing from this captain's spirit was another, who was the
owner of a large plantation, with numerous slaves, yet a strong Union
man, and his wife and daughters sympathized with him. Before the fall
of Vicksburg he called all his slaves together, and told them this war
would result in the freedom of every slave in the United States, and he
wanted now to make an arrangement with them to work for him as
heretofore. He promised to pay all the grown hands eight dollars a
month, and board them with their families as he had done before, and to
pay them at the close of each month. With tears of gratitude, they
accepted his proposition. He told them that this arrangement must be
kept secret, for their safety as well as his own; for they all knew
there had always been a prejudice against him because he allowed them
privileges that other planters adjoining them did not. They said to
him, "Your niggers think they are white," because he never would have
an overseer on his plantation, and would not have whipping and
punishing among his grown people, and the families among his slaves
managed their own children. He came into our lines as soon as he could,
to save his life; and he told us he had not visited his home for a long
time, except at night, as his life had been threatened, and that his
wife and daughters, for their own protection, kept loaded pistols at
their bedside. He had also armed a number of his servants, as they were
likewise exposed to an attack. He was a noble-appearing man, and said,
in conversation: "Mrs. Haviland, I have always held the same views on
the subject of slavery that you do; but it was against the law to free
them and allow them to remain here, and we could not send them away
without breaking up some of their families. But I rejoice that it has
come to an end; and I know of others who rejoice, but they do so
secretly." His wife came to see him while we were there, and seemed to
be a woman of sterling principle. She said they had to watch day and
night, fearing their buildings would be burned, and perhaps some of
them murdered.
We called on a widow and her two daughters who were in deep affliction
on account of the bitterness of feeling toward them in consequence of
their Union principles. They were a Christian family, and owned some
property in the country, besides their residence in town. A number of
our officers boarded with her. I was in her family a day or two, and as
I left I took out my purse to pay her. "Don't open that," she cried; "I
can't take a farthing. You don't know what we have to endure. I have
two brothers in the rebel army, and when they came home, because I told
them they were fighting against God in fighting against the Union, they
swore at me and threatened to take my life; they said I was a Southern
Yankee, and they were the worst of all. I expect they'll burn my house
some night or get some one else to do it; and I know there are enough
that would gladly do it. O, you can't tell how much good your prayer
did us this morning. I do feel a daily necessity of looking to God to
keep us. I want to make a request of you to remember us at God's
throne, for we know not what a day may bring forth. Do plead for us in
prayer, my sister." I left her and her daughters bathed in tears. We
the took steamer _Niagara_ for New Orleans, April 2d. It being dark,
the captain concluded to wait till moonlight, when an order came to go
up the river, near Port Hudson, for twenty soldiers and thirty thousand
dollars in contraband goods with two men prisoners, who had been in
charge of these goods for the rebels. While they were loading the goods
sister Backus and myself took a long walk to the residence of John
Buhler, aged seventy-five years, who lost a few weeks before one
hundred and thirty slaves. The old man and his wife took us into their
flower-garden, where were one hundred and twenty-five varieties of
roses and many kinds of shrubbery, and the greatest variety of cactus I
ever saw; many of them were six and eight feet high. One large
pecan-tree was almost covered with a small yellow rose-climber in full
bloom, presenting a beautiful appearance. They gathered nearly an
armful of flowers for us, and took us into the room in which a bursting
shell made sad havoc. They made many excuses for the weedy flower-beds
in the yard and garden, as they now had no servants to keep them. Two
drunken women came aboard the boat and were put off by our captain, but
through the influence of their friends came on again. We turned from
this scene, and took a stroll to another residence, where we found the
former slaves of the owner the sole occupants. They had a hearty laugh
when I asked if the "smoke-house key was frowed in de well?" "Yes, yes,
missus," they answered; "we's got de managin'."
We returned to Baton Rouge (the place where we halted some time is
called West Baton Rouge), arriving late in the afternoon. We walked up
to our old boarding-place, and took supper with our dear friends.
On April 3d we arrived at New Orleans at nine A. M., in time to attend
a colored Sunday-school. At its close I gave them a little talk. From
thence we were piloted to the Bethel Methodist Church (colored) and
found a quarterly meeting being held. Here we listened to a very
interesting and intelligent discourse by Rev. William Dove. I made a
few remarks on the comparison of present times with the former. At the
close of the service many came forward to shake hands and tell us of
the time when ministers and people were hauled out of this church of
their own building and taken to jail. The free people were compelled to
pay twenty-five dollars' fine, and slaves were punished with
twenty-five lashes on the bare back, well laid on. This persecution the
authorities deemed necessary in order to keep these poor people from
rising in insurrection. They locked up their churches two years and a
half, until the Union soldiers unlocked them. Though the authorities
forbade their meeting at all, they often stole away two and three miles
and held little meetings in deep ravines and in clumps of bushes and
trees, to hide from their cruel pursuers; but they could not even there
long escape their vigilant enemies. "_Insurrection_! INSURRECTION!" was
constantly inflaming the guilty multitude. Imprisoning, putting into
stocks, and all sorts of punishments seemed to be the order of the day.
A few months after the closing of their church the spotted fever broke
out, slaying its thousands. An old pious colored woman said to one who
was losing all his family, and called upon her to assist them: "Now,
who is plotting insurrection? Who you gwine to take to jail now? Who
you gwine to whip an' hang now? You can't take God out to jail." They
heard that their enemies had concluded to stop their praying, for it
was thought to be through the prayers of the colored people that all
this trouble was sent upon them; for the plague was almost entirely
confined to the white people. This class of accusers became even more
bitter than before.
No one can look at this volume of history without calling to mind the
hardness of heart of the ancient Egyptians.