Once a slave girl, I have endeavored to fill the pages with some of the
most interesting thoughts that my mind is so full of, and not with
something that is dry.
This sketch is written for the good of those that have written and
prayed that the slaves might be a freed people, and have schools and
books and learn to read and write for themselves; and the Lord, in His
love for us and to us as a race, has ever found favor in His sight, for
when we were in the land of bondage He heard the prayers of the faithful
ones, and came to deliver them out of the Land of Egypt.
For God loves those that are oppressed, and will save them when they cry
unto him, and when they put their trust in Him.
Some of the dear ones have gone to the better land, but this is one of
the answers to their prayers.
We, as the Negro Race, are a free people, and God be praised for it. We
as the Negro Race, need to feel proud of the race, and I for one do with
all my heart and soul and mind, knowing as I do, for I have labored for
the good of the race, that their children might be the bright and
shining lights. And we can see the progress that we are making in an
educational way in a short time, and I think that we should feel very
grateful to God and those who are trying to help us forward. God bless
such with their health, and heart full of that same love, that this
world can not give nor taketh away.
There are many doors that are shut to keep us back as a race, but some
are opened to us, and God be praised for those that are opened to the
race, and I hope that they will be true to their trust and be of the
greatest help to those that have given them a chance.
There are many that have lost their lives in the far South in trying to
get an education, but there are many that have done well, and we feel
like giving God all the praise.
I was born in Old Virginia, in or near the Valley, the other side of
Petersburg, of slave parents, and I can just call to mind the time when
the war began, for I was not troubled then about wars, as I was feeling
as free as any one could feel, for I was sought by all of the rich
whites of the neighborhood, as they all loved me, as noble whites will
love a child, like I was in those days, and they would send for me if I
should be at my play and have me to talk for them, and all of their
friends learned to love me and send me presents, and I would stand and
talk and preach for some time for them.
My dear mother was sold at the beginning of the war, from all of her
little ones, after the death of the lady that she belonged to, and who
was so kind to my dear mother and all of the rest of the negroes of the
place; and she never liked the idea of holding us as slaves, and she
always said that we were all that she had on the earth to love; and she
did love me to the last.
The money that my mother was sold for was to keep the rich man from
going to the field of battle, as he sent a poor white man in his stead,
and should the war end in his favor, the poor white man should have
given to him one negro, and that would fully pay for all of his service
in the army. But my God moves in a way unknown to men, and they can
never understand His ways, for He can plant His footsteps on the North,
the South, the East, the West, and outride any man's ideas; and how
wonderful are all of his ways. And if we, as a race, will only put our
trust in Him, we shall gain the glorious victory, and be a people whose
God is the God of all this broad earth, and may we humble ourselves
before Him and call Him, Blessed.
I told you that my white mother did not like the idea of calling us her
slaves, and she always prayed God that I should never know what slavery
was, for she said I was never born to serve as did the slaves of some of
the people that owned them.
And God, in His love for me and to me, never let me know of it, as did
some of my own dear sisters, for some of them were hired out after the
old home was broken up.
My mother was sold at Richmond, Virginia, and a gentleman bought her who
lived in Georgia, and we did not know that she was sold until she was
gone; and the saddest thought was to me to know which way she had gone,
and I used to go outside and look up to see if there was anything that
would direct me, and I saw a clear place in the sky, and it seemed to me
the way she had gone, and I watched it three and a half years, not
knowing what that meant, and it was there the whole time that mother was
gone from her little ones.
On one bright Sunday I asked my older sister to go with me for a nice
walk and she did so, for she was the one that was so kind to the rest of
us--and we saw some sweet flowers on the wayside and we began to have
delight in picking them, when all at once I was led to leave her alone
with the flowers and to go where I could look up at that nice, clear
spot, and as I wanted to get as near to it as I could, I got on the
fence, and as I looked that way I saw a form coming to me that looked
like my dear mother's, and calling to my sister Frances to come at once
and see if that did not look like my dear mother and she came to us, so
glad to see us, and to ask after her baby that she was sold from that
was only six weeks old when she was taken from it; and I would that the
whole world could have seen the joy of a mother and her two girls on
that heaven-made day--a mother returning back to her own once more, a
mother that we did not know that we should ever see her face on this
earth more. And mother, not feeling good over the past events, had made
up her mind that she would take her children to a part of this land
where she thought that they would never be in bondage any more on this
earth.
So she sought out the head man that was placed there by the North to
look after the welfare of lately emancipated negroes of the South, to
see that they should have their rights as a freed people.
This gentleman's name was Major Bailley, who was a gentleman of the
highest type, and it was this loving man that sent my dear mother and
her ten little girls on to this lovely city, and the same time he
informed the people of Brooklyn that we were on the way and what time we
should reach there; and it seemed as though the whole city were out to
meet us. And as God would have it, six of us had homes on that same day,
and the people had their carriages there to take us to our new homes.
This God-sent blessing was of a great help to mother, as she could get
the money to pay her rent, which was ten dollars per month, and God
bless those of my sisters who could help mother to care for her little
ones, for they had not been called home then, and God be praised for all
that we have ever did for her love and comfort while she kept house.
The subject was only a few years old, when she saw her heart so fixed
that she could not leave me at my mother's any longer, so she took me to
be her own dear, loving child, to eat, drink, sleep and to go wherever
she went, if it was for months, or even years; I had to be there as her
own and not as a servant, for she did not like that, but I was there as
her loving child for her to care for me, and everything that I wanted I
had; truly do I feel grateful to my Heavenly Father for all of those
blessings that came to me in the time that I needed so much of love and
care.
This dear lady, Mrs. Bettie House, my white mother, died at the
beginning of the war and then the time came for poor me to go to my own
dear mother again for awhile, and soon the time came for us to be parted
asunder, where we did not see one another any more until after the war
of 1865. And we all thought that mother was dead, for we did not hear
any tidings of her after she had reached the far South.
I shall never forget that lovely Sunday morning when I saw my dear
mother returning again to her own native home and her own dear ones once
more, but mother would not go to the house with us, as she did not want
to take the law in her own hands. So she told sister and I where she was
stopping and told us to come to her after we had told the gentleman
where we lived, and I went to him and told him that mother had come back
and wanted to have us to come where she was staying. He, Mr. House, did
not want us to go, and I took my oldest sister and marched out to go
where mother was and he did not like that freedom, and he tried to find
which way that we had gone to the place, but he did not find us, and we
had been to the place where the people were that had homes, and that
they would kill us at first sight, and that was all that I wanted to
see, and I did not find one thing true of their sayings.
Mother now has to tell the gentleman where to find all of her own dear
ones whom God in His love for had kept for her, and she should have
been very grateful to Him that her life had been prolonged and all that
she had left alive were still alive, awaiting for her to return, and
finding that her children were all over in different places, and now she
has to tell where to find them, through the help of the Lord. And when
she had gone for them and was told that some of her own were dead, she
said that she would go and dig up their bones; but they were not dead,
as was said, and she sent the soldiers after them and sometimes they
were told the same as mother was, and some of the little ones had to be
sent for two or three times before they were brought. My oldest sister
knew where they all were, so she could help to get the rest.
One of my sisters who lived at the same place where we were living was
detained and the soldiers had go three times before they could get her,
for they said that she had died since we had left, for I would not stay
at the place as he, Mr. House, did not want us to go on Monday to see my
mother, on whom I should look to, as she had come to claim her own. I
told my oldest sister that we would leave, and my sister Annie was at
one of Mr. House's sons, who found that we were going to see mother and
she came with us, so that left three there yet; that was sister Lavinia
and the baby, sister Rosa, and they let mother have the baby, as it was
a sickly child; and she had to send there three times before she could
get sister Lavinia, and the last time the soldiers, with horses, went,
and the House's took off all of her clothing and put them into water to
keep them from taking her, and they had to take blankets and wrap her in
them, and bring her to mother, and she took sick from that time from the
long ride, and getting cold she nearly died.
One they hid in the garden; one they put in the cellar, and so these
were hard times for mother and us, who were in the road one night
walking to find some place to get out of the rain and let those wet
garments get dried, for it was so dark that we could not see a hand
before us.
But after all the hard trials we reached this lovely city, where there
are those that love and fear God, and who love the souls of the negro as
well as those of the white, the red, the yellow or brown races of the
earth, for we have ever found some of the people who do not forget us
day or night in their prayers, that God will send a blessing to us as a
race.
To my story of a life of slavery:
My dear mother had a dear husband that she was sold from also, and he,
not knowing that he should ever see my mother any more, as the times
were then, he waited for a while and then he found him another wife, and
when mother came and found that he was married to another she tried to
get him, but she could do nothing about it; so having to leave him
behind to look after the last one and her family, although it seemed
hard for her to do so.
My mother had a large family to take care of, but the Lord was good to
her and helped her, for she had laid some of them away, and then there
were ten little girls to care for. My brother was lost to us and to
mother also, as he was sent to the war to do service for his owner, and
we did not know if he was alive or not, and he was my mother's only boy,
as this is a girl family that you do not see or hear of every day, for
that made seventeen girls to have battle through life had they all have
lived to this time.