WAR-MEMORIES: HOW BECKY COLEMAN WASHED HESTER WHITEFIELD’S FACE.
Among the Federal vessels stationed at Red River Landing was the
Manhattan, commanded by Captain Grafton, a high-minded officer as the
following incident proves. A letter from Laura Ellen to her brother David,
dated at Myrtle Grove, records: “Stephen Brown, mother’s head manager on
this place, has been very sick. Dr. Archer, who was stopping with us all
night, went to see him, and after an examination, reported that he could
do nothing to relieve him without chloroform and surgical instruments,
both of which were inaccessible and out of the question; and he candidly
told mother Stephen could not live twenty-four hours without an operation.
Mother, heart-broken and in tears, begged the doctor to tell her to what
means she could resort to save so faithful a servant. The doctor said they
had everything needful on the Federal gunboats. Mother instantly
determined to go to Red River Landing and appeal for help; but she wished
Dr. Archer to go with her and explain the case. He objected, saying he had
never held any communication with the enemy, and he did not wish to spoil
his record with the Confederates. But mother finally induced him to
accompany her.
“It seemed to us a forlorn hope. When she started off with Dr. Archer,
mother enjoined it upon us to have the best dinner that we could prepare
for the officers who were to come back with her, which suggestion we took
the liberty of overlooking, as we did not dream she could succeed in such
an unheard-of undertaking. When she reached the Mississippi and waved her
handkerchief, a tug came from the gunboat to the shore and she asked to
see the commanding officer. The tug offered to take mother to the gunboat,
but at first objected to the doctor going with her. Finally both went, and
were received on the deck of the big warship. Captain Grafton said he
feared that any surgeon or officer might be captured, and that he must
have a written guarantee against that possibility before he could run such
a risk. Mother told him that Captain Collins and his scouts were thirty
miles distant; she could only assure him that none who came to her aid
would be molested. Dr. Archer supported her opinion; but the captain
declined the adventure; whereupon mother burst into tears. ‘Captain
Grafton,’ she said, ‘I did not come here to teach you your duty; but I
came to perform mine. Now if the negro’s life is not saved, his death will
lie at your door, not mine.’ Capt. Grafton replied: ‘Madam, I don’t like
you to put it that way!’ Moved by that view or her tears--he sent the tug
for the captains of two other gunboats, and the three held a council of
war, finally consenting that a surgeon with his assistants and the
necessary equipments should have leave to go provided he would himself
assume the responsibility for his absence from the boat, for the military
authorities would make no order about it. Thus Dr. Mitchell first came to
Myrtle Grove on an errand of mercy.
“None was more surprised than mother herself when Dr. H. W. Mitchell,
surgeon of the Manhattan, offered to go with her. It had been eight months
since these Federal naval attachés had set foot on land, and apparently
they greatly enjoyed the long drive with only a handkerchief for a flag of
truce floating from the carriage window. The doctor went to the ‘Quarters’
to see Stephen, and mother flew to the kitchen and dining-room to put
forth her rare culinary skill in compensation for our negligence. After
dinner we had music, and Dr. Mitchell sang us many new songs, and proved
to be very intelligent, entertaining and agreeable. I treated him well,
too, as I was bound to do after his kindness. At dinner I had on a
homespun dress trimmed with black velvet and Pelican buttons: when they
went away I even gave the doctor my hand, ’though always before I had
refused to shake hands with a single one of them. Not for anything on
earth ‘would I have done as much previously.’”
During the many months that the U. S. gunboat Manhattan remained at Red
River Landing, I saw the officers from time to time, and once a crevasse
detained Dr. Mitchell for three days in our home. The friendship thus
established has outlived the war and proved a source of great pleasure to
me; while the sympathy the doctor so kindly extended later, during the
bitter reconstruction days, was a solid satisfaction and comfort, for his
cultured and experienced mind comprehended both sides of the situation.
Devoted to the Union, he yet expressed no inordinate desire to exterminate
the South, and never said he would be glad to hang Jefferson Davis. He
writes July 30, 1865: “We are all Americans. We speak one language; our
flag is the same; we are citizens of the United States. It is the right
spirit to recognize no section. If all should uphold the Government
faithfully under which we enjoy so many blessings, internal strife in the
future will be impossible.”
“Mother says,” the diary continues, “let an army be friend or foe, it
takes everything it needs for its subsistence on the march, and starvation
is in its track. Brig.-Gen. Grover’s Division camped for two weeks on this
plantation, and the General’s own tent was pitched next to our side gate.
When some of his staff were here visiting, one of them took baby Edwin in
his arms and kissed him. After they had gone I scolded him for kissing a
Yankee, and said I was going to tell his ‘Marse Dadles!’ He began to cry
and sobbed out, ‘O Sissy, he was a good Yankee!’ They rob the corn-cribs,
so it is well they carry off the negroes too. Ours, however, will not go;
they have made no preparation to depart, and mother interviews them daily
on the subject, but leaves them to decide whether they will ‘silently
steal away,’ which is their method of disappearing. Mr. Barbre’s negroes
have all gone except two, and Mr. Chalfant’s and Mrs. French’s are
preparing to go, so our neighbors are generally upset.”
In a letter of an earlier date Laura Ellen gives an account of Mr.
Chalfant coming to me and asking advice as to how the slaves could be
prevented from following the army. I had wanted to know of my neighbor if
his negroes would take his word on the subject. If so, he might state to
them that they might be free just where they were--that it was not
necessary they should leave their homes, their little children, their
household effects, tools and other “belongings” which could not be carried
on the march (to say nothing of the hogs-head of sugar nearly all of them
had in their cabins), their poultry, dogs, cows and horses. If it were
candidly explained to them that their freedom was to be a certainty, and
that they might be hired to work by their old owners, doubtless many would
be convinced of the wisdom of remaining at home and taking their
chances--all would depend on the confidence the negro had in the
master--but they should, in all cases, be left to make their own
decision--whether to go or stay. Some of the people who could read should
be shown the newspapers, _left by the Yankees_, wherein it is urged upon
the government to put the black men into the army. This should be read to
them by one of their own color.
After hearing these views Mr. Chalfant was reported having said: “Mrs.
Merrick has more sense about managing the negroes than any man on the
river.”
However that may have been, our slaves remained on the place, and many of
them and their descendants are yet in the employ of the family. It was
considered by some persons to be treason to the Confederacy to speak of
the freedom of the slaves in their presence, as if refusal to acknowledge
the emancipation act would avert its going into effect.
This attitude towards their liberty destroyed all confidence in the
master’s advice, and so his negroes left him. It was several years before
the emancipation of the slave was universally effected, there being
secluded places into which the news of freedom percolated slowly, and
where slavery existed for some time uninterrupted. In following the army
parents often abandoned young children. These were given to anybody who
would burden themselves with their care. In many cases the natural
guardian never again appeared, and these abandoned ones were practically
bond-servants until they learned how to be free of themselves.
Careworn and anxious as we were waiting news of our loved ones in the
field and of the cause in which we had risked our all, we were too busy to
be sad. Telegraphic communication with the center of war was often cut off
for many days. During these agonizing, silent seasons the women drew
nearer together, and kept busy scraping lint for the hospitals and
converting every woolen dress and every yard of carpet left in the house
into shirts and bedding for our boys at the front. We varied the labor of
managing plantations with every species of bazaar, supper, candy-pulling
and tableaux that would raise a dollar for the army. Then we got all the
entertainment we could out of our daily domestic round, as I did out of
Becky Coleman, one of my old servants who occasionally relieved the
monotony of her “daily round” by coming “to ’nquire ’bout de white
folks.” It was October when she made one of these visits, but summer
reigned in earth and sky. A noble avenue of black walnuts completely
shaded one side of my Myrtle Grove house. The large green nuts were
beginning to ripen, for when a branch swayed in the wind one would drop
from time to time with such a resounding thump upon the ground that it was
a matter for satisfaction when Becky seated herself on the steps of the
porch without having encountered a thwack on her head from the
missile-dealing trees.
“I hear singing over in the woods,” said I to Becky. “Why are you not at
the meeting this evening?”
“Who? me? eh--eh--but may be yo don’ kno’ I dun got my satisfacshun down
dar a while ago. I’m better off at home. Hester done got me convinced.
Lemme tell you how ’twas. One Sunday ebenin’ I heard tell dar wurs gwine
to be er sort er ’sperience praar-meeting down to ole Unk Spencer’s house,
en es ’twan’t fer, I jes’ tuk my foot in my han’! I did, en I went dar.
“Well, ev’rything was gwine on reg’lar, en peaceable, widout no kin’ er
animosity, plum till dey riz up to sing de very las’ _hime_. De preacher
who wus er leadin’ got up den en tuk up de _hime_ book en gin out:
“‘Ermazin’ grace how sweet de soun’
In de beleever’s year!’
“Now, yo knows yo’sef dey ain’t nothin’ tall incitin’ ’bout dat ar’ chune:
you knows it; en as fer me, I was jes’ dar er stanin’ up wid de res’, wid
my mouf open, jes’ er singin’ fer dear life, never dreamin’ ’bout nothin’
happ’nin’, when heah cum Hester Whitfiel’--coming catter-corner ’cross
from de yuther side er de house, wid her han’ h’isted up in de aar, en I
’clar fo’ de Lawd, she hit me er clip rite in my lef’ eye, en mos’ busted
it clean outen my haid. It cum so onexpectedlike dat leetle mo’en I would
er drap in de flo’. I jes’ felt like I wus shot! Den she had er pa’cel er
big brass rings on her han’, en dey cut rite inter my meat!
“I tell yo’, ma’am, I was hurted, I jes’ seed stars, I did! so I up en
tole her: ‘’Oman, ef yo got ennything ’g’inst me, why don’t you come out
in de big road en gimme er fair fight? Fer Gawd-elmighty’s sake don’ go en
make ’ten’ like yo happy, en bus’ my eye open dis heah way.’ Says I,
‘’Ligion ain’t got nuthin’ ter do wid no sich ’havoir; I don’ see no Holy
Sperit ’bout it,’ says I. ‘’Twas jes’ de nachul ole saturn what mak’ yo’
do dat, en I jes knows it,’ says I. ‘’Ligion don’ make nobody hurt
nothin’,’ says I. Yo reads de Book, Miss Calline, en yo knows I’m speakin’
de salvashun trufe, now ain’t I?
“Den all de folks cum crowdin’ ’roun’ en gethered a holt uv us, en ef dey
hadn’t, I lay I woulder stretched her out dar in de flo’, fer I’m de bes’
’oman--er long ways--en I would er had _her_ convinced in no time. But dey
all tu’ned in en baig me ter look over it, bein’ es how it happen in
meetin’-time; but I tell yo, ma-am, I never look nowhars wid dat eye fer
mor’n free weeks. Why, it wus so swole up en sore, I jes’ had ter bandage
it wid sassyfras peth and wid slippery ellum poultices day en night, en my
eye wus dat red, en bloodshottened, dat I never ’spected to see daylight
outen it no mo’; en I clar’ fo’ de Lawd it ain’t, got rite na’chul till
yit!
“No longer’n dis very ebenin’ my ole man, Tom, says ter me: ‘I dun seed
nuff trouble wid yo, Beck. You needs dem big pop eyes er yone to patch my
close, en wuk wid, en I ain’t er gwine to hev no bline ’oman rown’ me,’
says he; ’en I let yo know frum dis out yo don’t go ter no mo’
praar-meetin’s, ’zaminashuns er what-cher-callums; dat’s de long en short
uv it!’ says he. ‘Ef you ain’ got sense nuff ter stay away frum dar,’ says
he, ‘I’ll insense yo wid my fis’.’ I knows de weight er dat han’ er hisen,
en I’m gwine min’ him _dis_ time, ennyhow;” and Becky pointed toward the
cabin from whence the sound of singing was wafted on the breeze, saying,
“Yes’um, I’m gwine stay away frum dar, fer er fac’!”
“Becky, is such an incident common at your prayer-meetings?” I inquired.
“Why, no, ma’am, nuthin’ like dat never happen to me befo’; yit, I
’members mighty well when Betsy Washin’ton cum thoo’--’fo’ she jined de
chu’ch. ’Twas in de meetin’-house, but yo couldn’t onerstan’ one single
wud de preacher wus er sayin’, fer she wus jes’ er shoutin’ es loud es she
could fer who las’ de longes’--en I onertuk, fool like, to hole her; fer
she wus in sich a swivit, we wus feared she’d brek loose en go inter a
reg’lar hard fit, so I jes’ grabbed good holt er de ’oman, ’roun’ de
wais’, es she wus er hollerin’, en er jumpin’; en when she felt de grip I
fotch on her, she tu’n ’roun’, she did, en gethered my sleeve in ’tween
her fingers (en she is jes’ es strong es enny mule), en shore’s yore
settin’ dar in dat air big cheer, en I’m er stannin’ heah, talkin’ ter
yer, she gin me one single jerk, en I ’clar ter Gawd, she tore my whole
sleeve outen de arm-hole, en ripped er big slit clean ’cross my coat body!
Why I jes’ thought de ’oman wus gwine ter strip me start naiked, rite dar
in de meetin’-house! I got dat shame I jes’ let er go, I did, en den went
perusin’ roun’ ’mongst de wimmin en borryd er shawl ter kiver me up; en
den I moved on todes home.
“But I mus’ let yo know de nex’ time I met up wid Betsy, I washed her face
good wid what she dun. I jes’ tole her de nex’ time she got ter shoutin’
’roun’ me she mout bre’k her neck--I wan’t gwine hole her, I wan’t gwine
tech her; ‘fer,’ says I, ‘yo done gone en ’stroyed de bes’ Sunday dress I
got, yo is dat,’ says I, ‘fer er fac’!’
“Den Betsy ’lowed she didn’t keer, en dat she didn’t know what she wus er
doin’, but I tuk mighty good notice she never made no motion to grab onter
Aunt Sally Brown’s co’se homespun gown when _she_ tuk er tu’n er hol’in uv
her. But uv co’se, I heap ruther hev my close tore dan to hev my eye
busted out. But dey ain’t no need er airy one bein’ done; en I tole her
so, I did dat. ‘Sholey Christians,’ say I, ‘kin ’joy dersef widout hurtin’
nobody, neither tarin’ der close!’ I up en axed her ef she eber knowed de
white folks in de big house karyin’ on datterway, en ef she eber seed Miss
Marthy er Miss Reeny er cuttin’ up like dat in de white folks’
meetin’-house? Well, she jes’ bust out er laffiin’ in my face at dat, en
she ’lowed niggahs wan’t like white folks nohow.
“‘I knows better’n dat,’ says I. ‘Fer Gawd made us all outen de dus’ er de
groun’, bofe de white en de black;’ en, Miss Calline, yo’ ma uster tell me
ef I ’haved mysef, en kep’ mysef clean, en never tole no lies, ner ’sturb
yuther folks’ things, I wus good es ennybody, en I b’lieves it till yit;
dat’s de salvashun trufe, I’m tellin’, white ’oman, it sholey is!
“But _den_ Betsy got mad, she did, en gin me er push,--we wus walkin’
’long de top er de levee--en I wus so aggervated dat I cum back at ’er wid
er knock dat made her roll down smack inter de gully. Den she hollered so
de men fishin’ unner de river bank cum er runnin’. She had don’ sprain her
wris’, en ef her arm had been broke she cudn’t er made no mo’ fuss. Lemme
tell yo de trufe! de very nex’ Sunday dey tu’ned us bofe outen de chu’ch
case we fit, en I cayn’t go to praar-meetin’ tell I done jine ergin.”
“Well, Becky, you’ve made me forget there is a war and Yankee raids, and I
reckon I’ll have to give you a cup of store-coffee for doing it.”
“Thanky, Miss Calline! I’ll be powerful ’bliged ter yo’; en I mus’ be er
movin’, en pa’ch dis heah coffee fer my ole mammy’s supper, fer she’s
gittin’ monshus tired of tea off dem tater chips what we has ter drink
dese days.”