IN THE FAMILY OF SENATOR JEFFERSON DAVIS
The twelve hundred dollars with which I purchased the freedom of myself
and son I consented to accept only as a loan. I went to work in earnest,
and in a short time paid every cent that was so kindly advanced by my
lady patrons of St. Louis. All this time my husband was a source of
trouble to me, and a burden. Too close occupation with my needle had its
effects upon my health, and feeling exhausted with work, I determined to
make a change. I had a conversation with Mr. Keckley; informed him that
since he persisted in dissipation we must separate; that I was going
North, and that I should never live with him again, at least until I had
good evidence of his reform. He was rapidly debasing himself, and
although I was willing to work for him, I was not willing to share his
degradation. Poor man; he had his faults, but over these faults death
has drawn a veil. My husband is now sleeping in his grave, and in the
silent grave I would bury all unpleasant memories of him.
I left St. Louis in the spring of 1860, taking the cars direct for
Baltimore, where I stopped six weeks, attempting to realize a sum of
money by forming classes of young colored women, and teaching them my
system of cutting and fitting dresses. The scheme was not successful,
for after six weeks of labor and vexation, I left Baltimore with
scarcely money enough to pay my fare to Washington. Arriving in the
capital, I sought and obtained work at two dollars and a half per day.
However, as I was notified that I could only remain in the city ten days
without obtaining a license to do so, such being the law, and as I did
not know whom to apply to for assistance, I was sorely troubled. I also
had to have some one vouch to the authorities that I was a free woman.
My means were too scanty, and my profession too precarious to warrant my
purchasing [a] license. In my perplexity I called on a lady for whom I
was sewing, Miss Ringold, a member of Gen. Mason's family, from
Virginia. I stated my case, and she kindly volunteered to render me all
the assistance in her power. She called on Mayor Burritt with me, and
Miss Ringold succeeded in making an arrangement for me to remain in
Washington without paying the sum required for a license; moreover, I
was not to be molested. I rented apartments in a good locality, and soon
had a good run of custom. The summer passed, winter came, and I was
still in Washington. Mrs. Davis, wife of Senator Jefferson Davis, came
from the South in November of 1860, with her husband. Learning that Mrs.
Davis wanted a modiste, I presented myself, and was employed by her on
the recommendation of one of my patrons and her intimate friend, Mrs.
Captain Hetsill. I went to the house to work, but finding that they were
such late risers, and as I had to fit many dresses on Mrs. Davis, I told
her that I should prefer giving half the day to her, working the other
in my own room for some of my other lady patrons. Mrs. D. consented to
the proposition, and it was arranged that I should come to her own house
every day after 12 M. It was the winter before the breaking out of that
fierce and bloody war between the two sections of the country; and as
Mr. Davis occupied a leading position, his house was the resort of
politicians and statesmen from the South. Almost every night, as I
learned from the servants and other members of the family, secret
meetings were held at the house; and some of these meetings were
protracted to a very late hour. The prospects of war were freely
discussed in my presence by Mr. and Mrs. Davis and their friends. The
holidays were approaching, and Mrs. Davis kept me busy in manufacturing
articles of dress for herself and children. She desired to present Mr.
Davis on Christmas with a handsome dressing-gown. The material was
purchased, and for weeks the work had been under way. Christmas eve
came, and the gown had been laid aside so often that it was still
unfinished. I saw that Mrs. D. was anxious to have it completed, so I
volunteered to remain and work on it. Wearily the hours dragged on, but
there was no rest for my busy fingers. I persevered in my task,
notwithstanding my head was aching. Mrs. Davis was busy in the adjoining
room, arranging the Christmas tree for the children. I looked at the
clock, and the hands pointed to a quarter of twelve. I was arranging the
cords on the gown when the Senator came in; he looked somewhat careworn,
and his step seemed to be a little nervous. He leaned against the door,
and expressed his admiration of the Christmas tree, but there was no
smile on his face. Turning round, he saw me sitting in the adjoining
room, and quickly exclaimed:
"That you, Lizzie! why are you here so late? Still at work; I hope that
Mrs. Davis is not too exacting!"
"No, sir," I answered. "Mrs. Davis was very anxious to have this gown
finished to-night, and I volunteered to remain and complete it."
"Well, well, the case must be urgent," and he came slowly towards me,
took the gown in his hand, and asked the color of the silk, as he said
the gas-light was so deceptive to his old eyes.
"It is a drab changeable silk, Mr. Davis," I answered; and might have
added that it was rich and handsome, but did not, well knowing that he
would make the discovery in the morning.
He smiled curiously, but turned and walked from the room without another
question. He inferred that the gown was for him, that it was to be the
Christmas present from his wife, and he did not wish to destroy the
pleasure that she would experience in believing that the gift would
prove a surprise. In this respect, as in many others, he always appeared
to me as a thoughtful, considerate man in the domestic circle. As the
clock struck twelve I finished the gown, little dreaming of the future
that was before it. It was worn, I have not the shadow of a doubt, by
Mr. Davis during the stormy years that he was the President of the
Confederate States.
The holidays passed, and before the close of January the war was
discussed in Mr. Davis's family as an event certain to happen in the
future. Mrs. Davis was warmly attached to Washington, and I often heard
her say that she disliked the idea of breaking up old associations, and
going South to suffer from trouble and deprivation. One day, while
discussing the question in my presence with one of her intimate
friends, she exclaimed: "I would rather remain in Washington and be
kicked about, than go South and be Mrs. President." Her friend expressed
surprise at the remark, and Mrs. Davis insisted that the opinion was an
honest one.
While dressing her one day, she said to me: "Lizzie, you are so very
handy that I should like to take you South with me."
"When do you go South, Mrs. Davis?" I inquired.
"Oh, I cannot tell just now, but it will be soon. You know there is
going to be war, Lizzie?"
"No!"
"But I tell you yes."
"Who will go to war?" I asked.
"The North and South," was her ready reply. "The Southern people will
not submit to the humiliating demands of the Abolition party; they will
fight first."
"And which do you think will whip?"
"The South, of course. The South is impulsive, is in earnest, and the
Southern soldiers will fight to conquer. The North will yield, when it
sees the South is in earnest, rather than engage in a long and bloody
war."
"But, Mrs. Davis, are you certain that there will be war?"
"Certain!--I know it. You had better go South with me; I will take good
care of you. Besides, when the war breaks out, the colored people will
suffer in the North. The Northern people will look upon them as the
cause of the war, and I fear, in their exasperation, will be inclined to
treat you harshly. Then, I may come back to Washington in a few months,
and live in the White House. The Southern people talk of choosing Mr.
Davis for their President. In fact, it may be considered settled that he
will be their President. As soon as we go South and secede from the
other States, we will raise an army and march on Washington, and then I
shall live in the White House."
I was bewildered with what I heard. I had served Mrs. Davis faithfully,
and she had learned to place the greatest confidence in me. At first I
was almost tempted to go South with her, for her reasoning seemed
plausible. At the time the conversation was closed, with my promise to
consider the question.
I thought over the question much, and the more I thought the less
inclined I felt to accept the proposition so kindly made by Mrs. Davis.
I knew the North to be strong, and believed that the people would fight
for the flag that they pretended to venerate so highly. The Republican
party had just emerged from a heated campaign, flushed with victory, and
I could not think that the hosts composing the party would quietly yield
all they had gained in the Presidential canvass. A show of war from the
South, I felt, would lead to actual war in the North; and with the two
sections bitterly arrayed against each other, I preferred to cast my lot
among the people of the North.
I parted with Mrs. Davis kindly, half promising to join her in the South
if further deliberation should induce me to change my views. A few weeks
before she left Washington I made two chintz wrappers for her. She said
that she must give up expensive dressing for a while; and that she, with
the Southern people, now that war was imminent, must learn to practise
lessons of economy. She left some fine needle-work in my hands, which I
finished, and forwarded to her at Montgomery, Alabama, in the month of
June, through the assistance of Mrs. Emory, one of her oldest and best
friends.
Since bidding them good-by at Washington, early in the year 1860, I have
never met any of the Davis family. Years of excitement, years of
bloodshed, and hundreds of thousands of graves intervene between the
months I spent in the family and now. The years have brought many
changes; and in view of these terrible changes even I, who was once a
slave, who have been punished with the cruel lash, who have experienced
the heart and soul tortures of a slave's life, can say to Mr. Jefferson
Davis, "Peace! you have suffered! Go in peace."
In the winter of 1865 I was in Chicago, and one day visited the great
charity fair held for the benefit of the families of those soldiers who
were killed or wounded during the war. In one part of the building was a
wax figure of Jefferson Davis, wearing over his other garments the dress
in which it was reported that he was captured. There was always a great
crowd around this figure, and I was naturally attracted towards it. I
worked my way to the figure, and in examining the dress made the
pleasing discovery that it was one of the chintz wrappers that I had
made for Mrs. Davis, a short time before she departed from Washington
for the South. When it was announced that I recognized the dress as one
that I had made for the wife of the late Confederate President there was
great cheering and excitement, and I at once became the object of the
deepest curiosity. Great crowds followed me, and in order to escape from
the embarrassing situation I left the building.
I believe it now is pretty well established that Mr. Davis had on a
water-proof cloak instead of a dress, as first reported, when he was
captured. This does not invalidate any portion of my story. The dress on
the wax figure at the fair in Chicago unquestionably was one of the
chintz wrappers that I made for Mrs. Davis in January, 1860, in
Washington; and I infer, since it was not found on the body of the
fugitive President of the South, it was taken from the trunks of Mrs.
Davis, captured at the same time. Be this as it may, the coincidence is
none the less striking and curious.