MEMORIES OF SLAVE DAYS

Rows and rows of white-washed cottages constituted the "quarters," with narrow streets between them, many of the little homes adorned with bright-hued, old-fashioned flowers in the front yards, or with potato and melon patches.

On cold winter evenings bright firelight shone from every door and window. Inside, the father sitting in the chimney corner, smoking his pipe while he deftly wove white-oak splints into cotton baskets; the mother, mending, or knitting, while the fat little darkies tumbled about on the floor, or danced to the music of Uncle Tom's fiddle.

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The slaves were well fed, well clothed, well housed, and when ill they were well nursed, and attended by a good doctor.

Their houses were warmed by fires in broad fireplaces, fires which they kept burning all night.

They had gay "Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes," and they generally went to church, either to the "white folkses' church," where an upper gallery was provided for them, or to their own special service.

If a planter allowed his slaves to be mistreated in any way, he and his family were ostracized from society, and made to feel the disapprobation of their neighbors. So general was this method of administering rebuke that it seemed to be an unwritten law throughout the South.

Sometimes, as it often happens to-day,[63] an overseer of quick or ungovernable temper would be severe in punishing an offender; but he soon lost his place and a kinder man was employed in his instead.

Somewhere in the "quarters" a large nursery was situated, and there the babies and small children were cared for by the old women while their mothers worked in the cotton-fields.

White children were taught to treat the grown-up servants with respect, and as they could not say "Mrs." or "Mr.," they called them "aunt" or "uncle." On Sunday afternoons the white children were often sent to read the Bible to the old colored people, and the children thought it quite an honor. If any of the house servants wanted to learn to read, they were taught, though after[64] the war we heard this was against the law. We never knew it!

Half of every Saturday was given to "the hands" to "clean up," tend their garden, or go fishing, as they chose. From ten days' to two weeks' holiday was given at Christmas time, and a jolly good time they had-balls, parties, and weddings galore! The white family and their guests would be cordially invited down, and they always enjoyed the festivities. Noblesse oblige was recognized everywhere, and we felt bound to treat kindly the class dependent upon us. Young ladies parted with many a handsome gown or ribbon because their maids wanted them and boldly asked for them. We simply could not refuse, and they knew it.

The faithfulness and devotion of the slaves has been written of by historians,[65] and they deserve all praise, for many of them were noble and self-sacrificing. After the war many of them remained at the old homestead with their former owners, as long as they could be provided for, and when poverty compelled a separation, they left the homestead with sorrow.

We of the South are glad and thankful that the negroes are free. We would not have them in bondage again if we could. "Social equality" can never exist in the South, but the race can be, and many of them are, well educated, happy and prosperous: living in peace and harmony with their white neighbors, who are, and have been for many years paying taxes to educate them.

It is the "floating" class of colored people that cause the trouble we[66] read about in the daily papers. Those negroes who have been reared in the South, and know the old traditions, are law-abiding citizens with comfortable homes, good schools, fine churches, and every chance to be prosperous and contented.