seemed to gather new strength in learning this news of her mother,
meager though it was. After a stay in Memphis of six weeks we went on to
Cincinnati, hopeful of meeting some, at least, of the family that,
though free, in defiance of justice, had been consigned to cruel and
hopeless bondage--bondage in violation of civil as well as moral law. We
felt it was almost impossible that we should see any one that we ever
knew; but the man had spoken so earnestly and positively regarding my
mother-in-law that we were not without hope. On arriving at Cincinnati,
our first inquiry was about her, my wife giving her name and
description; and, fortunately, we came upon a colored man who said he
knew of a woman answering to the name and description which my wife gave
of her mother, and he directed us to the house where she was stopping.
When we reached the place to which we had been directed, my wife not
only found her mother but one of her sisters. The meeting was a joyful
one to us all. No mortal who has not experienced it can imagine the
feeling of those who meet again after long years of enforced separation
and hardship and utter ignorance of one another's condition and place of
habitation. I questioned them as to when and where they had met, and how
it happened that they were now together. My mother-in-law then began the
following narrative:

"When I was sold from the Memphis trader's yard I was bought by a man
who lived not far from Memphis. I never heard of any of the children,
and knew nothing as to what had become of them. After the capture of
Memphis by the Union army, the people to whom I belonged fled from their
home, leaving their slaves; and the other slaveholders of the
neighborhood did the same. The slaves, left to themselves, at once
departed for Memphis, and I among the number. When I had been there but
a short time a call was made for nurses to go into the hospital; and,
after thinking of it for a few minutes, I concluded to answer the call,