A Century of Negro Migration by Carter Godwin Woodson
page 73 of 227 (32%)
page 73 of 227 (32%)
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kind of sweet potato, lately introduced from Taheita (formerly Otaheita)
Island in the Pacific, was of peculiar excellence; tasted like new flour and grew to an ordinary size in one month. Those I ate at my son's place had been planted five weeks, and were as big as our full grown Florida potatoes. His sweet orange trees budded upon wild stalks cut off (which every where abound), about six months before had large tops, and the buds were swelling as if preparing to flower. My son reported that his people had all enjoyed good health and had labored just as steadily as they formerly did in Florida and were well satisfied with their situation and the advantageous exchange of circumstances they had made. They all enjoyed the friendship of the neighboring inhabitants and the entire confidence of the Haytian Government." "I remained with my son all January, 1838 and assisted him in making improvements of different kinds, amongst which was a new two-story house, and then left him to go to Port au Prince, where I obtained a favorable answer from the President of Hayti, to his petition, asking for leave to hold in fee simple, the same tract of land upon which he then lived as a tenant, paying rent to the Haytian Government, containing about thirty-five thousand acres, which was ordered to be surveyed to him, and valued, and not expected to exceed the sum of three thousand dollars, or about ten cents an acre. After obtaining this land in fee for my son, I returned to Florida in February, in 1838."--See _The African Repository_, XIV, pp. 215-216.] [Footnote 22: _Niles Register_, LXVI, pp. 165, 386.] [Footnote 23: _Niles Register_, LXVII, p. 180.] [Footnote 24: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 28.] |
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