seen such a circus. The Yankee soldiers found that they had such an
army of men and women and children, that they had to build tents and
feed them to keep them from starving. But from what I, a little child,
saw and heard the older ones say, that must have been a terrible time
of trouble. I heard my master and mistress talking. They said, "Well,
I guess those Yankees had such a large family on their hands, we
rather guessed those fanatics on freedom would be only too glad to
send some back for their old masters to provide for them."

But they never came back to our plantation, and I could only speak of
my own home, but I thought to myself, what would become of my good
times all over the old plantation. Oh, the harvesting times, the great
hog-killing times when several hundred hogs were killed, and we
children watched and got our share of the slaughter in pig's liver
roasted on a bed of coals, eaten ashes and all. Then came the great
sugar-cane grinding time, when they were making the molasses, and we
children would be hanging round, drinking the sugar-cane juice, and
awaiting the moment to help ourselves to everything good. We did,
too, making ourselves sticky and dirty with the sweet stuff being
made. Not only were the slave children there, but the little white
children from Massa's house would join us and have a jolly time. The
negro child and the white child knew not the great chasm between their
lives, only that they had dainties and we had crusts.

My sister, being the children's nurse, would take them and wash their
hands and put them to bed in their luxurious bedrooms, while we little
slaves would find what homes we could. My brother and I would go to
sleep on some lumber under the house, where our sister Caroline would
find us and put us to bed. She would wipe our hands and faces and make
up our beds on the floor in Massa's house, for we had lived with him