an' you know it; an' it's not for you to make all this fuss over it,
either.' I said, 'Mistess, wouldn't you grieve over your childern, if
somebody take 'em from you?' 'You hush your sauce, or I'll have you
punished. That's another thing; my childern's white.' An' then they
had me punished."

Her husband was sent, with many others, to what they called the "big
plantation," in the interior. She said her master was a "big man" in
the secesh army. I found they called all officers big men. After she
finished her story I told her I saw the seven she said went to
Memphis, a few days before they left, and how Aunt Peggy begged me so
hard to tell the big man that they all wanted to come. And to impress
me with the idea that the mistress could do without slaves, she told
me about the trunk of money and chest of silver plate; but I had no
more idea of its being confiscated than had Aunt Peggy in her appeal.

My attention from this episode was arrested by another scene of a
different character, but truly revolting--a young mother of only
fourteen years, with a very sick infant, pale and emaciated herself;
the grandmother of a very light complexion, and the great-grandmother
a mulatto. All these four generations were the children of their old
master, whose hair was white with age. He was the father of the great-
grandmother, and of each generation to the fourth, and master, all in
one. As revolting as this fact was, I was compelled to believe it, as
his former slaves told me of his licentious character from his early
youth to eighty years! He was never married, and was the owner of a
large plantation, and his many slaves sought the first opportunity to
make their escape. The condition of these women was truly appalling,
and the history of their base and degraded master and father too
revolting for the public eye or ear! I turned away with utter disgust