" Until I
had grown to be quite a youth this single garment was all that I
wore.
One may get the idea, from what I have said, that there was
bitter feeling toward the white people on the part of my race,
because of the fact that most of the white population was away
fighting in a war which would result in keeping the Negro in
slavery if the South was successful. In the case of the slaves on
our place this was not true, and it was not true of any large
portion of the slave population in the South where the Negro was
treated with anything like decency. During the Civil War one of
my young masters was killed, and two were severely wounded. I
recall the feeling of sorrow which existed among the slaves when
they heard of the death of "Mars' Billy." It was no sham sorrow,
but real. Some of the slaves had nursed "Mars' Billy"; others had
played with him when he was a child. "Mars' Billy" had begged for
mercy in the case of others when the overseer or master was
thrashing them. The sorrow in the slave quarter was only second
to that in the "big house." When the two young masters were
brought home wounded, the sympathy of the slaves was shown in
many ways. They were just as anxious to assist in the nursing as
the family relatives of the wounded. Some of the slaves would
even beg for the privilege of sitting up at night to nurse their
wounded masters.
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