But there was no feeling of bitterness.
In fact, there was pity among the slaves for our former owners.
The wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people
lasted but for a brief period, for I noticed that by the time
they returned to their cabins there was a change in their
feelings. The great responsibility of being free, of having
charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves
and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It was
very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years
out into the world to provide for himself. In a few hours the
great questions with which the Anglo-Saxon race had been
grappling for centuries had been thrown upon these people to be
solved. These were the questions of a home, a living, the rearing
of children, education, citizenship, and the establishment and
support of churches. Was it any wonder that within a few hours
the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to
pervade the slave quarters? To some it seemed that, now that they
were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing
than they had expected to find it. Some of the slaves were
seventy or eighty years old; their best days were gone. They had
no strength with which to earn a living in a strange place and
among strange people, even if they had been sure where to find a
new place of abode.
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