As soon as freedom was declared, he sent for my
mother to come to the Kanawha Valley, in West Virginia. At that
time a journey from Virginia over the mountains to West Virginia
was rather a tedious and in some cases a painful undertaking.
What little clothing and few household goods we had were placed
in a cart, but the children walked the greater portion of the
distance, which was several hundred miles.
I do not think any of us ever had been very far from the
plantation, and the taking of a long journey into another state
was quite an event. The parting from our former owners and the
members of our own race on the plantation was a serious occasion.
From the time of our parting till their death we kept up a
correspondence with the older members of the family, and in later
years we have kept in touch with those who were the younger
members. We were several weeks making the trip, and most of the
time we slept in the open air and did our cooking over a log fire
out-of-doors. One night I recall that we camped near an abandoned
log cabin, and my mother decided to build a fire in that for
cooking, and afterward to make a "pallet" on the floor for our
sleeping. Just as the fire had gotten well started a large black
snake fully a yard and a half long dropped down the chimney and
ran out on the floor.
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