The arrangement of our house of worship in Oldtown was somewhat
peculiar, owing to the fact of its having originally been built as a
missionary church for the Indians. The central portion of the house,
usually appropriated to the best pews, was in ours devoted to them; and
here were arranged benches of the simplest and most primitive form; on
which were collected every Sunday, the thin and wasted remnants of
what once was a numerous and powerful tribe. There were four or five
respectable Indian families, who owned comfortable farms in the
neighborhood, and came to meeting in their farm-wagons, like any of
their white neighbors.
... Besides our Indian population, we had also a few negroes, and a side
gallery was appropriated to them. One of them was that of Aunt Nancy
Prime, famous for making election-cake and ginger-pop, and who was sent
for at all the great houses on occasions of high festivity, as learned
in all mysteries relating to the confection of cakes and pies. A tight,
trig, bustling body she, black and polished as ebony, smooth-spoken
and respectful, and quite a favorite with everybody. Nancy had treated
herself to an expensive luxury in the shape of a husband,--an idle,
worthless mulatto man, who was owned as a slave in Boston.
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