the market for sale an old and abandoned plantation which was situated
about a mile from the town of Tuskegee. The mansion house--or "big
house," as it would have been called--which had been occupied by the
owners during slavery, had been burned. After making a careful
examination of this place, it seemed to be just the location that we
wanted in order to make our work effective and permanent.

But how were we to get it? The price asked for it was very
little--only five hundred dollars--but we had no money, and we were
strangers in the town and had no credit. The owner of the land agreed
to let us occupy the place if we could make a payment of two hundred
and fifty dollars down, with the understanding that the remaining two
hundred and fifty dollars must be paid within a year. Although five
hundred dollars was cheap for the land, it was a large sum when one did
not have any part of it.

In the midst of the difficulty I summoned a great deal of courage and
wrote to my friend General J. F. B. Marshall, the Treasurer of the
Hampton Institute, putting the situation before him and beseeching him
to lend me the two hundred and fifty dollars on my own personal
responsibility. Within a few days a reply came to the effect that he
had no authority to lend me money belonging to the Hampton Institute,
but that he would gladly lend me the amount needed from his own
personal funds. . . .

I lost no time in getting ready to move the school on to the new farm.
At the time we occupied the place there were standing upon it a cabin,
formerly used as the dining-room, an old kitchen, a stable, and an old
hen-house. Within a few weeks we had all of these structures in use.
The stable was repaired and used as a recitation-room, and very