nature. In order to defend and protect the women and children who
were left on the plantations when the white males went to war,
the slaves would have laid down their lives. The slave who was
selected to sleep in the "big house" during the absence of the
males was considered to have the place of honour. Any one
attempting to harm "young Mistress" or "old Mistress" during the
night would have had to cross the dead body of the slave to do
so. I do not know how many have noticed it, but I think that it
will be found to be true that there are few instances, either in
slavery or freedom, in which a member of my race has been known
to betray a specific trust.

As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no
feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the
war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly carrying
for their former masters and mistresses who for some reason have
become poor and dependent since the war. I know of instances
where the former masters of slaves have for years been supplied
with money by their former slaves to keep them from suffering. I
have known of still other cases in which the former slaves have
assisted in the education of the descendants of their former
owners. I know of a case on a large plantation in the South in
which a young white man, the son of the former owner of the
estate, has become so reduced in purse and self-control by reason
of drink that he is a pitiable creature; and yet, notwithstanding
the poverty of the coloured people themselves on this plantation,
they have for years supplied this young white man with the
necessities of life. One sends him a little coffee or sugar,
another a little meat, and so on. Nothing that the coloured
people possess is too good for the son of "old Mars' Tom," who