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^ A 
 
 SLAVEHOLDER'S 
 DAUGHTER 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 BELLE KEARNEY 
 
 (.FULL V ILL USTRA TED) 
 
 THE 
 
 Hbbey press 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 114 
 
 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
83399 
 
 Library of Cori^i<e«a 
 
 Two Copies RectivFo 
 DEC 3 1900 
 
 /r\ Copyright entry 
 
 SECOND COPY 
 
 Oo<iv»r9d to 
 
 ORDER DIVISION 
 DEC 10 190P 
 
 
 Copyright 1900 
 
 by 
 
 The Abbey Press 
 
 in 
 
 the 
 
 United States 
 
 and 
 Great Britain 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
BELLE KEARNEY. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 Miss Belle Kearney, the writer of this book, belongs 
 to an old, conservative, Southern family. She was born 
 on a plantation near Vernon, Mississippi, and was edu- 
 cated in her native state. A fezv years were spent in 
 the gay society of the times, but the changed social 
 and economic conditions that followed the civil war led 
 her to a nobler, more iisefid life. When quite young 
 she became a teacher and for six years zvas ranked 
 among the successfid educators. In i88p she was called 
 to enter the lecture Held and has since risen to be one 
 of the most logical, brilliant and popidar speakers upon 
 the American platform. Her public life has made her 
 an extensive traveler; carrying her into Canada, 
 Europe, and throughout the United States from 
 Alaska to the Gidf of Mexico. In the years of varied 
 experiences that have come to Miss Kearney, she has 
 made a deep study of humanity and the problems of 
 life; this has caused her to be looked upon as one of 
 the leaders of thought in the nation. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS 
 
/ wait for my story — the birds cannot sing it, 
 
 Not one as he sits on the tree; 
 The bells cannot ring it, but long years, O bring it! 
 
 Such as I wish it to be. 
 
 — ^Jean Ingelow. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. THE OLD SOUTH I 
 
 II. CHANGED CONDITIONS 10 
 
 III. READJUSTMENT 20 
 
 IV. THE YOUNG LADIES' ACADEMY 33 
 
 V. STORMS OF THE SOUL 43 
 
 VI. A NEGRO SERMON 53 
 
 VII. A HIGHER LIFE 66 
 
 VIIL THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MA'aM 74 
 
 IX. EDUCATIONAL MATTERS 84 
 
 X. THE SOUTHERN PROBLEM 90 
 
 XL EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN WOMEN I07 
 
 XIL THE TRANSFORMATION 125 
 
 XIII. MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD I3I 
 
 XIV. THE NEW CAREER 139 
 
 XV. MY FIRST SPEECH I49 
 
 XVI. AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE 155 
 
 XVIL HOW DE CAP'n COME THU I7I 
 
 XVIIL A SOUTHERN PILGRIMAGE 182 
 
 XIX. UPON THE HEIGHTS I9I 
 
 XX. ACROSS THE SEA 200 
 
 XXL ON THE CONTINENT 208 
 
 XXII. THE SORROW 2l8 
 
 XXIII. THE FAR WEST AND ALASKA 225 
 
 XXIV. THE LATTER DAY SAINTS 234 
 
 XXV. IN COLORADO 245 
 
 XXVL THE OLD PLANTATION HOME 252 
 
 XXVII. THE LAST FAREWELL 258 
 
 XXVIIL THE HEAVENLY BIRTHDAY 264 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Old Plantation Home 4 
 
 " Ugh ! I an't see'd no silver myself ! " 13 
 
 " Crying, sister ? " he asked, coolly 24 
 
 " Ycr'll neber see 'im gwine inter his house ter his wife an' 
 
 little chilluns when de day's wuk's done " 59 
 
 As in Ante-bellum Days 86 
 
 A Typical Negro Cabin of the South 92 
 
 Cotton Picking as Now Done 99 
 
 Weighing Cotton in the Field 105 
 
 A Scene on the Bayou Teche 172 
 
 Loading up for a Trip to New Orleans 179 
 
 John Wesley's Oak, Frederica, St. Simons, Georgia 221 
 
 " Now, my bredderin, a partin' an' a farewell word " 256 
 
A Slaveholder's Dauehter 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE OLD SOUTH 
 
 A land without ruins is a land without memories ;— a land 
 without memories is a land without history. A land that 
 wears a laurel crown may be fair to see; but twine a few 
 sad cypress leaves around the brow of any land, and be that 
 land barren and bleak, it becomes lovely in its consecrated 
 coronet of sorrow, and it wins the sympathy of the heart and 
 of history. Crowns of roses fade — crowns of thorns endure. 
 Calvaries and crucifixions take the deepest hold on humanity. 
 — Anon. 
 
 The South was in its glory. It was very rich and 
 very proud. Its wealth consisted of slaves and planta- 
 tions. Its pride was masterful from a consciousness of 
 power. The customs of society retained the color of 
 older European civilization, although the affairs of 
 state were conducted according to the ideals of a radical 
 democracy. Its social structure was simple, homogen- 
 eous. Three castes existed. The slaveholders consti- 
 tuted the gentry. Generally, those of this class served 
 in the legislatures, studied law, medicine, theology ; con- 
 
 I 
 
2 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 ducted extensive mercantile enterprises and controlled 
 their private finances, — seeking recreation in hunting, 
 traveling, entertaining, and in the cultivation of the 
 elegant pursuits that most pleased their particular turn 
 of mind. 
 
 The life of the great landowners and slaveholders 
 resembled that of the old feudal lords. The overseer 
 stood between the master and the slave in matters of 
 detail. He conducted the local business of the planta- 
 tion, managed the negroes, and was the possessor of 
 almost unlimited power when the less serious-minded 
 planter preferred his pleasures to his duties. The mid- 
 dle class carried on the concerns of commerce and the 
 trades incident to a vast agricultural area, and were the 
 men of affairs in its churches and municipalities. The 
 third class constituted a yeomanry, — small farmers who, 
 for the most part, preempted homesteads on the poorer 
 lands, sometimes owning a few slaves, and who lived 
 in a world of their own, — the westward drift from the 
 Atlantic seaboard and the Blue Ridge mountains, with 
 an inherited tone of life that defied change until the 
 public school, of post-bellum origin, began its syste- 
 matic inroads on the new generation. 
 
 Ladies of wealth and position were surrounded by re- 
 finements and luxury. They had their maids and coach- 
 men and a retinue of other servants. There was a time- 
 honored social routine from which they seldom varied ; 
 a decorous exchange of visits, elaborate dinings and 
 other interchanges of dignified courtesies. Every en- 
 tertainment was punctilious, strongly suggestive of co- 
 lonial gatherings. No young woman went out un- 
 
The Old South 3 
 
 chaperoned. Marriage was the ultimatum of her 
 existence and was planned for from the cradle by inter- 
 ested relatives. When the holy estate had been entered, 
 women glided gracefully into the position of the most 
 honored occupant of the home and kept their trust 
 faithfully, making devoted wives and worshipful 
 mothers. 
 
 The popular delusion is that the ante-bellum South- 
 ern woman, like Christ's lilies, " toiled not." Though 
 surrounded by the conditions for idleness she was not 
 indolent after she became the head of her own house- 
 hold. Every woman sewed, often making her own 
 dresses; the clothing of all the slaves on a plantation 
 was cut and made by negro seamstresses under her di- 
 rect supervision, even the heavy coats of the men ; she 
 ministered personally to them in cases of sickness, fre- 
 quently maintaining a well managed hospital under her 
 sole care. She was a most skillful housekeeper, though 
 she did none of the work with her own hands, and her 
 children grew up around her knees ; however, the black 
 " mammy " relieved her of the actual drudgery of child- 
 worry. 
 
 The women of the South, in the main, realized their 
 obligations and met them with reflective efficiency. Not- 
 withstanding their apparent freedom from responsibil- 
 ity and their outward lightness of character, there was 
 the deepest undertone of religious enthusiasm pervad- 
 ing their natures ; and this saving grace has clung to 
 the Southerners through all their changing fortunes. 
 They are the most devout people in this nation to-day. 
 Among them is found less infidelity, — fewer '' isms " 
 
4 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 have crept into their orthodoxy. As they have re- 
 mained the most purely Anglo-Saxon, so have they 
 continued the most reverent. The army of governesses 
 and public school teachers was made up of gentle- 
 women of reduced means, the large middle class, and of 
 women from the North. Teaching, sewing and keep- 
 ing boarders were about the only occupations open to 
 women of that day by which they could obtain a liveli- 
 hood. 
 
 Mississippi, like her sister states, was at the height 
 of prosperity. The wealthier classes were congregated 
 in the counties bordering on the great river, and its trib- 
 utaries, and in the rich prairie belt of the north-east 
 section. Madison was one of the leading counties. 
 Around the little village of Vernon, located in its south- 
 western portion, there stretched vast landed estates 
 owned by ten or twelve families. On each plantation 
 was an elegant residence for the master's household, 
 and a cluster of small cabins known as the " quarters " 
 where the negroes lived. On one of these plantations 
 my father established himself after his marriage. It 
 came to him with his slaves as an inheritance. The 
 majority of his neighbors were his relatives, the rest 
 were personal friends. These constituted a congenial 
 and delightful society. At the beginning of each sum- 
 mer the families migrated to the Gulf of Mexico, to the 
 mountains of Tennessee and Virginia, or to the North- 
 ern states and Canada. The ennui of the winter sea- 
 son was avoided by visits to New Orleans and other 
 Southern cities. 
 
 After father had completed his college course he went 
 

 o 
 
 a, 
 
 O 
 
The Old South 5 
 
 to Lexington, Kentucky, to study law. On arriving he 
 began to argue with himself that it was absurd to spend 
 months in gaining knowledge of a profession which he 
 did not expect to follow, as he should always have his 
 slaves and hundreds of acres of land to provide him 
 with an income. After traveling several weeks he re- 
 turned to Mississippi, married mother, who was hand- 
 somely provided with property like his own, and settled 
 down to the complacent life of a planter. Although 
 born to that vocation, it was very soon manifest that 
 his heart was not in it. He shut himself up with his 
 books, became a close student of politics, and in 1858 
 was elected to the legislature, since which time he has 
 been vitally interested in the political life of his state 
 and country. 
 
 Father was a fine type of the Southern gentleman of 
 the old regime; in person, tall, slender, well-proportioned, 
 blue-eyed, brown-haired, with delicate, clear cut fea- 
 tures, and noble expression; cultured, high-bred, 
 courtly; full of an intense family pride — brave, gener- 
 ous, chivalrous. 
 
 The election of Mr. Lincoln in i860 to the lofty posi- 
 tion of president of the United States was regarded by 
 the Southern people as foreshadowing the destruction 
 of slavery. The senators from South Carolina were 
 so impressed with this conviction that they almost im- 
 mediately withdrew from the national Capital. Legis- 
 latures were called in extraordinary session by the gov- 
 ernors of the states in the far South for the purpose 
 of devising means of protection from the troubles which 
 they presumed would soon follow. A convention as- 
 
6 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 cembled in Jackson, Mississippi, on the 7th of January, 
 1861, and in two days an act was passed called: ''An 
 Ordinance to Dissolve the Union between the State of 
 Mississippi and Other United States with Her under 
 the Compact Entitled, ' The Constitution of the United 
 States of America.' " In short, Mississippi seceded, in 
 an hour freighted with exultant confidence, with tears, 
 with a sense of solemn responsibility. Her national sen- 
 ators, acting on command of the state, retired at once 
 from Washington. Almost every state in the South 
 pursued a course nearly identical with that of Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 The proposed amendment to the Constitution of the 
 United States, declaring that states would be protected 
 perpetually from the interference of the general gov- 
 ernment in the maintenance of slavery, was defeated 
 in the Senate. A few months after seven Southern 
 states held conventions and adopted their famous " Pro- 
 visional Constitution for the Confederate States of 
 America." Belligerent preparations began, follovyed by 
 the bombardment of Fort Sumter, which brought forth 
 the proclamation of President Lincoln calling for volun- 
 teer troops to suppress the insurrection. After that 
 came the civil war which raged four years, — unsur- 
 passed in history for deeds of valor, heroic endurance, 
 terrible suffering and sweeping desolation. 
 
 Father was in full sympathy with the leaders of the 
 Confederacy in the cause they espoused. As soon as 
 the first breath of impending strife reached him he be- 
 gan to struggle with military tactics, and was among 
 the first to volunteer. He entered the service as first 
 
The Old South . 7 
 
 lieutenant of the Eighteenth Mississippi regiment, and 
 was promoted after the battle of Leesburg to the posi- 
 tion of Heutenant colonel. In the spring of 1862 he 
 came home on furlough from Virginia. Soon after re- 
 turning to his command, he was stricken with an ill- 
 ness of such a serious nature that he was compelled 
 again to retire to the plantation in Mississippi. Com- 
 modore Farragut was attacking Vicksburg. The gov- 
 ernor of Mississippi called for volunteers in its defense. 
 Father had sufficiently recovered to answer and, going 
 at once to the City of Bluffs, witnessed the first bom- 
 bardment. When General Sherman made his subse- 
 quent movement against Vicksburg, father again vol- 
 unteered his services. 
 
 A requisition had been made by the Confederate gov- 
 ernment on Southern planters to furnish slaves to build 
 fortifications around Vicksburg. They were sent in 
 vast numbers to do this work which had hitherto been 
 done only by soldiers. Grandfather owned an old negro 
 man, by the name of Moody, who did nothing but make 
 a daily tour of the different residences of the Kearney 
 relatives in the Vernon neighborhood to inquire into the 
 state of health of the occupants, report to grandmother, 
 and in the afternoon to drive up the cows. In his mili- 
 tary life father carried a servant with him. On going to 
 Vicksburg the second time he took Moody along to al- 
 low the old man to see his sons who were working on 
 the fortifications, as well as to play the role of attendant. 
 It was the last day of the year 1862. My father and his 
 kinsman, James Andrews, a young Confederate officer, 
 were on the train going over to Vicksburg with hearts 
 
8 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 on fire and restless with eagerness to be in the midst 
 of the war. It was a glorious winter afternoon, ripe 
 with sunshine and balmy with the breath of Southern 
 winds. 
 
 " What a beautiful ride we are having, cousin 
 Walter ! " Just as the words were uttered the engine 
 was thrown violently from the track. A horrible rail- 
 road wreck followed, mangling and killing the soldiers, 
 with whom the cars were crowded, as completely as a 
 broadside from the enemy's gunboats could have done. 
 Old Moody escaped unhurt. In wild despair he car- 
 ried the terrible tidings back to the home of his master. 
 Bursting into grandmother's room he exclaimed : 
 
 " Lor, mistis ! Marse Jimmie done killed, and marse 
 Walter nigh onto daid ! " 
 
 As soon as the news reached mother she ordered her 
 carriage and drove as quickly as possible through the 
 country to the little tov/n of Edwards near which 
 Moody said the wreck had occurred, and where father 
 had been removed. There she found him, with spine 
 injured, three ribs broken, right hand and arm crushed 
 and raving in delirium. After many wretched weeks 
 consciousness returned to the maimed soldier; one by 
 one he picked up the tangled threads of his broken life ; 
 little by little the tide of strength swept in, and he was 
 carried tenderly back to his plantation home. 
 
 Every overture made to the Southern states by Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, backed by the national government, for 
 the cessation of armed hostilities was rejected with firm- 
 ness. In consequence, the Emancipation Proclamation 
 was issued the ist of January, 1863. The 6th of March 
 
The Old South 9 
 
 following, on the plantation at Vernon, my eyes caught 
 their first glimpse of the light of life, — just two months 
 and six days too late for me to be a Constitutional slave- 
 holder. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 CHANGED CONDITIONS 
 
 Our life Is always deeper than we know, is always more 
 divine than it seems, and hence we are able to survive degrada- 
 tions and despairs which otherwise must have engulfed us. — 
 Henry James. 
 
 Two more years passed — hideous in bloody strife. 
 The Southern armies, decimated by battle and sick- 
 ness, were almost destroyed. The Federal forces, over- 
 whelming in numbers, victorious, jubilant, forced their 
 way into every Southern state. 
 
 Mississippi was held by them from the Tennessee 
 border to the Gulf of Mexico. Robert E. Lee, with his 
 pitiful band of starving men numbering under 25,000, 
 was entrenched at Petersburg and Richmond. Then 
 came the evacuation, the unwavering pursuit of Grant 
 and Sheridan with their solid lines 150,000 strong, 
 the surrender; 175,000 starved and ragged Confeder- 
 ate soldiers, all told, laid down their arms at the feet 
 of a conquering legion of i ,000,000 men ; — and the two 
 armies that had faced each other unflinchingly for four 
 long years melted into civilians with mutual respect and 
 sympathy. Slavery was abolished, and the Southern 
 states were conquered at a cost to the United States of 
 three thousand million dollars and a sacrifice of nearly 
 six hundred thousand lives. 
 
 10 
 
Changed Conditions 1 1 
 
 Immediately after the surrender the governor of Mis- 
 sissippi was informed that neither the State govern- 
 ment organized since 1861, nor the officers appointed 
 under that government, nor their official acts vv^ere rec- 
 ognized by the President of the United States. A com- 
 mand was given to deliver into the possession of the 
 Union armies the public archives and every form of 
 State property. It was done, and Mississippi stood 
 dismantled and dishonored. Every vestige of civil rule 
 was thrust from sight. There was not an executive, 
 not a judiciary; the right of trial by jury was not al- 
 lowed, nor the writ of habeas corpus; there was noth- 
 ing that bore the semblance of government except mar- 
 tial law which was administered by provost marshals, 
 military commissions and freedmen's bureaus. The 
 negroes had been taken from the fields by thousands 
 and turned into Union soldiers. Those who were left 
 were free, and defied the control of their old masters, as 
 well as made it difficult for officers to bring them under 
 authority. Anarchy triumphed, grinning, red-handed. 
 Desperadoes infested the land. Women were afraid to 
 leave their front doors without being armed or accom- 
 panied by a male escort. Wagons were stopped on the 
 public highway and the cotton they were carrying to 
 market to supply the wants of needy families, was forci- 
 bly taken. Crime swept like a prairie fire over com- 
 munities. The constant violations of law were passed 
 by unheeded, unpunished, or the penalties were too fee- 
 ble to effect fear or prevent recurrence. Industry was 
 dead. " The hands " went to the fields with umbrellas 
 over their heads and resplendent in yellow buckskin 
 
12 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 cavalry gloves; they began work when they pleased 
 and quit when it suited them. At the same time the 
 planter was furnishing the land, paying the taxes and 
 insurance, providing lodging, implements, work-stock, 
 seed, and giving wages, or a certain proportion of the 
 crops, stipulated for by contract. He was himself in 
 the throes of readjustment. His precedents were gone ; 
 he was as uncertain, and almost as helpless as the black 
 man in the midst of his new and untried conditions. 
 The land which had been celebrated for its prosperity 
 was the habitation of wrecks of human beings and ruins 
 of fortunes. All Southern hearts were smitten with 
 desolation and gripped with the horror of despair. 
 Lovely homes had been destroyed. Thousands of per- 
 sons were on the verge of starvation, and many others 
 had fled to foreign lands, in voluntary exile. All this 
 and far more — unutterable — the struggle to maintain 
 slavery cost the South. 
 
 The Federal government, in its emancipation act, 
 had set afloat an army of aged and infirm negroes who 
 were perfectly helpless, becoming paupers at once on 
 receiving their freedom. So in addition to other bur- 
 dens the white people were forced, in their extremity, 
 to continue to care for these, as when they were slaves. 
 
 As soon as father was physically strong enough to 
 perform the trying duty, he went to the negro quarters 
 on his plantation, assembled his slaves, and announced 
 to them that they were free. There was no wild shout 
 of joy or other demonstration of gladness. The deep- 
 est gloom prevailed in their ranks and an expression of 
 mournful bewilderment settled upon their dusky faces. 
 

Changed Conditions 13 
 
 They did not understand that strange, sweet word — 
 freedom. Poor things ! the EngHsh language had 
 never brought to them the faintest definition of liberty 
 — that most glorious gift of God. They were stunned. 
 What were they to do Where should they go ? What 
 would become of them? Who would feed and clothe 
 them, and care for them in sickness, when they went out 
 from " marster " free ? 
 
 Noticing their consternation and dumb sorrow, fa- 
 ther told them that they might stay and work for him 
 as hired hands. Some of them did, but the majority 
 drifted away, and finally all. 
 
 The record of the devotion of the slaves to their 
 owners is deeply touching. 
 
 During the war a band of Federal soldiers filled 
 mother's yard, front and back. Sally, one of the plan- 
 tation servants, stood calmly surveying them, with 
 hands peacefully clasped behind her back, while her 
 turbaned head-handkerchief illuminated the scene. An 
 officer stalked up to her and demanded to know where 
 the silver was hidden. With a lofty air of disdain Sally 
 exclaimed : " Silver ! Bless Gord, mister ! yo' doan't 
 know dem white folks ! " pointing in the direction of 
 " the house," as the master's dwelling was always des- 
 ignated in slave parlance, and where at that time mother 
 and her little children sat trembling with fear. " Dey 
 am de stingiest white folks yo' ebber sot yo' two eyes on. 
 Silver! dey ain't nebber had no silver in dere lives! 
 Got a fine house ? Sho 'nuff ; but powerful pore inside ! 
 Ugh ! / ain't see'd no silver inysdi ! " Walking off with 
 infinite disgust, she muttered between her teeth : " Dat 
 
14 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 Yankee man sho' am foolish if he thinks I'se gwine ter 
 tell him whar dat silver am ! " The officer and his men 
 moved away convinced by her contempt and earnest- 
 ness. Within ten feet of where Sally stood the silver 
 lay securely buried. She had helped to put it there. 
 
 A raid of the Union army was expected through 
 Madison county. Father gave his sword to Aunt 
 Dicey, one of our most devoted allies, and told her to 
 hide it, explaining the reason. No more was thought 
 of it until General Hardee, a Confederate commander, 
 came to the neighborhood to review the troops stationed 
 near Vernon, and who, with his staff, spent the previous 
 night at our home. The next morning one of the of- 
 ficers asked father to lend him a sword, as his own was 
 lost and he did not wish to appear on inspection without 
 one. Dicey was called to bring the hidden weapon. 
 She marched in, bearing it triumphant. The scabbard 
 was rotten and the blade covered with rust. The old 
 woman had buried it. 
 
 A year after the slaves were given their freedom they 
 had a great meeting at one of their churches near Ver- 
 non. A delegation waited on father to invite him to 
 attend. Having always been a friend of the black race, 
 he accepted their courtesy, although ignorant of the 
 nature of the gathering. On arriving at the appointed 
 place, he found a vast crowd assembled : among them 
 was a body of negro cavalry, charging to and fro with 
 becoming military hauteur. Father was escorted to the 
 platform where the orators of the occasion were seated. 
 These consisted of several Republican white men and 
 one or two black ones. Speaker after speaker was pre- 
 
Changed Conditions 15 
 
 sented to the audience and made flaming orations on the 
 subject of emancipation. It dawned on father, by de- 
 grees, that this was the anniversary of the negroes 
 freedom and that he was to participate in its celebration. 
 At last he was introduced without a word of explana- 
 tion to him or to the black masses in the foreground. 
 Fortunately he had entered into the spirit of the meet- 
 ing with enthusiasm. With face aglow with emotion of 
 the holiest character and voice strong with a manly 
 and sincere sympathy, he said : " My friends, I honor 
 you for rejoicing over the acquisition of your freedom. 
 If I had been born a slave and the shackles had been 
 broken from my hands I would make every day a time 
 of exultation, and every night upon bended knees would 
 I thank God for my liberty." 
 
 The Constitutional Convention of 1865, composed of 
 Southern gentlemen and their sympathizers, met and a 
 universal rehabilitation began. 
 
 A horror of negro suffrage was expressed and the 
 convention refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amend- 
 ment to the Constitution of the United States. How- 
 ever, the Ordinance of Secession was declared null and 
 void ; slavery was acknowledged to be dead, and proper 
 adjustment of laws was made. 
 
 Then came the days of reconstruction with their at- 
 tendant terrors, Mississippi was the first to conform 
 to the new order. Other states did not hold constitu- 
 tional conventions until weeks after hers had adjourned. 
 In the course of the three years following that event 
 the Republican party was dominant in Mississippi. 
 
 By order of Congress a constitutional convention 
 
1 6 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 was called which met in Jackson on the 7th day of Jan- 
 uary, 1868. This body was a motley assemblage. It 
 has gone down in history as the " Black and Tan 
 Convention." It was composed largely of negroes, 
 many of them wholly illiterate, direct from the cotton 
 fields, but belonging principally to the class of barbers, 
 hotel waiters and livery stable hirelings. With the 
 exception of a small sprinkling of Mississippi Demo- 
 crats the other members were Republican white men 
 from the North ; most of whom had failed to command 
 the respect of the people from whose midst they had 
 come, — and who were held in complete disrepute by the 
 Southerners. The entire expense of the convention 
 has been safely estimated at not less than a quarter of a 
 million dollars. A special tax, real and personal, was 
 voted to be levied upon the state, to pay the expenses of 
 the convention. 
 
 " The present and all previous constitutions of the 
 state of Mississippi " were " declared to be repealed 
 and annulled." Enfranchising the negro was ap- 
 proved and every effort was made to obliterate the color 
 line in social, civil and political life. Thousands of 
 white citizens of the state had been disfranchised by 
 provisions of the 39th and 40th Congresses ; and now 
 the convention of 1868 imposed an additional oath of 
 affirmation on the voters before they would be permitted 
 to express their principles by the ballot. 
 
 The taxes levied were exorbitant, apportioned on as- 
 sessments made at the will of corrupt officials. Land 
 was valued at $100 per acre, which would not have 
 brought $20 if Ojffered in the market. In consequence, 
 
Changed Conditions 17 
 
 millions of dollars worth of property was published 
 under tax sales, which was virtual confiscation. The 
 United States government had placed a tax on all cot- 
 ton raised in Mississippi. This tax was as high as $10 
 a bale. Afterward it was disallowed, and an effort was 
 made to secure the refunding of the tax money, which 
 was not accomplished. Imagine the struggle for bread 
 when the people paid a tax of $10 per 500 pounds on 
 the product which constituted their chief means of sup- 
 port ! 
 
 The Republicans were in the majority in the follow- 
 ing legislature. They occupied all the state offices and 
 sent their representatives to Congress. Then began, 
 in full force, the reign of the " carpet-bagger " and the 
 " scalawag."* 
 
 B. K. Bruce, the Mississippi negro who afterwards 
 occupied so many prominent positions under the Fed- 
 eral government, was elected United States senator. 
 The lieutenant-governor was a negro; also the state 
 superintendent of education, and other important offices 
 were filled by colored men. Sometimes every member 
 of the board of supervisors was a negro. Under this 
 dark-tinted regime a monument was erected in Jack- 
 son by the legislature to the memory of a negro man, 
 who had filled the office of secretary of state. 
 
 The Republican legislature of 1870 ratified the Four- 
 
 * A carpet-bagger was a Northerner who had come into the 
 South with all his possessions in a carpet-bag ; in plain Eng- 
 lish, a penniless adventurer. A scalawag was a Southerner 
 who deserted his political affiliations for the spoils of the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
1 8 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 teenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution 
 of the United States. 
 
 Adelbert Ames, of Massachusetts, a son-in-law of 
 General Ben Butler, was appointed military governor of 
 Mississippi in 1868. His administration was charac- 
 terized by bitter hostility to the whites, which cul- 
 minated in race riots. The intolerable acts of the gov- 
 ernor sealed his doom. Twenty-one articles of im- 
 peachment were preferred against him when the legisla- 
 ture of 1876 met and all of them were sustained. He 
 sent in his resignation as governor of Mississippi, which 
 was accepted, and the case dismissed. 
 
 Articles of impeachment were also filed against the 
 negro state superintendent of education and the negro 
 lieutenant-governor. The former resigned at once and 
 left the state; the latter stood trial and was found 
 guilty. 
 
 The struggle for white supremacy had lasted ten 
 years. The entering wedge for Democratic sovereignty 
 had been made in the autumn of 1875 when, at the 
 election, a compromise had been effected in the way 
 of a division of offices between the Republicans and 
 the Democrats. Regardless of the turn affairs had 
 taken the energy of the carpet-baggers and scalawags 
 fagged not a moment. Night meetings were held with 
 the colored men, in which they were urged to stand by 
 the Republican party as the one that had brought them 
 freedom, and were terrified with the threat of being 
 forced back into slavery if they voted otherwise. With 
 a few rare exceptions the negroes defined freedom as 
 the liberty to be idle. For years they entertained the 
 
Changed Conditions 19 
 
 idea that the lands of the South were to be divided 
 among them — " forty acres of land and a mule, the gift 
 of the Government," — and they rested in that hope. 
 Hordes of them wandered through the country, beating 
 drums and sowing seeds of discontent among those who 
 were peaceably inclined and given to habits of industry. 
 .The masses of them were destitute. 
 
 The election of 1877 was carried by the Democrats. 
 There was no organized opposition, but every negro 
 knew that he was safer in his cotton-patch than any- 
 where else. Every man felt that he who would longer 
 submit to the rule of an inferior race deserved to be a 
 slave. Anglo-Saxon blood, North or South, is the 
 blood of free men. 
 
 In the enfranchisement of the negro the Federal gov- 
 ernment laid a heavy curse on the black race. License 
 is not liberty, nor the ballot a blessing unless it has be- 
 come the expression of a moral principle; and this 
 cannot be until men have been trained to the holy du- 
 ties of citizenship, and have caught the spirit of an in- 
 telligent loyalty to all that for which a righteous gov- 
 ernment is the standard-bearer. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 READJUSTMENT 
 
 The human soul is like a bird born in a cage. Nothing 
 can deprive it of its natural longings, or obliterate the mys- 
 terious remembrance of its heritage. — Epes Sargent. 
 
 It seemed impossible for father and mother to realize 
 the terrible change that had come into their fortunes. 
 They continued to live extravagantly for the first few 
 years after the war, keeping the same number of house- 
 servants and giving them exorbitant wages ; also to the 
 field-hands who were hired by the month. After awhile 
 the last dollar was spent and the last servant dismissed. 
 The land that had yielded bountiful harvests worked by 
 the slaves, now brought a pittance rented to the f reed- 
 men. The struggle for bread became hard both for the 
 laborer and the land-owner. Affairs were growing des- 
 perate. Then mortgages were unhappily entered into, 
 and the inevitable failure to meet them was followed 
 by foreclosure. Of all our former possessions only four 
 hundred acres of land, around the old home, were left 
 us. 
 
 Among the many destructive agencies to the attain- 
 ment of independence were the lien laws instituted in 
 the South at the close of the civil war. Before a spool 
 of thread or a pound of flour could be bought on credit 
 
 20 
 
Readjustment 21 
 
 the purchaser had to give a lien on available property — 
 cattle, horses or land. Failing these he mortgaged his 
 unplanted crop for supplies during the year. The rate 
 of interest as well as the merchant's profits on goods 
 was enormous, usually as high as loo or 200 per cent. 
 At the end of the year the buyer found himself in debt 
 or escaped with only the clothes on his back. Although 
 the premiums on money have increased, the lien laws 
 are still in force and are a prime cause of retarded pros- 
 perity in the cotton states. One afternoon a young 
 brother of mine met an old colored man returning from 
 town, where he had been settling up the year's account 
 with his merchant. Hearing a half suppressed soliloquy 
 on the part of the negro, the boy asked : *' What is the 
 trouble, * Uncle ' Willis?" 
 
 Without looking up he exclaimed disconsolately : " I 
 knewed it ! I knewed it ! " 
 
 "Knew what, 'Uncle' Willis?" 
 
 " Knewed I warn't gwine ter pay fo' dat mule. I 
 knewed it all erlong ! " 
 
 Alas ! for " Uncle " Willis, and alas ! for thousands 
 of others who 3^et know that a penniless state will be the 
 result of their hard year's labor. 
 
 In the midst of the social and financial convulsions 
 that surrounded us in those sad days, father stood fac- 
 ing the ruin about him with right hand hopelessly in- 
 jured and depressed continually by a frail constitution. 
 Mother's health was wretched ; she was a martyr to neu- 
 ralgia. Worst of all, neither of them knew how to 
 work, nor how to manage so as to make a dollar, nor 
 how to keep it after it was gained. Children were be- 
 
22 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 ing added to the family and sorrows multiplied. My 
 oldest brother, a boy of brilliant promise, was taken 
 ill at boarding school and died in his fifteenth year, soon 
 after returning home. While my only sister was at col- 
 lege in Oxford, Mississippi, she formed a romantic at- 
 tachment for a young University student, whom she 
 married when she was but sixteen. Although just five 
 years old at the time, the memory of that wedding was 
 indelibly impressed upon my mind: the guests, the 
 handsome bridegroom, my lovely sister in her bridal 
 robes, my head aching, and eyes swollen from much 
 weeping, the good-byes, the roll of the carriage down 
 the long avenue of cedars to the gate, the after-loneliness 
 and gloom of the house. Just four years later, when I 
 returned from school, one afternoon, father folded me in 
 his arms and sobbing carried me to the parlor where 
 the still form of my sister was lying in her coffin ; — the 
 child-wife, just twenty years old, and the mother of 
 two little daughters ! Very soon these went away from 
 us with their young father to establish another home. 
 
 The death of my sister left me the oldest child in the 
 family. There were three small brothers. The iron 
 entered my soul very early in this great battle we call 
 " life." I looked about me with wide-open eyes, full 
 of comprehension and a heart full of bitterness. 
 Mother's father, William Owens, who had been a Mis- 
 sissippi planter, died when she was a child of ten. 
 When only three, her mother, a native Kentuckian of 
 French descent, passed into the shadow-land. Mother 
 was reared by a married sister who kept her in board- 
 ing schools from an early age. She attended an acad- 
 
Readjustment 23 
 
 emy in Nashville and spent her last school-days at the 
 Episcopal Institute for young ladies in Columbia, Tenn. 
 Returning to Mississippi, she married father when she 
 was twenty years old. 
 
 Mother was endowed with a strong mind and added 
 to her mental acquirement by constant reading of the 
 best literature. Throughout her book-filled life she has 
 followed national issues and the world's history with 
 keen penetration. She was ever a devoted Methodist 
 and a profound Bible student, a staunch friend, an ador- 
 ing mother, unselfish, independent in thought and 
 action, energetic in spirit, swift in movement, brief but 
 positive in speech, unswerving in purpose. Her rich 
 brunette beauty made her a belle in girlhood. Though 
 fortified by a nature broad and noble enough to endure 
 bravely many severe strokes of unhappy destiny, yet 
 the loss of her fortune was a blow from which she 
 never recovered. She has lived in retirement, never but 
 once in thirty-four years leaving the seclusion of her 
 home except to attend church, to minister to the sick 
 or to pay an occasional visit to friends in the neighbor- 
 hood. Like thousands of other heroic women of the 
 South, however, she did not fold her hands in idleness 
 nor weep her eyes blind over the inexorable, but, with 
 admirable courage, went to work. Silk dresses were 
 displaced by cotton ones, the parlor was deserted for 
 the kitchen, the piano for the sewing machine. The 
 grind was upon us. We were too pressed in finances 
 to hire anything done but laundry-work and wood-cut- 
 ting. 
 
 When nine years old I put my small "shoulders to the 
 
24 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 wheel " to ease mother's burdens. For four years I 
 
 worked systematically and attended school regularly. 
 
 Mother's frequent attacks of neuralgia usually pros- 
 
 , trated her for a week. On such occasions the cooking 
 
 and house-work fell to my lot in addition to other duties. 
 
 If a low moan issued from mother's room early in the 
 
 morning my heart sank, for it boded no good to me. 
 
 Hurrying from bed a rush would be made fof our old 
 
 kitchen, twenty yards from the dwelling, very spacious 
 
 and very uncomfortable, where efforts were begun at 
 
 once to build a fire in the stove preparatory to cooking. 
 
 In winter, blowing my hands to keep them from getting 
 
 numb ; in summer sweltering with the heat and fuming 
 
 with disgust. 
 
 Affairs went on in this way for two years. One 
 morning I was trying to get breakfast in a hurry, as it 
 was late, an unusual amount of work was on hand, and 
 my dress had to be changed for school. In attempting 
 to turn some batter-cakes the hot lard splashed on my 
 fingers, burning them cruelly. With a loud cry, I sat 
 down on the floor, folded my hands above my head and 
 rocked to and fro in an agony of body and spirit. Sud- 
 denly a light step entered the door. There stood my 
 oldest brother, a little fellow just two years my junior, 
 with an expression of pity strongly tinctured with scorn 
 playing about his half-smiling lips. " Crying, sister? " 
 he asked coolly ; " Oh, yes ! " was sobbed in reply; " IVe 
 burnt my fingers and ruined the batter-cakes, and it's 
 so late,— and there's so much work to be done and get 
 to school. O, how dreadful it is to have to cook! " and 
 the swaying was begun again in despairing misery. 
 
Readjustment 25 
 
 " Sister ! " how solemn the blue eyes looked, how dig- 
 nified the boyish figure. '^ Sister!" — with increasing 
 emphasis — " I have no respect for a girl who is eleven 
 years old and doesn't know how to cook. If you will 
 go into the house I will get breakfast and take it into 
 the dining room." Frantic with delight, but maintain- 
 ing due outward composure, '' Well," I answered, 
 " suppose we make a bargain ? If you will cook every 
 time mother gets sick I will tell you one of Dickens' 
 stories or one of Sir Walter Scott's novels as regularly 
 as the nights roll around." " All right ! I'll do it ! " 
 was the ready assent ; — and the compact was sealed. It 
 was never broken. 
 
 As the days went by and mother's health failed to im- 
 prove, and my work failed correspondingly to grow 
 lighter, the younger boys were pressed into service by 
 similar agreements. My second brother was to wash 
 the dishes and help with outdoor labor. The youngest 
 was to do the sweeping as far as his stature and 
 strength permitted. This condition of domestic engi- 
 neering continued until the time came for me to go away 
 to school. Every night after our lessons were learned 
 for the next day, we gathered around the hearth in 
 mother's room and I told the boys the promised stories ; 
 going into smallest details ; dwelling on peculiarities of 
 characters, painting minutely their environment, wax- 
 ing humorous or pathetic according to the situation ; all 
 the while watching closely the faces of my auditors. 
 There they would sit for hours, my little brothers, lis- 
 tening intently to every word that was uttered ; at times 
 clapping their chubby hands with intense enjoyment, or 
 
26 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 doubling up their small bodies in convulsive laughter, 
 or holding their lips together with fore-finger and 
 thumb to prevent too boisterous an explosion of hilarity ; 
 at other times allowing the great tears to roll down 
 their cheeks, or with bowed heads sobbing aloud. My 
 precious little comrades! They constituted my first 
 audience, and it was the most sympathetic and inspiring 
 that has ever greeted me in all the after years. 
 
 One day the announcement was made that a baby 
 had been born in our home, who was to be our brother. 
 The feeling of indignation that swelled into my inmost 
 being surpasses description. Rallying the three boys 
 in the dining-room a caucus was held. Our ages were 
 respectively eleven, nine, seven and five years. I was 
 self-elected chairman on the momentous occasion. 
 " Boys," my voice came trembling with growing wrath, 
 " a child has been born into our family. He will have 
 to be supported. We are disgraced. We were too poor to 
 have any more children. It was just as much as we could 
 do to get along with us four. We must do something to 
 show how angry we are about this baby's coming to add 
 to our troubles." Forthwith we piled all the chairs to- 
 gether in a towering heap and knocked them down by 
 two's and three's, breaking several, and making an aw- 
 ful din. After the fury of the tempest had subsided we 
 met in council again and took a solemn vow never to 
 look at the intruder until we were forced, by unhappy 
 circumstances, to do so; and we never did until we 
 learned that mother was about to die. 
 
 A week later Fannie, one of our ex-slaves, came to 
 the rear gallery and said : *' Baby ! " — all of our ante- 
 
Readjustment 27 
 
 bellum negroes called me " Baby," as I was the last 
 infant born in the family before the war closed. " Baby, 
 Mistis is pow'ful bad off an' yo pa, he say ' go fo' de 
 doctor ! '" I waited for no further command, nor took 
 time to search for my sun-bonnet, which was usually 
 sewed on by mother to preserve my complexion, and as • 
 regularly cut off by some negro woman at my urgent 
 solicitation, but ran rapidly up the hill to Vernon for 
 the neighboring physician. On my return, the boys and 
 I formed a procession and marched into mother's room 
 with shamed faces and bursting hearts. We were all 
 nearly grown, however, before we forgave the baby for 
 
 being born. 
 
 The comradeship begun at the hearthstone with my 
 three brothers continued. They were ever my most de- 
 voted friends and enthusiastic allies. The oldest always 
 camic to my assistance in domestic matters and even 
 after he had become a man and entered into business 
 he would give out the meals for me on his visits home, 
 if mother was ill. He would keep my breakfast warm 
 if I did not care to arise when the others did, saying 
 always tenderly, after a gentle tap on my door, " Do 
 you want to sleep this morning, sister? Very well, I 
 will attend to everything." We four shared every hard- 
 ship and rejoiced together in every happiness. In sum- 
 mer we went wading and fishing ; the boys chivalrously 
 taking off their jackets for me to wipe my feet on, and 
 baiting my hooks. When we were older we went hunt- 
 ing. They carried my gun but I did my own shooting. 
 Their unselfish acts were returned by me in the intimi- 
 dation of rowdy boys at school whenever domineering 
 
28 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 the little fellows was attempted. In all the association 
 of our lives my three companions were always loving 
 and generous to me, never harshly criticizing any action, 
 however absurd, or the causes I espoused later on, 
 whether or not they were in accord with the spirit of 
 them. The affinity between my second brother and my- 
 self was most pronounced. We read Shakspeare to- 
 gether, had long walks and confidential talks, discussing 
 books and life and laying great plans for the future. 
 We were both ambitious for the widest culture, and as 
 the chances narrowed, shutting out every hope of a 
 liberal education we became more closely united in 
 spirit through our common sorrow. Mother taught my 
 brothers that as they had but one sister they should 
 render to her the highest homage, — and they did, most 
 loyally. By degrees every species of rough work of 
 which they could relieve me was taken from my hands. 
 If an article was wanted at the table a boy arose to get 
 it. If a sacrifice was to be endured — an old garment 
 longer worn — a choice bit of food surrendered, — the 
 boys undertook the renunciation. Father set them the 
 example in his exquisite courtesy. His considerateness 
 for woman never failed him. How sweet that old 
 home-life was ! — the manly gentleness of my brothers, 
 the royal graciousness of my father, the tender devotion 
 of my mother ! 
 
 A law was passed by the legislature of Mississippi 
 in 1846 establishing a system of public schools. Al- 
 most nothing was accomplished, however, up to 1861, 
 then, of course, the Confederacy absorbed every other 
 question. In the South generally the attention of the 
 
Readjustment 29 
 
 people was beginning to be drawn toward public edu- 
 cation just before the opening of the civil war; but, 
 during the black days of reconstruction there was little 
 inclination to encourage a system of education that 
 would have to be supported for colored as well as white 
 children, the taxes for the purpose being paid by the 
 latter almost entirely. Especially, while the^ whites 
 were being threatened by the government at Washing- 
 ton with co-education of the races. 
 
 The Republican convention of 1868 made provisions 
 for the revival of the system of free schools which went 
 into operation in 1870. 
 
 The nearly tax-crushed people objected to an educa- 
 tional law made by a legislature composed of ex-slaves, 
 few of whom could read, and of carpet-baggers and 
 scalawags,— and administered by an alien, non-tax-pay- 
 ing governor and superintendent of education. With 
 such a revival it is marvelous that the free school found 
 any tolerance in Southern life. 
 
 Public schools were a costly luxury in those days. 
 The whites paid the expenses of public instruction and, 
 as much as possible, educated their own children in 
 private schools. If a public school teacher had but one 
 pupil he drew his full salary as punctually as if there 
 were a hundred in attendance. 
 
 Among my first teachers was a young woman whom 
 mother boarded in order to give me instruction. Her 
 time was divided between reading Byron and drilHng 
 me in the multiplication table in vast disproportion. 
 Afterward my public school life began. The patrons 
 of the Vernon school selected a teacher for a certain 
 
30 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 term, and thought, of course, that the Board of Educa- 
 tion, although composed of men of a different poHtical 
 party, would have regard to their opinion and appoint 
 their choice. Instead a strange lady from Maine was 
 given the place. Every parent felt grossly insulted by 
 such a high-handed measure, and refused to send their 
 children to school. Father said he stopped me on prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 I was growing up like a weed, and heard nothing dis- 
 cussed but Republicans. Conjectures began to form in 
 my brain as to what sort of creatures they could be. I 
 heard them called " black," but one day a Northern 
 man, who was said to be a Republican, passed suf- 
 ficiently near for me to discern that he was as fair as 
 the proverbial lily and shaped like an Apollo. Grad- 
 ually my cranium cast out its terrifying myths, and 
 reached an adjustment so far as that Republicans looked 
 like other men, but should never be spoken to, and must 
 be shunned like the small-pox. 
 
 For a whole term the new teacher went to the school- 
 house, stayed the number of hours required by law, and 
 drew a salary of $75 at the end of each month. She 
 had only one pupil ; he was her nephew. The follow- 
 ing year the political storm had abated ; the Democrats 
 were regaining power. Patrons could now elect the 
 teachers of their schools. The quiet dignity, and su- 
 perior attainments of the Northern lady had made their 
 impress. Fair play was not neglected when the South- 
 ern men's turn came ; the patrons who had rebelled and 
 seceded when coercion was afoot, now selected this 
 same teacher for the next session. 
 
Readjustment 31 
 
 That was the beginning of a bright era for me. As 
 soon as Mrs. Fenderson was met, with her pure, sweet 
 face, and gracious, elegant bearing, my heart was laid 
 at her feet. We became close friends. On rainy days 
 when there would be no pupils at the school-house, but 
 the small nephew and me, my beloved teacher would 
 take us home with her to '' hear our lessons." She lived 
 on a plantation not far from ours, with a widowed sister, 
 Mrs. Woodman, whose husband, a colonel in the Fed- 
 eral army, had died soon after coming to Mississippi. 
 They were beautiful women, and so pathetic in their 
 loneliness. It was touching to see how yearningly they 
 reached out after me, only a child, treating me as courte- 
 ously and as lovingly as if I were a distinguished guest 
 of grown-up proportions. They would talk about their 
 far-away New England home, describing the customs 
 of the people, so unlike the Southerners ; show me pic- 
 tures of noted persons and places ; read to me from mag- 
 azines and attractive books and feed me on delicious 
 " buns " and " cookies," names unknown on a Missis- 
 sippi menu. I began to think there was no spot in all 
 the world so alluring as the dwelling of these friends, 
 nor any human beings as lovely. My first wide out- 
 look upon humanity was gained through them, and they 
 brought to my vigilant soul the awakening of my first 
 inspirations. 
 
 Our delightful intercourse and mutual devotion con- 
 tinued without a break until two years later, when Mrs. 
 Fenderson fell a victim to the dread malarial fever. 
 When her tired body was laid away in its last resting 
 place it was in a land of strangers, for unto the end she 
 
32 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 had lived in unbroken isolation. All the light seemed to 
 die out of life for me. To this day I mourn her loss 
 and revere her memory, with deepest gratitude and with 
 a love unspeakable ; but, with Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, 
 " I believe that there is no away ; that no love, no life 
 goes ever from us ; it goes as He went that it may come 
 again, deeper and closer and surer; and be with us al- 
 ways, even unto the end of the world." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE YOUNG LADIES' ACADEMY 
 
 There ! little girl ; don't cry ! 
 
 They have broken your heart, I know; 
 
 And the rainbow gleams 
 
 Of your youthful dreams 
 
 Are things of the long ago; 
 But heaven holds all for which you sigh, 
 There ! little girl ; don't cry ! 
 
 — ^James Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 Soon after the close of the war, nearly every old fam- 
 ily moved away from the Vernon neighborhood except 
 father's and that of one of his brothers. Three or four 
 worthy, agreeable ones took their places, but the major- 
 ity of the new-comers were poor, unlettered people, with 
 strong class prejudices and an intense jealousy of the 
 planter-caste. The splendid ante-bellum homes were 
 rented to these and to negroes. Our social circle had 
 pitifully narrowed down. We were literally shut in 
 from the world with nothing to relieve the pressure 
 but books. I read, read, read, — English and American 
 poets, standard fiction, travels, histories, biographies and 
 philosophies. So, in the midst of poverty and desola- 
 tion, my mind was being fed with the very manna of in- 
 tellectual life. Reading was done with pencil in hand 
 
 S3 
 
34 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 and note book and dictionary conveniently near. The 
 habit proved invaluable. 
 
 Father was struggling heroically with adversity. His 
 first venture at bread winning was in the insurance busi- 
 ness ; but the returns were paltry enough to make him 
 discard it for the rejected profession of his youth. He 
 studied law, and secured a license to practice in the 
 Magistrates' courts. His clients were poor and troubled 
 and father's missionary spirit so large that the gains 
 from the legal calling were as meagre as from the in- 
 surance business ; and, after a few years it was aban- 
 doned. Agencies for several plantations later fell into 
 his hands and eventually he returned to his planting 
 interests. 
 
 The boys soon became old enough to work in the field. 
 Never having been trained as plowmen, their first ef- 
 forts were crude, developing the most ludicrously 
 crooked rows of corn and "cotton. Father was dis- 
 gusted with the result of their attempts, and, in des- 
 peration, took hold of the plow, one spring morning, to 
 teach them precision. " I am ashamed that the outcome 
 of your work is so wretched, after living on a planta- 
 tion all your lives. Let me show you how to manage a 
 plow ! " he exclaimed, grasping the implement with 
 stern determination. It was heavier than he thought — 
 he had never touched one before, and, never after, it is 
 well to add — and the mouth of the mule tougher than 
 he dreamed. Away went the plow ! up and down, right 
 and left, here and there; demolishing the serpentine 
 rows and scattering clods and confusion broadcast. The 
 boys were convulsed with laughter, which, however, 
 
The Young Ladies* Academy 35 
 
 they wisely concealed. Father kept on trying to con- 
 quer the mule and the plow until exhaustion came. 
 Throwing down the lines, he said, very bravely, " Now, 
 boys, you see how it ought to be done. Never let me 
 hear of your failing again ! " and walked away with as- 
 sumed stateliness to hide his crestfallen condition : back 
 to his den and his law books. Dear father ! he was born 
 for happier abodes than a Mississippi plantation. The 
 post-bellum world was too much for him. He was not 
 alone in his position. Thousands of ex-slave-holders 
 throughout the South were grappling vainly with con- 
 ditions that " try men's souls." 
 
 My father's youngest brother, " uncle Kinch," as he 
 was familiarly known to us and to the world, had moved 
 from Vernon to Canton; the latter a beautiful town,, the 
 county seat of Madison. Here he and his wife, " aunt 
 Henrietta," kept open house in the charming home 
 where they had established themselves. They were 
 both happy-hearted, fond of bright company, devoted to 
 music and blessed with a handsome competency. My 
 aunt had inherited a goodly portion from her father's 
 estate in Louisiana, just after the w^ar, when the cotton 
 planters of Mississippi were enduring terrible financial 
 depression. Uncle Kinch had lost a leg at Cold-Harbor, 
 in the Confederate service, but this misfortune did not 
 imbitter his spirit nor check the flow of his brilliant 
 wit that had descended to him from a long line of Irish 
 ancestry. His captivating jokes and hail-fellow-well- 
 met air attracted the young people in a wide relation- 
 ship; his home became headquarters for every one in 
 search of a royal time. He had no children : one of his 
 
36 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 adopted daughters was married, the other a young lady 
 in society: but his numerous nieces and nephews were 
 taken into his affections, all called " honey " and treated 
 with lavish cordiality. When I reached the age of 
 thirteen, my public school course was finished. At this 
 turning point of the way, uncle Kinch invited me to 
 make his house my home and attend the Young Ladies' 
 Academy for as long as father would be able to bear 
 the expense of tuition fees. The hospitality was gladly 
 accepted. In a few days, my little trunk was packed. 
 I had been making my own clothes for four years, so 
 did not go away hopelessly ignorant of how to take care 
 of myself. Good-byes were said to mother and the boys, 
 and early one September morning father and I climbed 
 into the buggy — the carriage had long since been dis- 
 posed of — with my baggage securely settled at our feet 
 and, started on the long journey of twenty miles 
 through the country to Canton. There was at that time 
 no nearer railway station. Those lonely, lengthy drives, 
 which were so often enjoyed with father, stand out 
 prominently in my life's history. It was in these hours 
 that we had sweet communion and laid the foundations 
 of an enduring friendship. He talked to me unreserv- 
 edly of the most sacred things in his experience, and 
 philosophized upon human existence, upon science, re- 
 ligion, politics, interspersing his remarks with kindly 
 advice and tender sentiment. Father had the happy 
 faculty of calling out the best that was in one, and in 
 turn fascinating his companion with the seemingly lim- 
 itless resources of his well-stored mind and broad 
 Christianity. He had always been a companion to his 
 
The Young Ladies* Academy 37 
 
 children, drawing us closer year after year, entertaining 
 us with incidents from the lives of great men and 
 women and of obscure though beautiful characters 
 whom he had known or of whom he had heard, thus 
 inciting us to high aspirations ; best of all, holding up 
 before us daily, though unconsciously, the " white 
 flower of a blameless life." 
 
 In later years it was a source of intense gratification 
 to me to know that my father was devoid of a sugges- 
 tion of sectional animosity. He had the highest regard 
 for the true-hearted people of the North and a cordial 
 admiration for their sterling worth and wonderful ac- 
 complishments. The civil war left him with a profound 
 respect for the valor of his opponents. He told of their 
 heroism with enthusiasm. After the battle of Leesburg, 
 his company, with three others, was ordered to conduct 
 the prisoners captured to Centerville, Virginia. They 
 left Leesburg at twelve o'clock at night. It was com- 
 paratively warm at the start, but by daybreak it had 
 become severely cold. Some time during the following 
 morning, father noticed among the captives a mere 
 youth — not more than sixteen years old — who was with- 
 out shoes or socks. On inspection it was found that he 
 was nude with the exception of an army overcoat. 
 Upon being questioned, he stated that when the Con- 
 federates drove the Union army from the field back to 
 the Potomac, he had pulled his clothes off and jumped 
 into the river with many others to swim to an island 
 where the Federal troops had landed, and where he 
 hoped still to find some of his comrades. " When we 
 got into the river," he said, " the Confederates opened 
 
38 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 fire, and to keep from being shot, I returned to the Vir- 
 ginia shore. When I looked around for my clothes 
 they were gone." That bare-foot boy, covered only 
 with an old army overcoat, had marched for hours un- 
 complainingly over the stony roads of Virginia in a 
 temperature at freezing point, while others in the ranks, 
 well-clad, were complaining heavily. Father made an 
 effort to secure some clothing for the young Federal 
 hero, but failing, had him put into a wagon and carried 
 the remainder of the way. 
 
 Along with his unprejudiced regard for the Northern 
 people, father cherished an ardent love for the land of 
 his birth and was eloquent over the courage, patriotism 
 and pathetic endurance of the Southern soldiers. 
 Among the numerous instances, illustrative of their un- 
 selfish attachment to the cause for which they were will- 
 ing to lay down their lives, he told, with especial pride, 
 of a noble exhibition of loyalty on the part of a young 
 officer from his own state. While on the Peninsula, 
 near Richmond, Lieutenant Brown, son of ex-Governor 
 A. G. Brown, of Mississippi, the latter at the time a 
 senator in the Confederate Congress, was detailed by 
 the colonel of his reg^iment to s^o to Richmond on busi- 
 ness for the army. He went to father, who was lieuten- 
 ant colonel, and asked him to secure his release as the 
 1 8th Mississippi was expected every day to enter into 
 an engagement and he did not want the news sent home 
 that he was not in the battle. The young lieutenant 
 could have executed his commission and had a gay time 
 at the Confederate capital, avoiding all the dangers of 
 
The Young Ladies' Academy 39 
 
 war, but he preferred to face death in his country's serv- 
 ice rather than have his devotion questioned. 
 
 Going to Canton with father was not my first separa- 
 tion from home. My aunt and uncle had received many 
 visits from me since my childhood, so it was not hard 
 to go. Besides, I was hungry to be in a school of a 
 high grade, and was willing to suffer to accomplish it. 
 Professor Magruder, a very scholarly man and able 
 teacher, was Principal of the Academy. Associated 
 with him as assistants were two cultivated women. My 
 examinations were safely passed and admission was 
 given to the Freshman class. A solemn mental resolu- 
 tion was taken to make the best of my opportunities. 
 All the force of my intellectual and physical being was 
 brought to bear upon my studies with an energy that 
 knew no stint nor relaxation. Midnight found me at 
 my books, and it was a rare occurrrence for me to go 
 upon the play-ground at recess. Every morning I arose 
 with the sun, wrote a diary of the preceding day and 
 looked again over my lessons. 
 
 On Saturdays essays were prepared for the follow- 
 ing Friday afternoons. I began to dream dreams of 
 graduation; afterwards of going North to a Woman's 
 College, and later to Germany for further culture in 
 certain branches. Alas ! for my fine schemes ; destined 
 to premature destruction ! After being at the Academy 
 for only two years, father was compelled to take me 
 home because he was unable longer to pay the monthly 
 tuition of five dollars. My humiliation was the most 
 crushing, and my disappointment the keenest, crudest. 
 
40 A Slaveholder's Daughtei 
 
 that can come to me in this Hfe. I could not cry. The 
 fountains of tears were dried up by the deadly east- 
 wind of despair that was sweeping over me. It would 
 have been folly to rail at my unhappy fate ; it would 
 only have exhausted my vitality. It would have been 
 sinful to upbraid father; he would have given me mil- 
 lions if he had possessed so much ; he did not have an 
 extra dollar, and was probably suffering much more 
 than I. Besides, the boys were growing rapidly, and 
 the oldest must be given at least one year at the Uni- 
 versity, and every possible economy must be practised 
 to accomplish that object. 
 
 / had never heard of a woman zvorking to pay her 
 way through school Numerous instances of men ac- 
 quiring an education by hard labor had been related to 
 me, but never of a woman. All the women who were 
 known to me personally, or through books, or tradi- 
 tion, had their bills paid by male relatives, and made 
 fancy work, and visited, and danced, and played on 
 the piano, or did something else equally feminine and 
 equally conventional, and all were equally dependent 
 and equally contented, — at any rate, asked no questions. 
 Industrial institutes and colleges where poor girls could 
 work their way through were not in existence, and the 
 doors of the State University, where tuition was free, 
 were then open only to boys. There was nothing in 
 Mississippi for young women except high-priced board- 
 ing schools and '* female " academies. It is humiliating 
 to women for colleges, academies and boarding schools 
 established for their education to be called " female." 
 There is no sex in institutions of learning. The word 
 
The Young Ladies' Academy 41 
 
 *' woman " is strong and dignified and suggests courte- 
 ous consideration. " Female " is weak and almost in- 
 sulting. It stands now as the exponent of the inferior 
 position of women as early conceptions of the nature 
 and province of women are illustrated in the sculpture 
 and painting of the old masters. 
 
 There is a statue in the great cathedral at Pisa rep- 
 resenting the temptation of Eve where the serpent has 
 the head of a woman ; and upon the ceiling of the Sistine 
 Chapel at Rome, in Michael Angelo's marvelous pro- 
 duction, the devil is painted with a woman's body down 
 to the waist while the remainder of his satanic majesty 
 is in the form of a reptile. 
 
 If the thought of zvorking to continue my education 
 had entered my brain, which it did not, it would have 
 been throttled at its inception, for my family would 
 have considered it an eternal disgrace for me to have 
 worked publicly. It is true that for four years I had been 
 in a pitiless tread-mill, but it was at home; the world 
 did not know of it; and money, that degrading sub- 
 stance, had not been received for my labor. Household 
 drudgery and public work were very different ques- 
 tions. The former was natural and unavoidable; the 
 latter was monstrous and impossible. I was fairly 
 bound to the rock of hopelessness by the cankered chains 
 of a false conventionality, and sacrificed for lack of a 
 precedent. 
 
 Of all unhappy sights, the most pitiable is that of a 
 human life, rich in possibilities and strong with divine 
 yearnings for better things than it has known, atrophy- 
 ing in the prison house of blind and palsied custom ; — 
 
42 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 because there is no one in the passing throng brave and 
 great enough to break the bars and " let the oppressed 
 go free," — into the larger liberty where God meant that 
 all His creatures should live and grow and shine. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 STORMS OF THE SOUL 
 
 We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is because we have 
 within us the beginning and the possibility of it.— Phillips 
 Brooks. 
 
 My early and invincible love of reading, I would not ex- 
 change for the treasures of India.— Gibbon. 
 
 Since the close of the civil war as complete a change 
 had taken place in the South as followed the revolution 
 in France of the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
 Under the new regime which began with the liberation 
 of over 4,000,000 slaves the upper and the middle 
 classes have become amalgamated by the action of the 
 elements of circumstance. 
 
 Many of the old families, boasting a long line of 
 descent from blue-blooded and distinguished ancestors, 
 soon were the most sorely pressed financially. Thou- 
 sands of middle-aged— and younger— men had come 
 home from the last battle-field maimed by wounds or 
 weakened in health by privations. When they entered 
 the gloom of lost fortunes, added to the sorrows of a 
 lost cause, they quickly sank under the triple weight. 
 Hundreds of them were followed to the grave by com- 
 munities that sorely felt the need of their ripe judg- 
 ment, their accustomed leadership. The stress of pov- 
 
 43 
 
44 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 erty, the paralysis of indolence and the want of purpose 
 benumbed the energies and stultified the pride of other 
 descendants of the old slave-holders, many of whom 
 bore the pitiless stamp of incapacity to wrest success 
 out of new conditions. 
 
 The middle classes were equal to the emergency. Ad- 
 justment is easier than readjustment. Trained to activ- 
 ities they sprang rapidly to the front, becoming posses- 
 sors of wealth and leaders in church and state. The 
 inevitable in social life has developed. Marriage into 
 the higher class followed as a matter of course with 
 the middle, for the one wanted prestige and the other 
 money. The distinctions of half a century ago have 
 gradually lost their outlines. The " strenuous life " of 
 the day now engrosses the mind of the Southerner more 
 than the ancient " family tree." 
 
 Next to the destruction of caste, the most radical 
 change that has followed in the wake of the surrender 
 of the Confederate armies is that young Southern men 
 and women have learned that work is honorable. Idle- 
 ness has grown to be a shame. No boy and girl can 
 now hope to realize their highest destiny except through 
 hard, earnest toil of hands or brain. The unsafe and 
 unnatural code of the manorial leisure of other days 
 vanished with slavery. This transition of sentiment, 
 however, has been the slow growth of years. The blos- 
 soming '' of the tree " whose " leaves " are " for the 
 healing of the Nations " had scarcely begun when my 
 feet stood on the threshold of eager life, — wrestling in 
 strong agony with hopeless but unconquerable purposes. 
 
 One of the most unfortunate conditions in all the 
 
Storms of the Soul 45 
 
 world is a state of aimlessness. It saps the springs of 
 power and dulls the finest soul. It drags down and de- 
 stroys. I was only fifteen. What was my future to be? 
 Never to go to the Academy again? Never to attend 
 a Northern college? Never to cross the sea? What 
 was there for me to do ? How could the days be filled so 
 as to keep down the heart-break ? Those were the ques- 
 tions that were never stilled. If my life had to be spent 
 on the plantation, and if living meant no more for me 
 than it meant for the women about me, what was the 
 use of reading, of trying to cultivate my mind when it 
 would have the effect of making me more miserable and 
 of widening the intellectual gulf that already stretched 
 between most of the neighbors and myself? What a 
 terrible thing life seemed ! And how every impulse of 
 my being hated it with an immeasurable hatred! In 
 those days I died ten thousand deaths. I died to God 
 and to humanity. 
 
 From the hour of leaving school in Canton a deadness 
 settled upon my soul. " The door was shut." The 
 night closed in. That was the beginning of an unbelief 
 that haunted me for ten dreary agonizing years. My 
 natural tendency to questioning had been intensified by 
 the environments of my childhood ; but the spirit of in- 
 quiry had not led me further than the human side. The 
 orthodox version of Creator and creation was accepted 
 as credulously as the air that was breathed or the per- 
 fume of flowers. It was only the grindings of poverty, 
 the raspings of the jagged edges of every-day exist- 
 ence and the perpetual witnessing of misery in the 
 world about me that caused me first to ask: What is 
 
46 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 life? Up to the age of fifteen my soul had hoped and 
 prayed and listened for the voice of God. I believed in 
 Him, and waited — not patiently but imperatively, — but 
 — I believed and zvaited. In the great storm that en- 
 gulfed me at that time my faith let go its moorings, and 
 I found myself drifting, without a gleam of light, out 
 upon the waste of midnight waters known as skepti- 
 cism. As the darkness deepened and tlioughts heavy 
 with increasing doubts surged through my brain like a 
 lava-tide, my soul demanded verification for my convic- 
 tions. 
 
 There was no one in the home with whom conversa- 
 tion on such a subject w^ould have been particularly 
 satisfying, so, in desperation a search was made through 
 the library for some book that would answer my 
 queries ; but nothing was found touching infidelity ex- 
 cept the materialism of certain philosophers. These 
 works were devoured until my mind became saturated 
 with their ideas. I grew to despise Christianity and 
 sneered at every profession of trust in a Supreme Being. 
 Church members were observed critically and every sin 
 and inconsistency which was discovered in them 
 brought out that degree of derision and contempt to 
 which only youth, ignorance and prejudice are equal. 
 Mother had a habit of devoting several hours each 
 morning to study of the Bible. On seeing her sur- 
 rounded by rov/s of commentaries and bending over the 
 Scriptures, comparing passages or memorizing texts, 
 I felt my heart hardening, and was conscious of an in- 
 creased aversion to religion. Our home was headquar- 
 ters for all Methodist ministers who passed that way, 
 
Storms of the Soul 
 
 47 
 
 to mother's intense delight and my intense disgust. It 
 was a rule of mine to avoid them whenever possible. 
 My voluntary entrance into the church dated from my 
 twelfth year, during a great revival. Now, when the 
 scene occurred to me I laughed at myself for having 
 yielded to so much emotion, and requested that my name 
 be removed from the church books. 
 
 Our home was headquarters not only for Methodist 
 preachers but as well for Democratic politicians. Every 
 candidate for office in the county found his way there, 
 to mother's infinite chagrin and the unbounded delight 
 of father and me. Mother often declined to appear at 
 the table, so I would preside and afterward go into the 
 parlor and talk with the visitors for hours on the situa- 
 tion of public afifairs. The aspirants were of all descrip- 
 tions — from the sleek, town-bred lawyer, " out " for the 
 Senate, to the thin, country granger, who yearned to be 
 a constable. They afforded me ample opportunity to 
 learn the methods of political campaigns and to study 
 the motives and natures of men. Often requests were 
 made by the different candidates for my support in a 
 canvass; but there were others who had little regard 
 for a woman's assistance. 
 
 One summer when the roads were kept dusty by the 
 continuous goings to and fro of the anxious office-seek- 
 ers, one of these interesting subjects dined at our house. 
 He was a most forlorn specimen, with heavy, drooping 
 eyes, straggling moustache and languid movements. 
 His clothes, from the disconsolate set of his collar down 
 to his edge-frayed trousers, draggling over his well- 
 worn boots, gave evidence of a long, hard race on the 
 
48 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 war path. My sympathies were so aroused that as soon 
 as dinner was over I followed him to the front gallery 
 and, in a burst of condolence, said impulsively : " Mr. 
 F., it is my intention to throw the whole weight of my 
 influence to have you elected ! " Looking at me in a 
 sleepily — quizzical fashion, he replied in a droning tone : 
 " It had never occurred to me to ask the assistance of 
 ladies in a political campaign. I supposed they were too 
 busy in other matters to be interested in anything so 
 weighty." 
 
 Then he proceeded to tell this joke: There was a 
 great convention of women held somewhere, and a cer- 
 tain local society sent its delegate. When the repre- 
 sentative returned a meeting was called that the ladies 
 might hear her report. When this was finished she re- 
 marked that questions were " in order." A slim little 
 woman, with a weazen face peering out from a flaring 
 poke-bonnet, arose in the rear of the room, and in a 
 thin, high key called out : " Sister, what sort of hats did 
 the women wear ? " Then my hopeful candidate, turn- 
 ing towards me more fully, with a glimmer of some- 
 thing in his eyes which he would have called humor, 
 said : " It was my impression that all ladies thought 
 more about hats and such things than politics." 
 
 It is needless to say the facetious gentleman, with 
 the well-worn apparel and Don Quixote air, lost my 
 support suddenly and completely. 
 
 As the days went by they found me more and more 
 deeply immersed in reading. Father bought me trans- 
 lations of the Greek, Latin and Italian poets. An old 
 physician, quite a literateur, who had recently come into 
 
Storms of the Soul 49 
 
 the neighborhood, loaned me valuable books that we' 
 did not own. He put me under special obligations by 
 sending Allison's '' Essays " and Montesquieu's '' Spirit 
 of Laws." From other sources some of the works of 
 Ruskin, Carlyle and Herbert Spencer came to me and 
 found an honored place among my treasures. Although 
 applying myself sedulously to books, I was being con- 
 sumed with a feverish restlessness. My wretchedness 
 went beyond the power of words to express. A deep- 
 rooted desire to do something definite was always pres- 
 ent ; but every undertaking that suggested itself seemed 
 walled off by insurmountable barriers. 
 
 Finally I concluded to study law under father, but 
 when my intention was announced to him he discour- 
 aged it utterly, arguing that if there were in my pos- 
 session the legal lore of Blackstone and the ability of 
 a Portia it would not guarantee me the opportunity 
 of practising in the South. No woman had ever at- 
 tempted such an absurdity, and any effort on my part, 
 in that line, would subject me to ridicule and ostracism. 
 After this fatal ending to my aspirations, I again sought 
 refuge in books. With no definite object ahead and 
 with not the faintest rim of a crescent of hope above my 
 dull horizon. 
 
 ***** 
 It was the summer of 1878. That terrible scourge, 
 known as yellow-fever, crept relentlessly over the 
 South. For the period of time that it lasted its deadly 
 ravages exceeded the destruction of the civil war. 
 Thousands stood shuddering in "The Valley of the 
 Shadow." Death, grim and awful, stalked through the 
 
50 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 land knowing no surfeit. It was the blackness of de- 
 spair. The acme of desolation. Pitiless quarantines 
 were instituted; families were separated by a short 
 dividing line never to be reunited. Others fled in ter- 
 ror from their homes in towns, seeking refuge in tents 
 and cabins; while those who could, went to distant 
 states. Food supplies failed. Hunger, gaunt and hol- 
 low-eyed, stole in at the open doors. Men, women and 
 little children moved about listlessly, abandoning all 
 work, looking hopelessly into each other's eyes, wonder- 
 ing, with a speechless fear, who would go out first from 
 among them to return no more. Friends did not visit 
 nor church bells ring. All was silent as the tomb — wait- 
 ing, waiting, waiting. In the cities, the roll of the 
 death-cart broke the stillness of the streets as it passed 
 swiftly from house to house, collecting the bodies and 
 carrying them to the cemeteries. There was the thud 
 of spades in the earth, driven by men digging graye 
 after grave, but all else was silent — waiting, waiting, 
 waiting. A white woman and her two little children 
 died near us and were buried by a negro man. He dug 
 the graves and, unaided, lowered the bodies into the 
 earth. The husband dared not leave the bedside of the 
 other sufferers in the afflicted family. A physician 
 stopped one morning at the gate to give father a list of 
 fresh victims. In four days the young doctor was dead. 
 A family of ten persons, friends of ours, living near 
 Vicksburg, were all stricken at one time. Nobody dared 
 go near the house but the Italian nurses who had been 
 sent out from the city. As death followed death the 
 plantation bell would be tolled to notify those who acted 
 
Storms of the Soul 5 1 
 
 as undertakers that another grave must be dug. For 
 the sake of those still living the dead were lowered in 
 sheets from the windows, to avoid the slow, ominous 
 tramp of feet through the hall. All were gone but two 
 — the father and a young widowed daughter. A 
 swarthy Dago sat watching the latter, whiie the blood 
 settled in her hands and neck. The bell began to toll. 
 " What is that for? " she asked. '' To have your grave 
 made ready, lady," was the answer. 
 
 Late in the autumn the pall lifted. The quarantines 
 were raised. The refugees returned to their deserted 
 homes. The voice of traffic was heard. Life waked up 
 with startled, saddened eyes from her long, deep sleep. 
 It was the middle of November. Some said that Mrs. 
 Woodman, our Northern friend, was very ill. Mother 
 and I walked over the fields to see her. The dying sun 
 streamed across the faded grass and lay in long, glint- 
 ing lines upon the distant woods that had many days 
 since laid aside their summer vesture. The tall rows 
 of golden-rod and yellow coreopsis that fringed the 
 winding path swayed noiselessly in the passing breeze. 
 The houses of the little village, scattered here and there 
 in a lonely way, had a pathetic mournf ulness. Away to 
 the east a glimpse could be caught of the headstones 
 that marked the quiet resting place of our dead. The 
 surrounding country, with its gentle undulations, was 
 wrapped in unbroken solitude. A peculiar sadness 
 brooded over all. There is an inexplicable heart-break 
 in those early days of a Southern winter; — changing 
 sunshine, shifting shadows and still air full of a mystic 
 haze. 
 
52 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 " A Spirit broods amid the grass : 
 Vague outlines of the Everlasting Thought 
 Lie in the melting shadows as they pass ; 
 The touch of an Eternal Presence thrills 
 The fringes of the sunsets and the hills." 
 
 I was peculiarly susceptible to it all at that time, for 
 my soul was full of its vague unrest, its ever present 
 inquiry into life's meaning to me, overshadowed by a 
 grieving unbelief of a Divine Providence. 
 
 Soon we were standing in Mrs. Woodman's sick 
 room. As I bent over the bed to greet her, she threw 
 her arms about my neck and, drawing my face close 
 down to her lips, she whispered, '' Dear child, I have 
 been so lonely. When I get well you will come to stay 
 a whole week with me, won't you ? Ah ! if I ever get 
 well ! " She sighed and closed her eyes. In an hour 
 she was unconscious. About sunset a happy smile 
 broke over her face and sitting up suddenly she clasped 
 her hands over her heart and cried out joyously, " Here 
 are letters from home! letters from home! Oh! I am 
 so glad, so glad ! " I did not know then the meaning of 
 that cry ; but now that it is given me to see clearly and 
 not ** through a glass, darkly," a realization comes that 
 the " letters from home " brought the blessed call from 
 her Lord, *' Arise, let us go hence " where " there shall 
 be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, " — neither 
 suffering nor loneliness, — where the ** many mansions " 
 are — in the " city which hath foundations whose maker 
 and builder is God." The next day the tender, beautiful 
 friend of my childhood was dead, — from yellozv fever. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 A NEGRO SERMON 
 
 Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute; 
 What you can do, or dream you can, begin it! 
 
 — Goethe. 
 
 The following January, I went to Canton to visit 
 my uncle's family. While there an unusually cheap ex- 
 cursion to New Orleans was offered by the railway. I 
 had never been to a city and had all of a girl's eagerness 
 to see one ; especially our flowery, fascinating, dear, 
 dreamy Crescent City. In a letter to mother the fact 
 was mentioned that a number of my friends were going 
 to take advantage of the low-rate trip, and expressed 
 the wish that such a joy were possible for me. In a few 
 days father came to Canton, and handed me a package 
 and a crumpled note. On opening the latter I read: 
 
 " Dear Sister : Mamma tells me that you want to 
 go to New Orleans. I send you $15.00 — part of the 
 money that came from the bale of cotton I raised last 
 year. 
 
 " Your Affectionate Brother." 
 
 My loyal sympathizer in house-keeping sorrows thus 
 opened the way for me to go. So, unexpectedly and 
 gratefully, I made one of a party consisting of a gentle- 
 
 53 
 
54 A. Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 man and his wife and two young ladies besides myself. 
 After being comfortably located at a hotel we entered 
 upon the usual sight-seeing. As we went from point 
 to point, to the amazement of my chaperones nothing 
 astonished me. All things were surveyed without a 
 ripple of excitement or surprise. I had read of or heard 
 " the sights " of New Orleans discussed until my imag- 
 ination was familiar with them. The French market 
 with its delicious coffee and chocolate ; the picturesque 
 bend of the great river bearing upon its breast the huge 
 ships from foreign waters; Canal street with its won- 
 derful breadth, Clay's statue and everyv/here beautiful 
 women ; Jackson Park, and its equestrian bronze of the 
 old general who " fout the Britishers ; " the street-cars, 
 the opera-houses, the handsome residences were as 
 thrice-told-tales to me. 
 
 My love of adventure and spirit of enterprise led me 
 to separate myself from my party, while visiting the 
 mint, and to go in search of some relatives in a distant 
 part of the city. The most explicit directions were 
 given, the right car was boarded and the desired 
 street reached, but at a point far beyond the number 
 wanted. While nervously going backward and forward 
 scanning doors, footsteps behind were heard com- 
 ing with a persistence that made me know I was fol- 
 lowed. In a flash the remembrance came into my mind 
 of all that had been told me of country girls being 
 gagged, chloroformed and murdered on their first visits 
 to cities. A scream was in my throat when the man 
 reached my side. Instead of a ruffian, a courteous voice 
 said : " May I take the liberty of helping you find the 
 
A Negro Sermon 55 
 
 number you are evidently in search of? I too am a 
 stranger in the city and am experiencing some of its 
 difficulties." It is said that dogs and children are fine 
 judges of character. Many women also do not outgrow 
 this elemental power. Without an instant's hesitation 
 his aid was accepted. In a few moments the right house 
 was reached and the gentleman had presented his card, 
 
 bowed and walked rapidly away. I read '' J W 
 
 B , Attorney-at-law, Philadelphia, Pa." This inci- 
 dent set two thoughts germinating in my brain: The 
 interdependence of human beings, and, That humanity 
 will bear trusting; it responds according to the faith 
 put in it. Wider experience has convinced me of this 
 more and more largely. 
 
 Since gaining their freedom, the negro women's nat- 
 ural love of dress has developed inordinately. It is one 
 of their strongest predispositions — rivaled only by their 
 religious emotions. Those about us bought brilliant- 
 hued stuffs and had them made with most bizarre ef- 
 fects, — a favorite being bright yellow calico trimmed 
 with blue. Red was at a discount as it made them 
 think of " hell-fire," they said. They were ignorant 
 of sewing except of the plainest, coarsest order, so they 
 paid to have their " Sunday-go-to-meetin' " dresses 
 made. My desire for employment was so great, and 
 there being no other opening, though it nearly crushed 
 me, I swallowed my pride and asked the negroes to 
 bring their sewing to me. They did it cheerfully. Day 
 after day they came bearing their precious bundles, and. 
 
56 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 finding their way into mother's room, which was the 
 scene of all our labors, would drop them on the floor 
 and stand until negotiations were concluded. None sat 
 in our presence. There has always been a very nice 
 adjustment of this point between the families of ex- 
 slave-holders and negroes ; the latter have a fine sense 
 of when to accept or refuse an offered chair. It would 
 be useless to explain it. " Oue must be born to it " to 
 understand, as is said in South Carolina about cooking 
 rice properly. 
 
 The old servants usually began with " Mistis, how 
 old I is ? " When told they would invariably give vent 
 to their surprise by an ejaculation beginning in a long, 
 high-keyed crescendo and ending in a diminuendo as 
 abrupt as it was full of softest musical rhythm. " Lor', 
 mistis, yo' say I is ! Marster, he done put it down in de 
 book fo' de surrender, but I sho fergits it." 
 
 The age of the negro always seems a puzzle to him, 
 and judging by his face alone, is a problem impossible of 
 solution, for he may be sixty-five or eighty-five, twenty 
 or thirty. In old slave days the master kept an accurate 
 record of their ages. How many generations of care- 
 taking for themselves will be needed to register the true 
 flight of time on their cheerful, unreflecting faces as it 
 is recorded in white features, not by years but by the 
 thought and responsibility and the spiritual force of the 
 Hfe? 
 
 The younger women introduced their business with, 
 " Miss Belle, I done brung yo' a dress fer to make fer 
 me. I has all de needfuls excusin' uv de fread. Ef yo' 
 
A Negro Sermon 57 
 
 will gin me dat, I'll bring yo' some aigs nex' time I 
 come." In sewing for the negroes mother did the cut- 
 ting and fitting and all of the hand work; I did the 
 stitching, bending over the machine week after week, 
 until my back ached and my eyes grew dim from the 
 awful strain. These dresses were often ruffled to the 
 waist and otherwise elaborately trimmed, for which we 
 charged only fifty or seventy-five cents. By this means 
 we helped to *' make both ends meet." 
 
 One of the most popular places for the exhibition of 
 all this gaudy apparel was the church, especially during 
 protracted meetings. These are still the chief diversion, 
 beginning as soon as crops are " laid by," in July, and 
 continuing until the cotton picking season opens in Sep- 
 tember. The services, always at night, are indefinitely 
 extended until near daybreak. In dimly lighted, mea- 
 grely furnished frame buildings vast crowds gather. In 
 the pulpit with the preacher is the precentor — not 
 known by that name — some brother of noted devotional 
 gift who begins the service by " lining out " a hymn, 
 his voice intoning and dimly suggesting the tune with 
 which the congregation follows, — one of those wild, 
 weird negro airs, half chant and dirge, so full of demi- 
 semi-quavers that only the improvisator-soul can divine 
 it, yet, so full of strange, sweet melody and pathos, ren- 
 dered in their marvelously tuneful voices, it is no 
 wonder a suppresssed emotion begins to communicate 
 itself through the audience. Fiery prayers increase the 
 spiritual temperature. These are full of pathos and 
 frequently close with :" Please, Sir, Lord Jesus, do dis 
 
58 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 here thing what yo' pore ole sarvant ax yo' fer." Ejac- 
 ulations, groans and a measured tapping of heels on 
 the bare floor becomes general. 
 
 Snatches of song and more prayers prepare the way 
 for the sermon. Words cannot picture the fervor of it, 
 the facial expression, the wild, funereal cadences of 
 voice. 
 
 One that I heard during March, 1899, ^^ one of the 
 earliest settled and most cultured parts of Mississippi, 
 was preached by a typical African, very black, much 
 white in his prominent eye, long under jaw and the in- 
 side of his hands a light cream color. A favorite ges- 
 ture was to hold the palms out, towards the audience. 
 He wore a clerical black suit, but around his neck, just 
 under the coat collar, a flaming red scarf appeared, the 
 ends hanging over his waistcoat. The occasion was the 
 funeral of a respectable colored man, Felix Jackson, 
 who had died on the plantation which I was then visit- 
 ing, and whose body was in front of the pulpit. 
 
 The preacher began by saying, " I doan' fool my time 
 'way much er preachin' funeral sermons. Tse got sum- 
 phin' better to do in dis here worl'. I'se in er sing'ler 
 persishun here ter day. Yo' all is Baptis' an' I is Meth- 
 odis' ; but I think I can prove dat my doctrin' is de 
 correc' one. I done studied all de ologies wid dat eend 
 in view. I been studied geology, an' zoology, an' soci- 
 ology, an' ethnyology, an' Christianology. I'se read 
 Demosthenes, an' Cicero, an' Plato, an' Moses, an' 
 Josephus an' Jehosaphat an' all de udder translaters er 
 de Bible. But ail dat ain' here ner dar ; it doan' 'mount 
 ter nothin' in dcr presence er yer daid an' when yer 
 
A Negro Sermon 59 
 
 think er de jedg'men' day, (whining) Brer Felix Jack- 
 son doan' cyar no more 'bout it. He done gone whar 
 yer cyan't go wid 'im; er — er — (groans). Yer'U neber 
 see 'im no more er follerin' behine he mule in der fiel' ; 
 yer'll neber see 'im agin er comin' 'long der road ter dis 
 here church ; yer'll neber see 'im gwine inter his house 
 ter his wife an' little chilluns when de day's wuk's done 
 (moans, screams). 
 
 " Brer Felix Jackson's body's in dat coffin 'fore yer. 
 But he ain' dar ! O — oh ! No! — L-o-rd ! He done rise! 
 He done rise wid taller (pallor) on his face (shrieks), 
 to meet de 'possle Matthew, an' de 'possle Mark, an' de 
 'possle Luke, an' de 'possle John. An' ebry one on 'em 
 say, Telix Jackson, what yer been doin' in de life yer 
 jes' lef?' Oh! Lo-r-d! brudderin' dat's er solem' mo- 
 men' ! (groans). Got ter face de 'possles an' 'count fer 
 yer deeds done yere on de yearth! Ebry one on 'em 
 knowed 'im, dough he ain' take his body wid 'im. De 
 Word say what some folks kin go to glory widout dyin' 
 — translated dey calls it. But brudderin, / say whedder 
 yo' dies er yer doan' die, somewhar betwix dis worl' an' 
 de nex' yer got ter lose de body. Our daid brudder 
 done got ter de presence er der angel Gabrell, an' Ga- 
 brell he say, * Brer Felix Jackson, ivhat yer been doin' 
 in de udder worl' ? ' But de angel know, an' Brer Jack- 
 son know, he kin gib er good 'count er hissdf. Brer 
 Jackson ain' got no taller (pallor) on his face den. De 
 angel done tech it wid glory, an' glory ter God ! he go 
 right in! (shouts). 
 
 " But what yer niggers gwine ter do when yer stan's 
 whar Brer Jackson done stan' ? V/hat yer gwine ter 
 
6o A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 do when yer's on yer coolin' boa'd lak he done bin? 
 What yer gwine ter answer when yer call on fer yer 
 sins what yer done while yer's awalkin' aroun' ? Some 
 er yer say dar's white sins an' dars black sins ; but doan' 
 fool yerselves ! Dar ain' no meaner sinner ner a nigger 
 when he gits ter sinnin' ; an' sin is sin whedder it's 
 white folks' sin, or black folks' sin ; an' yer got ter quit 
 yer meanness if yer eber means ter git ter glory. (Yes, 
 Lord!) ; fer de trumpet'll be er soundin' an' de jedg- 
 men' day'U be on yer lak' er thief in de night. Whar'll 
 yer be, sinners, when de graves is er openin' an' de daid 
 is er risin? (Eyes rolling, palms out.) O — Oh! L-o-r-d! 
 whar'll yer be when Brer Jackson'U be er risin wid er 
 boa'd (board — his coffin lid) ober his face! Whar'll yer 
 be den! er-er-er!" (Wild excitement.) 
 
 Women sprang to their feet with unearthly screams 
 and began to rend their clothes, upon which other sis- 
 ters, whom " the Sperit had not got " yet, held the fren- 
 zied hands. Some went into trances and fell on the 
 floor ; others grappled with the shouters, trying to '* hold 
 them down." Failing in this they laid them on their 
 backs and sat upon them. 
 
 During all this violent demonstration the preacher 
 continued his sermon, gradually cooling down his hear- 
 ers. The men did not shout, but sat with the " holy 
 laugh " on their faces, ejaculating fervently, tapping 
 their feet in metre, and under as intense, if less noisy, 
 excitement as the women. The trancers stayed where 
 they fell until they regained consciousness; then they 
 related with wild inflection and gesticulation what the 
 angel Gabriel had " done tole 'em " while their spirits 
 
A Negro Sermon 6i 
 
 sojourned between heaven and earth. My friend and 
 I sat surrounded by the distracted multitude trembHng 
 with fear, not knowing what moment we would be 
 stunned by a blow or crushed by a falling body. When 
 the climax of wildness was reached, a family servant 
 of my hostess pushed her way to us through the strug- 
 gling throng and touching my companion on the shoul- 
 der said : " Miss Hattie, yo' an' Miss Belle had better 
 leave. It's er gittin' dangerous here." We beat a 
 hasty retreat and did not feel secure until we were once 
 again under the sheltering roof of the old plantation 
 home. 
 
 At the close of the protracted meetings the baptizings 
 begin. Multitudes assemble on the banks of a pond, or 
 creek, or river, and the candidates are led out into the 
 depths by the pastor and the deacons. It requires a 
 heavy squad for the shouters are more unmanageable 
 in the water than in the church. Some of the members 
 are baptized twice in successive years as their conver- 
 sion is found not to be genuine the first time. 
 
 It is customary among the colored people to preach 
 the funeral sermon of a deceased church member or 
 relative several weeks, or even months, after the death, 
 — just as is convenient. These are particularly prom- 
 inent occasions, calling for extra " finery " and parade. 
 Everybody who can afford it is newly gowned, and the 
 " siety " to which the departed friend belongs is con- 
 spicuous. The society in the church represents the 
 club-spirit of the negro. The wife of the deceased is 
 permitted to sit as chief mourner at the funeral sermon, 
 provided she- has not married again before" that cere- 
 
62 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 mony. In the event, however, that another spouse has 
 been taken, and she had yet had the effrontery to occupy 
 the chief seat, the deacons lead her in shamefacedness 
 and deep disgrace to the rear of the church. The same 
 rule applies to the husband of '' de ceasted." 
 
 Some of the widows are gay indeed. One of uncle 
 Kinch's ex-slaves, a few years ago, went to Canton on 
 business and called to pay her respects to my aunt. In 
 course of conversation the latter asked : " What is the 
 news down at Vernon, Hester ? " Stuffing her hand- 
 kerchief into her mouth to prevent an explosion of 
 laughter, she giggled out hysterically, *' Nuthin' 
 strange, Miss Henretter! Jes* my husban' die las' 
 week ! " 
 
 One day I asked an old colored woman who was 
 doing house work for us, " aunt Burley, how many 
 children have you had ? " *' Nineteen," she answered 
 laconically. "How many have died?" was my next 
 question. " All but two," she replied. " You have been 
 unfortunate, aunt Burley," was my sympathetic re- 
 joinder. " Ugh ! chile ! I think I'se been pow'ful 
 lucky ! she exclaimed with a triumphant shrug of her 
 shoulders and a satisfied twist of the ends of the ban- 
 danna handkerchief that adorned her woolly head. 
 
 In negro life, as among all lower races, the woman is 
 the slavish subject of the man. It used to be declared 
 on a plantation, after the war, that the only man who 
 did not whip his wife was the man whose wife whipped 
 him. It was said to be pitiable to see these wives come 
 to the old master for protection. " I want yo' to make 
 Zeke stop beatin' me, marster! I can't stan' it no 
 
A Negro Sermon 63 
 
 longer ! " one would complain. " I don't see what I 
 can do," would be the answer. " I have no authority ; 
 he is as free as I am. You will have to go to the Freed- 
 man's Bureau about it." " What I got ter do wid de 
 Bureau ! Yo' allers did 'low dat he shouldn't whip me 
 when he b'longed ter yo' ! " All that a planter could 
 do under the circumstances was to threaten to put the 
 man off his place ; but this did not remedy the evil, for, 
 if he left, he took his family with him. 
 
 The tyranny of the husband over the wife largely 
 destroys the sacredness of the unity of the two lives, 
 and brings marriage into disrepute. A negro woman, 
 who is the mother of several children although unmar- 
 ried, upon hearing of the wedding of a colored girl 
 living on the plantation of a friend of mine in Louisiana, 
 exclaimed scornfully : '* Dat nigger sho was er fool ter 
 git married ! she doan' know what trubble she is er git- 
 tin' inter. I allers sade I was er gwine ter be er ole maid 
 an' I is ! " A most appalling looseness of morals exists 
 among the negroes. 
 
 Recently an investigation was made into the causes 
 of the excessive death-rate of the colored people. This 
 inquiry was conducted under the supervision of Atlanta 
 University, assisted by graduates from other colleges 
 and universities for the higher education of the negro, 
 such as Fisk, Berea, Lincoln, Spilman, Howard and 
 Meharry. Conferences were subsequently held to as- 
 certain the social and physical condition of the race. 
 After a close study of the question, involving accurate 
 comparisons of statistics gleaned from different cities, 
 and a personal visitation to the homes of numerous 
 
64 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 negroes, it was declared that this mortality is not the 
 result of diseases produced by unsanitary surroundings, 
 but is due to the colored people's '' disregard of the 
 laws of health and morality." Valuable papers were 
 read, entirely void of race prejudices, making a frank 
 acknowledgment of the degradation of the blacks, and 
 expressing an earnest desire for remedy. Eugene Har- 
 ris, of Fisk University, one of the most broad-minded 
 negroes attending the conference, stated : " The consti- 
 tutional diseases which are responsible for our unusual 
 motality are often traceable to enfeebled constitutions 
 broken down by sexual immoralities. This is fre- 
 quently the source of even pulmonary consumption, 
 which disease is to-day the black man's scourge. 
 
 ** According to Hoffman, over 25 per cent of the 
 negro children born in Washington City are admittedly 
 illegitimate. According to a writer quoted in Black 
 America, ' in one county of Mississippi there were dur- 
 ing twelve months 300 marriage licenses taken out in 
 the county clerk's office for white people. According 
 to the proportion of population there should have been 
 in the same time 1,200 or more for negroes. There 
 were actually taken out by colored people just three.' 
 James Anthony Froude asserts that 70 per cent of the 
 negroes in the West Indies are born in illegitimacy. Mr. 
 Smeeton claims that ' in spite of the increase of educa- 
 tion there has been no decrease of this social cancer.' " 
 
 It should be remembered that a race, like an individ- 
 ual, has its period of youth. The African m America 
 has not yet advanced beyond that age. We must not ex- 
 pect too much of him at once. It has taken many cen- 
 
A Negro Sermon 65 
 
 turies to bring the Anglo-Saxon to his present imperfect 
 ethical development. It will not take less time to perfect 
 the negro, — and whoever reckons for him without con- 
 sidering the thickness of his skull and the length of his 
 under jaw, the relative smoothness of his brain and the 
 amount of gray matter at his nerve centres will be dis- 
 appointed. 
 
 It is higher ethical training from the pulpit and in 
 the schools that the negro needs. He likes a preacher 
 and. a teacher of his own color. While this is well in 
 that it gives him a leader near enough to his own level 
 to be in sympathy with him, it has the disadvantage 
 of depriving him of close and constant contact with the 
 standards to which an African must come, if he sur- 
 vives in an Anglo-Saxon civilization. 
 
 This is the " negro problem " — part of it. What shall 
 be done with it ? " The slow process of the ages " is 
 the message that comes to our reflection. Meanwhile 
 those who care, — and there are many in the South who 
 do, — vote more money for the public schools, and help 
 the negro to build his churches, and wait — because they 
 do not see what else to do. The end of another century 
 will be time enough at which to take the next reckoning 
 of what American civilization has done for " Our 
 Brother In Black.'^ 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A HIGHER LIFE 
 
 Rather the ground that's deep enough for graves. 
 Rather the stream that's strong enough for waves, 
 
 Than the loose sandy drift 
 Whose shifting surface cherishes no seed 
 Either of any flower or any weed, 
 
 Whichever way it shift. — Anon. 
 
 When I was sixteen years old an invitation was re- 
 ceived from some relatives in Oxford, Mississippi, to 
 attend the Commencement exercises at the State Uni- 
 versity. This was my first entrance into society as a 
 young lady. My wardrobe consisted of inexpensive 
 Swiss and organdie dresses trimmed with some old laces 
 that mother had rescued from the wreck of time. My 
 appearance was that of a woman and long since the 
 decision had been made, to " put away childish things." 
 My girlhood griefs were buried out of sight. 
 
 The desire of my heart had been to lead the life of a 
 thoroughly independent creature; but I soon found 
 that it seemed absurd to differ from other persons. 
 Now there was nothing to do but drift with the tide. 
 I laughed and talked and acted like the women about 
 me ; but there was a sting in it all to which the world 
 >vas not blind. My society chat had a current of sar- 
 
 66 
 
A Higher Life 67 
 
 casm, my merriment a tinge of bitterness. A knowl- 
 edge of card-playing had been gained while attending 
 school in Canton, and my first lesson in dancing was 
 taken in such extreme youth that it is impossible to re- 
 call it. During Christmas holidays there were always 
 several parties given in the neighborhood of Vernon, 
 and in summer there were numerous out-of-door festiv- 
 ities. I attended them all and often danced through a 
 winter night and a long, hot summer day when not over 
 ten years old. Dancing was a part of a Southern girl's 
 education. It was as natural as eating or laughing. 
 After a young lady had made her debut, she would soon 
 become " a wall-flower " in society if she did not dance. 
 On going to Oxford it was an easy thing for me to fall 
 in with the trend of custom. The days were divided 
 between playing croquet with the University students 
 and returning fashionable calls ; the nights were given 
 to games of euchre and attending entertainments. 
 
 The last and greatest social function of the season 
 was the Comm.encement ball. Mother had unearthed 
 an old ante-bellum blue silk and put it in my trunk for 
 an emergency. This was now brought forth and labori- 
 ously transformed into an evening costume. The stains 
 of years were covered up with the inevitable lace or hid- 
 den by sprays of flowers. My escort called at ten 
 o'clock in a carriage with another youthful couple and 
 we went to the ballroom. The dignified custom of 
 chaperonage was then nearly obsolete. My program 
 was filled out and I danced straight through it until 
 the last strain of music ended with the advent of the 
 sun next morning. With me nothing has ever been 
 
68 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 done by halves. Whatever has been undertaken at all 
 has been undertaken with intensity. 
 
 The summer at Oxford was the beginning of gaieties 
 tliat continued, almost witliout interruption, for three 
 years. The winters were spent at my uncle's home in 
 Canton and in Jackson with very dear cousins. Another 
 visit was made to New Orleans under happier circum- 
 stances. In summer my friends visited me at the plan- 
 tation. While in the country we rode on horse-back, 
 had buggy drives and out-door games ; went on fishing 
 and camping excursions; attended picnics and barbe- 
 cues ; gave dinners and teas, and exchanged visits with 
 two delightful families who had guests with them 
 throughout the warm months. These families and ours 
 had only recently become acquainted as they lived miles 
 away from us ; but distances are small considerations 
 v/hen " life is new " and pleasure the one pursuit in 
 existence. 
 
 My stays at home were comparatively brief during 
 these three years ; but while there my reading was con- 
 tinued and mother and I managed to do a great deal 
 of sewing for the negroes. My oldest brother had one 
 year at the University and immediately after secured a 
 position in a mercantile establishment in the northern 
 part of the state. During my visits to the towns there 
 was a ceaseless round of balls, theatres, receptions and 
 card parties, nearly every one of which I attended ; from 
 the Governor's inaugural entertainment at the Mansion 
 to an impromptu dance in a private, home. 
 
 Those were fateful months. The foundations of ill- 
 health vt^ere laid which haunted me for fifteen years. 
 
A Higher Life 69 
 
 Often in freezing weather my thick shoes and heavy 
 clothing were put aside for thin shppers and gauze 
 dresses and bare neck and arms. After dancing till heat 
 or fatigue became unbearable a rush would be made 
 into the deadly night air, with only a filmy lace shawl 
 thrown over my shoulders for protection. 
 
 There were few days in those three years in which 
 I did not have a desperate fight with my soul. Con- 
 scious of not living up to my high conceptions of life, 
 I hated myself and abhorred the way my time was 
 spent. The truth forced itself upon me that theatres 
 were rarely elevating, that the trail of the serpent was 
 over every card, that round-dancing was demoralizing 
 and that many of the young men who danced with me 
 were not worthy of my friendship. Night after night 
 on returning from an entertainment, I have sat before 
 the fire pouring out my contempt for myself and all my 
 world in scathing denunciation, always ending with the 
 moan that had been in my heart since childhood, " What 
 is there for me to do? Life is so empty, so unsatisfy- 
 ing ! I wish I had never been born ! " The girls who 
 kept the vigils with me would greet my torrent of grief 
 and rebellion with peals of laughter. Bessie Fearn, my 
 cousin and constant companion, a most brilliant and fas- 
 cinating young woman, would say, " It is impossible 
 for me to understand you. How can you see any harm 
 in cards or dancing or theatres ? I am as untouched in 
 spirit to-night as a child could be ! " In later years, 
 when a personal knowledge of Christ came to her, these 
 things in which she once saw no " harm " palled upon 
 her and in renunciation of them her life became a glad 
 
7© A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 song of consecration until the time came of '' entering 
 into rest " where her eyes beheld " the King in his 
 beauty " in " the land that is very far off." 
 
 After the last fierce struggle with the finer elements 
 of my being, a definite determination was made to aban- 
 don the shallow, aimless life that had been entered 
 upon; — and it was done, — suddenly and forever. It 
 was concluded further that I must go to work, that an 
 occupation uplifting and strengthenmg must be secured 
 if every family tradition was shattered and if my life 
 were forfeited in the attempt. 
 
 Father and I had always been congenial except along 
 certain lines. In the light of after experiences we both 
 became wise enough to avoid all splitting issues. Up 
 to this time, however, the depths of his convictions con- 
 cerning work for women had never been sounded. 
 Mother believed in me utterly. She was my devoted, 
 changeless, unquestioning ally. Father, on the contrary, 
 with all his gentleness and aft'abllity, was a severe critic 
 and, at times, a most sarcastic opponent. Consequently, 
 whenever an embryo scheme was on hand, he was in- 
 variably sought in order to get an expression of opinion, 
 regardless that his views might be totally different from 
 mine. When a child rest never came to me until every 
 important occurrence of my daily life had been related 
 to him, heedless of the consequences of the confidence. 
 
 He had been terribly grieved over my indulgence in 
 round-dancing. At the country festivities, I had been 
 allowed to attend in childhood, only the dignified quad- 
 rilles of earlier times were in vogue. It had not oc- 
 curred to him that my inclinations might reach out 
 
A Higher Life fi 
 
 tendrils towards the customs of my own day. He had 
 often tried to dissuade me from round-dancing, but 
 was unable to extract a promise that it would be given 
 up. However, when my decision was reached to dance 
 no more I went at once to him and announced it. " Well, 
 my daughter," he remarked, surveying me calmly, 
 " you do not deserve a particle of credit, for you do not 
 stop because it is right, but because you are disgusted." 
 This diagnosis of the case was accepted, but with a 
 tremendously offended ego. 
 
 Soon after this encounter, father was again inter- 
 viewed. Broaching the subject abruptly I said : *' Life 
 has grown very tiresome to me and some change must 
 be effected. It is my intention to work at some em- 
 ployment that will make it possible for me to support 
 myself." Father looked at me a little dazed, and an- 
 swered : " Work ? " with a high-tide inflection on the 
 word. '' Work?" with renewed emphasis — " and may 
 I ask of what nature your work will be ? " 
 
 " Certainly," was my quick reply, " I intend to teach 
 school." '' /wdeed ! " said father, with a peculiar drawl 
 of the prefix which would have sent terror to my soul 
 when a child. 
 
 " Yes, sir ! " came my answer with decision, " I am 
 going to teach school." 
 
 " But you forget," he exclaimed, making a desperate 
 effort to control the quaver in his voice and to hide 
 the tremor of his eyelids that revealed the storm in his 
 heart, ** you forget that I am able to give you a support. 
 You forget that you are my only daughter. Do you 
 mean to tell me that you are going to teaching? I will 
 
72 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 never consent to it ! " — and he walked off with an air 
 which told too plainly that the conference was ended. 
 
 Without being in the least dismayed, and saying not 
 a word to any one, I put on my sunbonnet and gloves 
 and started forth determined to settle the school ques- 
 tion. There were few children in the immediate neigh- 
 borhood and the majority of these were very poor ; but 
 wherever there was a shadow of a chance for success, 
 their homes were visited and a request made for pupils. 
 An upstairs bedroom in our dwelling was transformed 
 into a schoolroom, and the following Monday morning 
 I entered upon my career as teacher. Father did not 
 say one word. His courtesy was never at fault ; besides, 
 he had discovered in me a certain will-force, inherited 
 from both ** sides of the house," and an indomitable 
 energy which he began to respect. At the end of the term 
 he said to me : " Allow me, daughter, to congratulate 
 you upon your fine success." Mother was radiant with 
 delight from the beginning, for she understood my long- 
 ings. Everything was made to bend to my wishes. The 
 children were permitted to eat their lunches on the long 
 front gallery upstairs, and to romp in the yard under 
 the closely matted branches of the great cedars and 
 among the trailing periwinkle vines whose green leaves 
 carpeted almost every foot of ground. There were only 
 seven pupils in my school and their tuition fees amounted 
 to but $12 a month; but those twelve dollars were as 
 large as twelve full moons in my eyes and as precious 
 as blood-drops. Among the seven children there was 
 only one at all well advanced ; while teaching him I had 
 a good chance to review text-books and to again get into 
 
A Higher Life 73 
 
 the habit of study. While managing the others an ex- 
 cellent opportunity was afforded for the cultivation of 
 the grace of patience, which was sorely needed, and of 
 gaining some practical knowledge of the methods of 
 teaching. 
 
 I was nineteen years old at the beginning of my little 
 private school. 
 
CHAPTER Vni 
 
 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MA'aM. 
 
 Nothing's small! 
 No lily- muffled hum of a summer bee, 
 But finds some coupling with the spinning stars; 
 No pebble at your feet, but proves a sphere; 
 No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim ; 
 
 Earth's crammed with heaven, 
 
 And every common bush afire with God. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 At the close of my private school session a determina- 
 tion was made to expend my energies no longer on so 
 few children and with such small financial returns ; but 
 that an application should be made for the public school 
 where there would be more pupils and a larger salary. 
 Once more my plans were revealed to father. His 
 amazement and opposition were greater this time than 
 before. *' Teach the public school ! " he echoed after 
 me. " The public school ! " incredulously. " Why, I 
 would not have you brought in contact with its rougher 
 elements and subjected to dictates that would surely 
 come, for all the world ! A little private school in the 
 seclusion of our home was a different matter entirely. 
 Nothing could induce me to consent to your going out 
 as a public school teacher." 
 
 74 
 
The Public School Ma'am 75 
 
 The next day I called on the trustees of the public 
 school at Vernon and asked to be their teacher for the 
 autumn term. They were astonished, but readily con- 
 sented. Keeping my own counsel, one of my brothers 
 was induced, in the course of a week, to drive me to 
 Canton where a call was made on the County Superin- 
 tendent of Education. With straightforwardness I said, 
 " Mr. S, it is my intention to support myself. You will 
 oblige me forever by granting me a first-class certificate 
 for a public school without requiring an examination. 
 It has been over four years since my school days ended. 
 It would be impossible for me to stand an examination ; 
 but it is equally certain that I am competent to teach 
 the Vernon school and make a success of it." The 
 superintendent smiled indulgently, filled out a certificate 
 and handed it to me. The law then. in reference to ex- 
 aminations was not as rigid as now. 
 
 With a joyous spirit my face was turned homeward 
 and my official document was displayed with all the 
 pride of a conqueror. At the opening of the fall term 
 I was seated in my chair of state viewing with satisfac- 
 tion the half hundred boys and girls who greeted me. 
 They were of all shapes and sizes; from young men 
 with beards on their faces to roly-poly urchins just out 
 of bibs. Oh ! what a time we had ! The boys chewed 
 tobacco during school and spat upon the floor. Every 
 now and then an especially genteel fellow walked to the 
 nearest window to expectorate. The girls were piously 
 and prettily demure while they thought I was looking 
 at them; but the instant my gaze was removed they 
 threw spit-balls at the infant class and love notes to the 
 
76 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 giant rustics who were wrestling with their quids and 
 slates. 
 
 They were unclassified ; there were not ten books 
 among them which were alike. The grading was found 
 to be an unending task, for every week there was a new 
 set of pupils. The children in the different families 
 took turns in doing the work and resting from their 
 mental labors. Before the close of the session, however, 
 several solid classes had been formed and impressed 
 with the importance of attending school regularly. 
 These stood by me to the end and delighted my heart 
 by making rapid progress. 
 
 The struggle with the ''submerged tenth" continued. 
 There were fights among them at recess and while go- 
 ing home in the afternoon. Some of the girls swore 
 like troopers and the boys struck them for it. Only 
 my presence in the midst of the hordes prevented rough 
 language and blows. Court was held as regularly as 
 school and justice administered according to testimony. 
 
 It was impossible to use my judgment in selecting 
 studies for the pupils as their parents bought the books 
 that suited them and refused to get others. One day a 
 boy handed me a note from a patron which ran as fol- 
 lows : ** Mis I doant warnt mi Sun ben To studdie 
 Nuthin but reedin wrighten spelin and Figgers Re- 
 specfuly Willium L ." 
 
 A terrible strain on my patience was realized in 
 teaching a fat, little, five-year-old boy his alphabet. It 
 seemed impossible, after all the other letters were con- 
 quered, for him to learn " u." Seizing his chubby hand 
 in mine, the invincible character was v/ritten in his palm 
 
The Public School Ma'am "j^j 
 
 with a piece of chalk. Then holding it before his eyes 
 I said, " Now, John, this is u." Puckering up his face 
 as if in mortal agony he gave a loud yell that ended in 
 a heart-broken wail, and sobbed out, " No, Miss Belle, 
 dat ain't me-e-e-ee ! " 
 
 Some of the boys were manly, home-spun fellows 
 with imagination. One of them, on a memorable morn- 
 ing, was given the word squirrel to spell and define. 
 Tom rattled the spelling off in grand style with startling 
 vehemence. Then came a dead pause. Looking up I 
 said : '' Well, now, the definition ? What is a squirrel ? " 
 " A varmint." " Oh ! that won't do ! Try again. What 
 is a squirrel ? " " Somethin' what runs up a tree." " No, 
 sir ! that won't do. Try again. What is a squirrel ? " 
 A long pull at his *' gallusses," a puzzled searching 
 of the ceiling with a look that suddenly broke into light, 
 then a glad shout : '' Oh ! I know ! A squirl's some- 
 thin' what eats nuts with his tail standin' up ! " 
 
 When the spring opened all the large boys had to stop 
 school to work in the crop. My salary depended on the 
 number of pupils in attendance, dropping some months 
 as low as $18.00, and never going beyond $25.00 — the 
 daily attendance ranging from five to fifty. Regular 
 visits were made to all my patrons in the effort to in- 
 spire them with the importance of educating their chil- 
 dren. Poor little homes were entered and parents met 
 who had lived within two miles of our plantation since 
 my early childhood, but who were unknown to me. At 
 first this was an ordeal, but by degrees my interest in 
 the children deepened, and the poverty and ignorance 
 of their home-protectors became a positive burden on 
 
78 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 my soul; profound pity began to push out less noble 
 feelings. 
 
 Those were days of quiet growth for me. In that 
 little school-house, which was not more than a hut, 
 among those rude girls and boys was learned my first 
 real lesson in self-command. In the beginning there 
 was a fire of insubordination smouldering in the hearts 
 of even the meekest looking of my undisciplined rabble 
 that only needed a spark to set it into a blaze. There 
 was one particularly mild-mannered boy, with large, 
 dreamy eyes and the languid air of a '' Vere de Vere." 
 He never knew his lessons. Finally my patience 
 reached its last gasp and I told him if he failed the next 
 day he would have to suffer punishment. He was ut- 
 terly deficient and was called forward. Thrusting his 
 hand into his pocket and drawing out a large, open 
 knife he struck at me. My movements were quick 
 enough to seize his v/rist and divert the blow, and my 
 hands were strong enough to wrest the knife from his 
 grasp. He was dealt with, after the Scriptural sugges- 
 tion, according to his sin. After that his scholarship 
 was unexcelled and his conduct irreproachable. 
 
 Another severe test soon came to me. There was a 
 tall, muscular fellow, seventeen years old, who made a 
 dismal failure on a certain day. He was commanded 
 to stay in at recess and study. A heavy frown gathered 
 but he said nothing. When the noon hour came he ate 
 his lunch, picked up his books and started for the door. 
 " Where are you going, Jim ? " I asked. " Home ! " he 
 muttered. *' If you do go,'* was my reply, ** remember 
 
The Public School Ma'am 79 
 
 that you cannot come to school to me again." He made 
 no answer and went out. 
 
 The next morning Jim was in his seat with head bent 
 low over his books. After calling the school to order 
 the incident of the previous day in connection with Jim 
 was related and the case taken up. Turning to the of- 
 fender I said sternly, " Take your books, sir, and go 
 home ! " The boy's head sank lower and lower. There 
 was a profound silence. Looking up finally in an abject, 
 pleading fashion he said : " Miss Belle, please forgive 
 me for acting so bad yesterday. I'm truly sorry. If 
 you'll let me stay I promise never to disobey you again." 
 The amende honorable was accepted, peace reigned and 
 the spirit of insurrection was quelled forever. Jim was 
 ever after my loyal vassal, helping me to dismount on 
 rainy mornings and the first in the afternoons to bring 
 my horse to the stump which was my stepping-block 
 to reach the saddle, meekly handing my whip as the 
 reins were gathered for the homeward gallop. 
 
 I became Argus-eyed and learned to control my 
 pupils by sheer will-power. A rebuke was seldom 
 given, a scolding never. They were simply looked at. 
 The highest class moved along steadily; when it was 
 finally surrendered, at the close of my regime, it would 
 have been entitled to enter the Sophomore class in a 
 college. Coming in contact with such rough specimens 
 of humanity and expending so much energy in the effort 
 to control them, told heavily upon my nervous system. 
 Every afternoon, on returning home, during my earlier 
 experiences, my first thought was to seek the privacy 
 
8o A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 of my room. Falling upon the bed in exhaustion my 
 pent-up emotions found vent in a passion of tears. I 
 had always regarded crying as an evidence of weakness 
 and when quite a girl determined that no one should 
 ever doubt my strong-mindedness ; so, on going to the 
 supper-table, my appearance would be freshened up and 
 my face wreathed with the blandest of smiles. I studied 
 until midnight regularly to keep ahead of my pupils; 
 mastering books taken up by them that had not been 
 taught me in my school days, and applying myself 
 closely to mathematics v/hich I had unwisely neglected 
 while at the Academy, for history, rhetoric, philosophy, 
 English literature and kindred branches. 
 
 For four years in heat and dust, in rain and mud I 
 trudged to that little school-house by the roadside. I 
 drank from the neighboring creek when the cistern was 
 dry or filled with debris, in either of which conditions 
 it was usually found. On freezing days I crouched 
 over a cracked stove that radiated little heat, with the 
 snow drifting down upon my head through the defect- 
 ive roof. In the winter season I went again and again 
 to find the house empty, to come back home weary and 
 disgusted, with my little brother trotting by my side 
 sputtering indignantly because he had not been allowed 
 to stay at home ** like other folkses childerns." 
 
 Sometimes mid-summer sessions would be taught to 
 accommodate the larger pupils who had to be in the 
 field until the crop was " laid by." The heat was almost 
 intolerable, the days seemed unending. The drowsy, 
 germ-laden, suffocating hours would be lived through 
 in dreariness and suffering : but, hard as it all was, noth- 
 
The Public School Ma'am 8i 
 
 ing would be taken in exchange for the self-knowledge 
 and self-power that I gained in this struggle. 
 
 The money that was made during the first session 
 was invested in a course of study in the Normal College, 
 at luka, Mississippi. At the close of the term a visit 
 was made to the Southern Chautauqua, at Monteagle, 
 Tennessee. Portions of other vacations were spent in 
 Canton taking private lessons in mathematics from my 
 friend, Mrs. Amelia Drane, a teacher of wide experi- 
 ence and unusual ability. She was the only woman, at 
 that time, who had graduated at Soule's Commercial 
 College, in New Orleans. 
 
 In the afternoons, at the close of her school, she 
 would stand with me at the blackboard or sit near me 
 for hours giving the most patient instruction regardless 
 of weariness or the hot, chalky atmosphere. When our 
 engagement was ended and when, according to contract, 
 the requisite amount of money was brought to remuner- 
 ate her, the tears sprang to her eyes and laying her 
 kindly, blessed hands in mine she cried : '' My dear child, 
 do you suppose I would accept a dollar from yon? Some 
 day, if it is ever needed, you may pay me, but not now." 
 Only in eternity can this noble, unselfish friend realize 
 what she did for me in helping to make smooth the 
 paths which, at that time, stretched bare and stony 
 through my struggling life. Such a deed as that is far 
 above price ; it can find a recompense only " in kind." 
 
 Some time after my experience in teaching was be- 
 gun, a new railway brought into existence the little 
 town of Flora, within four miles of father's plantation. 
 I was invited to accept the position of assistant teacher 
 
82 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 in the public school there; a male principal having al- 
 ready been installed. As the salaries were still depend- 
 ent upon the number of pupils in attendance, my remu- 
 neration would not have been an inducement had not 
 a promise been made that it should be brought up to a 
 certain monthly sum by the patrons. Board was offered 
 in a pleasant family with the understanding that I 
 should every night supervise the study hours of the little 
 daughter. 
 
 The offer was accepted and the term finished without 
 a jar in the school-room. Going away from home to 
 board and playing the governess, after nightfall, was 
 a repugnant prospect; but my association with the 
 happy household was so agreeable and my small pupil 
 so gentle and studious that the dread faded away, and 
 a friendship which has suffered no change in the pass- 
 ing years was the fortunate result. 
 
 The public school session closed in April — there were 
 only five months allowed by the law. I opened an inde- 
 pendent private school in the Methodist church build- 
 ing. The principal of the public school occupied the 
 school-house. Three months were passed pleasantly. 
 The following fall another private school was taught 
 in Flora, which was conducted as easily as the first. 
 My only hardship was in having to buy all the wood that 
 was used and in making the fires. Finally, I was re- 
 lieved of the latter through the goodness of a kind- 
 hearted patron. 
 
 Father was elected to the lower house of the legis- 
 lature again and served in the session of 1880. In 1891 
 he was sent to the state senate. My oldest brother was 
 
The Public School Ma'am 83 
 
 still in business in North Mississippi. My second 
 brother had entered the Agricultural and Mechanical 
 College, but, his health failing, in a few months he went 
 to Texas for a dryer climate and sunnier fortunes. My 
 third brother, after a course at a Business College, as- 
 sumed complete management of the plantation, develop- 
 ing a decided talent for '' turning a dollar." 
 
 Our financial affairs were now on a firmer basis but 
 none of us had thought of relieving mother. While in 
 the school-room, at Flora, one day the conviction sud- 
 denly seized me that she was ill. The impression grew 
 with the hours. In the afternoon I mounted a horse 
 and alone rode home to have my presentiment con- 
 firmed. In an agony of remorse I threw myself by the 
 sick-bed and cried : '* O, mother, please forgive me for 
 all my thoughtlessness and selfishness ! In these years 
 since the way was opened for me to make money my 
 only purpose has been to cultivate my mind, and it was 
 forgotten that you were growing old, and now you have 
 failed through work and care ! " 
 
 A cook was hired before sunset and never since that 
 sad day has the home been without one, nor without 
 a woman to do the housework as well as servants for 
 harder forms of labor. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 EDUCATIONAL MATTERS 
 
 If you would not cease to love mankind. 
 You must not cease to do them good. 
 
 — Marie Eschenbach. 
 
 By degrees the public school won its way to favor in 
 the South. It triumphed " over prejudice, over pov- 
 erty, over opposition engendered by a large negro pop- 
 ulation which pays little tax and whose schools are a 
 heavy burden upon the property owners." In the years 
 immediately following the re-establishment of the " free 
 school," after the civil war, it was considered scarcely 
 respectable to patronize it, and the person who under- 
 took to teach one was brave indeed. 
 
 To-day there is no position more highly honorable 
 than that of a public school teacher. This revolution 
 has been the blossoming of thirty-two years of budding 
 sentiment, — from 1868 to 1900. For fifteen years the 
 system was at low tide in Mississippi. In 1886 a com- 
 plete change was made in the school law by the 
 legislature. Teachers were required to stand rigid 
 examinations before certificates would be issued. Su- 
 perintendents were ordered to apportion salaries accord- 
 ing to the grade credential held, the executive capacity 
 of the teacher, and, though not dependent as formerly 
 
 84 
 
■ Educational Matters 85 
 
 on the number of pupils in attendance, the size of the 
 school was taken into consideration. Payments were 
 made promptly at the end of each month and new life 
 was infused into methods. 
 
 The benefits of the Peabody educational fund were 
 restored to Mississippi in 1893 ; institutes were held and 
 in 1896, five summer normals were established for the 
 white and an equal number for the black people. The 
 moneys for the support of the public schools in each 
 of the years 1898-99 amounted to $950,000, including 
 the poll-tax, which is $2.00 per head. If there is a 
 deficit in the school fund the state treasury supple- 
 ments it. When needed, special local taxes can be levied 
 by the district; also by the Board of Supervisors for 
 continuing the school year longer than the uniform term. 
 
 The legislature, which met in the winter of 1900, 
 appropriated one million dollars to common schools for 
 the year 1900; also for 1901. Appropriations to the 
 state colleges were very liberal. All of this, added to 
 local taxation for extending terms, etc., will run the 
 public expenditure to $2,000,000 for each year. 
 
 The school fund has steadily increased notwithstand- 
 ing disastrous agricultural conditions and the facts that 
 the census of 1894 showed that there were 100,000 more 
 negro children in Mississippi than white. During the 
 scholastic year of 1896-97, 367,579 pupils were enrolled 
 in the public schools; of that number 170,811 were 
 white and 196,768 were negroes, — the latter being in 
 excess of the whites 25,957. The sum set apart for the 
 support of the schools is prorated among the educable 
 children of the state irrespective of color. 
 
86 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 The proportional number of negro tax-payers in 
 Mississippi is pitiably small ; consequently, some idea 
 can be easily gained of the relative amount of taxes 
 paid by the white people for the support of colored 
 schools. It is difficult to determine what is the best 
 policy to pursue in the distribution of the school fund, 
 as the races are very unevenly distributed over the state. 
 The negroes are massed in the productive districts — the 
 Delta, the river counties where planting is conducted 
 as extensively as in ante-bellum days. By a strange 
 misadjustment, according to the Constitution, in those 
 counties where the negro population so heavily prepon- 
 derates, third grade teachers receive higher pay than 
 first grade instructors in the counties where the white 
 people are in excess. From the report of a State Super- 
 intendent of Education the following facts are quoted : 
 " In the white counties the whites are three-fourths of 
 the population ; in the black counties the whites are one- 
 fifth of the population. 
 
 " The ten white counties received $87,226 from, the 
 state distribution. Of this sum they paid in polls 
 $30,166, or 38 per cent of the whole. 
 
 " The ten black counties received from the state dis- 
 tribution $170,353, of which they paid in polls $32,459, 
 or only 19 per cent of the whole. The white counties 
 paid practically the same amount in polls as the black 
 counties, while the black counties received nearly twice 
 as much from the state distribution." 
 
 In the Superintendent's report of 1891-93, for Mis- 
 sissippi, it was declared : " It is a matter of common 
 assertion by the uninformed throughout the state that 
 
Educational Matters 87 
 
 the negroes attend school better than the whites. The 
 statistics for 1892-93 show that 73 whites in every 100 
 of school age were enrolled in our public schools, while 
 less than 60 in every 100 negroes were enrolled. The 
 enrollment of both races was 64.8 per cent of all the 
 educable children. This is a remarkable enrollment 
 when we consider that the legal school age in Missis- 
 sippi covers 16 years, from 5 to 21. 
 
 *' According to the report of the Commissioner of 
 Education (1889-90) Kansas in 1890 enrolled 27.98 
 in every 100 population, which was the highest per- 
 centage in the United States, the average being 20.27. 
 The enrollment of Mississippi for i892-'93 was 25.97 ^^ 
 every 100 population which places us second in the 
 Union when both races are considered. 
 
 " But our enrollment of whites was 28.61 in every 
 100 of white population, which is greater than the en- 
 rollment of Kansas in 1890 by 63 in every 3,000 of the 
 population. It is thus shown that our white population, 
 as measured by enrollment, are availing themselves of 
 the educational advantages provided by the state to a 
 greater extent than the people of any state in the 
 Union." 
 
 In the same report it was stated that Mississippi " led 
 among the Southern states and is ranked eight among 
 the states in the Union in the amount expended for edu- 
 cation in proportion to the valuation of property." The 
 State Superintendent of Education for Alabama makes 
 this statement : " Alabama expends annually for her 
 schools and education more than one million dollars; 
 while her taxes amount scarcely to two millions.". . . . 
 
88 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 It is said : " The state of New York has an assessed 
 valuation greater than all the thirteen Southern states 
 combined (Missouri not included), while New England 
 and the Middle States together, with an area only two- 
 ninths as large as the thirteen Southern states, and with 
 a population about equal have three times as much as- 
 sessed property. 
 
 '' It is apparent, therefore, that with equal levies these 
 wealthier states can maintain schools for ten months 
 in the year, v/hile in the South the length of the term 
 will not average four months." 
 
 In all comparative statistics between the North and 
 the South on the subject of education, or any other, 
 it is well to remember the sparseness of population in 
 the Southern states. For instance, in the city of New 
 York alone there are 1,515,301 inhabitants ! while in the 
 entire state of Mississippi there are but 1,289,600 per- 
 sons ; there are but three cities of 10,000 or over, and but 
 two others, with a population over 5,000. 
 
 In a paper entitled, " What the South Is Doing for 
 Education and What Education Is Doing for the 
 South," read by Dr. W. T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner 
 of Education, in Atlanta, Georgia, October 26, 1895, 
 the progress of education was briefly and interestingly 
 summed up as follows : 
 
 *' In the past twenty years the South has increased 
 fifty-four per cent in population, but its school attend- 
 ance has increased 130 per cent; that is to say, more 
 than twice as fast as the population. This means that 
 there is a larger proportion of the population kept in 
 school during the year; while in 1874 an average of 14J 
 
Educational Matters 89 
 
 out of every hundred were enrolled in school, ten years 
 later (1884) the average had risen to i8f per hundred, 
 and in 1894, or twenty years later, the number enrolled 
 is twenty- two in the hundred. Of all the people of the 
 South, white and black, one in five is in attendance on 
 school for some portion of the year. This is a large pro- 
 portion of the people to be in school. Even in Saxony, 
 which excels all countries of Europe in its school en- 
 rollment, the per centum in school is only twenty. 
 
 " Even after making allowance for the fact that the 
 South has a larger proportion of children in its popula- 
 tion than any other section of the Nation, this remains 
 a wonderful showing for the wisdom of self-sacrifice 
 of the Southern people. They are, indeed, building a 
 * New South ' and its corner-stone is the school.'' 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE SOUTHERN PROBLEM 
 
 According to the order of nature, men being equal, their 
 common vocation is the profession of humanity. — Rousseau. 
 
 An effort was made to secure from the auditors and 
 treasurers of the thirteen Southern states an official 
 statement of the relative amounts of taxes paid by the 
 whites and the negroes. Every state of whom the in- 
 quiry was made was heard from ; but the information 
 desired was unattainable as few keep a separate list of 
 taxes paid by the two races. They concurred, however, 
 in the following statement : " The great bulk of the pub- 
 lic school fund in the South is derived from taxes paid 
 by white people. Yet, that fund is distributed on a 
 basis of population, so that the negro receives vastly 
 more than his proportionate share. And the laws gov- 
 erning this taxation and distribution were voluntarily 
 enacted by the Southern whites themselves." 
 
 The amount of property listed for taxation by the 
 white citizens of North Carolina, as per returns for 
 the year 1896, was $221,138,146; for the colored 
 $8,516,353. The poll-taxes paid by the whites for the 
 same year were $260,865.58; by the negroes, $100,- 
 103.74. Taxes accruing from general property of 
 whites, $399,554.48; from that of the blacks, $15,- 
 
 90 
 
The Southern Problem 91 
 
 349.76. Taxes from polls and general property were 
 given to the support of the public schools, but no dis- 
 crimination was made as to the races. 
 
 The total enrollment of colored children in the public 
 schools of South Carolina for 1898 was 150,787; there 
 was spent on their education from state funds $204,- 
 
 383-30- 
 
 The white people of Arkansas in 1898 paid taxes 
 
 to the amount of $2,621,538.31 ; the negroes, $132,- 
 
 II 1. 20, — about one-twentieth of the whole tax — but no 
 
 distinction of race was made in distribution of the school 
 
 fund. 
 
 These instances, although probably very much more 
 to the credit of the negroes' capacity for aiding in the 
 support of the government than some other Southern 
 states would show, are sufficient to illustrate what the 
 South is doing to lift the colored race by education. 
 
 Very many poll-taxes of the negroes are paid in elec- 
 tion years by white aspirants for office who want the 
 colored vote. 
 
 The laws of each Southern state, while they provide 
 for the education of every youth as nearly as possible, 
 yet make distinct provisions for the establishment of 
 separate schools for white and black children. Co-edu- 
 cation of the races is not tolerated. It is an unwise 
 friend of the negro who attempts to alter this custom. It 
 is futile to advance a plea for the unreasonableness and 
 unrighteousness of race prejudice. It is enough to say 
 that it exists in the South and that it will persist there. 
 It will not be disputed that the Anglo-Saxon and the 
 African in America occupy the relation of superior and 
 
92 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 inferior races. The inappreciable number of the latter 
 in the population of the Northern states precludes the 
 question of social equality, — just as nobody thinks of it 
 in connection with the Chinese scattered throughout the 
 South. In some Southern states the negroes far out- 
 number the whites, and are so numerous in all of them 
 as to constitute what is called a ** problem." Until the 
 present generation they have always existed there as 
 slaves. Nowhere on the earth have two races who bear 
 or have borne the relation of master and slave existed 
 together as social equals ; nor do superior and inferior 
 so co-exist anywhere until the superior is degraded to 
 the level of the inferior. It is doubtful if there is nat- 
 ural race prejudice; that is, if white and black children 
 were reared together from the cradle as equals whether 
 they would feel an antagonism of stock. Therefore, 
 never will the South consent that its tender, unformed 
 youth shall have the opportunity in the school-room to 
 assimilate with an element that, in its present state, can 
 only drag down the high ideals which the Anglo-Saxon 
 has wrested from the centuries. Better than any other 
 the South knows that if slavery was an evil for the 
 negro it was infinitely m.ore a curse to the whites who 
 owned the slaves. The blacks leave their deadly, im- 
 moral trail wherever massed in large numbers. 
 
 This must be said, notwithstanding a most earnest 
 desire for the advancement of the negro by education 
 and all other wise means ; and it is said with an old-time 
 affection which is a redeeming legacy of the days of 
 master and slave, which was a tie of love often stronger 
 than blood, whose power a stranger cannot understand ; 
 
The Southern Problem 93 
 
 and which, alas ! will be known no more when the rem- 
 nants of ante-bellum days are gathered to their fathers. 
 There is a plantation in Mississippi where until re- 
 cently five generations of the old slaves have dwelt as 
 tenants upon the soil where most of them were born, 
 and to which they clung with an attachment equal to 
 that of the owners, and as much more pathetic as it was 
 more helpless. " Old Handy " came into the library 
 one winter afternoon a few years ago, to pay his " re- 
 spec's " to his " white folks." " Tse pow'ful glad to see 
 yo' lookin' so well, Marse William, I sho is ! " " Yes, 
 Handy, I am well, but I begin to think I'm getting aged. 
 I've not realized it all along, but you and I have lived 
 quite awhile. Handy ! " " That's so, Marse William, 
 an', please Gord, we'll live a pow'ful time yit. Yo' ain' 
 broke a bit, suh, not a bit. How long's it ben, Marse 
 William, sence yo' bought me? " '' Fully fifty years; 
 we were both almost boys then. Handy. You are older 
 than I am, you know." " Do yo' 'member dat day yo' 
 cum to look at dat batch o' ole marse' niggers what was 
 put up to be sole ? " " Oh, yes, I remember it well ! It 
 was the first time I ever bought a hand." " When yo' 
 look at me as if yo' had sum intrus' in me, Marse Gil- 
 lispie he say, ' Lor', Bill, yo' doan' want dat nigger ; 
 he'll neber do yer no good ; he's dat fractious he's in de 
 cane-brake near 'bout de bes' part o' his time.' Member 
 dat, Marse William ? " " Just the same as if it were 
 yesterday." " An' den yo' kinder sarch me all ober wid 
 yer eyes, an' at las' yo' say, ' He doan' look lak a bad 
 nigger, I doan' b'lieve he'd run away ef he wur treated 
 right." " Yes, and I bought you then and there I " 
 
94 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 " An' I ain' neber run away, 'fore Gord, from dat day 
 to dis ! Is I, Marse William ? " " No, no, Handy, you 
 and I have had no trouble all these years, — and now we 
 are old men, not boys any longer." *' Folks talk 'bout 
 hard times ! / ain' neber seed no hard times sence I cum 
 home wid yo' dat day. I'se had plenty ter eat, an' ter 
 war, an' a house ober my haid an' good Ian' ter wuk, 
 an' good white folks to cyar fur me. I doan' know de 
 meanin' o' hard times." 
 
 Not long after the plantation was shocked to hear- 
 that " Marse William " was sick, a thing they had never 
 known to happen in all the long past. His present fac- 
 totum, once his coachman, later his butler, brought a 
 cot-mattress, and said firmly to the wife, *' Miss Annie, 
 I ain' gwine ter leave Marse William, day ner night, 
 I'm 'bleeged to wait on him. We ain' neber hyeard o' 
 his bein' sick in our lives. Tom, dat grown boy o' mine, 
 'ill sleep out in de hall ter keep up de fires." Two by 
 two others volunteered to be within call in the library 
 where they waited many nights. 
 
 Anxiety deepened and soon groups of old slaves were 
 ever to be found in the hall down stairs waiting for the 
 latest word from the sick-room ; moaning out to " Miss 
 Annie " or the doctor as they passed, '' Doan' let Marse 
 William die! Who'd take cyar o' us ef he went. We 
 cyant gib him up ! We ain' nebber knowed nobody else." 
 
 Faithful old George stayed day and night by the bed- 
 side of pain, till he came out sobbing aloud one morning 
 to tell the waiting crowds that " Marse William " had 
 gone beyond the sound of their voices into the greater 
 worlds where they could not follow yet. Then the heart 
 
The Southern Problem gS 
 
 of the plantation seemed to break. The oldest of the ex- 
 slaves requested that they might be " Marse William's 
 pall-bearers/'— and they were. The rest of them filled 
 the galleries of the church from which he was buried, 
 and in which for so many years he had been an elder ; 
 and to-day he is the highest ideal that life has brought 
 to his ante-bellum servants. Those who are left are the 
 most self-respecting and respected, as well as most ef- 
 ficient and faithful helpers on the plantation. 
 
 Let it be said here, and said with all the emphasis 
 the fact involves, that none of the " outrages " which 
 have so often disgraced the nation since the civil war 
 are the deeds of the old slave, nor is the " vengeance " 
 that of the old master and rarely that of his sons. It is 
 the new element of both races that wars one on the 
 other. This statement has been made of late many 
 times, in many ways, by the Southern press. The fol- 
 lowing from a leading South Carolina journal fully ex- 
 presses the sentiment of all in respect to the men 
 engaged in the atrocity of lynching: " They represent 
 Southern chivalry as little as the residents of the New 
 York slums represent the Christian civilization of the 
 North. Ravening mobs are not composed of gentle- 
 men." The " Atlanta Constitution " had just said, in ref- 
 erence to that appalling lynching in Georgia, " Unless 
 public opinion in the South begins to act in an unmis- 
 takable way, the lawless and ruffianly element which ex- 
 ists in all communities will make itself judge, jury and 
 public executioner, and its victims may be innocent or 
 guilty. It will only be necessary to suspect them of 
 some crime. We shall have the courts abolished, and 
 
96 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 all classes of crime will be punished by the lawless ele- 
 ment. Negroes will not be the only victims. Whites 
 will fall under the ban of ruffianism, and we shall have 
 such a state of things that civil war will be necessary 
 to restore to the courts and to society their normal 
 functions." 
 
 Another journal, in reference to the recent horrible 
 occurrence in Kentucky says, " It is to the credit of the 
 South that her public men and newspapers have been as 
 earnest, if not as bitter, in their criticisms as have those 
 of the North. Hardly a voice has been raised or a line 
 written in condonation of the affair." The people rep- 
 resentative of the best element throughout the South 
 are strongly opposed to lynching and deeply deplore 
 outbreaks of mob violence. They are urging as a 
 remedial measure that as soon as possible after a crime 
 is committed court shall meet, a jury be impanelled and 
 inquiry be made into the charge. If an indictment is 
 found that a short and fair trial shall be held immedi- 
 ately or as quickly as the ends of justice may require." 
 
 There is now and has been for a long time a feeling 
 of insecurity in the South wherever there are many 
 negroes. The ladies of a household — especially in rural 
 districts — are seldom left alone day or night ; and care 
 is taken that they do not linger late upon the road when 
 walking or driving in the afternoons or remain unpro- 
 tected anywhere at any hour for any length of time. 
 Southern women have perfect faith, however, in the 
 power of the courts to protect them and believe that the 
 prompt enforcement of law is the safeguard of any com- 
 munity. 
 
The Southern Problem 97 
 
 That the punishment of crime by any other tribunal 
 than the quaHfied and authorized one is a rapidly in- 
 fectious and highly dangerous lawlessness, is proven by 
 the fact that within the last decade there has scarcely 
 been a state or territory in the Union which has not 
 suffered from one or more of these atrocities. The 
 question, therefore, is national in its bearings. Still, as 
 the South has the bulk of the negro population, the bur- 
 den of the responsibility for the negro problem, of which 
 the lynching is but one phase, rests there, and sooner or 
 later the Southern people will settle it in justice and 
 righteousness. 
 
 The world is scarcely beginning to realize the enor- 
 mity of the situation that faces the South in its grapple 
 with the negro problem which was thrust upon it at the 
 close of the civil war when 4,500,000 ex-slaves, illiterate 
 and semi-barbarous, were enfranchised. Such a situa- 
 tion has no parallel in history. In forging a path out of 
 the darkness there are no precedents to lead the way. 
 All that has been and is being accomplished is pioneer 
 states-craft. The South has struggled under its death- 
 weight for over thirty years bravely and magnani- 
 mously. As an ex-governor of a Southern state has 
 truly said : " The South has her ills, her sins and her 
 crimes. What section has not? The South has had 
 and will have violent shocks to her civilization. What 
 section has not? The South has had her sorrows. 
 God knows they have been grievous and hard to be en- 
 dured. Whenever the South finds an ideal government 
 without sin, a people perfect in law and perfect in its 
 enforcement, the South will do its respectful obeisance 
 
98 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 and ask to be led into its broader civilization and its 
 better power. Till then, and not till then, we shall stand 
 abreast of all other sections, claiming as broad a civiliza- 
 tion as any and challenging those without sin to cast 
 the first stone at us." 
 
 "What shall be done with the negro?" far out- 
 weighs for the American people all questions of terri- 
 torial expansion, for we have the African as a factor 
 of our internal relations, our domestic policy and our 
 every day life. It has been thought by some social 
 scientists that a process of amalgamation would grad- 
 ually absorb the negro. 
 
 There is no state in the South where legal miscegena- 
 tion exists. Intermarriage is rendered void, the con- 
 tracting parties are driven from a community and the 
 minister who performs the ceremony is subjected to 
 punishment. Besides, instinct and tradition oppose in- 
 surmountable barriers to such a solution. 
 
 As to the extent of illegal mixture of the races the 
 following figures, from a reliable source, will afford 
 some light: '' Of the whole African population 728,099, 
 in 1890, in the North Atlantic, North Central and West- 
 ern states, 28 per cent were mulattoes. In the South 
 Atlantic and the South central divisions at this time, 
 there were 6,741,941 persons of African descent, of 
 whom 13 per cent were mulattoes." 
 
 Another proposal has been the colonization of the 
 negro in Africa and our newly acquired possessions. 
 Left to himself, as in Hayti, the negro has always de- 
 generated, and proved incapable of self-government. 
 Whatever attempts have been made at colonization, as 
 
The Southern Problem 99 
 
 in Liberia, have been abortive. The negro himself is 
 violently opposed to transportation; only the unsettled 
 and thriftless want to go; and as has been said by a 
 leading journal, " If 2,000 were sent out every week of 
 the year, that number would simply equal their natural 
 increase in this land." 
 
 Although the death rate among the negroes is great, 
 as has been shown in a previous chapter, it is not prob- 
 able that the problem will be solved by extinction. Ac- 
 cording to the last census there were almost twice as 
 many in the United States as when the civil war closed. 
 
 Southern statesmen are trying disfranchisement of 
 the colored men as a solution of the vexed question. The 
 white people of the South are equally intolerant of the 
 social equality and the political domination of the black 
 man. Every device has been tried to prevent the power 
 of his vote — from a shot-gun to a Constitutional amend- 
 ment. By the latter method, in 1890, Mississippi, with 
 an educational qualification, legally and peacefully 
 ejected the masses of the negroes from politics. This 
 initiative has been followed by South Carolina and by 
 Louisiana. The South's representation in the national 
 government is not thereby lessened, as it is based upon 
 population and not upon voters. 
 
 This system has worked admirably, so far, in sub- 
 stituting a rule of intelligence for that of ignorance ; it 
 is worth the serious consideration of all states that have 
 a large foreign population. Every year the movement 
 to make the wishes of the rank and file supreme is gain- 
 ing ground with the American people, as is evidenced 
 by the growth of the initiative and referendum and by 
 
 L.cTC. 
 
loo A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 direct primaries. Only an intelligent suffragist is capa- 
 ble or worthy of so high a prerogative, and especially 
 must he be educated in and imbued with the spirit of 
 the American government. A large part of the foreign 
 population that lands on our shores is less capable than 
 the negro of American citizenship; it not only has no 
 more education but must divest itself of previous pre- 
 dilections as to government. 
 
 If educational and property limitations of the fran- 
 chise are not sufficient to ensure white supremacy at 
 the South it could certainly be established by the follow- 
 ing plan, submitted by Henry B. Blackwell, of Boston, 
 Mass. He says, " The enactment of a law enabling 
 women able to read and write to vote would at once so 
 enlarge the political forces of intelligence and morality 
 as to control the negro vote and the illiterate vote, ab- 
 solutely, in every Southern state, as will be seen by the 
 following figures taken from the United States census 
 of 1880, the latest available ones for the purpose of com- 
 parison: In every Southern state but one there are 
 more educated women than all the illiterate voters, 
 white and black, native and foreign, combined. An 
 overwhelming political preponderance of intelligence 
 can be fairly and honestly attained at any time by the 
 enfranchisement of the women who can read and write, 
 ten out of eleven of whom are white women. 
 
 " By the last available census there were, on the pres- 
 ent basis of universal male suffrage, in the Southern 
 states and District of Columbia, 2,947,434 white voters, 
 of whom 411,900 were unable to write, and 1,252,484 
 colored voters, of whom 951,444 were unable to write. 
 
The Southern Problem loi 
 
 But in these states there were also 2,293,698 white 
 women over 21 who could write, and 236,865 colored 
 women who could write. If these two and a half million 
 educated women were made voters, their votes would 
 offset the entire illiterate voters, both black and white, 
 who number, all told, only 1,363,344, v/hich surplus, 
 when added to the 2,836,574, educated male voters, 
 would make an educated voting majority of over 
 4,000,000.'* 
 
 To my mind, the solution of the negro problem lies 
 in the establishment of the home and in industrial educa- 
 tion. The word home is as foreign to the negro's vocab- 
 ulary as to the Frenchman's. As a rule the colored 
 people dwell herded in their cabins, which usually con- 
 sist of but one room. In this men, women and little 
 children " live and move and have their being — " often 
 most numerously. Remaining long in one location is a 
 sort of intimation of slavery, so they change their quar- 
 ters frequently. They, as yet, have acquired little sense 
 of the dignity of ownership. Prosperity can attend no 
 people who are indifferent to possessions, for this indi- 
 cates a want of purpose, and a failure to grasp the 
 fundamental principles of personal and public welfare. 
 
 There is, however, a more potential factor in the de- 
 velopment of the home than the proprietorship of an 
 abiding place, and that is the maintenance of the family 
 life in unity and sanctity. Hon. James Brice has wisely 
 said : " The family is the fundamental problem of civili- 
 zation." The negro's condition will remain hopeless 
 until he acquires higher moral ground. That is the 
 secret of his destiny. This elevation will be effected 
 
I02 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 through a truer concept of Christianity. Stonewall 
 Jackson said : ** It is necessary to put the strong hand 
 of the gospel under the ignorant African race to lift 
 them up." It is a matter of rejoicing that the negroes 
 have built since the civil war 19,753 churches, costing 
 over $20,000,000. It is not the church that will redeem 
 them, however, but the spirit of God in the church ; the 
 possession of a religion that will purify the life — at least 
 from the grossest sins. '' The hope of the black race," 
 Bishop Haygood thought, " Hes mainly in the pulpit." 
 
 Industrial training, resulting in the power to produce, 
 will lead to the ability to gain and retain property, and 
 will thus become an agent for the acquisition and de- 
 velopment of the home. The two leading institutions 
 in the South for the education of the negro are Hamp- 
 ton Normal and Agricultural College, at Hampton, Vir- 
 ginia, and Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, 
 at Tuskegee, Alabama. The principal of the latter is 
 Booker T. Washington, who was born a slave, but is 
 now the most noted colored man in America, and the 
 foremost educator and the leader of the 8,000,000 ne- 
 groes of this country. The institute at Tuskegee under 
 his able and discreet management, has grown to vast 
 proportions and its influence for good is broadly felt. 
 
 In the session of 1898 it enrolled 1,047 students ; they 
 came from twenty-four states and territories and from 
 two foreign countries. Work to the amount of $45,- 
 288.10 has been done by the students while pursuing 
 their course of study. They cultivate 650. acres of land 
 besides keeping in constant operation twenty-four other 
 industries. Graduates from this institution are now fol- 
 
The Southern Problem 103 
 
 lowing almost every industrial and professional avoca- 
 tion. By giving to the world trained, self-supporting 
 workmen Booker T Washington is doing much to solve 
 the problem of his race. He says, very truthfully, " In 
 our education of the black man so far, we have failed in 
 a large degree to educate along the very line along 
 which most of the colored people especially need help. 
 . . . The fact is that 90 per cent of our people depend 
 upon the common occupations for a living, and, outside 
 of the cities, 85 per cent depend upon agriculture for 
 support. Notwithstanding this our people have been 
 educated since the war in everything else but the very 
 things that most of them live by. . . . First-class train- 
 ing in agriculture, horticulture, dairying, stock raising, 
 the mechanical arts and domestic economy, will make 
 us intelligent producers, and not only help us contribute 
 our proportion as tax-payers, but will result in retain- 
 ing much money in the state that now goes outside for 
 that which can be produced in the state. An institution 
 that will give this training of the hand, along with the 
 highest mental culture, will soon convince our people 
 that their salvation is in the ownership of property, in- 
 dustrial and business development, rather than mere 
 political agitation. 
 
 " The great problem now is, how to get the masses 
 to the point where they can be sure of a comfortable 
 living and be prepared to save a little something each 
 year. This can be accomplished only by putting among 
 the masses as fast as possible, strong, well-trained lead- 
 ers in the industrial walks of life." 
 
 It has been said by an educator of colored youth, in 
 
I04 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 reference to ante-bellum days, that " There never was a 
 peasantry better trained in agriculture peculiar to the 
 South, and in the mechanical arts necessary to its suc- 
 cessful operation, than the colored people. Spinning, 
 weaving, cutting and making garments, working in 
 iron, wood and leather v/ere parts of the industries of 
 every plantation of any size." With the introduction 
 of a new regime this form of education was supplanted 
 by training in the classics and professions. To-day the 
 young Southern negro, born since the war, en masse, is 
 the most imtrained, inefficient yeoman in existence in 
 any civilized country. 
 
 In the slave states alone, it is said, the blacks have 
 281 normal schools, 238 universities and colleges and 
 270 institutions for secondary instruction. Yet all this 
 education has not perceptibly advanced the moral status 
 of the race. 
 
 It has been proven that the negro is able to grasp 
 the higher education ; but the number of those who 
 seek it is small. On the testimony of teachers among 
 the negroes it has been stated that only about six per 
 cent out of the thousands who have been instructed in 
 the great missionary schools in the South have seized 
 the opportunity for advanced education. A negro has 
 won prizes of distinction at Harvard ; others have 
 graduated from leading colleges and universities; a 
 colored man has written a Greek grammar ; an ex-slave 
 of General Joe Davis, of Mississippi, graduated at Fisk 
 University and at Oberlin and went as a missionary to 
 Africa. He has helped to reduce a native language to 
 writing, prepared a dictionary and grammar of it, and 
 
The Southern Problem 105 
 
 published a translation of much of the New. Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 The president of a State Normal College in Missis- 
 sippi for the negroes says he had a student who could 
 read one hundred and twenty-five consecutive verses of 
 Homer's Iliad without one mistake; but it was impos- 
 sible for that same student to copy a figure in analytical 
 geometry. To others who had mathematical gifts the 
 languages were unattainable. Of course, these cases of 
 unusual attainment are exceptional. 
 
 In a lecture given in Memphis, Tennessee, February, 
 1899, Judge James M. Greer presented a definition of 
 the negro that will be endorsed by every Southerner 
 who knew him, as the judge did, in ante-bellum days. 
 The one generation since has not been long enough to 
 materially change him, except as he has fluctuated in 
 the chaos of his upheaval from slavery to the freedom 
 to follow his undisciplined will and his disorganized 
 circumstances. There will be much sympathy with 
 these true and kindly words of Judge Greer : " I knew 
 him so intimately in my own childhood, knew him as 
 the trusted, loyal slave ; knew him as my friend and my 
 inferior, that I believe I may say to you that he was an 
 anomaly in history and a contradiction in human nature. 
 If he was wanting in settled purpose and determined 
 mental effort, he was also without malicious hatred or 
 puling complaint. If he had the thoughtlessness of 
 childhood, he had also its faith. If he was religious 
 without reason, he was devout without hypocrisy. . . . 
 If he was without fixed principles in his life, he was 
 kind in his impulse. If he was without the knowledge 
 
io6 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 of books, he had gained much from observation. If he 
 never originated, he readily imitated. If his courage 
 was small, his rebellions were few. If his family ties 
 were weak and his domestic life fickle, his humor was 
 great and his charity enormous. If he was uncertain 
 in the line of meum and tuum, he was generous in dis- 
 tribution, hospitable in the extreme, and improvident 
 always. If he was without profound wisdom, he was 
 also without deep sorrow. 
 
 " I may say of him truthfully that he was a humorist 
 without wit, a lover without constancy, a poet without 
 words, a father without control, a husband without 
 rights, a slave without hatred, a friend without equality, 
 an inferior without resentment, a human without 
 ambition, a man without a country. He became a 
 soldier without discipline, a politician without states- 
 manship, and a freeman without ceasing to be a child." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN WOMEN 
 
 The only conclusive evidence of a man's sincerity is that he 
 gives himself for a principle. Words, money, all things else 
 are comparatively easy to give away ; but when a man makes 
 a gift of his daily life and practice, it is plain that the truth, 
 whatever it may be, has taken possession of him. — Lowell. 
 
 During the Southern Exposition in 1884, my second 
 trip was made to New Orleans. The world had 
 changed considerably to me since my first visit : my eyes 
 had grown accustomed to larger visions. Since begin- 
 ning to teach, every question that related to the attain- 
 ments and possibilities of women was of intense 
 interest to me; but especially her developed power of 
 bread-winning. 
 
 Julia Ward Howe was lecturing in the city. She was 
 the first woman I had ever heard speak before a public 
 audience, except students on a school rostrum. Never 
 can the eagerness be forgotten with which my feet 
 hastened to the hall where she was to be heard, nor the 
 absorption with which my listening ears drew in every 
 word, nor the critical attention that was given to every 
 detail of the speaker's appearance, from the lace cap that 
 rested on her brainy head down to the toes of her com- 
 mon-sense boots. 
 
 She spoke on " Woman's Work." As she talked 
 
 107 
 
io8 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 brilliantly and fluently my enchantment grew. The re- 
 mark that she had visited several foreign countries and 
 had addressed the women of each in their own tongue 
 particularly impressed me. How far away those 
 strange lands seemed ! How wonderful to be looking 
 at a person who had really seen them ! Going to Europe 
 had been the dream of my life, and here was a woman 
 who had actually been there ! For many years an earn- 
 est desire had possessed me to behold a genuinely 
 strong-minded woman, — one of the truly advanced 
 type. Beautiful to realize, she stood before me ! and in 
 a position the very acme of independence — upon a plat- 
 form delivering a speech ! 
 
 Since the development of my reasoning faculties I 
 had believed in the rights of women, although in an 
 article on that subject, written at the age of nineteen, 
 I had affirmed " that we do not ask for the ballot." It 
 would have been too shocking, and my radicalism at that 
 period was in the chrysalis state. There was born in 
 me a sense of the injustice that had always been heaped 
 upon my sex, and this consciousness created and sus- 
 tained in me a constant and ever increasing rebellion. 
 The definite idea of the political emancipation of 
 woman, as a happy and logical solution of the vexed 
 question, did not present itself to me in a positive guise 
 until some time after my entrance upon the list of 
 wage-earners. 
 
 Mother and father had reared me in a very liberal 
 atmosphere concerning the intellectual and political 
 status of women, for they were both advocates of woman 
 suffrage ; father was particularly ardent. He had often 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 109 
 
 said that it filled him with humiliation to think that his 
 wife and daughter were not his equals before the law ; 
 and with indignation that the mother of his children 
 could be looked on in any other light. 
 
 It gives me deep joy to remember that later on in 
 our experience, on mother's sixty-seventh birthday, she 
 drove with me four miles through the country to attend 
 a suffrage meeting which I addressed. An Equal 
 Rights club was organized in which mother assisted. 
 Father, who was at that time seventy-one years of age, 
 was made its president. Another fact that I remember 
 gratefully is that it was my privilege to serve the Mis- 
 sissippi State Woman Suffrage Association for awhile 
 as its president. 
 
 Notwithstanding father's broad-minded position in 
 the earlier days it did not occur to him that his daughter 
 might desire to enter the field of active modern workers. 
 That was " the pinch ; " but since my way had been 
 fought into public school teaching he had never opposed 
 my progressive views nor interfered with my under- 
 takings. By gradual stages he became alive to every 
 issue in which my interest was involved and did all in 
 his power to further my projects. He began to consult 
 my opinion on important affairs. Every family trouble, 
 every enterprise, every hope was discussed between us. 
 Perfect freedom of thought and expression had been al- 
 lowed me since my birth, and absolute freedom of action 
 since my thirteenth year. The privilege had been 
 granted of selecting my own clothes and choosing my 
 own companions. After the beginning of my teens 
 father and mother never said to me, " You shall do this," 
 
no A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 or " You shall not do that." Since my clash of ideas 
 with father at nineteen, he has asked me at the begin- 
 ning of each year : " Well, daughter, what are your 
 plans ? " Often when he has been implored to direct 
 me on certain subjects or to criticize my actions he has 
 invariably said: '* You must exercise your own judg- 
 ment. I have perfect faith in your powers of discrim- 
 ination." Mother endorsed these sentiments fervidly. 
 
 The freedom of my home environment was perfect, 
 but I recognized the fact that there were tremendous 
 limitations of my " personal liberty " outside the family 
 circle. An instance of it soon painfully impressed my 
 consciousness. Three of my brothers, the comrades of 
 my childhood, had become voting citizens. They were 
 manly and generous enough to sympathize with my 
 ballotless condition, but it was the source of many jokes 
 at my expense among them. On a certain election day 
 in November, they mounted their horses and started for 
 the polls. I stood watching them as they rode off in the 
 splendor of their youth and strength. I was full of 
 love and pride for them, but was feeling keenly the dis- 
 grace of being a disfranchised mortal, simply on ac- 
 count of having been born a woman, — and that by no 
 volition of my own. Surmising the storm that was 
 raging in my heart, my second brother — who was at 
 home from the West on a visit of over a year's duration 
 — looking at me, smiling and lifting his hat in mock 
 courtesy said : " Good morning, sister. You taught 
 us and trained us in the way we should go. You gave 
 us money from your hard earnings, and helped us to get 
 a start in the world. You are interested infinitely more 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 1 1 1 
 
 in good government and understand politics a thpusand 
 times better than we, but it is election day and we leave 
 you at home with the idiots and Indians, incapables, 
 paupers, lunatics, criminals and the other women that 
 the authorities in this nation do not deem it proper to 
 trust with the ballot; while we, lordly men, march to 
 the polls and express our opinions in a way that 
 counts." 
 
 There was the echo of a general laugh as they rode 
 away. A salute was waved to them and a good-by 
 smiled in return; but my lips were trembling and my 
 eyes were dim with tears. For the first time the fact 
 was apparent that a wide gulf stretched between my 
 brothers and me ; that there was a plane, called political 
 equality, upon which we could not stand together. We 
 had the same home, the same parents, the same facul- 
 ties, the same general outlook. We had loved the same 
 things and striven for the same ends and had been 
 equals in all respects. Noiv I was set aside as inferior, 
 inadequate for citizenship, not because of inferior qual- 
 ity or achievement but by an arbitrary discrimination 
 that seemed as unjust as it was unwise. I too had to 
 live under the laws ; then why was it not equally my 
 interest and privilege, to elect the officers who were to 
 make and execute them ? I was a human being and a 
 citizen, and a self-supporting, producing citizen, yet my 
 government took no cognizance of me except to set me 
 aside with the unworthy and the incapable for whom 
 the state was forced to provide. 
 
 That experience made me a woman suffragist, 
 avowed and uncompromising. Deep down in my heart 
 
IIZ A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 a vow was made that day that never should satisfaction 
 come to me until by personal effort I had helped to put 
 the ballot into the hands of woman. It became a mas- 
 tering purpose of my life. 
 
 The women of the South have not sought work be- 
 cause they loved it ; they have not gone before the public 
 because it was desirable for themselves; they have not 
 arrived at the wish for political equality with men 
 simply by a process of reasoning; all this has been 
 thrust upon them by a changed social and economic en- 
 vironment. It is the result of the evolution of events 
 which was set in motion by the bombardment of Fort 
 Sumter. 
 
 At the close of the war when the entire South was 
 lying prostrate and bleeding ; her fertile fields left bare 
 and desolate, her lovely homes ravaged by fire and 
 sword ; her young men slaughtered or disabled ; her 
 commercial streams choked and stagnated; her system 
 of labor utterly and forever destroyed ; her social affilia- 
 tions blasted and every feature of life dazed and revolu- 
 tionized, the women of that unhappy time arose in the 
 majesty of their hitherto undreamed-of strength and 
 with forceful calmness and unmurmuring determina- 
 tion, put their hands figuratively and literally to the 
 plow and have never faltered nor looked back. Their 
 heroism has not been known as it deserves. When, 
 after the war, the men were dying all about them from 
 the hardships that they had endured in the field of bat- 
 tle, the mother-heart of the South said, " Somebody 
 must live for the sake of our children " — and the women 
 lived and worked. Those of the better classes had been 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 113 
 
 accustomed to the control and management of servants 
 and households, often of large planting interests. They 
 were full of resources, and their naturally flexible tem- 
 perament made readjustment easier to them than to 
 men. For a decade or more, the boys usually went to 
 work at the time they should have entered college, partly 
 from necessity, partly because many of them had served 
 in the Confederate army and preferred work to the con- 
 finement of a student's life. The daughters were. sent 
 to college ; every sacrifice was made for this end, until, 
 after fifteen years, the superiority of culture of the 
 young woman over the average young man was very 
 noticeable. Improving circumstances gradually cor- 
 rected this inequality : but the tide had set toward the 
 advancement of women in the educational and industrial 
 field. 
 
 Now, over the South, boarding schools and academies 
 with their meagre curriculum have been supplanted by 
 industrial institutes and colleges where young women 
 are drilled in common-sense pursuits that will fit them 
 to be bread-winners ; sending them out into the world 
 with skilled hands and trained minds. Medical colleges 
 once devoted wholly to men are now equally open to 
 women. Among these is the State Medical College of 
 South Carolina, at Charleston, Tulane University of 
 New Orleans, Louisiana, and Johns Hopkins at Balti- 
 more, Maryland. The following state institutions are 
 co-educational: University of Alabama, Arkansas In- 
 dustrial University, University of Mississippi, Uni- 
 versity of Missouri, University of North Carolina, Uni- 
 versity of Tennessee, University of Texas, West Vir- 
 
114 ^ Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 ginia University, South Carolina College, Alabama Ag- 
 ricultural and Mechanical College, Mississippi Agri- 
 cultural and Mechanical College; also for the negro 
 race Delaware State College for Colored Students, Al- 
 corn Agricultural and Mechanical College (Missis- 
 sippi), and Agricultural and Mechanical College 
 (North Carolina). Very much after the order of Har- 
 vard and Columbia, the doors of the University of Ala- 
 bama have been opened to young women. The annex 
 is named for Miss Julia Tutwiler, the noted Alabama 
 educator, who has done more to secure the opportunities 
 now granted the girls than any other woman in her 
 state. 
 
 Four Southern states have industrial schools for 
 white girls : — Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South 
 Carolina. Mississippi w,as the first State in the Union 
 to have a State Industrial College ; also the first to have 
 an Industrial College for Girls. There were industrial 
 schools, but not as planned in Mississippi by the State 
 for the girls. 
 
 Nearly all public normal schools in the South are co- 
 educational. The custom is gaining in favor and there 
 is a pronounced sentiment for allowing women to hold 
 administrative situations in the educational system. In 
 the field of instruction Southern women occupy an hon- 
 ored position. There are thousands of women teachers 
 in the common schools of the South to-day, besides 
 hundreds of college professors, principals of high 
 schools, presidents of normals, county superintendents 
 of education, school commissioners, members of school 
 boards and committees on examination. 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 115 
 
 Two prominent women asked the State Superintend- 
 ent of Education of Louisiana not long since what pro- 
 portion of women were employed in the public schools 
 of that state. He replied that there were about nine- 
 teen-twentieths. This is a fair average of women 
 teachers in all the Southern states. Two-thirds of the 
 425,000 teachers now in the United States are women. 
 
 There were 1,391 more women teachers in the city 
 of Baltimore, in December, 1896, than male teachers. 
 It is a significant fact that the salaries of women teach- 
 ers in nearly every Southern state, probably in all, are 
 smaller than those of male teachers, — which fact may 
 be stated as general for most states of the Union. Less 
 pay for the same amount and character of work is a 
 cause as potential in arousing the unrest of women as 
 that they are taxed to support a government that denies 
 them representation. 
 
 Hundreds of missionaries go out from among South- 
 ern women every few years into home and foreign 
 mission fields and almost every group of worshipers, 
 however small, has a woman's missionary society. The 
 majority of churches welcome women to their pulpits 
 and Southern women evansfelists are counted with the 
 most successful in the United States of either sex. 
 Some denominations allow women to represent them 
 in their local councils and send them as delegates to 
 legislate in ecclesiastical assemblies. In the South, as 
 everywhere, women constitute two-thirds of the mem- 
 bership of the young people's church societies. Young 
 Southern women are beginning to ask for deaconesses* 
 orders and although not allowed to expound the Scrip- 
 
1 1 6 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 tures as ordained ministers, yet some have graduated 
 from schools of theology and many more are being pre- 
 pared unconsciously to officiate as clergymen in the 
 splendid drills they are receiving in gospel training 
 schools, and the active work of the Young Woman's 
 Christian Association. Women are superintendents of 
 Sunday-schools, collecting stewards and elders, and are 
 filling almost every office known to the church except 
 that of pastor. 
 
 From early Colonial times women have conducted 
 newspapers in the South, written articles on strong- 
 minded subjects and produced many works of fiction; 
 but it was left to the women of these later days to blos- 
 som into full-fledged journalists, editors, reporters and 
 managers of great dailies, proprietors of magazines and 
 authors of books, forming a growing and brilliant host. 
 
 A young lady of New Orleans told me that she was 
 not allowed, several years ago, to go shopping on the 
 most elegant business street of that city without a chap- 
 erone; afterward she became a reporter for one of the 
 most influential papers, going out alone at all hours of 
 the day and night. This has been the experience of 
 many Southern girls. Numbers of women belong to 
 press associations in the South, and some are presidents 
 of these important bodies. Clubs, literary, industrial, 
 scientific and political, abound from one end of the 
 South to the other. Railroads are employing Southern 
 women as bookkeepers and telegraph operators, and 
 they are acceptably filling the responsible position of 
 freight and passenger agent. They are seen behind 
 counters as clerks, in drug stores as pharmacists, in of- 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 117 
 
 fices by the score as typewriters and stenographers. We 
 find them successful merchants, hotel keepers, farmers 
 and cattle ranchers, state librarians, cashiers of banks, 
 postmasters, artists, sculptors, architects and musicians, 
 presidents of banks, police matrons, trained nurses, su- 
 perintendents of hospitals, instructors of gymnasiums, 
 steamboat captains, and officials in the employ of our 
 national government, supporting not only themselves 
 but often large families. Southern women are rapidly 
 entering the professions of law and medicine ; many are 
 promising amateur practitioners, while others have al- 
 ready reached the zenith of the expert. 
 
 When a man married a wealthy woman of the South, 
 a few decades ago, all of her property passed into the 
 hands of her husband. Mississippi claims the honor of 
 being the first state in the Union to bestow the right 
 upon married women of full control of their property. 
 Since it took the initiative, in 1880, the measure has 
 become popular, not only in the South, but in many 
 other states. 
 
 When the bill giving women the control of their 
 property was before the Mississippi legislature, its op- 
 ponents argued against it on the ground that if passed 
 and allowed to go into execution, it would disrupt fam- 
 ilies. This idea of the disruption of families has been 
 a terror that has hounded the steps of the reformer for 
 generations, but the home tie seems to remain unruffled, 
 through all the revolutions. 
 
 Southern women have developed marvelously as 
 lecturers and organizers in philanthropic movements. 
 Nearly every state in the South can boast of women 
 
1 1 8 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 orators who have addressed hundreds of enthusiastic 
 audiences and unflinchingly pushed their way through 
 overwhelming difficulties to positions of influence and 
 power. 
 
 Modern reformations have gained a foothold in the 
 hearts and lives of Southern women that is astonishing 
 to all who realize the intense conservatism that fettered 
 them in other days. 
 
 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the 
 golden key that unlocked the prison doors of pent-up 
 possibilities. It was the generous liberator, the joyous 
 iconoclast, the discoverer, the developer of Southern 
 women. It, above all other forces, made it possible for 
 women to occupy the advanced and continually advanc- 
 ing position they now hold. A position that is leading 
 steadily to the highest pinnacle that can be reached in 
 civil government, namely, the political emancipation of 
 women. The hungry avidity with which the brainy, 
 philosophical women of the South are taking hold of 
 this great subject is something at which we cannot won- 
 der. It is the natural outcome of their desperate 
 struggles for individual freedom. This sentiment for 
 woman suffrage is not confined to one sex, by any 
 means. I have always maintained, and do now insist, 
 that Southern men, as a rule, are stronger advocates 
 for the enfranchisement of women than men in any 
 other section of the United States except in certain por- 
 tions of the West. The old-time element of chivalry, 
 which constituted so largely the make-up of the South- 
 ern gentleman, has been handed down through the gen- 
 erations and now begins to crystalize in the direction 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 1 19 
 
 of equality before the law for men and women. South- 
 ern people are hospitable to reforms, whether they come 
 in the guise of reHgion, philanthropy or politics, if 
 justice and righteousness lie at the foundation. The 
 movement for woman suffrage has advanced slowly in 
 the South, because very slight effort has been made 
 there to secure the ballot for women, and the thought 
 is somewhat a new one to the masses. For years, in 
 different Southern states I have heard prominent men 
 say : " If women want to vote, it is all right. We have 
 no objection. As human beings, they are entitled to the 
 same privileges as we are, and require the same legal 
 protection. We do not give them the ballot because 
 they do not seem to desire it. Just as soon as they de- 
 mand it, they will get it." 
 
 When the constitutional convention was held in Mis- 
 sissippi, a few years since, suffrage came very near be- 
 ing granted to the women of that state ; and in South 
 Carolina, soon after, the bill introduced in the legis- 
 lature for woman's enfranchisement was lost by a 
 remarkably small vote in the senate. In 1898, the state 
 of Louisiana, by constitutional enactment, gave to all 
 tax-paying women the right to vote upon all questions 
 submitted to the tax-payers. 
 
 There are several states in the South that give women 
 the right of suffrage to a limited degree, and whenever 
 they have exercised that privilege they have been 
 treated with the utmost deference by the male citizens 
 who met them on an equal footing at the polls. Ken- 
 tucky enjoys the distinction of being the first state in 
 the nation to grant suffrage in any form to women. 
 
120 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 This was done as early as 1838. Of course, there are 
 thousands of men in the South, as elsewhere, who are 
 heavily coated with an impenetrable crust of prejudice 
 concerning the hoary creed of " woman's sphere," who 
 would oppose bitterly any effort made for her enfran- 
 chisement, just as they would fight any other progres- 
 sive measure. To this class belong the liquor dealers, 
 the wily politicians of the lower stamp, the ultra-con- 
 servative ecclesiastics, the superfine " swells " and men 
 who have risen from the humbler walks of life deprived 
 of early advantages of education and the refinements 
 of elevated home environments. 
 
 Exactly as there are opponents among men, so are 
 there thousands of women in the South who have ar- 
 rayed themselves in a belligerent attitude toward the 
 movement that was instituted especially for their well- 
 being. There are multitudes of others who are still in a 
 deep sleep regarding the necessity of having the ballot, 
 and are continuing to drone the old song in their slum- 
 bers : " I have all the rights I want ; " but there are 
 many of their sisters who are beginning to rub their 
 eyes and look up with a glad surprise upon the new day 
 that is breaking, while scores of others have shattered 
 every shackle that bound them to the old conditions and 
 have walked out boldly into the flood-tide of the most 
 benignant evolution that the centuries have brought 
 to them, and are working with heart and brain on fire 
 to materialize into legislation the most potential gift that 
 civilization can bestow. 
 
 There are woman suffrage societies in every state in 
 the South, and equal rights conventions are constantly 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 121 
 
 being held. There are women everlastingly busy in 
 sending out suffrage literature, lecturing and organiz- 
 ing political equality clubs, in supplying articles for the 
 press, in appearing before legislatures and committees 
 and interviewing representatives, in canvassing towns 
 and counties, and in every other way laboring to pro- 
 mulgate the divine doctrine of equality, realizing that 
 '.when men and women " shall know the truth, . . the 
 truth shall make " them '' free." 
 
 A striking illustration of what sort of energy and 
 persistence is in the Southern character is shown in the 
 efforts of a young, woman who was born in South Car- 
 olina, and brought by her parents at the age of seven 
 to Mississippi, where she was reared on a farm near 
 Meridian. From her earliest years, she was possessed 
 of a great love for natural science, and was filled with 
 an ambition for a liberal education: but she was poor, 
 and the future looked shadowy and forbidding. It was 
 not so dark, however, as not to be overcome by a relent- 
 less energy. At one time her brother playfully gave 
 her the large sum of five cents. With this a yard of 
 calico was bought, out of which she manufactured a 
 sunbonnet and sold it for twenty-five cents. That 
 amount was invested in more calico, and a dress was 
 made and sold ; then reinvestments followed till $12 was 
 realized. She persuaded her father to let her have an 
 acre of ground to cultivate for a year ; her request was 
 granted, and from her own labor and the help of the 
 $12 a crop of sweet potatoes was raised which netted 
 $40. This amount just covered the required deposit 
 necessary to enter the Industrial Institute and College, 
 
122 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 at Columbus, Mississippi. Here she paid her board 
 for four years by doing dining-room work. In 189 1 she 
 was graduated with the degree of B. A. 
 
 The next year was passed in Meridian studying medi- 
 cine under one of the leading physicians. In the fall of 
 '92 she entered the Woman's Medical College of Penn- 
 sylvania, paying her way through that institution by 
 giving private lessons in physiology and chemistry to 
 the students, for which she received $2 an hour, and, 
 at odd times, working as a waitress in a restaurant. 
 During the summers she stayed in Philadelphia nurs- 
 ing, thus making her expenses and gaining much 
 practical knowledge. In 1895 she was graduated from 
 the Woman's Medical College, and returned at once to 
 Meridian. Very soon she was requested by two mission 
 boards to go to China and take charge of hospital work 
 there, but she said she felt called to practice medicine 
 in the South, in her own state and among her own peo- 
 ple. Six months after her graduation as a physician, 
 she took the state medical examination and was granted 
 a license to practice — the first woman in Mississippi 
 who has gained such a distinction. Her reception by 
 the physicians of her state has been cordial and courte- 
 ous. Dr. Rosa Wiss is now an honored and independent 
 physician with a success assured by the precedent 
 narrated. 
 
 The mighty principles that are now being wrought 
 out in the splendid lives of the women of this nation 
 received their impetus several years before the Civil 
 war. Jessie Cassidy in her compact little book called 
 " The Legal Status of Women," published in 1897 for 
 
Evolution of Southern Women 123 
 
 the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 
 in the Pohtical Science series, gives a concise but com- 
 prehensive history of the woman's movement in these 
 words : ** The first organized demand by women for 
 political recognition was made in the United States in 
 1848, at the memorable Seneca Falls Convention. That 
 suffrage should be included had not beforehand entered 
 the minds of those who issued the call for the conven- 
 tion, but it was suggested during the preparation of the 
 Declaration of Independence and incorporated in the list 
 of grievances submitted by the committee. It came like 
 a bombshell upon the unprepared convention, and after 
 a long discussion was passed by only a bare majority. 
 Lucretia Mott was one of those who at that time could 
 not see her way to support it. The organization of dif- 
 ferent State Suffrage Associations followed, continuing 
 the agitation. In 1869 Wyoming granted full political 
 equality to women. 
 
 " Different degrees of school suffrage are now 
 granted in twenty-two states and territories, partial suf- 
 frage for public improvements in three, municipal suf- 
 frage in one, and in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and 
 Idaho women vote for all officers, local, state and 
 national, exactly as do men." 
 
 The following is a list of states and territories that 
 have given the franchise in some form to women : Ari- 
 zona and Oklahoma territories ; Colorado, Connecticut, 
 Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, 
 Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mis- 
 sissippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New 
 Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South 
 
124 ^ Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, 
 Wyoming. 
 
 In 1869, John Stuart Mill introduced the question of 
 woman suffrage in Parliament. This was the first 
 movement that was made for it in England. Since then 
 women have been granted local franchise to a great ex- 
 tent and now a strong demand is being made for Parlia- 
 mentary Suffrage. The cause of equal rights is gain- 
 ing constantly in many provinces and countries on the 
 continent. In a number of them local and school fran- 
 chise has been given to women. Full suffrage is enjoyed 
 in the Isle of Man, New Zealand, and South and West 
 Australia. The following is a register of foreign coun- 
 tries that have given the ballot to women in some form : 
 Australasia — Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, New 
 South Wales, New Zealand, South and West Australia ; 
 Canada-;— Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, New Bruns- 
 wick, British Columbia ; Cape of Good Hope, England, 
 Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland, Wales, Fin- 
 land, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Russia, Aus- 
 tria, Brunswick, Croatia, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, 
 Westphalia, Austria — Bohemia, Galicia, Lodomeria, 
 Cracow, Moravia; Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Rou- 
 mania. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE TRANSFORMATION 
 
 Why thus longing, thus forever sighing 
 For the far-off, unattainable and dim, — 
 
 While the beautiful, all around thee lying 
 Offers up its low, perpetual hymn? 
 
 —Harriet Winslow. 
 
 My last private school in Flora was continued only 
 a few months. At the beginning of the New Year, 
 1887, my pupils were turned over to the public school 
 and I sought a much needed rest in a visit to some rela- 
 tives in St, Louis, Missouri, where six weeks were 
 spent. There was the usual round of society gaieties 
 but the extent of my participation was entertaining 
 numerous visitors, attending receptions and the theatre. 
 
 This breath from the old life found me as miserable 
 as five years before, full of the same restless and un- 
 happy questioning, and more disgusted than ever with 
 the emptiness of an existence without a definite aim. 
 I was yearning continually for an intangible Something, 
 but believing in nothing. 
 
 On my return from St. Louis a lengthy visit was 
 made to Canton. My mathematical studies under Mrs. 
 Drane were resumed and examination taken, for the 
 second time, under the new school law, in both of which 
 first-grade certificates were obtained. My plans were 
 
 125 
 
126 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 unsettled but wisdom pointed to a state of readiness for 
 any emergency. Soon after going home a letter was 
 received from Mrs. Drane inviting me to join her in 
 the flourishing school she had established at Canton : 
 " Not as my assistant," she wrote, '' but as my partner ; 
 sharing equally my labor and my income." A short 
 time previous father's health had begun to fail. This 
 made it imperative for me to remain near him, so the 
 tempting oifer had to be declined. 
 
 In the fall, my fifth public school year was begun near 
 home in a new school-house that had replaced the old 
 hut — the scene of my former struggles. It was not 
 necessary for me to go from house to house begging 
 for pupils as in earlier days, but the same visitations 
 were made because a great yearning over humanity had 
 crept into my heart, and the desire of my life was to do 
 something for its solace and its uplift. My eyes had 
 slowly opened to many truths ; among the chief was a 
 recognition of my intensely selfish, inordinately proud 
 and uselessly embittered spirit. I saw that there was 
 poverty in the world infinitely more stringent and pain- 
 ful than mine ; that there was suffering cruel and ex- 
 quisite, to which my sorrows were as drops of rain to 
 the fathomless ocean; that there was hunger for light 
 and sympathy, the intensity and need of which I was 
 but beginning to comprehend ; that there was ignorance 
 pitiful and paralyzing in the very air about me; that 
 there was degradation within reach of my finger-tips 
 terrible and communicable. 
 
 With the dawning of these realities there came the 
 conviction that one and all ought to be remedied, and 
 
The Transformation 127 
 
 that I should be an instrument in a new dispensation. 
 Accompanying this consciousness was the knowledge 
 that my own shortcomings would have to be conquered 
 before it would be possible for me to help others. Then 
 began a closer self-analysis; my most prominent fail- 
 ings were singly the subjects of excision. I forced my- 
 self to think of others' wishes as superior to my own ; 
 my pride was humbled by every crucifying device 
 that suggested itself. An effort was made to tear out all 
 roots of bitterness and to cultivate every tender senti- 
 ment. Clothes were bought for the needy and journeys 
 were made around the country for the purpose of solicit- 
 ing food for the destitute. The sick were visited and 
 the lives of those who sat in the shadow brightened. 
 Books and periodicals were sent to persons who could 
 not afford such luxuries and an earnest endeavor was 
 instituted to soften their hard lots by sympathy with 
 their leaden atmosphere and sunless prospects. Sins 
 that v/ere intolerably repugnant were overlooked and 
 outcasts, in the darkness of shame, were sought out. 
 
 The wider the windows of my soul were opened the 
 more distinctly was my true self revealed — odious in 
 conceit, selfishness and prejudice. The greater my hu- 
 miliation the stronger was my yearning for an infinite, 
 inexplicable, divinely satisfying Something. At this 
 stage of my spiritual awakening Robert Elsmere was 
 read, Mrs. Humphrey Ward's famous book, which is 
 said to have destroyed the faith of many. I was 
 profoundly impressed with the difference in the life of 
 Elsmere, before and after his renunciation of Chris- 
 tianity; so radiant and useful when in the fullness of 
 
128 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 belief, so gloomy and forceless when the light died 
 out. 
 
 My brain began to wonder if such could have been 
 the real experience of a human soul ; if so, there surely 
 must be a marvelous power in the possession of faith 
 in Jesus Christ. Then came the remembrance of all the 
 striking characters whose acquaintance had been made 
 through books or personal contact, and they were care- 
 fully weighed in the scales of spiritual beliefs. It was 
 found that the happiest and most useful professed a 
 changeless faith in God, and the most objectless and 
 miserable rejected Him. A desire grew to know that 
 wonderful essence called religion which could effect 
 such transformations and sustain such power in the 
 human heart. " What is God ? " was asked again, not 
 impatiently this time, not imperatively, but with an un- 
 dying hunger that all the years had not quieted. " O, 
 my soul, what is God ? " 
 
 In the solitude of my room the Bible was opened. It 
 had been closed ever since the hour the knowledge came 
 that my school-days were over, — soon after my fifteenth 
 birthday. I began at *' In the beginning " and read on 
 through the Old Testament, finding nothing satisfying, 
 but numerous inconsistencies, unaccountable incidents 
 and mystifying statements. I laid the book down with 
 deep disappointment. A feeling swept over me of utter 
 repugnance. Acceptance of the story of creation was 
 impossible; the history of Adam and Eve was consid- 
 ered an allegory. It appeared unbelievable that a man 
 as cold-blooded as Abraham in driving Hagar from 
 his home should be the '' friend of God." Jacob, to my 
 
The Transformation 129 
 
 mind, was a shameless deceiver and a thief, and could 
 never have been chosen as the father of his people 
 by God. Moses was a murderer and could not have 
 been divinely selected to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt 
 and to " talk face to face " with God. There was no 
 poetry in the Psalms because David wrote them, and 
 the sins he had committed were so hideous as to shut 
 him out forever from any suggestion of greatness or 
 connection with the mercy of God. So it was on down 
 to the last verse in the last chapter of Malachi. 
 
 A second darkness fell upon me. Heart-sick, my 
 daily duties were faithfully done, but my difficulties and 
 sufferings were not mentioned to a living being. The 
 crisis was too sacred for the human touch. There are 
 vast stretches of soul-land in the possession of every 
 unconverted life where none but God have a right to 
 tread. Silent and alone the fierce battle was fought to 
 bring my mind into an attitude of acceptance of " the 
 plan of salvation." There were no promptings of fear 
 in my struggles for a thought of hell did not appeal to 
 me. The pitiless restlessness swayed constantly in my 
 soul. My intellect rebelled, my heart was as stone. The 
 truth was no nearer my grasp than at first and my con- 
 dition was as wretched and comfortless as when, with- 
 out rudder or compass, my faith drifted out from me 
 on the ocean of night, ten years before. Work in school 
 and everywhere else was undertaken with more ve- 
 hemence than ever, but my despair only deepened as 
 the craving grew for a great Completeness. After 
 many dreary weeks, the Bible was again gpened and the 
 reading continued where I had left off,— the first chap- 
 
130 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 ter of Matthew, — " The Book of the generation of Jesus 
 Christ." What a strange, sweet thrill went through 
 me! what did it mean? ''Of Jesus Christ." Rapidly 
 the pages were turned with eyes and heart aflame. 
 ** The old, old story " of the only perfect Man ; lowly, 
 yet kingly; gentle, but strong; tender and faithful — 
 " the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever ; " fear- 
 less in the denunciation of wrong, undismayed in the 
 defence of righteousness, unconquerable in integrity, 
 sublime in innocency, infinite in power and holiness; 
 the perfection of humanity ; the fulness of divinity ! 
 
 As the reading went on God was revealed to me — 
 translated in the life of Jesus Christ. What difference 
 did it make now about Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, 
 Moses and David ! / had found Jesus Christ. In the 
 glory of that possession all unbelief vanished. With a 
 triumphant, " My Lord and my God ! " my soul passed 
 into the liberty wherein He maketh free. O, wonderful 
 revelation! O, divine consolation! O, perfect filling! 
 My heart was " satisfied " for the awakening " in His 
 likeness " had come. The hunger was gone. The un- 
 rest was stilled. The questi(5ning answered. Peace, 
 joyous and ineffable, that the world can neither give 
 nor take away, swept through my being. 
 
 " And I smiled to think God's sweetness 
 Flowed around " my " incompleteness 
 Round " my '* restlessness His rest." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD 
 
 What power there is in an enthusiastic adherence to an ideal ! 
 What are hardships, contumely, slander, ridicule, persecution, 
 toil, sickness, the feebleness of age, to a soul throbbing with an 
 overmastering purpose ? — Marsden. 
 
 For many years the conviction had more and more 
 firmly settled upon my soul that a special mission in life 
 would be my destiny. My highest ambition had been to 
 be a writer. At an early age several short stories were 
 written and, later, articles on education and kindred 
 subjects were contributed to different newspapers. A 
 talent for authorship did not develop satisfactorily, so 
 nothing more pretentious in a literary line was at- 
 tempted. 
 
 After my conversion the impression of being born for 
 a specific work deepened into a certainty. With this 
 consciousness came a definite act of consecration. All 
 that was mine — brains, hands, feet, life itself — was 
 given into the keeping of Christ to be used for His serv- 
 ice. With this surrender there came from the fulness of 
 a glad heart the cry : " * Here am I. Lord, send me/ — 
 anywhere — to the foreign mission field — to the slums of 
 the great cities — to the self-renouncing vocation of a 
 deaconess or to the isolated calling of a temperance 
 worker — anywhere, O God ! " 
 
132 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 My school closed in April. A few days later father 
 said to me : '* It is announced in the papers that Miss 
 Frances E. Willard, President of the National Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union, is to lecture in Jackson 
 next week. I wish, daughter, that you would go to hear 
 her. She is a woman of international reputation and is 
 considered the greatest orator and foremost reformer of 
 the day. You should make it a point to come into con- 
 tact with such a beautiful character." " Oh ! father," 
 was my reply, " the w^eariness is so great after these 
 months of teaching that not enough vitality is left to 
 pack a valise ! " The next day a letter was received 
 from Bessie Fearn, in which she wrote, '* Miss Willard, 
 the famous temperance lecturer, will soon be in Jack- 
 son to deliver an address. Do come down to hear her 
 and remain to visit me." " What a strange coinci- 
 dence ! " was my comment, but still I did not think of 
 going. The third day after, a letter arrived from a rel- 
 ative in New Orleans, saying, " I shall be in Jackson 
 next week and am anxious to meet you there. Please 
 do not fail to come." ** This is a very unusual con- 
 junction of circumstances," I remarked to father. " Per- 
 haps, after all, it would be better for me to change my 
 mind and go." 
 
 The words, " Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union," had never fallen upon my ears until the week 
 before Miss Willard came to Jackson, in 1889. Tem- 
 perance lectures had been listened to from Francis 
 Murphy and Luther Benson, and the Independent Or- 
 der of Good Templars had been heard of, but I had 
 never known of the existence of a temperance society 
 
Miss Frances E. Willard 133 
 
 composed entirely of women. Father and mother had 
 reared me with the strictest ideas concerning total ab- 
 stinence; they held most decided views on the subject. 
 Mother had banished wine from her table before my 
 birth, and had not allowed even an egg-nog at Christ- 
 mas. The decanters and wine glasses were put high up 
 and far away in the cavernous depths of the china-closet 
 and the spiders had long used them to assist their con- 
 structive enterprises. The children had been taught 
 that intemperance was more than a beastly vice and 
 drinking, in any degree, a disgrace. When a little girl, 
 attending a picnic, some gentleman offered me a glass 
 of wine and a bottle from which to refill. This incensed 
 me so thoroughly that glass and bottle were tossed into 
 the muddy creek on whose banks we stood and I walked 
 contemptuously away. 
 
 Uncle Kinch was more convivial In his tastes than 
 father, and at his home wines and cordials were freely 
 dispensed. By degrees my Nazarite teachings lost their 
 force, the customs of the society about me were adopted 
 and every sort of refreshment partaken of that was 
 served, — wined ice-tea being a specialty. It often hap- 
 pened during visits to intimate friends that claret was 
 " handed around " at intervals to the young people ; at 
 other times, while spending the day with a young lady 
 acquaintance that the mother sent in a bottle of wine to 
 be used at will as we played cards. I was accustomed 
 in towns to see champagne flow at dinings, and I did not 
 refuse it. Once a wine-party was given " to young 
 ladies only " at which I was present. Our hostess had 
 tasted the contents of different bottles before our ar- 
 
134 ^ Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 rival. She soon become so visibly " under the influ- 
 ence " that she had to be taken to her room. Of course, 
 after that, she was " cut dead " by the " set." It is only 
 the sin that ** finds you out " with which society reckons 
 seriously. At balls and parties I usually took cham- 
 pagne with the rest, but always in my heart there was 
 a sharp protest. 
 
 When the decision was reached that life held some- 
 thing better for me than a giddy round of butterfly flit- 
 tings, wine drinking was renounced with the other so- 
 called pleasures that go to make up " society." My 
 young men friends began to be talked to earnestly about 
 the dangers of drink and success was completely at- 
 tained in making myself widely unpopular with the 
 fashionable ring. When the serious business of life 
 commenced there came a recognition of the dreadful 
 havoc drunkenness had made in the homes about me, 
 and the conclusion was reached that total abstinence, 
 and nothing short of it, was the only safe position for 
 any man or woman to occupy. The pledge was signed 
 but the temperance question did not take hold of me 
 with such absorption as to lead me to read on the sub- 
 ject; in fact articles bearing upon it had always been 
 skipped as very tiresome. Up to the moment of hearing 
 Miss Willard my interest in the temperance movement 
 was not greater than in any other religious or philan- 
 thropic enterprise. I was simply waiting on God, keep- 
 ing my heart ready to obey any command and my eyes 
 open to catch the faintest gleam of " Kindly Light " 
 that should show the unmistakable way. 
 
 There was an immense audience present to greet Miss 
 
Miss Frances E. Willard 135 
 
 Willard. It was afterward told me that she had visited 
 Jackson seven times before but had never been able to 
 secure a satisfactory hearing, except when she spoke, in 
 1882, before the legislature, — nobody else, however, be- 
 ing interested enough to attend. Mrs. Harriet B. Kells, 
 one of the brainiest, most cultured and advanced women 
 of the South, who had made her record as an educator, 
 and afterward became distinguished as a journalist and 
 leader of thought in the National Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union, — had determined that Jackson 
 should hear Miss Willard this time, and, by the use of 
 wise methods, including elaborate advertising, had been 
 a potent cause of the assembling of the vast crowd that 
 sat and stood, anxiously awaiting the great speaker. 
 Many were turned from the door unable to gain en- 
 trance. The State Medical Association, which was in 
 session in Jackson, adjourned in honor of the occasion. 
 Seats very near the front were secured by my friends 
 and myself so that not a word of the orator should be 
 lost and not an expression of her countenance be missed, 
 in order that we might judge what manner of woman 
 she was. She came quietly into the pulpit, modestly at- 
 tired. The small bonnet which was worn she removed 
 before arising to speak. One glimpse of that face al- 
 most divine, one echo of that matchless voice, one 
 charmed moment under the witchery of that superb in- 
 tellect were enough to form an epoch in a life, to create 
 a memory unmated forever. Miss Willard that night 
 was the peerless orator, the gracious Christian, the mar- 
 velous reformer who shall stand forth in history " un- 
 til there shall be no more curse " and " the kingdoms 
 
136 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and 
 of His Christ." While she was speaking a vision arose 
 before me of the glad day when not one woman only, 
 but women of all lands shall have entered into the 
 human heritage — as man's equal in society, church and 
 state. 
 
 Mrs. Kells came to me at the close of the address 
 and said : " You must be introduced to Miss Willard. 
 I think she will like you," and drawing me forward to 
 the altar where the speaker stood, presented me. A 
 cordial greeting, an earnest hand-clasp, — then we 
 passed on with the throng. It is a little remarkable that 
 I had met Mrs. Kells but once before, and during our 
 brief acquaintance there had been only a very short con- 
 versation. 
 
 The day following Miss Willard's lecture, in com- 
 pany with Bessie Fearn, a call was made upon a mutual 
 friend. Miss Sue Tarpley, who was visiting in Jackson. 
 When I was sixteen years of age this delightful woman 
 came to live at her plantation which was within six 
 miles of my home. We soon became constant compan- 
 ions and for eleven years she was my closest friend, ex- 
 erting a blessed influence on my life. She came just 
 when she was most needed in my mental and spiritual 
 struggles. Although of the world and worldly-wise she 
 had kept herself '' unspotted from the world ; " was in- 
 tellectual, exquisitely refined and of the loftiest religious 
 nature. To use her own words in describing a friend, 
 " She was like a breath of autumn flowers, the under- 
 tone in music and all things else that are sweet and un- 
 
Miss Frances E. Willard. 137 
 
 forgetable." Although my senior by several years, she 
 took me into her " holy of holies " and we found our- 
 selves to be peculiarly congenial. 
 
 While we talked together in Jackson this friend said 
 suddenly, " I somehow feel that you must see Miss 
 Willard and have a conversation with her. These pro- 
 gressive women are total strangers to the traditions of 
 my life, for I am hopelessly of the old regime, but you 
 are thoroughly interested in them. Please don't waste 
 another moment on me, but go at once." We arose to 
 do her bidding. When we reached the street Bessie 
 said suddenly, " It will be useless to try to see Miss Wil- 
 lard at this hour; she is at dinner, and wouldn't have 
 time afterward to receive a call, for she speaks this 
 afternoon at three o'clock, and it is now 2 130. Let us 
 go around to the church and wait until she comes. You 
 may possibly have a chance to talk with her before the 
 meeting opens." 
 
 While waiting for Miss Willard, Dr. W. C. Black sat 
 near me. He was pastor of the First Methodist Church 
 in Jackson and an old friend of my family, having once 
 filled the pulpit at Vernon. He had since risen to dis- 
 tinction in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and 
 had added to his reputation as a most invincible antag- 
 onist of the liquor traffic, and by the publication of his 
 recent book, " Christian Womanhood," which fixed his 
 place as a scholarly, broad-minded thinker. In course of 
 conversation he was told of my late acceptance of 
 Christ, of my entire consecration, and of my willing- 
 ness to be sent to the missionary field, to enter the order 
 
138 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 of deaconesses or to go into the temperance work. 
 These three forms of service had clung persistently in 
 my thought ever since my conversion. 
 
 Miss Willard came and went without my having an 
 opportunity for one word with her. There were a num- 
 ber of prominent Mississippi women present, en route 
 to Crystal Springs, to attend the annual convention of 
 the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Miss 
 Willard left immediately after the service in company 
 with them. I supposed we should never meet again. 
 My disappointment was keen. 
 
CHAPTER Xiy 
 
 THE NEW CAREER 
 
 To each man's life there comes a time supreme; 
 One day, one night, one morning, or one noon, 
 One freighted hour, one moment opportune, 
 One rift through which divine fulfillments gleam. 
 One space when fate goes tiding with the stream. 
 
 — Mary A. Townsend, 
 
 While at the breakfast table two days after Miss 
 Willard's visit to Jackson the servant announced that 
 Dr. Black wished to see me in the parlor. On entering 
 the room he greeted me with the following statement : 
 " I went to Crystal Springs, the day after we had our 
 conversation in the church, to look in upon the State 
 Convention. While there I told several of the leaders 
 what you had said in reference to entire consecration 
 and willingness to enter the temperance work. Mrs. 
 Mary E. Ervin, who was formerly president of the Mis- 
 sissippi Woman's Christian Temperance Union, clapped 
 her hands and said : " Praise the Lord ! For four years 
 I have been praying for a young woman to be raised up 
 in Mississippi to lead the young women's department of 
 the work. I have been commissioned," continued Dr. 
 Black, " by the foremost women of the convention to 
 tell you that your expenses will be paid to Crystal 
 Springs and that you will be entertained there if you 
 
 139 
 
140 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 will go down to the convention. They wish you to come 
 at once. You have one hour in which to decide and to 
 catch the train. Will you go? " 
 
 When he had finished speaking there swept through 
 my mind, like a lightning flash, as is said to occur to 
 the drowning, the memory of my past life. Scene after 
 scene in vivid panorama glided by. Then the thought 
 presented itself of what the result might be if this 
 strange call should be accepted. It would lead me out 
 of the trend of my old existence. Doubtless it would 
 mean renunciation of home life, the estrangement of 
 friends, the criticism of an unsympathetic world; but 
 through all my retrospections and forecasts there was 
 sounding a voice more than human, with an imperative, 
 unmistakable ring : " Go ! You must not fail to go ! " 
 The hour of my destiny had come. " My soul was not 
 disobedient unto the heavenly vision." The answer was 
 given calmly and instantly : " Dr. Black, in one hour 
 I shall be on the train." 
 
 Hurriedly my dress was changed, the street car 
 reached, my ticket bought and I was seated in an ex- 
 press that faced south. From the window a good-bye 
 was waved to Bessie. As the engine pulled out she 
 called : *' Now, remember. Belle, you must return 
 this afternoon for we have an engagement to tea at a 
 charming home ! " " O, that shall not be forgotten," 
 was sent back in reply. " Meet me at the depot at four 
 o'clock." At the end of an hour or two, accompanied by 
 a minister, who came down in the car with me, I went 
 to the hall where the convention was in session at Crys- 
 tal Springs. 
 
The New Career 141 
 
 What a novel spectacle it was to me ! The delegates 
 were massed together in perfect order, each looking so 
 serious and intent ; the stage was filled with women and 
 decorated with flowers, while the walls were bright with 
 banners. There were stirring debates and tactful en- 
 gineering of parliamentary points. A beautiful Chris- 
 tian spirit, holy enthusiasm and sublime devotion for 
 a great cause seemed to animate all. 
 
 A seat was taken on entering in the rear of the room, 
 but in a few minutes Mrs. Kells saw me and sent a 
 page to conduct me to the platform. There were Miss 
 Willard and Miss Anna Gordon, the noble young 
 woman who had accompanied the former in all her 
 labors and travels and who superintended the juvenile 
 temperance work of the nation ; Mrs. Mary McGehee 
 Snell, now Mrs. Hall, who afterward became the most 
 celebrated woman evangelist in the South ; Mrs. Lavinia 
 S. Mount, the devoted state president of the Missis- 
 sippi Union, and other distinguished women. 
 
 After the adjournment of the morning session Mrs. 
 Kells said to me : " Now, my dear, if you wish to learn 
 something about the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union you must not think of leaving here before the 
 convention closes." 
 
 " O, but I have an engagement for tea this evening 
 in Jackson ! " was my protest. 
 
 " This occasion is decidedly more important than a 
 tea," she answered. " Send a telegram at once saying 
 you will not return." 
 
 The message was sent and on the days and nights 
 following I attended every session of the convention, 
 
142 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 and was profoundly interested in them. Miss Gordon's 
 address was the first I had heard given to children. It 
 made a lasting impression as a model in its line. Before 
 that experience practical illustration in public speaking 
 was an unknown art to me. 
 
 During a meeting, Mrs. Kells whispered in my ear, 
 " It would not be surprising if you were appointed state 
 superintendent and organizer of the L. T. L. and Y. W. 
 C. T. U." The intimation dazed me. Those letters 
 which slipped so glibly from her tongue were as cabal- 
 istic to me as the incantations of an Indian juggler. " Do 
 please explain all that," was my puzzled appeal. 
 '* Why," she exclaimed, looking at me with astonish- 
 ment, " L. T. L. stands for Loyal Temperance Legion, 
 which is a juvenile society, and Y. W. C. T. U. for 
 Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union. It will 
 all come to you in the most natural manner. You must 
 be introduced to the convention." 
 
 " Oh ! don't do that ! " was my imploring answer. 
 " Being introduced to this body of women would be a 
 new and a terrible ordeal for me. I should not know 
 whether to stand up or to sit down, to laugh or to cry." 
 
 '' O, well," she assured me, " if you dread it like that 
 it shall not be done." 
 
 She forgot her promise. On the last afternoon of 
 the convention, without giving me a hint of her purpose, 
 she walked to the edge of the rostrum and announced 
 my appointment by the executive committee as state 
 superintendent and organizer of those strange orders 
 with the mystical capitals. *' V/ill Miss Kearney come 
 to the platform ? " she continued. There was nothing 
 
The New Career 143 
 
 for me to do but to go. She took my hand, and intro- 
 duced me to the delegates, who arose and gave the 
 Chautauqua salute. In a low tone she said : " You must 
 say something now." 
 
 " Impossible ! " was my reply. " I haven't opened my 
 lips before an audience since reading my Commence- 
 ment essay, eleven years ago.'* 
 
 " Oh ! but you must," she insisted ; " this is a good 
 time to begin." Turning complacently to the assembly 
 she added : " I'm telling Miss Kearney that she might 
 as well make her first speech here as elsewhere." 
 
 With a supreme effort I said: ''Dear friends: I 
 haven't a conception of what it means to be a state su- 
 perintendent and organizer of the L. T. L. and Y. W. 
 C. T. U. The existence of your organization was un- 
 known to me three weeks ago. My ignorance concern- 
 ing your methods is absolute ; but something in my soul 
 tells me that I must undertake this work. In accepting 
 the position with which you honor me my promise is 
 given to consecrate the best powers of my young 
 womanhood to the cause to which this day my allegiance 
 is declared." 
 
 Just as my little speech was finished Miss Willard 
 stepped forward and putting her arm about me said 
 some complimentary words of cheer. In a few minutes 
 the convention adjourned and the women, old and 
 young, crowded around, welcoming me to their sister- 
 hood and extending hearty invitations to visit their lo- 
 calities, to speak and to organize. It was impossible to 
 answer them. My voice was choked, my eyes were 
 clouded with the mist of unshed tears. How strange 
 
144 ^ Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 it all seemed! What was to be the outcome? Not a 
 soul explained my duties, not a suggestion was given. 
 No one had talked with me about the Woman's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union within the two weeks since I 
 had learned of there being such an organization. I 
 knew nothing of its history nor how to procure liter- 
 ature to enlighten me. In the rush of those few days 
 at Crystal Springs no one had found time to answer 
 questions. One morning I had sought an interview 
 with Miss Willard at the home of her hostess. She 
 walked up and down the parlor with hand clasped in 
 mine talking lovingly and hopefully of my future, but 
 it did not occur to me to ask her about books and papers 
 bearing on the temperance question. As Anna Gordon 
 had passed through the room she handed me a little 
 package of leaflets. 
 
 On returning to Jackson from the convention, my 
 next step was to go to Canton with the purpose of 
 standing another examination in order to resume my 
 school in the fall. I had given myself to the W. C. T. 
 U. work, it is true, but it all seemed very vague; 
 especially how I was to be fed and clothed, for the of- 
 ficers had told me there would be no fixed salary; I 
 learned later that expenses and remuneration would 
 depend on collections at my places of appointment. So 
 the practical thing, it seemed to me, was to teach and 
 supervise the work of the two departments now under 
 my charge, not dreaming of going out into public life 
 and making speeches. It presented itself as an absurd- 
 ity that I should organize others into a temperance 
 society in which my own name was yet to be enrolled. 
 
The New Career 145 
 
 However, my time-worn plan of keeping myself in a 
 state of preparedness was available in this crisis. 
 
 I shut myself in my room and studied those leaflets 
 that Miss Gordon had given me with the earnestness 
 and devotion that final examination for university hon- 
 ors would demand. 
 
 On my knees, day and night, I cried out for guidance 
 from Almighty God. No help could be obtained from 
 my aunt and uncle, for their ignorance of the subject 
 was as dense as my own. When their counsel was 
 sought with reference to my going into the work, they 
 both said : " Do it, honey, if you want to ; it is a new 
 departure to us ; we can't say what is best." 
 
 In loneliness of spirit and yearning inexpressibly for 
 some word of advice and sympathy, a visit was made 
 to the Methodist pastor, the man under whose ministry 
 my entrance into the church had been effected, when a 
 little girl, and from whose hands had been taken my 
 first communion; he it was also who had accompanied 
 me from the train to the hall during the recent conven- 
 tion at Crystal Springs. In a very hurried manner he 
 entered the sitting-room of the parsonage and, as hur- 
 riedly greeting me, announced that it was very near the 
 hour for his prayer-meeting. While we talked he 
 turned over the leaves of a hymn book searching for 
 the needs of his coming service. " Pardon me," was 
 my first hesitating venture, " but can you tell me any- 
 thing about the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union?" 
 
 " No, ma'am, I cannot ; " still turning over the leaves. 
 
 " Well," swallowing to keep down a sob, " can you 
 
146 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 tell me anything about the Washingtonian movement 
 and the earlier efforts of temperance reformers ? " 
 
 " Not a thing," bending his head lower to discern the 
 numbers of his hymns. " Can you give me an account 
 of Father Matthew's work in Ireland, or tell me if there 
 is a Catholic temperance society in America?" 
 
 " I can give you nothing at all on those subjects," was 
 the reply, leaning back in his chair and covering his 
 mouth with the book to suppress a yawn. 
 
 ** You, perhaps, know," was my last despairing effort, 
 " of my appointment as state superintendent and or- 
 ganizer of the Loyal Temperance Legion and of the 
 Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union at the 
 convention just adjourned at Crystal Springs? What 
 do you think of my entering the work ? " 
 
 " You can do as you please, Miss Belle," he answered, 
 rising. " Of course, you may be sure that you will meet 
 with nothing but snubs. I should certainly hate to see 
 my wife or daughter undertake such a life." He ex- 
 cused himself and went to his prayer-meeting — which 
 was composed, as usual, of about ten women and two 
 men — leaving me alone to work out my own salvation, 
 or not, as might be. 
 
 My next thought was to go to my old friend, Mrs. 
 Drane, who was a staunch Presbyterian, by the way, 
 and unburden my soul to her. In her gentle, kindly 
 fashion, she said : " I know nothing of the Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union, but from what you tell 
 me about it and of your own convictions, I feel it is the 
 call of God to you and that it would be spiritual suicide 
 for you to disregard it. My ?,dvice is to go. through 
 
The New Career 147 
 
 no more examinations, think no more of teaching but 
 give yourself wholly to this work for humanity." 
 
 As soon as my commission had been received I wrote 
 to father and mother for their opinions. Mother an- 
 swered : " My darling, I have always taught you to enter 
 every open door if it led to wider service for the Lord 
 Jesus. If you are persuaded that God wants you in this 
 temperance work don't fail to enter upon it ; and I will 
 give you up if it breaks my heart. Flowers are kept 
 in your room while you are away as before a shrine, and 
 I long continually for a glimpse of your face ; but my 
 suffering and loneliness now are as * nothing compared 
 to the glory that shall be revealed in us ' through entire 
 submission to the will of Him ' who loved us and gave 
 Himself for us.' " Father wrote : " In a supreme mo- 
 ment, such as that which has come to you, no human 
 being beside yourself can settle the question of destiny. 
 It rests with you and your God. You are standing ' on 
 holy ground.' I would not profane it by even a sug- 
 gestion as to your duty. You are my only daughter, 
 and I love you as I love my life ; but if you feel divinely 
 called to go from home to ' sow beside all waters,' I 
 say go most gladly, and may the richest blessing of our 
 heavenly Father attend you." 
 
 My brothers wrote later that they could not appre- 
 ciate the motive which actuated me to relinquish a sub- 
 stantial salary as a teacher and go into a strange work 
 without a dollar in view ; but if my conscience prompted 
 that it was my duty, they would offer no opposition but 
 follow me in my travels with loyal hearts. All my fears 
 vanished after receiving those letters from my dear 
 
148 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 ones, so full of faith and approbation. A renewed con- 
 secration of myself to God was made at once, promising 
 to go wherever He directed and do whatever work He 
 gave me and ask no questions about bread, but suffer 
 want and persecution if need be to promote the blessed 
 cause that claimed my fealty. Every association was 
 rejected that hampered and every tie severed that bound 
 me to the old existence. In the strength and majesty 
 of a sublime purpose, I arose and shook myself free ! 
 
 The call of God had come. Through that assurance 
 a deep peace abided with me, a joyous rest in Him. 
 There has been ever since a new song in my heart, a 
 new light in my soul, a new inspiration in my life, a 
 definite, sacred purpose that has never died out. My 
 mission was found. No more advice was asked for, no 
 more sympathy sought. / closed the door to all the 
 world but God, — and wrote my speeches. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 MY FIRST SPEECH 
 
 Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. 
 
 Or what's a heaven for? 
 
 — RoBT. Browning. 
 
 Among the leaflets in Anna Gordon's package was 
 one of Miss Willard's annual addresses and sorne of 
 Mrs. Mary H. Hunt's publications on scientific tem- 
 perance instruction. From these it was easy to gain a 
 comprehensive idea of the scope and purpose of the 
 woman's war against the liquor traffic and definite plans 
 for the children's organization. On a tract designed for 
 the Y. W. C. T. U., the name and address of Miss Mary 
 McDowell, one of the national organizers of the Young 
 Woman's work, were found. I communicated imme- 
 diately with her explaining my ignorant but inquiring 
 state and asking for some literature bearing directly on 
 her subject. She promptly forwarded several leaflets. 
 From this store of valuables sufficient information was 
 culled to enable me to prepare two speeches, — one for 
 young women, the other for children. 
 
 I had never taken an elocution lesson and knew noth- 
 ing of voice culture. My unprospected field was en- 
 tered literally without training. The state president 
 
 149 
 
150 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 urged me to go at once into the work of lecturing and 
 organizing. She sent me the address of a young woman 
 who was anxious to have a union formed among the 
 girls at a little place near Port Gibson. While definite 
 arrangements were being made for this trip, a visit was 
 paid to my home for a greeting and good-bye to mother 
 and father and the boys. Before leaving, a meeting 
 was planned for the children and my first public ad- 
 dress was given in the Baptist church at Flora. Notes 
 were placed on a table conveniently near, but they had 
 to be glanced at only once or twice. I talked without 
 embarrassment. Several nights after, a meeting was 
 held in the Methodist church for the people at large. 
 No address was attempted but the manuscript of my 
 speech for young women was read, and a Y. W. C. T. 
 U. was formed. There were only four girls present, 
 but every one joined. The smallness of the union 
 caused many to smile. Noticing the amusement rip- 
 pling over the audience, I said : " This is a weak begin- 
 ning but I prophesy that within three years there will 
 not be a saloon in this town." At the end of three years 
 there was not a legalized dramshop in the entire district 
 and public sentiment had been revolutionized respecting 
 the liquor traffic. 
 
 A letter finally came from Miss Russell, the young 
 woman near Port Gibson, saying that arrangements had 
 been perfected and that she would meet me at the near- 
 est railway station. One bright, hot day in June, about 
 six weeks after receiving my commission from the 
 Crystal Springs convention, I stepped off the train, with 
 umbrella and traveling satchel, to fill my first appoint- 
 
My First Speech 151 
 
 ment, as a W. C. T. U. organizer. There was no one 
 to greet me. On taking my bearings, the village was 
 found to consist of several small stores and a few resi- 
 dences scattered far apart. Nobody was at the depot 
 from whom information could be gleaned, it being 
 quickly deserted after the train had passed; so, one of 
 the stores was invaded and a clerk asked if he could 
 tell me where to find a boarding place. " Over the hill," 
 he answered, jerking his thumb eastward. Summon- 
 ing my reserve forces, the climb up the dusty road was 
 begun. 
 
 *' Over the hill," sure enough, there was a boarding 
 house, clean and white, close by the highway. On 
 knocking at the entrance, a tall, stout woman peered 
 from behind the door at the end of the front hall. '' Good 
 morning ! " I said cheerfully, her silence forcing me to 
 take the initiative. " Will you allow me to spend to-day 
 and to-morrow here ? " It was Saturday ; and I did not 
 travel on Sunday. 
 
 " Well, yes, I reckon so ! " was the answer, but she 
 did not ask me to come in, and continued to eye me 
 cautiously. Still waiting, my interrogatives were plied 
 in self-defence. "Is Miss Russell in town?" 
 
 " No, indeed ! she lives several miles out in the coun- 
 try and has not been here for weeks." 
 
 My heart sank. " Do you know Miss Russell ? " 
 
 " Yes, that I do ! " A broad smile broke over the land- 
 lady's face. " She used to board here and teach school. 
 Do you know Miss Russell ? " she asked in turn. 
 
 " No ; but she has been inviting me to come here to 
 speak on temperance and organize a union among the 
 
152 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 young women. She promised to meet me here to- 
 day." 
 
 *' Won't you sit down? " asked the landlady emerging 
 from behind the door, and apologizing for her lame foot 
 and disheveled appearance. " Miss Russell may come 
 in yet. I haven't heard a word about the meeting. 
 When did you expect to speak ? " 
 
 " To-morrow night. Miss Russell was to arrange 
 everything." 
 
 " Well, nothing has been done that I know of. Folks 
 are here from all over the county to-day to a big picnic 
 in the grove back of the house. They ain't thinking 
 about temperance. You can see them gathering now." 
 
 Looking in the direction indicated there were seen 
 some hundreds of persons coming into the woods and 
 disporting themselves in true picnic fashion. An in- 
 spiration seized me. " Since the journey has been taken 
 here, I certainly do not intend going away without hold- 
 ing a meeting," I declared. *' If a number of notices 
 are written will you have them put up all over the picnic 
 grounds ? " 
 
 " Of course I will ! " the landlady rejoined. Forth- 
 with, my satchel was opened and in a few moments the 
 following arrestive words were scrav/led in a mam- 
 moth hand : Great W. C. T, U. Meeting To-morrow 
 Night ! A Mississippi Woman Will Speak ! Come ! 
 Come ! Come ! 
 
 My coadjutor remained true to her promise and the 
 notices were posted. Miss Russell arrived early the 
 next morning and satisfactorily explained her previous 
 non-appearance. Arrangements had been made for me 
 
My First Speech 153 
 
 to speak in the village church ; an announcement of the 
 lecture was read from the pulpit at the eleven o'clock 
 service. Sunday night the church was packed with peo- 
 ple who had come from far and near to behold the nov- 
 elty of a woman speaker. When the audience was 
 viewed from my position at the altar my courage fell 
 below zero. The blood seemed to freeze in my veins. 
 The opening services seemed remarkably brief and the 
 presiding minister was introducing me to the congre- 
 gation. Not a word that he uttered was comprehended 
 by my dazed faculties, but when he sat down the fact 
 appeared that my hour had come. Holding to the com- 
 munion table for support I said : " It will be impossible 
 for me to speak to-night unless some young woman in 
 the audience will first pray." Miss Russell had given me 
 the names of several consecrated girls who had received 
 fine spiritual training at the State Industrial Institute 
 and College, so one of these was called on. Without 
 hesitation the noble young woman responded. 
 
 When the prayer closed my address was begun and 
 carried to the end with ease. The manuscript which 
 was spread out before me was referred to but once. 
 The transport of enthusiasm, the inexplicable fervor, 
 the exquisite joy, the utter abandon that often comes 
 to public speakers in appealing to the intellect and stir- 
 ring the emotions of an audience descended upon me. 
 It was forgotten whether the listeners were opposers or 
 sympathizers. Nothing was remembered but that my 
 speaking was for deepening and broadening the outlook 
 for young womanhood and the ultimate redemption of 
 mankind from the curse of drink and the blight of social 
 
1^4 ^ Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 Impurity. It is worth the effort of a Ufe-time to ex- 
 perience the divineness of such a touch. 
 
 From the hour of my speech in that Httle town until 
 this day, — which means the test of nearly eleven years 
 on the platform — a mantiscript has not been referred to 
 but once and notes have been used only two or three 
 times. I concluded that decidedly the best course to be 
 pursued was not to be hampered by the consciousness 
 that succor was near but throw myself completely on 
 my own resources and trust. At the close of this my 
 first address to an adult audience my second Young 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union was formed. 
 
 Several years after this experience, Miss Russell en- 
 tered the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union as state lecturer and organizer and it was my 
 pleasant privilege to arrange a meeting for her From a 
 girlhood of heroic achievement she advanced to an en- 
 viable position as one of the foremost teachers of Mis- 
 sissippi, and from the school-room stepped easily upon 
 the platform. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 " AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE " 
 
 There is no road to success but through a clear, strong pur- 
 pose. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attain- 
 ment of whatever sort. — T. T. Munger. 
 
 When my public work began, acquaintance with the 
 W. C. T. U. was so limited that it seemed impossible 
 to speak those letters in the order in which they should 
 come. I would nearly always say W. T. U. C. or W. T. 
 C. U. until they were conned over and over again — W. 
 C. T. U., W.— C— T.— U.— like a child studying its 
 lesson. My all was given to the Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union and its service was entered with the 
 avowed determination to succeed, cost what it might of 
 personal energy and sacrifice. It was felt that I was 
 called to push the work and not for the work to push me. 
 
 When Mrs. Mount, the state president, failed to se- 
 cure engagements for me in certain places, which some- 
 times happened, if the towns were in need of an organ- 
 ization my creative faculties were set to work to ac- 
 complish our purpose regardless of the obstinacy of the 
 hindrances. Every available orthodox means was used. 
 A letter was first written to the minister whose name 
 had been given as a sympathizer with the temperance 
 
 iS5 
 
156 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 movement, explaining my mission and requesting that 
 he secure me an audience, provide entertainment and al- 
 low a collection to be taken at the meeting, to defray 
 expenses. If a reply was received saying there was no 
 opening another preacher was written to, and so on, un- 
 til the ministerial circle in the town was completed. If 
 all wrote that it was a hopeless undertaking, then letters 
 were sent to leading Christian women whose names had 
 been secured through the ministers. If these failed 
 then men and women outside the churches were ap- 
 pealed to ; the destined place was always reached in the 
 end, and a union among the children or the young 
 women was invariably formed. 
 
 After being fairly started it was easy sailing for me 
 in Mississippi. The loveliest homes in the state stood 
 wide open with a warm welcome; the press was gen- 
 erous In its expression, — even the papers most conserva- 
 tive on the woman question and prohibition never once 
 publishing an unkind criticism; and the blessed minis- 
 ters, with a few isolated exceptions, gave me the hearti- 
 est reception and most cordial co-operation. Without 
 them very little could have been effected. They offered 
 me the use of their churches and the hospitality of their 
 parsonages ; they spent portions of their limited salaries 
 to advertise the meetings, hireing conveyances to drive 
 me long distances through the country to meet appoint- 
 ments and accompanying me from place to place on the 
 railroads to insure a successful attempt at organization. 
 They failed In nothing that was true and brotherly and 
 Christ-like. To them the deepest gratitude of my heart 
 is rendered faithfully and reverently. It Is amusing 
 
Away Down South in Dixie 157 
 
 to know some of the influences that operated to intro- 
 duce my work. The third effort at making a speech 
 was at the Methodist Camp-ground, on the Gulf of 
 Mexico, near the little village of Biloxi. While there, 
 a young girl about seventeen years of age, was intro- 
 duced to me : she was very gay, very bright, and an 
 ardent Episcopalian. It was learned that she lived in 
 one of the adjacent towns, back from the coast, and that 
 the place was full of young ladies. On being asked 
 if she would arrange a meeting for me on her return 
 home, she replied that it was quite impossible. In the 
 afternoon of the same day she went with me to hear 
 Bishop Keener preach. Returning from the service, she 
 said suddenly : '' I believe, after all, an audience can be 
 secured for you in my town. In an hour or two I shall 
 leave and will write you in the course of a few days 
 what the prospect is." Within a week I had received 
 an invitation to come, had gone, had organized a very 
 large Y. W. C. T. U., and had been royally entertained 
 in the home of the young girl's parents, who were ele- 
 gant people. Just before leaving my little hostess said, 
 with a mischievous smile, " Did it ever occur to you 
 that my mind was changed very quickly that day you 
 asked me to secure you an audience here ? " On ac- 
 knowledging that I had often wondered what was the 
 cause, she explained as follows : " When you first spoke 
 to me I was undecided whether the dress you wore was 
 sateen or China silk. If it had been sateen you would 
 not have been asked to this place ; but during the prayer 
 after the Bishop's sermon I found it was China silk, and 
 at once concluded to have you come." 
 
158 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 " It is not fine feathers that make fine birds," truly, 
 but it has been discovered to my sorrow for humanity, 
 that it is often fine clothes that gain a hearing for a 
 speaker in an unpopular cause. 
 
 Day by day valuable experience was being added 
 to my limited store. In a few months a visit was paid 
 to a little country place, near Natchez called Washing- 
 ton, one of the historic landmarks of Mississippi, — once 
 the territorial capital and the place where the first Con- 
 stitutional Convention of the new state met, in 1817; 
 the old Methodist church in which it was held is still 
 standing. Here Aaron Burr was taken, in 1807, after 
 his capture, en route on his supposed treasonable ex- 
 pedition to Mexico, and here he gave bond to appear 
 before the Supreme Court of the Mississippi Territory. 
 Jefferson College, for the education of boys, was located 
 there in 1802. This venerable institution now opened 
 Vv^ide its hospitable doors to receive me. 
 
 The minister who had invited me said : " Your meet- 
 ing is to be in the afternoon. No one will be present 
 except some old settlers. It will be best to talk to them 
 on Prohibition." At that time, my knowledge of the 
 methods employed in the abolition of the liquor traffic 
 went no farther than the principles involved in simple 
 total abstinence; but some points gotten up in my jour- 
 neyings on the legal side of the question were put to- 
 gether, and we went to the church expecting to find 
 about two dozen elderly ladies and gentlemen congre- 
 gated; but not a soul was present, and as soon as we 
 arrived it had begun to rain. Just as the thought pre- 
 sented itself of suggesting to the minister and the two 
 
Away Down South in Dixie 159 
 
 friends who had accompanied us that we return, lo ! the 
 doors opened and in marched about fifty students, 
 dressed in uniforms, ranging in age apparently from 
 fifteen to twenty-five, and calmly took their seats with 
 exact military precision. 
 
 Terror seized me. There were only two set speeches 
 in my repertoire : one was for girls and the other for 
 children ; the facts that had been prepared for the " old 
 settlers " would answer no better. What 7vas to be 
 done? As soon as the students appeared the minister 
 sat down at the organ, without saying '' By your leave,'* 
 and proceeded to sing ; then he prayed and immediately 
 after introduced me. It would have been far easier to 
 have faced a fire of musketry in the heat of battle than 
 the calm gaze of those placid young men. There they 
 sat, still and solemn as the judges of the Areopagus, not 
 relieving the cruel tension by the faintest indication of 
 a smile or a frown. While standing before them the 
 wish uppermost in my heart was that the planks of the 
 old church floor would split and let me drop through 
 to some happier spot : but as the awful seconds went by 
 and no hope presented itself in that direction, or any 
 other, a brave front was assumed, and going on the 
 principle that " honesty is the best policy " the deplor- 
 able condition was revealed to them : " Boys, I have no 
 idea what to talk to you about this afternoon," was my 
 frank avowal. " Never before has an audience of young 
 men greeted me. Your august presence is overwhelm- 
 ing. Since entering the W. C. T. U. work, meetings 
 have been held for the public, it is true, but my speeches 
 were made for the benefit either of girls or children. 
 
i6o A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 You do not belong to the first class, so my usual re- 
 marks in that line cannot be applied ; consequently, the 
 nearest approach to the fitness of things will be to speak 
 to you as if you were little children." 
 
 At this the reserve of my auditors was broken and 
 they laughed aloud and clapped their hands. Encour- 
 aged by this demonstration of approval, without further 
 apology I made a talk on Scientific Temperance, telling 
 them of the evil effects of alcohol and tobacco on the 
 human system. They listened with absorbing interest 
 throughout, and, at the close, gave the most tumultu- 
 ous applause. 
 
 That night was spent at the college as the guest of 
 the president's wife. While sitting in the parlor after 
 supper a committee of young men waited on me with 
 a request from the student body that an address be made 
 to them in the chapel, saying that study hours had been 
 postponed, by special favor of the president, until the 
 meeting was concluded. The invitation staggered me. 
 " Oh ! boys ! " was my reply in real distress and em- 
 barrassment," you were told all that I know in the 
 church this afternoon; my supply is exhausted." 
 " Come and tell us the same things over," they urged. 
 " The students are so anxious to hear you once more. 
 Several sent word that if you would speak to them again 
 to-night they would sign the pledge against the use of 
 liquor and tobacco." That inducement was too alluring 
 to be resisted ; so my opposition weakened and consent 
 was given to hold a meeting. 
 
 As soon as the delegation disappeared to report the 
 result of the interview and to gather the clans, my room 
 
Away Down South in Dixie i6i 
 
 was sought, and covering my face with my hands to 
 shut out all distracting objects, my brain was ransacked 
 for every fact and story that had ever been read or 
 heard on the temperance question, and every deed of 
 pluck and heroism was marshalled forth, from the 
 Spartan boy with the fox in his bosom to the valorous 
 deeds of the armies of Napoleon, and down to those of 
 Robert E. Lee. 
 
 In the course of half an hour an escort of a goodly 
 number came to conduct me to the chapel which was 
 filled with students and professors. Then my first im- 
 promptu address was made. The effort was richly 
 rewarded by securing the signature of nearly every stu- 
 dent to the double pledge against the use of alcoholic 
 stimulants and tobacco in any form. The next day 
 Washington was left with a glad heart but a wiser 
 head. Dwelling on the trying lesson that had been 
 taught me by this new experience, I resolved never to 
 leave home again on another campaign without being 
 fortified for every emergency by a stack of speeches to 
 appeal to every class — from babbling babes to scheming 
 politicians. 
 
 From the moment of enlisting in the ranks of temper- 
 ance reformers, work was done with unremitting zeal. 
 The eternal principles of righteousness upon which the 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded 
 appealed to my highest convictions and commanded my 
 unswerving loyalty. 
 
 " In December, 1873, under the inspiration of a 
 temperance address delivered by Dr. Dio Lewis, of 
 Boston, the women of Hillsboro, Washington Court 
 
1 62 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 House, and other Ohio towns, were moved to concerted 
 action against the saloon. They gathered in the streets 
 to pray, and marched two by two into saloons. They 
 besought the men who drank to cease to do so, and the 
 men who sold to give up the business, and invited all to 
 accept Christ. In fifty days this whirlwind of the 
 Lord had swept the liquor traffic out of two hundred 
 and fifty towns and villages." 
 
 The outcome of this crusade which was so strongly 
 characterized by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost was 
 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The first 
 local society of that great organization was formed in 
 Frcdonia, N. Y., on December 15th, 1873. In August, 
 1874, at Chautauqua, N. Y., a meeting was held " from 
 which the call for permanent national organization was 
 sent forth." In Cleveland, Ohio, November i8th and 
 20th, 1874, the National Woman's Christian Temper- 
 ance Union was organized. It was incorporated March 
 1st, 1883, in Washington, D. C. Its growth has been 
 marvelous. " It has fifty-four auxiliary State and five 
 Territorial Unions, besides that of the District of Co- 
 lumbia and Hawaii, and is the largest society ever com- 
 posed exclusively of women and conducted entirely by 
 them. It has been organized in every State and Terri- 
 tory of the nation, and locally in about ten thousand 
 towns and cities. 
 
 " The lines of its work are : I. Organization. II. 
 Preventive. III. Educational. IV. Evangelistic. V. 
 Social. VI. Legal. 
 
 "Besides these are: i. The Affiliated Interests. 2. 
 The Standing Committees. 
 
Away Down South in Dixie 163 
 
 " Under the six chief heads are grouped various de- 
 partments, each one under the charge of a National Su- 
 perintendent, as follows: 
 
 1. Young Woman's Work. 
 
 2. Work Among Foreign-Speaking People. 
 
 3. Loyal Temperance Legion Work. 
 
 4. Work Among Colored People. 
 
 5. Health and Heredity. 
 
 6. Scientific Temperance Instruction. 
 
 7. Physical Education. 
 
 8. Sunday School Work. 
 
 9. Temperance Literature. 
 
 10. Temperance and Labor. 
 
 11. Parliamentary Usage. 
 
 12. Press. 
 
 13. Presenting our Cause to Influential Bodies. 
 
 14. Anti-Narcotics. 
 
 15. Evangelistic. 
 
 16. Unfermented Wine. 
 
 17. Proportionate and Systematic Giving. 
 
 18. Non-alcoholic Medication. 
 
 19. Penal and Reformatory Work. 
 
 20. Work among Railway Employes. 
 
 21. Work among Soldiers and Sailors. 
 ^2. Work among Lumbermen. 
 
 ^-iy. Work among Miners. 
 
 24. Sabbath Observance. 
 
 25. Department of Mercy. 
 
 26. Purity. 
 
 27. Rescue Work. 
 
164 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 28. Mothers' Meetings. 
 
 29. Purity in Literature and Art. 
 
 30. Parlor Meetings. 
 
 31. Flower Mission. 
 
 32. State and County Fairs. 
 
 33. Legislation. 
 
 34. Franchise. 
 
 35. Peace and Arbitration. 
 
 36. Kindergarten. 
 
 2,7. School Savings Banks. 
 
 38. Medal Contest Work. 
 
 39. Christian Citizenship. 
 
 40. W. C. T. U. Institutes." 
 
 The World's Woman's Christian Union " is com- 
 posed of national unions, and was formed in November, 
 1883. It is organized in forty nations, with a total mem- 
 bership of about half a million." 
 
 The reformation of the drunkard and the banishment 
 of the open saloon were the primary objects of the ear- 
 lier endeavors of that devoted band of women known as 
 the W. C. T. U. ; upon these rocks they still stand, but 
 their platform has '* widened with the process of the 
 suns " until the White Ribbon movement rests upon a 
 foundation of plans and principles broad and generous 
 enough for the establishment of a church, a state, or a 
 nation. Its purpose now is to carry the philosophy of 
 Jesus Christ into politics, to make a practical applica- 
 tion of the laws of God to those of men; to cause mo- 
 rality to become the rock-bed of our national life and 
 brotherhood the ozone of its atmosphere; to advance 
 the welfare of women ; to defend the childhood of the 
 
Away Down South in Dixie 165 
 
 world, and to protect the home. The numerous de- 
 partments of the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union form a mosaic of many thousand colors. The 
 colossal figures worked out are God in government; 
 man as the exponent of righteousness in citizenship; 
 woman in church and state as the daughter of God and 
 the partner of her brother man. In the brilliant array 
 of glorious possibilities for the human race that the 
 organization has held forth, it was the splendid oppor- 
 tunity for broadening and illuminating the horizon of 
 woman that most attracted me. 
 
 Within the first year of m.y ministry I traveled into 
 almost every section of Mississippi and organized over 
 one hundred unions among the young women and the 
 juveniles, speaking to the children in the afternoons, to 
 mixed audiences at night; holding business meetings 
 in the mornings to discuss methods of work best calcu- 
 lated to forward the interests of the societies formed, 
 and to appoint superintendents of the different depart- 
 ments adapted to start the union to move in easy chan- 
 nels. As a reward for my strenuous efforts the 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union sent me as dele- 
 gate-at-large from the State to the National Convention, 
 which met in Chicago in 1889. That was my first at- 
 tendance upon a national convention. The large num- 
 ber of delegates present, the thousands of people who 
 thronged to each session, the admirable executive power 
 displayed by Miss Willard and other leaders, the thrill- 
 ing debates on the floor, and the fine logic and eloquence 
 that blazed in the numerous evening addresses was all a 
 revelation to me. More practical knowledge was gained 
 
1 66 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union during 
 those few days spent in Chicago, and more was learned 
 of human nature, than in all the personal experience 
 acquired in months of field work. 
 
 Nothing but joy filled my heart over my first efforts 
 for the young people of my native state. For a number 
 of years there had been a profound unrest in the heart 
 of the girlhood of the New South. Faint ©choes of the 
 secrets of a higher, stronger life, struggling conscious- 
 ness of the necessity for more exalted action, whisper- 
 ings of unborn possibilities suggested aspirations in di- 
 rections that before had been only dimly outlined. The 
 surging, aching, loving heart of womanhood began to 
 throb and pulse with heavenly assurances of the right 
 to do and to dare, striving to find a channel through 
 which it could voice its longings. The Young Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union, that vast force, with its 
 multiplied interests and varied, ever-widening scope of 
 thought and accomplishment, that splendid factor which 
 had arisen in our midst like a giant in its power, gen- 
 erating such light and sweetness over the already lu- 
 minous fields of modern philanthropy, supplied the de- 
 mands of the hour. 
 
 It has been a benediction to the girls of the South 
 whose lives it has touched. A subtle, unseen spirit has 
 taken hold of the finest faculties of their souls and 
 stirred to action every holy impulse, producing changed 
 beings. Indift'erence has been turned to enthusiasm ; 
 selfishness has been broadened into sympathy ; unkind- 
 ness has been swallowed up into an abounding charity ; 
 idle hands have reached out for employment; narrow 
 
Away Down South in Dixie 167 
 
 minds have expanded and become glorified by the quick- 
 ening, upHfting agency of love for humanity that has 
 poured, like a divine radiance, into their slumberous lives 
 and raised them up to God. In the few years since the 
 Southern girls have donned the white ribbon and en- 
 listed in the ranks of the Young Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union, in conjunction with the young 
 women of the North, East and West, they have assisted 
 in campaigns for constitutional amendments; secured 
 signatures to the Polyglot Petition ; supported rest cot- 
 tages, lunch houses and headquarters for working girls ; 
 taken charge of mission meetings at night ; sent singers 
 to the hospitals ; dispensed substantial charities through 
 the medium of the Flower Mission in their visits to 
 prisons, almshouses and the homes of the poor and dis- 
 tressed; distributed literature, studied the subject of 
 physical culture and formed hygiene clubs ; introduced 
 text-books in the public schools teaching the effects of 
 alcohol and tobacco upon the human system ; established 
 loan libraries, engaged in evangelistic, kindergarten, so- 
 cial purity, Sunday-school, juvenile and press work ; la- 
 bored among lumbermen, sailors, foreigners and the col- 
 ored population; conducted Demorest Medal contests, 
 held Gospel Temperance meetings and obtained thous- 
 ands of signatures to the pledge. They are now support- 
 ing beds for young women in the Temperance Hospital • 
 at Chicago, and in the cities have established drinking I 
 fountains for man and beast. They are raising funds 
 to aid in carrying on missionary temperance work in 
 foreign fields; circulating petitions among the high 
 schools and colleges against the use of wine and all al- 
 
1 68 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 coholic beverages at class suppers and alumni dinners ; 
 conducting parliamentary drills, prosecuting topical 
 studies and discussions; giving receptions and enter- 
 tainments in their parlors, besides holding public meet- 
 ings of a high order to create sentiment for the temper- 
 ance cause, and educate the people up to the idea of total 
 abstinence and prohibition and gain the co-operation of 
 young men. They are offering prizes of money to pu- 
 pils who write the best essay on temperance, and several 
 are going out into different states as organizers and 
 lecturers, and one into foreign fields as a missionary. 
 
 The young women of New Orleans, who were mem- 
 bers of the Y. W. C. T. U., for a long time supported 
 a room in an institution for the destitute, near the Char- 
 ity Hospital, vv^here men and women could find a refuge, 
 before entering the great world again to seek work and 
 a shelter. The girls of Richmond, Virginia, one year, 
 raised $600 which they expended in sustaining a retreat 
 for the sick. The Y. W. C. T. U. of Asheville, North 
 Carolina, in co-operation with the King's Daughters, 
 established an admirable, uniform system of charity by 
 which the poor of the city were clothed and fed. The 
 young women of Mississippi have been potent factors 
 in bringing temperance sentiment up to the high-water 
 mark which the state now enjoys. All of this blessed 
 service is simply a faint foregleam of the noble attain- 
 ments and beautiful opportunities which the future 
 holds for Southern girls. When they devote wholly 
 their latent, unused powers to rid this drink-cursed Re- 
 public of its over-shadowing curse, then indeed, will be 
 started a wave of helpfulness that will swell into a great 
 
Away Down South in Dixie 169 
 
 ocean for the temperance cause and for the evangeHza- 
 tion of the world whose shores will be bounded only by- 
 eternity. 
 
 The most hopeful feature of the Young Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union is the standard that the 
 girls have set up for the equal purity of both sexes. " A 
 white life for two," is their war-cry. The day will soon 
 go by when a young man, indulging in strong drink and 
 poisoning himself with nicotine, will have the assurance 
 to ask a girl, pure in heart and life, to link her destiny 
 with his. The day is fast coming when a young woman 
 will place too high an estimate upon herself to accept 
 the attentions of a young man given to dissipated 
 habits. The watchword that will be handed down the 
 lines and rung from the hill-tops of advancement will 
 be: Sobriety, or no husbands. The new law that is 
 being evolved out of the old chaos is that when the holi- 
 est of alliances is consummated, it will be upon a true 
 basis. 
 
 The most prominent figures in this era of the history 
 of the South are the young women ; formed for all pos- 
 sibility, ready for every development, capable of every 
 achievement ; strong, earnest, brainy, progressive, com- 
 prehensive! The light of the future is in their faces, 
 the shuttles of destiny are in their hands, the sugges- 
 tive tread of their oncoming feet sounds ominously near. 
 They have adopted the creed of a new philosophy. The 
 non-entity of other times has vanished ; in her stead has 
 come the energetic, up-to-date, gracious entity who is 
 getting hold of the springs of power through legislation ; 
 who Is turning the locks of the doors that have shut 
 
170 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 her out from the sanctum-sanctorum of ecclesiastical 
 polity ; whose sweet voice is swelling into louder, deeper 
 tones, and is singing out from pulpit and from platform 
 the glad songs of freedom, of advancement, of human 
 rights and privileges. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 HOW '" DE CAP'n come THU ** 
 
 What's brave, what's noble, let's do it after the high Roman 
 fashion, and make death proud to take us. — Shakspeare. 
 
 The first invitation that was given me to speak out 
 of the borders of Mississippi came from Mrs. Caroline 
 E. Merrick, President of the Louisiana Woman's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union, and afterward one of the fore- 
 most leaders of the suffrage movement in the South. 
 She requested me to attend the State W. C. T. U. Con- 
 vention which was to meet in New Orleans, and to de- 
 liver an address on the evening that would be given to 
 the Young Woman's Branch. Consent was forwarded, 
 but considerable misgiving was felt as to my capability 
 to reach the standard demanded by a city audience. 
 After my speech in New Orleans was made an invita- 
 tion was extended to lecture and organize throughout 
 the state. Very soon a work in Louisiana was begun 
 that has continued, not only for successive months, but, 
 at intervals, through successive years. 
 
 My experiences in that state alone would fill volumes. 
 A way was made into nearly every nook and cranny ; 
 from the Red river district in the North to the blue 
 waters of Berwick Bay in the South ; from the cotton 
 
 171 
 
172 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 fields of the Mississippi to the timber-lands of Lak^ 
 Charles ; often riding twenty miles in a lumbering ve- 
 hicle through the pine woods to reach an appointment, 
 or puffing down streams in energetic tugs through chill- 
 ing winds and surprising sand-bars ; entertained in an 
 humble cottage to-day or in a mansion to-morrow ; eat- 
 ing fat bacon and cold potatoes on a lonely prairie, or 
 feasting like the gods on the Atchafalaya and the 
 Ouitchita ; depressed with illness at Grand Cane or radi- 
 ant at receptions from Monroe to the Crescent City. 
 Ins and outs, ups and downs, arounds and abouts, but 
 God in all and above all. 
 
 There is no country in the United States like South- 
 ern Louisiana. It is a land of languorous beauty, of 
 poetry and romance. From New Orleans to the Texas 
 line there is an unbroken stretch of territory; a broad, 
 flat belt that has been utilized for rice and sugar planta- 
 tions. Numerous rivers and bayous roll peacefully 
 through it, adding exquisite touches to the scenery. 
 Mammoth live oaks, draped in gray Spanish moss, line 
 the sides of the streams, their branches almost meeting 
 in the centre, forming shady arches. Sail boats with 
 their white and crimson canvas, steamers, skiffs and 
 numerous other craft float up and down the waters; 
 over rich oyster beds, under an Italian sky; through 
 zephyrs soft wth sunshine and heavy with the odor 
 of orange blossoms ; in the midst of a tropical growth 
 of plants and flowers as rank as in Central America; 
 past ever-changing scenes of dreamy loveliness that 
 soothe the senses and stimulate the ima^^ination. 
 
 The most famous of all the rivers and bayous are the 
 
How "De Cap*n Come Thu " 173 
 
 Atchafalaya and the Teche, which are connected with 
 the story of Evangeline. Nearly every planter claims 
 the tree under which Longfellow's heroine rested in that 
 memorable search for her lover ; but at St. Martinville 
 the '' Cajans " — who are the descendants of that little 
 band of Acadians who left Nova Scotia in 1755, expelled 
 by the English, to find a refuge in this delightful land — 
 say they have the original and only Evangeline oak. 
 These people still live in the primitive style of their 
 progenitors, and, like Mark Twain's man in the Azores, 
 " thank God and St. Peter they have no blasphemous 
 desire to know more than their fathers." In traveling 
 through this section, one would think he had suddenly 
 dropped down into southern France. Dark, foreign 
 faces are seen at every turn and the jabber of French 
 tongues fills the air. This is the region from which 
 Geo. W. Cable secured the material for his numerous 
 stories. Here are the quaintest old houses imaginable, 
 the first story of brick and the upper of frame work. 
 Age and conservatism and fossilized ideas and customs 
 seemingly laugh at reforms. The church of Rome holds 
 full sway. The women keep up the religion. At Ope- 
 lousas there is a convent of colored nuns. In the hol- 
 lows of the trees about the grounds images and cruci- 
 fixes are placed, before which the negro sisters bend the 
 knee. 
 
 In visiting the homes of the leading sugar planters in 
 southern Louisiana, one would never dream that the 
 civil war is over. On all sides there are unmistakable 
 evidences of wealth ; elegant residences, horses and car- 
 riages, coachmen, dining-room servants, governesses and 
 
174 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 housekeepers ; in the fields, hundreds of negroes work- 
 ing under an overseer, whom they call " overseer," as in 
 ante-behum days. At sunrise, noon and sunset, the 
 plantation bell rings and the laborers walk, or ride mules 
 to their work, so many in numbers they look like bat- 
 talions, particularly so as each man and woman is armed 
 with a hoe, carried on the shoulder like a musket. 
 
 It is amazing to see how the woman suffrage ques- 
 tion is growing in this quiet section. Opinions are ex- 
 pressed endorsing the movement that surprises the un- 
 expectant listener. The women especially are having 
 their eyes opened; particularly those who have been 
 connected with W. C. T. U. work. They see that the 
 solution of the drink problem lies to a great extent in 
 woman's ballot ; and, looking deeper, they find that the 
 key to the whole situation. Not only in political and 
 philanthropic circles have women been brought to real- 
 ize their restrictions but in ecclesiastical as well. 
 
 Morgan City is a small town on Berwick Bay. A 
 Methodist church was built there largely through the 
 munificence of Capt. Pharr, a wealthy sugar planter. 
 Very soon a Sunday-school was organized and Capt. 
 Pharr was requested to act as superintendent. He re- 
 fused. Other men were urged to accept the position, 
 but they likewise refused. As a last resort, the minister 
 asked Mrs. Pharr, the wife of the planter, to be super- 
 intendent of the Sunday-school. She accepted. The 
 Bay lay between Mrs. Pharr's home and Morgan City, 
 and every Sabbath she had to pay from $1.50 to $2.00 
 ferriage in crossing to and fro. There were a number 
 of children in a little fishing village near, whom Mrs. 
 
How " De Cap*n Come Thu" 175 
 
 Pharr wanted to take over with her to Sunday-school 
 and church, as there were none near them ; but the ex- 
 pense of crossing the Bay was so great she found it 
 impossible to do so. Finally, she went to her husband, 
 and said : " Captain Pharr, I wish you would furnish 
 me a boat in which to go over to Morgan City and take 
 the children from Berwick." The Captain refused, say- 
 ing that it would cost too much ; besides, there was no 
 one to pull the boat across the Bay, and a man would 
 have to be hired at $1.00 a day to do it, and it would be 
 too expensive all around. So Mrs. Pharr, quietly 
 bought a boat on credit, and paid for it in one month by 
 charging passage during the week to the persons who 
 crossed over on business. Captain Pharr was so pleased 
 with his wife's skillful financial engineering that he 
 hired the boatman, and everybody went over the Bay to 
 Sunday-school free of charge. 
 
 For five years, Mrs. Pharr was superintendent of the 
 Morgan City Sunday-school, and collecting steward of 
 the Methodist church. At the end of that time, she 
 was elected delegate by the quarterly conference to the 
 district conference, which was 'held in a small adjoining 
 
 town. She went. Bishop was in the chair. The 
 
 report of the Morgan City work was called for. Mrs. 
 Pharr arose to read what she (for she was the church) 
 had done. Before she had time to open her lips, the 
 Bishop said, " Madam, it is not constitutional for a 
 woman to represent any church at a district confer- 
 ence.'* Mrs. Pharr sat down in silence. 
 
 Two more years rolled away. Mrs. Pharr con- 
 tinued to act as Sunday-school superintendent, and 
 
176 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 to collect the pastors' salaries, as steward of the Meth- 
 odist church. The time for another district conference 
 came around. Mrs. Pharr was again elected delegate 
 by the quarterly conference. " What use is there in my 
 going?" she protested. "I shall not be allowed to 
 speak." The presiding elder who was present assured 
 her that his influence would be sufficient to guarantee 
 her a hearing, so Mrs. Pharr went. Again the report 
 was called for from Morgan City and again Mrs. 
 Pharr arose to her feet, — this time to speak of the work 
 and not to read a report. The new presiding Bishop 
 said : " My sister, you cannot say a word in this confer- 
 ence. You can write your report, and let a brother read 
 it ; but a woman cannot be allowed to speak." Patience 
 had ceased to be a virtue. Mrs. Pharr replied, in a 
 spirited way, ''If I, who have served the Methodist 
 church for seven years as Sunday-school superintendent 
 and collecting steward, am not permitted to report my 
 work before this august body of men, no brother for 
 me shall read what I have done. Bishop, don't you 
 think you preachers are a little inconsistent ? You urge 
 the women of your church to crucify themselves con- 
 stantly in class-meetings by giving their sacred personal 
 experiences, and call on them to pray in public gather- 
 ings ; but after a woman has done all the work she can 
 in the church, she is not permitted to tell of it." There 
 was no reply. The presiding elder was asked to report 
 the work done in the Morgan City church, and Mrs. 
 Pharr went home the second time unheard, and quietly 
 resumed the double office she had held for seven years, 
 
How "De Cap'n Come Thu" 177 
 
 continuing to perform the duties incident without a 
 murmur, until her husband accepted Christianity and 
 came to her rehef . This experience formed an epoch in 
 her existence and made history that shall stand as a 
 light-house for other women to steer by, and to which 
 they shall look back smilingly in the better days that 
 are coming. 
 
 When Capt. Pharr first moved to St. Mary's parish 
 he was very irreligious. He owned a line of steam- 
 boats that ran up and down the Atchafalaya from New 
 Iberia to New Orleans. Soon after his marriage his 
 wife, who was very devout, said to him : " Sunday traf- 
 fic is a terrible offense in the sight of God. You must 
 stop your boats from running on the Sabbath." 
 " What ! " he exclaimed, in his stentorian voice that 
 made the very rafters ring, " stop my boats when every 
 other man's boats are running on Sunday! It would 
 be sheer madness ! It would ruin me forever ! " 
 " Capt. Pharr," she persisted, " I shall never use a cent 
 that comes from the desecration of the Lord's Day, 
 either for myself or my children. It would be preferable 
 to suffer want than to roll in riches that came from 
 such a source. If you will sell out your boats and go 
 into some other business I will work to help you get 
 another start." 
 
 The Captain rebelled fiercely for awhile, but finally 
 concluded that nothing could withstand a determined 
 woman, especially when backed by religious fervor. In 
 a short while he disposed of every boat and invested the 
 money in a sugar plantation. Fortune favored his new 
 
1 7^ A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 venture and wealth poured into his hands. His posses- 
 sions became great and his home on Berwick Bay is one 
 of the most magnificent in the entire South. 
 
 The story of Captain Pharr's conversion is exceed- 
 ingly interesting. He had a way of rising very early 
 as he did in the days when he was a penniless boy in 
 North Carolina and of going about his premises attend- 
 ing to any work that required oversight. Mrs. Pharr 
 held family prayers with her three little sons every 
 morning before breakfast. The Captain returned from 
 his tour of inspection sooner than usual one day. As 
 h'e i:eached the door of the sitting-room his attention 
 was arrested by the sound of a childish voice in prayer. 
 His oldest son was saying, " Dear Lord Jesus, bless my 
 papa and make him a Christian." Then the second boy 
 began his prayer with " Our Father who art in heaven," 
 and ended : " Dear Lord Jesus, bless my papa and make 
 him a Christian." The third little fellow repeated the 
 same prayer and finished with the same request that his 
 father be made a Christian. At last Mrs. Pharr prayed 
 most earnestly for the blessing of God to rest on her 
 family, returning thanks for all that had come to them 
 through the riches of His grace, and ended her petition 
 with, " O, God, open the eyes of my husband and bring 
 him to a full knowledge of Jesus Christ." Captain 
 Pharr said it broke his heart. He made a complete sur- 
 render, then and there, to God. This was before he sold 
 his line of steamboats. 
 
 Once, while in Georgia, I heard an evangelist, who 
 had been entertained at Captain Pharr's home, tell the 
 story of the conversion of a certain steamboat captain 
 
How ^*De Cap'n Come Thu'' 179 
 
 which was very similar to the experience of Captain 
 Pharr, with the addition of an incident illustrative of 
 its results. The revivalist said that the news spread 
 among the hands on the boats that ** de Cap'n had come 
 thu." " Comin' thu " is an expression common with 
 the negroes, implying that a profession of religion has 
 been made ; '' thu " being a contraction of the word 
 through. The phrase has originated from the custom 
 that the colored people have of going into trances and 
 making visits through heaven and hell, hearing " un- 
 speakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to 
 utter," before they declare themselves fit subjects for 
 baptism. One of the boats was loading up for a trip to 
 New Orleans. Everything was in a great stir. There 
 were loud calls and impatient answers, perpetual run- 
 nings to and fro, and a general mixture of gay songs 
 and muttered curses filled the air. Dinah, the steward- 
 ess, had finished her work and was standing calmly in 
 the sun talking to the cook. " Aunt Milly," she asked 
 with an awe-struck face, " did yo' know dat de Cap'n 
 had done come thu ? " " Hush, nigger ! " said Aunt 
 Milly, " doan' yo' talk sech fooFry as dat ter me. De 
 jedgmen' will be here 'fore de Cap'n come thu." *' Sho's 
 I live, Aunt Milly," exclaimed Dinah, " it's de Cord's 
 truf ! Hezekiah tole me he seed de Cap'n come thu one 
 day while de missus was er prayin' wid de chilluns. 
 Hezekiah's him what waits on de white folks' table, — 
 Aunt Felicy Ann's boy, Hezekiah — him what lives nex' 
 to us house whar de hopper-grasses am so powerful 
 thick in de spring. He are de boy." " Go off, Dinah ! 
 \ ain' los' all my gumption yit! 'Spec' I'se ^wine ter 
 
i8o A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 'blkve dat rascally chile, Hezekiah? When de Cap'n 
 come thu dis ere ole 'ooman's gwine straight home ter 
 Gabrell. Go 'way, nigger, I'se gwine whar I'se gwine ! 
 Dat's whar I'se gwine. Take yo' brack se'f off ! " 
 
 At that moment the Captain walked out in full view 
 of them and said to the deck hands : " Now, boys, put 
 up the smoke-stack ! We ought to have been five miles 
 down the river by this time." The negro men sprang 
 to obey orders and to adjust the smoke-stack, the upper 
 joint of which had just fallen. As they got it in place, 
 and the Captain was about to give the command for the 
 boat to '' shove off," down it came rolling, missing the 
 Captain's head by half an inch, and scattering soot fore- 
 and-aft. The Captain opened his lips to swear as he 
 had been in the habit of doing all his life on such aggra- 
 vating occasions ; but his face grew suddenly very white 
 and the oaths died in his throat unuttered. With a most 
 heroic effort he summoned up a smile and said : " That 
 is all right, boys ! Of course you couldn't help it. Now, 
 let's at it again ! " Once more the men worked like 
 beavers and adjusted the joint. The bell began to give 
 the signal to *' cut loose," when down lumbered the pipe 
 the second time, bringing a shower of cinders and a 
 shadow of dismay. The Captain's face grew red with 
 rage, and his eyes blazed ; but he checked the volume of 
 imprecations surging between his teeth, bit his lips and 
 walked rapidly to the stern of the boat and gazed down 
 the river. When he regained control of himself he re- 
 turned, and cried out, " All right, boys ! We'll try it 
 again ! " Once more the men tugged and pulled and 
 screwed the smoke-stack in place. Surely it would stay 
 
How "De Cap'n Come Thu*' i8i 
 
 this time. The sun was high in the heavens. The time 
 for starting was already two hours behind. The Cap- 
 tain paced up and down trying to suppress his impa- 
 tience. The boat loosed from its moorings and began 
 to puff down the Atchafalaya, when, lo ! with a terrific 
 thud the smoke-pipe fell the third time. Without mov- 
 ing a muscle of his face the Captain called out, " Come 
 on, boys ! that joint's down again. I'll help you put it 
 up this time and if it falls any more I'll order a new one 
 as soon as I get to New Orleans." 
 
 Afar ofif, and unseen, Dinah and Aunt Milly had been 
 watching and listening with their hearts in their 
 mouths. At the Captain's last words Aunt Milly 
 clapped her hands to her head and exclaimed, " 'Fore de 
 Lord, Dinah, de Cap'n's sho come thu ! " 
 
 On visiting Captain Pharr's home after hearing the 
 evangelist relate this incident I told it to him, and asked 
 if it were not a chapter out of his own life. He was in- 
 dignant, and exclaimed wrathfully, " The idea of my 
 being such a poor steamboat man as to allow a smoke- 
 stack to fall three times! If that absurdity was pub- 
 lished to the world as connected with me it would ruin 
 my reputation as a captain and the reputation of the 
 story-teller for veracity. The negroes got their idea of 
 my conversion from seeing me hoist a steamboat chim- 
 ney one day and not lose my temper." 
 
 Whether in adjusting the smoke-stack or hoisting a 
 chimney it matters not. One thing is very certain: 
 " The Cap'n's sho come thu." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A SOUTHERN PILGRIMAGE 
 
 The earnestness of life is the only passport to the satisfaction 
 of life. — Theodore Parker. 
 
 Two years after entering the work of the Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union I was sent as a delegate 
 from Mississippi to the National Convention which met 
 in Boston, in 1891, and was there made a national or- 
 ganizer and lecturer for that association. The city was 
 reached in time to allow me the privilege of attending 
 the first international convention ever held by the white 
 ribboners. There were women from almost every civ- 
 ilized country on the face of the earth, all coming 
 together in one great work, all meeting on one broad 
 platform, all having " one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
 tism." 
 
 While in Boston a reception was given by the Mas- 
 sachusetts Woman Suffrage Association and the 
 Woman Suffrage League of the city to the delegates of 
 the National W. C. T. U. Convention, who were inter- 
 ested in the living question of the political emancipation 
 of women. As it had been an engrossing faith with me 
 for years, I gladly profited by the opportunity to become 
 a part of such an historic occasion. 
 
 182 
 
A Southern Pilgrimage 183 
 
 After an hour spent in social intercourse Lucy Stone, 
 noble heroine, devoted apostle and dauntless pioneer 
 of the Equal Rights movement of this country, called 
 the meeting to order and requested that the guests 
 make brief speeches regarding their convictions on the 
 subject of Woman Suffrage, and stating the position 
 it occupied in the estimation of the public in the sec- 
 tions where they lived. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, who 
 appeared before me for the first time since my early 
 experience in New Orleans, welcomed the visitors. 
 Prominent Southern women, among them Mrs. Lide 
 Merriwether, of Tennessee, and Miss Frances Griffin 
 of Alabama, expressed themselves as being entirely in 
 sympathy with the cause of Equal Rights. The North- 
 ern and Western women who spoke afterward were not 
 more radical. This meeting did much to bring into 
 closer unity the leaders in the two greatest reforms of 
 the nineteenth century — the Woman's Christian Tem- 
 perance Union and the Woman Suffrage Association. 
 
 After the adjournment of the national conven- 
 tion I made Boston my headquarters for two weeks 
 while visits were paid to its classic suburbs. 
 
 On my return to Mississippi, I stopped en route in 
 Washington. The beautiful capital has since become 
 the scene of many notable occasions in my life. The 
 most prominent were the tremendous meeting held in 
 Convention hall, which seated 7,000 people, in honor 
 of the presentation of the Polyglot Petition, in 1895, 
 to the President of the United States ; the Woman's 
 Council in the same year; the International Conven- 
 tion of the Christian Endeavor, in 1896, and the Na- 
 
184 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 tional Convention of the American Woman Suffrage 
 Association, in 1898. 
 
 During the three years following I traveled through 
 nearly every Southern state in the interest of the 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, from Delaware 
 to Texas, speaking in halls, parlors, churches, theatres, 
 school-houses and in the open air; to negroes as well 
 as to the white population; to audiences of children, 
 young women, and mixed assemblies ; in public and 
 private schools, colleges and universities for both boys 
 and girls ; before conferences of ministers, chautauquas, 
 schools of methods. State Teachers' Associations ; State 
 and National Conventions of the W. C. T. U., the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor, and Woman Suffrage Association, and 
 have lobbied in the Mississippi legislature to secure the 
 passage of the Scientific Temperance Instruction bill. 
 The most interesting of all these tours was the visit to 
 the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and to the home of 
 the Southern novelist, Augusta Evans Wilson, in Mo- 
 bile. 
 
 Often in small towns I have spent the entire morning 
 in going from house to house telling the people of our 
 work, and drumming up a congregation to hear me at 
 night. At other times I have been met at the railway 
 station by committees bearing flowers, and have been 
 carried to handsome homes behind white horses, in a 
 carriage decorated with white ribbons, to be welcomed 
 later on by tremendous city audiences. Week by week 
 I have lectured twice a day and have organized unions 
 wherever there w^as the faintest possibility of success; 
 and in almost every case have been received with cheer- 
 
A Southern Pilgrimage 185 
 
 ing cordiality and treated with the utmost appreciation 
 and generous hospitahty. If there is strong preju- 
 dice in the hearts of the Southern people against 
 woman's public work, as the world at large is inclined 
 to believe, the force of it has never been felt by me. Op- 
 position either subsided or was silent in the presence of 
 my exuberant enthusiasm. Girls belonging to the most 
 conservative and cultured families joined the Young 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union and developed 
 into admirable philanthropists; gentle, timid ladies 
 from the seclusion of their home life unhesitatingly 
 entered the ranks of the mother society, and men, un- 
 used to the " new woman " movement smiled approval 
 and gave their heartiest support. 
 
 The conviction has grown with my wider knowledge 
 of them that Southerners, though tenacious of social 
 traditions, are hospitable to new ideas and are chival- 
 rous toward a woman who wishes their co-operation 
 provided that she comes to them also as a lady. A study 
 of state codes will show that the South has led in mak- 
 ing women equal with men before the law. Owing 
 partly to the simplicity of its social structure new 
 thoughts permeate quickly ; and being throughout a re- 
 ligious people moral questions, such as the temperance 
 reform, if put to the popular white Southern vote would 
 win by a large majority ; and if the dangers of negro 
 suffrage were settled forever it is scarcely a matter of 
 doubt but that the men of the South would trust the 
 women with the ballot, except in those states where 
 there is a large illiterate white vote ; and this, not only 
 because ignorance is an insurmountable obstacle to 
 
i86 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 progress, but because the unscrupulous politician is al- 
 ways on hand bidding for this vote. 
 
 That the above statement respecting the attitude of 
 the South towards the temperance question is not ex- 
 travagant may be inferred from the following facts fur- 
 nished by chairmen of the executive committees of the 
 Prohibition party, and other prominent prohibition 
 workers in the Southern states, and by the Secretary of 
 State in Mississippi, during the months of January and 
 February, 1899: Mississippi has 75 counties; of these 
 61 are under a state local option, dramshop law ; 14 
 liquor counties only in this commonwealth. Georgia 
 has 137 counties; 113 are under prohibitory law, six or 
 seven of these having dispensaries ; — 24. liquor counties 
 in Georgia. The Willingham bill, which called for the 
 prohibition of the manufacture and sale of liquor 
 in Georgia, was before the legislature of that state 
 in the winter of 1899. It passed the house by 
 93 yeas to 65 nays, but was defeated in the senate 
 by a vote of 26 to 14. Kentucky has 119 coun- 
 ties; 73 are under local option, leaving 46 in which 
 there are open saloons; parts of 28 of these counties 
 are " dry." Florida has 44 counties ; 20 are under 
 local option ; leaving 24 "wet." Alabama has 66 coun- 
 ties ; 22 are '' dry " and 44 have liquor ; however, the 
 legislature, in February, 1899, passed a law which es- 
 tablishes the dispensary in 15 counties, leaving 29 under 
 the control of whiskey. The state of South Carolina 
 is wholly under a rigid dispensary law. Maryland has 
 23 counties; about half this area is under local op- 
 tion. There are saloons in Tennessee only in in- 
 
A Southern Pilgrimage 187 
 
 corporated towns; counties without these are dry. 
 Many towns have surrendered their charters in order 
 to annihilate the saloon. There is also a four- 
 mile law which prohibits a dram-shop within • that 
 distance of any college, factory, rolling-mill or other 
 chartered institution. It is safe to estimate that much 
 more than half the area of its 36 counties is under pro- 
 hibitory law. North Carolina has local prohibition in 
 many places in its 96 counties, and is now striving for 
 a rigorous dispensary law. Three-fourths of the state 
 is probably free from the open saloon. Louisiana also 
 has much prohibitory territory spotted about over its 
 59 parishes, and temperance sentiment is gaining 
 ground steadily. Of the 220 organized counties in 
 Texas 55 have prohibition by local option, and prohibi- 
 tion prevails to such an extent in other counties that 
 ** The Texas Liquor Dealer " mourns that one-half the 
 populated area of the state is covered by prohibitory 
 law. These figures show that the white people of the 
 South are very well masssed for the temperance cause. 
 It is equally a fact that the ignorant, vicious and pur- 
 chasable negro vote turns the scale in most of the ter- 
 ritory where the open saloon exists. There has been 
 a Prohibition party organization in every Southern state 
 which has done much to create sentiment and annihilate 
 the liquor traffic. 
 
 Immediately upon entering the work of the Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union, I affiliated with the Pro- 
 hibition party, as it was the only political body in the 
 United States that stood for the protection of the home 
 against the saloon. My brothers and I had stirring 
 
1 88 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 arguments on the subject. In their excitement they 
 would walk rapidly up and down the long, old front 
 gallery at the plantation home, and say, " You are the 
 only one of a vast relationship who has gone over to 
 a new political faith. If you and the women asso- 
 ciated with you, continue the agitation that has begun 
 you will eventually break up the Democratic party." 
 
 One of the stock arguments against woman suffrage 
 is that it is unnecessary for women to vote, as they are 
 represented at the polls by the men of their families. 
 For nearly eleven years I have been the only party Pro- 
 hibitionist in our household, and in all that time my fa- 
 ther and brothers have represented me at the ballot-box 
 by voting a straight Democratic ticket. 
 
 Mrs. M. M. Snell and I were appointed by the 
 Prohibition party of Mississippi as delegates to the 
 memorable National Convention which met in Pitts- 
 burgh, but, to our regret, found it impossible to attend. 
 
 Of course there were physically rough places in my 
 W. C. T. U. pilgrimages through the South, — cold bed- 
 rooms and colder halls and churches in winter ; frightful 
 heat and suffocating dust in summer ; late hours of trav- 
 eling, excessive fatigue, frequent and prolonged ill- 
 nesses, often among strangers and uncomfortable 
 surroundings ; but, as for real hardships, I have never 
 known them. My trials have been nothing in compari- 
 son to those of many women who have given their 
 lives for humanity's uplift in the cause of temperance 
 and prohibition. The leaders of the Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union — those in the forefront of the battle, 
 are among the bravest of earth. God only can know 
 
A Southern Pilgrimage 189 
 
 the crucifixions they have suffered to carry the blessed 
 tidings of this later dispensation to the souls of the 
 sorrowing and the heavy-laden. From the beginning 
 they have been opposed and criticised, and laughed at, 
 but they have gone on their way undaunted, knowing 
 that they were fulfilling a divine commission and were 
 backed by the power and the love of God. 
 
 They did " not hope to be mowers, 
 And to gather the ripe, gold ears, 
 
 Until " they had " first been sowers, 
 And watered the furrows with tears." 
 
 None but those who have endured it can know the 
 sting, the bitterness of having to go into homes where 
 there is an utter lack of sympathy ; where in each smile 
 there lurks a sneer. None but those who have tried 
 it can realize the hardness of pushing the work in places 
 where people did not care to receive it ; of undertaking 
 to banish the wine-glass from the tables of the rich and 
 the beer-mug and the whiskey-flask from the lips of 
 the poor. The constant strife with the liquor trafBc and 
 the political power back of it; the standing for prin- 
 ciples which the world regards as useless or insulting; 
 the juttings of radicalism — which means Christianity 
 brought down into daily life — against conservatism 
 which often means selfishness. The loneliness of spirit, 
 the bodily fatigue, the unremitting drain on heart and 
 brain and nerve that fill up the days of a worker for the 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union only the ad- 
 vocates of other great reforms can rightly measure; 
 but they are willing to undergo it all if, by their suffer- 
 
1 90 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 ings, one life can be redeemed or one community 
 brought into touch with God. 
 
 The Devonshire coast of England is very dangerous. 
 It is bound by rocks that mean death to any ship that 
 strikes upon them. For many years there have been 
 men employed by the government to walk up and down 
 that sea-girt point to warn passing vessels. They are 
 called life-saving-men. They have worn steep paths 
 into the solid rock, which their faithful, tireless feet 
 have pressed during the time of their ceaseless march- 
 ings to and fro. The keen wind bites them and the salt 
 waves drench them and many are swept into the sea; 
 but their places are supplied, the watch is kept up, the 
 signals are given and the ships sail by into their harbors 
 of safety. The leaders of the Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union are life-saving- women ; they walk 
 up and down the rock-bound coast of the world's ap- 
 petite and ignorance and prejudice waving the dan- 
 ger signal to the souls that pass by on the great deep 
 of temptation. They too have worn steep paths into 
 the stony ground; they too have felt the icy wind 
 and tasted the brine of the salt spray; they too have 
 sunk upon the reefs and have been swept into the sea 
 of eternity. However the watch is kept up; the flag 
 waves on unceasingly; restless, winged feet move un- 
 wearied in their ministry; storm-tossed crafts sail by 
 unharmed into the harbor of peaceful lives, tinder the 
 shadow of the Most High. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 UPON THE HEIGHTS 
 
 My rendezvous is appointed, it is certain ; 
 My Lord will be there and wait till I come, on perfect terms; 
 The great Camerado the lover true for whom I pine, will be 
 there. — Walt Whitman. 
 
 My three older brothers had left the plantation and 
 had gone into the wide world to battle with life. The 
 youngest was at college. On returning from one of my 
 long campaigns and finding father and mother alone 
 I said to them, " My first duty is to you. All thought 
 of leaving home during your life-time will be relin- 
 quished." The tears sprang quickly to father's eyes, 
 and he exclaimed, '' My daughter, I would pray God 
 daily to let me die if I thought my living would keep 
 you from the work of the Woman's Christian Temper- 
 ance Union." Mother said very quietly but very posi- 
 tively, " So would I." Of course, under such circum- 
 stances it was very easy for me to go. 
 
 In 1893 a journey was made to Chicago to take a six 
 months' course in Bible study and practical Gospel work 
 in the training school established in that Arabian 
 Night's city by the great evangelist, Dwight L. Moody. 
 For months my traveling and speaking had been inces- 
 
 191 
 
192 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 sant, and my strength had been so overtaxed, that, soon 
 after arriving, great physical exhaustion followed. 
 Finding it impossible to carry out the proposed pro- 
 gram, this institution was left after remaining in it only 
 one month. When vitality began to return lessons in 
 voice culture were taken from a noted specialist. Some 
 time after, on going to a hotel near the World's Fair, 
 in order to visit that wonderful exposition more con- 
 veniently, instruction in physical training was received 
 from Baron Posse, a young Swedish nobleman, who 
 was at the head of a successful institution in Boston 
 for the scientific development of the human body. He 
 and his pretty American wife and some of my Southern 
 friends were at the same hotel with me. Among the 
 latter was Miss Clara G. Baer, of New Orleans. She 
 is a native of Louisiana and is another striking illustra- 
 tion of what young Southern women can accomplish. 
 Her childhood was spent in the South, where, as the 
 little *' Dixie " of the home, she grew into a girl of 
 much spirit but not robust constitution. Her school life 
 was passed, for the most part, in Kentucky. As she 
 approached womanhood the need of a strong, vigorous 
 physical being was felt more and more. The dream 
 of her life was to be able to do her part in the world's 
 work unencumbered by weakness and days of pain. 
 How to do it became an absorbing question. To leave 
 the anchorage of home and start out alone to find the 
 way was opposed to every family custom, and be- 
 came the cause of many a controversy with those 
 who loved her. About this time, God sent into her life 
 a woman whose own experience enabled her to grasp 
 this young girl's need. She advised her to go to New 
 
Upon the Heights 193 
 
 England and take up the work which had so long lain 
 near her heart, saying : " Remember, we cannot afford 
 to neglect one opportunity for self-improvement. You 
 feel the need — leave to God the rest." Acting on this 
 advice, Miss Baer went to Boston, where she soon 
 met Baron Nils Posse and his wife. During her 
 summer work in his classes at Martha's Vineyard they 
 became warm, personal friends ; and when, in the fall, 
 they invited her to make her home with them, if she de- 
 cided to remain in Boston, it seemed as though the way 
 was being pointed out most clearly. 
 
 Miss Baer's professional life may be said to have 
 begun while still a pupil of Baron Posse ; for he soon 
 appointed her to take charge of a large gymnasium for 
 women at Waltham, Massachusetts. She graduated 
 from the Posse Gymnasium in the class of '91. Imme- 
 diately after her graduation she secured the position of 
 Director of Swedish Gymastics in the Boston School of 
 Oratory during its summer term. In the fall of that 
 year, she was made a member of the regular faculty but 
 was suddenly summoned South by illness in her family. 
 Being unable to return immediately to Boston, she ac- 
 cepted offers of work at her home in New Orleans, the 
 positions being Director of the Ladies' Class of the 
 Southern Athletic Club and of the physical work at 
 the Ouincy school. She was also made a visiting 
 teacher at Newcomb College and Tulane University. 
 In the spring of '92 she decided to remain at Newcomb 
 and was then elected to the faculty. Through her con- 
 nection with the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union, as State Superintendent of Physical Education, 
 with the Louisiana Chautauqua and the Peabody Sum- 
 
194 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 mer Normals, she has come in touch with the most pro- 
 gressive element, not only in Louisiana, but the entire 
 South. In 1894 she was instrumental in securing the 
 passage of the law which makes physical education a 
 'required branch in the public school curriculum, thus 
 placing Louisiana on record as the second state in the 
 Union to take such a step — Ohio being the first. Miss 
 Baer's influence and recognition have passed Into the 
 national work of the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union and she is now one of the associate superintend- 
 ents of the department of physical training. She in- 
 vented the new ball game " Nev/comb," and she has also 
 revised " Basket Ball," which she calls *' Basquette." 
 Both of these games are copyrighted and published in 
 booklet form. Miss Baer has produced a hand book of 
 gymnastics for the school-room, called '' Progressive 
 Lessons in Physical Education," which is in its second 
 edition, the first being published by the School Board 
 of New Orleans for use in connection with her instruc- 
 tions to the teachers of that city. It is now used in their 
 schools. Miss Baer is one of the editors of the '" Posse 
 Gymnasium Journal," Boston, Massachusetts, and for 
 the past three years has been lecturer on Medical Gym- 
 nastics at the New Orleans Sanitarium and Touro In- 
 firmary Training Schools for Nurses. 
 
 During the World's Fair the rare opportunity was 
 granted of meeting many distinguished women from 
 all parts of the earth. The most famous and interesting 
 was Susan B. Anthony, the intrepid advocate of Equal 
 Rights. She was filled, as in her youth, with the in- 
 spiration of a mighty purpose. Under its influence she 
 
Upon the Heights 195 
 
 had become the Hving embodiment of the repressed but 
 unconquerable dignity of the world's womanhood, — 
 calm, self-forgetful, self-sustained. It was a joy to 
 behold her receiving the homage of the public whose 
 criticism and opposition had so persistently followed her 
 in the earlier days but against which she had stood like 
 a wall of granite and had signally overcome. Several 
 years later, when I was passing through Rochester, 
 New York, Miss Anthony invited me to spend a nignt 
 with her at her home by letter, as follows : 
 
 Omoe or tb« P»>8eldenti ROCHESTEH, N. Y., ^^■*^.'^^. f«80^ 
 
 
 
196 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 On driving up to her dwelling, which was a large 
 brick structure, the great suffragist met me at the car- 
 riage and, taking hold of my large traveling-bag, which 
 weighed at least twenty-five pounds, sprang up the 
 front steps and then up the stairway as if she were a 
 young Amazon instead of a woman of seventy-eight 
 years. On my protesting she remarked : " We Northern 
 women are accustomed to waiting on ourselves. It is 
 different with Southerners." 
 
 Some distinguished guests had been invited to tea. 
 Miss Anthony was in an animated mood and talked con- 
 stantly and brilliantly, relating incidents from her ear- 
 lier experiences in connection with famous men and 
 women who had long since passed away. Before the 
 visitors departed she took a lamp in her hand and bid- 
 ding us follow, climbed several flights of stairs, finally 
 reaching a sky-chamber. 
 
 This " lady with a lamp shall stand 
 In the great history of the land, 
 A noble type of good. 
 Heroic womanhood ! " 
 
 From piles of manuscript lying about or packed away 
 securely she drew forth some pages of her biography 
 that had just been completed by her faithful Boswell, 
 Mrs. Ida H. Harper, but which had not yet been de- 
 livered to the printing press. 
 
 When the hour for retiring came Miss Anthony con- 
 ducted me to my room and with her own hands 
 prepared the bed, remarking that nothing gave her 
 more pleasure than keeping house. Hanging on the 
 walls of this chamber were time- faded pictures illustrat- 
 
upon the Heights 197 
 
 ing the horrors of the slave trade. Miss Anthony was 
 an ardent aboHtionist and has ceaselessly carried out 
 and on her doctrine of human emancipation. 
 
 During my six months' stay in Chicago, in 1893, a 
 most interesting trip was made to Canada, in response 
 to an invitation to deliver an address before the 
 International Convention of the Christian Endeavor 
 Society, which, that year, met in Montreal. 
 
 At Kingston we boarded the steamer, Bohemian, 
 and had a charming trip down the St. Lawerence, 
 passing the Thousand Islands and successfully shoot- 
 ing the Lachine Rapids. 
 
 The day following the adjournment of the con- 
 vention, I went to Quebec, visiting every point of 
 interest in the quaint old city and for many miles 
 beyond, — from the Plains of Abraham to the beautiful 
 Falls of Montmorency. The greater and more 
 magnificent Falls of Niagara were taken in on my 
 return trip to Chicago. 
 
 The year 1893 was memorable for me in many ways. 
 John G. Woolley, the celebrated prohibition and 
 Christian citizenship orator, was met soon after 
 coming back from Canada, and an invitation was re- 
 ceived from him to attend a convention, to be held at 
 Rest Island, Minnesota, a short distance from the 
 twin cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis. This lovely 
 spot lies in the heart of the dimpling waters of Lake 
 Pepin which is an expansion of the upper Mississippi. 
 On its wooded banks, in deepest solitude, surrounded 
 by enchanting scenery, Mr. Woolley had established 
 a retreat for men cursed with the appetite for strong 
 
198 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 drink. They came without money consideration, to 
 seek release, through the grace of Jesus Christ, from 
 the chains that bound them. In the early morning 
 and at twilight those sin-sick men gathered in the 
 bright, east room, where gospel services were con- 
 ducted by one of the many ministers attending the 
 convention. These were times of tender communing 
 with God, of the birth of souls to the gladness of 
 redemption, of confession of sin and consecration to 
 a higher life. 
 
 In that restful, blessed place my soul began to 
 hunger more for God. I yearned for a closer touch, 
 a deeper knowledge, a truer hand-clasp, a safer walk 
 with my Redeemer than had yet been realized. Daily 
 the burden was with me of the consciousness that my 
 religious life needed a clearer coloring, a finer texture, 
 a more abiding strength. A desire to see God '* face 
 to face, " to talk with Him upon the heights was 
 ever present. Hours were spent in agonizing prayer 
 and passionate weeping. At length the glory of God 
 shone upon me and there came a full baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost.' Joy and peace had followed my con- 
 version, but as the years had gone by with their 
 increasing responsibilities the sweetness of entire de- 
 pendence upon God had departed and the old deadness 
 had begun to creep over my soul. With this renewal 
 of tryst with my Lord, there came ' again the same 
 rest and gladness that accompanied my first meeting 
 with Christ; but it was deeper and calmer, and 
 mingled with a mysterious, wonderful outpouring of 
 the Spirit. Some writer has said : " It is well to take 
 
Upon the Heights 199 
 
 time to mend one's friendships." It has been proven in 
 my experience that it is necessary, at intervals along 
 life's journey, to make fresh consecrations, to renew 
 our covenants with God. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 How can we tell what coming people are aboard the ships 
 that be sailing to us now from the unknown seas? 
 
 — Chas. Dickens. 
 
 On returning from Chicago, in November, 1893, my 
 work of organization and lecturing was resumed in the 
 Southern states and carried on without interruption tm- 
 til May, 1895. At that time the State Convention of 
 the Mississippi Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
 met in Natchez. Mrs. L. S. Mount, who had served 
 so long and faithfully in the presidency, resigned, and 
 the honor of filling her place was conferred upon me. 
 Within three weeks after, I received a cablegram from 
 Miss Willard, who was then in England, asking me to 
 come at once to London. An International Convention 
 of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was to be 
 held there at which she desired me to be present. Fa- 
 ther and mother insisted that the call be accepted. A 
 formal resignation of my office as State President was 
 made, as the length of my sojourn abroad would be un- 
 certain. The fact of having a vice-president-at-large 
 insured that the machinery of the state organization 
 would move without break. The health of my oldest 
 
 200 
 
Across the Sea 201 
 
 brother had failed two years before and he had returned 
 to the old home ; he had become so much better that all 
 of us thought he was on the road to complete recovery. 
 Knowing he could never be sufficiently robust for active 
 business, it was planned for him to live with father and 
 mother. 
 
 In a short time every preparation for my departure 
 was finished. After a tender farewell and '* God speed " 
 from my dear ones, I was soon traveling to New York, 
 with a heart full of thanksgiving to my Heavenly 
 Father for His marvellous blessings. The dream of my 
 life was about to be realized, — a trip to Europe was close 
 at hand. 
 
 Several days were spent at Prohibition Park, Staten 
 Island, attending the farewell meetings which were held 
 in honor of the delegates from the United States and 
 Canada to the World's W. C. T. U. Convention in Lon- 
 don. At last we stood beside the ship that was to carry 
 us across the ocean. The time for it to move off had 
 almost arrived; but my trunk had not come. My un- 
 easiness grew with the flying moments ; still it did not 
 appear. A dear friend who stood by me, noticing my 
 anxiety, said softly, again and again, " You must learn 
 to trust God in the dark ! " At the last moment, the 
 longed-for baggage arrived. 
 
 On June 5th, at 4 p. m., the steamer Berlin moved 
 out from New York harbor in a glow of sunshine. 
 Hundreds of friends stood on the pier waving their 
 handkerchiefs to the passengers, who leaned over the 
 bulwarks and watched them with yearning eyes until 
 the growing distance hid them from view. Then fol- 
 
20 2 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 lowed a rush for chairs, a diving into trunks for suitable 
 clothing for the voyage, greeting of state-room com- 
 panions, and general adjustment to environments. 
 Later the dining-saloon was the source of attraction, to 
 some of us for the first and last time. '' Life on the 
 ocean wave " was delightful for fifteen hours to me. 
 During the night a heavy fog settled upon the waters, 
 the fog-horn blew shrilly every few moments, and the 
 ship moved slowly. The fog and the horn-blowing con- 
 tinued through two following days. The captain stayed 
 at his post during all the weary hours without a mo- 
 ment's sleep, having his meals carried up to him. He 
 feared coming in contact with " ships that pass in the 
 night." During all this time the ocean was calm and 
 unrufifled, but black and sullen looking. The third 
 morning brought the sunshine, which continued. Sea- 
 sickness came with the dawn of the first day. The 
 passengers sat on deck, wrapped in heavy rugs, too 
 miserable to speak, too inert to miOve. Deck stewards 
 moved to and fro dispensing beef tea and hard-tack, ar- 
 ranging head-rests, and making the situation easy for 
 the sufferers. 
 
 The monotony was broken Sunday morning by serv- 
 ices held at II o'clock, when a sermon was preached, 
 and at night another meeting was conducted. The ship, 
 which had been making good time, began to move 
 slowly when the deep sea was reached beyond New- 
 foundland, as icebergs float beneath the water in this 
 latitude, and to strike one means fatality. 
 
 There was a glorious company on board — lecturers, 
 ministers, writers, singers, and (inglorious) a French 
 
Across the Sea 203 
 
 variety troupe. Every day the W. C. T. U. women 
 observed the noon-tide hour with prayer. In the even- 
 ings entertainments were held in the dining-saloon 
 when there would be music, lectures and recitations. 
 
 In the early morning, the last day at sea, a flock of 
 sea-gulls denoted that we were nearing the shores of 
 England; soon we were sailing by the Scilly Islands. 
 News of the arrival of the Berlin was received immedi- 
 ately at the first light-house, telegraphed to South- 
 ampton and cabled thence to New York. Land's End 
 was later reached, bringing to remembrance Charles 
 Wesley and the lines he wrote while standing there : 
 
 " Lo ! on a narrow neck of land, 
 'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand." 
 
 Then we sailed along the Cornish coast and after 
 awhile caught glimpses of hawthorn hedges, growing 
 grain and stately dwellings. There were a number of 
 little boats with crimson sails floating on the water and 
 numerous brigs and steamers. Sky and sea and earth 
 were in fullest harmony. Beautiful ! beautiful ! beauti- 
 ful! 
 
 Friday night, June 14th, we anchored in port at 
 Southampton. Early next morning some one knocked 
 at my state-room door. Opening it I was joyously 
 greeted by Miss Jessie Ackerman, who had come down 
 from London to meet the delegates to the World's W. C. 
 T. U. Convention, for which organization she had just 
 completed her second circuit of the globe as " Round- 
 the- World Missionary." She accompanied me to the 
 home of her hostess and mine, the well-known Quak- 
 
204 A Slaveholder's Daughter* 
 
 eress preacher and author, Hannah Whitall Smith, 
 whose " Christian's Secret of a Happy Life " has had 
 more editions and been printed in more languages than 
 almost any other American book. Soon we were in the 
 cars, gliding swiftly through bright fields of wheat and 
 crimson poppies, past charming little villages, clean and 
 picturesque, to the great metropolis. 
 
 The home of Hannah Whitall Smith is one of the 
 headquarters of intellectual freedom in London. Every- 
 thing in her household is beautifully attuned to the law 
 of grace and beauty ; even the meals are announced by 
 an exquisite strain of music proceeding from some mys- 
 terious source. Among the other guests in this hospit- 
 able home were Mrs. Margaret Bottome, President of 
 the International Order of King's Daughters ; Frau 
 Kamer and Frau Gezyski, elegant ladies from Germany, 
 Miss Alii Trigg, of Finland, and Madame Selmer of 
 Denmark. There had never been such immense and 
 enthusiastic meetings held in the interest of the temper- 
 ance reform in Great Britain as those that took place in 
 London during the week that followed our arrival. 
 
 Sunday morning, June i6th, 1895, I received the fol- 
 lowing little note from Miss Willard, which was sent 
 by a special messenger. It was headed 94 Ashley 
 Gardens. 
 
 "Dear Belle, 
 
 " Howdy ! So glad ! You have been elected the only 
 new (spick and span) round-the-world missionary. 
 You are to speak fifteen minutes this p. m. Meet us. 
 Come with H. W. S. to the platform. Ever thine, 
 
 " Sister Frances." 
 
Across the Sea 205 
 
 That afternoon I had the great honor and privilege 
 of speaking in City Temple, better known as the church 
 of Dr. Joseph Parker, with Miss Willard, Lady Henry 
 Somerset and " Mother Stewart " of Crusade fame. 
 Nearly two-hundred meetings were addressed by the 
 White Ribbon speakers in London that day. After- 
 ward it was my happy lot to speak on five occasions 
 during this visit in England's Capital, the most notable 
 being at the superb international demonstration in A\- 
 bert hall, which is said to be the largest auditorium in 
 the world. An audience of ten-thousand assembled and 
 it was stated that tickets of admission had to be refused 
 to tens of thousands more. The National Convention 
 of the British Woman's Temperance Association was in 
 session June 17-18. It was composed of over six- 
 hundred earnest, intelligent women from England, 
 Scotland and Wales. 
 
 On Wednesday, June 19th, 1895, Miss Willard 
 opened the World's Convention of the Woman's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union in Queen's Hall with 234 dele- 
 gates, representing twenty-four nations, and with mem- 
 bers of fraternal delegates from kindred societies. A 
 morning conference the following day closed the busi- 
 ness proceedings of the third Biennial Convention of 
 the best organized and largest body of women on earth. 
 
 The Lord Mayor of London gave a reception to the 
 international delegates, during the World's Convention 
 and, on June 21st, Lady Henry Somerset received at her 
 famous country residence, the Priory at Relgate, Sur- 
 rey. Hundreds of women from nearly every clime were 
 rapidly transported from the heat and dust of London 
 to the liistoric edifice which '' her ladyship " had just 
 
2o6 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 refitted most elegantly for the coming of age of her 
 only son. After the guests were cordially greeted by 
 Lady Henry and Miss Willard, they spent the remainder 
 of the day in wandering over the beautiful grounds and 
 in enjoying a study of the antique furnishings of the 
 Priory in which were found rare paintings and tapestry, 
 coats-of-mail and other curious relics of a long line 
 of noble ancestry. 
 
 Every day since receiving the appointment of round- 
 the-world missionary I had been in an agony of unrest, 
 and waited constantly on God in prayer for guidance. 
 It required a hard and desperate struggle before my 
 duty was made clear. My desire was strong to go, but 
 the divine leadings not to go were at last very definite 
 and infinitely stronger. My physical strength had 
 been terribly depleted by six years of continuous public 
 work and travel, and the realization was forced upon 
 me that not enough vitality was left to undertake the 
 arduous labors of a missionary in foreign lands. Be- 
 sides, there was an abiding consciousness that it was 
 not the will of my Heavenly Father that I should go at 
 that time. The invisible but real hands of God were 
 felt pushing me away from the acceptance of this com- 
 mission. On the ship, going over, this message was 
 sent me by the Father, but its import was not under- 
 stood for many months after : " Beloved, think it not 
 strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you 
 as though some strange thing happened unto you : but 
 rejoice inasmuch as ye are partaker (s) of Christ's suf- 
 ferings ; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may 
 be glad also with exceeding joy." 
 
Across the Sea 
 
 207 
 
 On the day the reception was given at the Priory I 
 asked to be allowed to appear before the Executive 
 Committee of the World's W. C. T. U., which met in 
 the afternoon in an upper chamber. After explaining 
 the reason for my action a formal resignation was made 
 of the office to which I had been elected. Subsequent 
 events proved the wisdom of my determination. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ON THE CONTINENT 
 
 Like as a plank of driftwood 
 
 Tossed on the watery main 
 
 Another plank, encounters, meets, touches, parts again; 
 
 So, tossed and drifting ever 
 
 On life's unresting sea 
 
 Men meet and greet and sever 
 
 Parting eternally. — Sanscrit, B. C, 1600. 
 
 Immediately after the adjournment of the World's 
 great convention Miss Willard and Lady Henry Somer- 
 set commissioned me to represent the Woman's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union at the International Congress of 
 Christian Workers at Grindelwald, Switzerland, and my 
 departure was made at once for that place with a party 
 of friends from the United States. Crossing the Chan- 
 nel, which was smooth and beautiful, we landed at 
 Calais and were soon passing through the sunny slopes 
 of la belle France. About dusk we reached the town 
 where Joan of Arc met her unhappy fate. A wretched 
 night was spent with seven ladies locked up in a com- 
 partment in a continental car, which is such a horror to 
 all travelers who have ever enjoyed the luxury of a 
 sleeper on our great American lines of railway. Next 
 morning we passed over into Swiss territory. We be- 
 
 208 
 
On the Continent 209 
 
 came aware at once that we had gotten into finer atmos- 
 phere and on higher ground. At noon we crossed Lake 
 Thun, which Hes hke a gem in the heart of the great 
 mountains that surround it. 
 
 Grindelwald is a famous resort high up in the Burnese 
 Alps. The Jungfrau and the Matterhorn keep eternal 
 watch over the hamlet and its kindly, simple people. 
 It was here that Dr. Henry Lunn, the editor of " The 
 Review of the Churches," had established a European 
 Chautauqua, the leading purpose of which was to pro- 
 mote church unity. The town consists of several hotels, 
 a few stores, many bazaars where curios are sold to 
 tourists, and a few charming ** chalets." Among the 
 last is that of Madame D'Aubigne, the wife of the great 
 writer. The adjacent hills are covered with the quaint 
 huts of the peasants. A little Protestant church, antique 
 in structure, occupies a prominent place, and adds to the 
 generally striking effect. In it our meetings were held 
 to advance the temperance cause, and here I had the 
 pleasure of speaking. 
 
 For four delightful, never-to-be-forgotten days we 
 stayed in those rarified regions, growing nearer to God 
 with every breath. At sunrise, parties began excursions 
 through the mountains, some riding on horseback, 
 others in carriages or on railways. We went to the very 
 edge of glaciers, and looked down into the clefts of 
 seemingly interminable blue ice; climbed to the tops 
 of peaks ; walked over beds of snow and watched 
 avalanches fall in a splendor of misty whiteness. The 
 women work in the fields as regularly as the men. Often 
 they were seen hitched to carts pulling heavy loads of 
 
2IO A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 hay, or bearing burdens on their backs. Once I saw 
 a man between two women drawing a wagon. 
 
 While at Grindelwald a cordial invitation was sent 
 by Lady Henry Somerset, through Miss Willard, to 
 occupy a room for as long as I desired for rest and re- 
 cuperation at the former's Chalet Villors, near Aigle, 
 not far from Lausanne, but I decided to take a tour 
 with friends through several countries of Europe in- 
 stead of resting. 
 
 From Grindelwald we went to Interlaken and there 
 took a boat and passed up Lake Brienz. Soon we began 
 to ascend the Alps, going over the Brunig Pass. Just 
 before we reached Hergiswyl, we gained a view of Mt. 
 Rigi. Beyond, nestling close to the ideally beautiful 
 lake that bears its name, is the city of Lucerne. In this 
 heavenly place we tarried all too short a while, then 
 journeyed to Geneva, by whose borders Lake Leman 
 stretches its shimmering length ; the Rhone, blue and 
 placid, winds through its heart; the Alpine range 
 reaches to the very edge of its quaint old streets. Mont 
 Blanc rears its majestic head in full view — pink in the 
 flush of the early dawn, pure white at noontide, or red 
 with evening cloud-glories. I have noticed that the 
 highest mountains always catch first the rays of sun- 
 light in the mornings and are the last to retain them 
 in rosy tints upon their snow-crowned heights when 
 the shades of night draw near. So it is with those lives 
 that are in nearest touch with God. They are the first 
 to receive the inspiration of His great thoughts and the 
 last to reflect them, standing above the multitude in 
 
On the Continent 211 
 
 their lonely grandeur and translating to the world be- 
 neath the holy will of the Father concerning them. 
 
 Geneva is a great educational center. The academy 
 organized by Calvin, and which was afterward honored 
 by having John Knox among its first students, has 
 grown into a university and has become the Mecca of 
 progresssive Protestants on account of its broad spirit. 
 Women are admitted to its lectures on perfect equality 
 with men. Consequently the former are becoming more 
 numerous every year. After making a trip to the Castle 
 of Chillon, visiting the home of Voltaire in the little 
 French town of Ferney, and seeing the elegant chateau 
 at Coppet where Madame de Stael was banished by 
 Napoleon for being too much interested in politics, and 
 different historic points in Geneva — among them the 
 house where Jean Jacques Rousseau was born — we 
 passed into Italy. 
 
 Turin was the first place at which we stopped, then 
 Pisa. Despite the subjection that is taught women by 
 the Catholic church in Europe it is pleasant to note 
 signs of the breaking up of old forms of social crystalli- 
 zation. In Pisa there is a normal school conducted on 
 a co-educational basis ; and I was told that a number 
 of women were there studying medicine. This was 
 more interesting to me than the leaning tower and the 
 swinging lamp from which Galileo gained his inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 Before Genoa was reached, we approached the Apen- 
 nines and for a long distance sped through their 
 magnificent heights and smiling valleys. At the city 
 
212 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 whose name is evermore linked with that of Columbus, 
 begins the wonderful road along the Riviera. We 
 gained here our first sight of the Mediterranean, and for 
 many miles skirted close to its rock-bound coast. 
 
 En route to Rome, in our compartment, were two 
 ladies of our company besides myself, an old Italian 
 woman and two foreign men. We had to make our- 
 selves as comfortable as circumstances allowed, which 
 meant that some slept sitting upright, some with head 
 on seat and feet on valise, while others watched and 
 slumbered not. At twelve the two men drew out their 
 bottles and drank heavily, then lighted their cigars and 
 smoked. This interesting performance was repeated at 
 short intervals until the day dawned. There was a streak 
 of sunlight through the reeking air, short staccato 
 snorts from my companions in distress, a rubbing of 
 eyes, a stretching of muscles, an exchange of miserable 
 glances, an outlook through the open window to the 
 shining waters of the Mediterranean, soon a dash across 
 the yellow Tiber, and we were in the Eternal city. 
 Rome, like heaven, is a place to be striven for, to dream 
 over and hunger for; but it is better to leave to the 
 imagination than to attempt to put into words the meas- 
 ure of its treasures, old and new, its historic suggestion 
 and the power of the awful and majestic march of the 
 ages which echoes from its sacred hills. 
 
 From Rome we went to Naples, then to Pompeii. 
 Climbing to the top of the highest point of observation 
 upon the walls of the once lava-buried city, we obtained 
 a fine view of the surrounding landscape. Before us lay 
 the Bay of Naples, placid in the July sun ; beyond it the 
 
On the Continent 213 
 
 Apennines ; on the further shore the towns of Castella- 
 mare, Herculaneum, and beautiful Sorrento, the birth- 
 place of Tasso ; to the right Naples ; in the rear, Vesu- 
 vius, sending out its volume of never-ending smoke. 
 
 Venice answered in full all the dreams that I ever had 
 of its beauties. On leaving there we traveled to Flor- 
 ence, where, unfortunately, only a short time could be 
 spent in the art galleries, studying the great works of 
 the old masters who have rendered the city famous, and 
 in threading the thoroughfares made historic by illus- 
 trious men and women. 
 
 In Milan, the white marble Cathedral was, of course, 
 the centre of our desires, after that the refectory of the 
 Dominican Convent, near the church of Sta. Maria della 
 Grazia, where is found all that remains of " The Last 
 Supper," Leonardi da Vinci's masterpiece, a fresco, 
 which is almost obliterated. 
 
 The innate tact and grace of Italian people is delight- 
 ful. One day our party of W. C. T. U. women were 
 crowded in a railway compartment. The only men 
 present were our conductor, a cultured young English- 
 man, the son of the Bishop of Winchester, and an 
 elegant looking young Italian gentleman of the higher 
 class. The latter could not speak a word of English, 
 and was an entire stranger to the rest of us. As we 
 entered he was smoking, ignoring the fact that the car- 
 riage was not intended for that purpose. The ladies 
 gave evidence of disapprobation ; but the unconscious 
 sinner smoked on ignorant of the misery he was creat- 
 ing. Finally our escort leaned toward him and said in 
 the native tongue : *' Will you please discard your 
 
214 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 cigarette? The ladies object to it." The ItaHan looked 
 around perfectly amazed. I presume it was the first 
 time in his whole life that he had been made aware of 
 the fact that women objected to smoking, as so many 
 indulge in the habit in Europe. When the Italian saw 
 the expression on the faces of his fellow-passengers he 
 colored to the roots of his black, curly hair, and im- 
 mediately threw away the offending cigarette ; anxious 
 to atone for the discomfort he had unwittingly caused, 
 he sprang to his feet, and, opening a large wicker 
 basket in the rack above him, took therefrom a beautiful 
 lemon with a long branch and leaves attached, and, with 
 a graceful bow, handed it to the lady opposite. 
 
 After a day and night's continuous travel from Milan, 
 we arrived in Paris. Gay, charming Paris ! the loveliest 
 and wickedest city on earth. There is an irresistible 
 fascination in the sans souci of these impulsive, happy- 
 hearted human beings. There is joy and lightness in 
 the very air, that takes hold of one unconsciously ; but 
 when we think of the immorality and atheism under it 
 all, we are conscious of a pain and a pathos unspeak- 
 able. If there is a place in the world against which 
 all the artillery of Christianity should be leveled, that 
 place is Paris. Now there are only feeble rush-lights 
 in the midnight darkness. One-hundred and fifty Mc- 
 Call Missions are scattered over France; there are 
 thirty in Paris. One night, after walking down the 
 brilliantly lighted boulevards with a party of friends, 
 we strolled into one of these quiet little rooms. On the 
 wall opposite us was written, in French, " I am the 
 Resurrection and the Life," The minister who con- 
 
On the Continent 215 
 
 ducted the evening service read passages from the Bible 
 and announced the hymns, none of which we under- 
 stood. When we had almost decided in despair to retire, 
 the organ pealed forth the familiar strain, " Whosoever 
 Will May Come," and we lifted our American voices in 
 praise, with their sweet French tones. Finally, we 
 joined in singing together that dear old consecration 
 hymn, " I am Thine, O, Lord," and left with thanksgiv- 
 ing to God that there was a place, however small, in 
 the great city, into which those who love Him and 
 serve Him can go apart for awhile and rest. 
 
 Miss de Broen, a young woman from Holland of 
 wealth and leisure, while traveling for pleasure on the 
 continent in 1871, arrived in Paris during the terrible 
 days of the last Commune. She was so impressed by 
 the horrors which she witnessed that she decided to re- 
 main and help to alleviate the sufferings of the people in 
 the Belleville district, the scene of the bloody butchery. 
 There was begun at once that beautiful mission work 
 that has made her name blessed in the hearts of thou- 
 sands of human beings. For nearly twenty-five years 
 she has stood an unwavering light in the darkness of 
 atheistic gloom, carrying forward her vast undertaking 
 with a trust that has never once abated. Terrible sick- 
 ness followed in the wake of the siege. Miss de Broen 
 established a medical hospital, where the sufferers could 
 be administered to free of cost. After the Revolution 
 ended it was continued for the poor in Belleville; but 
 through all the years it had been resorted to by many 
 from the heart of Paris, the average annual attendance 
 being as great as 30,000. In supplying the bodily wants 
 
2i6 A Slaveholder's Daup;hter 
 
 of these needy people, no opportunity had been neglected 
 of bringing their sin-sick souls to the personal knowl- 
 edge of the Divine Physician, who came to *' bear our 
 infirmities." Out of this enterprise there had grown 
 a training school for girls, sewing classes, day and night 
 schools, mothers' meetings, a gospel mission hall, where 
 regular Sunday services were held, beside Bible classes, 
 prayer meetings and temperance meetings. A large 
 proportion of Miss de Broen's time was spent in visit- 
 ing the poor and sick, and distributing tracts and Bibles. 
 I shall never forget the pathos in the voices of the men 
 and the women, who stretched out their hands in an 
 imploring way to her, saying, " If you please, madame," 
 for the gospel leaflets she carried as we walked through 
 the streets of Belleville. One day I dined with Miss 
 de Broen and afterward spoke at her mission. She 
 urged me to stay and lecture to the English-speaking 
 people of Paris, offering me a home and a salary, but 
 it was impossible to accept for the same reasons that 
 prevented me from going around the world as a W. C. 
 T. U. missionary. It v/as a wonderful opening fraught 
 with gracious possibilities for the spread of the blessed 
 doctrine of total abstinence and the gospel of our Lord. 
 I pray God that some strong young woman who reads 
 these words may feel impelled to go ; if not to Paris, to 
 some other field of mission work for the Master. 
 
 On my return from Paris several days were spent 
 in London. After going out to Windsor Castle, 
 Hampton Court and many other points of interest, I 
 bade good-bye to the friends who had been with me 
 on the continent and began a journey alone through 
 
On the Continent 217 
 
 Ireland. Happy hours were spent in its leading cities, 
 in riding over its picturesque mountains and in 
 skimming over the surface of the beautiful lakes of 
 Killarney. 
 
 Leaving Ireland I went directly to Scotland. Edin- 
 burgh, the historic, the romantic, was the goal of my 
 heart's desire. At sunset that glorious old city was 
 reached, with its ancient castle, Holyrood Palace, and 
 Princes street, incomparable for beauty — bathed in 
 light — its crags and rocks, its hills and stretch of sea. 
 
 Of all the fascinating spots around Edinburgh, the 
 most charming is the home of Sir Walter Scott. A 
 short ride on the cars brings us to Melrose, where we 
 take an omnibus for a four-mile jaunt through the 
 country of Abbottsford, the baronial castle that was 
 the pride of the heart of " the grand old man " of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Melrose Abbey was next explored and a trip made 
 through the Trosachs, the region of the " Lady of 
 the Lake," the most captivating section of all Scotland. 
 Long coach drives were taken through the wildest, 
 grandest parts of the Highlands, and two boat rides; 
 one across Loch Katrine^ the other down Loch 
 Lomond. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE SORROW. 
 
 Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us His glory and 
 His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst 
 of the fire ; we have seen this day that God doth talk with man 
 and he liveth. — Deut. 5 : 24. 
 
 The last vv^eek in August I sailed from Scotland for 
 the United States, and after an uneventful voyage ar- 
 rived in New York, spending some time there and on 
 Staten Island, at the latter place addressing a public 
 meeting. 
 
 It was too early in the season to return with safety to 
 the South, but a strong presentiment of coming sorrow 
 so impressed itself upon me that it was impossible to 
 shake it off, or to attempt to do any work, or to enter- 
 tain any thought but that of going home. For the first 
 time in my life a foreboding was yielded to and the last 
 week of September found me on the plantation at Ver- 
 non. I was shocked to find my brother, whom I had 
 left with every assurance of returning health, fright- 
 fully altered — stamped with the seal of death. Neither 
 he, nor any one, seemed to realize the hopelessness of 
 his condition, but a physician was in constant attend- 
 ance. 
 
 Although scarcely able to stand, he wandered about 
 
 218 
 
The Sorrow 219 
 
 the house restlessly, silent, his attenuated figure the 
 shadow of his former fine physique, his face sad and un- 
 smiling with a touch of the awfulness of eternity upon 
 it. The next Sabbath he was unable to arise. As I 
 waited by his bedside he looked at me calmly, his blue 
 eyes full of the old love of his boyhood days, and 
 actuated by the same unselfish spirit that had character- 
 ized his life, he said apologetically, *' I am a little too 
 weak to get up this morning, sister." Several days of 
 great sufliering followed. At last the knowledge that 
 death was close at hand came to him. He asked mother 
 to pray. ** If life is given me I will show the world 
 what it means to be a Christian man," he said. Oh! 
 the heart-break of that hour ! In the holy watches of 
 those days and nights surely he had an understanding 
 with God, Who had said so lovingly through His Son, 
 " Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden 
 and I will give you rest." 
 
 In one week's time, my brother died. There are 
 moments when one cannot weep, nor speak, nor pray, — 
 only be quiet before God. This was my first great sor- 
 row. My faculties were dazed in the presence of death's 
 awful mystery. How strange every one seemed ! How 
 weird the trees, the flowers, the sunlight ! I was alone 
 with our dead. He would soon be taken away from the 
 old home to come back no more forever. Forever f O, 
 God ! why should we be put in this sorrowing, unsatis- 
 fying world to struggle and to suffer — to grope, and 
 never to know? All the fought- for peace of years fled 
 from me; all the trustfulness, the acceptance slipped 
 away in the darkness and horror of those hours. 
 
220 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 Twice in my life there has been felt the personal pres- 
 ence of God. Into that chamber of silence, shrouded 
 in the desolation that only death can bring, He came to 
 me ; softly, swiftly, clearly the footsteps of my Lord 
 were heard ; suddenly the room was filled with His 
 glory. Distinctly as if a human voice had spoken there 
 fell upon my awakened sense the blessed words, '* Peace, 
 be still ! " A holy calm descended upon me, a strange, 
 sweet gladness. I went out rejoicing and praising God. 
 
 After awhile our beloved was taken away. The 
 mourning little company filed its way across the autumn 
 fields, aglow with October sunshine, to our old family 
 burial-ground, near by, in the heart of the deep, still 
 woods. The long shadows flickered across the open 
 grave, and the fading light fell in golden glints about 
 it. My tears had all been shed, a divine, inexplicable 
 joy possessed my being. I wanted to sing, to speak ! 
 My soul was on wings, and thrilled with the triumphant 
 refrain, " I know that my Redeemer liveth," while the 
 divine undertone of Christ's assurance echoed back, " I 
 am the resurrection, and the life : Whosoever believeth 
 in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." " Who- 
 soever ! " He believed. Thank God ! 
 
 Two days after my brother's burial I was lying in 
 the shadow of death with typhoid fever. The doctor 
 looked at me with sad eyes full of apprehension. " You 
 are very ill," he said, " but you will not die." " O, that 
 is quite certain," was my instant reply. " My life work 
 is not yet finished ; the call will not come for me to go 
 until my destiny is completed." 
 
 The fiery furnace of sickness and sorrow left me 
 
^^■^^R. 
 
 ^' 
 
 
 '} 
 
 .^:i 
 
 fc^' 
 
 r JV^CTB 
 
 t^^B." 
 
 John Wesley's Oak, Frederica, St. Simons, Georgia. See page 221. 
 
The Sorrow 221 
 
 stronger in mind and more in love with God than in all 
 my life before. In the days of convalescence my studies 
 were resumed with eager vehemence. As soon as phys- 
 ical strength returned, my public work was renewed 
 and continued from March until November. I was 
 radiantly happy, and my efforts were crowned with 
 unusual success. Numbers of new friends came into my 
 life, splendid audiences greeted me and many adherents 
 were gained for the cause of righteousness to which my 
 time and enthusiasm were devoted. 
 
 At the close of the spring campaign in Mississippi a 
 tour was made through Georgia where the privilege 
 was granted of standing on ground rendered sacred by 
 John Wesley in the days of his early ministry in Amer- 
 ica. In going to Charlotte, North Carolina, a visit was 
 paid to the gentle, sweet-faced widow of Stonewall 
 Jackson. She had been a member of the white-ribbon 
 army for years, and spoke with pride of her distin- 
 guished husband's total abstinence principles, quoting 
 his famous remark, *' I fear a glass of liquor more than 
 the bullets of the enemy." 
 
 Soon after leaving North Carolina, the historic cap- 
 ital of the Southern Confederacy was seen for the first 
 time. My hostess carried me to every place of interest 
 in the charming old city, — the house that Jefferson 
 Davis occupied while president of the seceded states, 
 now used as a Confederate museum ; the residence of 
 Robt. E. Lee, owned at present by the Virginia Histor- 
 ical Society; St. Paul's Episcopal church, where these 
 two famous leaders worshipped and whose pews, at the 
 time, were draped with Confederate colors and dec- 
 
222 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 orated with laurel wreaths; St. John's chapel, built in 
 1 77 1, where Patrick Henry made his immortal demand; 
 the stone house in which Washington and Lafayette 
 held their conference ; the elegant monuments erected m 
 honor of the soldiers and sailors, General Lee and other 
 heroes, and Holywood cemetery, where Monroe, Tyler, 
 J. E. B. Stuart and Jefferson Davis lie buried. At this 
 beautiful place of interment a striking memorial has 
 been erected by the Ladies' Association in memory of 
 the Confederate dead. It consists of a vast pile of 
 stones laid in the form of an obelisk. At its completion 
 it was found to be very difficult to put the cap-stone 
 in place, — many trying and all failing. Finally it was 
 announced by the state that freedom would be granted 
 to any convict in the penitentiary who could adjust it. 
 The opportunity was too precious to be lost and one of 
 these unfortunates gained the double triumph. 
 
 The Ex-Confederates were having a great reunion 
 during my visit to Richmond. The city was filled with 
 men dressed in gray uniforms, tattered and time-stained. 
 Among these were some old negroes who had served 
 throughout the civil war with their masters. Nothing 
 more pathetic could be imagined than the happiness 
 they evinced moving among the veterans and wearing 
 the badges of the regiments in which they served as 
 proudly as on the day in the 6o's when they marched 
 away to the battle fields. 
 
 Day and night the crowds filled the vast auditorium 
 of the Exposition building which was decorated with 
 war pictures and battle flags. There were glowing 
 
The Sorrow 223 
 
 speeches by prominent Southern orators, interspersed 
 with martial music. The old songs were sung that 
 had brightened many a camp-fire ; the " rebel yell " was 
 given, — at first short and sharp, but finally swelling into 
 a deafening roar, the enthusiasm increasing with every 
 demonstration. 
 
 There was no exhibition of bitterness on any occasion. 
 The address of the Northern Soldier received an 
 ovation. There was deathless loyalty in every South- 
 erners' heart to the spirit under which the war 
 had been fought but with it was an unquestioning 
 allegiance to the Union. The stars and stripes were 
 dearer to them, even in that hour of tender reminis- 
 cence, than their own conquered banners. I wept 
 with the old warriors in memory of their *' Lost Cause ; " 
 but there was profound thankfulness in my heart that 
 the Civil War ended as it did ; that fraternity was re- 
 stored; that no longer was there a North and a 
 South but an undivided country; a united purpose, 
 under one flag, to work out our sublime destiny — the 
 development for the world of the principles of self- 
 government. 
 
 Since then, the war between the United States and 
 Spain has been fought. The North and the South 
 have stood shoulder to shoulder in the movement at El 
 Caney, in the furious charge up the hill of San Juan, 
 in the sinking of the Spanish fleet at Santiago and in 
 the immortal victory at Manila. Heroes of both 
 sections perished together on the Maine, and lie buried 
 side by side in the trenches of Cuba and the Philip- 
 
224 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 pines. The forces of fraternity have culminated in the 
 Spanish- American war; but in all the years since Lee 
 surrendered his sword to Grant at Appomattox 
 numerous agencies have been at work to effect the 
 solidity of the American people and to unify the great 
 Republic. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE FAR WEST AND ALASKA 
 
 And who commanded (and the silence came), 
 Here let the billows stiffen and have rest ! 
 God ! let the torrents, like a shout of nations, 
 Answer, and let the ice-plains echo, God ! 
 
 —Coleridge. 
 
 After visiting the University of Virginia and the 
 famous home of Thomas Jefferson, ** Monticello," at 
 Charlottesville, Virginia, the remainder of the summer 
 was spent at Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, Old 
 Orchard Beach, Maine, where W. C. T. U. work was 
 done, and on the coast of Narragansett Bay, near New- 
 port. Lecture engagements were filled in the fall of 
 1896 in the state of New York, where pleasant visits 
 were made to the United States Military Academy, at 
 West Point, Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie, and many- 
 delightful trips up and down the Hudson were enjoyed. 
 Addresses were made in New Jersey and in all the New 
 England states except Vermont. Everyv^^here I was 
 received with unlimited cordiality, and was the subject 
 of as much generous hospitality and loving kindness as 
 was ever lavished upon me in the South. 
 
 The following spring a lecturing and organizing tour 
 was begun in March, that continued until the middle 
 of December, through the far West. Never until this 
 
 225 
 
226 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 journey had I realized the immensity of the distances 
 in this great country of ours. With the dawn of the 
 morning following my leave taking from Forth Worth, 
 Texas, I found myself skirting the great American 
 desert traveling up the Pecos Valley in New Mexico. 
 The country to El Paso is an unchangeable, sandy val- 
 ley with mountain ranges on either side, bare and dusty 
 looking. Not a human habitation is in sight, except 
 wagwams huddled on the glowing desert at frightful 
 distances from each settlement. These were occupied 
 by Indians. Here, as elsewhere in this region, nothing 
 is seen growing except the mesquite bushes, Spanish 
 daggers, and numerous varieties of cactus. 
 
 As soon as I got to El Paso I entered a street car 
 to pay a visit to the old Mexican town, Juarez, which 
 is just across the Rio Grande, with the purpose of see- 
 ing the ancient church Guadaloupe, which dates from 
 1549. It was my plan to make a missionary temper- 
 ance tour through Mexico on my return in December, 
 but afterward I concluded to defer the journey until 
 more time was at my command. 
 
 On leaving El Paso the train swept through the heart 
 of the desert with its blinding glories, mammoth cacti 
 with crimson blossoms, a few lonely birds beating their 
 wings in the air, and the inevitable line of mountains 
 about us. It seemed like a foretaste of heaven to glide 
 in from the arid plains of Arizona to the cool, green 
 regions of California, with its fields of barley and wheat, 
 orchards of various fruits, and mountains softened with 
 grass and shrubs — all bathed in evening light with the 
 
The Far West and Alaska 227 
 
 peculiar glow in it that rests on the hills and valleys of 
 Italy. 
 
 Soon after my arrival in San Francisco, accompanied 
 by an ensign from the Salvation Army and a Christian 
 lady friend, I went down one night into the depths of 
 Chinatown. This is a section of San Francisco that is 
 inhabited wholly by the Chinese, who, true to their in- 
 stincts, have packed themselves into every available 
 niche. Within ten blocks 20,000 of these Mongolians 
 are found — human beings of every variety wedged in 
 with poultry and animals, flesh and vegetables. We 
 went into the opium dives, entering dark, forbidding, 
 rambling old houses, and after meandering around in 
 shadowy courts and murky passages arrived at tiny 
 rooms full of rags and filth and fumes, and saw 
 stretched out on loathsome cots specimens of humanity 
 that had once been called men, but at present looked 
 more like spirits from Hades ; bodies thin and scrawny, 
 the yellow skin like parchment drawn over the grinning 
 bones ; small, sleepy almond eyes glistening under 
 shaggy brows that beetled from bare, knotty foreheads ; 
 a mass of blue-black hair coiled at the back of the head ; 
 all — bones, skin, eyes and hair piled up in the middle of 
 the bed — smoking. A flickering candle was standing on 
 a little table close by the couch. Beside the light was 
 a sm.all jar containing a dark, gummy substance, which 
 we soon discovered to be opium. As we entered one of 
 these dens the smoker grunted a recognition and closed 
 his eyes. In his hand he held a long-stemmed pipe, with 
 the mouth-piece glued between his lips. Suddenly he 
 sat up, and, leaning towards the table, he took a small 
 
228 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 wiry instrument, and, digging up a speck of opium from 
 the jar, he punched it into his pipe, the opening of 
 which was at the end of the bowl, and holding it over 
 the flames sucked the stem vigorously until the opium 
 puffed and fizzed. Two or three whiffs, and all was 
 over. At once the smoker repeated the operation, then 
 again and again, looking at us appealingly at the end of 
 each performance for a piece of money. We endured 
 the sight of the degradation as long as we could, then 
 walked away filled with disgust. 
 
 After leaving the opium dens we went to the Chinese 
 theatre. It was filled to overflowing. On the main 
 floor were men, all sitting on the back of the seats, and 
 each fellow smoking like a steam engine. The air was 
 so full of the fumes as to almost suffocate one and 
 so cloudy as to obscure the vision. Penned off in the 
 boxes were the women. As soon as we entered we were 
 met by an usher and marched up, not to a reserved seat, 
 but on the stage, in the midst of the actors. In aston- 
 ishment there we sat, and gazed with awe upon the hor- 
 rible creatures dressed to resemble nothing on earth nor 
 " in the waters under the earth." Painted faces and 
 naked chests decorated with skins and tinsel, marching 
 to and fro beating pans and drums, and screeching, 
 whooping and dancing. In the midst of the pandemo- 
 nium we sat and gazed, and the smoking Chinamen in 
 the audience sat and gazed at us. It was a midsummer 
 night's horror. 
 
 In walking through the uncertain streets in the flicker 
 of the faintly glimmering lights we saw poor little 
 Chinese women dressed in gaudy clothes, with rouged 
 
The Far West and Alaska 229 
 
 cheeks, hurrying by, and others of their unfortunate 
 sisters looking from curtained windows down upon the 
 surging crowd of men upon the streets below. Poor 
 little sparrows ! God pity them ! 
 
 From the theatre we went to the joss house — the 
 Chinese place of worship. It is a large building with 
 an up-stairs balcony. The furnishings are rich. Idols, 
 looking like monsters, are standing about, and there 
 are heavy curtains, and inscriptions in gold, altars tow- 
 ering nearly to the ceiling, and great basins where the 
 ashes are caught that fall from burning the sacred 
 sticks. There was the " holy of holies " that the foot of 
 a Christian is not allowed to enter. 
 
 We visited the handsome stores and watched with 
 amusement the lordly air and stately tread of the 
 wealthy merchants as they walked up and down their 
 establishments bartering away their costly wares. 
 While standing in one of these stores a little Chinese 
 boy six years old came in and asked his father a ques- 
 tion; then followed an animated conversation. The 
 merchant, turning to us, said : " My little son. He 
 likee Mellican shoes. I give him a pair, but he will not 
 carry paper bundles on the street. He do not think it 
 high-toned. " It is hard to Americanize the Chinaman. 
 In spite of missions and direct contact with our civiliza- 
 tion, he retains his oriental dress and heathenish cus- 
 toms. 
 
 My first view of the Pacific was gained at Inspiration 
 Point, a lofty eminence to the west of San Francisco 
 overlooking the Golden Gate, the beautiful bay and the 
 mountains. The trip from San Francisco to Portland 
 
230 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 takes one through the delightful Shasta region. The 
 scenery is magnificent every step of the way as far 
 north as Ashland — an almost unbroken stretch of 
 mountainous country that grows in grandeur until the 
 border line of California and Oregon is passed. Mt. 
 Shasta stands out like a mighty giant for hundreds 
 of miles, robed in snow ; cold, changeless, full of ma- 
 jesty and mystery. From Portland I sailed down the 
 Columbia river nearly to its mouth, gaining glimpses of 
 Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier along the route. 
 
 Passing from Oregon, I went into Washington, visit- 
 ing first the interesting little city of Vancouver, and 
 after a short, delightful stay at the capital, made a boat 
 trip on Puget Sound to Tacoma. 
 
 During the first week of July, 1897, I took passage on 
 the elegant steamship, Queen, departing for Alaska. 
 Going from Seattle to Sitka is like sailing up a wide, 
 smooth river, with all the joys of a sea voyage without 
 any of its discomforts. On either side is an unbroken 
 stretch of magnificent scenery that transcends all de- 
 scription. Every view is full of exquisite beauty, or re- 
 plete witk grandeur. The trip to Alaska is the summer 
 tour par excellence, sought by tourists from all parts of 
 the world, and pronounced by them to be incomparable. 
 
 To convey an adequate conception of the mammoth 
 size of Alaska, it is said that if one were to stand 
 twenty miles to the westward of San Francisco, he 
 would be just half-way in the possessions of the Fed- 
 eral government. Alaska is larger than all the states 
 that would be included in a line drawn east from Chi- 
 
The Far West and Alaska 231 
 
 cago to the Atlantic, and south as far as the Gulf of 
 Mexico. 
 
 The rivers of Alaska are among the longest, and it 
 has the highest mountains, the largest glaciers, the most 
 numerous bays, straits, sounds and channels, and the 
 richest gold and silver mines on two continents. The 
 wonderful revelations among all the other wonders of 
 this wonder-land are the glaciers. On the trip to 
 Sitka the first of these of any importance that is passed 
 is the Patterson. After that comes the Davidson, then 
 the Windome, and at last the Muir, that marvelous 
 inland sea more than one hundred fathoms deep, which 
 is renowned as one of the most astonishing develop- 
 ments in the natural world. There are said to be ten 
 other glaciers in Alaska as large as the Muir, one twice 
 as large, besides many small ones. Now for the Muir 
 itself. Imagine, facing a body of placid water, great 
 colonnades of ice forming a crescent tv/o miles in 
 length, 250 feet high at the centre, and sloping gently 
 down at either end to 150 feet. Imagine this frozen 
 mass fashioned in the most fairy-like forms and dream- 
 creations — chiseled grottoes, turreted castles, Milan 
 cathedrals, Spanish Alhambras, all breaking into each 
 other with a bewitching haphazardness. Imagine the 
 color of each a deep, cerulean blue, intensely so in the 
 interior and paling towards the outward edges, and 
 over this azure, silken sheen, a white lace veil, spider- 
 wrought in its delicacy, thrown like a snowy cover. 
 Imagine the light of the sun upon it, and a thousand 
 tints and glints and shadows that transform and glorify 
 the whole into a shimmering hill-chain of fire-hearted 
 
232 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 opals. Imagine a dying glacier to the left which looks 
 like a mighty river caught in its downward career, and 
 held cold and stiff in the hand of death. Imagine ice 
 fields beyond, stretching back into the interior over 
 thirty miles, further than the eye can reach, grim and 
 awful in their calmness. Imagine mountains on all 
 sides rearing their shining crests 6,000 feet in air. 
 Imagine Glacier Bay at their feet clothed in silvery 
 mist, on whose surface float sky-hued icebergs. 
 Imagine brooding over all a deep silence, restful and 
 unbroken as that in the heavenly spheres. Imagine 
 all this, and you have the Muir as it stands to-day. 
 
 On the day of our arrival in Sitka the Hon. John G. 
 Brady received his " credentials " ratifying his appoint- 
 ment by President McKinley as governor of the vast 
 territory of Alaska. 
 
 Before making the journey to Alaska Mrs. Brady 
 had written that she would be my hostess while I was 
 in Sitka. As soon as the steamer anchored an old 
 Indian guide was employed to conduct me to the home 
 of Mrs. Brady. After passing through several streets 
 of the queer little town, and along the water-front of 
 a dirty Indian village, we reached a modern residence 
 which my heretofore silent companion indicated by 
 certain grunts and signs to be my destination. Mrs. 
 Brady greeted me cordially. On learning that my stay 
 in Sitka would be but for a few hours, she suggested 
 that we go from house to house, to tell the people of 
 my mission in order to secure an audience, and hold 
 a meeting that evening. 
 
 Acting upon her suggestion, we went from one end 
 
The Far West and Alaska 233 
 
 of the town to the other, — to the newspaper office, the 
 home of the Episcopal bishop, the Presbyterian mission, 
 the dwelHngs of the Russians, everywhere, explaining 
 the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
 and urging attendance at the evening service. At nine 
 o'clock, while light was still in the heavens, we went 
 to the little Presbyterian church and I spoke to the 
 people assembled and organized a W. C. T. U. — 
 almost under the pole-star. That night Governor and 
 Mrs. Brady accompanied me to the Queen, and early 
 next morning the ship moved away from Sitka. 
 
 On returning to Tacoma we found the city in a blaze 
 of excitement over the discovery of the Klondike gold 
 fields, whose fabulous riches have since lured so many 
 to fortune or to doom. 
 
 My travels and lecture work continued through east- 
 ern Oregon and Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyo- 
 ming, Utah and Colorado. I rested from my labors for 
 several days in Yellowstone Park, whose wonders 
 would fill a volume, then continued farther westward, 
 stopping en route in Nevada and again spending some 
 time in Southern California and, on my way home, 
 speaking in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Louisi- 
 ana. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 '^THE LATTER DAY SAINTS 
 
 The people of the United States are more sensible of the 
 disgrace of Mormonism than of its danger. The civilized 
 world wonders that such a hideous caricature of the Christian 
 religion should have appeared in this most enlightened land. — 
 JosiAH Strong. 
 
 There is no place in the Union as unique in every 
 particular as Salt Lake City. It is made so by a peculiar 
 people — the Mormons — whose strange religious faith 
 sets them apart from all the rest of the world. Driven 
 from the states on account of their repugnant doctrines, 
 they found a refuge in the desert of Utah, which they 
 have transformed into a modern garden of Hesperides. 
 The city sits at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, 
 the breath from whose cool summits invigorates and 
 strengthens. The streets are very broad and smooth, 
 shaded by numerous trees and rendered attractive by 
 handsome homes and business blocks. Temple Square 
 is the centre of religious life, and the leading object of 
 the admiration of both Mormon and Gentile. Here are 
 found three magnificent structures. First and always 
 the Temple, that wonder of architectural beauty and 
 splendor. It was made of pure white granite taken 
 from a cafion in Utah. It was forty years in process 
 of erection, and cost almost $6,000,000. With the ex- 
 
 234 
 
The Latter Day Saints 235 
 
 ception of the Roman Catholic cathedral in New York, 
 it is the most superb house of worship in America. The 
 Tabernacle is a mammoth building almost circular in 
 shape, and having the appearance of a gigantic turtle 
 upon the outer side. Its utmost seating capacity is said 
 to be eleven thousand, the great gallery holding nearly 
 as many as the main floor. The wood-work of the 
 superb organ came from the forests of Utah. 
 The choir, composed of five-hundred voices, is wholly 
 voluntary. The acoustic properties of the building are 
 exceedingly rare. 
 
 While in Salt Lake City I addressed an audience in 
 the Tabernacle. One of the wives of Brigham Young, 
 a Mormon woman doctor, some members of the W. C. 
 T. U. and several officials of the Mormon church occu- 
 pied seats on the terraced platform. B. H. Roberts, the 
 polygamous Mormon, whose admission to Congress 
 was refused, offered prayer, and other ecclesiastics per- 
 formed different roles. It was a strange and interesting 
 experience. 
 
 The Assembly Hall is an elegant building, like an 
 opera house upon the inner side. These three structures 
 are within one enclosure ; a huge wall shuts them out 
 from the busy street, and around the Temple is a strong 
 iron fence, beyond which the foot of a Gentile is not 
 allowed to enter. None but the saints go into the sacred 
 precincts. * During the years that the Temple was 
 being built the priests, in order to keep up the courage 
 of the Mor mons and stimulate them to greater zeal and 
 
 * The facts stated in this chapter were obtained from lead- 
 ing Gentiles and Mormons in Salt Lake City. 
 
236 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 activity in raising money for its completion, told them 
 that as soon as the Temple was finished the Lord would 
 come and occupy a room in it. When the last touches 
 had been given, and the Temple stood an assured real- 
 ity, and the Lord did not come, Elder Woodruff, presi- 
 dent of the State Church, said he had a revelation frorn 
 God that He was offended because the Gentiles had been 
 allowed to gain a foothold in Utah, and that Christ 
 would not appear. Further, that the wrath of God 
 could be appeased only by unceasing work to evangelize 
 the world. They are now sending out their mission- 
 aries by the hundreds ; some of them boys not out of 
 their teens. By this means, and the thorough organiza- 
 tion of the church in every branch, Mormonism is 
 growing tremendously. It cannot be realized or ap- 
 preciated by those who are far removed from its centre, 
 or who have never been given an object-lesson of its 
 strength. 
 
 While I was in Salt Lake City the Annual Conference 
 of the Mormons was held. Men and women poured 
 into the Tabernacle day after day from the most remote 
 corners of Utah and adjoining states. Some conception 
 of the vastness of the movement was gained when I saw 
 that great auditorium packed from door to door at a 
 morning business session. Imagine what it would be at 
 an evening meeting. At this conference the elders and 
 bishops and other high church dignitaries occupied the 
 three rows of seats that stand one above the other in a 
 semi-circle facing the main body of the edifice. With- 
 out introduction one man after another arose and ad- 
 dressed the people. At the close of each harangue the 
 
The Latter Day Saints 237 
 
 speaker said : " In the name of Jesus Christ, amen ! " 
 and all the audience answered, *' Amen." During this 
 especial conference the burden of each orator's effort 
 ^^-as to inveigh against the priesthood being criticized 
 by the church members. " When that begins," said one 
 mighty in authority, " then comes darkness and death 
 to Mormonism." Their leading thought, however, was 
 that the revelations of God to a people must be given 
 by human agencies ; and, secondly, these agencies must 
 be beyond all cavil. Elder Merrill said, " The Bible is 
 good, and the Book of Mormon is good, but give me the 
 living oracles of the church." Apostle Taylor then took 
 up the song, beginning with Noah and going on down to 
 Joseph Smith, to prove that the written Word was in- 
 sufficient through which God could reveal himself to 
 the world. " Other churches have the Word given by 
 men ; ours is given by direct revelation. Joseph Smith 
 had this revelation, and it has been given to us ever 
 since ! " cried one of the enthusiasts. 
 
 The Mormon church is supported by tithes, each man 
 and woman contributing a certain portion of their in- 
 come or earnings, and the church has become very rich 
 through it. Another mode of increasing the treasury 
 is by baptisms for the dead. There are priests who are 
 always officiating in the Temple, and thousands of bap- 
 tisms are performed every day. Some persons are bap- 
 tized hundreds of times. At each baptism a sum of 
 money is paid for the ceremony, and the issuance, by 
 degrees, of the tormented soul from hell assured. 
 
 The Mormons are devoted pleasure-loving people, 
 and all their pursuits in that line are sanctioned by the 
 
238 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 church. Their dances are always opened with prayer, 
 the bishop usually officiating on the occasion. The 
 church and state are closely united in Mormonism. No 
 man runs for a political office who is in any way con- 
 nected with the machinery of the church, unless the 
 church approves. In Salt Lake City the functionaries 
 of Mormonism have their offices in a large building in 
 the business section of the town, and here, too, are 
 found the tithe-houses. For years the Mormons were 
 not regarded as Christians by the outside world. They 
 speak of this bitterly. Christ is recognized prominently 
 in their worship, but usually upon the same basis as 
 Joseph Smith. The following incident will explain vol- 
 umes. A little Mormon girl, returning from Sunday- 
 school one Sabbath day, was accosted by a Gentile lady, 
 and the ensuing conversation occurred : " Do you like to 
 go to Sunday-school, dearie ? " 
 
 " Yes, ma'am." 
 
 " What have you been studying lately ? " 
 
 '* I have just been learning about Moses and Jesus 
 Christ. Now we are going to study about Joseph 
 Smith." 
 
 The whole structure of Mormonism was conceived of 
 and carried into execution by shrewd, cunning men. 
 Joseph Smith is canonized among the Mormons, and 
 his fame sounded through successive generations as a 
 prophet from God. Brigham Young's statue occupies 
 a conspicuous position in the leading street of Salt Lake 
 City, and his praises are sung by the Latter Day Saints. 
 His process of hoodwinking is gigantic. At one time, 
 it is said, he issued a manifesto that he had received 
 
The Latter Day Saints 239 
 
 a revelation from God to the effect that only a certain 
 sort of tree should be planted by the Mormons in Utah, 
 and he had these trees in his nursery. At once all the 
 faithful cut down their trees and ordered others from 
 President Young. When the new trees were three 
 years old he had another revelation that God was again 
 displeased with the variety, and desired a different kind. 
 Once more the trees were all cut down, and a sort en- 
 tirely unlike the others ordered from Brigham Young's 
 nursery. This occurred three times, the orders all being 
 filled from the same source. He reaped a goodly har- 
 vest from the credulity of the people. A second story 
 similar to this is told of the president. When the saints 
 had accumulated thousands of heads of hogs, Brigham 
 Young said it was declared to him in a revelation from 
 God that no swine should be used by the Mormons ; but 
 Brigham, in the generosity of his soul, sorry to have 
 his brethren suffer the loss, bought up all the hogs and 
 sold them at a fabulous price to the emigrants passing 
 through Utah on their way to the far West. In addi- 
 tion to all these statesman-like manoeuvers, Brigham 
 Young added to his wealth by seven breweries. 
 
 When the law was enforced abolishing polygamy 
 there were 1500 Mormons in jail at one time in Salt 
 Lake City, both men and women. If a child were born 
 in a polygamous marriage, but made its advent in an- 
 other state, it and its parents were free if the infant was 
 kept away from Utah for three years. This was called 
 " outlawing a child." In the first stages of the Edmunds- 
 Tucker enforcing act many hundreds of children were 
 " outlawed," but since Utah has gained statehood 
 
240 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 polygamy is practised more openly by those who had 
 contracted plural marriages in the earlier years of the 
 movement. 
 
 It had been the wonder of my life how any woman 
 could enter a polygamous marriage. When I arrived 
 in Salt Lake City and met some of the leading women of 
 the church of the Latter Day Saints and talked with 
 them about their religion and home affairs, I realized 
 the motive power that had induced them to be wedded to 
 men who either had other wives or would take unto 
 themselves others. The majority of the women of the 
 older set were converted to Mormonism in their early 
 years. Marriage and motherhood were held up as 
 requisites by which to attain unto eternal life, and the 
 greater sacrifices a woman makes in these lines the 
 greater will be her exaltation after death. 
 
 They entered polygamy from an intense religious en- 
 thusiasm, actuated by the same promptings that lead a 
 nun into the convent or a. martyr to the stake. This 
 principle is still alive in the hearts of the more consci- 
 entious Mormon women ; but as the years have gone 
 by and the power of the church increased, of course 
 there have been thousands of women who entered 
 polygamous marriages from baser motives. I expected 
 to find a dull, groveling lot of people in whom the an- 
 imal was ever to the front. My amazement was un- 
 bounded as woman after woman was introduced who 
 was the very acme of refinement, intelligence and often 
 of beauty. 
 
 One of the foremost leaders of thought among the 
 Mormon women edits a paper in Salt Lake City and is 
 
The Latter Day Saints 241 
 
 a devoted club woman. She has represented the women 
 of Utah in the National Council of Women and ap- 
 peared before congressional committees to secure meas- 
 ures for the advancement of her people. She was edu- 
 cated in Massachusetts, and when in her teens she 
 accepted the Mormon faith and crossed the plains with 
 other pioneers in the days of the noted exodus. Like 
 any other business personage, she has her office in the 
 city and is as full of affairs as the most energetic man 
 in the blocks about her. 
 
 At a reception given to me by Mormon women in a 
 Mormon woman's home in Salt Lake City, I met typical 
 Mormon women of every degree. The house in which 
 the reception was held is an elegant structure with 
 stained glass windows and rich furniture ; every curtain 
 and carpet and picture in exquisite harmony. The 
 hostess was a woman of wide culture ; she had traveled 
 extensively in this country and abroad and was the very 
 essence of high-bred grace and polished manner. Her 
 five daughters, dressed in perfect taste, and having in- 
 herited their mother's gentleness and attractiveness, 
 helped to do the honors of the occasion most beautifully. 
 On leaving the reception, I said to a Mormon woman 
 who accompanied me : 
 
 " You don't mean to tell me that our hostess is one 
 of many wives of some man, do you ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " was the quick, cheerful reply. " She is 
 the second wife. The first lives not far from her on an 
 adjoining street." 
 
 Among other noted Mormon women in Salt Lake 
 City, are Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, who vv^as elected 
 
242 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 to the Senate of Utah, a practising physician, and Mrs. 
 Zina D. Young, one of the nineteen wives of Brigham 
 Young. The latter is a vivacious old lady, near three 
 score and ten years of age. She is called " aunt Zinie " 
 — " aunt " being a title of love and respect among 
 the Latter Day Saints, just the same as that we honor 
 the older negro women in the South. In the home 
 of Mrs. Zina D. Young I was shown the celebrated 
 painting of ** Joseph, the Prophet," which hangs in a 
 room filled with portraits of Brigham Young and other 
 apostles and evangelists of the Mormon church. The 
 home of " aunt Zinie " is an unpretentious cottage sit- 
 uated on a quiet street. 
 
 Prominent objects of Salt Lake City, scarcely second 
 in interest to the Temple and Tabernacle, are the dwell- 
 ings of Brigham Young called '' Bee-hive " and '' Lion- 
 House," where he kept his many wives, and the palace 
 of Amelia, his favorite wife, that stands on the opposite 
 side of the street. The latter has been confiscated since 
 the abolition of polygamy, and " Bee-hive " and " Lion- 
 House " have also passed into other hands, but it is 
 imderstood that the wives who are still living are well 
 provided for, as President Brigham Young left a large 
 fortune. The younger Mormon men and women do not 
 usually enter into polygamous marriages, but, it is said, 
 on incontrovertible authority, that polygamy is still 
 practised by the older people who had contracted plural 
 marriages before the Edmunds-Tucker law went into 
 effect. Numbers of Mormon women are rearing large 
 families of children without any visible husbands, not 
 only in Salt Lake City but in states adjoining Utah ; and 
 
The Latter Day Saints 243 
 
 these women are held in high repute among the Mor- 
 mons, thus showing that they are regarded as legally 
 wedded. 
 
 When I was going to Salt Lake City the train stopped 
 at a wayside station for supper. A pretty girl about 
 thirteen years of age was selling glasses of milk from 
 a large tin bucket that she carried on her arm. She had 
 a winsome face and I asked : " Are you a little Mormon 
 girl ? " ** Yes," was the demure reply. " Have you 
 many brothers and sisters?" ''Quite a number." 
 '' How many wives has your father ? " " Two." " Does 
 he live with both?" "Yes." "Which is your 
 mother?" "The first." "Do you like the other?" 
 " Yes, of course ! why shouldn't I ? " she demanded with 
 blazing eyes, and with a disdainful snap of her bucket- 
 top she marched off. Poor little thing! She had the 
 fire and loyalty of the usual Mormon woman, and of 
 every other woman who believes in a cause whether 
 right or wrong and has to suffer for it. 
 
 The wonder and glory of Utah is Great Salt Lake. 
 This marvel in nature " covers an area of 2300 square 
 miles." Its depth is seldom greater than twenty feet, 
 but at the deepest point it is sixty feet. Its waters are 
 as clear as crystal, and the sand at the bottom, which 
 is plainly seen, is a grayish white. There are several 
 islands in Great Salt Lake, and the mountains are round 
 about it. A storm upon it, or a sunset, is a sight cal- 
 culated to fill one with awe and admiration. At a point 
 upon the outer edges, where the desert joins the lake, 
 the waters have been gradually cut off; the dry air 
 quickly evaporates the moisture, leaving shining beds 
 
244 ^ Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 of salt glistening in the light. Heavy rollers drawn 
 by horses are passed over these; then the crystalline 
 mass is shoveled up, put into sacks, and placed on the 
 cars, which run close to the fields of salt, and shipped 
 to the outside world. 
 
 Saltair is the name of a mammoth bath-house built 
 out in the waters of Salt Lake. To this huge pavilion 
 thousands resort every summer to enjoy the exhilarat- 
 ing effects of a float on Salt Lake. " Going down into 
 the water " here can hardly be called a bath, as the 
 water is so densely impregnated with salt that one's 
 body is borne up lightly like a cork ; and if the head and 
 feet are not submerged, can glide over the face of the 
 sea like a fleck of down. The finest saloon in Utah is 
 at Saltair. It is run by leading Mormons. Up to 
 twenty-eight years ago the Latter Day Saints were un- 
 disturbed in their desert retreat, but since the mining 
 interests have grown so important in Utah, the state 
 has become settled by hordes of Gentiles until now, 
 really, the population and appearance of the country is 
 very much like other localities, except that, underneath 
 the surface, the Mormons still have their hold upon 
 material prosperity and religious power. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 IN COLORADO 
 
 For looking backward through the year, 
 Along the path my feet have pressed, 
 
 I see sweet places everywhere, — 
 Sweet places where my soul had rest. 
 
 — Phoebe Gary. 
 
 While in Salt Lake City I spoke at several meet- 
 ings held in the interest of the temperance cause and 
 lectured once on Alaska. The state convention of the 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union was in session 
 a part of the time. Some of the greatest audiences that 
 it has been my pleasure to address, greeted me in the 
 West. Those in certain portions of California, Utah, 
 and Colorado being particularly gratifying. One of 
 the most interesting places which I visited in Colorado 
 was Cripple Creek, the famous mining camp. The 
 whole country in the gold belt surrounding the place 
 presents a most novel and engaging appearance to a 
 stranger. Numberless prospects cover the face of the 
 hills. A " prospect " is a venture at mining, looking 
 for paying ore. If not found in sufficient quantities to 
 meet and go above all expense of operation, the venture 
 remains forever a prospect. If the precious metals in 
 paying quantities are found, it is called a " mine." The 
 
 245 
 
246 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 population of the mining district of Cripple Creek was 
 at that time estimated at 40,000. In the town itself it 
 had reached the large number of 20,000. It is wonder- 
 ful how human beings flock to these rich mining camps ; 
 how they suffer privations and work like galley-slaves 
 for gold. I found educated men at Cripple Creek delv- 
 ing in the mines, while their wives cooked and did every 
 kind of hard work, living in two-room huts in the back 
 yards of persons who were equally cramped and equally 
 hard-worked. The open saloons, gambling dens and 
 dance-houses flourish with a brazen effrontery not seen 
 in older haunts of civilization. At the '' Branch," the 
 Monte Carlo of Cripple Creek, gambling is carried on 
 with a high hand. The rooms are magnificently fur- 
 nished ; soft velvet carpets cover the floors, and elegant 
 oil paintings of the most immoral subjects decorate the 
 walls. Here the men flock to scatter their hard-earned 
 dollars at faro, poker, etc., while the " Branch " pro- 
 prietor, loaded with diamonds, looks on complacently. 
 In this institution there is a palace saloon in which there 
 is a bar of heavily carved oak with beaten brass orna- 
 mentations, costing nothing less than $20,000. In other 
 drinking establishments similar furnishings are found, 
 and musicians are stationed near the door to beguile the 
 wayfarer into their depths by bewitching strains of ex- 
 quisite melody. The miners go to the " Branch " to get 
 their checks cashed. In one day the amounts rise as 
 high as $12,600. Vice of a lower order than drinking 
 and gambling stalks unrebuked through the streets of 
 Cripple Creek, in the glare of daylight as well as in the 
 shades of night. 
 
In Colorado 247 
 
 On my arrival at the mining camp an after- 
 noon meeting was held with some W. C. T. U. 
 women. It was said that all the churches in the 
 place were either too small to accommodate the de- 
 sired audience or were occupied with protracted 
 services ; so in order to reach the crowd the 
 alternative was to go on the streets at night, and to talk 
 in the open air. That evening at 8 o'clock, accompanied 
 by the president of the local society, I stood on the 
 corner of a crowded thoroughfare and spoke to hun- 
 dreds of people thronging the way. 
 
 At the close of the meeting, reinforced by another 
 friend, we visited the saloons, the dance-halls and the 
 most prominent gambling dens. In the rear of one of 
 the grog-shops were found two young men, one frail 
 and pallid, seated at a piano ; the other leaning against 
 a whiskey barrel. They were both singing a pathetic 
 melody, the chorus ending with, " I am an outcast, a 
 wanderer; I am far from home to-night." We stopped 
 to listen. Going over the words a second time the boy- 
 pianist looked at us unsmilingly and said, " That means 
 me ! " As we walked down the sin-cursed street, for 
 blocks the plaintive refrain followed us on the summer 
 air, " I am an outcast, a wanderer." Doubtless hun- 
 dreds of hearts in Cripple Creek responded to the plaint. 
 A short distance beyond Colorado Springs, is found 
 South Cheyenne Caiion, noted for its wonderful scenery 
 and as the place where Helen Hunt Jackson desired her 
 body to be buried. The canon is short, but stupendous. 
 Ponderous granite mountains come so near together 
 that on first sight it seems impossible that a roadway 
 
248 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 could ever be forged between them. It looks as if a 
 mighty hand had pried the boulders apart, and that 
 they may at any time close up their ranks again. In 
 the grandest part of the canon are found Seven Falls 
 that present a scene full of entrancing loveliness. The 
 granite has been smoothly terraced by mother nature 
 in seven different places in a great gorge, and over these 
 surge volumes of water clear as crystal. At this point 
 the carriage is abandoned and, climbing up several 
 flights of steps hundreds of feet high, the brow of a 
 mountain is gained and at once commences a search for 
 the sacred spot where the body of that sweet singer and 
 romance writer, Helen Hunt Jackson, was laid to rest. 
 It is found on the slope overlooking the yawning clefts 
 in the canon and in close proximity to the Seven Falls, 
 — a cool, peaceful nook under the sighing pines. A 
 mass of stones now lie on the empty grave, and between 
 these are wedged numerous cards of visitors who de- 
 sired to let the hawks and eagles and mountain-grasses 
 knovv that their majesties had called. 
 
 Helen Hunt Jackson died in San Francisco. In her 
 last days she requested that she be buried in South 
 Cheyenne Cafion. As soon as was practicable, her hus- 
 band had her body brought from the city, where it was 
 laid temporarily, and carried over the mountain heights 
 by a carriage-road to her favorite place, where she had 
 often sat and read and written far removed from the 
 din and strife of the outside world. Only a few friends 
 formed the mournful party as it filed its way through 
 the mountain fastnesses with its precious burden to the 
 abiding place that had been chosen above all on earth 
 
In Colorado 249 
 
 in which to wait for the resurrection morn. The burial- 
 ground was so unusual that it attracted hordes of visit- 
 ors, who began to make it a rendezvous for picnics and 
 headquarters for advertisements. The notoriety and 
 accompanying desecration grew so offensive to Mr. 
 Jackson that he had his wife's remains removed to the 
 cemetery at Colorado Springs, and the grave marked by 
 a modest headstone. Helen Hunt Jackson will linger 
 forever in the memory of mankind as the friend of the 
 Indian, — " Romona " and *' A Century of Dishonor " 
 immortalizing her as the strongest advocate for that un- 
 fortunate race known in the literary or philanthropic 
 world. 
 
 After the long absence of almost nine months, dur- 
 ing which I traveled thousands of miles and had num- 
 berless strange experiences, going back to my blessed 
 old plantation home was looked forward to with greater 
 eagerness than in all my life before, especially as I came 
 with health fully restored. A hearty welcome awaited 
 me as always from mother and father, who were ever 
 in such perfect accord and sympathy with my public 
 work. Oh! the joy, the abandon, the peace, the inde- 
 scribable sweetness in onts.owji home such as is found 
 nowhere else on earth ! 
 
 At mine there is rest of body and soul for 
 me. Everything is kept quiet. Mother's solicitude 
 goes so far as to prompt her to station little 
 negroes at strategic points about the yard to pre- 
 vent the roosters from coming within hearing dis- 
 tance of my windows, fearing their crowing may 
 disturb me. In the afternoons, when my usual walk is 
 
250 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 taken over the hills and through the beautiful woods, a 
 delegation of eight or twelve young black boys and girls 
 accompanies me. They usually return laden with flowers 
 and grasses and always expect remuneration of some 
 sort; so I have them stand in line and rejoice their 
 hearts by filling their hands with sugar. Off the;^ 
 scamper, — eating as they go. At Christmas, the custom 
 of all the negroes on the plantation is to rush into the 
 *' white folks' " house one by one or in groups and cry, 
 " Chris'mus giff ! I done cotch you fust. " Every one 
 expects a present of some sort, if nothing more than a 
 bit of fruit or a stick of candy ; but there mttst be some- 
 thing, in order to prevent the deepest disappointment. 
 In ante-bellum days each was remembered generously ; 
 every old ex-slave still expects it and they have handed 
 down this expectation to their descendants. 
 
 Just after supper, in the spring and summer, father 
 and I sit on the front gallery and talk as freely and con- 
 fidentially as in my young girlhood. In winter, after 
 the evening meal, mother reads to me for two hours. 
 On these visits home, I hug the fleeting hours to my 
 soul ; so full are they of happiness and satisfaction. The 
 pain of parting from my dear ones has never grown less 
 poignant. While life lasts I cannot forget the picture 
 which is repeated at each of my departures. The wait- 
 ing vehicle at the front gate, the horse held by some old 
 negro servant. Father suffering visibly, but smiling 
 bravely, saying, " God bless you, daughter, and bring 
 you back in safety to us." Mother folding me to her 
 heart and sobbing, " Good-bye, darling ! Good-bye, my 
 precious one." My youngest brother walking briskly 
 
In Colorado 251 
 
 up and exclaiming, " Do come on, sister ! You will 
 never catch the train in time." As we drive under the 
 cedars, on looking back, father is seen busily engaged 
 examining the fixtures of the gate and mother is walk- 
 ing back and forth on the long gallery, crying, " Good- 
 bye, darling, good-bye ! " And yet, they would not have 
 me leave the work and remain with them for all the 
 gold in Alaskan hills. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE OLD PLANTATION HOME 
 
 Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
 
 And never brought to mind, 
 Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
 
 And days of auld lang syne. 
 
 For several weeks during the winter of 1897-98 Miss 
 Jessie Ackerman was my guest at the plantation. She 
 was very much interested in the colored people and re- 
 quested the privilege of holding a meeting with some 
 of them in our dining-room and of furnishing the re- 
 freshments. She desired to invite only fifty and these 
 to be limited to the ex-slaves of the Kearney family. 
 New Year's day was appointed for the gathering. 
 Long before the noon hour our dusky guests began to 
 arrive. Some came in respectable buggies driving well- 
 groomed horses, some in lumbering farm wagons; 
 others rode mules or walked. They were comfortably 
 clothed and ragged, middle-aged and old, strong and 
 feeble. One stumped in on a peg leg, his original mem- 
 ber having been torn off in a cotton-gin " since de 
 wah ; " rheumatism had sentenced another to crutches, 
 and one came with tightly bandaged head to cover an 
 empty eye socket ; but all felt very high-toned and im- 
 portant and representative of the family dignity. The 
 
 352 
 
The Old Plantation Home 253 
 
 dining-room had been decked and garnished for many 
 hours in anticipation of the unusual event. There were 
 great branches of holly, rich in its dark green leaves 
 and crimson berries, graceful, grey sprays of trailing 
 Spanish moss, and clusters of mistletoe banked over the 
 mantel, the pictures, the sideboard, the window-frames, 
 —at every point of vantage. In the centre of the large 
 table a huge basket of fruit peeped out from between 
 drooping vines, and cakes and nuts and candies com- 
 pleted an artistic and enticing decoration. 
 
 The negroes stood in solid ranks about the table. 
 Father had declined to act as master of ceremonies, as 
 he was not well, and mother also refused the honor, 
 which consequently devolved upon me. Near the door 
 leading into the hall father stood, looking very worn 
 and feeble, near him were my youngest brother and 
 guests who had dined with us ; further on Miss Acker- 
 man and myself, and beyond us sat mother. 
 
 I opened the ceremonies by announcing that the 
 agreeable occasion had been planned and carried out by 
 Miss Ackerman ; that she had furnished the good things 
 and wanted them all to have a happy time. After 
 telling them of her travels and work as a mission- 
 ary, Miss Ackerman was introduced. She fired 
 their enthusiasm by a stirring speech. When she 
 related the incident of walking on the bottom of 
 the ocean, of lying in the ear of a god in India, 
 and portrayed the terrors of a storm at sea, they 
 gave a long, low, whining groan and pressed nearer to- 
 p-ether, swavins: to and fro. At the close of her address 
 the meeting was thrown open and different persons 
 
2 54 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 were called upon for testimonies. We thought to make 
 it a love-feast and to be edified by many ripe Christian 
 experiences ; but it took a different turn. '* Aunt Miry," 
 an old woman on crutches, who was one of grand- 
 mother's house servants, was the first one asked to 
 speak. Without hesitating a moment she said : ** Who- 
 ever would er thought that I could er cum inter Marse 
 Walter's house lak dis ! It makes me think might'ly o' 
 de time when ole mis' wur er livin', " then there fol- 
 lowed a short dissertation, in mournful intonations, on 
 the good old times when she " had ben tuk kyar uv an' 
 everybody had plenty and to spar'." 
 
 Numbers of men and women followed in the note 
 struck by " Aunt Miry." The pathos deepened ; mother 
 left the room. Father was the " Marse Walter " re- 
 ferred to in the speeches. I watched his face as the 
 meeting progressed. His eyes filled slowly with tears 
 and his lips trembled with suppressed emotion. Finally 
 " Uncle Jim Fisher " was called on ; he had been one of 
 grandfather's slaves and was the old man with the 
 empty eye-socket, left so by an invading sliver of iron 
 while he worked in a blacksmith shop. Lifting his sad 
 face reverentially he said in measured tones as if chant- 
 ing a requiem : " Holy, holy, holy ! O, how sweet to be 
 in my young Marster's house dis day! Look at my 
 young Marster ! fresh an' fine, jes' off de vine ! " point- 
 ing to father, aged and feeble, but who was never 
 anything but beautiful in the eyes of the old slave who 
 remembered him only and always as the handsome 
 ** young marster" of brilliant youth. 
 
 Uncle Jim's speech was the most grandiloquent of 
 
The Old Plantation Home 255 
 
 the day, and the most touching. When he finished 
 father's indisposition was forgotten. His soul wa» 
 awake and his mind stirred with memories of a hallowed 
 past ; especially with the part he had played in the great 
 drama so intimately allied with the destiny of the race 
 whose representatives now before him had been held in 
 slavery by himself and his kinsmen. Stepping quietly 
 to the front he threw back his head, assuming an atti- 
 tude peculiar to him when deeply moved, and made a 
 strong, tender speech to those dark friends of happier 
 days. Pressing about him closely they began to moan, 
 crying softly with uplifted faces bathed in tears. " I 
 have been your friend and shall be unto the end," were 
 father's closing words. " Dat's so ! Marse Walter, dat's 
 so ! " " Praise Gord, dat sho is so ! " came from all parts 
 of the room. 
 
 Finally, Harrison Green, the only preacher present, 
 was asked to pray. He was a Hercules in ebony — one 
 of mother's former slaves. Closing his eyes and stiff- 
 ening his neck he made a prayer distinctive of the negro 
 pastor in his unlettered, unfettered religious frenzy, — 
 abjectly heart- revealing, boisterously sin-denunciatory, 
 crowded with heaven ascending ejaculations and hell 
 descending imprecations, all punctured with stentorian 
 groans that appalled the ear and dismayed the soul. 
 Miss Ackerman had provided fifty paper bags to be 
 filled with the refreshments and taken home by her 
 colored guests. When everybody had been served, Har- 
 rison Green, the inflated preacher, said to me, *' Miss 
 Belle, yer mus' call dis yer meetin' ter order agin an' 
 give me er chance ter say cr word to dese yer folks." 
 
256 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 Silence was restored. Walking ostentatiously to a small 
 table near, pushing his hands into his pockets and scru- 
 tinizing the faces of his hearers, Harrison said : '' Look 
 here, niggers ! is yer gwine ter brek up dis here meetin' 
 in er onmannerly fashion, an' let dis strange white 
 'oonian leave widout returnin' her sum perliteness by 
 depressin' our thanks ? " Wheeling around to Miss 
 Ackerman, he continued : '' We is pow'ful' bleeged ter 
 yo', my sister, for dese yer things yer gin us fer ter 
 eat, but pow'fuller more thankful for what yer tole us 
 in yo' speech. Before yo' go away, 'dough, I think 
 yo' had better tell us how to raise our chilluns." Shak- 
 ing his list in sudden wrath at the group of boys and 
 girls on the opposite side of the room who had crept in 
 unnoticed and who were now chattering like guineas 
 and cracking nuts with their shining teeth, he ex- 
 claimed : '' Shut up dat fuss, niggers ! Ain' yer got no 
 manners 'fore white folks ? " Cooling down again and 
 altering his voice to the ministerial tone, one hand thrust 
 out in mild gesticulation, he said to his colored friends : 
 " Now my bredderin, a partin' an' a farewell word ter 
 yo' an' me is dis : we mus' be so ongratef ul fer what dis 
 here strange white 'ooman has done fer us dis New 
 Year Day as to make us more inconsistent accordin' 
 ter our religious departments fru all de years what am 
 ter cum." 
 
 After the benediction was pronounced " de meetin' 
 broke up." Then the women came in a shy way to greet 
 Miss Ackerman and me. What they said to her she did 
 not tell, but one old woman, holding my hand in both 
 her horny ones said : " Honey, doan' yer know mef My 
 
The Old Plantation Home 257 
 
 gal, Jemimy Jane, she nussed yer." Another, after a 
 hearty handshake, exclaimed : ** Lor', little missy ! I 
 ain' seen yer since yer wur er chile. My gal, Drunella 
 Clarissy, nussed yer ! " In mother's room I heard Sally, 
 the heroine of the silver and Federal soldiers, saying: 
 " Humph ! Dat white lady may be er traveler but she 
 cyant tell me much. Tse seed storms on de Gulf o' Mex- 
 ico when I use ter go down dar wid mistis' jes' 'bout as 
 big as her in ennybody else has ever saw. Gwine down 
 inter de bottom o' de ocean an' layin' in de year o' dat 
 gord I doan' know nuthin' 'bout. I sho ain' done dat! 
 But I jes' knows one thing: what dis here nigger an' 
 her white folks has seed am sholy hard to beat ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE LAST FAREWELL 
 
 Thank God that, looking across a grave, 
 
 The world's dim vision clears, 
 Till Calvary lies in the golden glow 
 
 Of God's eternal years. — Mary T. Lathrap. 
 
 Eighteen hundred ninety-eight was another 
 fateful year to me. In January a business trip 
 was made to Jackson, Mississippi. In the early 
 dawn of a cold, grey morning I was seated in a 
 train for the purpose of returning home. The only per- 
 son in the car besides myself was a lady who sat at some 
 distance behind me. In a few moments a gentleman, 
 very Western and very noticeable in appearance, en- 
 tered. Approaching me he lifted liis hat and said 
 hesitatingly, *' Excuse me, but I followed you because 
 I thought I knew you. " There was a quizzical look on 
 his face which I construed as amusement. Thinking 
 that the stranger's purpose in accosting me was simply 
 to form an acquaintanceship to relieve the ennui of 
 travel, all my Puritanical instincts rebelled. With a 
 repellant air I said, " Yes ? " Considerably disconcerted 
 but evidently intent on discovering my identity he scru- 
 tinized my hand satchel for a name, and with a search- 
 
 258 
 
The Last Farewell 
 
 259 
 
 ing gaze Into my eyes asked : " Is this Miss Belle Kear- 
 ney ? " " It is, sir," was my reply, stiffer than before. 
 A radiant smile passed over the gentleman's face and 
 bending toward me he said in low, sweet tones that be- 
 gan to sound wonderfully familiar, " Have the years 
 washed out all remembrance ? I am your brother ! " 
 
 It required then only a moment to recognize the be- 
 loved comrade of early days, who read Shakspeare with 
 me and helped to build the " castles in the air." There 
 was the same tall, lithe figure, but with a man's sinewy 
 strength and graceful dignity in place of the boyish 
 bearing that filled my memory. Since leaving Missis- 
 sippi for the West, at seventeen years of age, he had 
 lived in Texas, Mexico and the mountains of New 
 Mexico. In all that time he had returned home but 
 once. 
 
 After three days only, spent together on the planta- 
 tion, I was forced to leave to fill some lecture engage- 
 ments. My brother had never heard me speak, so he 
 accompanied me to my next two appointments. On the 
 last day we dined together at a dear friend's home. In 
 the afternoon I stood on the front porch and waving 
 my hand to him called out : " Farewell, dear heart ! 
 Come home to us every year after this, won't you ? " A 
 smiling good-bye was answered and he was gone. Little 
 did I dream then that we should never meet again on 
 earth. 
 
 " Was it so long? It seems so brief a .while 
 Since this still hour between the day and dark 
 Was lightened by a little fellow's smile; 
 Since we were wont to mark 
 
26o A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 The sunset's crimson dim to gold, to gray, 
 Content to know that, though he loved to roam 
 
 Care-free among the comrades of his play. 
 Twilight would lead him home. 
 
 " But if we so, with eager eyes and glad, 
 
 Looked forward to his coming in the gloom; 
 If so our hearts leaped out to meet the lad 
 
 Whose smiles lit all the room — 
 Shall there not be a Presence waiting thus 
 
 To still the bitter craving of the quest? 
 Shall there not be a welcome, too, for us 
 
 When we go home to rest ? " 
 
 The followirxg summer my headquarters were made 
 at a quiet little village on Narragansett Bay. I was the 
 guest of my beloved friends, Ednah B. Hale and E. 
 Carol Hodge, who are the gifts of God to me. While 
 resting in their seaside cottage, the awful tidings 
 reached me of the sudden death of the noble brother 
 from whom I had so recently parted. Immediately after 
 his visit to us in the spring he went to Las Cruces, New 
 Mexico, where he intended to make his future home 
 engaging in the practice of law. My precious brother ! 
 Out of the shadows of the earth-Hfe he has stepped; 
 the sunlight is over there. Surely our Father has pre- 
 pared for him a place where his God-given faculties can 
 find their full development, where he can grow into 
 *' the perfect stature." Surely there awaited him the 
 unspeakable bestowment of immortality — a happy, 
 peaceful, glorified immortality. In the intuitive, di- 
 vinely wrought assurance that had come to me, I asked 
 no questions of God. I was conscious of no rebellion. 
 
The Last Farewell 261 
 
 I lifted my thoughts calmly to Him, and with eyes un- 
 dimmed with tears and lips untrembling with sobs, I 
 said : '* It is all right, my Lord, whatever Thou sendest 
 me. It is all right." This was the second brother who 
 had gone out from us in less than three years ; the first 
 not quite thirty, this last nearly ending his thirty-first 
 year. 
 
 Two scenes are stamped upon my brain and burned 
 into my heart eternally. One October day in 1895 — a 
 little funeral procession moving slowly from the old 
 home at Vernon across the sunlit fields. The open 
 grave, the gleams of evening light and flickering shad- 
 ows slanting across its sides and upon the coffin; the 
 home-going, the fever, the semi-consciousness, the rest- 
 ing, the abiding, the all-rightness. In July, 1898, alien 
 hands ministering to the young stranger hundreds of 
 miles from home and loved ones, laid to rest at last by 
 men whom the perils and the loneliness of the great 
 American desert had made brotherly and loyal. Now 
 there is a lonely grave at La Luz, in the far-away ter- 
 ritory of New Mexico, in the depths of isolation, and 
 the dreary winds, and the sweep and moan of the prairie 
 grasses as they bend toward it — a lonely grave, and — 
 God! 
 
 After it came — the message of death — I kept right on 
 with my work. What else could I do ? " For suffering 
 and enduring there is no remedy but striving and do- 
 ing." In the midst of the work and the loneliness, — the 
 crowds and the stress of the human. Out of the dark- 
 ness a voice was singing to my soul : 
 
262 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 " The self-same twilight, cool, and calm, and dim, 
 That led him home to us, despite our fears, 
 Shall lead us home to him ! " 
 
 s|c sic ^ ^ ^ 
 
 While on my way to New England in the summer of 
 1898, I stopped in Pulaski, Tennessee, to pay my re- 
 spects to my venerable great-aunt, Mrs. Ann Lindsay, 
 who wore the crown of eighty-five years This gra- 
 cious old lady discussed the Spanish war with absorbing 
 interest and showed me family relics more than a hun- 
 dred years of age. At last she drew out the family 
 tree and began to descant upon it. She appeared to 
 conclude that so late born a *' young American " needed 
 tutoring on ancestral lines. *' My child," she said to 
 me, while her sixty-five-year-old bachelor-son stood by 
 and adjusted her white lace cap : '' I suppose you know 
 that your great, great, great, great-grandfather was 
 Sir David, the Earl of Lindsay, of Scotland? and that 
 his son, James, came to America * forward ' in the 
 seventeenth century, in the second or third fleet that 
 sailed into James river, and settled in Gloster county, 
 Virginia? and that your kinswoman, Mary Lindsay, 
 daughter of Joshua, son of James, son of Sir David, 
 married Edward Masterson, who was son of an Irish 
 earl? and that Ann Lindsay, daughter of John, son of 
 James, son of Joshua, son of old James the first, married 
 George ZoUicoffer, son of John Jacob Zollicoffer, a 
 Swedish baron? and did you know that you are the 
 great, great, great, grand-daughter of Phillip Kearney 
 whose father was an Irish earl ? And do you know that 
 
The Last Farewell 263 
 
 the Lindsay coat-of-arms is Three Bullocks' Heads and 
 the Bloody Yoke — livery blue, trimmed with red ? You 
 must apply to the Herald's office of the ancient govern- 
 ment to get the Kearney and the Masterson coat-of- 
 arms, not remembered by any present member of the 
 family." 
 
 As the dear old lady talked on, the past now almost 
 her only present, it was difficult to suppress a certain 
 sense of the ludicrous. A scene of the long ago came 
 before me; of my standing in the midst of my four 
 brothers with this same family record in discussion, and 
 of my saying, " Boys, when you marry I will frame 
 a tree for each of you and present it on your wedding 
 day." How they laughed, and one of them said deri- 
 sively, " We had just as soon have so much sky ! It isn't 
 the family tree that counts this day in the world, but 
 brains, brains, brains, — and the energy to back them ! " 
 It took me a long time to learn this wisdom, so early 
 acquired by a boy's free contact with men; but after 
 much sorrowful experience I did — thank God! Years 
 of philanthropic work have taught me that " It's only 
 noble to be good." However, I listened, interested, to 
 my venerable aunt and later paid a visit with a heart 
 full of reverence to a little grave-yard in the town of 
 Pulaski, and searched out a long vault of stone under 
 which lay the dust of one of my great, great-grand- 
 mothers. Upon the marble slab was written : " Sarah 
 Kearney Lindsay, Died, 1774." 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THE " HEAVENLY BIRTHDAY 
 
 A name earth wears forever next her heart; 
 One of the few that have a right to rank 
 With the true makers, — Anon. 
 
 The month of February, 1898, found me in Wash- 
 ington City attending the annual convention of the Na- 
 tional American Woman Suffrage Association. On en- 
 tering the building where the sessions were being held 
 on February seventeenth, a friend said to me : " Do you 
 know Miss Willard is dead? She passed away this 
 morning — just after midnight." On Saturday I was in 
 New York city, where the funeral services were first to 
 be held, accompanied by Mrs. S. D. La Fetra, former 
 president of the W. C. T. U. of the District of Columbia. 
 My desire was to see Anna Gordon at once. Our great 
 leader had entered into everlasting life from the Empire 
 Hotel. As soon as possible her remains had been car- 
 ried to the home of her niece, Mrs. Katharine Willard 
 Baldwin, at 85 Clinton Place. 
 
 About dusk, in the face of a driving wind and rain- 
 storm, we found our way there.- We were invited into 
 a little sitting-room. The door opened gently, and Mrs. 
 Baldvv^in entered. After a quiet, but cordial greeting, 
 she began to tell us about the going of Miss Willard. 
 
 264 
 
The "Heavenly Birthday" 265 
 
 *' Her death was very beautiful/' she said; "much 
 more beautiful than grandmother's, because she was 
 younger. She looked like a little child — soft and sweet. 
 At the last she was totally unconscious. The departure 
 of her spirit was exceedingly peaceful. Her breath 
 went out in three restful sobs, the last like a strain of 
 music, the most exquisite I ever heard. She lies in 
 there," pointing to an adjoining apartment. " Anna 
 Gordon is to sleep in the room with her every night 
 until she is taken away." 
 
 As we arose to leave, her eyes filled with tears, and 
 she exclaimed : *' I can't realize that Aunt Frank is 
 dead ! it seems so strange ! " In the darkness we went 
 to the Empire Hotel to see the W. C. T. U. women who 
 were congregated there. It was a pathetic company of 
 forlorn workers. As they sat or moved about, mournful 
 and helpless, talking in low, awe-stricken tones of the 
 one dearest in all the world to them, who had gone up 
 higher, I thought of that little band of disciples in the 
 long ago who stood desolate, gazing '' steadfastly to- 
 ward heaven " after their departing Lord, and the 
 appearance of the angels in their midst. The Comforter 
 was with us, too, that heart-breaking night, and the 
 same sweet words came sifting into our souls : " Why 
 stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus 
 which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come 
 in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven ; " 
 and the blessed promise came with the thought : " Ye 
 shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come 
 upon you : and ye shall be witnesses unto me. . . to the 
 uttermost part of the earth." 
 
266 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 As the women talked the leading sentiment to which 
 they gave expression was : *' We have a common sorrow 
 and a common joy. It is sweet for her to * enter into 
 rest,' but pitiful for us who stand in the shadow — 
 waiting." 
 
 What pen of men or tongue of angels could summon 
 words sufficiently strong or wise or tender in which to 
 describe the work and the personality of this divinely 
 inspired apostle of our Lord! Miss Willard's leader- 
 ship was incomparable. She had the great power of 
 drawing more people toward her, and of keeping them 
 bound by the closest bonds of devotion, than any being 
 that ever lived. The secret of it was that she was 
 thoroughly true ; true to herself, true to humanity, to 
 which she gave her best; true to her heavenly calling 
 and purpose, true to God. Miss Willard was a marvel- 
 ous orator, organizer, author, statesman. Christian. 
 
 O, radiant spirit, O, sinless soul, thou hast won thy 
 greatest victory ! Thou hast conquered death and en- 
 tered upon the eternal verities ! Thou hast stood in the 
 presence of the angels, and seen Christ face to face! 
 " How beautiful it is to be with God." 
 
 For over nine years Miss Willard had been more to 
 me than any woman who lived, except my mother. She 
 was the leading inspiration of my life. She was never 
 too busy to be loving, never too tired to be interested in 
 those who followed the white ribbon banner, uplifted by 
 her devoted hands. In all the care-filled days of her 
 wonderful life she took time to send words of cheer and 
 assurances of loyalty and appreciation for the smallest 
 
The "Heavenly Birthday" 267 
 
 thing done for Christ and humanity. On her way to 
 England she sent the following back to me, — only a 
 word of remembrance but invaluable as her words : 
 
 " U. S. M. S. ' NEW YORK ' 
 
 
268 A Slaveholder's Daughter 
 
 On hearing of her death I felt that one of the founda- 
 tions of my existence had sHpped from under me and 
 had drifted out to sea. Miss Willard was Hke no other 
 human being. There was a divineness about her and a 
 personal influence that no one else possessed. There 
 will be many leaders, and great ones, but the world will 
 never see just such a " chieftain " among women as 
 Frances E. Willard. The great organization that grew 
 to marvelous proportions under her matchless guidance 
 has lost its ablest champion, the individuals who loved 
 her their tenderest friend. After her death Lady Henry 
 Somerset wrote in a personal letter, *' It seems to me 
 sometimes that the work that lies ahead and the loneli- 
 ness of life are almost impossible to face ; but the same 
 Love that has cared for her and taken her to dwell in 
 the Land where all is Love will encompass us and bring 
 us at last to the haven where we would be, and where 
 she is at rest." These heart testimonials have been writ- 
 ten in the quietude of my old plantation home, in blessed 
 communion with God and in sweet fellowship with 
 mother and father, my best friends and loyal, loving 
 comrades, standing now in the sunset glow of the even- 
 ing of their lives : 
 
 " Only waiting tiil the shadows are a little longer 
 grown," when their souls, 
 
 " A glorious bridge will make 
 Out of the golden bars, 
 And all their precious treasures take 
 Where shine the eternal stars." 
 
 With the dawn of the untried years beaming 
 
The " Heavenly Birthday " 269 
 
 full upon me, through the swiftly opening gates of the 
 twentieth century, here among the palm trees of Flor- 
 ida, its blossoms, its song-birds, its radiant sunshine, 
 where my work has brought me in this year of 
 grace, 1900, I consecrate myself anew to God, 
 and cry as fervently as when the call of the 
 Master first came to my life, over a decade ago, 
 " Here am I, Lord. Send me ! " give me strength of 
 body and mind and spirit to work for the incoming of 
 Thy Kingdom when not a being in all the world shall 
 ask, through ignorance, " Who is Jesus of Nazareth ? " 
 when the gentleness of Christ shall supersede the in- 
 humanity of man; when every institution is banished 
 which causeth a tear or maketh a lie ; when every law 
 is so modified that no child shall cry for the loss of its 
 birthright, nor a man "mourn for his broken life, nor a 
 woman weep for the possession of her heritage. 
 
 " I know not what the future hath 
 Of marvel or surprise, 
 AssuBed alone that life and death 
 His mercy underlies. 
 
 " And so beside the Silent Sea 
 I wait the muffled oar; 
 No harm from him can come to me 
 On ocean or on shore." 
 
 TPIE END. 
 
THE 
 
 Bbbcy press 
 
 114 
 
 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ANNOUNCEMENTS 
 
 May be ordered through 
 any bookseller or will be 
 mailed free for the pub- 
 lished price . . . • • 
 
AUTHORS AND ARTISTS 
 
 J* t^ 
 
 Collins, Wilkie. 
 Ci'uiksliank, George, Jr. 
 De Mezailles, Jean. 
 Dickens, Charles. 
 Drumniond, Henry. 
 Flattery, M. Douglas. 
 Gardner, "\V. H. 
 Graham, Marie. 
 Hamilton, Sam A. 
 Ilaiuin, Margherita Arliua. 
 Hartt, Irene Widdeiuer. 
 Howard, tady Constance. 
 Jennings, Edwin B. 
 Johnson, Stanley Kdwards. 
 Jokai, Mauriis. 
 Kaven, E. Thomas. 
 Kearney, Belle. 
 
 Kent, Charles. 
 Mankowski, Mary D. 
 Martyn, Carlos. 
 Miller, Andrew J. 
 Munn, Charles Clark. 
 Napoliello, S. K. 
 Palier, Iilmile A. 
 Parkes, Harry. 
 Pash, Florence. 
 Rideal, Charles F. 
 Kunyan, N. P. 
 Scribner, Kimball. 
 Stevenson, Kobert Liouis. 
 Tabor, Edw^ard A. 
 Tolstoy, Count. 
 Walker, Jessie A. 
 Winter, C. Gordon. 
 
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 " This useful addition to the writing table is nicely 
 got up." — Princess. 
 
 *' Is very well arranged, with suitable quotations 
 and memoranda for every day in the year. It 
 may be kept on the table or suspended agamst 
 the wall or bookshelf, whichever may be most 
 convenient, and in either position it is handy, and 
 takes up but a small amount of space."-— Qweew. 
 
 15 
 
DEC 3 1900 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED 
 
 THE BOOKS PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 jf])bey Pre$$ are offered for 
 
 SALE THROUGH ITS AGENTS IN 
 MEXICO, CANADA, GREAT BRIT- 
 AIN, CAPE TOWN, PARIS, BERLIN, 
 MELBOURNE, CALCUTTA, AND TO 
 THE CHIEF BOOK STORES AND 
 DISTRIBUTORS, AND CONTROLL- 
 ERS OF BOOKSTANDS, RAILWAY 
 AND HOTEL STANDS IN THE 
 UNITED STATES : : : : 
 
 FINE PRINTING AND DAINTY BINDING 
 
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