University of Virginia Library

33. XXXIII.
At Home again. — A detailed Account of Soul-harrowing
Outrages inflicted upon the People
of Confederate × Roads by a Party of Freedmen,
and how the Insult was wiped out.

I FOUND my flock in a terrible state uv depression,
at which, when I wuz told the cause, I
didn't wonder at. There wuz, back of the Corners
on the side hill, over towards Garrettstown, about
three quarters uv a mile this side of Abbott's grocery
(we estimate distance here from one grocery to
another), five or six families uv niggers. The males
of this settlement had all been in the Federal army
ez soljers, and hed saved their pay, and bounty, and
sich, and hed bought uv a disgustid Confederate,
who proposed to find in Mexico that freedom which
was denied him here, and who, bein determined to
leave the country, didn't care who he sold his plantashen

to, so ez he got greenbax, three hundred
acres, wich they hed divided up, and built cabins
onto em, and wuz a cultivatin it. There wuz a
store-keeper at the Corners who come here from
Illinoy, and who hed been so greedy uv gain and so
graspin ez to buy their prodoose uv em, and sell em
sich supplies ez they needed. These accursed sons
and daughters of Ham was a livin there in comfort.
The thing was a gittin unendoorable. They come
to the Corners dressed in clothes without patches,
and white shirts, and hats on; and the females in
dresses, and hoops under em; in short, these apes
hed assoomed so much uv the style uv people that
ef it hadn't bin for their black faces, they wood have
passed for folks.

Our people become indignant, and ez soon ez I
returned, I was requested to call a meetin to consider
the matter, which I uv course did.

The horn wuz tootid, and the entire Corners wuz
assembled, eggscepting the Illinoy store-keeper, who
didn't attend to us much. I stated briefly and elokently
(I hev improved in public speakin sense I
heered His Serene Highness, Androo the I., all the
way from Washinton to Looisville), and asked the
brethren to ease their minds.

Squire Gavitt hed observed the progress uv them

niggers with the most profoundest alarm. He hed
noticed em comin to the Corners, dressed better nor
his family dressed, and sellin the produx uv their
land to that wretch —

At this point the Illinoy store-keeper come in, and
the Squire proceeded.

— he shood say Mr. Pollock, and he hed made
inquiries, and found that one family hed sold three
hundred and seventy-five dollars worth uv truck, this
season, uv which they hed laid out for clothes and
books two hundred dollars, leavin em one hundred
and seventy-five dollars in cash, which was more
money than he hed made sense the accursed Linkin
passed the emancipashen proclamation. And what
hed driv the iron into his soul wuz the fact that
wun of them niggers wuz his nigger. “The money
they hev,” pursood the Squire, “is MY MONEY; that
man worth $1500 is my man; his wife is my woman;
her children my children —”

“That's a literal fact!” shouted Joe Bigler, a
drunken, returned Confederate sojer; “they hev
yoor nose eggsactly, and they're the meanest yaller
brats in the settlement.”

This unhappy remark endid in a slite unpleasantness,
wich resultid in the Squire's bein carried out,
minus one ear, and his nose smashed. Joseph

remarked that he'd wantid to git at him ever sense
he woodn't lend him a half dollar two months ago.
He was now satisfied, and hoped this little episode
woodn't mar the harmony uv the meetin.

Elder Smathers observed that he hed noticed
with pain that them niggers alluz hed money, and
wuz alluz dresst well, while we, their sooperiors,
hed no money, and nothin to boast uv in the way uv
close. He wood say —

Pollock, the Illinoy store-keeper, put in. Ef the
Elder wood work ez them niggers wuz workin, and
not loaf over half the time at Bascom's grocery, he
mite possibly hev a hull soot uv close, and now and
then a dollar in money. It wuz here, ez it wuz in
all strikly Dimekratic communities, the grocery
keepers absorb all the floatin capital, and —

He wuz not allowed to proceed. Bascom flung
a chair at him, and four or five uv his constitooents
fell on him. He wuz carried out for dead. Bascom
remarked that he wuz for the utmost freedom uv
speech, but in the discussion uv a grate Constooshnel
question, no Illinoy Ablishnist shood put in his
yawp. The patriotic remark wuz cheered, but
when Bascom ask't the whole meetin out to drink,
the applause wuz uproarious. Bascom alluz gets
applause; he knows how to move an audience.

Deekin Pogram sed he'd bore with them niggers
till his patience wuz gin out. He endoored it till
last Sunday. After service he felt pensive, ruther,
and walked out towards Garrettstown, meditatin, as
he went, on the sermon he hed listened to that
mornin on the necessity uv the spread of the Gospil.
Mournin in sperit over the condition of the heathen,
he didn't notis where he wuz till he found hisself in
the nigger settlement, and in front uv one uv their
houses. There he saw a site wich paralyzed him.
There wuz a nigger, wich wuz wunst his nigger,
wich Linkin deprived him uv, settin under his
porch, and a profanin the Holy Bible by teachin his
child to read it! “Kin this be endoored?” the
Deekin asked.

Deekin Parkins sed he must bear his unworthy
testimony agin these disturbers. They hed — he
knowd whereof he spoke — hired a female woman
from Massachusetts to teach their children! He
hed bin in their skool-room, and with his own eyes
witnest it.

Bascom, the grocery keeper, hed bin shocked
at their conduct. He wuz convinct that a nigger
wuz a beast. They come to the Corners to
sell the produx of their lands; do they leave their
money at his bar? Nary! They spend sum uv it

at the store uv a disorganizer from Illinoy, who is
here interferin with the biznis uv troo Southern
men, but he hed never seed one uv em inside his
door. He hed no pashence with em, and believed
suthin shood be done to rid the community uv sich
yooseless inhabitance. Ef they ever git votes they'r
agin us. No man who dodges my bar ever votes
straight Dimocrisy.

Ginral Punt moved that this meetin do to wunst
proceed to the settlement, and clean em out. They
wuz a reproach to Kentucky. Of course, ez they
were heathens and savages, sich goods ez they hed
wood fall to the righteous, uv whom we wuz which,
and he insisted upon a fair divide. All he wanted
wuz a bureau and a set uv chairs he hed seen.

The motion wuz amendid to inclood Pollock, the
Illinoy store-keeper, and it wuz to wunst acted
upon.

Pollock wuz reconstructed first. Filled with zeal
for the right, his door wuz bustid in, and in a jiffy
the goods wich he wuz a contaminatin our people
with wuz distributed among the people, each takin
sich ez sooted em. Wun man sejested that ez they
wuz made by Yankees, and brought south by Yankees,
that there wuz contaminashen in the touch uv
em, and that they be burned, but he wuz hooted

down, our people seein a distinction. The contaminashen
wuz in payin for em; gittin em gratooitusly
took the cuss off.

Elated, the crowd started for the settlement. I
never saw more zeal manifested. A half hour
brought us there, and then a scene ensood wich
filled me with joy onspeekable. The niggers wuz
routed out, and their goods wuz bundled after em.
The Bibles and skool books wuz destroyed first, coz
we hed no use for them; their chairs, tables, and
bureaus, clothin and beddin, wuz distributed. A
wooman hed the impudence to beg for suthin she
fancied, when the righteous zeal uv my next door
neighbor, Pettus, biled over, and he struck her.
Her husband, forgettin his color, struck Pettus, and
the outrage wuz completed. A nigger hed raised
his hand agin a white man!

The insulted Caucashen blood riz, and in less
than a minit the bodies uv six male Ethiopians wuz
a danglin in the air, and the bodies uv six Ethiopian
wimin wuz layin prostrate on the earth. The children
wuz spared, for they wuz still young, and not
hevin bin taught to read so far that they could not
forgit it, ef kept carefully from books, they kin be
brought up in their proper speer, ez servance to their
brethern. (By the way, the inspired writer must

hev yoosed this word “brethern,” in this connection,
figeratively. The nigger, bein a beast, cannot be
our brother.) Some may censure us for too much
zeal in this matter, but what else cood we hev dun?
We are high toned, and can't stand everything.
These niggers hed no rite to irritate us by their
presence. They knowd our feelins on the subjick,
and by buyin land and remainin in the visinity, they
kindled the flame wich resulted ez it did. Ez they
did in Memphis and Noo Orleans, they brought
their fate onto their own heads.

Pollock recovered, and with the Yankee school
marm who wuz a teechin the niggers, left for the
North yesterday. It speeks well for the forbearance
uv our people that they wuz permitted to depart
at all.