A Woman's Life-Work-Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland Part 38

"No, madam, but money we must have."

"Will rations answer your purpose?"

"No, madam, we want no such thing; we want _money_, and must have it."

I told them I had no money to disburse, and only supplied food and clothing to those who were suffering from greatest dest.i.tution, and left them without being invited inside their house. I saw at once they were most accustomed to the imperative mood.

The captain came to me a few days after and inquired if I found it in the way of my duty to relieve the wants of those two ladies? I told him I asked them a few questions and did not think it worth the money demanded. He said they had sent for him, and a number of other officers, making the same demand, and as they had not succeeded they sent for me, and he was not disappointed at the result.

As I was pa.s.sing their news depot, I saw blazoned in red letters, "No _New Nation_ sold here" I stepped in and inquired for their best paper.

The _Examiner_ was handed me, edited by Pollard, the whilom son-in-law of Judge James, one of the most rabid Confederate sheets in Richmond. I inquired where the _New Nation_ was sold. They said nowhere, unless a few "n.i.g.g.e.rs" might be found selling it on, the street. One of them poured forth a long catalogue of epithets: "Arrant liar," "reckless villain," and finally a "crazy scamp."

As I was pa.s.sing the street one day, and saw "New Nation," I thought I would call on the "insane editor," Mr. Hunnicutt. I ascended to the third story, where I found the busy editor and his son. They were surprised to see a lady of sufficient moral courage to call on them.

The editor exhibited a pile of anonymous letters, threatening his life.

He was an outspoken Union man, and had received over one hundred of these nameless letters within three months. He was a native of Virginia, and said:

"The Union of the States is a fixed fact, and I will advocate it squarely, though it cost me my life, but Union principles must and will prevail."

I left a dollar for a subscription to the _New Nation_ for six months.

As I was about to leave, said he, with tearful eye:

"A select few in this city meet once a week for a prayer-meeting, but I can not attend it in the evening, as it is unsafe for me to be out after dark."

I told him I had received a secret invitation, and had attended each meeting since my first knowledge of this praying band. I told him it was one of the most solemn meetings I had ever attended. As in the days of the apostles, we met in an upper room at the hour of prayer, where I had heard the editor of the _New Nation_ remembered.

"I know," he said, "that I have friends in this city, and some I know are secretly friends for fear of this bitter spirit that reigns to a fearful extent. Don't forget to pray for me and my family. I dare not bring my wife and daughter to this city."

My work kept me here many days. November 25th I spent mostly at the sanitary rooms in Libby Prison, with Miss Morris, a French lady, who served as a spy for the Union generals. Report had it that she was writing a book of her exploits. A soldier told me he saw her a prisoner in Southern hands before the fall of New Orleans. But she managed to make her escape from that city, and in disguise revisited it, and reported to our generals. She could speak French and German better than our own language. She often disguised herself most effectually. Her French politeness would have been quite annoying to me had it not been for the faithful a.s.sistance she rendered in seeking out the sick and dying, not hesitating to enter filthy alleys, dark, cold cellars, or with me to climb rickety flights of stairs into dark attics. I have found in almost every place one or more Christian women who kindly offered to a.s.sist me, but few would dare visit those filthy places, fearing contagious diseases. Having had the small pox, and all other common contagious diseases, with my very plain habits of living, I dared to visit the sick and dying in any of these loathsome places, many of which I found in Richmond.

The next day, being Sunday, was spent as usual in attending Sabbath-schools. I spoke in two of them, and in one meeting. At night I was at Camp Lee Orphanage with Annie Gibbons, the matron, who had an interesting group of little folks. As they gathered around the table, at the tap of the bell, with clasped hands and closed eyes, they repeated the verse:

"Lord, teach a little child to pray, Thy grace to me impart," etc.

I met a colored man from Raleigh, North Carolina, who gave a few items of Andrew Johnson's early history, in regard to his apprenticeship in tailoring. If there was a dance within reach, black or white, it was all the same to "Andy,"--he was sure to be there. His boss, Mr. Selby, lectured him about his late hours, and to evade these lectures he often "turned in" with Handy Luckett, a steady old slave man, whose bed was in the loft of J. O. Rork's carriage house.

At a shoe-shop, I met John Blevins, a n.o.ble appearing John Brown sort of man whose sentence was forty years in the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond. His crime was, aiding slaves to their G.o.d-given rights. He had served sixteen years when Richmond was taken. The Union soldiers opened the prison door, and John Blevins, with four hundred other prisoners, walked out free men. His intelligence speaks of better days.

He is sixty years of age, and hard treatment had added ten years to his appearance. During the first few years of his prison life he could tell when a master had lost his slaves, as they would then place him in the dungeon, where he was kept for weeks at a time, to compel him to give the names of other abolitionists, but they never succeeded. He was at this time teaching a colored school. Out of school-hours, he worked in the shoe-shop, and was trying to make enough to purchase for himself a suit of clothes, when he designed returning to his home in Philadelphia. He had just heard from a family that he a.s.sisted to their liberty, some of whom had become quite wealthy, and were trying to find him.

He had written to them and was expecting to receive a.s.sistance.

Whenever he went out on the streets he was annoyed by half-grown boys hooting after him, "Old John Brown, n.i.g.g.e.r thief." At the time he was arrested, they took all of his money, amounting to five hundred and fifty seven dollars.

I visited a Baptist Sabbath-school where three thousand members were enrolled. Over one thousand five hundred were present. They were addressed by Professor Johnson, who introduced and invited me to address the school. They very cautiously discussed the coming holidays, as they had never held one there on their own account. They decided to observe Thanksgiving, Christmas, and celebrate the Proclamation of Freedom on New Year's day. Their minister advised his people to be very careful in word and deed, so as not to give the least occasion for misconstruing their motives. Some of the white people said it ought not to be allowed. They feared an "uprising," but our soldiers said they should have the privilege.

I visited Howard Grove Hospital, under the charge of Miss Marcia Colton, matron. She was a missionary among the Choctaw Indians nine years, and was a n.o.ble, self-sacrificing woman. The surgeon of the hospital was D. R. Browery. I found a little boy of about eight years, whose mother he said was "done dead." He knew nothing of his father. I took him to Camp Lee Orphanage. Here and there I find kindred spirits, but none more devoted to the cause of Christ than sister Marcia Colton.

She gave herself entirely to the advancement of his cause during nine years of labor among the poor, despised Indians. During the terrible conflicts of the war she unreservedly gave herself to the suffering and dying soldier, and she said that when, no longer called for in that field her life was just as cheerfully given to uplifting the lowly among the freed slaves of the South.

On visiting the State Penitentiary, the keeper hesitated about allowing me admittance. Said he: "I am afraid you'll give a bad report of us, as did Miss Dix, who gave us a bad name, and I thought of her as you entered my office. You look like her, and I am afraid of you. You know we don't have our prisons like yours of the North, like grand palaces, with flower-yards; and I reckon I had better not let you in." I told him I perceived they were rebuilding the part burned awhile ago, and would make due allowance for bad house-keeping.

"Well, if you'll do that, I reckon I'll have to risk you, for you'll see we are whitewashing the old cells and other parts of the prison, and then you must make allowance for its age. It was built in 1800, and is the first penitentiary in the world, and you Northerners have had all these sixty-five years to improve in, and then your gardens about your prisons are all so grand that I am a little afraid of your report.

But, steward, you may take her through, and well see what she'll do for us."

I discovered a contrast, it is true. But, as in other places in the South, they seem a century behind the times. I found here, as in our State prisons, a majority of the convicts were left orphans in childhood. The number of inmates was at that time two hundred and twenty-four. I called on the general in command to inquire for Oliver Williams, whose wife requested me to see if I could find him. She was in Washington, D. C., and had not heard from him for a long while. I found he had been sentenced to three months imprisonment to hard labor, with ball and chain, but the time had now expired. The general referred me to Fortress Monroe, as the military prisoners had been removed to that prison. He advised me to call on Governor Pierpont, who gave the same reference, and gave me some interesting items concerning this State. He said that, but for slavery, Virginia would have been one of the richest States in the Union in mines. Colored men were then making a dollar a day in gathering gold dust without the facilities of enterprising men with capital. There were also silver, copper, nickel, and a fine quality of kaolin or porcelain clay. He exhibited a specimen of each metal, and two bowls made of the native kaolin, a very fine material. To show the absorbing interest in slave-dealing he gave the figures of income, as shown during the discussions in their State Convention in 1861. The _Metropolitan Press_ reported that "the income from slaves for the last twenty years amounted to twenty millions of dollars annually, and from all other products eight million dollars annually." This Governor Pierpont believed to be a true estimate.

I called at Sarah E. Smiley's Teachers' Home. Here I found Rachel Snell, daughter of Richard Snell of Lockport, New York, my old childhood home. With this group of kindred spirits I spent a refreshing season during a hard rain.

New Year's Day, 1866, was long dreaded by a large majority of the white citizens of Richmond. Great excitement prevailed over its celebration by the colored people. Soldiers were seen in every direction. A few companies of colored men went on the common to organize for the day's procession. The citizens were excited over that, and said they were preparing for "insurrection." They had permission from the governor to form in front of the State House. In the park were rustic seats of ancient style, chipped off and notched here and there, yet a colored person had never been allowed inside unless as the body servant of his master. But now their banners of various devices were floating, interspersed with United States flags. Each society had its motto, such as, "Peace, Liberty, and Freedom with all Mankind;" "Union, Liberty's Protecting Society;" "Peace, Good Will to all Mankind;" "In Union there is Strength;" "In G.o.d we Trust." On a blue satin banner were initials of a Benevolent Protective a.s.sociation. The religious exercises were opened in the morning by reading the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy and singing an appropriate hymn. The text of the minister's discourse was a part of the second verse, "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy G.o.d led thee forty years in the wilderness." The minister could read quite well, though his life had been spent in slavery. He presented the past and present prospects of his people in a clear and affecting manner, and the necessity of remembering the past, to be fully prepared to praise G.o.d for the precious boon of freedom he had bestowed upon their race. There were four very large congregations opened this morning in a similar manner, and songs of praise were heard from the marching mult.i.tudes wending their way to the State House Park.

There was shooting from a hotel window. Two of the suspected men were taken to Libby Prison. With the soldiers on the alert, and an increased force of policemen, they had no further trouble.

At the meeting of fifteen thousand or more in the park good order prevailed. I pa.s.sed along through the moving ma.s.ses, a silent listener to many outburstings of joy, contrasting with past sorrows--a great change indeed. Editor Hunnicutt, of the _New Nation_, was called upon to make a speech, and he exhorted them to cultivate industry, honesty, and virtue. He was followed by a number of others. At three o'clock the crowds began to disperse, so as to reach their homes before nightfall.

It is pa.s.sing strange why the white people here were so much excited over this celebration. There were two colored Baptist Churches burned two nights before, and on the night previous threats were made that all who took part In the celebration would lose their places of business.

The Episcopalian rector came after ten P. M. the same night to advise the two teachers, Mrs. Starky and Miss Hicks, to continue their school, and persuade the scholars to remain, and take no part in it themselves whatever, as the white people said this rejoicing was over the fall of Richmond and the downfall of the Confederacy. This idea was dwelt upon to such an extent that the Committee of Arrangements printed circulars and scattered through town during the week previous, stating their object in full, "that it was only to celebrate the day that G.o.d gave freedom to their race, and nothing more." But _"insurrection,"_ "_uprising_ among the negroes," had been household words since the days of Nat Turner. The rebel flag was carried past Sarah E. Smiley's Mission Home for Teachers twice that day. Had the fact been reported at head-quarters, the bearers would have found themselves in the military prison.

As the army was being disbanded, and rations curtailed, and the suffering for want of them equaled that for clothing, I was informed by the general in command that there were more calls for rations by white than the colored people since the fall of Richmond. Said he: "I will mention a few to show the importance of investigation. Daniel Lacy had nine houses and servants and applied for and drew rations for his whole family. John Kimbo had servants out at work and drew rations for all his family, and had a number of houses. Mrs. Mary Ann Moseby had a grocery store well supplied, and drew rations and sold them. Mrs.

Elizabeth Hunt also kept a full grocery, and drew rations to sell. Mrs.

Sophia Coach, whose husband was a plasterer, drew rations. Mrs. Miller represented herself as a widow, and drew rations all the season, but I found out that she had a husband at home all this time. Mrs. Houston had a husband, but represented herself a widow, and drew rations and wood, as did all the others. The whole of two blocks drew rations, and most of them wood. Joseph Mayo, who is mayor of the city, and was when it fell into Union hands, drew rations, and owns a number of houses, and has servants. Ten years ago his slave Margaret's babe died with the croup, and he charged her with choking it to death, and had her hung on the scaffold after being whipped almost to death. He sent one of his slave women to the penitentiary six months ago, for a trivial offense.

I heard by one of her friends, that she said it was a relief, for she was treated better there than at her master's. She is so rejoiced to learn that when she comes out she will be a free woman, and never again be compelled to serve that cruel master. But what contrasts we find here in both races! I have never found as much lying, misrepresentation, and cheating, among the negroes as among the white people, in my experience in this four years of war. Our records show more rations, wood, and coal issued to the whites than to the blacks in the State of Virginia."

I was careful to take down these items, in writing, as he gave them, in his office. O, what changes, what reverses, were here experienced. A.

R. Brooks, who bought himself fourteen years ago, was now a wealthy man, owned ten horses, and six fine hacks and carriages, and his former master, by the fall of the Confederate government, was reduced almost to beggary. A few months ago he sold his plantation of three thousand acres for Confederate money, and is now penniless. Last February his wife died, and his former slave, A. R. Brooks, bore the entire expense of her burial. He said he praised the Lord for giving him the ability to do it. But how greatly was that wealthy planter, Henry A. Winfy, now changed in his prospects, when, a few months before, he considered himself the owner of three thousand acres, "well stocked" with slaves to work it.

With every day come new scenes, and yet such a similarity; investigating, relieving, reading Scriptures, advising, and often by the cot of the sick and dying. I often felt myself a stranger in a strange land, and yet I was never alone. Although, boisterous waves dashed around me, yet the dear Savior was near at hand.

I learned of much suffering on the Peninsula, and decided to take the rest of my supplies down the James River to Williamsburg. While arranging my packages for leaving Libby, a mult.i.tude of people were thronging the street near the prison. I inquired for the cause of this excitement, and was informed that a Union soldier was about to be executed for murdering a man for his money, horse, and buggy. As he was led out of prison upon the scaffold I hurried away, trembling with the terrible thought that a young life was about to be taken. As it was impossible for me to speak to him I hastened to escape the sound of the drop, but did not succeed. The horrors of war no pen can describe, no tongue can utter, no pencil can paint. The demoralizing influence over the soldier is dreadful. No doubt desertion was this fellow's aim, and, to serve his purpose, he fell into this strong temptation and crime.

Desertion cost the life of one whom I saw in Mississippi sitting on a white-pine coffin and followed by his armed comrades, who were soon to take his life. It was then as now, too late to speak a word to that soldier-boy. And I hastened to outdistance the report of the guns that took his life. But I failed, as in the present sad event.

I called on a number of friends and co-laborers in Richmond; for here, as in every place, I have found kindred spirits. I spent the night with dear sisters in Christ, who labored in his vineyard to uplift the lowly. Scripture reading and prayer closed this eventful day.

On March 3d, at six o'clock A. M., I left Richmond and took the steamer _Martin_ at the Rockets, followed by my friend, Mrs. Morris, with a basket of fresh cakes, apples, oranges, and a bottle of wine. I asked her to excuse me for objecting to the bottle of wine, as I never drank it.

"O, indeed, you must take it; your royal highness may be ill, and you may find it quite proper to take a little wine for your 'stomach's sake.' Don't, my dear madam, refuse your most humble servant the privilege of presenting this basket and its contents, wine and all, to my royal madam."

And I saw by the starting tear that she would feel quite hurt if I refused her, and accepted her gift.

As we steamed down the river I saw many little hillocks where were buried the fallen soldiers who left their northern homes with high hopes of saving the nation's life from the hand of treason. Here they fell long before Richmond was taken. We pa.s.sed Burmuda Hundred and City Point, upon which stood General Grant's headquarters. Next came Harrison's Landing, near President Harrison's birth-place, an ancient appearing building situated upon a high bluff.

At Wilson's Landing and Clarmount Landing there was a high bank, upon which lived one of the wealthiest men in the State of Virginia, William Allen, who adopted the name of his father-in-law for the sake of his immense wealth. William Allen, sen., had no son, but an only daughter, and he offered his entire estate to any young man whom his daughter might be pleased to accept, if he would a.s.sume his name; he cared not how poor he might be, if he was only respectable. The daughter had many suitors, but at length a young man won this bride and adopted the whole name--William Allen. At the death of the father-in-law he came into possession of thirteen plantations and over four thousand slaves. All these plantations were managed by overseers. One man told me he had seen him take a keg of gold and silver coins down to the sand-bank, with a company of his comrades, on a holiday spree, and when they were all thoroughly drunk he would take up a handful of gold and silver pieces, throw them in the sand, and tell them to scramble, and he that got the most was the best fellow. He, with the rest, "scrambled," as he called it. William Allen declared that the Yankees had robbed him of fifty thousand dollars worth of negroes under ten years of age, and more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of slaves above that age.

At twelve o'clock we landed at Jamestown. In this old, dilapidated place were yet standing brick walls of three old buildings open to the birds and the bats. The brick of these half-torn down buildings were transported from England more than two hundred years ago. I saw a piece of a marble slab from the graveyard dated 1626, broken in pieces by soldiers for relics. We were soon met by the ambulance-driver, and he took us through a nice field of wheat owned by William Allen, just referred to, who was one of our pa.s.sengers to the ancient city of Williamsburg. Here was a large insane asylum, built of imported bricks from England, with a marble front, erected, by Lord Bottetourt, governor of the colony. It was founded in 1688. The tower was ninety-six feet high, and the number of inmates one hundred and one, forty-two of whom were colored. Robert M. Garrett was the physician and superintendent. This is the oldest inst.i.tution of the kind in the Union. In the front yard of this asylum stands, in life-size, the statue of Lord Bottetourt. As we were pa.s.sing through the apartments we listened to a very sweet voice singing a hymn. Said my guide, "Mr.

Scott is singing for you. He is General Winfield Scott's nephew. He bet both of his plantations that the Confederates would succeed in this war, and when Richmond fell he became insane and was brought here two weeks ago."

I was shown an old brick church in which was a colored school of one hundred and ninety-six scholars, taught by Miss Barton, of Connecticut, and a gentleman from Michigan. Here I found myself at home at once.

There were here, previous to the late war, two inst.i.tutions of learning--the William and Mary College at one end of the main street, and at the other, three and a quarter miles distant, the female seminary. The college was burned in the war of 1776, again in the war of 1812, and, for the third time, a few months before I was there.

There was no school now in the female seminary, and it looked as if waiting for repairs. Here is the old ivy-bound church in which George Washington was married. The bricks of this building were also brought from England. This town was the capital of tins State previous to its removal to Richmond.

I walked nearly two miles to Fort Magruder, where I found a colored school of one hundred and fifty-eight members, taught by Maggie Thorpe and Martha Haines, of New York, under the auspices of the Society of Friends. To accommodate men and women who could not leave their work during the day they opened a night school, and had fifty of that cla.s.s.

Half of these did not know their letters when their school opened in February, and could then read quite fluently in the second and third readers. A few miles further there was another school of thirty scholars who had made commendable progress.

The teachers informed me that there were many very old people on the oldest plantation near King's Mill, who needed help. I was furnished with an ambulance, in which I took a bale of bedding and clothing, and went from cabin to cabin to visit twenty-seven aged people, from sixty to a hundred and five years of age. After learning their most urgent needs, I selected supplies for each. When I expressed my surprise at seeing the old plantation with such a grove of woods, Uncle Bob Jones, the oldest of them all, said: