Chapter I: Preface

No attempt has been made to create heroes or heroines, or to appeal to the imagination or the heart.

The earlier incidents were written out from the author’s recollections. The later sketches here given, are the results of recent visits to the South, where the incidents were jotted down at the time of their occurrence, or as they fell from the lips of the narrators, and in their own unadorned dialect.

BOSTON, May, 1880.

CONTENTS.

I.

Poplar Farm and its occupants. Southern Characteristics. Coon-Hunting
and its results. Sunny side of Slave life on the
Plantation.

II.

The Religious Teaching at Poplar Farm. Rev. Mr. Pinchen.
A Model Southern Preacher. Religious Influence among the
Southerners of the olden time. Genuine negro wit.

III.

A Southern country Doctor. Ancient mode of “pulling teeth.”
Dinkie the King of the Voudoos.

IV.

The Parson and the Slave Trader. Slave life. Jumping the
Broomstick. Plantation humor.

V.

An attempt to introduce Northern ideas. The new Plough. The
Washing-Machine. Cheese-making.

VI.

Southern Amusements,--Wit and Humor. Superstition. Fortune-Telling
in the olden time.

VII.

The Goopher King--his dealings with the Devil; he is feared by
Whites and Blacks. How he mastered the Overseer. Hell
exhibited in the Barn.

VIII.

Slave-Hunting. The Bloodhounds on the Track. The poor
“white Trash.” A Sunday Meeting. A characteristic Sermon
by one of their number.

IX.

Old-Fashioned Corn-Shucking. Plantation Songs: “Shuck that
corn before you eat” an’ “Have that possum nice and sweet.”
Christmas Holidays.

X.

The mysterious, veiled Lady. The white Slave Child. The
beautiful Quadroon,--her heroic death. The Slave Trader and
his Victim. Lola, the white Slave,--the Law’s Victim.

XI.

The introduction of the Cotton Gin, and its influence on the
Price of Slaves. Great rise in Slave property. The great
Southern Slave Trader. How a man got flogged when intended
for another.

XII.

New Orleans in the olden time. A Congo Dance. Visiting the
Angels, and chased by the Devil. A live Ghost.

XIII.

The Slave’s Escape. He is Captured, and again Escapes. How
he outwitted the Slave-Catchers. Quaker Wit and Humor.

XIV.

The Free colored people of the South before the Rebellion. Their
hard lot. Attempt to Enslave them. Re-opening of the African
Slave Trade. Sentiments of distinguished Southern Fire-Eaters.

XV.

Southern control of the National Government. Their contempt
for Northerners. Insult to Northern Statesmen.

XVI.

Proclamation of Emancipation. The last night of Slavery.
Waiting for the Hour. Music from the Banjo on the Wall.
Great rejoicing. Hunting friends. A Son known, Twenty Years
after separation, by the Mark on the bottom of his Foot.

XVII.

Negro equality. Blacks must Paddle their own Canoe. The War
of Races.

XVIII.

Blacks enjoying a Life of Freedom. Alabama negro Cotton-Growers.
Negro street Peddlers; their music and their humors.
A man with One Hundred Children. His experience.

XIX.

The whites of Tennessee,--their hatred to the negro,--their
antecedents. Blacks in Southern Legislatures,--their brief
Power. Re-converting a Daughter from her new Religion.
Prayer and Switches do the work.

XX.

The Blacks. Their old customs still hang upon them. Revival
Meetings. A characteristic Sermon. Costly churches for the
Freedmen. Education. Return of a Son from College.

XXI.

The Freedmen’s Savings Bank. Confidence of the Blacks in the
Institution. All thought it the hope for the negro of the South.
The failure of the Bank and its bad influence.

XXII.

Old Virginia. The F. F. V’s of the olden times,--ex-millionaires
carrying their own Baskets of Provisions from Market.
John Jaspar, the eloquent negro Preacher; his Sermon, “The
Sun does Move.” A characteristic Prayer.

XXIII.

Norfolk Market. Freedmen costermongers. Musical Hawkers.
The Strawberry Woman. Humorous incidents.

XXIV.

The Education of the Blacks. Freedmen’s schools, colleges.
White Teachers in Colored schools. Schools in Tennessee.
Black pupils not allowed to Speak to White Teachers in the
street.

XXV.

Oppressive Laws against Colored People. Revival of the Whipping
Post. The Ku-Klux--their operations in Tennessee.
Lynch Law triumphant.

XXVI.

Colored men as Servants,--their Improvidence. The love of
Dress. Personal effort for Education.

XXVII.

Need of Combination. Should follow the Example set by the
Irish, Germans, Italians, and Chinese who come to this country.
Should patronize their own Race. Cadet Whittaker. Need of
more Pluck.

XXVIII.

Total Abstinence from Intoxicating Drinks a necessary object for
Self-Elevation. Intemperance and its Evils. Literary Associations.
The Exodus. Emigration a Necessity. Should follow
the Example of other Races. Professions and Trades needed.

XXIX.

Mixture of Races. The Anglo-Saxon. Isolated Races: The
Negro--the Irish--the Coptic--the Jews--the Gypsies--the
Romans, Mexicans, and Peruvians. Progressive Negroes,--Artists
and Painters. Pride of Race.

MY SOUTHERN HOME.