Thirty years a slave From bondage to freedom The institution of slavery as seen on the plantation and in the home of the planter . - rail, to convey thenews to madam that all hands were coming home;that the Yankees were expected to capture the saltworks within a short time. At Jackson, some sevenmiles from the salt works, we were dela^-ed overnight by reason of lack of facilities for crossing theTombigbec river. The report that the Yankees werecoming through had created a panic among the whitepeople; and hundreds, fleeing from their homes, hadg-athered at the river, waiting and clamoring for a
Thirty years a slave From bondage to freedom The institution of slavery as seen on the plantation and in the home of the planter . - rail, to convey thenews to madam that all hands were coming home;that the Yankees were expected to capture the saltworks within a short time. At Jackson, some sevenmiles from the salt works, we were dela^-ed overnight by reason of lack of facilities for crossing theTombigbec river. The report that the Yankees werecoming through had created a panic among the whitepeople; and hundreds, fleeing from their homes, hadg-athered at the river, waiting and clamoring for anopportunity to cross. Though slaves were property,and \alual)le on that account, the whites seemed tothink that their own lives were in danger, antl to beprotected first. They therefore took precedence of the nii>rning about seven oclock a steamer wasseen coming at a distance; but it could not be dis-. REBELLION WEAKENING. 169 covered at once just what the character of it whites became alarmed. Some said: TheYankees are coming-. Other said: It is a gunboat they will surely fire on us. But as the boatdrew n^ar the people saw that there was nothing- tofear—it was only the regular passenger boat. Besidesthe hundreds of people, there were scores of wag-ons,filled with household g-oods to g-o over, and the pas-sage was slow and tedious We finally got acrossand traveled as far as Demopolis, where Matilda andI left the other slaves, and took a train and went onto Panola. I delivered the papers to the madam fromBrooks, which told her all the particulars concerning-the break up at the salt works. She sent wag-onsrig-ht away after the other slaves who were coming-back on foot. They were not broug-ht back to Panola;but were hired out to different farmers along- the roadhome—some in Jackson, some in Granda and others inPanola town. These were all small towns in Mississ-ippi. My wife
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectslaveryunitedstates
