But as weeks went by, I began to understand. I saw all the slaves one
by one disappearing from the plantation (for night and day they kept
going) until there was not one to be seen.
All around the plantation was left barren. Day after day I could run
down to the gate and see down the road troops and troops of Garrison's
Brigade, and in the midst of them gangs and gangs of negro slaves who
joined with the soldiers, shouting, dancing and clapping their hands.
The war was ended, and from Mobile Bay to Clayton, Ala., all along
the road, on all the plantations, the slaves thought that if they
joined the Yankee soldiers they would be perfectly safe.
As I looked on these I did not know what it meant, for I had never
seen such a circus. The Yankee soldiers found that they had such an
army of men and women and children, that they had to build tents and
feed them to keep them from starving. But from what I, a little child,
saw and heard the older ones say, that must have been a terrible time
of trouble. I heard my master and mistress talking. They said, "Well,
I guess those Yankees had such a large family on their hands, we
rather guessed those fanatics on freedom would be only too glad to
send some back for their old masters to provide for them.
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