Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-06-11


material, and when the twenty-fifth went away
| lacked teachers. The way l managed was
this: | took one teacher for the primary
school, who taught en- n0sse, and thirty teach
ers for the other school, where were the more
proficient. The primary teacher took large
sheet, and wrote upon it a sentence of the
Bible, which, by careful teaching, he taught
them to read, generally averaging two SEN
fences night. The schools were opened with
prayer and hymn, and closed with sin
gle verse and the benedction. which added
dignity to it.
wv hen the governor arrived. as superiD-
tendent Of the poor, | called upon him, and
was received pleasantly and privately He
was very courteous and kind. He asked all
about my office, and then stated there was one
thing in it which he objected to, and that was
the keeping Of school for the blacks that the
laws of the state make it a criminal offence.
and he was instructed to administer the laws
as before this rebellion broke out. These
were his Instructions from Washington. He
did not wish the schools closed abruptly, and
as man and Christian, he might have per
haps done as | had | had opened them bv
permission Of Gen. Foster, but of course
when a superior officer came, and told me 7
was doing wrong, | did what any loyal citizen
should do in such times as these, obeyed the
intimation.
1.-The next day number of negroes came
INTO my quarters and said a man had come for
a fugitive slave, who had the permission of
the governor to take back not only her but
any other negro whom he might claim. had
1000 negroes under my charge, and I'D TO
that time none had been taken away. Orders
had been given to the pickets by Gen. Burn
side that all negroes should report to me. [
told the general who was very much surprised.
and sent an aid with me to see all about if,
We reached the yard too late, however, to be
OF service, for the slave was taken, and we
found the place filled with affrighted negroes,
crying and wailing terribly. In the next hour,
girl came INTO my quarters, and asked if she
might stay with me. told her yes, and set
her to work on cartridge-bags for our army.
She was about sixteen years old, and very pre-
possessing in appearance. | then went to the
governor and asked how these things were
He said he knew the man very we'll | asked
if he had taken the oath-not presumptuous-
ly, but because l had heard of the man be-
fore. He said no, but he has promised to.
and he had given him authority to take his
property.
II went back, and told the girl she had bet
ter keep out of sight for few hours, while |
went to see the general In came the man,
and inquired for the girl. He had the right
to go where he pleased, and went-went inso-
lently and impudently all about the place
But the girl was too nimble for him; she saw
him, and jumping over the fence, ran away
at 'double-quick.' | went to see the general,
and he said he had no authorty that the
governor could order him wherever he chose:
L went home wiser and sadder man; |
q NV ipOn md - Al,
eral, but he told ME to wait a bit; rot to bein
a hurry, and not to get excited.
''That night two negroes, scouts, came in
from sixty miles distant. They had been
gone two weeks, and came back chock full of
information. l took them to the general. In
the meantime the most intense excitement
prevailed among the negroes, and such
scene as we saw in the yard hope never to
see again. DIR. Tyng-'God forbid.0 There
were these men who had been working for
us, building bridges, getting information,
making cartridge-boXes, and building fortifica-
tons for our army, and yet they were to have
no protection from that army. The men came
up in tears, and the women were perfectly
overcome; twenty that night didn't answer
the roll-call. They had gone to the woods
and the moraSses, and had hid themselves
Many of them thought, as the dog would act
by instinct, if these people can't protect
me, I'll go to the men who cam and they went
to their masters. reported the facts to the
general, and told him of the scouts, and when
| took the slaves who had brought me the in
formation to the general, he told me that the
act Of congress which made it wrong for any
officer to return fugitive slaves should be his
law henceforth. The master found the girl
but he didn't keep her; two men went to the
house where she was kept, took her from it,
burned the house, and she escaped. And
when the master complained to the governor
he told him that it would be just as well for
him not to make any fuss about it just at that
time"