Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-25
SEEKING HER CHILD.

Martha Schofeld, writing from Aiken, ).
c., to the Woman's Journal, tell this af-
fecting story of the old slave days:
Last week a sweet voiced, humble-spir-
tied woman came to see if l would find her
daughter She has lived in New York and
Orange since the war, and now in her de-
Ginning years has come back here to seek
the lost. Her story is confirmed by those
who had not seen her for twenty eight
years, and these were her words:
81 was horn free, me and my two broth
ers. We come of good authors, but our
parents both died in one year. In their
days all free folks had to have guardians.
and old Mrs. r. was ours. We lived in
Charleston. / married free man and had
three children. The old lady died, and
her son was their guardian for me and my
children. He was Captain R, and he
brought my Sallie up to Aiken to nurse for
his wife, and when she was about twenty
he sold her to trader from Mississippi.
! was in Charleston, at church, and man
came to me and asked:
Julia, amt you got daughter to
Aiken?
Yes, have
"' Well, Captain r. has sold her to
traders
''Oh, no not my daughter. She is
free
"' Yes. she is; that very girl, for l
fetched her from depot to Mr.. - office.
in Chalmers street.
g went right to SPECTATORS Office, and
asked if such one was there, and the man
said Yes | ask to see her, and he say,
No, you cannot see her. Then my heart
cry out so it make a noise, and the white
man come down stairs and said, For Gods
sake let the woman see her child, and he
did | had some good friends among the
Quakers, and l went and begged them to
help me, and they tried. But he asked
such big price we could not raise the
money, and she had to go, and / never
seen her since"
Then, in the same patient tone, she con-
tinued
''The Lord sent me to Aiken, to this
place, and can live on bread and water, if
| can only find her; perhaps you are to
find her. On think, think what sweet
thing, what blessing would come TO you,
what a crown, if you find my child
Captain r. has been dead twenty years. l
heard that when he was dying he told his
A!iIiO was uIOuAldll VI oilA ia
him for what he had done to John S
pies | forgive him. l leave them
all with the Lord, for if / think
about them it mangles me SO in heart,
it makes me sin. So l strove to give up
everything, for the Lord says we must do
it to serve Him in spirit and in truth.
The same man had my other little girl sold.
left her sweeping the yard while was
away, and going back a woman called ::
Julia, come here quick. saw
man taking your Susan down
the street. l eaid Oh, my God,
what trouble is this, and went again to
the spectators Office, and while talking
my eyes flew through the iron bars, and
way back among others, saw my little
Susan. could not get her. Sallie gone
in the spring, and in the fall Susan.
Traders came twice a year. Then they
stole my only son. Fretting for them
children broke my health, and | never was
well for thirty years. When the trader
came back next time, he told some one
that my Susan had gone crazy, had lost
her mind entirely. Then just begged the
Lord to take her to Himself, and when He
did to send me an answer in the spirit.
One day, when ! was sick in my bed, in
great suffering, was meditative with the
Lord about my child, and if He had re-
moved her GU of her sufferings. Willie
was asking her spirit to come before me,
with beautiful crown on her head,
and Just like any mother, l cry out ::
'Oh, see my Susan, bless the Lord
Then she few away, and l knowed
that was the way | was to be
made sensible that He had answered
me, and never fretted any more for her,
KNOWN she was dead and safe. You know,
ma am, if we pray we must have faith, and
| had asked Him to answer me in the
spirit, and though ! never heard word
since, know she is dead. But l don't
have them feelings about Sallie she is liv-
ing and feel | will gee her before l leave
this life. l have had such great affections
l feel the Lord will spare me to see her
and after do, face to face and lips to lips,
then He may call me any minute and l will
be ready to CO."
Twenty years OF hunger and thirst for
her own flesh and blood, and now, in her
old age, she comes from New York down
here with the faith that has removed
mountains, hoping that my pen may find
her child, feeling that " if all Christian PEG.
pie will join their prayers, she will see her
again. Friends in Orange helped to pay
her way to Aiken, and now this mother,
Julia johnson, waits in sublime meekness
and patience.
/ wrote to several churches, for in this
way the lost is found" One woman
carries my name in her prayers for find
ing her daughter sold thirty years before.