The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-26

child of some oredsservant,. and, as such, likely to possess sense. amiabil- ity judgment and the qualities which have promise of character and eficien- cy- So she grew up in intercourse with the girls of the family, and when she married she became. in turn, the nurse and assistant to the mammy. and then the mamuiy of her young niistress' children, and. after, of her children.
 Next to the mammy in point of digni- ey was. of right. the butler He had much the same position that is held in English houses. He was a person in authority. and he looked that every inch. He had his ideas. and they usu- ally prevailed. He was the governor of the young children. and the mentor of the young men, and their counselor even after they had grown up. I have known buffers to take upon them selves the responsibility of saving what young gentlemen should be admitted and to whom the ladies should be denied
 Tn fact. every wise young man used to be. at pains to make friends with the old servants, for they were a saga cious class and their influence in the
 household was not inconsiderable. They had an intuitive knowledgs. : which
 amounted to an instinct, for 'winnow-
 ing the grain from the chaff," and they
 knew a "gentman" at sight. Their acute caustic comments have wrecked
 the chance of many an aspiring sui- | tor.
 Education in Slavery Days.
 There is a universal belief that the
 negroes under slavery had no edu-
 cation. I have seen 1t stated a number | Of times that it was made-a crime by
 law. In every state Of the south, to
 teach one to read. have not been able to find these laws. Teaching them was not encouraged, generally, and such laws may have existed in some of the states of the south, but they did noe exist in Virginia. Several of our negroes could read. and if 1t was not the same on most of the plan tations 1t was at least the same on those of which l. had any knowledge. But apart from booklearning. they had especially the house-servants. the edn- cation which comes from daily asso- citation with people of culture, and 1t was an education not be despised.
 There is an idea that the negroes
 were in the state of excitemennt and aEonlzed expectancy of freedom that tne AugIo-SaxOn race felt 1t would have been in under similar circumstan- ! ces. That there was a wild and adven- l turous element among them is we'll known. it was to be expected, and was ] an element in whom the instincts of who
 life in the Jungle and the forests sur vived. Every large plantation had one | or more who had the runaway spirit
 keenly alive. There were several on
 our place. They ran away when they
 were crossed in love or in any other
 desire of their hearts. One other class was likely Co furnish the element that went of. and~this was the "pampered ! class" House-servants were more likely to so than were field hands Most Stick to Masters,
 Against those who availed them
 uelves of the opportunities offered them
 to escape from the bondage of domes-
 tic slavery may be put the great body
 of the negro racs who, whether from Inability to grasp the vastness of the boor of liberty held out to them, or | from fear of the ills they knew not of. or from sheer content with a life where the toll was not drudgery and
 the flesh pots overbalanced the idea of freedom, not only held fast to their
 masters. but took sides with them with
 a quickened feeling and a deepened af-