The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-03-27
(Winston's Weekly.)

Roanoke Island. Upon this island the
first white child, born in America, open
ed her eyes-Virginla Dare-in what Is
now Dare county, North Carolina.
| The Federal feet then sailed up Abe
marie Sound, whose waters wash the
| shores of nine counties. The waters OF
| this Sound are the color of Etruscan gold.
Nowhere are the mornings more glorious.
| nowhere is there such wealth OF color IN
the skies, and on a spring day. when
| the fleet of fishermen is returning TO
land. with sails all spread, nowhere can
be seen prettier sight. Nine rivers
empty into Albemarle Sound and one
| of these river-the Cashie-is the deepest,
narroWest and crookcdest river IN the
world. Its water is as blacks as tar, it
begins and ends in BERTHE county, and
is so crooked that from its source to
it's mouth, an air line distance OF about
| forty miles. it flows over one hundred.
Its banks are covered with dogwood bios
SONS, yellow jessamine and wild honey
suclzle, all the way Thinking over 1t,
after a lapse of forty-fiye years, / have
concluded that this river was made espe-
cially for little Yankee torpedo boats
to go up; but whether this conclusion is
right or wrong up it they did go. with
the result that the planters that lived
along its banks deserted their estates
and became refugees.
For once Southern hospitality drew the
line" and turned its back upon it's guests,
and for four years canvas-back ducks
terrapn, planked shad, and iced juleDs
with little black niger to keep off the
flies and little "yaller'' niger to pass
1,a NJ ia hat &
My father purchased a plantation 'up
the country one hundred and fifty miles
from our old home, twenty-eight miles
from Raleigh, the Capital of the State,
six miles from a post office, six miles
from anywhere, way off where the Yam
KEGS could never find us. In less than
four brief years the Seventeenth Army
Corps of Sherman's army, under com
mand of General Frank p. Blair. camped
in our front yard, in our back yard, on
the front porch, in the parlor-camDed
everywhere. This is but another example
of what Horace calls the irony of fate.
However, this is not q war article; it is
peace article. as the darkey says, ''en-
during of de war"
When the news came-and news Of that
Kind came with remarkable swiftness in
ing" my father called his slaves together
and said to them:
"The Yankees will be here in a few
days. Those Of you that wish to remain
here can do so. Those that wish to go
up the country with me and the family
can take the horses and mules and drive
through the country If the Yankees
whip us you will be free. whether YOU
I
will get you back if you 60 to the Yam
KEGS
With that our family boarded the
steamer, went down the Cashie, across the
Sound, up the Chowan and Blackwater to
Franklin, Va, where we boarded the cars
for Kittrells, the nearest depot to our
refugee home. The nurses and cook were
the only servants we took with us, hut
a few days after our arrival every one
of the servants we had left behind joined
US having come one hundred and fifty
miles in carriages. wagons. buggies and
carts, unaccompanied by single white
person. When they left the old home
the Yankees were within eighteen miles
of it. In three hours they would have
been free. That is, they would have
been compelled to support themselves four
years sooner imam Iney were.
The purpose of this article is to in
form such of you as do not know, how
we lived, at the South, during the war:
how we got along, shut off from the
whole world.
The first thing the Yankees did was to
blockade our ports, and pretty soon every
thing began to give cut" Tea and cof-
fee went first. Tea we gave up entirely;
it was useless to undertake to find n sub
stitute for it, but we managed to find a
substitute for coffee. Acorns wheat, rye
and Indian corn were all tried in turn,
and pronounced as good as coffee, by the
patriotic. When New Orleans fell the
sugar and molasses supply was cut off
We planted sugar cane, built mills.
ground the cane, and made sorghum. I
can taste it yet. / could stand corn cof
fee, by itself, or sorghum, by itself, but
/ could not stand them mixed, and I
have never drunk sugar in my coffee
from that day to this.
Then our clothes began to wear out
That reduced us to homespun. The men
wore homespun underwear of cotton and
wool. We had cotton until you couldn't
rest. You know cotton was King In
winter We wore homsespun wool suits, in
summer cotton. We dyed the wool black
and brown and the cotton as many colors
as there are in the rainbow. We made
our own shoes and hats. Winter hats
were made of cloth, the brims being
stlffened by hickory and oak splits; sum
mer hats OF plated wheat straw. The
ladies' out-dressed US. They had very
NICE home-spun dresses and very pretty
hc-t=.
we made everything on the farm that
we ate. drank, or wore We had plenty
OF hour, corn meal, butter, eggs, milk,
poultry, hogs, beef mutton, and tobacco
galore. / never lived SO abundantly, at
table. before or since.
Bye and bye the salt ran out Then
we were up against it; no salt t. save
the meat and more than hundred people
to feed! The Yankees had captured the
salt well, In Virginia, and held the coast
line, so that we could get none. by boiling
sea water. Fortunately it was the last
year OF the war when the salt famine be-
gan What do you suppose we did for
salt? How do you suppose we got it /?
There is no substitute for salt. Here ;s