The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-22
Southern Woman Wants Monument
Confederate Veteran


In the hearts Of the mighty fallen
is deeD rooted the feeling of ineXtin-
guishable gratitude to the loyal slaves,
to whose care the women and chill
dren were intrusted during the entire
period of the war between the States.
II is a sentiment that still remains
smoldering in the souls of those who
owned them. To those slaves who
watched the fireside. titled the soil,
helped spin. weave and make raiment
for the master and his son on the bat
tlefield-to those slaves who protected
and provided for the families at home
is due a monument that will tell the
story to coming generations that can
not be taught the lesson of self sacri-
flee and devotion of the slave in any
other way. If a time is ever ripe for
a noble deed, now is that time. for
the grand. courteous Southern slave
owner is fast passing away and to
erect q monument would be to hand
down to posterity an oDen book in
which our Southern children can learn
that every negro is no "black fiend."
The North would not understand the
sentiment
Erecting the monument would infiu-
ence for good the present and com
ing generations and prove that the
people of the South who owned slaves
valued and respected their good quail
ties as no one else ever did or will
do. 1t would bespeak the real con-
ception of the affection of the owner
toward the slave and refute the SLAM
ders and falsehoods published in
Uncle Toms Cabin"
There did exist i'm the days of trial
and hardship not only perfect under
standing, but the kindest sympathy
and in thousands of plantations and
homes where every white male on the
place able to bear arms would go to
the battlefield the helpless families OF
women and children We're left entirely
to the care and protection of the
trusted slaves.
No one who was rocked to sleep by
the sweet lullaby of the faithful black
NANNY" listened to her weird ghost
stories, nurSed at her breast or played
about her cabin door would ever be
willing to have these tender memories
die out. There is the side of senti-
ment, the side of gratitude, that those
who have felt the touch can never
give up nor can they forget the debt
due the faithful 80 per cent of slaves
that remained with their masters af-
ter freedom"
Erect the monument. 1t will result
in much good, as it will tell future
generations that the white men of the
South We're the negro's best friends
then and that the men of the South
are the negro's best friends today.
Instances portraying the fidelity OF
| the slaves might be told to fill end
less volumes and would recite the
sweetest stories of heartfelt devotion,
the most unselfish acts, prompted by
pure love; self-forgetting, they would
sacrifice comfort-yea, even go hun
prrV-1nA IN
whom they felt an undying fealty.
| They could not express all they felt
but for mammy's girl or boy they
blessed lesson of endurance and glori-
fed fortitude, for, as Miss Dromgoole
so sweetly expresses it:
| Her face is as black as ebon,
Wrinkled and scanned and Old
But her heart, | know, is as white as
| And true as the rarest gold.
Her brown hands, old and feeble
With the touch of passing years,
Would Danish each trace of care from
my face
And brush from my heart the tears
Nanny and friend, I loved her.
Humble and all unframed,
But | love to trace in her love the face
That robber years have claimed.
Her face is as black as ebon,
Her soul as fair as the day,
And her prayers, / know, wherever
go
Will follow me all the way.