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| 768 TSE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD. beside* what I give to reading. For my audiences I have both white and colored. On the can, some find oat that I am a lecturer, and then, again, I am drawn into conversation. ' What are yon lecturing about?' the question comes np, and if I say, among other topics politics, then I m»y look for an onset. There is a sensitiveness on this subject, a dread, it may be, thai some one will' pnt the devil in the nigger's head,' or exert some influence in-imisal to them ; rtill, I get along somewhat pleasantly. Last week I had a small congregation of listeners in the can, where I sat I got in conversation with a former slave dealer, and we had rather an exciting time. I was traveling alone, bat it is not worth •while to show any signs of fear. * * * Last Saturday I spoke in Sumter; a number of white persons were present, and 1 bod been invited to speak there by the Mayor and editor of the paper. There had been some violence in the district, and some of my friends did not wish me to go, but I had promised, and, of course, I went. * * * * I am in Darlington, and spoke yesterday, but my congregation was so large, that I stood near the door of the chnrch, so that I might be heard both inside and out, for a large portion, perhaps nearly half my congregation were on the outside; and this, in Darlington, where, about two years ago, a girl was hung for making a childish and indiscreet speech. Victory was perched on our tanners. Our army had been through, and this poor, ill-fated girl, almost a child in years, about seventeen years of age, rejoiced over the event, and said that (he was going to marry a Yankee and set up housekeeping. She was reported as having made an incendiary speech and arrested, cruelly scourged, and then brutally hung. Poor child ! she had been a faithful servant—her master tried to save her, but the tide of fury swept away his efforts. * * * Oh, friend, perhaps, sometimes your heart would ache, if you were only here and heard of the wrongs and abuses to which thes» people have been subjected. * * * Things, I believe, are a little more hopeful; at leaat, I believe, some of the colored people are getting better contracts, and, I understand, that there's less murdering. While I am writing, a colored man stands here, with a tale of wrong—he has worked a whole year, year before last, and now he has been put off with fifteen bushels of corn and his food; yesterday he went to gee about getting his money, and the person to whom he went, threatened to kick him off, and accused him of stealing. I don't know how the colored man will vote, but perhaps many of them will be intimidated at the polls." From a letter dated Cheraw, June 17th, 1867, the following remarks are taken : " Well, Carolina is an interesting place. There ia not a state in the Union I prefer to Carolina. Kinder, more hospitable, warmer-hearted people perhaps you will not find anywhere. I have b«en to Georgia; but Carolina is my preference. * * The South is to be & great theatre for the colored man's development and progress. There is brain-power here. If any doubt it, let him come into our schools, or even converse with Borne of our Freedmen either in their homes or by the way-side." A few days later she gave an account of a visit she had just made in Florence, where our poor soldiers had been prisoners; saw some of the huts where they were exposed to rain and heat and cold with only the temporary shelter they made for themselves, which was a sad sight. Then she visited the grave-yards of some thousands of Union soldiers. Here in " eastern South Carolina " she was in " one of the worst parts of the State " in the days of Slavery; but under the new order of tilings, instead of the lash, she saw school books, and over the ruins of slavery, education and free speech springing up, at which she was moved to exclaim, " Thank God for the wonderful |