ngly, adding, after a short pause,
"de ole woman called you a Yankee, sar--you can guess."

"If I should guess, 't would be that it meant _mischief_."

"It don't mean mischief, sar," said the darky, with a tone and air that
would not have disgraced a Cabinet officer; "it mean only RIGHT and
JUSTICE."

"It means that there is some secret understanding between you."

"I toled you, massa," he replied, relapsing into his usual manner, "dat
de blacks am all Freemasons. I gabe Jim de grip, and he knowd me. He'd
ha knowd my name ef you hadn't toled him."

"Why would he have known your name?"

"'Cause I gabe de grip, dat tole him."

"Why did he call you Scip_io_? I called you _Scip_."

"Oh! de darkies all do dat. Nobody but de white folks call me _Scip_. I
can't say no more, massa; I SHUD BREAK DE OATH EF I DID!"

"You have said enough to satisfy me that there is a secret league among
the blacks, and that you are a leader in it. Now, I tell you, you'll get
yourself into a scrape. I've taken a liking to you, Scip, and I should
be _very sorry_ to see you run yourself into danger."

"I tank you, massa, from de bottom ob my soul I tank you," he said, as
the tears moistened his eyes. "You bery kind, massa; it do me good to
talk wid you. But what am my life wuth? What am any _slave's_ life wuth?
_Ef you war me you'd do like me!_"

I could not deny it, and I made no reply.

The writer is aware that he is here making an important statement, and
one that may be called in question by those persons who are accustomed
to regard the Southern blacks as only reasoning brutes. The great mass
of them _are_ but a little above the brutes in their habits and
instincts, but a large body are fully on a par, except in mere
book-education, with their white masters.

The conversation above recorded is, _verbatim et literatim_, TRUE. It
took place at the time indicated, and was taken down, as were other
conversations recorded in this book, within twenty-four hours after its
occurrence. The name and the locality, only, I have, for very evident
reasons, disguised.

From this conversation, together with others, held with the same negro,
and from after developments made to me at various places, and at
different times, extending over a period of six weeks, I became
acquainted with the fact that there exists among the blacks a secret and
wide-spread organization of a Masonic character, having its grip,
pass-word, and oath. It has various grad