a home
within its borders. Here still are to be seen stately mansions and among
the names of the owners are those of Lyde, Lee, Wrumph, Bibb, Youngblood
and Reynolds. Many of these mansions have been partly rebuilt and
remodeled to conform to modern styles of architecture, while others
have been deserted and are now fast decaying. Usually the original
families have sold out or many have died out.

In Carlowville stands the largest white church in Dallas or Wilcox
Counties. It has a seating capacity of 1,000, excluding the balcony,
which during slavery was used exclusively for the Negroes of the
families attending.

Our stay in Carlowville was necessarily short, as the evening sun was
low and the nearest place for lodging was two miles ahead. Before
reaching this place we came to a large one-room log cabin, 30 by 36 feet
on the road-side, with a double door and three holes for windows cut in
the sides. There was no chimney nor anything to show that the room could
be heated in cold weather. This was the Hopewell Baptist Church. Here
five hundred members congregated one Sunday in each month and spent the
entire day in eating, shouting, and praising God for His goodness toward
the children of men. Here also the three months' school was taught
during the winter. A few hundred yards beyond this church brought us to
the home of a Deacon Jones. He was living in the house occupied by the
overseer of the plantation during slavery. It was customary for Deacon
Jones to care for strangers who chanced to come into the community,
especially for the preachers and teachers. So here we found rest. At
supper Deacon Jones told of the many preachers he had entertained and
their fondness for chicken.

After supper I spent some time in trying to find out the real condition
of the people in this section. Mr. Jones told me how for ten years he
had been trying to buy some land, and had been kept from it more than
once, but that he was still hopeful of getting the right deeds for the
land for which he had paid. He also told of many families who had
recently moved into this community. These newcomers had made a good
start for the year and had promising crops, but they were compelled to
mortgage their growing crops in order to get "advances" for the year.

When asked of the schools, he said that there were more than five
hundred children of school age in his township, but not more than two
hundred of these had attended school the previous winte