ance at Columbia's progress in the past half century.

"Sho' I's been here 67 years, and I's seen a stragglin' town of 10,000
grow from poverty to de present great city and riches. Shucks, I 'spects
if you was to set me down at Broad River bridge and tell me to go home,
I might git lost tryin' to find my way to where I has lived for many
years. Durin' my time I's sho' seen dis city sad and glad, and I's happy
to say dat it seem to be feelin' a right smart lak itself now.

"My mammy, and her daddy and mammy, was bought from de Bryants at
Beaufort by de Rhett family, when my mammy was a little pickaninny. She
not able to tell nothin' 'bout her 'speriences with de Bryants, but she
sho' recall a lot of things after she jine de Rhetts. She live with them
'til she was just turnin' twelve years old, then she come to Columbia as
a slave of Master John T. Rhett. He move here, as a refugee, in 1862.
Master Rhett was not healthy 'nough to go to war but some of his folks
go.

"One of Master Rhett's brothers, who was too old to go to war, march
'way to fight Yankees at Honey Hill. De Yankee fleet send an army in
boats to cut de Charleston and Savannah Railroad, and de Confederates
meet them at Honey Hill, half way 'tween Beaufort and Savannah. In a
bloody battle dere de Confederates won. Master Rhett, of Beaufort was
wounded dere, and his brother, John, leave Columbia and go dere to see
him while he was in bed, battlin' for life.

"My mammy never work in de field at Beaufort, nor after she come to
Columbia. She was kep' on duty in de big house and learned to sew and
make garments, quilts, and things. She also learn to read, write, and
cipher, and she could sing many of de church songs them days. She play
with de white chillun dat come to see de Rhetts in Beaufort and in
Columbia. She tell me 'bout things in Beaufort, where de Rhetts live
then.

"She say de Rhetts has been buckra since de time when Colonel William
Rhett go out in his battle ships to chase and kill pirates, in de days
when Carolina was ruled by de King of England. She say they own many big
plantations in Beaufort County and raise big crops of rice and sea
island cotton. She say de sea island cotton was so costly that it was
handpicked by slaves and placed in hundred pounds sacks. Then it was
shipped to France and de growers reap a rich harvest.

"Mammy tell us chillun dat de Rhetts sho' was de 'big folks' of South
Carolina, and I reckons dat's so, 'cause de book