o their trust and be of the
greatest help to those that have given them a chance.

There are many that have lost their lives in the far South in trying to
get an education, but there are many that have done well, and we feel
like giving God all the praise.

I was born in Old Virginia, in or near the Valley, the other side of
Petersburg, of slave parents, and I can just call to mind the time when
the war began, for I was not troubled then about wars, as I was feeling
as free as any one could feel, for I was sought by all of the rich
whites of the neighborhood, as they all loved me, as noble whites will
love a child, like I was in those days, and they would send for me if I
should be at my play and have me to talk for them, and all of their
friends learned to love me and send me presents, and I would stand and
talk and preach for some time for them.

My dear mother was sold at the beginning of the war, from all of her
little ones, after the death of the lady that she belonged to, and who
was so kind to my dear mother and all of the rest of the negroes of the
place; and she never liked the idea of holding us as slaves, and she
always said that we were all that she had on the earth to love; and she
did love me to the last.

The money that my mother was sold for was to keep the rich man from
going to the field of battle, as he sent a poor white man in his stead,
and should the war end in his favor, the poor white man should have
given to him one negro, and that would fully pay for all of his service
in the army. But my God moves in a way unknown to men, and they can
never understand His ways, for He can plant His footsteps on the North,
the South, the East, the West, and outride any man's ideas; and how
wonderful are all of his ways. And if we, as a race, will only put our
trust in Him, we shall gain the glorious victory, and be a people whose
God is the God of all this broad earth, and may we humble ourselves
before Him and call Him, Blessed.

I told you that my white mother did not like the idea of calling us her
slaves, and she always prayed God that I should never know what slavery
was, for she said I was never born to serve as did the slaves of some of
the people that owned them.

And God, in His love for me and to me, never let me know of it, as did
some of my own dear sisters, for some of them were hired out after the
old home was broken up.

My mother was sold at Richmond, Virginia, and a gentleman bought her