or she would whip her without
cause. Sister Rosa was at the same place and she was three and a half
years on mother's return. As I told you, she was six weeks old when
mother was sold and that made it three years and three months that
mother was gone from her own native home to a part of the country where
she did not know any one, not even the great God who had been so good to
her all of those years when she was gone; and all of her whole life God
was watching over her and giving to the world one child who was to help
to educate the down-trodden race which was, through Abraham Lincoln, to
be God's leader for the children that were in Egypt in the South, and
God with this leader and the race, they came through fire and smoke, and
now they can see the light of another day. Some of the race say that
they are sometimes, in their thoughts, ashamed that they belong to a
race that has been in bondage, but I have never felt that way, for I am
glad that things have been as they were, for God has moved in a way that
is unknown to men and His wonders He has performed, and has planted His
footsteps in the South, the West, the East and in the North, and is
watching the people and asking them what doors are they opening for the
Ethiopian.

Father Abraham is calling to the Ethiopians to know what has been the
result of the great emancipation, and can we not send the echo back with
a jubilee, that we are marching on in education in double file, and
longing to see the day that not one of your sons and daughters of this
broad earth but what shall learn to read and write; though it may bless
the earth with a tenfold blessing that they will not forget to bless God
with a hundred fold.

Three cheers for this great Emancipator.

And while he may sleep yonder, forgotten may be by some, his name has a
green spot in my heart and shall ever keep green while on this side I
stay.

And there is another one who sleeps yonder whom I shall not forget and
that is Father John Brown, whose ashes are as dear to me as the apple of
mine eye; and how can I forget him after four years of study at the dear
old place where he was taken from and hanged, because he saw the wrath
of God upon the nation and came forth to save his people.

Another one who will ever be shining bright in the hearts and minds of
the whole negro race, and what shall I say of him who led us to the
greatest victory the world has ever known--Ulysses S. Grant, the loved
of all nations