Re: [Sansevierias] Re: It's About Time

Real nice yarll.



On 19 December 2013 15:57, Hermine Stover <[email protected]>wrote:

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> Ex-Slave Lou Williams' Christmas Memories
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>  [image: []]
> <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CvDCiEFbNy8/SVWQHnWvhOI/AAAAAAAADOk/8CH8ZpKr33Q/s1600-h/Lou+Williams,+Age+108,+ex-slave.jpg>
> Lou Williams was born in southern Maryland in 1829. She and her family
> were slaves of Abram and Kitty Williams, and Lou served as nursemaid to her
> master's children from the age of eight until after the Civil War. She then
> went to Louisiana where she worked as a cook for several years before
> moving to San Angelo, Texas:
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> *"We allus gits Saturday evenin' off to wash our clothes and sometime we
> has dances Saturday night...We has corn shuckin's and big suppers and on
> Christmas day massa buys us de present, most times shoes, 'cause we didn't
> have any shoes."*
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> Photos & quotes from The Slave Narratives, a collection of over 20,000
> pages of typewritten interviews with more than 3,500 former slaves,
> collected between 1929-39. Those interviewed ranged in age from 1 to 50 at
> the time of emancipation in 1865; more than 2/3 were over 80 when they were
> interviewed. The obvious problem is the language as reported by the
> interviewers. The Library of Congress explains on their website, "The
> narratives usually involve some attempt by the interviewers to reproduce in
> writing the spoken language of those interviewed."
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>  [image: []]
> <http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CvDCiEFbNy8/SVd-Eyg_vCI/AAAAAAAADjg/f5DSm_CA1y4/s1600-h/2+quill_hand.bmp>
> Diary of Mary Jeffreys Bethell, January 1st 1861 - Dec. 1865:
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> Mary Jeffreys Bethell, born in 1821, was the daughter of Phereba Hinton
> Jeffreys and farmer and Methodist preacher George Washington Jeffreys
> (1794-1849). She married William D. Bethell in 1840 and spent most of her
> life in Rockingham County, North Carolina. Mary Jeffreys Bethell's diary
> has infrequent entries beginning on 1 January 1853 and ending 6 January
> 1873. Diary entries discuss Bethell's home and neighbors; her religious
> activities; the activities of her children, several of whom died young, and
> children in the Torrien family, whom Bethell referred to as nieces and
> nephews and who lived in the Bethell household for many years. There are
> frequent mention of Bethell's journeys with her husband to Louisiana,
> Tennessee, and Arkansas, and thoughts of moving the family out of North
> Carolina. During the Civil War, the diary also includes the activities of
> sons Willie and George in the Confederate Army, including George's
> adventures with the 44th North Carolina Regiment and his capture and
> imprisonment at Johnson Island. Bethell's husband joined the Army in 1864,
> after which Bethell wrote of the difficulties she endured in her husband's
> absence, including the departure of their slaves. See *Documenting the
> American South* (DocSouth.unc.edu), a digital publishing initiative of
> the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
>
> *December 25, 1861*
> *This is Christmas day, a beautiful day but very cold, how different this
> Christmas from last, now our Country is filled with armies to defend our
> country from the Northern army, many bloody battles have been fought,
> hundreds have been killed on both sides, and a great many soldiers have
> died in the camp from disease and want of attention while sick, it is sad
> to contemplate, perhaps the Lord is chastising his church, I believe he
> permits it for our good.I have two sons in the army, they have enjoyed fine
> health, the Lord has blessed them, I thank and praise him for it. I hope
> and pray that they may get home safe to my arms.*
>
> *December 25, 1862*
> *This is Christmas day, a most lovely day for the season, it is almost
> like Spring. I hope 'tis a token of good, that the Lord is going to bless
> us if it is his will. I hope the war will soon close and that we may have
> peace.*
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