I know of instances where the former masters
of slaves have for years been supplied with money by their former
slaves to keep them from suffering. I have known of still other cases
in which the former slaves have assisted in the education of the
descendants of their former owners. I know of a case on a large
plantation in the South in which a young white man, the son of the
former owner of the estate, has become so reduced in purse and self-
control by reason of drink that he is a pitiable creature; and yet,
notwithstanding the poverty of the coloured people themselves on this
plantation, they have for years supplied this young white man with the
necessities of life. One sends him a little coffee or sugar, another
a little meat, and so on. Nothing that the coloured people possess is
too good for the son of "old Mars' Tom," who will perhaps never be
permitted to suffer while any remain on the place who knew directly or
indirectly of "old Mars' Tom."
I have said that there are few instances of a member of my race
betraying a specific trust. One of the best illustrations of this
which I know of is in the case of an ex-slave from Virginia whom I met
not long ago in a little town in the state of Ohio. I found that this
man had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous
to the Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to
be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body;
and while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labour
where and for whom he pleased.
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