To this class the problem seemed especially hard. Besides, deep down
in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to "old
Marster" and "old Missus," and to their children, which they found it
hard to think of breaking off. With these they had spent in some
cases nearly a half-century, and it was no light thing to think of
parting. Gradually, one by one, stealthily at first, the older slaves
began to wander from the slave quarters back to the "big house" to
have a whispered conversation with their former owners as to the
future.
CHAPTER II
BOYHOOD DAYS
AFTER the coming of freedom there were two points upon which
practically all the people on our place were agreed, and I found that
this was generally true throughout the South: that they must change
their names, and that they must leave the old plantation for at least
a few days or weeks in order that they might really feel sure that
they were free.
In some way a feeling got among the coloured people that it was
far from proper for them to bear the surname of their former owners,
and a great many of them took other surnames. This was one of the
first signs of freedom. When they were slaves, a coloured person was
simply called "John" or "Susan.
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