The mansion house --
or "big house," as it would have been called -- which had been
occupied by the owners during slavery, had been burned. After making
a careful examination of the place, it seemed to be just the location
that we wanted in order to make our work effective and permanent.
But how were we to get it? The price asked for it was very little
-- only five hundred dollars -- but we had no money, and we were
strangers in the town and had no credit. The owner of the land agreed
to let us occupy the place if we could make a payment of two hundred
and fifty dollars down, with the understanding that the remaining two
hundred and fifty dollars must be paid within a year. Although five
hundred dollars was cheap for the land, it was a large sum when one
did not have any part of it.
In the midst of the difficulty I summoned a great deal of courage
and wrote to my friend General J.F.B. Marshall, the Treasurer of the
Hampton Institute, putting the situation before him and beseeching him
to lend me the two hundred and fifty dollars on my own personal
responsibility. Within a few days a reply came to the effect that he
had no authority to lend me the money belonging to the Hampton
Institute, but that he would gladly lend me the amount needed from his
own personal funds.
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