. . . March, 1859.<\/p>\n
Though this is March, the Japonicas are just passing out of blossom and the roses are in their first fresh glory\u2013yellow and white Banksia, the Lamarque, and all those choice fresh varieties. I’ll just run down in the garden here and pick you a rosebud. There it is \u2013my voucher for the floral stories.<\/p>\n
While we were at the Pulaski in Savannah, the great sale of Pierce Butler’s slaves took place, and there all the gentlemen interested were congregated. You would never suppose the young meek pale little man, Pierce Butler, to be either a slave-owner or Mrs. Kemble’s husband. He is the indignant vestryman, I am told, who walked out of Rev. Dudley Tyng’s Church when that sermon was preached. I am glad to hear that Mrs. Kemble has never drawn a dollar of her alimony, $3,000 a year, but allows it to accumulate for the children. She has the honest pride of maintaining herself, under the circumstances. Of course, you have read the Tribune’s account<\/a>; the girls sent it to us, and we have kept it well concealed, I assure you, for there are fire-eaters in the house, who would not hesitate to insult us. But now it is copied into the New York Herald\u2013the only northern daily sold here \u2013 and has gone all through the city. There is a shrewd Philadelphian here, with his wife, Mr. Ashmead. He knew the agent at that sale. He attended the sale; took notes of course, as every northerner had to do, and now and then made a modest bid\u2013to appear interested as a buyer. He says: \u201c All I can say of Doe-stick’s account is it does not go one bit beyond the reality \u2013 hardly comes up to it, indeed.\u201d He heard all the remarks quoted about Daphney’s baby; says the story of Dorcas’ and Jeffrey’s love is true; and it was to himself and one other that the negro driver’s remarks about the efficacy of pistols were made. He thought Mr. Ashmead was one of the same sort! The latter was a Buchanan man; he goes home an Abolitionist, and says: \u201cNow I can believe that everything in Uncle Tom’s Cabin might really happen.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday Mother and I went to the African Baptist Church, and had a most interesting service, remaining to their communion. The new members, nine of them, were seated in the front pews; the young women, in white dresses, shawls, and white ribbons on their straw bonnets. We had a seat of honor just behind them. The pastor, a slender, meek man in spectacles\u2013a black man you know\u2013. \u201cDr. Cox,\u201d gave them the right hand of fellowship, with many touching words of counsel and passages of scripture. He and we, too, were equally moved, as to one (free) woman he said, \u201cIf the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed,\u201d and to another, \u201c Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith God shall make you free.\u201d He is free himself, I hear, but the Methodist minister is a slave. He is well taken care of \u2013given his whole time, and is considered in an enviable position. The church was crowded\u2013bandannas of every shade, and style of tie \u2013 and no small sprinkling of the gayest bonnets. The minister was a quiet, excellent speaker; \u201ctwo broders\u201d who assisted were roaring ones, and the \u201cbroder officers\u201d who officiated were such real darkies, and the singing was so like stories I have read, that altogether I had more a sense of sight-seeing than of worshipping, I am afraid. The service was very solemn, however, and we were deeply interested. There must have been three or four hundred communicants, for it was not close communion. The bread and wine were carried to every one, and up in the galleries too, and the eight baskets were emptied and the eight goblets were all emptied and filled three times. We shook hands with \u201cDr. Cox,\u201d who seemed gratified that we had remained, and as for us, we would not have missed it for a great deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" . . . March, 1859. Though this is March, the Japonicas are just passing out of blossom and the roses are in their first fresh glory\u2013yellow and white Banksia, the Lamarque, and all those choice fresh varieties. I’ll just run down in the garden here and pick you a rosebud. There it is \u2013my voucher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":66774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-letters-of-a-family-during-the-war-for-the-union"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/woolsey_abby_howland2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}