Historical Romance of the American Negro

to School-The Freedman's Bureau-The Jubilee Minstrels-A Long Letter From Mr. Thomas Lincoln, Describing His Lif

armies encamped away in the valleys, and a few more willing, enthusiastic bounds, and they were free! It was most refreshing to read the letters from the white soldiers at the time, commending these colored men in every possible way. They took a perfect delight in relating the thousand and one acts of kindness and sympathy that colored men and women performed towards countless Union men in times of distress, disaster and danger; how they secreted them; how they fed them, gave them rest and shelter, and how faithfully and skilfully they guided the armies on their way, and even piloted the Union boats in safety up an

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hief on Union people and the Union in the Southern cause. We caught and imprisoned him in Ohio, but he escaped, and took to his tricks again, and was more fleet, and harder to catch than a long-legged greyhound. At last he was located one night in a far-away town or village of the South, and the nearest Union troops la

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ren at her back, all of whom the war had set free. This woman advanced upon the path of the troops, and having introduced herself to General Sherman and his men, gave glory to God and to the Union armies, whom the God of Hosts had there and then sent forth. Her language was worthy of a Shak

nd the Federal troops were under the impression that the place was abandoned altogether, or at least destroyed past all hope of remedy for the present. The Union forces clamored loudly for an advance upon the fort, and to occupy the place once for all. After some hesitation the commanders assented to their wishes, and it was decided to advance just as the darkness of the night was setting in on that long July day. Alas, alas! It was a fatal resolution, for the rebels had been busy all the afternoon and early night making swift preparations to give our men a terrible reception. By the time that darkness had fully set in, Fort Wagner was almost as good as ever, although it had such a terrible knocking about all the early hours of the day. The Southern engineers were so clever, and their men had wrought with such a will, that it needed the bravest of the brave to fight with them; but as far as that was concerned we were all about even-handed when we had a fair field. Four thousand men, therefore, advanced along the sands of Morris Island with the intention of investing and clearing out the fort of its defenders, if there were any of t

two-tenths, which is twenty per cent., who could read and write. Here, indeed, was one of the signs of the times with a vengeance! Surely the colored race must have a great natural thirst for knowledge. In the year 1880, that is, fifteen years after freedom came, three-tenths, which is thirty per cent. of the whole population, could read and write; and in 1890, or twenty-five years after the end of the war, forty-three of every hundred. In other words, forty-three per cent. of the colored population of the United States

rate as this? The present march of education among the colored race far surpasses the march of the whites since freedom came, and it still keeps ahead of them at the present time of writing. Indeed, in some par

idnight under the stars alone with the full blaze of a day when the sun is shining at twelve at noon. Shall we of the colored race, who may now safely count on fifty per cent. of the entire population who can read and write compare ourselves with the immigrants like these, or even with Spaniard or Portuguese, Turks or Greeks, who have had the opportunities of acquiring education for hu

n this business, now being tried for the first time, because the war was still going on, and sometimes the Southern arms regained the territory they had lost, which brought the teachers into danger on one hand, and the colored people on the other. It had always been the policy of the Southern law-makers to keep the slaves in darkness, and even the rank and file of the white people themselves were purposely kept in a condition little better than the slaves. The planters kept teachers in their own grand halls, or sent their sons and daughters away from home for ed

ew years that it lasted, 1865 to 1872. The devoted teachers from the North had even begun to follow the very armies themselves as early as the year 1862, and we find them then on the Lower Mississippi. The colored soldiers took to their lessons well, and owing to their great thirst for learning, they learned with an eagerness and rapidity

hem in their old age! Verily, the ways of the Lord are wonderful and past finding out! Much hardship was experienced at first in finding suitable buildings in which to teach the people, and many a church and school-house were burned to the gr

d places of learning of every name and nature thrown open in hundreds to our young people, both male and female! What a glorious array of splendid seminaries all over the great republic, besides hundreds belonging to the whites, to which we can obtain admiss

d do, when once their God-given talents were brought to the front. For the benefit of Fisk University they sang an immense sum of money out of the country, and covered themselves with unfading glory for all coming time. And where would those poor girls have been if it had not been for their

THE JACKSON

ble ambition; they even crossed the North Atlantic, and sang with the most abundant success before the crowned heads and grandees of Europe. These crowned heads and grandee

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and continental Europe, but it was to let them hear what slaves used to sing before the war to wile away the time before Uncle Sam ca

been carried and placed in a hospital on account of a wound he had recei

New Orleans, La.

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to be discharged and in the ranks once more. It is impossible for me to tell you of the kindness and attention of these doctors and nurses in this hospital, it is really most astonishing to see strangers so kind. We are all loud in the praises of these good people, who are taking the best care in the world of us when we are so far from home a

ch can never be spoken in its praise, and, above all,-of the great Creator who made it. I have seen plenty of the 'Father of Waters' before on many a long day, as I went sweeping past the forts where I was located further up the river; but, as we came on, it received so many and such large rivers, into its swollen waters, till it was more like a sea than a river; and, although level and destitute of beautiful banks like the Oh

we were all brought into this hospital, though the most part of them, in common with m

ansfield. It was at this point that General Dwight formed a brigade of the colored troops right across the road in the face of the rebels, who came rushing and hurrahing on, driving our ten thousand men before them. They were charging at double quick time; but the black brigade reserved their fire till the exultant rebels were close at hand, when they all poured a deadly volley into them, arresting them at once, and covered the ground with their dead and wounded. Now a regular fight came on which lasted an hour and a half, and only ceased even then because darkness put an end to the terrible combat. The foe made one charge after another, and as he had plenty of men, he thought he would wear us out at last; but the black soldiers and General Emory's brigade successfully repulsed them every time, and thus saved the Union army from being destroyed. Nor was this the only time that our own troops met the rebels in the Red river campaign, and defied both them and their repeated threats of 'the black flag;' for they always said that they would not treat a black man like a white man if the former fell alive into their hands. They said they would treat him like a wild beast, and not like a human being a

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