A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland

CHAPTER X.. Hospital Work.

HOSPITAL WORK.

Cairo--Incidents Preparatory to Removing Freedmen's Camp to Island No. 10--Death of a Child--Disbursing Supplies and other Mission Work on the Island--Story of Uncle Stephen--Hospital Visiting in Memphis, Tennessee--Surgeon Powers Reported--Forty Slaves come into Camp Shiloh--Seven Slaves come from a Plantation seven miles below Memphis--First Enlistment of Colored Soldiers--Mission Work in Columbus, Kentucky--Young Colored Man Shot by his Young Master--Turning of Tables--Return Home--Our Principal, E. A. Haight, Enlisted

CHAPTER XI.. Sanitary Work.

SANITARY WORK.

Organized Freedmen's Relief Association--Solicit Supplies--Academic Year Opened for 1863-4--Sister Backus and Self leave for Fields of Suffering--Incidents on the Way--Mission Work in Natchez, Mississippi--Four Hundred Slaves Hanged and otherwise Tortured--Visit to the Calaboose--Mission Work in Baton Rouge--Arrival at New Orleans--Sketch of Persecutions

CHAPTER XII.. Mission Work in New Orleans.

MISSION WORK IN NEW ORLEANS.

Mission Work in New Orleans--Soldiers and Prisoners Visited on Ship Island--Petition of Seventy Soldier Prisoners in behalf of Three Thousand of their Fellow Prisoners--Appeal in behalf of Ship Island and Tortugas Prisoners--Mission Work at Plaquemine--Natchez--Capture of a Rebel steamer--Arrival at Home--Release of the Three Thousand Banished Union Soldiers

CHAPTER XIII.. Freedmen's Aid Commission.

FREEDMEN'S AID COMMISSION.

Refugees in Kansas--Children of Want--Afflicted Family--Scenes of Distress--Agnes Everett--Quantrell's Raid--Poor White Trash--Hospitals--Supplies Distributed--Refugee Buildings--Orphan Children--Haviland Home--Thomas Dean a Prisoner--Petition for Pardon--Pardon Granted--A Southern Clergyman--Mission School--At Harper's Ferry and Washington.

CHAPTER XIV.. Home Mission Work.

HOME MISSION WORK.

Mission Work and Incidents in Washington--Murders--Alexandria--Richmond, Virginia--Williamsburg--Fort Magruder--Yorktown--Suicide--Gloucester Court-house--Fortress Monroe--Norfolk--Return to Washington--White Woman Whipped.

CHAPTER XV.. Experiences Among Freedmen.

EXPERIENCES AMONG FREEDMEN.

A Soldier Prisoner--Interesting Statistics--Schools--Plantations--Incidents--Return to Washington--Return Home with Fifteen Orphans and Fifty Laborers--Change in Orphan Asylum--Mission Work in Covington and Newport, Kentucky--Mission Work in Memphis, Tennessee--Uncle Philip a Remarkable Man--Return Home.

CHAPTER XVI.. State Public School.

STATE PUBLIC SCHOOL.

Board of Directors Arrange for Closing the Home--Discouragements--Relief Comes by Sleigh-loads--Encouragements--Petitions to the State Legislature to make the Home a State Institution--Petitions Granted, and the Orphan's Home becomes the "State Public School," located at Coldwater--Work in State Public School.

CHAPTER XVII.. Christian Labor and Results.

CHRISTIAN LABOR AND RESULTS.

Work for the Asylum--Again in Washington--Mission Work--Trial of Henry Wirtz--Inspecting Soup-houses--Incidents connected with Kendal Green Camp--Peremptory Order of J. R. Shipherd Closing Asylum--Children Scattered--Returned Home with Authority from American Missionary Association to Reopen Asylum--Dangerous Fall--Restored to Asylum Work--Overtaken with Convulsions--Answer to Prayer in being Restored.

CHAPTER XVIII.. Present Condition of the Freedmen.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FREEDMEN.

Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association--Testimony of Perry Bradley--Incidents--Persecutions--Prof. Greener--Colored Republicans--Further Testimony--Negro Woman Killed--Letter from the South--Atrocities--Refugees in Kansas--Bull-dosing--Kansas Overfull--Protection Needed--Michael Walsh--Silver Linings.

CHAPTER XIX.. Prospects of the Freedmen.

PROSPECTS OF THE FREEDMEN.

Supplies Furnished--Relief Association at Work--Northern Outrages--Prudence Crandall--Colored Schools--Freedmen's Aid Schools--Industrial and Agricultural Institute.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

STEEL PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR THE SLAVEHOLDERS' THREATS. SLAVE IRONS. CLARK UNIVERSITY FOR FREEDMEN (CHRISMAN HALL). MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE.

CHAPTER I.. Early Life.

EARLY LIFE.

At the earnest solicitation of many dear friends I have consented to leave on record some of the incidents that have fallen under my personal observation during three-score and ten years.

My father, Daniel Smith, was a native of Eastern New York, and for many years an approved minister in the Society of Friends. He was a man of ability and influence, of clear perceptions, and strong reasoning powers.

My mother, Sene Blancher, was from Vermont; was of a gentler turn, and of a quiet spirit, benevolent and kind to all, and much beloved by all who knew her, and was for many years an elder in the same Society.

It is due to my parents to say, if I have been instrumental, through the grace of God, to bless his poor and lowly of earth, by adapting means to ends in relieving suffering humanity, it is largely owing to their influence.

Soon after their marriage, they removed to Kitley Township, county of Leeds, Canada West (now known as Ontario), where I was born, December 20, 1808. I well remember the perplexities and doubts that troubled my young mind in trying to find the whys and wherefores of existing facts; yet I was naturally a happy and playful child. Some remarks made by my parents over a portion of Scripture father was reading, in which was the sentence, "and they are no more twain, but one flesh"--"that is a close relationship; twain is two, no more two but one flesh"--struck me with wonder and amazement. "Yes," replied mother, "that is a oneness that is not to be separated, a near relation between husband and wife; 'no more twain, but one flesh.' 'What God has joined together let not man put asunder.'" It seemed as if every word fastened upon my mind a feeling of awe at the new thought, that father and mother were one person. "Then they think just alike, and know all about the other, if true; father and mother believe it, and they found it in the Bible, and that," I thought, "must be true. Now for the test--If father and mother are one, they must know each other's thoughts and whereabouts." After father had been out a few minutes I asked mother where he was. "Not far off; may be he's gone to the barn." But he was not there. At my report she said, "Perhaps he's gone to David Coleman's, or some of the neighbors." This settled the matter in my mind, that they were not one. But I gave the same test to try father, which also proved a failure. But not quite satisfied without further investigation, I asked mother for permission to go to David Coleman's to play an hour with his little girls. Little did she know that the object of her little five-year-old skeptic was to present the test to their father and mother, to see whether they were one, and found the same result each time.

This settled the question in my mind that one thing in the Bible was untrue. Father and mother were mistaken in that part of the Bible that said husband and wife were no more two, but one. For a long time after this, whenever the Bible was referred to as authority, I would think, "It may be true, and may not, because I tried one thing it said that was not true."

Another mystery was hard for me to solve. In asking mother where we should go if we should jump off the edge of the world, she replied, "There is no jumping off place, because our world is round, like a ball, and takes one day and night to roll around, and that makes day and night." After the little child of six years had studied over this mysterious problem a short time, she returned with the query, "Why don't we drop off while underside? and why don't the water spill out off Bates's creek and our well?" She replied, "Water, as well as every thing else, is always kept in place by a great law, called gravitation, that our Heavenly Father made when he made the world," and she said I would understand more about it when older. But this did not satisfy me; I wanted to know all about it then. As soon as father came in queries were repeated, but he closed as mother did, that I must wait until I was older, which made me almost impatient to be old enough to know how these things could be.

Another subject occupied my childish mind a long time, and was investigated to the extent of the miniature ability I possessed. And that was the interesting fact that I discovered one bright evening while looking at the stars, that our house was just in the middle of the world; and when we went to grandfather's (a distance of seven miles), as soon as it was night, I was out in the yard measuring the distance by stars, but to my surprise, grandfather's house was just in the middle. For I tried it all around the house, and went to the barn with my uncles, and could discover no variation. Consequently I must have been mistaken at home. But on our return I could not find by the stars but that we were just in the center of creation. Whenever I went with my parents to a neighbor's for an evening's visit, my first and foremost thought was to see how far to one side they were. But I always found myself just in the center of this great world; just as grown-up children are prone to think their own nation is ahead in arts and sciences, of all other nations--their own State ahead of all other States in moral and intellectual improvements--their own town or city, like Boston, the "hub of the universe." In fact, we are about the center; our pets more knowing, and our children smarter, than can be found elsewhere. But as the study of astronomy gives ability to look upon the vast universe of thousands of worlds much larger than our own, revolving in their orbits, it develops our intellectual faculties, and enables us to view the concave appearance of the ethereal blue from a standpoint widely differing from the occupancy of the center. And when supreme self is melted away by faith in the blood of the covenant, our spiritual vision becomes clearer and our miniature minds are expanding, and we learn to make due allowances for the acts and opinions of others, that we have called peculiar, because they do not quite accord with our own usages and tastes.

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