April 23rd, 1865.-1 ought to be ashamed of myself and yet I am afraid I am not. For the first time in all my life I have laid hands in violence upon a negro.
It happened in this way. We were sitting last night in the back parlor, the two tallow candles did little more than to make the darkness visible, but it was moon-light outside. Since we have been in the enemy’s lines, we feel suspicious of all unusual sounds at night and often we have discovered listeners, under the windows or the servants, employed about the house, have “toted news” to the camp at Centreville. So when footsteps were heard approaching, I looked out and saw some twenty or more half-grown negro boys and girls. When they reached the house they began to sing, to the tune of “John Brown’s Body,” these words:
“We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree,
We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree,
We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree,
As we go marching on.”
In the corner of the dining-room stood a new carriage whip, purchased that day by Jordan, who considered himself a judge of carriage whips. His mistress had given him money that morning to buy it and this is what he said when he brought it in, “Miss Patsy, here’s de whup, its a rale sure nuf whale-bone whup and de lash is twisted silk.”
I seized it as I passed through the dining room to get out in the yard. The negroes were evidently expecting to make us angry but they had not counted on the reception they received. I rushed in their midst and, laying the whip about me with all the strength I could muster, I soon had the whole crowd flying toward the Quarter, screaming as they went. One of them screeching loudly, “She dun outen my eye,” another, “Oh, Lordy—Mammy ain’t nuver laid it on me lak
I would have followed up the victory but behind the magnolia tree a dark figure was visible and I did not know how many more there might be. It was over so quickly that no one realized what was taking place until the screams broke on the air. It amused the family to think for nineteen years I had lived on the plantation and never before had I struck a negro.
