which if exceptional now I hope will become
more general hereafter. Every hand of
his family is adding its quota to the success
of this experiment of a colored man both trading
and farming on an extensive scale. Last year his
wife took on her hands about 130 acres of land,
and with her force she raised about 107 bales
of cotton. She has a number of orphan
children employed, and not only does she supervise
their labor, but she works herself. One daughter,
an intelligent young lady, is postmistress and I
believe assistant book-keeper. One son attends
to the planting interest, and another daughter
attends to one of the stores. The business
of this firm of Montgomery & Sons has amounted,
I understand, to between three and four hundred
thousand dollars in a year. I stayed on the place
several days and was hospitably entertained and kindly
treated. When I come, if nothing prevents, I will
tell you more about them. Now for the
next strange truth. Enclosed I send you
a notice from one of the leading and representative
papers of rebeldom. The editor has been,
or is considered, one of the representative
men of the South. I have given a lecture since
this notice, which brought out some of the most noted
rebels, among whom was Admiral Semmes. In my
speech I referred to the Alabama sweeping away
our commerce, and his son sat near him and
seemed to receive it with much good humor.
I don’t know what the papers will say
to-day; perhaps they will think that I dwelt upon
the past too much. Oh, if you had seen the rebs
I had out last night, perhaps you would have
felt a little nervous for me. However,
I lived through it, and gave them more gospel
truth than perhaps some of them have heard
for some time.
We received a polite invitation from
the trustees of the State-street African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church to attend a lecture in that
edifice on Thursday evening. Being told that the
discourse would be delivered by a female colored
lecturer from Maryland, curiosity, as well as
an interest to see how the colored citizens were
managing their own institutions, led us at once
to accept the invitation. We found a very spacious
church, gas-light, and the balustrades of the
galleries copiously hung with wreaths and festoons
of flowers, and a large audience of both sexes,
which, both in appearance and behaviour, was respectable
and decorously observant of the proprieties of the
place. The services were opened, as usual,
with prayer and a hymn, the latter inspired by
powerful lungs, and in which the musical ear at
once caught the negro talent for melody. The
lecturer was then introduced as Mrs. F.E.W.
Harper, from Maryland. Without a moment’s
hesitation she started off in the flow of her
discourse, which rolled smoothly and uninterruptedly
on for nearly two hours. It was very apparent
that it was not a cut and dried speech, for she
was as fluent and as felicitous in her allusions
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