sionists," nor "half as much thought of." Had they ever been reimbursed for their losses? Had they been shown any greater consideration than even the "chief of we all, ouah President Davis?" And the Unionists were compelled to admit that they had not been. They did not stop there. They tried to coddle the negro; pointed out to him the fact that he had as yet never received anything but promises from the Yankees; read to them the "news from the North," showing how some hapless negro had been hung for marrying a white woman; how, perhaps, it was Fred. Douglass had been refused a ride in the white folks' car, or a seat at the white folks' table, " thar whar yo' god Mogin come frum;" how some great Republican leader had spoken against "nigros votin'," and never failed to conclude the interview by asking the poor freedmen, homeless, landless, almost naked, as so many of them were, "Whar yo' fohty acres o' land and a mool, de Yankees done gi'e to you all ?"

Alas! the slave's dream of freedom had disappeared along with that "sour apple tree" upon which "we all Yankees " had so often hung "Jeff Davis," dropping only "apples of Sodom" upon the bare head of the mystified freedman. He could not answer his old master's criticisms of the Yankees. He did not even try, but he never failed to resent, in some manner, if in no other than a sullen silence, any criticism upon General Greenleaf, Captain Morgan, or "de Kunnel." He knew he had never been promised land nor mules by the Yankees, certainly not by the General, my brother nor by myself. He had never expected to acquire land in that way. And that freedman knew, as "we all Yankees" well knew, that his master's reference to it was but a bitter sarcasm. That master knew that that freedman was entitled to something for his long years of unrequited toil, and his taunt was nothing but the irony of the cruel wrongs the centuries had inflicted upon the black man through the divine right of the white man's power. All these facts, when taken together, made it clear to the Unionists, with rare exceptions, that the

thing we sought for there in Yazoo, after the defeat of our new constitutiou, had little support anywhere, North as well as South, except among the negroes and a "baker's dozen" of fanatical leaders in Congress, whose strength with the Northern people would be found to lay with that dim and uncertain margin which existed between downright lunatics and shrewd far-seeing, self-seeking, money-making Yankees. Therefore the white race in Yazoo solidified.

To be sure there were then, as there are now, at least two parties among the whites. One believed that slavery was unconstitutionally destroyed, and that therefore the North would have to pay for the slaves-if only the South could hold out just a little longer. The other party was composed of those who had no faith in the sincerity of Northern professions of regard or sympathy for Unionists or negroes, and meant to "lookout for number one."

We believed, indeed felt certain, that we knew to the contrary. We believed, almost knew, that Grant would be elected. It was thus reduced to a question of endurance.

The last dollar that I had been able to raise by the sale of my warrants, received for per diem while a member of the constitutional convention, I had spent in defraying my expenses in the State canvass.

Charles had staked everything on Tokeba and in the sawmill, and we were both too proud to ask our friends for any more help.

The General had sent his wife and children to a place of refuge, and, although he had lost everything that he had invested there, he had received a small sum from some quarter, which he generously put into "the pot," thus keeping that prime essential "a boiling."

My "convention suit," however, was getting threadbare, and Charles sorely needed a new hat and a new pair of pants.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE WAR OF THE BADGES-HEROIC COLORED WOMEN-HOW MISSISSIPPIANS VOTED AS THEY FOUGHT IN 1868-MORE BRICKS.

IN

N spite of our poverty we kept the flag flying from the window of the stronghold.

The freed people had observed that the Democrats were wearing Seymour and Blair badges, and heroically started a fund for the purchase of some Grant and Colfax badges. The little garrison were able to contribute a few "last dimes" for such a purpose, and with the aid of a handful of Northerners, poor as ourselves, and a few Unionists, a sufficient amount was finally gotten together to pay for several hundred. They were at first entrusted to only the more courageous of the freedmen, but their number increased so rapidly that very soon every Loyal League and every club possessed as many as one or two, and at least one person on many of of the plantations had one.

"Jes' to let um know we doan' 'low' ter s'render," as Uncle Peter put it, these badges were to be worn squarely upon the left breast, and as nearly over the heart as convenient. By changing about every patriotic freedman and Unionist in the county would be able to wear one of the badges at least one whole day before the election.

Now, the Democrats, old and young, male and female, had worn their badges without any regard whatever for our feelings.

It has not been my purpose to fortify any statements I may make with "documentary evidence." However desirable such evidence may be deemed by some at this stage of our narrative, by the time the reader has followed me to the end, he will consent to waive his own desire for it. Nor do I now intend, by bringing forward the following, to violate this rule, but rather to supply the basic element of the narrative with an acid it may otherwise be found to want. It appeared in the local columns of The Banner in its very first issue after the arrival of "our badges," dated October, 1868, and runs as follows:

"A large number of Grant and Colfax badges have been distributed among the colored population of Yazoo City during the last week by the carpet-bag agents of radicalism. The freedmen are profusely decorated with "counterfeit presentiments" of the radical candidates for President and Vice-President, no doubt praising the liberality of their radical friends in presenting them with these little ornaments free of charge. They don't know that we all have to pay for them in the grinding exactions their party inflicts upon us."

There it is, verbatim et literatim, just as it stands to this day in the original now on file in my "scrap-book." Its full value will be better appreciated by the reader when the fact is made known that the only "exactions" our party had yet "inflicted upon we all" was in the nature of a tax levied by the convention to defray the expenses of per diem of its members there being no money in the State treasury—and for stationery for its use, etc., the collection of which had been enjoined, and which the anti-reconstructionists had refused

to pay.

These badges so excited the ire of "the enemy" that several of our brave friends got themselves into serious trouble on account of them. Woe to the hapless freedman caught wearing one beyond the shadow of the flag flaunting from the Yankee stronghold! If upon the highway he was sometimes seized by the very first "repentant" rebel who met him and whipped or, at the least, robbed of the priceless trea

sure.

Some not only talked back, they also struck back, and the Bureau agent had a number of cases before him growing out of such conflicts.

Grave, dignified, "high-toned, honorable gentlemen" debated seriously whether those wearing them ought not to be arrested under the act of their legislature of 1865-'66 prescribing a fine or imprisonment or both in the discretion of the court for "insulting gestures largely, or acts" of "freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes" against a white man, woman, or child, and many denounced the "practice" as "incendiary," and liable to incite a "wah of races."

"Mr." Foote, as he was called by the freedmen, "Foote,” as he was termed by the whites, for his defiance of them, had wrung from even the Democrats so much concession to his dignity, bravely, almost defiantly, wore one, sometimes two, pinned to the lapel of his coat and insisted upon walking upon the pavement while doing so, in utter disregard of Dixon's oft-repeated commands to "walk in the middle of the street, where other niggers go.'

These badges were the cause of domestic troubles almost without number; for if a freedman, having obtained one, lacked the courage to wear it at home on the plantation in the presence of "ole marsa and missus" or of "the overseer," his wife would often take it from him and bravely wear it upon her own breast. If in such cases the husband refused to surrender it, as was sometimes the case, and hid it from her or locked it up, she would walk all the way to town, as many as twenty or thirty miles sometimes, and buy, beg, or borrow one, and thus equipped return and wear it openly, in defiance of husband, master, mistress, or overseer.

It was "General Grant's picture!" How perfectly they could always speak those words and these other, "Abraham Lincoln," even in those earlier days of freedom, and to refuse, neglect, or lack the courage to wear that badge in the clear, farseeing thought of those poor, "rising" freedmen and women,