As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the war.
In his autobiography, Washington describes the post-Civil War relationship between former slaves and their impoverished former masters.
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In this connection I have never been able to understand how the slaves throughout the South, completely ignorant as were the masses so far as books or newspapers were concerned, were able to keep themselves so accurately and completely…
I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery.
I cannot remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation.