Mary A. H. Gay - Life in Dixie during the War: 1861-1865

I am asked to write a few words of introduction to these reminiscences ofa lady who, in the pleasant afternoon of a life devoted to deeds of mercyand charity, turns fondly and sympathetically to the past. But there isnothing to be said. What word of mine could add to the interest thatinheres in this unpretentious record of a troubled and bloody period? Thechronicle speaks for itself, especially to those who remember something ofthose wonderful days of war. It has the charm and the distinction ofabsolute verity, a quality for which we may look in vain in more elaborateand ambitious publications. Here indeed, is one of the sources from whichhistory must get its supplies, and it is informed with a simplicity whichhistory can never hope to attain.

We have here reproduced in these records, with a faithfulness that isamazing, the spirit of those dark days that are no more. Tragedy shakeshands with what seems to be trivial, and the commonplaces of every-daylife seem to move forward with the gray battalions that went forth to war.

It is a gentle, a faithful and a tender hand that guides the pena soulnerved to sacrifice that tells the tale. For the rest, let the recordsspeak for themselves.

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.

By way of preface to "Life in Dixie During the War," I scarcely know whatto say. I have long felt that it was the duty of the South to bequeath toposterity the traditions of that period; for if we do it not ourselvesthey will be swallowed up in oblivion. Entertaining this opinion, I haveessayed the task of an individual effort, and hope that others may followmy example.

No woman who has seen what I have seen, and felt what I have felt, wouldbe apt to write with less asperity; and yet, now that we have come back tothe United States, and mean to stay in it, let the provocation to departbe what it may, I would not put into practice an iota of the war-timefeeling. In thus expressing myself, I am sure I represent every Christianin my own beautiful Southland.

There was one for whom these sketches would have had a special interest.An inspiring motive for writing them was that they would be read by mynephew, Thomas H. Stokes, of Atlanta, the only child of the brother sooften mentioned. But, ere he had had more than a glimpse of them, he wascalled away by an Inscrutable Providence, in his pure and beautiful youngmanhood, as we trust to a Land of Peace more in keeping with his noble,true, and tender heart, than earth with its sin and strife. "Blessed arethe pure in heart; for they shall see God."

MARY A. H. GAY.

Decatur, Georgia.

The tocsin of war has resounded from Mason and Dixon's line to the Gulf ofMexico, from the snow-crested billows of the Atlantic to the tranquilwaves of the Pacific.

War! War! War! is the battle cry of a people, who, long suffering andpatient, but now, goaded to desperation and thoroughly exasperated, aredetermined, at all hazards, to protect the rights for which theirforefathers fought, bled and died; and which their own Thomas Jeffersonembodied in an instrument of writing which, for beauty of diction andwisdom of thought, will go sounding down the corridors of time, so long astime itself shall lastunequaled, unparalleled; and which was adoptedwithout a dissenting voice by the ablest convocation of men ever assembledin national councils as their declaration of human rights and liberties.

Thus, under auspices favorable to the happy and speedy development of anew and glorious country, commenced the government of the freest andhappiest people on earth, under the administration of GeorgeWashingtonan administration which caught the eye of the world and calledforth its admiration; and which the most censorious never had the temerityto attack; an administration which secured for the country the alluringtitle, "The land of the free and the home of the brave." And its famewent abroad in story and in song, and every nation on earth sought itsblessings and advantages, and it grew to be a mighty country.

Coeval with the settlement of this beautiful continent by the white man,there came, or rather, there was brought, a race of people which neededthe fostering care as well as the strong arm of slavery to kindle thelatent spark of intellectual fire which had smoldered for centuries, in,as President Cleveland would say, "innocuous desuetude."

This race of people came not as pioneers in the building up of this greatnation, but as a menial race, sold into bondage by their own kith and kin,and not to be endowed with elective franchise nor representation in itscouncils. It was held in bondage alike in Massachusetts and in SouthCarolina. Under the auspices of slavery, it became a powerful factor inthe building up of the staple industries of the countrythe Southernportion of it directly, the Northern portion indirectly, and it receivedin return more than any other people in bondage has ever receivedas ausual thing, good wholesome food, comfortable homes and raiment, andtender treatment in sickness. When they failed to receive these benefits,their masters were improvident and careless alike of the comfort of theirown wives and children, and they, too, showed hard usage and neglect. Thisis not said by way of apology for any treatment received at the hands ofSouthern slaveholders by this vassal race. I repeat that no people held inbondage ever received so many benefits.

Slavery, as all other institutions, had its evils, and those evils werefar greater to the slaveholder than to the slaves. Climatic and otherconsiderations rendered the system of slavery unprofitable in the NorthernStates of this great and growing republic, and the men at the helm oftheir respective governments agitated the subject of emancipation.

Having given themselves time to bring the greater number of their slavesSouth and sell them, they nominally freed the others by legislativeenactment; and by this great and magnanimous action, there were so fewleft that to this day, as attested by Northern tourists, a "darkey," or a"colored person," is an object of curiosity and great interest.

The country, North and South, was too prosperous. The agitators couldstand it no longer. Discord and strife took the place of harmony and peacein the halls of congress, and in the senate chamber of the United States.Men who could in no other way acquire prominence, became conspicuous aschampions of an "oppressed and down trodden race," and were swift toslander the white people of the South. Our slaves were taught that murder,rapine, arson, and every species of wickedness known in the catalogue ofcrime which, in any way, could weaken, yea, destroy the South, was servicemost acceptable.

The country was in the clutches of an organized mob, determined toprecipitate it into the jaws of dissolution. By way of confirming thisstatement the following resolutions are reproduced.