For this service Mencer was paid three hundred dollars in greenbacks, which he had recently invested in a freedmen’s newspaper, “The Constitutionalist,” just started in Mobile.
The negroes everywhere sympathized with the Federal cause, and served it when they could; but they would seldom betray a master who had been kind to them. Many stories were told me by the planters, illustrating this fidelity. Here is one, related by a gentleman of Lowndes County:—
“The Yankees, when they left Selma, passed through this side of the river, on their way to Montgomery. The streams were high; that hindered them, and did us a sight of damage. I got the start of ’em, and run off my horses and mules. I gave a valise full of valuable papers to my negro boy Arthur, and told him to hide it. He took it, and put it in his trunk,—threw out his own clothes to hide my property; for he didn’t suppose the Yankees would be mean enough to rob niggers. But they did: after they robbed my house, they went to the negro-quarters, and pilfered them. They found my valise, took out my old love-letters, and had a good time reading ’em for about an hour. Then they said to Arthur,—
“’You are your master’s confidential servant, a’n’t you?’
“’Yes, sir,’ says Arthur, proud of the distinction.
“’You know where he has gone with his mules and horses?’
“’Yes, sir, I know all about it.’
“’Jump on to this horse, and go and show us where he is, and we’ll give you five dollars.’
“’I don’t betray my master for no five dollars,’ says Arthur.
“’Then,’ says they, ‘we’ll shoot you if you won’t show us!’ And they put their carbines to his head.