The Negro in the American Rebellion: His Heroism and His Fidelity

by William Wells Brown

“All of them, cap’n. There isn’t a little pickanniny so high (waving his hand two feet from the ground) that wouldn’t.”

“Why did you expect protection?”

“Heard so in Maryland, before the Proclamation.”

“Where did you hear about the Proclamation?”

“Read it, air, in a Richmond paper.”

“What is it?”

“That every slave is to be emancipated on and after the thirteenth day of January. I can’t state it, boss.”

“Something like it. When did you learn to read?”

“In ‘49, sir. I was head waiter at Mrs. Nevitt’s boarding-house in Savannah, and Miss Walcott, a New-York lady, who was stopping there, taught me.”

“Does your master know it?”