whar de Yankees couldn't find it."

When Ellen Campbell of the Eve plantation in Richmond County, was asked
if she remembered anything about the Yankees coming through this part of
the country, she replied:

"Yas'm, I seen 'em comin' down de street. Every one had er canteen on de
side, a blanket on de shoulder, caps cocked on one side de haid. De
Cavalry had boots on, and spurros on de boots. First dey sot de niggers
free on Dead River, den dey come on here and sot us free. Dey march
straight up Broad Street to de Planters Hotel, den dey camped on de
river. Dey stayed here six months till dey sot dis place free. When dey
campin' on de river bank we go down dere and wash dey clo'se fer a good
price. Day had hard tack to eat. Dey gib us hard tack and tell us to
soak it in water, and fry it in meat gravy. I ain't taste nothin' so
good since. Dey say, 'Dis hard tack whut we hadder lib on while we
fightin' to sot you free.'"

FREEDOM

Although the Emancipation Proclamation was delivered on January 1st,
1863 it was not until Lee's final surrender that most of the negroes
knew they were free. The Freedman's Bureau in Augusta gave out the news
officially to the negroes, but in most cases the plantation owners
themselves summoned their slaves and told them they were free. Many
negroes stayed right with their masters.

Carrie Lewis, a slave on Captain Ward's plantation in Richmond County,
said, when asked where she went when freedom came, "Me? I didn't went
nowhere. Da niggers come 'long wid de babies and dey backs, and say I
wus free, and I tell 'em I was free already. Didn't make no diffunce to
me--freedom."

Old Susannah from the Freeman plantation said, "When freedom come I got
mad at Marster. He cut off my hair. I was free so I come from Ca'lina to
Augusta to sue him. I walk myself to death! Den I found I couldn't sue
him over here in Georgia! I had to go back. He was jus' nachally mad
'cause we was free. Soon as I got here, dere was a lady on de street,
she tole me to come in, tek a seat. I stayed dere. Nex' mornin' I
couldn't stand up. My limbs was hurtin' all over."

Tim from the plantation in Virginia remembers distinctly when freedom
came to his people. "When we wus about to have freedom," he said, "they
thought the Yankees was a-goin' to take all the slaves so they put us on
trains and run us down south. I went to a place whut they call 'Butler'
in Georgia, then they sent me on down to the Chattahoochee, wher