and even the commonplace things associated with
freedom, were intensely prized. In contrast with the loose and
demoralising customs which had been characteristic of slave-worked
plantations, marriage became a bond not to be dissolved. Now that they
were becoming able to read it for themselves, the Bible became a prized
book, which the negroes regarded as being peculiarly their own. So far
from disappointing those who sought to aid them, now that their
ex-owners, the planters, were so greatly impoverished, or even ruined,
the negroes surprised their friends by the readiness with which they
adapted themselves to their new life. The way in which habits of
industry and economy were formed struck observers with peculiar force,
as being an exceedingly hopeful sign. Nor did the freer air, which they
now breathed, in any measure weaken those Christian ties which had held
them together in their days of bondage. Their religious meetings were
well maintained, but of course under happier conditions. The sad or even
strangely weird songs which had been sung by night with bated breath, as
it were, in the slave-cabins could now be superseded by more cheerful
hymns. The former had been the natural expression of bond-slaves, to
whom life on earth was without hope; at last they were able to sing the
triumphant note of freemen. He was a very representative member of the
negro race who at that time remarked to a friend, "I'se afeard I'll work
myself to death now. I'se so glad to work for myself and the family that
I can't stop nohow." Even in the United States, where towns and large
communities have often risen rapidly in what had but just before been
the wilderness, this new reformation, which the negroes now proved
themselves to be capable of keeping pace with, must have struck many
observers as a phenomenon for which they had hardly been prepared.
Schoolhouses and churches, as well as cottages, which were a grateful
contrast to the squalid cabins of the plantations, were in many
instances supplemented by savings banks. At the same time a disposition
towards self-reliance showed itself, which led the main body, whenever
possible, to keep aloof from the alms-houses, in which pauper poor were
sheltered, by working hard and bravely to support themselves and their
households.

While this transition age was in progress, Booker Washington was growing
up apace. He had been fortunate enough to sever his connection with the
Malden salt-furnaces