everywhere; so you see we agree which way is best. We think Nat Turner was a good man, but he couldn’t do much to make us all free, though he scared the white folks awfully. Then they hung Nat Turner, and them that know, say it is best not to try that way again. We hear that a great many white folks are trying to make us all free, and our masters say they will have war and whip the Yankees, and some of us agree to stay and maybe we can do something to help.” “How did you hear all this?” said Frink. “Well,” said Jim, “when they make a President, and the Democrats have a barbecue, and make great speeches and talk big, they say the Whigs are going to free all our niggers, and the Whigs have a barbecue and talk big, and say the Democrats are going to free all the niggers, and more than that, they are going to burn their barns. Now, you see, when old master goes to barbecue, he takes servants along to see to the horses and take care of the old man when he gets drunk, and of course they hear it all, and when we have a meeting they tell all about it. We can’t understand what it all means, but one thing is sure, they get madder and madder every time, and when they come to blows, I always intended to help the side that would help us, whichever that was.”
As Jim appeared to understand about those “ meetings in the night” better than any other we had met, we talked with him until we learned where and through whom we could communicate with the knowing ones, and not long after we wTere able to make connections and open lines far down in the slave States. The leaders of the meetings in the night, meanwhile, were being educated as to who their friends were, and the first gun on Sumter was the signal for an entire change in the operations of the U. G. R. R., and those who had been helped became the helpers. The experienced agents and conduct-
