Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/374



Since then my world here has changed, as well as my feelings, towards the southern life and people. My mental vision has become clear, so that I can perceive a noble South in the South, even as its own hills arise and enable me to breathe across its plain of sand, the invigorating atmosphere of the hills, and which will yet become to the people of the south that which Moses and Joseph were to the children of Israel. For when people speak of the slave race of the south, it is a mistake merely to imply the blacks. And it is also unjust to think of the people of the Southern States as a population of slaves and slave owners. Of a truth, there exists a free people even in the Southern slave states, who are silently labouring in the work of emancipation. And though they may be but a small number—“doubt not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom!”

It appears to me probable, from what I have seen and heard, that Georgia will become one of the leading powers in this advancing work of emancipation. Georgia, the youngest of the first thirteen states of the Union, was one of the most prominent in the work of American independence, and the spirit of freedom has been powerful here from the beginning.

All nations preserve traces of their origin, and receive