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 CHAPTER X.

PERSONAL HISTORIES OF THE SINGERS.

The children who were set free by the abolition of slavery in the United States occupy a position in which no other generation, of any colour, or in any land, were ever placed before. Behind them are all the disabilities and cruelties of that bondage in which their lives began. Before them are all the possibilities of culture, distinction, and usefulness that are open to the citizens of one of the foremost nations of the earth. This fact adds a peculiar interest to the personal histories of the Jubilee Singers.

With the misguidances and limitations of their early life such as they were—and it would not be possible to give any one an adequate idea of them who has not stood face to face with them—the readiness with which the Singers met the new social demands that were made upon them in their work, was as remarkable as the quiet modesty and self-possession with which they received the attentions and honours that came so suddenly to them. It was a dizzy change from a breakfast of hominy and bacon in a slave-cabin, to dinners in the mansions