Page:The Story of the Jubilee Singers (7th).djvu/128

 years after he came north. Once, soon after the close of the war, he started to go to South Carolina, and look them up. But on the way he learned that there was then so much disorder and violence prevalent in that part of the country that it would not be prudent for him to visit his old home, and he turned back.

In 1868, other letters having elicited no answer, he addressed one to a church there, telling who he was and what his history had been, and asking information about his parents. To his delight, an answer came back from his father, saying that the family were all alive and still together.

He had purposed, in case he should hear from them, to make them a visit in the course of a few weeks or months. But the first night after his father's letter came, he was so excited that he could not get a moment's sleep, and the next day he started. He spent two months with them, but the opportunities for him to get on were so much better at the North that he then returned to Pittsburgh.

He joined the Jubilee Singers, after their return from England in 1874, to fill a vacancy caused by the unavoidable withdrawal of one of the student members.

was born in Stone Mountain, Georgia, in 1853. His father was sold before his recollection, and he has never heard from him since. An older sister was also sold, and no tidings have ever been had from her.

As long ago as he can remember, his mother was