American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; American literature -- Catholic authors -- History and criticism
“Of the female characters that I have created, Miss Doolana Lines was
my favorite, while Mr. Bill Williams is my favorite among the male
characters. I started Doolana to make her mean and stingy like her
father, but I hadn’t written a page before she wrenched herself out
of my hands. She said to me, ‘I am a woman, and you shall not make me
mean.’ These stories are all of Georgia as it was before the war. In
the hill country the institution of slavery was very different from
what it was in the rice region or near the coast. Do you know the
Georgia negro has five times the sense of the South Carolina negro?
Why? Because he has always been near his master, and their relations
are closer. My father’s negroes loved him, and he loved them, and if a
negro child died upon the place my mother wept for it. Some time ago I
went to the old place, and an old negro came eight miles, walked all
the way, to see me.
“He got to the house before five o’clock in the morning, and opened the
shutters while I was asleep. With a cry he rushed into the room. ‘Oh,
Massa Dick.’ We cried in each other’s arms. We had been boys together.
One of my slaves is now a bishop—Bishop Lucius Holsey, one of the most
eloquent men in Georgia.”
These charming bits of autobiography show us the sterling nature of
Malcolm Johnston, a nature at once cheerful, kind and loving. It is
the object of such natures, in the pessimistic wayfares of life, to
make friends, illuminating them with sunshine and tickling them with
laughter.
MARION CRAWFORD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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