As soon as practicable, their friend, who had the care of them, and
supplied their wants, went to see how they fared; when Jenny, meeting
him at the door, and being asked how they were, etc., said, "Oh, Master
Richard, I am wonderful glad to see thee--if the storm had lasted much
longer, I believe we should have froze to death; our wood was 'most
gone, and Billy is one of the honestest niggers in the world; for he
had rather freeze to death than steal a rail from the fence." This
circumstance is recorded as one specimen of their honest simplicity.
In the spring of 1815, they were removed to the habitation of one of
their sons, where they were boarded; and there they remained, until
death, the destroyer of all earthly comforts, put a period to Jenny's
life, after a few days' severe illness, about the seventy-eighth year
of her age.
The same affectionate attachment that pervaded her mind in youth and in
health, remained unshaken to the last. Her sight, as before remarked,
being almost gone, when lying on her bed, she frequently inquired for
Billy; but when she was told he was lying behind her, or sitting by
her, she was satisfied.
Thus she closed a long and laborious life, beloved and respected for
her many good qualities, and her consistent conduct. Billy died at
Scarsdale, Westchester county, New York, on the 4th of Third month,
1826, after a few days' illness, aged about eighty-seven years, and was
decently interred by the side of Jenny, on the 6th of the same month.
GEORGE HARDY.
During the winter of 1832, the writer of the narrative of which this
account is an abridgment, became acquainted with Hannah Hardy, an
interesting old colored woman, and her son George. They were the
suffering tenants of a miserable garret, lighted only by a few panes of
glass, and ill-secured from the inclemencies of the weather.
Hannah had been an industrious woman, who supported herself comfortably
for many years, until her sight, which had long been declining, so
nearly left her as to disqualify her for all kinds of work. George, who
was her youngest son, disclosed in his earliest years great quickness
of discernment and readiness of apprehension. He could read the Bible
when only four years old; and he continued to be remarkable for
docility, and for preferring his books and other profitable employments
to the idle sports of children.
When about eleven years old, he was placed from home, where he remained
until four years since, when he became so much diseased with scrofula
as to make it necessary for him to return to his mother. From that
time, she became his constant and only nurse, and evinced, through
numberless privations and difficulties, the most unwearied attention
and patient endurance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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