Aunt Nancy was the mother of eight children,--six sons and two
daughters. Her eldest daughter, Sally, married a man named Thompson,
who was as quicktempered as his mother-in-law. After the war, Aunt Nancy
moved to Brunswick. Sally and her husband followed a year or two later.
In passing through Burke County, they camped for the night by the
roadside. The next morning Thompson ordered a white man, who had been
hired as a teamster, to perform some duty. Thompson's tone was so
peremptory that the man returned an insolent answer, and refused. In a
fit of rage, Thompson drew his sword, and severed the man's head from
his body with one swinging stroke. He then drove the team himself until
he came to the first house, where he gave information that he had cut
off a fellow's head at the camp down the road, and that they "had best
go and bury him." He then drove on, but was overtaken, arrested,
and lodged in jail at Waynesboro. As soon as Aunt Nancy heard of the
trouble, she made her appearance in the upcountry again. Within a few
days after her return, the jail was found open one morning, and
Thompson was gone. Speaking of this afterwards, Aunt Nancy was heard to
exclaim,--
"Drat 'em! that's the way with 'em all. When they get into trouble, they
always send for me!"
Not long after this episode, Mr. Benjamin Hart died. Aunt Nancy mourned
his loss for a while, and then married a young man. Then, as the saying
is, she "pulled up stakes," and moved to what is now the State of
Alabama, on the Tombigbee. There she had the French and the Spaniards
for neighbors, and she felt at home with neither race. She was bluntly,
emphatically, and unaffectedly American. To add to her troubles, a big
rain flooded the river, destroyed her crops, and surrounded her house.
This, with the French and Spaniards, was too much for her. She returned
to Georgia, but, finding her old home occupied by others, she settled in
Edgefield, S.C.
A Methodist society was formed in her neighborhood, and its influence
became so active that Aunt Nancy's conscience began to trouble her. She
listened to the preaching of the Word from a distance until she became
worried about her future state. She went to the meetinghouse, but found
the door closed against intruders. The deacon and members were holding
a class meeting. The closed door was no obstacle to Aunt Nancy. She cut
the fastening and walked in without ceremony. Once in, she found what
she wanted. She became an enthusiastic Methodist, and is said to have
fought Satan and sin as manfully as she fought the Tories and the
British.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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