One of our youngest teachers said: “I reached the place in which I was to teach on ‘Big Meeting’ day, and the people were very angry to see me, for a daughter of the most prominent colored man of the place had been teaching there some years, and wished to continue. She was very incompetent, and the Commissioner had sent for me. The father electioneered for his daughter at the ‘big meeting,’ told them she would wait on them for their pay; she would be there if there was but one scholar; she’d always look after her chickens, etc.; but the Commissioner said to them: ‘This young man can write the best hand in the county, and you’d better take him.’ So, after offering to teach for a very little from the patrons, I got the school. A white man had given the people some land if they would build a church. They did so, but used it during the week for school. This made the donor of the land angry, as he did not wish them to have a school. The year before he and his wife went to the building, drove off the teacher, and then he nailed up the door on the inside, while his wife stood on guard with his gun. This summer, when my school was nearly through, the building was burned. It was very plain who did it. So, for the little while, we all went to a cotton-gin house. We laid some shingles down for a floor, and hauled some logs in for seats. A paper laid over the gin served for my desk. We had our closing exercises under a bush arbor. One day I asked the children, ‘How many drink whiskey?’ Twenty or thirty held up their hands and said ‘pa and ma drink it, and give it to me.’” Another says: “I see great improvement in old people and children. Good many own land and are still buying. One man owns two hundred acres. Another bought some land for eight hundred dollars, and paid half last year, and is in a fair way to pay the rest this year. I did not ask a boy or girl to quit whiskey or tobacco, but I preached temperance by example and quiet conversation. There is harmony between the races. They visit each other’s churches. The bell of a white church tolled for a colored woman. This year I had my first exhibition, because I thought they better learn to read and write first, then exhibit after they had something to show. Prepared the children after school. All the white people attended.”