THE LEOPARD’S Spots A Romance Of The White Man’s Burden--1865-1900 By Thomas Dixon, Jr. Illustrated By C. D. Williams New York:Doubleday, Page & Co. 1902 [Illustration: 0001] [Illustration: 0008] [Illustration: 0009] TO HARRIET SWEET-VOICED DAUGHTER OF THE OLD FASHIONED SOUTH HISTORICAL NOTE In answer to hundreds of letters, I wish to say that all the incidents used in Book I., which is properly the prologue of my story, were selected from authentic records, or came within my personal knowledge. The only serious liberty I have taken with history is to tone down the facts to make them credible in fiction. The village of “Hambright” is my birthplace, and is located near the center of “Military District No. 2,” comprising the Carolinas, which were destroyed as States by an Act of Congress in 1867. It will be a century yet before people outside the South can be made to believe a literal statement of the history of those times. I tried to write this book with the utmost restraint. Thomas Dixon, Jr. May 9, 1902. Elmington Manor, Dixondale, Va. LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY Scene: The Foothills of North Carolina-Boston-New York Time: From 1865 to 1900 Charles Gaston...........Who dreams of a Governor’s Mansion Sallie Worth.............A daughter of the old fashioned South Gen. Daniel Worth..................................Her father Mrs. Worth...........................................Sallie’s mother The Rev. John Durham.........A preacher who threw his life away Mrs. Durham........Of the Southern Army that never surrendered Tom Camp.....................A one-legged Confederate soldier Flora....................................Tom’s little daughter Simon Legree........Ex-slave driver and Reconstruction leader Allan McLeod..............................A Scalawag Hon. Everett Lowell..........Member of Congress from Boston Helen Lowell........................His daughter Miss Susan Walker.................A maiden of Boston Major Stuart Dameron..............Chief of the Ku Klux Klan Hose Norman.......................A dare-devil poor white man Nelse........................A black hero of the old régime Aunt Eve.....................His wife-“a respectable woman.” Hon. Tim Shelby...................Political boss of the new era Hon. Pete Sawyer.........Sold seven times, got the money once George Harris, Jr............An Educated Negro, son of Eliza Dick.......................................An unsolved riddle THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS BOOK ONE--LEGREE’S REGIME CHAPTER I--A HERO RETURNS ON the field of Appomattox General Lee was waiting the return of a courier. His handsome face was clouded by the deepening shadows of defeat. Rumours of surrender had spread like wildfire, and the ranks of his once invincible army were breaking into chaos.