The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

A NEGRO MEETING IN FULL BLAST, 5

253

world!"1 shouted the children in the carriage, imitating
exactly the voice and gesture of the orator. It was caught
up and repeated like a slogan by the youngsters in the rear
carriages, until the woods rang With the noisy refrain.
They attempted to sing the fugue tunes also, but gave up
after two or three unsuccessful trials.
There was but one topic of conversation at the lunch
table - the service of the morning. To most of our hosts,
as well as to the members of the Henderson family, the performance was as novel an exhibition as to myself. They
forbore to endorse these meetings by their presence.
"I1 honor religion by staying away from such disgusting
religious quackery," was Mr. Henderson's comment.
Young Mr. Blackstock informed us of a meeting among
his servants that afternoon, about two miles distant, and
offered to drive those over who wished to attend. As there
was to be a broomstick wedding of two of the field hands
after the meeting, three or four of the party, myself included,
accepted the invitation.
A terrible insurrection of the slaves in that neighborhood, less than ten years before, in 1831, was headed by one
Nat Turner, a powerful negro exhorter, and the massacre
was inspired, stimulated, and led by negro preachers. The
dreadful details of this affair were fresh in the memories of
the white people, who regarded negro preachers with great
disfavor, and they were forbidden to preach anywhere
except on the plantations where they belonged. " Uncle
Aaron," one of Mr. Blackstock's best servants, was to be the
preacher of the afternoon. We found nearly two hundred
servants assembled, and the meeting in full blast when