"Yesterday there was a mass meeting of negroes, thousands of them were in town, eating, drinking, dancing, speechifying. Preaching and prayers also a popular amusement. They have no greater idea of amusement than wild prayers—unless it be getting married or going to a funeral.
In the afternoon I had some business on our place, the Hermitage. John drove me down. Our people were all at home—quiet, orderly, respectful, and at their usual work. In point of fact things looked unchanged. There was nothing to show that anyone of them had even seen a Yankee or knew that there was one in existence.
'We are in a new St Domingo all the same. The Yankees have raised the devil, and now they cannot guide him.'"
