W. G. A.

DONNYBROOK, DUBLIN,
January, 1860.

A SHORT PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

I was born in Virginia, but not in slavery.  The early years of my life were spent partly in the small village of Urbanna, on the banks of the Rappahannock, partly in the city of Norfolk, near the mouth of the James’ River, and partly in the fortress of Monroe, on the shores of the Chesapeake.  I was eighteen years in Virginia.  My father was a white man, my mother a mulattress, so that I am what is generally termed a quadroon.  Both parents died when I was quite young, and I was then adopted by another family, whose name I bear.  My parents by adoption were both coloured, and possessed a flourishing business in the fortress of Monroe.

I went to school a year and a half in Norfolk.  The school was composed entirely of coloured children, and was kept by a man of color, a Baptist minister, who was highly esteemed, not only as a teacher, but as a preacher of rare eloquence and power.  His color did not debar him from taking an equal part with his white brethren in matters pertaining to their church.

But the school was destined to be of short duration.  In 1831, Nathaniel Turner, a slave, having incited a number of his brethren to avenge their wrongs in a summary manner, marched by night with his comrades upon the town of Southampton, Virginia, and in a few hours put to death about one hundred of the white inhabitants.  This act of Turner and his associates struck such terror into the hearts of the whites throughout the State, that they immediately, as an act of retaliation or vengeance, abolished every colored school within their borders; and having dispersed the pupils, ordered the teachers to leave the State forthwith, and never more to return.

I now went to the fortress of Monroe, but soon found that I could not get into any school there.  For, though being a military station, and therefore under the sole control of the Federal Government, it did not seem that this place was free from the influence of slavery, in the form of prejudice against color.  But my parents had money, which always and everywhere has a magic charm.  I was also of a persevering habit; and what therefore I could not get in the schools I sought among the soldiers in the garrison, and succeeded in obtaining.  Many of the rank and file of the American army are highly educated foreigners; some of them political refugees, who have fled to America and become unfortunate, oftentimes from their own personal habits.  I now learned something of several languages, and considerable music.  My German teacher, a common soldier, was, by all who knew him, reputed to be both a splendid scholar and musician.  I also now and then bought the services of other teachers, which greatly helped to advance me.

Many of the slaveholders aided my efforts.  This seems like a paradox; but, to the credit of humanity, be it said, that the bad are not always bad.  One kind-hearted slaveholder, an army officer, gave me free access to his valuable library; and another slaveholder, a naval officer, who frequented the garrison, presented me, as a gift, with a small but well selected library, which formerly belonged to a deceased son.