You who lived in the North before the war, and you who are younger and
have read about the auction block, the slave driver and the
cottonfield cannot understand the attachment between one of these
colored mothers and the white boy or girl she nursed. I know whereof I
speak, for I revere the memory of my old black mammy.
There are verses, written by whom I do not know, the words of which I
cannot recall except a line here and there, hence I take the liberty
to supply the missing lines and revise the verses to express my
feelings for the slave mammy of my childhood.
"She was only a dear old darkey,
In a cabin far away,
Down in the sunny Southland,
Where sunbeams dance and play.
Yet oft in dreams I hear her crooning,
Crooning soft and low:
'Sleep on, baby boy,
The sleep will make you grow.'
"Oft when tired of fighting
In a world so full of wrong;
When wearied and worried
With the tumult and the throng,
I seek again the cabin,
Where dwelt a heart of gold
And in dreams she loves and pets me,
As she did in days of old.
"Oh, my dear old colored mammy,
In the cabin far away,
Since you rocked me in the cradle
Seems forever and a day.
Yet in dreams I hear you crooning
Above my cradle nest;
'Sleep on, baby boy,
Mammy watches while you rest.'"
A white baby, whose mother was ill for months, was given to one of
these colored mothers to nurse.
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