But that dear old mammy of mine, I mean to stick by her as long as there is a piece of her.

I can't go over to the army an' leave her behind, for if I did, an' anything should happen, I would never forgive myself." "But couldn't you take her with you," said Robert, "the soldiers said we could bring our women." "It isn't that.

The Union army is several miles from here, an' my poor mammy is so skeery that, if I were trying to get her away and any of them Secesh would overtake us, an' begin to question us, she would get skeered almost to death, an' break down an' begin to cry, an' then the fat would be in the fire.

So, while I love freedom more than a child loves its mother's milk, I've made up my mind to stay on the plantation.
I wish, from the bottom of my heart, I could go.

But I can't take her along with me, an' I don't want to be free and leave her behind in slavery.