Browsing named entities in John James Geer, Beyond the lines: A Yankee prisoner loose in Dixie. You can also browse the collection for Virginia (Virginia, United States) or search for Virginia (Virginia, United States) in all documents.

Your search returned 11 results in 6 document sections:

their boasted victory was a bloody defeat, they became more charitable in their opinions. I became well satisfied from the conversation I overheard from rebel officers and visitors, during my incarceration here, that a favorite doctrine of Dixie is to adjust their peculiar institution in such a way as to include the poor whites as well as the colored people as chattel property. I was here visited by two rebel captains belonging to Bushrod Johnston's staff, one of whom was a lawyer from Virginia, named McMoore. These men conversed freely on the times. Both of them expressed themselves as decidedly in favor of an American Aristocracy! They argued, with as much earnestness and ability as their vocabulary furnished words, the imbecility of Republican government; and to prove the immutability of their opinions, cited to me the semi-idiotic and degraded clayeaters of the South, saying: What do these men know of civil institutions, and what right have they to vote? Said I,
, before returning across the field, I rapped on a rail, which instantly drew his attention. When I caught his eye, I beheld an intellect and a sympathy languaged there which gave me hope. I approached the old man with trembling step and faltering voice, I know, for there was danger of communicating with some excitable and treacherous slave-although such are rare cases-yet I ventured to speak to my wondering auditor. I approached that cotton-field, half famished as I was, with many of my Virginia prejudices against the negroes, for I had been taught to regard them as unreliable and stupid. But I felt that death was in the swamp, and life might be in the cotton-field. Well, uncle, said I, I am traveling through your country, and I am very ragged, as you see. I don't wish to call on white folks in this condition, and I am very hungry. Could you get me something to eat? Oh, yes, massa! God bless you! all you want; but go back! go back! he continued, waving his hand, as if
the subject. John Sinclair had written to Washington concerning the difference of the land in Pennsylvania from that of Virginia and Maryland. Washington's answer was this: Because there are in Pennsylvania laws for the gradual abolition of slavery, which neither Maryland nor Virginia has at present; but there is nothing more certain than that they must have, and at a period not remote. The sheriffs statement regarding the liberation of his slaves, was the same as that of John Randolph, Governor of Virginia. The latter said: The deplorable error, of our ancestors in copying a civil institution from savage Africa, has affixed to their posterity, a depressing burden, which nothing but the extraordinary benefits confered s bountiful. It is painful to consider what might have been, under other circumstances, the amount of general wealth in Virginia, or the whole sum of comfortable subsistence and happiness possessed by all her inhabitants. --Addressed to the Legislat
the negroes. Our next stopping-place was far from agreeable, for every one in it was a strong secessionist-so strong indeed, that, when they found out our characters, they utterly refused to give us anything to eat. They did not object to the sheriff having anything he wanted, but not with us. The keeper of the house at which we were, cursed fearfully, swearing that the d-d Yankees shouldn't have a morsel of food. The sheriff, however, pacified him at last by telling him that I was from Virginia, and that, although I was in the Yankee army, still I was as pro-slavery a man as himself. This made matters a little better, and the surly host proceeded to question me. I baffled him, however, by saying: What paper do you take? We don't take none, said he, fur I can't read. Have you ever been in a fight? he quickly added to his reply. I answered in the affirmative. Have you ever seed a gunboat? Yes, I rejoined. He then became much interested, and was not satisfie
oyed, and we appreciated it accordingly. Along the route the rebels were extremely anxious to converse with us, but we remained decidedly silent, for the least word, inconsiderately spoken, would have placed us at the mercy of a mob, and we well knew what result would follow that. We were often insulted by such expressions as Yankee thieves, nigger-stealers, &c. With no other incidents than these, we reached Atlanta in safety. Here we found a large number of Confederate wounded from Virginia, for whom large tables had been set out, spread with what food and luxuries could be obtained. As I was still dressed in the ragged Confederate uniform in which I had escaped from prison, a lady hailed me, to know if I was a soldier. Of course, I answered yes, and for a moment hesitated about the rest of my answer; but, thinking any other course might be productive of ill, I added that I was a United States soldier, and of course could not expect to share in a meal set out specially fo
ecdote I once heard, of a man named John Williams. John was a poor, lazy coward himself, while his wife was just the reverse. Moving to a mountainous region in Virginia, they got a little cabin and lot of ground. One day Lucy, his wife, was working in the garden, while John was nursing the baby. Suddenly an old, hungry bear waferson a sum exceeding twenty thousand dollars, to be laid out in the purchase of young female slaves, who were to be both educated and emancipated. The laws of Virginia prevented the will of Kosciusko from being carried into effect-1820. A tyrant power had captured nine hundred and twenty Sardinian slaves, of whom General Wgainst her, as to doing him injury, exclaimed loudly: You did it yourself! you did it yourself! As we traveled to Mason, near the State line, between Virginia and North Carolina, we came to a stream across which was a trestle bridge. Upon reaching the bridge, a rebel soldier who had been standing on the platform of th