The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 9: Poetry and Eloquence.
Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ed.

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Illustration for ‘the year of jubilee’

The crinoline of the old ‘auntie’ in the center and the quaint sunbonnets of her companions are distinguishing marks of the war-time scene—a Mississippi plantation, where the darkies have gathered to relieve some of the lonesomeness of which Work writes. It was one of the noteworthy features of the war that the people who, before the conflict, had been supposed to be on the point of rising and inaugurating a race-war, remained quietly at work on the large plantations. Frequently only women were left to direct the labor of the slaves. Several diaries from various parts of the South tell of the continued affection and even devotion of these colored people. It is only of the close of the war that the scenes in The year of Jubilee can be imagined. But the picture above is typical of all the four years of the conflict and of later negro life.

‘De Darkeys got so lonesome’