  1. MY DEAR CHILDREN,—This is the last letter which I shall write to you from abroad. I hope to sail for home in a week's time. I shall send you a telegram to tell you when I shall arrive. You must all come to the station to meet me. 2. Look at the globe and find North America. The northern half is called Canada, and the southern half is called the United States. I am now in New York, the largest city of the United States. 3. The people of the United States speak English. The forefathers of many of them came from our islands. But the United States do not belong to Britain. Their flag is not the Union Jack, but the Stars and Stripes. 4. This morning at breakfast a black man waited upon me. His skin was very dark, his lips were thick, and his hair was short and curly. 5. Are you not surprised to hear that there are black men in America? There are thousands of them in New York. In the southern part of the United States there are more black men than white men. 6. Most of the black men live in the hot part of the United States, where cotton and sugar are grown. White people cannot work in the cotton or sugar fields, because the sun is too hot for them. 7. The black people who live in the United States were born in America. They have never known any other land. America, however, is not their real home. They really belong to Africa. 8. How is it that we now find them in America? When the white men of America began to grow cotton and sugar, they needed black men to work in the fields. Men called "slavers" went to Africa in ships. They landed and pushed inland. When they came to villages they seized the people and drove them off to the ships. 9. The poor blacks, who were thus dragged from their home and kindred, were thrust into the holds of ships and carried to America. Sometimes they suffered much on the voyage. The weakest of them died, and were thrown overboard. 10. When they reached America they were sold to the cotton-growers and sugar-growers, who carried them off to work in the fields. Sometimes they were kindly treated; sometimes they were flogged to make them work. But whether kindly or cruelly treated, they were no longer men and women, but slaves. 11. This went on for many years. At last some kind-hearted men in the northern states said, "It is wicked to own slaves. All the slaves in America shall be set free." 12. The farmers of the south were very angry when they heard this, and said that they would not free their slaves. Then a fierce war broke out. The North beat the South, and when the war came to an end all the slaves in America were set free. 13. The blacks still work in the cotton and sugar and tobacco fields; but they now work for wages, just as I do. They are free to come and go as they please. 14. The darkies are very merry and full of fun. When their work is over they love to sing and dance to the music of the banjo. Some of their songs are very pretty. I will sing some of them to you when I come home. Good-bye, dears. I shall soon be with you now.—Your loving FATHER. |
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