OR, THE LONG MOSS SPRING. A Tale of the South. BY MRS. CAROLINE LEE HENTZ. AUTHOR OF "LINDA," "RENA," "COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE," "THE T. B. PETERSON AND BROTHERS, 1852 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by A. HART, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. COLLINS, PRINTER. に ADDRESS TO THE READER. Ir nady be that those who dwell in Northern latitudes may believe that we have thrown too fair a colouring over our pictures of Southern life, and that we have attempted to palliate traits in themselves harsh and repulsive. Being a native of the North, and a dweller of the South, with affections strongly clinging to both of the beautiful divisions of our common country, we trust that we have brought to the task an unprejudiced mind, a truthful spirit, an earnest and honest purpose. and It has been our destiny to be something of a wanderer, and to dwell in several of the Southern States, and we can say, in all truth and sincerity, that the view of the social institutions of the South presented in the following pages is what we ourselves have witnessed; and as no one will accuse us of having set down aught in malice, so we can assert we have in nothing extenuated. We believe, if the domestic manners of the South were more generally and thoroughly known at the North, the prejudices that have been gradually building up a wall of separation between these two divisions of our land would yield to the irresistible force of conviction. The description of Mr. Bellamy's plantation is drawn from the real, not the ideal. The incident recorded of Mrs. Bellamy, of her endeavouring to rescue the mulatto girl from the flames at the risk of her own life, occurred during the last winter in our city. The lady who really performed the heroic and self-sacrificing deed is a friend of our own, and we saw her when her scarred and bandaged hands hore witness to her humanity and sufferings. 7 The chivalry of the sable pilot, and the disinterestedness and heroism of the lady whom he rescued, were exhibited, about a year since, on the waters of the Chattahoochee. We have seen devotion and fidelity equal to Aunt Milly's, and the magnanimity of Hannibal has many a prototype among the dark sons of Africa. Under circumstances of peculiar interest has this work been written. The perusal of its chapters, as they have been completed day after day, has beguiled the weary and painful hours of an invalid husband, whose suggestive mind has corresponded to the movements of our own: and when we have seen disease thus robbed of its sting, and confinement of its depressing influence, we have hoped the work might find its way to the couch of some other sufferer, and occasion even a temporary oblivion of anguish. We have also had the privilege of reading the manuscript to some intelligent and literary friends; and when we recall the interest they have manifested in its pages, and the frank and hearty encouragement they have given us during its progress, we feel emboldened to hope, that the public will judge us as kindly, and do equal justice to the motives that actuated us. |