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9. The ruffians marched us back down Greenwood to First Street, thence on First Street to Main Street,thence on Main Street to Brady Street and thence on Brady Street to convention hall.You see,this was one of the many places of detention,refuge or whatever you wish to call it,to which my Race was taken when dislodged from its home.Here, those who cared to accept the fare,the people were fed and watered like so many cattle by the benefactors(?) who had allowed the mob to take their government away from them and trample their laws and constitution under their unhallowed and barbarous feet.Here,I saw the colored lady of refinement,culture and good breeding placed on an absolute equality with the prostitute and street walker of the Race.Here, a saw some of the fine matrons of the Race wrapped only in their night gowns,having been ejected from their homes so hurridly until they did not even have time to dress.Here,I saw a mother,in a dark corner of that mammoth building,giving birth--premature birth--to a babe and I heard its husky cries,for the first time,amid this strange,unseemly and wicked surrounding. And from sun rise to sun set,I passed through scenes and experiences that baggar description. They were like unto--if not worse than--The Last Days of Pompeii,as described by Bulwer Lytton.During that bloody day,I lived a thousand years,in the spirit, at least. I lived the whole experiences of the Race;the experiences of royal ancestry beyond the sea; experiences of the slave ships on their first voyage to America with their human cargo; experiences of American slavery and its concomitant evils;experiences of loyalty and devotion of the Race to this nation and its flag in war and in peace;and I thought of Ross back yonder, out yonder,in his last stand,no doubt,for the protection of home and fire side and of old Mother Ross left homeless in the even-tide of her life.I thought of the place the preachers call hell and wondered seriously if there was such a mystical place--It appeared, in this surrounding--that the only hell was the hell on this earth,such as the Race was then passing through. For fully forty eight hours,the fires raged and burned everything in its path and it left nothing but ashes and burned safes and trunks and the like where once stood beautiful homes and business houses.And so proud, rick [[rich]], black Tulsa was destroyed by fire--that is its buildings and property;but its spirit was neither killed nor daunted.It is however not within the purpose of this true story to dwell on this;nor is it our
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Reopened for Editing 2023-05-03 11:31:13