At that time a journey from Virginia over the mountains to West Virginia was rather a tedious and in some cases a painful undertaking.

What little clothing and few household goods we had were placed in a cart, but the children walked the greater portion of the distance, which was several hundred miles.
I do not think any of us ever had been very far from the plantation, and the taking of a long journey into another state was quite an event.

The parting from our former owners and the members of our own race on the plantation was a serious occasion.

From the time of our parting till their death we kept up a correspondence with the older members of the family, and in later years we have kept in touch with those who were the younger members.

We were several weeks making the trip, and most of the time we slept in the open air and did our cooking over a log fire out-of-doors.