Transcription
This day has ushered in a new era in the History of the Country one which marks the arrest and imprisonment of women, for political opinions! At eleven o clock we we were notified by an officer, that my sister (a visitor) my two daughters and myself were by the orders of the Government to be taken from our house, and conveyed as prisoners to another place of confinement. We immediately prepared with courageous hearts, inspired with the thought that we were suffering in a noble cause, and determined that so to bear ourselves, as not to shame our southern countrywomen. My dear husband was my chief sorrow. For ourselves, conscious we had done no wrong, we fear nothing.
[ . . . ]
Again I ask myself what is my crime?
If an ardent attachment to the land of my birth, and the expression of deepest sympathy with my relatives and friends in the South, constitute treason—then am I indeed a traitor—! If hostility to Black Republicanism, its sentiments, and policy— is a crime— I am self condemned—! If detestation of this unholy war, inaugurated by party lust—is deserving punishment, then am I worthy of its severest penalties—! and thus suffering, I would shout Hosannas for the glorious cause of southern independence.
Although my heart sickens and the future looks dark, some indefinable emotion, whispers courage and promises that the day of reckoning will soon come.
