The infamous Governor Dunmore, the cruel Colonel Tarleton, and the
murderous and thieving Bill Cunningham and Colonel Fannin, both
Tories, and the latter natives to the soil, were presented graphically
to me in their most hateful forms. In truth, before I had attained my
seventh year, I was familiar with the history of the partisan warfare
waged between Whig and Tory in North and South Carolina, from 1776 to
1782, from this good but garrulous old lady. I am not so certain she
was good: she had a temper of her own, and a will and a way of her
own; and was good-natured only when permitted this way without
opposition, or cross. Perhaps I retain a more vivid memory of these
peculiar traits than of any others characterizing her. She permitted
no contradiction, and exacted implicit obedience, and this was well
understood by everything about her. She was strict and exacting, and
had learned from Solomon that to "spare the rod was to spoil the
child." She read the Bible only; and it was the only book in the
house. This Bible is still in existence; it was brought by my
grandfather from Europe, and is now covered with the skin of a fish
which he harpooned on his return voyage, appropriating the skin to
this purpose in 1750.
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