10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



Just seventeen years before the immortal 

 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclama- 

 tion, in the city of Raleigh, ^orth Carolina, 

 of Richard and Flora Shepard, both slaves, 

 was born Augustus Shepard. A great man was 

 once asked the secret of his greatness, his im- 

 mediate and proverbial r.eply was, ^'I was born 

 right." By that he meant he was the son of 

 an honest parentage. Such might be truly 

 said of the illustrious character of the sketch- 

 Richard and Flora w^ore the manacles of slav- 

 ery, but never a more honest and upright pair 

 lived. Although deprived of the learning 

 which has its place in shaping the lives of chil- 

 dren in the home, yet they so fully possessed 

 a character without stain, and a confidence in 

 their Heavenly Father, they were enabled to 

 hand down to their posterity that which will 

 live when glittering gold becomes '^sordid dust." 



Of this union there were seven children, but 

 like Joseph, in the family of Jacob, Augustus 

 outstripped them all in the race of life. It is but 

 just to say that all of them were honest and 

 upright, and bore marks of piety and religious 

 life. Robert, along the line of orphan work 

 especially, has distinguished himself; and Sal- 



