Metaphor for Tobacco
After selling tobacco to other slaves and countrymen near the saltworks, Louis Hughes says, "'I was sharp, and bought up all the silver I could find.'" He used silver as a metaphor for tobacco because of the amount of money he was profiting from it.
Simile for Matilda Hughes Bread and Rolls
Since Louis Hughes lived and worked in the headquarters at the saltworks, he was able to become a favorite of the state salt commissioner. Louis's wife, Matilda, also won his approval by her cooking. The commissioner said, "her bread and rolls...were as good as any he had ever tasted." The commissioner uses this simile to express that her cooking was some of the best he had ever tasted.
Metaphor for Unionist Lives After Yankee Invasion
After the union invaded John Collier Robertson's hometown, he realized that "the Yankee invasion had given the local unionists the upper hand." This metaphor displays that unionists in the area benefited from the Yankee invasion while Confederate sympathizers suffered.
Metaphor for Time of Invasion
Confederate sympathizers on the Confederacy's frontier feared that "Any day might bring another invasion, another season of chaos and ruin." The metaphor "season" is used to tell the time span that long chaos and ruin would follow after an invasion.
Metaphor for Group of Radical Union Raiders
The Robertson family, southern sympathizers, in Tennessee often witnessed "violence against secessionist families, carried out by bands of unionist guerrillas." The name "unionist guerrillas" is, in fact, the real term for this group of people, but there is a metaphor in the name itself. They often used unusual raid tactics and were savage during them similar to the similar sounding word "gorillas."
