Nightingales are Singing

John Fearn Francis, the Overseer of slaves on Jesse Godbehere's plantation in Mansfield, Louisiana before the American Civil War, was a highly successful manager who had an outstanding reputation for high productivity with the slaves in his charge. John's strongly-held Christian values of love, self discipline and empowerment motivated him to teach others such values by word and example. As a result Moses Bailey and his daughter, Frances were steeped in this same spirit which became a driving force for good in the emerging mixed society of the South.