When I was in high school my friends and I found this tombstone in small roadside cemetery near Athens, Ga. Back then it was completely obscured by underbrush and thorny vines. It was nearly invisible from the nearest clearing 15 feet away.

Sometime in the past 30 years they have cleared this whole area making is visible for everyone who visits the cemetery.

This is what is carved on the well weathered and moss encrusted tombstone (spelled exactly as carved):

In memory of
UNCLE HARDY
A FAITHFUL
CHRISTIAN BLACK MAN
BORN ON THE PLANTATION
OF BARTON THRASHER,
NEAR SALEM GA. ABOUT
THE YEAR 1818. CAPABLE
AND INDUSTRIOUS HE LIVED
AND DIED ENRICHED BY THE
RESPECT AND AFFECTION OF
HIS PEOPLE FAITHFUL TO
THE END IN HIS LOYALTY TO
OLD MARSTER AND OLD
MISTRESS AND DEY CHILLUN
AND GRAN-CHILLUN. HE
PASSED INTO REST (FROM
HIS COMFORTABLE THO
HUMBLE HOME PROVIDED
BY ONE OF THEM) ON A BRI
GHT SPRING-DAY IN
APR. 1909

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