SLAVERY UNMASKED By PHILO TOWER. KOCIIKSTEK, N. Y. : E. DARROW & CO.. PUBLISHERS. —1802.— SLAVERY UNMASKED: BEING A ^^^ TRUTHFUL NARRATIVE ^^'^ OF A THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE AND JOURNEYING IN ELEVEN SOUTHERN STATES: TO WniCII IS ADDED THE INVASION OF KANSAS, INCLUDING THE LAST CHAPTER OF HER WRONGS. i BY KEV. PHILO TOWER. FIAT .lUSTITIA UJ/AT (;^CELyJH..^ ...... .^ ROCHESTER : PUBMSIIED BY E. DARROW A BROTnEU, C5 MAIN AND 2 ST. PACL STS. 1850. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, By E. DARROW & BROTHER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York. DAILY ".AlJtfoa'lSKk.Ci'SEiiS, KOCUESTKR, S. V. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The author starts for the South — Arrival at New York —Starting Expedition — Went to the Park — Down Broadway — Barnum'a Museum — To the Methodist Book Room — Takes the cars tor Washington — Pauses at Philadelphia for dinner — Starts again at three — Baltimore — Arrival at Washington — Stopped at the National — Midnight Promenade — Senator Walbridgc — Went to the While House — Introduction to President Fill- more — National Gallery — Franklin's Press — Smithsonian In- stitute — Capitol Hill — Senate Hall — Tour through the build- ings — Pictures on the Wall — View from roof of Capitol — Population of Washington — General aspect of the City — Pub- lic Buildings — Public Squares — Slavery — Solomon Northrup — Emonson Family — Tragic Scene — Start for Richmond. CHAPTER 11. Richmond — Its locality, institutions and business aspects — Situation of the city — Its streets — The Capitol — City Hall — Monumen- tal Church — Water-power — Articles of produce — Slave mart — Slave breeders — Rice grounds — Slave girl flogged into criminal intercourse with her master — Premium oft'ered by a master to white men for improving the stock of his slaves, &c. — Internal slave trade — Profits thence accruing — Isaac Williams' thrilling narrative — Dullness of Richmond — Start for Wil- mington, N. C. — Pass large plantations — Scenes appear anti- progressive — North Carolina forests — Arrival at Wilmington. CHAPTER III. Wilmington — Its site, locality and institutions — appearance from a distance — Its population, commerce, hotels, churches — Sab- IV CONTENTS. baths here — Went to M. E. Church South — Sacraments — No colored pastors here — Number of colored communicants — Sabbath desecration — Inhumanity of slave holders — Frightened fugitive — Hounds upon his track — They tree him — Hounds taught to regard the slave as his natural enemy — Puppies taught to hunt slaves — Torture of young Harry — Negro in the creek — Dogs attack him — Drowned himself — Thrilling narrative of John Little. CHAPTER IV. Charleston — Its locality, institutions of blood, groans, &c. — Arrival at Charleston — Promenade through the market — Large com- mercial city — Fort Moultrie — Nullificrs — South Carolina Arse- nal—Early history of Charleston — Shade trees — Dwellings — Churches — Hotels — scarcity of southern Artists — Classes of society — Poor whites — Dined with a slaveholder — Slaves let out — Municipal regulations — Slave mother's babe sold from lier — Slave with an iron collar on — Lower law inquisition — Beautiful Quadroon tortured by the inquisitors — Old Austrian Haynau outdone — Torture of a captured fugitive — Murder of poor Pompey — Black Jed in the stocks — City gossip — Slave Auction — Boarding with an ex-clergyman — Lady inquisitor — Slaves chief wealth of the south -— Dialogue with the slave of a clergyman — No St. Clair's or little Eva's — Imaginary life of the southerner — The martyred slave — Item of black code - Improved inquisitorial tortue — human head stuck upon a pole — The Charlestonians. CHAPTER V. Columbia — Its situation, institutions, &c. — Start for Columbia — Country through which we passed — Carolina swamps — Colum- bia a fine appearing town — The state house — Hotels — Sell men and women here — No prospect of escape for the poor slave — Torture of a poor slave woman in the public streets — Ramble to the wooden bridge — Brick yard — Southern hatred of Abolitionists — Negro fishing — Dialogue with old fisherman — Master came up — Dialogue with a .slave mother — Incredulity CONTENTS.' V of the old woman — Rotuin to Charloston — Start for Savan- nah, fieorgia — Pa'^'^ago — Rice Holds on Savannah river — Southerncrd read ruele Tom's Cabin. CHAPTER VI. Savannah — Its history, locality, institutions, &c. — Situation of Sa- vannah — Its streets and parks — Pulaski House — Old Fort or battle ground — The \yriter's reflections on this field — Anglo Hessian descendants — Soldier in the Mexican war — Visited the garrison with him — Georgia colony and slavery — Wesley and Whiteficld — Patriotic Georgians — Cruel torture of a slave woman — Public whipping of a young mulatto man — Slavery and its apologists — Slaves treated worse here than dumb brutes — Food of slaves in Georgia — Plantation side view of slavery — Slave huts — Exposure to the beating storms — Wearing apparel — Master in the midst of his slaves with pistol in one hand and long knife in the other — Unmerciful flogging of a slave — Manner of whipping slaves — Sometimes die under the lash — Negro sermon — Cathauling — Negro shot down — Afiico-.Vmerican race springing up here — Plantation life con- tinued — Jesuits of slavery willing northern apologists — beast- ly, barbarous conduct towards a slave woman — Man tied to a tree and received three hundred lashes — Poor Ike flogged almost to deith — Bu-iness aspects of Savannah — Slaves have no beds — John and the northerner — Col. H.'s plantation — Blood and murder — Murder of Cuffee — Slave burning — Return north — Storm at sea — Saw a whale — Arrival at New York — Take the car.s for Cincinnati — Arrival there. CHAPTER VII. Cincinnati — Its progress, locality, Fugitive Slave Scenes, &c. kc. — A chapter on Cin.-innati called for — Undergroun 1 railroads here — Liberty and slavery meet in open combat — Cincinnati the great metropolis of the west — Its situation — Its streets — Its Levee — Its public buildings — Cincinnati College — Mer- cantile Library — Melodeon Hall — Masonic Hall — Burnet House — The Cincinnati Observatory — Great Equatorial Tele- VI CONTENTS. scope — Churches — Institutions — Western Methodist Book Room — Commerce — Trade of the city — Manufactures — Population — Underground railroad — Stock increasing — The writers stand here — Underground railroad company — kind- ness of Friend Obadiah, the superintendent — conversation with the fugitives — Rev. Mrs. H. one of the conductors — Her es- cape from the blood-hounds of Kentucky — Rebecca, Obadiah's companion — Colored orphan asylum — Slave hunters all round — Black Robert begging for the freedom of his wife — Missis" sippi slave woman — IIow she escaped — Introduction to the fugitives — Dialogue with them — Arrest of five fugitives and murder of a child — The inquest on the child — The object of the habicas corpus — The slave mother Margaret — The slave mother Margaret taken down south again — Slave case — curi- ous developments — The mail boat for Louisville — Arrival there. CHAPTEE VIII. Louisville — Its position, locality, and institutions — Landing scene — Finding a boarding house — Louisville a large city — Has a great business aspect — Many eastern men here — Cassius M. Clay among the Kentuckians — Slavery here — Negro droviers — Rev. Mr. King — An apostate minister — Colored church — Heard a negro sermon — Dialogue with l)lack Sam — Cassius M. Clay's opinion of slavery — Kentucky chivalry — U. S. Austrio- American despotism. CHAPTER IX. Passage to New Orleans — The Ohio — New Albany — Salt River — First evening in the saloon — Slavery on one side and freedom on the other — Get upon the shoals — Religious tracts — Had sacred music on Sundays — Cairo and the Mississippi — South- erners aboard — Northerner going to Texas — Presbyterian merchant of Alabama — New Yorker — Fugitive in irons — Memphis — Fugitive sold here on the auction block — Casper Ilauser — Chickasaw bluffs — Slave camp — Arkansas — Man drowned — Vicksburg — Slave church — Gamblers hung — CONTENTS. Vll Grand Gulf — Irishman drowned — Natchez — Red River — Baton Rouge — Bayou Placqucminc — Bayou La Fouchic — Donaldsonville — Broad Mississippi — Pass a large ship — Car- rollton — First sight of rotunda of the St. Cliarlcs — A forest of masts — A forest of smoke pipes — Enter New Orleans. CHAPTER X. New Orleans — Its mixed masses — The Levee — Its i)anor;iinie scenes — Situation of the city — Its length — Levee embank- ment — Old streets — Public Squares — Old city proper — 'Three municipalities — Its boat navigation — Its commerce — Public building.s — Dc Soto — Character of New Orleans a cen- tury ago — Its character now — Algiers — Marine IIos[iital — Yellow Fever — Cypress Grove Cemetery — Marks of the de- stroyer — Population — New Orleans under the Spaniards — * Louisiana sold to the United States — Sources of disease — - Reign of Terror — Black Bob sent off to starve — Slave auction — Harry Hill — Murder of stubborn Bill — Follow the gang to their quarters — Enter the large room — Sir Hyena — The young Quadroon — Sale of Jack to a clergyman — Parting scene between Jack and his wife — Anniversary of battle — Battle Field — Mysteries of New Orleans — Southern amalgama- tion — Slave girls as bed companions — A father hires a white young man to marry his quadroon daughter — Man sold his whole family — Free colored people — Intelligent colored ladies — Fandango ball — Seven slaves hung — Old man chained — on his knees — Woman whipped to death — Bob killed by his master — Miss Julia K., of Kentucky — Woman whipped to death at the stake gave birth to child at same time — Chain gang of women — Pious slaveholding ladies — Woman whipping — Slave marriage — iron collar — Break down wliipping — Slave barracoons — Quadroons bought for bed companions — Houses of assignation — Low brothels — Kept mistcesses. CHAPTER XI. Poor whites — Number of slaveholders — De Bow — Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia — Non-slaveholding whites VUl CONTENTS. — How regarded south — M. Traver — Distressing picture — White labor — Mr. Tavlor's views — Wm. Gregg, Esq. — White population of South Carolina — Gov. Hammond — No manufac- turies South — Low wages South — Richmond Dispatch — Ignor- ance of Southern whites — Southern Agriculture rude and shift- less — Poor whites are hunters — Mr. Montgomery on Cotton — Emigrants from slave to free states — White population of free states double to that of slave states — Extension of area of slav- ery no benetit to the slaves. CHAPTEH XII. The effects of slavery on labor — Free labor vs. slave labor — Cen- sus of 1850 — Slavery stagnates progress — Contrast — Penn- sylvania and Virginia — Ohio and Kentucky — De Bow's com- pendium — Slavery retards natural increase of population — Depreciates value of land — Wastes the resources of a comftm- nity — In fifty years Virginia sunk four degrees — Ohio accu- mulates wealth — Kentucky remains poor — Nine northern states have a total area of only 134,556 square miles — Ten southern states an area 427,9*79. CHAPTER Xni. Southern morality and ruffianism — Blood, blood, blood — Fearful revelations, &c. — Burning of a human being — Negro burn^ ed to death — An editor killed — Duel fought — Shooting of Rees Murry — Father shot his daughter — Murder of Frank Hyatt — P. C. Buthell stabbed — Bowie knife fight — Mr. Har- ris butchered — A son cut his father's head open with an axe — ■ Brother murdered his sister — Wife stabbed — Five slaves hung — Duel in Korth Carolina — Lynch law — Brutal Murder — T. Jones killed by his own son — Atrocious Murder — Negro woman killed by her son-in-law — Double murder — A Monster — Bloody deed — Duel fought by two boys — John Casena killed by his wife — Bloody fight vs. southern chivalry — Murder and negro hanging — Man and wife murdered by a slave — Horrible tragedy — Murder of an overseer — Burning of a Negro — Slave whipped to death — Slave girl murdered by her mistress CONTENTS. IX Lyiuh livw in Virginia — Desperate afTiay — Munli'iin Mem- plus — Fatal affair — Negro figiit — Suicide of a nlave niotlicr and her two children — llrutalily of a slave girl — A planter killed by his negro overseer — Horrid Affair in Missouri — F. Deuibriski shot — Negro killed by an Overseer — Negress mur- dered her Master — Duellist — Blood and ruffinij^ni in New Orleans. CIIArTER XIV. Slavery and the Sabbath — Southern Sabbath desecration — Shock- ing to a New Englander — Sabbath in Charleston — Sabbath a holiday — Sabbath in New Orleans — Horse racing on Sunday — Theatres open - Authorities sanction it — Wasliington So- ciety Ball — Masked Balls — Grand Balloon Ascension — Pon- ehartraiu ball room for white persons Sunday and tiuadroons Mondays, &c. — Assemblage of lewd women — Prostitutes masked — Women admitted free — Masked wives and husbands Bull Fight — Bull fight described — Appearance in the ring — Consumptive gamester died in a cock pit — Sabbath work- ing — Public Market. CHAPTER XV. Slavery and Religion — Physical cruelties of slavery — Social evils — Religious instructions of slaves — Number of slaves owned by clergy — Valu;ition of this cleric d human ttock — Pagan Rome outdone — Object of slave culture — Extent of slave culture — Slave privileges a mockery — Slave piety vs. auction block — Slave Mi-ssionary — Southern ecclessiastical report — Slave- holders piety — Preaching to slaves — Rev. Albert Barns — Looseness of Slave holding churches — Intemperance .^outh — Slave communion at S;ivannah — Slave religion — Butler's Is- land — Baptizing slaves — Dr. Nelson — Synod of South Caro- lina — Some slaves really pious. CHAPTER XVI. Spirit of slavery — Its influence upon the slave holders — Influ- ence of institutions upon the people — Slavery a state of war 1* X CONTENTS. — Type of southern manners — Southern politeness the polished covering of slavery — Aristocratic bearing of slaveholders — Cross his path and he is a tiger — Bully Brooks — rich southerners never hung — Southerners almost universally carry arms — Often shoot each other — Dr. Graham — Improvidence of southerners — Southern profusion vs. generosity — Southern penuriousness — Southerners anti-progressive — Southern idleness — Slave- holders lack energy — Slavery despots — Southerners ignorant — Southern hospitality hollow hearted — Southern gambling — Drunkenness — Colored gamblers — Party politics. CHAPTER XVn. Southern tourists versus slavery Apologists — Free states knowledge of slavery through northern tourists — Of whom are three classes — First, invalids — Second, pleasure takers — Third, Agents, Artists, &c. — Mr. H , — The writer's talk with Mr. II , after his return North — Clerical apologists for slavery — His pay for it — His relation to author of South side view of slavery — Soatliera hospitality a chain-gang plea — Fallacy of such pleas — John the Baptist — Alexander the tyrant — Chief Justice Henderson — N. P. Rogers — Stage driver — George Thompson — Judge Durells — Apologists of slavery would'nt be a slave — Epps, Lagrce k Co., — Slaves have feelings and affections like other men. CHAPTER XVIII. Slavery in Free States — Ecclesiastical and political slavery — Great Outrage — The letter of a clergyman respecting himself — Rev. T. B. McCormick — A native Kentuckian minister of a Cum- berland Presbyterian church — Thomas Brown — Indignation meeting — $500 Bribe to an Indiana Sheriff — Under-ground railroad business a grave offence — Unchurched a minister for engaging in it — Gov. Powell of Kentucky — Said Rev. Mc- Cormick not only expelled from the church, but driven out of his state by the slave power — Quaker bottom Virginians cross over into Ohio and break up an an anti-slavery meeting — Clubs and axes used — Several quiet people wounded. CONTENTS. XI ClIAPTEU XIX. Kansas, its invasion — The last chapter ot her wronj^s — Missouri ruflians — Law and order men — Depredations by tiic law and order ruffians — Twelve pound Howitzer — Shrcwdne.ss of Mr. BufVum — Free state ladies of Lawrence, patriotism of seventy- six — Ladies carrying powder into Lawrence — Gen. Robinson's laconic reply to a siiniiuons to surrender — Take them by instal- ments — Murder of Mr. Harber — Franklin — Marshal Jones — 70U men in camp — Disarming strangers — Northern editor dis- armed — Sent into a Ruffian camp — Gov. Shannon — Western Missourian fire — Abolitionists — Blue bellied Yankee — (Jen. Pomeroy attacked — Dialogue with the ruffians — Judge John- son lynched — Odd Fellowship — Rev. Gentleman goes to Kan- pas — Mobbed and sent down the Mississippi on a raft — Re- turn to Kansas — Mobbed by South Carolinians — Gen. Tut — Tarred and Feathered — Sacking of Lawrence — Franklin in danger — The Cox hoax — Beginning of the end — Jefferson on the bench — Anarchy and Revolution — Henry Ward Beech- er's rifles — 5:150,001 • plundered and destroyed at Lawrence — Arrest of G. W. Brown — Dr. Cutler — Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Jenkins — Jeffrey's Leconipte — Old revolutionary spirit yet alive — Beecher's bibles — Record of Kansas ruffianism — Illegal voters — Printing offices destroyed — Murders — Unlawful ar rests — Pretended laws — Incidents of the glorious victory — Letter from a grand Juror — No excuse for destroying Law- rence — Rapes — Stringfellow in a store — Horses stolen — Red Flag of the pirates — Mr. Chapin — Appeal of Mr. Brown Murder and Robberies — The exodus stopped — United States troops at Topeka — Pro-slavery men ordered to leave the territory — Volunteers for Kansas. AUTIIOirS PREFACE. The author is a clergyman of one of the Evangeli- cal Northern Churches. Being somewhat disabled by twenty years' pulpit labor, he sought the southern climate in which to recuperate his wasted energies. To accomplish wliich he engaged in several light agencies leading him tlirough portions of eleven slave states, keeping him south nearly three years. Unlike his brother tourist, author of South Side " View of Slavery," he was a colonizationist, and occupied strong pro-slavery grounds previous to his southern tour. Indeed, to that degree did he carry his pro-slavery sentiments, that many worthy members of his cliiirch were deeply grieved in consequence thereof, while others for the same reason declared him unworthy to preach the gospel. Entertaining these opinions, he started south, and publicly proclaimed them immediately on arriving at Charleston, S. C. He had not been long there, how- ever, before his convictions on the sul^ject became greatly modified, by matter of fact occurrences which Life ix the South forced upon his observations. XIV PREFACE. Having been solicited by a northern editor to become a weekly contributor to his paper, he complied, and wrote some sixty numbers, which appeared in his columns under the caption of "Southern Corres- pondenle" and over the signature of " Argus." On arriving north from New Orleans, through the advice of several clerical friends, the author was in- duced to throw the whole into book form and give it to the public. In accompUshing this design, the num- bers constituting said correspondence have been re- duced to chapters with an addition of eight new ones, all carefully revised, thus embracing nearly twice the amount of reading matter contained in the original numbers. A few selections have been made from the North Slde View of Slavery, Inside View of Slavery, from the Slave Code, &c., so that out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. The autlior would beg to assure all those who may honor his book with a perusal, that they shall not have been indulging in fictions ; but in facts, in realities, in history, written out in hlood and stereotyped with tears and groans. Those of his southern friends into whose hands it may chance to fall, he would assure that he takes pleasure in acknowledging their kind attentions to him PHKFACE. XV while in their midst, and i'ui-thcrmore, that no personal animosity or ill treatment from any person or persons in the slave-liolding states has innuoiiced his [x-n in the least. AVeiv ihe plan of this woi-k to allow it, many tliiiij^s might be said in favor of soutluM-ncrs and llu; south, whicli in these pages would aji[)oar ill-timMl and out of place. This ground being occupied by South Side Viewers and Northern Apologists^ it is not deemed meet that any intrusion should be made upon it. And finally, in as much as the author lays no special claim to literary merit, lie would request his readers to be indulgent in their criticisms, and also to malce al- lowance for the circumstances of time, })lace, and ill health of the author while bringing out the work ; all of whicli presented obstacles to be overcome the reader knows not of. INTUODUCTION. The ability of nations for self-government, we need scarcely state, is one of the great questions of the nine- teenth century. The frequent and stormy discussions of this subject are })roni|)tcd by events which Ibllow each other in such rapid and awful succession as to resemble the tragic scenes of some conqtlicated drama. In looking at the old world, we find governments which had subsisted undisturbed through long, long centuries of despotism, now fallen into a state of de- crepitude; and in some instances, their foundations have been desti'oyed by convulsions, requiring but a single hour comparatively to effect their overthrow. Circumstances of such a character are fearfully omi- nous to statesmen of the school of Montesquieu, Guizot, and Mettcrnich who have elaborated upon the philoso- phy of !^[onarchy, Ecpublics, and Revolutions, who sagely maintain that rcjiublican institutions are only adapted to ])Oor and thinly inhaljited countries, and that, as the United States of America become rich and po})ulous, democracy will die out and be superceded by aristocracy and monarchy. To this, it is only ne- cessary to remark, that the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, portions of the Union the wealthiest and most thickly ])0})ulated, — portions compared with which few districts of Euro])e stand 18 INTRODUCTION. very greatly ahead, are, at tlie same time, tlie most tlioroughly democratic ; having grown so just in pro- portion as wealth has increased, and population multi- plied — a phenomenon by no means peculiar to themj but one of which the operation may be traced in all the free States of the American Union. To this fair prospect, however, every freeman is forced to admit a painful drawback, viz : the unfortu- nate introduction of African Slavery. At first a mere excrescence upon the original plan, it has grown in several of the Southern States, both new and old, until it has become the most marked feature and pre- dominating influence in their social system ; intro- ducing into that portion of the American Union, and indeed into the administration of the national govern- ment, a strange and most incongruous mixture of the republican system of equal rights, backed by the meta- physical theory of the natural equality of man, with the miserable spirit of caste and hereditary aristocracy of birth and race — a state of society engendering all that spirit of contempt for manual labor ; all that spirit of phinder and domineering insolence and cruelty which distinguished the haughty republics of anti- quity, without their taste, eloquence, and artistical and warlike renown ; and at the same time all the huckstering trickery, sharpness and meanness of mod- ern municipal system, without its equality, industry, wealth and comfort. Nor can any man yet tell what, as to the entire American Union, the result is to be of this most discordant and incongruous mixture. The following fact is well known by every histori- INTltODUCTION. 19 cal student, viz; that in all nations in which rc])iibli- can government has either not been tried, or has ulti- mately been overthrown, there has been some vigor- ous organization of the privileged part which has proved too strong for the liberty of the whole. Our ancestors, who drew up the Federal Constitution, were not only great and wise men, but also well read in political history, and when they inquired for the an- tagonists to freedom against which it would be prudent to erect safe-guards, they found two to be largely treated of in the books, viz : an order of priesthood, and an order of hereditary nobles. Thus instructed, they took good care to provide that no title of " nobil- ity shall be granted by the United States," [Constitu- tion, Art. 1, § 9,] and that Congress "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," [Amendments, Art. I.] Unfortunately for us, however, history gave them no warning in respect to the subversion of free institutions by an aristocracy constituted and organ- ized on the basis of ownership of slaves. Such a revo- lution was without precedent, and against it accord- ingly they failed to set up any express constitutional defence. As a result, we are now, to say the least, in the last stage of a vigorous attempt at a revolution of that kind. 1'hc slave-holding oligarchy of these United States, consisting according to the late census of but three hun- dred thousand in a population of twenty-five millions, (while others on apparently good grounds, believe them to amount to not more than one-third that number,) is aiming to confirm and consolidate beyond recall, that 20 INTRODUCTION. control over the government of the coantry, which, from an early jjenod, has been passing more and more rapidly into its hands. Hence the Reign of Terror now desecrating with blood the virgin soil of Kansas, and the rattle of cliains amid the strongholds of free- dom at the north, as the captured fugitive is forced back into perpetual bondage by the minions of this despicable oligarchy. Hence the cruel infanticide by fugitive slave mothers in northern cities, and the im- prisonment of northern freemen by south-side northern judges in northern prisons. There is a tremendous issue to be met in this country between the descendants of its revolutionary sires, between the north and the south, in short between republicanism and despotism ; and the nations of the world arc interested specta- tors of the approaching contest. The struggle has already commenced, the combatants are in the field, and it is in vain we at the north cry out that the con- test is unseasonable and premature. Ailmit that over zealous and fanatical haste may have precipittited a struggle which we would gladly have deferred, and, slumbering out our own time in cpiiet, have thrust upon the days of our children. No matter. There is no blocking the wheels of destiny in this thing ; we can- not have our way. The trumpet has sounded, and opposing forces are wheeling into position on the gory field. "We may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace," Fight we must, upon one side or the other. As above remarked, the contest is already begun, and will soon become general. In such a struggle it is clearly seen there can be no INTRODUCTION, 21 neutrality, and it is time to be choosin*!,- hhcLm- what l)anner we will marshal ourselves: whether the ensign of ireedom, or the dai-k flag of slavery, drenched in the blood of murdered bondmen. Re|)ublicanipm, d(Mnoeraey, freedom, &e., are meaning terms in the; North, ])erfeetly familiar to all classes; all have a cor- rect knowledge of tlicir import, or suppose they have. But despotism, southern despotism, or the despotism of the slave states, is a thing known at the North only by name, and in general. Few have seen it and gazed u})on it, face to face, in its own blood-stained land of tears and groans; fewer still liave studied it; Avhile the great mass are totally- ignorant of its real debasing character. But what is southern despotism, or American sla- very, this curse and incubus of our common country, this stench in the nostrils of Christendom, and by-word of reproach among the heathen? Southern slavery can, probably, be best defined by its own statute book. At least, we shall attempt to show it up in this light first, and then illustrate by our personal observations made in eleven slave states. Slaveholders cannot, surely, complain of this mode of treating it — cannot complain that the system should be taken to be the very thing which the law of the slaveholding states have declared it to be, laws framed by themselves for the very purpose of defending and protecting their elainis. No laws were ever framed by any people for the sole purpose of restraining spe- cific and enumerated 'crimes, unless the instances of such crimes had become aggravated and general 22 INTRODUCTION. among them. The laws of the slave states, therefore, which fix the condition of slavery, for the most part describe that condition. And even the laws made to restrain its cruelties, bear testimony to their existence. For an illustration, under the item last mentioned : When the laws of South Carolina gravely forbid the masters, under a petty pecuniary penalty, to " cut out the tongues, put out the eyes, or cruelly scald, burn or deprive any slave of any limb, or murder," and when they specify other enormities too gross for the public eye, they proclaim to the world the fact that such cruel practices did prevail to an extent demand- ing legislation, at least. And again, under the former item : When the same statute permits the master to inflict punishment on the slave "by whipping or beating with a horse whip, cow skin, switch, or putting irons on, or imprisoning," (fee, the legislature at once defines and describes the common condition of slavery in that State. Charac- teristics of the system thus obtained, are to be reckoned not among its incidents and abuses, but among its es- sential and distinctive features — ^the things wherein it essentially consists. With these remarks, and with the Statute Books before us, we will answer the ques- tion, " What is American Slavery ?" By their own showing, by laws enacted in slave states for the regu- lation of their human property. "Goods they are, and goods they are esteemed, says the civil law." — [Dr. Taylor's Elements, p. 429, Stroud, p. 21.] "A slave is one who is in the power of his master, INTRODUCTION. 23 to wlioin lie belongs." — [Code of La., Art. 85, Stroud, p. 22.] " The cardinal princii)lc of slavery, that the slave is not to be ranked among sentient beings, but among things, as an article of property, a chattels personal, obtains as undoubted law in all the American slave states."— [Stroud, p. 22.] Again: "Slaves shall be deemed, sold,, taken and reputed to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, their administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions and purposes u-hatsoever" — [Law of South Carolina, vide Stroud.] And an act of Maryland, in 1798, respecting the settlement of estates, and the division of property, ex- pressly enumerates "specific articles, such as slaves, working beasts, animals, furniture, books, and other personal effiicts." It cannot then be said in extenua- tion of the system of slavery, by southern slavehold- ers or by their northern apologists, that this feature of slavery, (like others we shall proceed to mention,) is a mere incident, appendage, or abuse of the system. No, it constitutes, as they well know, its very life, its very essence and ground work. Hence the animosity breathed out by the whole south against those who may attempt to raise the vail from their great goddess Diana. Every person held as a slave in any of the slave-holding states, is held under this precise tenure, and no argument of kind treatment, which will weigh a straw here, can by any process whatever do away i\\Qfact, or wipe out the foul sin contained in it. And here we hazard the assertion, that, according 24 INTRODUCTION. to our convictioiivS, our southern slave oligarchy is not only the most cruel, most tyrannical, but the greatest organized spiritual despotism to be met with on the face of the whole earth. And just so long as one hu- man being in this country is permitted to be held the absolute propert}^ of another, and entirely subject to his control, in respect to all his actions and conduct, just so long will there be not only a reign of terror, a reign of darkness, l)ut also a reign of heathenism de- grading even to barbarians in the rudest and darkest stages of their history. So it is now in various por- tions of the slave-holding states of our Federal Union, where the poor slave cannot follow his own conscience nor the law of God. He is not his own, he is the pro- perty of another; the will of his master is his law in everything, and that master may be a disciple of Tom Paine, or an im])ious, blaspheming, nominal Christian. And the law of slavery so understands it. " Tliis dominion," says Stroud, " is as unlimited as that which is tolei'ated, by any civilized community, in respect to brute animals, to quadrupeds, according to the very language of the civil law." The ignorant Catholics in our midst, and the red men of our forests, have the bible given them, and whole cargoes of bibles have been sent by the Ameri- can Bible Society to the heathen of China, India, and other countries. But when did they ever make any such appropriation to the three millions of slaves on our own soil ? Never. This gigantic spiritual despot- ism would not allow it, and the reason is quite obvi- ous : they know that no people can long be kept en- INTRODUCTION. 25 tirely subject to the wills of their masters to whom they belong, if permitted to understand and obey the will of one Supreme Master in Heaven. "Accord- ingly, we find early and severe enactments, prohibit- ing the instruction of slaves, and ])uiiishing them for assembling for divine worship, and for mental instruc- tion." — [Vide Stroud, pp. 88-90.] The reason given for tlicse enactments has always indicated the incom- patibility of such privileges and acquirements with the condition of slavery. "The allowing of slaves to read," sa3''s the law of South Carolina, A. D. 1740, " would 1:)C attended with many inconveniences." That is, it is inconsistent with slavery. " Mental improvement" and " divine wor- ship " are the very things specified in several of these prohibitory enactments. It is true, indeed, that a reg- ular system of oral religious instruction for the slaves, without giving them the Bible, has recently been de- vised at the South, some portions of it, at least, which is called " catechising." While at the South, it was our fortune to attend several large ecclesiastical bodies, where some two or three hundred of the southern clergy underwent examination of their parochial du- ties, ministerial cllnracter, &c. When the cancUdate was about to retire from the room, for observations to be made upon him, he was particularly asked if he had attended to catechising the colored people of his charge. These catechisms, being drawn up by slaveholding divines, arc brought in as powerful auxiliaries in up- holding the " institution," in which they are taught 2 26 INTRODUCTION. that tlie cardinal duty the slaves owe to God is the rendering strict and unlimited obedience to their mas- ters, &c, Bj the black laws of this despotism, white freemen themselves are subjected to fine and impris- onment for teaching the colored people to read. In the streets of Charleston, S. C, I was threatened with hanging to a lamp post if I attempted to teacli the slaves anything. In the state of Louisiana, " if a white man from a pulpit, box, bench, stage, or any other place, or in conversation, shall make use of any language, signs, or actions, having a tendency to pro- duce discontent among free colored people, or insubor- dination among .slaves," (that is, such as may give them a hope in the promise of God that they shall be free,) "such person or persons shall be punished with imprisonment from three to twenty-three years, or with DEATH, at the discretion of the court." And fur- thermore, by this despotism slaves are not entitled to the consideration of matrimony, and therefore, as a matter of consequence, have no relief in case of adul- tery.— [Dr. Taylor's elements, p. 429, Stroud, 21.] Think of that, reader ! the marriage institution can- not exist among slaves, and one-sixth of the native population of our far-famed republican country. No marriage, no education, no liberty, no j)ure gospel ! This, dear reader, is American Slavery, an institution, not of some far-off" pagan land, but of Christian, re- publican America ! Again : "If more than seven slaves together are found in any road, not accompanied by a white per- son, twenty lashes is the penalty ; for letting loose a INTltOD UCTION . 2 7 boat from where it was moored, thirty-nine lashes for the first offence, and for the second the offender shall lose one car; for keeping or carrying a club, thirty- nine lashes ; for having any article for sale, without a ticket from his master, ten lashes ; for traveling in any other than the most usual and accustomed road, when going alone to any place, forty lashes ; for trav- eling in the night without a pass, forty lashes." A man, for going to visit his wife, children, or brethren, on a neighboring plantation, without the permission of his master, may be caught on the way, dragged to a post, the branding iron heated, and the name of his master or the letter 11 branded into his cheek, or on his forehead. The laws referred to above may be found by consulting Brevard's Digest; Haywood's Manual ; Virginia Kevised Code, &c. They treat slaves thus, they tell us, on the principle that they must punish for light offences in order to prevent the commission of larger ones. In the single state of Vir- ginia there are seventy-one crimes for which a colored man may be put to death, while there are onlj^ three, when committed by a white man, which will subject him to a similar fate. Slave, and also free colored testimony is prohibited in the South. In the State of Maryland there is a law to this ef- fect ; that if a slave shall strike his master, he may be hanged, his head severed from his body, his body quartered, and his head and quarters set up in the most prominent place in the neighborhood, as a warn- ing to all others. 28 INTRODUCTION. If a colored woman, in defence of her own virtue, should shield hersell from the brutal attacks of her tyrannical master, or make the slightest resistance, she may be killed on the spot. No law whatsoever will bring the guilty man to justice for the crime. Will the loud and oft-repeated affirmations of Christian slaveholders that they were never guilty of perpetra- ting any of the above specific enormities, make them guiltless in the matter ? — ^because they never person- ally violated female virtue, never separated a husband from his Avife, or never required a woman, when sepa- rated from her husband, to live wdtli another man, or never held in Christian fellowship, without rebuke, his neighboring Christian brethren and sisters, both slaves and masters, who submitted to customs, or command- ed compliances like these ? Will their singular inno- cency in these respects screen them ? Have they ever borne consistent testimony against these crying abom- inations sm-rounding them ? No, they have not, and they know it, and God knows it ; and while they re- main slaveholders they cannot, they will not. Why, they hold their slaves solely under the tenure of that code which renders all this promiscuous concubinage, adidtery, &c., inevitably certahi ! Nay, they hold them in a condition in which they cannot shield them from its pollutions. By a system which breaks up the family state, ordained by God, that blots out the Seventh Commandment and renders void the law to " honor thy father and mother;" a system which trans- forms the teeming progeny of its \dctims into the mere INTRODUCTION, 29 *' goods mid cliattols" of their own sires, wlio ])rced thcin shamelessly for sale, then tear them rutldessly from their mothers, for a distant market. Now we ask the reader just to ghmee over, a second time, tlie above detached bloody enactmente of this reign of terror, and see what security can be found for the poor chattel race. In the first place, we find that no slave or free colored person is allowed to give evidence in any case where a white person is concern- ed. In the second place, the punishment, even in cases of murder, is eoimnonly a mere pecuniary fine, or temporary punishment. In tlielliird jilace, we find laws assuming the possibility that the slave may come to his tleatli by moderate correction. In the fourth place, we find, as already stated, enactments which authorize " whipping or beating Avitli a horsewhip, cowskin, switch, or small stick, putting irons on, and imprisoning." We also find a vagueness in their laws, wdiich prohibit ^'- unmuaV punishments, though a ^^moderate''' correction may cause death ! In the fifth place, we find laws which forbid any slave, or any free person of color, male or female, nnder any pretext, to lift a finger against any white person, on pain of death, even in defence of life itself, or for the prevention of outrages worse than niurder- And finally, we see the interference oven of white persons held in check by enactments, as before quoted, punishing with imprisonment, and even death, at the discretion of the court ; for a second offence, any free white citizen who " from the box, bench, stage, pulpit, or in any other place, or in conversation, shall make use 30 INTRODUCTION". of any language, signs or actions ha%dng a tendency to produce discontent among free colored people, or in- subordination among the slaves." Who does not see that enactments like these must render it both hazard- ous and odious for a white man to interfere or make himself active in bringing to trial or j ustice the slave masters suspected or known to have committed outra- ges on the persons of their slaves ? And who does not know that such outrages are fearfully common in slave states, and that interference and punishment are rare ? Such, reader, are a few outlines, merely, of Ameri- can slavery, a definition furnished by the framers of the monstrous institution. And now, seriously, we ask, what can be said in favor of the motive of any Christian master in holding a human being under this kind of treatment, and under these laws ? What mo- tive can there be for such a course, that is not at the bottom a selfish and sordid one ? From what quar- ter, or in view of what considerations, can a holy mo- tive be drawn for holding a human being under such laws ? ^ Is it the good of the individual ? Incredible ! What ! for the good of a moral being to be held as a mere thing ? For his good to live under a code of laws which denies his religious rights ; which autliorizcs his neighbor to require him to commit sin ; which holds his domestic relations at the mercy of another ; which enforces his toil without an equivalent, and leaves his life without protection ! All this for the sole benefit of the slave ! No ; there is not a particle of honest truth in any such declarations on the part of Christian slaveholders. INTKODUCriON. 31 It has been our fortune to me(;1 and mingle with these professedly pious slave-masters nioiv or less dur- ing the last three years, at their honi'>s, on their i)lan- tations, in their churches, &e. W<> have seen the in- stitution as it is — the south-side, the nc^-th-side, the m- side, the outside, the religious side and the danniablc side of it — and have heard these masters go on with a pious, sympathising strain like the following: "We are convinced that slavery is not exactly right in every particular, and think it might be better for us if the slaves were all free ; but we can't free llu-m ; the law will not allow us to do so ; and, poor things, if we were to do it they could not take care of themselves, they would starve." At the same time we knew these pretences were all shallow uiid rotten to the core, and that they did not desire to free tlioni — could not dis- pense with them, or would not, short of their full equi- valent in hard coin. They hold them, dear reader, as one slaveholder replied once in answer to the interro- gation, " Why do you hold men in bondage, sir, pro- fessing as you do to be living by the golden rule ?" When eVery other argument failed him, or was fully rebutted by the interrogator, he said, " / hold slaves because I have the power T True, this is the reason, and the main reason, and the only one why men hold slaves. They have the power not only to hold them in the South, but to drag them away from the "North after they have been freemen for years, and perpetu- ate their bondage forever, "But," say northern apologists, backed uj) by legions of political dough-faces and " South-Side " reviewers, 32 INTRODUCTION, allies of sovithern slavery, " you wrong tlie Soutli and our common country by the revelations you make. There is already a terrible excitement on the vexed question, and you are making bad worse." Indeed, " let us alone " is what they cry ; so prayed the devils to Jesus Christ, anciently: "Let us alone! let us alone ! what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth ? Art tliou come to destroy us ?" We want to see the darh institution share the fate of the swine whom Christ suffered the demons to drown in the deep sea. There was a terrible excitement on that occasion also, you will recollect,- but neither Christ nor the disciples kept silent, or slackened their aboli- tion movements. Now look for a moment at the facts embodied in the foregoing quotation, and then at an illustration made by our own observations on many a gory field in the distant South, and tell us honestly, can- didly, what creates this terrible excitement ? Who are excited? and wherefore? Are persons excited too much who testify against robbery, rapine, piracy and murder in their worst forms ? nay, against the sum of all villanies ? Let the objector " remember thfem that are bound, as being bound with them." Let him im- agine himself, for only one brief day, in the condition described by the American slave code, and we shall see whether he will think tliere is too much excite- ment against slavery ! Go tlirough with the astound- ing metamorphosis. In the first place, you are degraded to a mere thing. You are no longer accounted human ! Hush ! hush ! There will be a terrible excitement if you complain to INTRODUCTION. 33 any human being. You uro next forbidden to obey God, and cc^nscicnce, and the bible ! You are to yiekl yourself to the absolute control of a single man! But don't be excited ! You arc to labor all your life long, without compensation ; but beware of excitement I Your wife and child no longer yours ! Never heed it ; there will be an excitement ! The laws are remo- ved which protect you from outrage and violence ! But say nothing ; let no man say anything. It will create a terrible excitement ! Excitement ! yes, excitement ! that is the thing. There is an excitement not among those who bear tes- timony against the iniquitous institution. No; strange to tell, we can look upon these horrible tragical facts with comparative composure. The excitement is on the other side. The legion in the day of our Lord were excited, most tremendously excited, when they cried out, " let us alone ! let us alone !" So high did the excitement run in their satanic veins, that they kidnapped about two thousand hogs, for the want of more valuable booty, and drowned them in the sea, in their excitement. The excitement is against human rights, and liberty, and religion. The excitement is among the friends of the oppressor ; and not among the friends of the oppressed. Look at Kansas Border Rufhans ! " The advocacy of freedom begets an excitement among tyrants, and therefore the first principles of civil and religious liberty must be suppressed ! Is such an excitement a sufficient reason for holding our peace ? Then were our revolutionary sires at fault. 34 INTRODUCTION. If we think so, we shall most certainly become slaves, and almost merit our destiny. There is an excitement in the land! And where- fore ? Because the hidden abominations of Southern Slavery are being more and more fully dragged out into daylight! What is the remedy ? Cover up the hor- rors of slavery ! The public vision cannot bear them ! But they cannot and they never will be covered up ! The right arm of Jehovah hath laid them bare. They stand revealed before the universe. Nothing can allay the excitement but the entire abrogation of the whole slave code. Then, and not until then, will there be any end to the slavery excitement. CHAPTER I. THE AUTHOR STAKTS SOUTH. On the morning of January 3d, 1853, tlie writer took leave of his family circle, and in company with two other clerical gentlemen, started for the South, Charleston, S. C, being the place of our destination. After riding all night in the cars, next day about noon we were whirled by the prancing fire-eating horse into the centre of the great metropolitan city of the New "World, where we were snugly quartered for a day or two at one of the principal hotels. Having done am- ple justice to ourselves at the dining table, we sallied forth into the crowded streets of "Gotham," on a sort of staring expedition. Went to the Park, down Broadway, into Barnum's Museum, and visited many other prominent places of public interest ; after which we went up to 200 Mul- berry street to see the Methodist Book Boom. Having settled our bill at the landlord's office, we were soon omnibused down to the depot of the great Southern Road — purchased each a through ticket to Charleston — saw our baggage checked for Washing- ton, and then seated ourselves in one of the cars — a puff and a snort, and the next moment we were off at the rate of thirty miles an hour. Soon Philadelphia was announced, and there we 36 SLAVERY UNMASKED. halted long enough to regale ourselves with a good dinner ; immediately after we were again under way, and at nine in the evening were brought to a dead halt in Baltimore, for, having been switched off from the right track, our fierj steed leaped unceremoniously into a neighboring lumber-yard, causing some destruc- tion among the wooden wares, and terribly frightening many of the passengers ; but I believe no bones were broken. Here we changed cars, than which nothing is more disagreeable to the tyro-traveller, when the knights of the omnibus, like ravenous wolves, are howling around the cars, pulling and hauling, and almost de- vouring those who are so unfortunate as to fall in their way. Finally, after a little sober inquiry, a des- perate feat at elbowing, and turning one or two short corners, we made our way through the rabble, found the sought-for train, stepped aboard, and before mid- night were safely landed at Washington. WASHINGTON. Here we designed to make a short stay for the pur- pose of looking at the wonders of our national capitol, of seeing the lions of the nation, and, if possible, hearing them roar. We took omnibus for the " National," where, in a few moments, we safely arrived, bag and baggage- After registering our names and making arrangements for the night, we went out, although the bells had tolled the hour of twelve, to get a peep at Washington SLAVEEiV I'NMASKED. 37 before we could sleep. Saw Capitol Hill in the hazy distance, with the great council hoiLsc of the nation spreading out its huge proportions to the right and left, and its gilded dome peering up majestically thro' the midnight air. Next morning, through the politeness of congress- man Walbridge, of Central New York, wc were es- corted to the White House, and all had the honor of a personal introduction to his highness, President Fill- more, with whom we spent a very agreeable half hour in the same room where grave senators, illustrious statesmen, and foreign ambassadors have been accus- tomed to assemble, more or less, for a half century past. We were treated b}' this Chief ^[agistrate of a mighty people with as much politeness as though we had been an embassy extraordinary from some Euro- pean court. From the Wliite House our illustrious guide con- ducted us to the National Gallery, where wc spent some two hours in feasting oiu- eyes on rare speci- mens of natural curiosities gathered from the four quarters of the globe. And here, too, were noble models of artistic skill, monuments to the memory of those who designed them, carved, moulded, and chis- elled out by hands long since turned to dust. At one end of the hall we saw a venerable national relic, for which every American cherishes a sort of religious ven- eration, and at which no intelligent foreigner can look without emotion. I allude to the old hand printing press used by our great philosopher and statesman, the im- mortal Franklin. There it was, placed as a na- 38 SLAVERY UNMASKED. tional relic, to be seen by all who may visit these halls from the Old World or New. It was a small, simple model, but one that has done mighty execution in the cause of liberty and human progress ; one that has told heavily upon the fate of empire, and marked a glowing cycle in the fearful drama of human history. As we stood by this small rude instrument of moral and political power, pensively contemplating its past mission, and the sentiments to which it has given birth, we were involuntarily carried back some two or three generations, to the stormy, stirring age of '76, when this formidable old battery was planted in Phil- adelphia, in defence of liberty. AVe thouglit of the man, of the cause, the foe. In short, whole volumes of history, written and unwritten, identified with those times, appeared at once to stare us in the face. Here, thought we, how many glowing philippics, moving harangues, moral essays, and philosophical treatises have been rolled off from this old press, which are even now contributing not a little towards mould- ing the destinies of two hemispheres. Every stroke of its beam, thought we, has done more, during the last half century for libertj'-, for moral and political advancement, than a million of bayonets. It has soar- ed through the heavens, grasped the thunderbolt, chained the lightnings, and transmitted to posterity useful codes of moral and political government which the nations begin now to appreciate. From the National Gallery we went to the famous Smithsonian Institute, passed through its various halls, SLAVERY UNMASKED. • 3U and admired the grand design. In one apartment was exhibited an imposing array of splendid paint- ings, works of groat masters, some American, but mostly of European execution, we judged. In another apartment we found the library ; it was lumbered up with an untold mass of reading matter, the production of by-gone ages. Here are to be found works on His- tory, Theology, Politics, and all the Sciences, and, in short, on all the variety of subjects to which the pen has given birth, or the imagination play. In passing slowly through tliis hall, looking upon those musty folios piled up on either side, in front and rear, we could not forbear the remark, — " Vast heca- tomb of living souls." Here are authors that twenty centuries ago were unknown to fame, yet twenty centuries ago they lived, toiled, wrote, and transmitted to succeeding genera- tions an immortality co-existent with the globe itself; no monument tells where their dust was committed to its last long sleeping-place. From the Smithsonian Institute we ascended Capitol Hill and entered the great Ilalls of the Nation. Find- ing the House in session, we seated ourselves for a few minutes in the gallery, but the business being de- void of interest, we went into the Senate Hall. The Senate, however, not having yet organized, we com- menced a tour of discovery through the building, pos- sessing ourselves, as soon as possible, of its numerous wonders. With minds made up for the undertaking, we soon set about its execution. First, we paused a few mo- 40 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ments on the lower floor of the rotunda and gazed at tlie imposing figures sculptured on the Avails, in pano- ramic form, as large as life, one of which represented the American and French armies drawn up around their chiefs, witnessing the surrender of Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown. It was more than splen- did ; it was a deeply sublime and impressive represen- tation of the crowning act of that memorable era in our history. From this floor we could stand and look away up, up, up, and see the blue heavens through the towering skylight that roofed the rotunda. Next we commenced our ascent toward the roof of the main building, and from thence to the highest ac- cessible point of the giddy dome. We gained the outer roof after going round and round the circular stairwa}', something like going up into Trinity steeple, in New York. Here we found ladies and gentlemen promenading the broad, flat roof of the Capitol. We also walked round, from roof to roof ol this huge pile of granite masonry, with the delegated authorities of the nation beneath our feet. Presently we recommenced our ascent to the rotun- da, and again we went round, and round, and round, until finally reaching the terminus, we made a halt because we could go no further in that direction. Here we were in a commanding attitude, some hun- dred and fifty feet from the base of the building, and three luindred from the level of the city. The pros- pect from this point was beautiful, enchanting in the extreme, and almost boundless. Cities, towns, villa- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 41 ges, and plantations were visible in every direction, until land appeared lost in skies. The day was bright and beautiful as a nortliorn July morning. The mor- row is to be a great day in the C\i])ital ; Jaekson's monument is then to be reared, and from our stand- point we saw companies of soldiers marching in from Baltunore to assist on the occasion. As we stand on this elevated point of observation, facing the city, at our left is the small city of George- town, with the Potomac and its harbor, where steamers and war vessels are seen. In front, or nearly so, is "Washington's monument and the Smithsonian Insti- tute ; and a little to the right, on that side of Pennsyl- vania Avenue, at the distance of one mile, is the White House and Jackson's Monument. POPULATION. The resident population of Washington in 1850 was 40.000, but this number is ' greatly increased during the sessions of Congress, by the accession not only of the members and their families, but of visitors and persons spending the winter, or a portion of it hercj for the purpose of enjoying the society and gaiety of the capital. Though the growth of Washington has not been rapid, it has been steady, and the city has increased within the past few years, in a considerably greater ratio than heretofore. There seems no reason to doubt that as the nation grows in prosperity, and the public buildings and collections of art and science accumulate, (as they are rapidly doing,) very many' 42 SLAVERY UNMASKED. persons of wealth and leisure, of literary and scientific attainments will seek tliis central point, (agreeable in its climate for a winter residence,) to spend their Avealth and enjo}^ the advantages of the best society of the Eepublic, congregated from all quarters, and hav- ing the additional charm of variety and novelty, GENERAL ASPECT. Though not a seven-hilled city, Washington has, as before remarked, like ancient Rome, its Capitoline Hill, commanding views scarcely less striking than that of the Eternal City, It is situated on the cast bank of the Potomac river, between two small tributa- ries, the one on the east called the east branch, and the one on the west called Eock Creek, The latter separates it from Georgetown, The general altitude of the city is about forty feet above the river, but this is diversified by irregular elevations, which serve to give variety and commanding sites for the public buildings. When the streets shall have been lined with build- ings, few cities can ever have presented a grander view than that which will be offered to the spectator from the western steps of the Capitol, Looking to- wards the President's House, with Pennsylvania Ave- nue stretching before him, the distance of a mile, with a breadth of one hundred and sixty feet, the view ter- minates on the west by the colonade of the Treasury buildings and the palatial residence of the nation's Chief Magistrate, On his left, tOAvards the river, (it- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 43 self more than a mile in width,) is an extensive park, enclosing the Smithsonian Institute, with its pictur- esque towers, and the lofty monument reared to the memory of Washington. On the right he will have beneath him the General Post Office, the Patent Office, the City ITall, and, doubtless, still more splendid pub- lic, and many sumptuous ])rivate dwellings, which will be erected before another generation shall have passed away. The plan of the city is unique, and everything is laid out on a scale that shows an anticipation of a great metropolis ; and though these anticipations have not yet been realized, they are entirely within the pro- babilities of the future. The city plot, which lies on the west border of the sixty square miles which now constitute the District of Columl)ia, extends four and a half miles in a north- west and south-easterly direction, covering an area of eleven square miles. A very small portion of this, however, is as yet built upon. The whole site is tra- versed by streets running east and west, and north and south, crossing at right angles. The streets that run north and south are numbered east and west from North and South Capitol Streets, (whose name will indicate its position,) and are called, for example. East and West Second or Third streets : while those run- ning east and west are numbered from East Capitol street, and are named alphabetically, North or South A, B, or C street, &c. The plot is again subdivided by wide avenues nam- ed from the fifteen states existing when the site of the 44 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Capitol was chosen. These avenues run in a south- east and north-west, or in a south-west and north-east direction, often, but not always parallel to each other, and their points of section forming large open spaces. Four of these avenues and North and South, and East and West Capitol streets, intersect each other at the Capitol gTOunds, and five avenues and a number of streets at the park around the President's house- Hence, it will be readily seen, if this plan should be filled up, that, combined Avith its undulating grounds, surrounding hills, public buildings, park, monuments, &c., it will give a coup d'ceil unequalled for magnifi- cence in modern times. Pennsylvania Avenue, be- tween the Capitol and President's House, is the only one that is densely built upon for any considerable extent. The streets are from seventy to one himdred and ten feet in width, and the avenues from one hun- dred and thirty to one hundred and sixty feet. PUBLIC BUILDINGS. In this respect alone does Washington at present fulfil the ideas entertained of a great metropolis. The Capitol, President's House, Treasury Buildings, Patent Office, and Smithsonian Institute, arc structures that would grace any city. First of these, in architectural merit and in point of interest, is the capitol, contain- ing the halls of the National Legislature, Supreme Court Room, &c. This structure consists at present of a centre building and two wings, making a total length of three hundred and fiftv feet, and one hun- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 45 dred and twenty feet depth tit the w ings. The cen- tral building is a rotunda, ninety-six feet in diameter, and the same in height, erowncd by a magnificent dome one hundred and forty -live feet from the ground. The wings are also surmounted by flat domes. The eastern front, including steps, projects some sixty feet, and is adorned with a portico of twenty-two Corinthi- an columns, thirty feet in height, and forming a colo- nade one hundred and sixty feet in length, presenting one of the most commanding fronts in the United States. The western front projects eighty-two feet including the steps, and is embellished with a recessed portico of ten columns. This front, though not so imposing in itself as the eastern, conmiands the finest view any where to be had in "Washington, overlcrok- ing the central and western portion of the city, and all the principal public buildings. Near the western en- trance to the Capitol stands a monimient erected by the officere of the navy to the memorj' of their brother officei'S who fell in the war with Tripoli. On the steps of the east front of the Capitol, among other worlcs of art is a noble statue of Columbus, supporting a globe in his outstretched arm. The interior of the western projection contains the library of Congress, comprising fifty thousand \'olumcs. On entcriug the rotunda, as before remarked, the first objects that strike the atten- tion are the splendid paintings which adorn the walls. Of these, at present seven in number, four are Trum- bull's, the subjects of which are, first, the Declaration of Independence ; second, the Surrender of General Burgoyne ; third, the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis ; 46 SLAVERY UNMASKED, fourtli, General Washino-ton resigninof his commission at Annapolis. The subjects of the remaining pictures are the Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Lejden, by Weir ; the Landing of Columbus, by Yanderlyn, and the baptism of Pocahontas, by Chapman. Surrounding the rotunda are a number of cham- bers, passages, committee rooms, rooms for the Presi- dent, members of Cabinet, &c. The Senate Chamber is on the second floor of the north wing, of which, however, it occupies less than half the area, and is of a semi-circular form, seventy -five feet long, and forty- five high. A gallery for spectators, supported by iron or bronze pillars, surrounds the semi-circle, and front- ing the President's chair, which stands in the middle of 'the chord of the serni-circlc. In the rear of the President's chair is a loggia, under a gallery, supported by Ionic columns of conglomerate or Potomac marble. In this gallery sit the reporters, in front of the sen- ators, while the spectator's gallery is at their backs. The Hall of Representatives is on the second floor of the south wing, and is also semi-circular, but much larger than the Senate Chamber, being some hundred feet long, sixty high, and surrounded by twenty-four Corinthian columns of Potomac marble, with capitals of Italian marble. The galleries are similar in their arrangement to those of tlie Senate Chamber. Over the Speaker's chair is placed a statue of Liberty, sup- ported by an eagle with spread wings. In front of the chair, and immediately above the main entrance, is a figure representing History recording the events of the nation. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 47 PUBLIC SQUARES AND PARKS. It is said that the open waste lying between the Capitol, the President's House, and the Potomac, is about to be converted into a great National Park, upon a plan proposed by the Uxte A. J. Downing. The area contains about one hundred and fifty acres, and the principal entrance is to be through a superb marble gateway, in the form of a triumphal ai'ch, which is to stand at the western side of Pennsylvania Avenue. From this gateway a series of carriage drives, forty feet wide, crossing the canal by a suspen- sion bridge, will lead in gracefully curved lines be- neath lofty shade trees, forming a carriage drive be- tween five and six miles in circuit. The ground will include the Smithsonian Institute and Washington Monument. Tlie parks around the President's House and the Capitol are large and beau- tiful grounds. Lafayette Park, on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the executive man- sion, is laid out and planted vnth. shrubbery, &c., and contains the new bronze equestrian statue of President Jackson. To avoid the unpleasant angularity caused by the peculiar intersection of the streets, open spaces are to be lefl at these points, which are to be laid out .and planted with trees, &;e. There are also extensive grounds around the city hall, called Judiciary Square. But SLAVERY exists in this city, though perhaps not quite so badly as in som(! more southern portions of the slave states ; yet it docs exist in sufficient force to bring the blush on every truly American cheek. Yes, 48 SLAVEKY UNMASKED. in the capitol of tliis model Republic, where the Stars and Stripes are unfurled to the breezes of heaven, this hideous institution rears its shameless head in solemn mockery of our pretentions to freedom. Here is where Solomon Northrop was immured in a dark, filthy dungeon, and finally unlawfully sold, almost hopelessly, into southern bondage. Here is where the Edmonson family in 1848 were recaptm'ed, imprisoned, chained, and sent to the New Orleans market. While here we went down one evening to a certain stream in the lower part of the city, spanned by a bridge which led over to a prison, in the dungeons of which many a poor slave has been committed for safe keeping, until sold or called for b}^ his master. Here I will give an account of one tragic scene out of many, one that is vouched for by a representative of the nation, who saw it as it occurred. Said the honorable gentleman, " While going over tliis bridge one day, I saw a young woman run out of the prison bare-footed and bare-headed, and with very little clothing on. She was running with great speed to the bridge as I approached it. My eye was fixed upon her and I stopped to see what was the matter. I had not paused long when I saw three men run out after her, I then knew what the nature of the case was : a slave was escaping from her chains — a young woman, a sister, a daughter, was fleeing from the bon- dage in which she had been held. She made her way to the bridge, but had not reached it ere from the Vir- ginia side there came three slaveholders. As soon as SLAVERY UNMASKKD. 49 her pursuers saw tbcni tlioy called out, ' Stop her ! Stop her!' True to tlieir Virginia instinct, they came to the rescue of their brother kidnapi)er3 across the bridge. The poor girl now saw there was no chance pf escape. It was a trying time. She knew tliat if she went back she must be a slave forever — she must be dragged down to the scenes of pollution which the slaveholders continually provide for most of the poor, sinking, Avretehed young women whom they call their property. She formed her resolution ; it was the promptings of desperation and despair, but it placed her beyond their reach forever. Just as her pursuers were about to put hands upon her to drag her back, she leaped over the balustrade of the bridge, and down she went to rise no more. She chose death rathcj than to go back into the hands of these Chris- tian slaveholders from whom she had escaped." After having promenaded the streets of "Washing- ton in quest of sight-seeing wonders as long as our time would allow, we took omnibus for the Potomac steamer en route for Charleston, via Richmond, Va. Had a line run during the night, and the next morn- ing breakfast time found us at the sumptuous tal)le of a dining saloon in this capitol of the Old Domiiiion. But to proceed with the record of my observations of the country through which we passed : and here allow me to say that this country has been so fre- quently and so graphically described by abler pens than mine that I shall attempt nothing labored on the subject, but simply to sketch a plain narration of com- mon-place scenery and matter-of-fact occurrences trans- 3 50 SLAVERY UNMASKED. piriug before me. And to begin, I remark, the first thing that strikes the e3^e of a northern tourist on leaving the Potomac for the south, is the general char- acter and features of the country, phj^sicallj. Though the climate is mild, the soil rich and productive, yet the whole face of the country presents so perfect a contrast to the beautiful one through which he had just passed from New York on to Washington, as to modify, most marvellously, all his pre-conceived no- tions of southern greatness and southern wealth ; of the splendor and magnificence of southern plantations and southern chivalry. A few minutes after leaving the Potomac, he passes directly through large fertile plantations, divided off' into the most gloomy looking fields I ever saw, with fences rotting awa}^, houses and out-houses in a state of decay ; in short, wliole premi- ses on the rapid march of retrogression. CHAPTER iJ. RICHMOND. KicinroNi) is tlic largest town in Virginia, and is said to be one of tlie most beautiful in the whole Union. It is situated on the left bank of James river, at the falls, and at tlie head of tide-water, about one hundred miles, in a straight line, south by west from "Washington. The situation of the city, and the scene- rv of the environs, are much admired, combining in a high degree, the elements of grandeur, beauty and variety. The river, winding among verdant hills, which rise with graceful swells and undulations, is in- terrujDted by numerous islands and granite rocks, among which it tumbles and foams for a distance of several miles. The city is built on several hills, the most conside- rable of which are Shockoe and Richmond hills, sepa- rated from each other by Shockoe creek. It is laid out with general regularity in rectangular blocks. About twelve parallel streets, nearly three miles in length, extend northwest and southeast, and were ori- ginally distinguished by the letters of the alphabet, street A being next to the river; other names, how- ever, are generally used. The principal thoroughfare of busuiess and fashion is Main, or E street. Those which intersect it are named from the ordinal numbers. First, Second, Third, 52 SLAVERY UNMASKED. &c, Tlie capitol and other public buildings are situ- ated on Sliockoe liill, the top of which is a beautiful elevated plain in the western part of the city. This is the fashionable quarter, and is considered the most desirable for private residences. The capitol, from its size and elevated position, is the most conspicuous object in Eichmond. It stands in the centre of a public square, of about eight acres, is adorned with a portico of Ionic columns, and con- tains a statue of Washington by Houndon, taken from life, and considered a perfect likeness. The City Hall is an elegant and costly building in the Doric style, at an angle of capitol square. A short distance from the capitol is the governor's residence. There are about thirty churches in the city belong- ing to the Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presby- terians, Friends, Lutherans, Campbellites, Universal- ists and Catholics; also, two Hebrew synagogues. The Great Monumental Church, (Episcopal,) occu- pies the identical site of the theatre which "was burned to the ground in 1811, on which mournful occasion the governor of Virginia and more than sixty other human beings perished, Eichmond possesses an immense water power deri- ved from the falls of James river, which, from the commencement of the rapids, a few miles above the city, descends about one hundred feet to the tide level. Few places in the State, or in the whole country, pos- sess greater natural advantages for })roductive indus- try, which recently attracted much attention. The principal articles produced here are flour, tobacco, cot- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 53 ton and woollen goods, pnpcr, machinery, and iron ware. There are about forty tobacco factories, some of which are very extensive. Richmond is also a great slave mart; Virginia being llie great slave-breeding state, they arc brouglit here for shipment, and ;dso for sale to soiitliern drovers. Not only in Virginia, but also in Mar^^land, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, as much attention is paid to the breeding and growth of ne- groes as to that of horses and mules. Further south they raise them both for use and for market. It is a common thing here for planters to command their girls and women, (married and unmarried,) to have children ; and I am told a gi'cat many negro girls are sold off, simply and mainly because they did not have children. A breeding woman is worth from one-sixth to one-fourth more than one that does not breed. Tlie following was told me by one conversant with the facts as they occurred on Mr. J.'s })Iantation, c(m- taining about one hundred slaves: One day the owner ordered all the women into the barn ; he followed them in, wliip in hand, and told them he meant to flog them ^11 to death ; they, as a matter of course, began to cry out, " What have I done, massa ? what have I done, masisa ?" He replied, "D — n you, I will let you know Avhat you have done ; you don't breed ; I have not had a young one from one of you for several months." They promptly told him they could not breed while they had to. work in the rice ditches. (The rice grounds arc low and marsliy, and have to be 54 .SLAVERY UNMASKED. drained ; while digging and clearing the ditclies, tlie women had to work in mud and water from one to two feet in depth ; they were obliged to draw np and secure their frocks about their waist, to keep them out of the water ; in this manner they frequently had to work from daylight in the morning till it was so dark they could see no longer.) After swearing and threatening for some time, he told them to tell the overseer's wife, when they got in that way, tlien lie would put them upon the land to work. This same planter, continued my informant, had a female slave who was a member of the Methodist church ; for a slave, she was intelligent and conscien- tious. He made criminal proposals to her, which she declined. He left her and sent for the overseer, and told him to have her flogged. This was done. Not long after he renewed his proposal, which she again refused, and was again whipped. He then told lier he meant to whip her till she should yield. The poor creature, seeing that her case was hopeless, her back smarting with the scourging she had received, and dreading a repetition, gave herself up the victim of his brutal lusts. While on this subject, to show the disgusting pollu- tions of slaverj^, and how it covers with moral tilth everything it touches, I will state one or two facts which I have on evidence that I cannot doubt : A planter here offered a white man twenty dollars for every one of his female slaves with whom he would cohabit successfully. This offer was made for the pur- SLAVEKY UNMASKED. OO peso of iin^Jroving the stock, on the samo })niiciple that fanners endeavor to improve tlioir cattle by cross- ing tlie breed ; and I have not tlic least doubt but tlioiL-^ands and tens of thousands of the cross breeds liere are produced b}- sueli considerations. One of the New Orleans papers, in speaking of the proliibi- tiou of the African Slave Trade, while the interna- tional slave trade is permitted, says : " The United States law may, and probably does, put millions into the pockets of the people living be- tween the Roanoke and Mason and Dixon's line ; still we think it would require some casuistry to show that the present slave trade from that quarter is a whit bet- ter than the one from Africa. One thing- is certain, that its results are more menacing to the tranquility of the people in this quarter, as there can be no com- parison between the ability and inclination to do mis- chief, possessed by the Virginia negro, and that of the rude and ignorant African." That the New Orleans editor does not exaggerate in saying that the internal slave-trade puts millions into the pockets of the slaveholders in Maryland and Vir- ginia, is clear from the following statements made by the editor of the Virginia Times, an influential polit- ical paper, published at "Wheeling. The editor says : " We have had intelligent men estimate the num- ber of slaves exported from Virginia within the last twelve months at one hundred and twenty thoiLsand, each slave averaging at least six hundred dollars, mak- ing an aggi'cgate at ($72,000,000,) seventy-two million dollars. Of the number of slaves exported, not more 56 SLAVERY UNMASKED. than one-third have been sold, (the others having been carried b}^ their owners, who have removed,) which would leave in the state the sum of ($24,000,000) twenty -four millions dollars, arising from the sale of slaves." According to this estimate, about forty thousand slaves were sold out of the State of Virginia in a sin- gle year, and the professional slave-breeders who sold them, put into their pockets twenty -four millions of dollars, the price of the bodies and souls of men. The Natchez Courier says, " the states of Louisiana, Mis- sissippi, Alabama and Arkansas, imported two hun- dred and Fifty thousand slaves from the more north- ern states in a single year." ISAAC WILLIAMS. The following brief history of the life, thrilling ad- ventures, and successful escape from the house of bon- dage, of a Virginia negro man by the name of Isaac Williams, who often crossed my joath while in the South, has already appeared before the public. I give it in his own words, from the North Side View of Slavery: My master's farm is in Virginia. When my first master died, his widow married a man who got into debt, and was put in prison. The woman gave up her rights to get him out. Tiien we were sold. Every man came to be sold for her lifetime, then to revert to the heirs. They were sent straight to a slave-pen in Richmond. Where they went after that I know not ; \ SLAVERY UNMASKED. 57 tlutt was the last I heard of tlieiii ; \\c could not help it ; they went off crying. My purchaser bought also the interest of the heirs in me, and I remained with him ten years, until my escape, near the close of 1854r. Before I was sold, I liii\'d out to work, at one; time, to a man on the llappahannock. Three of his men got away ; went as far as Bluff Point ; then they were overtaken, tied to his buggy by the overseer, who whipped up, and they had to run home. One, our employer and his overseer wlu])ped, ta- king turns about it, mitil tliey cut him through to his caul, and he died under the lash. The emplo3'-er, it was said, caused the man's heart to be taken out and carried over the river, so as not to be haunted by his spirit. He was arrested and heavily fined. The oth- er two runaways were sold south. Then I worked for another person, being hired out to him. Directly af- ter I went to him, I went to a haystack to feed cat- tle, and I accidentally set fire to the haystack, which was consumed, for which I received three hundred lashes with hickory sticks. The overseer gave me the blows and Jo counted them. Ilis feeding was herrings and a peck of meal a week — never enough — if one wanted more he had to steal it. My last mas- ter's allowance was a peck and a half of corn meal a week, and a small slice of meat for each dinner. If anj^thing more was got, it had to be obtained at night. He had but one overseer, and that but for one year. He was a sharp man — whipped me with a cowhide. I've seen him whip women and children like oxen. My master owned a yellow girl, who he feared 3* 58 SLAVERY unmasb:ed. would run away. I w^as his head man, and had to help do it. He tied her across the fence, naked, and whipped her severely with a paddle with holes, and with a switch. Then he shaved the hair off one side of her head, and daubed cow-filth on the shaved part, to disgrace her — keep her down. I tried hard to avoid the lash, but every year he would get up with nie for a whipping, in some way. I could not avoid it ; he would catch me on some- thing, do how I would. The last time he whipped me was for stealing corn for bread, for Christmas. George was with me. He tied our wrists together about a tree, and then whipped us with a carriage whip ; that was six years ago. He whipped till he wore the lash off; then he tied a knot in the end, and gave me a blow which laid me up limping three weeks ; the blood run down into my shoes. After that he used to whip the others. George and others would have their shirts sticking to their backs in the blood. I have seen him strip my wife and whip her with a cobbing board or cowhide. One Sunday he sent me into the woods to look for hogs. I could not find them, and I told him so on my return. Said he, " They are killed and eaten, and you know the going of them." I told him the truth, that I did not know of it. He then seized me by the collar, and told me to cross my wrists. I did so — but when he laid a rope across to bind them, I jerked them apart. He then under- took to trip me forward with his foot, and as I straight- ened back to avoid it, it threw him. He kept his hold SLAVERY UNMASKED. 69 on my collar, and called for help. The servants came |X)uring out ; they seized me, and he tied my wrists together with leading lines, eleven yards long, wrap- ping them about my wrists as long as there was a piece to wrap. Then he led me to the meat house and said, " Go in there ; I'll lay examples on you for all the rest to go by — fighting your master ! Whilst one was making a cobbing-board, and another was gone to cut hickory switches, and he was looking up more leading lines, I got a knife from my pocket, opened it with my teeth, and holding it in my mouth, cut through the lines which bound me. Then I took a gambrel and opened the door. I had made up my mind, knowing that he Avould come well nigh killing me, to hit with the gambrel any one who came to sieze me. When I burst the door open, no one was there, but master was coming, I sprang for the flats ; he hailed me to come back ; I stopped and told him that I had worked night and day to try to please him, and I would never come back any more. I stayed away nine days ; then he sent me word that he would not whip me if I would come back. I went back and he did not whip me afterwards, but he used to whip my wife to spite me, and tell her, " You must make Isaac a good boy." This is true, God knows. At one time, one of the hands named Matthew was cutting wheat. His blade being dull, our master gave him so many minutes to grind it. But Matthew did not grind the blade down in the time allowed. Trou- ble grew out of this. Matthew was whipped and 60 SLAVERY UNMASKED. kept cliained by tlie leg in one of tlie buildings. One day when master was at church, I showed Matthew how to get away. He went away with the chain and lock on his leg. The neighbor's people got it off. He then took to the bush. After two or three weeks my master sent me to look for him, promising not to whip him if I could get him in. I did not see him, but I saw Matthew's sisters, and told them master's promis- ing not to whip him. On a Saturday night, soon af- ter, he came in. He was chained and locked in the house until Sunday. Then he was given in charge of Wallace, (a colored man employed in the kitchen,) to take care of him. On Monday he was whipped, and then mast3r got me to persuade him not to run away. He would'nt tell Matthew he was afraid he would run away, but would tell him he could'nt get away — that times were so straight with the telegraph and railway that he could'nt get away. And that's what keeps the poor fellows there ; that, and knowing that some do set out, and get brought back, and knowing what is done with them. So Matthew sta3'ed on the farm. This occui-red last summer, [1854.] In the fall I was making money to come away, by selling fish which I caught in the creek, and by other means, when a woman on Mr. 's farm came to see me about some one that she feared would leave. As we talked she said, " You would'nt go away from your wife and children ?" I said, "What's the reason I would'nt ? to stay here with half enough to eat, and to see my wife persecuted for nothing when I can do her no good. I'll go either north or south, where I SLAVERY rx MASKED. 61 can get enougli to eat, an.l if ever I got away from that Avife, I'll never have another in slavery, to be severed in that way." Then she told her master, and he let on to my master that I was making moiic\- to go away. By and by I saw ^Cr. E., who had a little farm in the ueighboi-hood : then I said to one of the men, "thei-e's going to be something done with me to-day, either whi}) me or sell me, one or the other." A while after as I was fanning ont some corn in the granary, three white men came to the door — ni}^ master, Mr. E., and a neighboring overseer. My master came walking to me, taking handcuffs out of his pocket: "Come Isaac," says he, " it's time for you to be corrected now ; you have been doing wrong this year or two." Said I " What's the matter now, master?" He answered, "I am not going to whip you ; I've made up my mind to sell you, I would not take two thousand dollars for you on my form, if I could keep you. I understand you are getting ready to go off." He had then put his handcuffs on me. " Well, sir, it is agreed to go as freely as water runs from the spring," meaning that I would go with him without resistance or trouble. " I have done all I could for you, night and day, even carting wood on Sunday morning, and this is what I get for it." "Ah, sir," said he, "you are willing to go, but it will be none the better for you." " Well, master, there's good and bad men all over the world, and I am as likely to meet with a good man as a bad man." 62 SLAVERY UNMASKED. *' Well, sir, if there's not less of that racket, I'll give you a good brushing over." I was going to the house, then, from the granary. I answered, "well, master, I am your nigger now, but not long." Then I met my wife, coming crying, asking, "What is the matter ?" I told her, " Eliza, no more than what I told 3^ou; just what I expected was going to be done." His word was, " Take her away, and if she don't hush, take her to the granary and give her a good whipping." She was crying you see. He took me to his bed room and chained me by one leg to his bed post, and kept me there, handcuffs on, all night. He slept in the bed. Next morning he took me in a wagon and carried me to Fredericksburg and sold me into a slave-pen to George Ayler for ten hundred and fifty dollars. Here I met with Henry Banks. He entered the slave-pen after I had been there three days. He had run away since May, but was taken in Washington, D. C. On a Thursday evening came a trader from the south, named Dr. . He looked at Henry, and at a man named George Strawden, and at me, but did not purchase, the price being too high. I dreamed that night that he took us three. Next morning I told Henry, " That man is coming to take you, and George, and me, just as sure as the world ; so, Henry, let's you and me make a bargain to try to get away, for I am never deceived in a dream ; if I SLAVKIiV UNMASKED. 63 dreamed master was going to wliip iin>, lu^ would sure- ly whip somebody next day." That's ;us good a sign in the South as ever was. About breakfiist time Dr. eamc and stripped us stark nalced, to examine us. They frequently do so, Avlicther buying women or men. He says, " Well, boys, I am satisfied with you all, if you are willing to go with me, without putting me to any trouble." lie had his handcuffs and spancels, (ankle-beads they call them for a nickname,) with him. I said to him, "Yes, we are willing to go with you, and will go without any troul)le ; I came without any trouble, and will go without any trouble,"' but he did not know my mean- ing. I have no farm to keep you on myself," he said, I live in Tennessee ; I am going on to Georgia, and will take fifteen hundred dollars apiece for you ; I'll get as good a place for you as I can ; 'tis not so bad there as you have heard it is." I said, "Oh yes, mas- ter, I know you will do the best you can ; I am will- ing to go." "Well, get up all your clothes against the cars come from the creek, and then we'll go to E,ich- mond." " I suppose, master, we'll have time to get 'em ; how long will it be before the cars come along?" "About three quarters of an hour, boy," Then he went to George Ayler to give him a check on the Richmond bank for three thousand four hun- dred dollars, for the three men. Henry and I then got up our clothes ; I put on two shirts, three pairs of pantaloons, two vests, a sack coat, and a summer coat in the pocket. Henry did the same with his ; so wc had no bundles to carry. Wc were afraid to let 64 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Greorge know, for fear he Avoiild betray us. Dr. • left the gate open, being deceived by our apparent readiness to go with him. We told George, " Stop a minute, we are going to get some water." Then we walked through Fredericksburg. Having left the city we crossed the bridge to Flamouth, turned to the left, and made for the bush. Then we heard the cars from the creek, as they were running to Fredericksburg. On looking round we saw a number of men coming- after us on horseback. The way we cleared them Avas, we went into the bush, turned short to the right, leaving them the straight forward road ; we then mov- ed on towards the very country from which I was sold. "We were out three weeks, during the last of which we made a cave by digging into a cliff, at the head of the creek. The southern men who saw the cave, (as we heard afterward when we were in jail,) said they never saw so complete a place to hide in. All this time I had visited my wife every day, ei- ther when the white folks were occupied, or by night. One Saturdaj^ night Ave hunted about for something to eat, without finding anything until midnight. It then came into my head about the man who had per- suaded my master to sell me ; so Ave Avent to him and got a dozen chickens, Avhich Ave took to our cave. This made us late ; it Avas sunrise Avhen avc reached our cave, and then H , Avho Avas standing in tlie Avoods looking for my brother Horace, saAV us going into our den. Then he went off and got N , Avith a double barreled gun, and T Avith a hickory club, and himself returned Avith a six-barreled revolv- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 65 cr. Then I licard N asking, " Wlio is in here ?" I looked up, and tlicre was the gun within two feet of my head, up to liis face, and cocked. "Surrender or I will blow your brains out !" I looked out, but saw no way of escape but by going across the creek. N. was on one side with his gun, H. on the other with his revolver, and T. over the entrance with his hickory stick. I said to Ilenr}', "What are we to do ? I started for death, and death we must tr}- to go through. I want to see the man that bought us no more." N. hailed me by name, for he had now seen my face, " Surrender, for if you come out I will blow out your brains. "Then," said I, "you will have to do it." Then I came out, bringing my broadaxe weighing se- ven and a lialf pounds in my hand, — he just stood aside and gave me a chance to come out by the muz- zle of his gun. "We sprung for the creek, I and my partner. In the middle it was over my head, but I reached the other side, still holding on to the broadaxe. While I was struggling to get up the bank, N. fired^ and shot the broadaxe out of my hand, putting twenty-nine shot into my right arm and hand, and seven into my right thigh. I ran until I got through apiece of marsh, and upon a beach near some woods. I was standing looking at my arm, and on looking round for Henry, saw him in the hedge. By this time n had crossed the creek too. I called to Ilenry to come on, and as he rose from the hedge, N. shot him. lie fell ; then he got up, ran a little ]f above the sand surface, with its richly cultivated gardens, like a beautiful Oasis in the great deserts of Arabia. Its population and business elements have been greatly increased by the construction of the Wilming- ton and Raleigh railroad, which extends north to Weldon, on the Roanoke river, 162 mUes, and forms a part of the great highway of travel north and south. Wilmington is not a large city, its population may reach ten thousand, possibly fifteen thousand, but it is a place of great commercial importance, shipping ofij it it said, more naval stores than any other port in the Union. A great many small and middling sized crafts, a few coasting steamers, and some large ships, are to 76 SLAVERY UNMASKED. be seen in its port. Saw moi'e life, stir and business here than in any otlier place this side of Washington. It has several fine appearing retailing establishments, and some quite large trading houses. Its hotels are middling ; the North Carolina House, where we took up our quarters while here, is rather superior, kept by a New Engiander of very pleasing, gentlemanly ad- dress. Everything contributing to the comfort of the traveling public, his house aflbrded ; its tables loaded down with more of the luxuries of life than is condu- cive to health, and all surrounded by an orderly and cleanly set of servants. Its churches also present quite a respectable appear- ance on the outside, saw none inside but the First Methodist chapel, and that was a neat, plain building inside and out, displaying both good taste and practi- cal utility in its construction. On the wdiolc, Wil- mington might pass for quite a tolerable place, were it not for some indelible, unmistakable marks, foot prints of the peculiar institution, which never fails to blast with a sickly, withering influence, every- thing with which it comes in contact. FIRST sabbath IN THE SOUTH — WENT TO CHURCH. We arrived here, as before stated, at about five o'clock on Saturday morning, and laid over for a short time ; spent the Sabbath with the Carolinians, and at- tended church three times during the day and evening, at the First Methodist church of this city — and for the first time in our life, the M. E. church. South. — SLAVERY UNMASKED. 77 Went to church with feelings and reflections .somewhat peculiar. Was about t>e, in the same Church, under the superintendence of the same pastor. You may not unfrequently liear ap- pointments like the following given out from the pul- pit by the officiating preacher : The official members of the white brethren will meet me at the preacher's office to-morrow night, at eight o'clock, precisely, &c. And on the following evening, at the same place and same hoiu', the official colored members will meet me, &c. On Thursday evening next a love-feast will be held in this house for the white brethren ; and on Fri- day evening, in the lower room, a love-feast for the colored members, will be held, &c. The weather being quite warm, something like our northern June weather, ^\'e walked out before Church and also after, and between churcli hours. Saw the Sabbath horribh^ profaned, both by white and color- ed peoplt^, b}' walking in whole droves in the fields, along the highways, playing, running, wrestling, jump- ing, singing, racing horses over the plains, &c; so un- like a New England Sabbath as to shock the nerves of a descendant of the Puritans. The Sabbath is rather a day of recreation and pas- time with the slaves South, than otherwise ; in which they visit each otlier, and spend the day in a very un- becoming manner — following closely the examples of their masters, many of them, at least. There are, how- ever, exceptions, some few, to the great mass of Sab so SLAVERY UNMASKED. batli-breakers. On the whole, it was rather an un- pleasant, unprofitable day to us, being our first Sab- bath m the South, a little too much curiosity to grati- fy for our spiritual profit. INHUMANITY OF SLAVEHOLDERS. The poor slaves of the south are treated with less humanity, in many instances, than Northern farmers bestow on the cattle of their fields. One or two illustrations we will here furnish, which go strongly to corroborate the above declaration. We left the hotel in W , after breakfiist on a Decem- ber morning, and walked a few miles on the bank of the river. Ascending a small hill, I saw, after reach- ing the top, a colored man coming up on the other side, slowly, wearily, and in a perfect state of nudity. When he saAV me, he was frightened and ran out to a willow tree that lay bent down nearly horizontal!}', over the stream ; and tm-ning about, he leaned against a limb, looking at me, and tossing up his hands, he exclaim- ed, imploringly, " Oh, Goddy, massa !" I suppose he intended to request me not to betray him ; and I said to him, "I will not betray you, Cuffec." But before I had time to inquire into his history, two hounds came bounding over another hill, half a mile distant, distinctly in view, on a strait ]-oad. Soon as the baying of the dogs reached the ear of the fugitive, he leaped from the willow into the river — swam a long distance under Avater towards the opposite bank, when he rose to the surface. I was surprised to see how SLAVEliV UNMASKED. ^1 •lirectly he swam across, as the watei*s were cold, and the current strong. I saw him emcrg(i upon tlie oppo- site side, climb an oak tree, and seat himself on a limb. The hounds came on slowly, following the track — and well they might, for the blo6d of the })Oor slave was left in nearly every footstep — keeping u}) a con- stant baying. I had heard of the " baying of hounds," but I had never conceived how appalling the blood- thirsty tones were, until they fell on my ear, while I saw their victim, weary, and helpless, with no longer any hope of escape. The dogs came up the hill where I stood, followed the track out upon the willow, plunged in where the man did, swam across and ran up to the tree, baying loudly in the triumph of success. I walked out to the willow and sat down upon it in sadness of heart at what my eyes had seen, and my ears had heard. — Soon two white men came over the farther hill on horse back, and when they saw the man in the tree, and heard the dogs baying beneath it, they set up a tremendous shout, and rode on at full speed down to the tavern, three miles below. Thinking it might be unsafe lor me to remain and watch the fate of the slave, __ whom I had no power to assist, I returned to the tav- ern. Here I found a large crowd of men who had gathered around the bar to receive a "^/'ea^" from the " nigger hunters," who always have that kind of glori- fication when the slave is captured alive. It was now nine o'clock, yet they continued to drink until four o'clock in the afternoon, before they went over the river to take the man down. 4* 82 SLAVERY UNMASKED. And what astonislied me more than anything else, was, that no man suggested it was time to go and bring the slave in. I heared no question asked as to how long lie had been without food, how far he had run, or whether he was so famished and exhausted that he would be likely to fall from the tree and be rent in pieces by the dogs. But the conversation ran mainly upon the feats they had performed in the negro hunts, and the punishments the runaways get when they are caught. Finally, after seven hours of rioting, they rode away. "What became of the poor victim I never learned. The hound is taught to regard the slave as his natur- al enemy. The slave is never allowed to chastise him. If the dog is stealing his dinner, he may push him away gently, pull his dinner awa}^ from him — but he must not venture to pull his ears, or scold him, or strike him, on paiu of being whipped himself b}^ his master. I saw a slaveholder near M , teaching puppies to hunt slaves. He was the owner of a slave mother and boy, Harr}^, who was about four years old. The mother was a light quadroon^ having just enough Af- rican blood to wave the long black hair, and gloss the full, black eye. There are large numbers of such slave girls in the South, and a foreigner has truely said that they are the most beautiful specimens of American women. But her little Harry was not so light colored, and he had rough, hard features. He was a very sensible boy, roguish and reckless, and he acted as though the bad blood of all his ancestors ran SLAVEIIV L'NMASKKU. 63 in his vein?. Ilis "bump of dcstructiveness," vcsis very large, and it very often cost liini a flogf^ng. lie killed all the kittens about the house, all the chickens he could catch, broke all the eggs he could find, destroyed all the crockery he couhl lay hold of, and left his mark on every piece of furniture in the house, and on every tool and carriage on the premises. He had a peculiar dislike to turke3's. Not one could be raised except in a yard with a fence so high that Harry could not climb it. A close, high fence was made around the turkey yard, and they were re- garded as secure from the enemy. But Harry ran a little ])ole up to the to]) of the fence, climbed up, jumped in, aiis. 92 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Iron rings were put about my ankles, and a short chain to the rings. I was given in charge to two slaves. Some may deny that the slaveholders arc so bad, but I know it is true, and God knows it is true. A stranger may go there, and they are not such fools as to put such punishment on a man before him. If he is going to do that, he will send him over the fields out of the way, and while they are enjoying themselves in the house the slave is suffering under the whip. A reo-ular slaveholder has no conscience. A slaveholder knows the difference between a northener and a southener. If a man came from any other part, he never saw me in irons. G L might have seen me, or L • K , or any other slaveholder might come and see it, and hold a council over it, and blackguard me for it. "Boy, what have you got that on for? — • That shows a d — d bad nigger ; if you wasn't a bad nigger you wouldn't have them on." The two slaves took me in charge, with orders to kill me if I tried to escape. At night my feet were made fast in the stocks without removing the irons. The stocks were of wood with grooves for the ankles, over which laid an iron bar. I could lie on m}^ back, but could not turn. The next morning I was sent to the gin -house to receive fift}^ blows with the bucking- paddle. This was my master's order. I received three blows and then fainted. When I came to, only one slave was with me, who took me to the field to work ; but I was in so bad a state that I could not work that day, nor much for a week. After doing a hard day's SLAVERY UNMASKED. 9*$ work ill the fetters wliieli had now worn to the bone, for they would get wet with dew in the morning, and then sand would work in, I was placed in the stocks, my ankles sore, bleeding and corrupted. I wislied T could die, but could not. At the end of three months he found I was U)o stubborn for him to subdue. lie took off the fetters from my ankles, put me in handcuffs, and sent me to Norfolk Jail to be shipped for New Orleans. But when I arrived, the time that niggers were allowed to be shipped to New Orleans was out, and the last boat for that spring had sailed. After two weeks I liad the measles. My master was written to, but neither came nor sent any answer. As the traders were coming there with slaves, the turnkey put me into th(^ kitchen to avoid contagion. I soon got better. The turnkey said, " you are well now, and you must be lonesome ; I'll put you in with the rest in a day or two." I determined to escape if I could. At night I took a shelf down and put it a"-ainst the enclosure of the vard, and climbed to the top, which was armed with sharp spikes fourteen inches long, and risking my life I got over the spikes. Just as I had done this, the nine o'clock bell rung the signal for the patrols. I fell on the outside and made for the river, where I found a skiff loaded with wood. I threw over half a cord in a hurry, and pushed off for the opposite shore to go back into the neighborhood of my old place, hoping, by dodging in the bush, to tire out my master's patience, and induce him to sell me running. I knew nothing about the north then* 94 SLAVERY UNMASKED. I did not know but tlie Nortlieners were as bad as the Southerners. I supposed a white man woukl be my enemy, let me see him where I woukl. Some of the neighbors there Avould have bought me, but he refused to sell me in the neighborhood, being ashamed to sell there a slave whom he could not break. He gave up first, but I was the worst beaten. I was as big-hearted as he was ; he did not like to give up, and I would not give in. I made up m}^ mind that if he would find whips I would find back. Having lightened the skiff, I paddled across, and went back to North Carolina to my mother's door. I ran about there in the bush, and was dodging here and there in the woods two years. I ate their pigs and chickens. I did not spare them. I knew how to dress them, and did not suifer for the want of food. — This would not have taken place had my master com- plied with my reasonable rccpiest for a pass, after I had done my work well without any fault being found with it. But when I found out by that, and by his cruel punishment, that he was a d — 1,. I did not care what I did do. I meant he should kill me or sell me. My master did not advertise me when he got the news of my escape, saying it was their loss, as I was placed in their charge. He sued, but was beaten. — After this he advertised for me, ofFering fifty dollars for my capture, dead or alive. A free-born colored man, whom I had known, betrayed me. Some poor white fellows offered him ten dollars if he would find out where I was. He put them on my track. At ten SLAVERY UNMASKED. 96 one inoi'uiii^u', they found inc lyinji,- down asleep. I partly aroused, and heard one say, "don't shoot, it may bo somebody else Ij'ing down diutdv." I arose with my flice towards them. IMiere -were six young white men ai-nied with gnus. I wheeled, and ran. — They cried out, " .sto]), or I will shoot you." Our of them, a real youngster, hit me, firing first. The others fired, and said they shot their best, but did not hit. A bullet and a buek.shot entered my right thigh ; the shot came out, but the bullet went to the bone, and is there yet. It injured a sinew so that my foot hurts me to this day when I walk. I ran about a quarter of a mile, then my foot all at once gave out, and I fell. They came up with dirks, threatening me with instant death if I ever winked my eye towards molesting them. They took me in a cart and put me into the county jail. All that night I lay wishing they had shot me dead. I did not want to fiice that hyena again. He kept me in jail until a slave driver came from Western Tennessee, lie took me out to Tennes- see to hire out or sell — anything to get rid of me. I was hired out to T • K , in Jackson, Madi.son Co., two years. I did very well ; the man who hired me was a pretty fair sort of a man for a slaveholder. During the two years I became satisfied with my con- dition. In about a year after I married a young wo- man belonging to T N ; she is living with me yet. About nine months after our marriage, I was, on a sudden, without suspecting anything, jerked up and put in jail again, to be sold. I was taken hj a driver 96 '' SLAVERY UNMASKED. to Memphis, and put into tlie liands of a planter, who was to sell me when he got an opportunity. In about two weeks, when I got rested, I started to go back to see my wife ; but I got taken up on the way, and put in jail. The people asked me where J was going. I told them the "truth : " To Jackson.'' I've been into pretty much all the jails round there. It seems to me wonderful, when I have known nftn to be killed, without doing so much, or going through so much as I have, that I should have been spared. It is only by the mercy of God that I have escaped so many dan- gers. I have known men to be killed by less acci- dents, — but I was spared, although I have the marks of many wounds and bruises. In jail they fettered m}' ancles again. There was a black man in the room with me, who was caught under the same circumstances as myself — going to see his wife, as a man has a right to do. I was very muscular and smart, but he was stouter than I. %We broke through the top of the jail at night — the shin- gles cracking gave the alarm. M}^ friend was scared, and did not dare fall ; but I did not care what befell mc, and I rolled off to the ground, without having time to use strips of bed-clothes which we had pre- pared. I was chained, and could not spring to save myself; it was a hard fall, but I was not quite stun- Sed. I should not have not got off, but my pursuers ^^''"hered each other. They first started for the roof, ^ finding we were outside, the jailor cried: "Go outsidt^ I (]Qj^'t igt, 'gjn come down !" His wife, hearing this, thoou^g^^ ^g were coming down stairs, and secured SLAVERY UXMASKED. 97 the door. While they were breaking out, I crept on my hands and knees about two hundred yards, to a creek, which I crept over in the same way. Tlien I looked around, and saw the jailor on the top of the jail with a light in his hand, looking for me, not think- ing I could get down chained. He called; "John! John ! where are you ? If you don't answer me, you son of a b — h, I'll kill you when I get you." A neigh- bor crossed over, and asked : " What is the matter?" He answered : " The d — d niggers are breaking out of jail.'' I heard distinctly on the other side of the creek, where I sat listening to hear what course they would take. As I crept, I had to spread my feet to keep my chains from rattling — a child could have taken me, chained as I was. In a few minutes the whole village was in an uproar. I heard the jailor tell some one to go to a man that kept dogs, and " tell him to come in a minute — I want him to run a nigger." I then crept ; I could creep faster than I could run. From what I had told my captors, they thought I had gone to Jack- son, and so failed of finding my track. I did not know where I was, nor which way to go. I found a road, and wandered along in it. When my hands and knees got cold with creeping, I would ge* up and shuffle along with my chain. At day-break, as the Lord would have it, I came to a blacksmith's shop. No one was there. I went in and felt among the tools in the dark, and found a great new rasp. I took the rasp along with me, and crept on to find a bush, and wait for daylight. As soon as I could see to do it, 1 cut my leet loose. 1 would give fifty dol- 5 98 SLAVERY UNMASKED. lars if I had the iron here that I've been abused in, to show people who saj they don't believe such things — who say that men are not so absurd. I would like to show them the irons, and the paddles, and the whips, and the stocks that I have worn on me and been pun- ished with. At eight o'clock in the morning, my feet were free. I had nothing to eat since noon the day before. I wandered in the woods all day, eating acorns, and tr3'ing to find the route to Jackson. I meant to get there ; nothing would have stopped me but death. I was not going to have another man send me around the county just where he liked. That night I got the course for Jackson; and after walking an hour, I entered a barn-yard and found among the harness a bridle. I was barefooted and bareheaded — had nothing on but my shirt and pantaloons, — all else I had taken off to get through the roof of the jail. 1 then walked into the stable, and found what appeared to be a gentleman's riding-horse ■ — and a better nag I never laid leg across. He took me further in three hours than he ever took any one else in six, I think. When I got to Jackson, I turned the horse loose in the street. He wandered about awhile, but the owner got him at last. When he sees this, he will know who borrowed his horse, and if he will send his bill, I will settle it. I have plenty of land, and plenty of money to pay off all debts, and if some of my old friends would come this way, I would pay oif some other old scores that are on my back. At Jackson, I saw my wife. She had been bought by F — ■ — T y a regular negro-trader — one of the SLAVERY UNMASKED, 99 biggest dogs in the bone-yard. He said he would buy me running if he couhl, but no one wiis to be told where I was, as he wished to buy nie eheap. lie wrote to my master that he had bought my wife, and that I was dodging about the place ; that lu; did n't want me about amonoj- his " nit^wrs :" but that, if he would sell me, he would catch me if he could, — if not, he woidd shoot me. The answer was, that my master would sell me for eight hundred dollars. "J^ paid the money, and took possession of me. lie put m9 oa his farm. H3 was overbearing — his overseer was more so. lie was one of those who, when they get a "nigger," must whip him, right or wrong, just to let him know " that he is a nigger." No fault was found with my work. He looked sharp to try and find some way to get at me. At last he found a way to do it — an excuse to whip me, — it was in this way: one day he heard me speak something to one of the hands ; it was some of our nonsense, of no consequence whatever. But he was itching for an excuse to flog me, and now he had got one — for it was a rule that there should be no talk on work hours, except about the work. My master having heard that I was an old runaway, and had given trouble to my master, cautioned the overseer not to bear down very hard upon nie, until I had got habituated to the place and the ways. The overseer went to the master and said it would never do to excuse that "nigger;" for if he talked, the rest would stand and hear it ; he should either whip or take me off the place. Master told him, and was over- LofC. 100 SLAVERY UNMASKED. heard to say it, that if I would not obey him, he might take me down and give me three hundred with the paddle. The overseer made up his mind to give me the pun- ishment next evening. When I got through work, I went home, tired and hungry, • — my wife met me at the door, laid her hand on my arm : " John, three hundred for you this evening with the paddle !" That news filled my stomach very quick — it stopped my hunger, but it made me feel thirsty for blood. I swore that I would not leave the quarters until -I was killed, or had killed any man — master, overseer or slave — who might come to take me. But as it hap- pened, a gentleman from New Orleans came to see my master that night, and so the punishment was post- poned. If this was done for a southerner, how could a northerner expect to see any punishment? That visit was what prevented my killing a man, and being killed for it that night; for I had a good sharp axe, and I know I should have uf?cd it. I waited some time for them to come — but as they did not, my temper cooled down, and I concluded to take to the bush. I had heard that if 1 could get into Ohio, and manage to stay there one year, I would, after that, be a free man. I intended to wait for my wife to get smart, she being sick at that time. I took to the woods, and once more commenced living on chickens and geese, which I understood very well. In about two weeks I went for my wife. Another man had agreed to come with us ; but he was weak enough to SLAVEUY UxNMASKEIX 101 alvisG with his friends about it, and tliej turned traitors and told his jnaster. They are just the same lis white nn'ii. I have found since I left that 'tis not tlic skin that makes a nhm mean. Some of them will l^etray another to curry favor with the master, or to get a new coat, or two or three dollars, and I liave noticed the same mean spirit among white men. But there arc others who would sooner die than betray a friend. I bade my wife get ready for a start on the next night, and then took to the bush again. Meanwhile, the traitor slipped to our master, and asked him if he knew that three of his negroes were going to run away, lie told him " No — which three ?" He named us. "Where are they going to?" "Ohio State." This aroused my master. Ue went to the quarters, tied the man, and tied my wife, and took them to a swamp. There they uncovered my wife, and compelled a girl to whip her with tlie paddle to make her tell where I was. It so stirred me with indignation to think that they should so foully abuse my wife, that I could have run a dagger through their hearts and not thought it wrong ; uor have I yet got so far enlightened as to feel very dilTcrently about it now. She could not tell him, for she did not know. The man was also punished and put in irons. They had no irons to lit her, and sent to the blacksmith's shop to get some made ; and had it not been for some craft on her part that night, I should never have got her away. Old Billy, with whom we were usually left, was the blacksmith ; and while he was going to 102 SLAVERY UNMASKED. make tlie irons, she was left with, a joung man who was a stupid sort of fellow. It was then nearly noon, and she had no food for the day. She was then' at the quarters. She said to one of the girls : " Maria, you go to the turnip-patch and get some salad, and I'll go to the spring, get some water, and put on the meat." She expected the fellow would stop her, but he did not. She carried the pail to the spring, about a quarter of a mile, then dropped it, and made for the bush. It was a down-hill way at first, but by-and-by, there was a rise and then they saw her. Out came master, overseer, and many slaves, in full run to catch her ; but she was nearly half a mile ahead, and ran very fast. She got into the woods, which were very thick. Master then ordered a halt — he had found from the other slaves that I had a pistol, powder and ball. I had, indeed, and would have used it, rather than they should take me or her.. But I was in another place at that time. I had appointed a 2:>lfice where she was to come and meet me ; when I went she was not there. I then drew near the house to ascertain what had happened, and heard a loud laughing and talking in my cabin. I tried to hear what it was about. I heard one of them say : " Lord, how she did run across that field I ha ! ha ! ha !" She had baked cakes for our journey, and they were making merry over the flour cakes. Presently, I saw a colored man, and whistled to him. He came up, and I learned what had happened, and that all were then out on a hunt for me, being stimu- lated by a promised reward of ten dollars. All this SLAVEllY UNMASKED. 103 set me into a tremble ; I turned bark, and went to the place I had appointed. She was near by, saw me, and ran to mc ; so we were togotlier once more. We then walked nine miles northwardly to a little village where I had put up my clothes. The man who be- trayed us had told our route. I got the things and Avent to the barn close by. My wife was exhausted. I had a strong constitution, and could travel all the time ; but she- was so fatigued from the flogging, and the race, and the long walk, that she fell on the barn-floor, I returned to the house, and walked to a tavern stable, to hook three or four blankets to keep us warm on our way north. If this was wrong, it was taught me by the rascality of my master. While at the tavern stable, I heard the dog bark at the house I had left. I gathered three blankets and bolted for the barn, expecting the scoundrels would be pursuing my wife. I saw a candle burning bright in the house, and moving from room to room. That frightened me. I seized and shook her : " Wife ! wife ! master is coming !" — but I could not awaken her. I took her up, put her across my shoulders manfully, jumped the fence, and ran with my burden about a quarter of a mile. My heart beat like a drum, from the thought that they were pursuing us. But my strength at last gave out, and I laid her down under a fence, but she did not awaken. I then crept back to the house, to see what was there and get my things. The light I had seen now came down stairs, and moved towards the barn. I was so near that I 104 SLAVERY UNMASKED. saw the overseer and six slaves, armed, searching for me. Oh, my soul ! it makes my hair stand up to think how near we were to getting caught, and car- ried back to be abused and maltreated unreasonably, and without cause. I was within five rods of them when they went into the barn. They searched it thoroughly, as I saw be- tween the rails of the fence. " Oh, you rascals !" I thought, " you 're defeated now !" But 't was a close run and a narrow chance. When they left the barn, I kept watch of them. They returned the candle to the house, then walked the way tliey had come, to the place where they had left the mules. They stayed there about half an hour. I still kept watch of them. I wanted to get my things, but was wise enough to know that every time a slave-holder is out of sight, he is not gone ; every time his eyes are shut, he is not asleep. They then returned toward the house. As they moved, I moved, keeping the same distance from them. When they were within about ten rods of the house, they crouched down in readiness to shoot me when I miglit approach the house. They had rendered me desperate by their devilment, and knew I would fight ; they would not dare take me without first shooting me. I watched them, and they watched for me, until the cocks crowed for morning. It would not do for me to remain any longer to get my clothes and provisions. I went back to the place where I had left my wife. She was then easily awakened, and we hied to the woods to conceal ourselves for the day. We had no SLAVERY UNMASKED. 105 provisions but a raw ham, "Wc dare not make a fire to broil it, so we ate it raw, like a dog. At night, between sunset and dark, I went baek to the house in tlic village. At the door I saw a person with our things. They gave them to me, and bade me God" speed, and that if ever I was taken, not to betray them. From Jackson to the Ohio river was called one hundred and forty miles. Crossed the river at Cairo . then we footed through Illinois to Chicago. All the way we lay by days, and traveled nights. I forgot the name of that city and wandered out of the way, and got to a river. It was the Mississippi, but I did not know it. It was three months from the time we. left home before we slept in a house. We were in the woods, ignorant of the roads, and losing our way_ At one time we came to a guide-board which said " 5 miles to Park's Landing." I had learned to spell out print a little. This was Sunday night. I took the direction I wanted to travel as near as I could, and went on. On Wednesday afternoon we came back to the same guide-board — " 5 miles to Park's Landing." Many such round-about cruises we made, wearing ourselves out without advancing. This is what kept us so long in the wilderness and in suffering. I had suffered so much from white men, that I had no confidence in them, and determined to push myself through without their help. Yet I had to ask at last, and met with a friend instead of an enemy. At Chicago money was made up to help me on, and I took passage for Detroit, and then crossed to 5* 106 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Windsor, in Canada. That was the first time I set my foot on free soil. CHAPTER IV. CHARLESTON, S. C. We landed in Charleston, S. C, this great emporium of southern civilization and of southern aristocracy, Jan. 9th. Weather was exceedingly warm and mild, the climate may with emphasis be called the sunny south. It is much like some of our northern June weather, and I now write in an upper room, no fire, with both windows open, and sufier no inconvenience from cold, and could keep them open until nine at night, if it were not for the dust and musquitoes. Took a stroll down through the market, and there saw almost all the green vegetables of a northern July — green potatoes, onions, radishes, beets, green oats and hay in the bundle, besides a variety of green, fresh roses, and posies ; also green lemons and oranges on the trees close by, in gardens. Charleston is quite a large commercial city, largest in the whole South, New Orleans excepted, and con- tains a population of about 50,000 inhabitants, with a good sea-port, probably best on the continent, except New York, and about twenty miles from the ocean. Directly across the harbor, on the opposite side of the city, is Sullivan's Island, on the point of which, and SLAVKKY UNXfASKHD. about seven miles from tlic city, is Fort Moultrie ; half way between which, in the centn' of the harbor, or nearly so, is Fort Sumptcr, with its massive walls and frowning port holes, looking down with defiance upon all craft that pa.ss by. About three miles to the left of which, in coming into port, rises Fort Johnson ; and some five miles higher up, near the city, some mile or so from the main land, is Castle Pinkey. Thus, in a military point of view, Charleston would seem almost, or quite invulnerable to the combined fleets of the world. A gentleman here told me, wiio, by-the-by, appeared more loyal to the federal government of the United States, than to the commonwealth of South Carolina, that a few years ago, when the nullilication mania was raging, all of a sudden old General Scott appeared in the harbor with a small fleet filled with soldiers and marines, with which he emptied the forts and fortresses of their former occupants, and filled them with United States troops, turning the guns down upon the city, and then said to the Carolinians, " now nullify, if ^j^ou wish ;" and all at once the nullifiers became mighty scarce. Walked up King Street to see the South Car- olina Arsenal, and there saw some five hundred large Yankee-made cannon, with which the rebellious go- vernment of the United States was U) have been flogged into obedii^nce by this sist^jr republic ; but thanks to Divine Providence, the horrors of war were averted, and no very humiliating concessions made by our chief executive. Charleston is one of the most ancient cities in the United States, its foundation having been laid in 1 (^"^^ los SLAVERY UNMASKED. Some fifteen years afterwards, a company of Frencli refugees, exiled from tlieir native country on account of tlieir religious faith, settled in South Carolina, — a part of them at Charleston. From this noble stock, the French Huguenot, have sprung some of the first families of Charleston. The city is regularly built, and extends about two miles in length, and nearly one and a half in breadth. The streets, many of them sixty or seventy feet broad, and bordered with the Pride of India and other beau- tiful shade trees, run, for the most part, parallel to each other, from the Cooper to the Ashley river, and are intersected by others nearly at right angles. Many of the houses are of brick, some of which are in a style of superior elegance ; others are of wood, neatly painted, and embowered in the summer season amid a profusion of foliage and flowers. The dwellings are often furnished with piazzas extending to the roof, and ornamented with vines or creepers, while the gardens attached to them are adorned with the orange, peach, and other choice trees, and a variety of shrubbery. There are in Charleston about thirty Churches, one or two Colleges, a large Theatre, several quite exten- sive Wholesale Houses, and about fifty Hotels. Some of the Hotels and Churches are noble costly, structures. The chief of the former are kept by northern men ; the heaviest wholesale houses are also owned by northerners, and northern artists are employed to construct all their large and splendid edifices. A native southern bred artizan is a very rare thing to meet with^ in all the South, except it be among the Sl.AVKin- I NMASKED. l09 poor colored people, and slaves too. Among these you may occasionally find tolerably ^^f)()d nieehanics, such as smiths, nuxsons, carpenters,^ iniinters, shoema- kers, &c. Not so good, as a matter of course, as our northern white mechanics. Th(>re are, in fact, properly speaking, but two classes in the south, naiuely— the ai-istocrats and the operators ; or the oligarchy and the serfdom. To the former belong all the wealthy planters, merchants, bankers, lawyers and divines— witli a few others of more moderate fortunes— all, however, stock-jobbers in Imniaii Hc-sh, to a greater or less extent. And to the latter belong all the operatives, white and black, bond and free. If a white man here is under the necessity of performing manual labor for a livelihood, why, he can scarcely gain admittance into the other tlass, any sooner than the poor slave himself, of the regular woolly-heads, simon pure. Some few exceptions, however, to this rule. The condition of the colored people^ in the free states, both native breed and escaped fugitives, is a theme frequently discussed by the southerners, and very unfavorably contrasted with the condition of those in the south. But I waive these considerations, for the whole civilized world has passed a righteous verdict in the premises. But this much I may fearlessly assert, namely— that the poor white man in the south, whether native born or not, suffers as much, if not more, from southern institutions, both civil and social, as do the colored race in the free states. Unless a man in the slave states can count out his 110 SLAVERY UNMASKED. thousands, and tens of thousands, in money, servants, or something else, he is next to nobody ; is indeed of less account, in many instances, than a good saleable negro, for such a piece of property will fetch a large sum of money. These gents of the south say— oh, if you northerners would only come down here among us, and see for yourselves, then you would not feel the same opposition to our institutions that you now do ! Well, thought I to myself, I am a northerner, and am down south looking for myself, and begin to see sides and features of the peculiar institution that I scarcely contemplated before my southern tour, and feel to say this moment, from the bottom of my heart. Oh God of ancient Israel, have mercy on both Afri- ca's down-trodden race, and Africa's despotic op- pressors. Dined yesterday with a gentleman slaVe-holder, whose wife was a Methodist, a member of the first M. E. Church South, in this city. He owns some ten or twelve slaves, which he values, I believe, on an aver- age, at $1,000 per head. Had a chat of some two hours with his lady, previous to his coming in ; and she, by the way, is a native northerner, came out here a few years ago a school miss, and married a southern slave-holder, quite a common thing here. She, of course, I found a good slave-holder, and quite fond of instituting comparisons between the condition of north- ern and southern Africa, within the bounds of these United States. Her husband, in her opinion, was a very mild mas- ter ; he allowed some of his slaves, she said, to work SLAVEUY UNMASKED. ill for themselves, or in other words, to liirc a portion of their freedom, to work for themselves ; two of tliem, at least, Jungo and Betty, a man and his wife, the former for $40 per month, and tlie latter $12 ])er month — that is some $670 per annum they l>ay to thv'iT master, eold cash, for this privilege; then all they can get over that, they can have to victual, clothe and house themselves with. And they do it, poor things, and more too, said the lady. But negro people cannot take care of themselves, you know, so says the unani- mous voice of the south — but say the ncgiocs, just let us try, and you shall sec. The fact is, they not only earn their own living, but support some thousands of families in almost all the luxuries of Princes. MUNICIPAL KEGULATIONS. Charleston is undoubtedly the strictest in its mu- nicipal regulations of any city in the Union ; and this arises solely from the fact of its relation to the sj^stem of slavery. There is absolute necessity in the case ; self-preservation induces them, as remarked in a former number, to adopt strirrgent measures to prevent their goods and chatties from combining some night and cutting all their throats. To prevent which, and to keep down all insurrectionary movements, they have a heavy armed police, always on hand. There are two large guard houses situated in different parts of the city. One of them, the largest, occupying rather a central position ; both of them large stone buildings, having very much the appearance of war-like castles or prisons. In these fortresses, are deposited, I should 112 SLAVERY UNMASKED. think, some ten tliousand stands of arms, such as mus- kets, sabres and cannon all in trim for immediate use. The large town clock is at the central, or largest one. When that strikes nine at night, all the colored peo- ple, bond and free, start for their quarters ; that is the signal for them to be on the move. You can then hear them running, and walking fast all through the streets within hearing distance. The bell strikes nine, then a watchman from the lofty watch tower, cries the hour nine o'clock, and all is well. Then at a quarter past nine it strikes three strokes, and the watchman cries out again, quarter past nine, and all is well. Just the moment he finishes the last word, the drums beat at the door of the guard house, and then woe to any colored face found on the walks, or in the streets at that time, unless he or she has a written pass from their master, mistress or overseer. At this juncture, or a few minutes before, some hundred armed men march out with gan and bayonet, to take their various sta- tions through the city for the night, or to be relieved at one or two in the morning by an equal number quartered in the guard house. " There is another body separate from the one mentioned, called the horse guards; they are mounted on horseback and also armed ; they ride along, usually, two together all over the city and all night long, until six o'clock the next morning. By a signal given from the watch tower, these armed watchmen can be collected at a given point at almost any moment, and in half an hour or so, the whole militia, and all the independent com- panies of the city could be collected, and armed with SLAVERY UNMASKRD. 113 tlies3 ten thousand guns for defensive purposes against the blacks, if need be. Nor is the lioly Sabbath ex- empt from tliese war-like demonstrations, for in going to eliurch, you have not unfrcquently to eneountcr these men, armed from head to foot, for eombat like the bloody combatants of the Crimea. From six in the morning until nine at night, on God's holy Sabbath and in a Rci)ubliean, Christian city, these sights are to be seen, year in and year out. Now, what shall we think of the Republicanism or Native Americanism of these portions of our country where tlie liirelings of Europe, (for almost all of the above mentioned guard men are Irish Catholics) arc paid for guarding, at tlic point of the bayonet, Native Americans, to keep them from going to more congen- ial parts of our native country, when they may choose so to do ? I know what you think, and ten thousand others besides you, myself also being included, that is, that there is too little of the higher law, and by far too much of the lower law in exercise for all concerned. And here allow me to bring in another illustration or two, of the working of this lower lawism here. Pass- ing down one of the main streets one day, I saw quite a crowd moving along on the walk, and heard a roar of loud laughter, mingled with exclamations of de- rision, go up from the masses. And by-the-way, this occured not more than twenty rods from those infernal regions, the slave auctions. On joining myself with the multitude, to take a more minute observation of the cause of this stir, I saw a poor broken-liearted, half-distract(.'d woman, the mother of a child whom 114 SLAVEKY UNMASKED. these devils of tlie block liad torn from her bosom, and sold to strangers, never more perhaps to be seen by that mother in this life. She wept and raved, and tore like a maniac, crjnng out in those tones of 'des- pair and anguish which nothing but a heart broken, crushed and wrung to the very core, can ever give ut- terance to. "Thej have sold my babe, they have sold my babe," she exclaimed as she ran through the crowd to ge^ hold of it, to grasp it in her arms, to press it to her bosom again ; but fruitless effort, it was all vain. The babe was borne in one direction, and the mother in another. Her fruitless, heart-broken efforts, and screams of distress at the result, made mirth for the heartless, unfeeling multitude. They laughed, hoot- ed and moclced at her misfortune, as though they were dumb beasts that were thus separated. Oh ! God, said I, or prayed I, while a sensation of sickness came over my whole system, and the unbidden tear started from my eye, bless this poor, persecuted, crush- ed, down-trodden American slave, and have mercy on her, and these, her enemies who are guilty of selling and rending the body and blood of Jesus Christ. " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me." Passing along on another street, I met a colored man with a large iron collar fastened round his neck so tight that he could not remove it ; weighing, I should think, some ten or twelve pounds. He was undoubt- edly a caught runaway, and doomed now to wear this heavy iron on his shoulders for months to come, in SLAVERY UNMASKED, ♦ 115 the streets, fields or wherever he jnay chimee to go, and be cliaiiied iip by it at night. The sight being so novel to nie, I turned niys(>lf round on the walk to lools:"at him a seeond time. Oh, these dark spots on our governnient, how they embitter the mind of a northerner, as also, every for- eigner, against the bloody, iniquitous Institution of Slavery. I have notieed particularly seamen of for- eign nations, English and others, sit at the slave auc- tions with their large blue eyes looking astonishment to see human beings, men, women, and children, sold off like sheep from the stall. Under these circumstances, I found myself several times almost involuntarily exclaiming, (silently of course,) oh, my country, thou art behind the genius of the age, and a stench in the nostrUs of Christendom. lower lawism — slave prison vs. inquisition. I should have added on a previous page that all col. ored people, bond or free, who were caught out by the watchmen after the drums had beat at a quarter past nine at night, without a })ass, Avere unceremoni- ously dragged- to the watch-house, by these faithful servants of the Pope, and there confined until morn- ing; then if they, or their masters pa}^ one dollar, they are released ; if not, they arc then dragged to — what shall I call it ? We have no building or place in all the north, answering to it. I have a name for it. I shall term it the South Carolina Lower Law Inquisition^ where Native Americans^ many of whom 116 ^ SLAVERY UNMASKED. are the real followers of Jesus Christ, are put on the rack, chained to the pillorj, tied up to the whipping- post, besides sundry other mal-treatment, not greatly- dissimilar to those enacted in the bloodj Inquisitions of Portugal and Spain ; and these tortures, also, for the most part, are inflicted by Popish hirelings ; a suitable business for them. Here they take their first lessons in American Inquisition keeping. I jcame across a friend, one day on the Atlantic Wharf; a regular built down caster, whose Puritan heart beat in unison with my own. Said I to him, " Have you yet seen that infernal prison, where they flog the poor slaves ?" " No," said he. " Well come along with me," said I, and I will show it to you." So off we started for this house of blood and groans, from whose cells and vaults a thousand sighs have been uttered, now forgotten by men, but remembered in heaven; written in the Book of God, to appear in the last day, as evidence against this " sum of all vil- lanies." The building is a large one, of enormous proportions. I do not now recollect that I ever saw a much larger one, except it be the large Stone House of Auburn — very much like it — sufliciently ample to hold hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, at the same time. Indeed, the refractory slaves from all parts of the State are sent here for correction, and it must be large. Well, by dint of good tact, we Avork- ed ourselves in. Had the proprietors known, how- ever, who and what we were, we might not have fared so well. But we got in, and got out again: thank God for that. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 117 A beautiful Quadroon, or Mulatto girl, about 20 years old, the property of a Mr. , living not a thousand miles from this city, was endowed by her Creator with so much self-respect, had such a clear per- ception of the spirit of that noble clause of our Nation- al Constitution, viz : the "Inalienable Rights," &c., as to disqualify her to brook the degradation of Sla- very. As a consequence, she would give her master French leave at every convenient opportunit}^ : for which, she had nearly as often been sent to this Inquisi- tion, for torture; and this had been done so faithfully with such inhuman severity, by these Popish Inquisi- tors, as to lacerate her back in a most shocking man- ner, so that a finger could scarcely be laid between the cuts. But her love of liberty was not to be quench- ed by the bloody lash, or the torturing pillory ; and, as a last resort, she was whipped at several dilfcrent times, and chained in solitude, a disconsolate prisoner. Austria -is not the only place where women are flog- ed. No. These heroic Carolinians can go all round old Haynau, and completely shame him out of coun- tenance, in this heathen, barbarous business, as the sequel will show. Whipping, mauling, chaining, and imprisoning, was not enough, in the eyes of her master and mistress, to inflict upon the person of this beatiful woman, of a noble, daring soul. A heavy iron collar must bo made, with three long prongs projecting from it, and placed around her neck ; worse, by far, than any I ever saw worn by a man in a chain gang. Nor is this all. Iler propensity being so strong, so great^ to 118 SLAVERY UNMASKED. imitate the needle or magnet, viz : of inclining to the North, for the piu'pose of identifying her, of furnish- ing proof positive to some of the Marks and Tom Loker fraternity, a sound and strong frOnt tooth was extracted. Her sufferings by this time, you may rightly judge, were agonizing in the extreme. She could lie in no position but on her back, which was sore from those frequent and cruel scourgings ; so I was informed from the most reliable source, by one who was an eye witness to the whole scene. Now, these outrages were committed in a family where the mistress dail}^ read the Holy Scriptures, and assem- bled her children for worship ; and by her neighbors is accounted a very hospitable woman ; and, so far as alms-giving is concerned, she undoubtedly is a tender- hearted woman to the poor, from all I can learn of her ; and yet this poor, suffering slave, who by the way, was the seamstress of the family, was necessarily continually in her presence, sitting in her chamber to sew, or engaged in her other household work, with her bruised, lacerated, and bleeding back, her mutila- ted mouth, and heavy iron collar, &c., and without ap- parentl}'- exciting the least feeling of sympathy or compassion in her tender, pious and philanthropic heart. But more anon, still darker. INQUISITORIAL TORTURES. A high spirited and very intelligent man, for a slave, belonging to a Mr. , of this State, feeling himself as much a man as his master, or any other SLAVERY UNM-\SKED. 119 man, and acting upcu this faith, made many attempts to go abroad where he chose, for which offence he was punished in every case with brutal severity. At one time he was tied up by liis liands to a tree, like a savage Indian's victim, and there whipped until his back was one gore of blood. To these terrible scourg- ings this poor man was subjected, at intervals, for a number of weeks, put on with barbarous cruelty by the unfeeling inquisitoi*S, and kept heavily ironed while at his work. His master one day accused him of some trifling fault, in the usual terms dictated by the position oc- cupied by these republican autocrats when the south- ern blood is up a little, full of fury and passion ; the slave protested his innocence, but as a matter of course, under these circumstances, was not credited. He again repelled the charge with honest indigna- tion, as any man would, having the soul of a man, and conscious of his innocence. His master at this junc- ture became a maniac of rage — the very impei-sona- tion of Satan himself, seizing a sharp pointed instru- ment, he made a deadly plunge at the breast of his slave. The man being of a strong, athletic make, by far his superior in strength, caught his arm and dash- ed the deadly weapon on the floor. The infuriated master then grasped at his throat ; again the slave over- powered him and rushed from the apartment. Hav- ing made good his escape with a whole skull, he fled to the swamps ; and after wandering about for several, months, among the wild beasts and alligators, living on roots, the bark of trees, berries, &c., enduring a 120 SLAVERY UNMASKED. tliousand hardships consequent upon his forlorn condi- tion, was finally arrested by the emissaries of the In- quisition, and imprisoned. Here he lay for a consid- erable time, allowed scarcely food enough to sustain life, whipped in the meantime almost out of the body, and confined in a cell so loathsome, that when his un- feeling master came to visit him, he said the stench was enough to knock a man down. And so it was, for the filth had never been remov- ed frorj;! his dungeon since the poor creature was thrust into it. There is a difference, you will understand, in being sent to a States Prison, or to an Inquisition. To the former men are sent for correction, and are treated with humanity ; to the latter they are sent for torture, and are broken, on the wheel. Although a pure Af- rican by color, yet such had been the effect of starva- tion and suffering upon his person, that his master de- clared he hardly recognized him. His complexion became so yellow, and his hair, formerly thick andbl.ick had become red and scanty : an infallible evidence of loniT continued living on unwholesome and insufficient food. Stripes, imprisonments, chains, iron collars, and the ghastly gnawings of hunger, had broken his lofty spirit, for a season at least. After a time, however, he made another attempt to escape, and was absent so long, that finally a reward was offered for him, dead or alive. But he ingeniously eluded every attempt to take him, and his master, despairing of ever getting him again, as a last resort, offered to pardon him if he would return, and, by the way, it is always under- Stood in the South that such intelligence will reach the SLAVEliY UNM.V.SKED. 121 fugitive ; it did him, and at the earnest solicitations of his wife, and mother, who were also in bondage, un- able to flee with him, the poor fellow consented once more to return to the house of bondage. And I be- lieve it was the last effort he ever made to obtain his freedom. lie saw it w:\s a hopeless case, that nothing but stripes, and bonds, slavery and death, awaited him in this life. lie gave his heart to God, and be- came an hmnble, devout Christian ; that fierce spirit, which neither stripes, bonds, dungeons, nor death itself could subdue, bowed at the cross of Jesus and took upon himself the vows of Christianity, and ever after, witli lamb-like simplicity, submitted to the yoke of the oppressor, and wore his chains without mur- muring until death released him. Now, the master who thus maltreated and pursued with vindictive persecutions, to the gates of death, this poor slave, was one of the most influential and honored citizens of this State, and by his neighbors was called a courteous, benevolent man. A poor fellow, not long since, somewhere up in the central part of this State, wishing to free himself from bis chains by fleeing from the land of bondage, made the bold attempt, as thousands and thousands of others would do, were they sure of succeeding by wandering in the forests, fording rivers, among the alligators and poisonous serpents, and by pressing from the scent of the southern blood-hound gentry, both of the four leg- ged and two legged breed, for months, and then gain her Majesty's dominions, soul and body together, they would make the attempt. Yes, they would do it, male and fe- 6 122 SLAVERY UNMASKED. male, no matter how much attached they may be to their masters, or their masters to them ; they love freedom more than anything else on earth : and who can blame them for it? • But, to the poor fugitive : this man was the slave of a Mr. , who had been treated with brutal sever- ity through many a long — ^long year of cruel and un- natural bondage, but the hour that should terminate his servitude drew nigh. One day, after a most se- vere scourging from the overseer, he resolved that that should be his last day's work on that plantation, or on any other in the sunny south. In the evening he collected together a small bundle, stowed away into it a few crumbs of his remaining rations, and watched carefully for a favorable opportunity to start, until the clock struck twelve, and again one, then when all was still, and even the watch dogs asleep, he crawled silently out from his quarters, and on his hands and knees, crept by the night patrol unperceived, and for a few hours his legs did him good execution ; for the dawn of morning found him far in the Carolina for- ests, where many a poor fugitive has wandered for months until recaptured or starved to death ; the lat- ter alternative many chose, to returning into bondage. Well, poor Pompey enjoyed a few days, of unin- terrupted freedom amid the desolate wilds, every day advancing a little toward the land of freedom. But how should an untutored, illiterate slave, having never been permitted to know the alphabet, or even the points of compass, know which way to steer. To inquire of any living person would imperil his safety. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 128 Yet this poor human beast, made good his way towards tlic northwestern States, and would doubtless before this time have been under the powerful proteetion of the British Lion, but for one circumstance, and that the most revolting, — the most barbaric, of any circumstance I. ever heard related, or read of in my life. My blood fair- ly runs cold, as I think of it, — and to see it in print, or to hear it mentioned, makes even the Southerner nervous, and a crimson hue of shame come over the cheek of the most brutal of them, because of the living, burning disgrace it entails upon them, and their cherished in- stitution throughout the civilized world. The circum- stance was this, poor Pompcy with every sail set, and limb strained to bear him away to " The land of tlie free aud home of the brave,'' was* unluckily discovered by two Carolinian hunters, who had gone out for a small hunting excursion : be- ing on a sharp lookout for game, they crossed his path and from a distance spied him making a northerly direction ; quickening their pace, soon came upon him and challenged him as a runaway slave ; on perceiv- ing them, he ran, and they after him, but finding he was likely to distance them, and finally escape, they drew up their guns and shot him down ; then, savage- like, rushed upon him while yet living, and served him far more brutal and savage, than the Russian soldiers did the British, wounded on the field of Inkcrmanu, viz : — stab them ; they literally hewed him into pieces, and gave his warm, bleeding flesh to their dogs to eat^ Jed, a man-slave belonging to Mr. , living not a thousand miles from this city, who had been 124 SLAVERY UNMASKED. long separated from his dear family, simply because it best suited the convenience of his owner, ran away. He was overtaken and arrested on the plantation where his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, then lived. His only object in running away was to return to his wife and children. Just as you, or I or any other man having a soul in him, would do : — no other fault was attributed to him. For this offence he was confined six weeks in the stocks of the Inquisition, receiving- fifty lashes weekly, during that time, and was allowed food barely sufficient to sustain nature ; and when re- leased from the dungeon of the Inquisition, was not permitted to remain with his family. His master, al- though himself a husband and a father, was wholly unmoved by the pathetic, touching appeals of the poor slave, who entreated that he might only reniain with his wife and children, promising to discharge his duties faithfully : but his tyrant master was inexora- ble and he was torn from his wife and family, perhaps forever. Now, this Mr. slave-owner was a member of Church, a good, humble Christian in his own estima- tion ; was in full membership of Church. The above cases are literally true, and require no com- ments from me. CITY GOSSIP — SLAVE AUCTION, This living in a slave country, is not very congenial to the feelings of a native New Englander. Its ways, customs, manners, opinions, institutions, &c., are so SLAVERY UNMASKED. 125 different, so directly opposite to those of a descendant of the Puritans, that he feels lonely, though surround- ed by tens of thousands — he feels himself a speckled bird in the flock, a sort of island in the niidst of a mass of living, breathing, intelligent matter. lie goes to church, enters the domestic circle, visits the prayer meeting room, is invited, perchance, into the studio of divines, walks the streets, promenades the public squares, parks, &c. And yet a disagreeable vacuum fills his whole soul ; a spirit of loneliness, of disquiet he feels involuntarily creej)ing over him, jiroduced by a want of congeniality of spirit with everything he comes in contact with ; he is led, in short, to sigh for those ennobling elements or inspirations, so peculiar to the LAND OF FREEDOM. But to my city gossiping. Went down Broad-st. one day, to the post-of!icc, which is in one part of the custom-house, and is situated at the foot of Broad, on East Bay-st., at the north- west corner of which, is a sort of public square or grounds, devoted to i)ublic business. Saw there collected, a great concourse of people, citizens, countrymen, seamen, strangers, specu- lators ; also, doctors, deacons and divines ; all appar- ently interested in the sales of a public auction, where some $400,000 worth of Adam's redeemed race, were placed on the block and struck off to the highest bidder. I shall never forget that sight — viz : the first slave auction I ever attended ; no, it was written on my memory as with a pen of iron, never-to-be-for- gotten, " While life, or thought, or being lasts, Or immorality endures." 126 SLAVERY UNMASKED. For the first half hour I was all eyes, all ears, and all attention — then there came over me a sickness at the heart, a faintness through the whole system, fol- lowed by three-fourths of an hour's weeping ; yes, nature found vent in tears, and I had neither power nor inclination to suppress them. I retired from the scene, went inside of the custom-house, up a flight of stairs, and there wept alone, for about forty minutes, and prayed at the same time, for these poor, afflicted down-trodden people. But the scenes of that day — how shall I describe them ? Scenes that were acted in a Christain city, under the waving of the stars and stripes, and on one of the battle-fields of our own revolution ? Scenes which I saw unblushingly acted in broad day -light, in sight of heaven, earth and hell. Scenes for which I may but pray never to be brought in as an evidence against, in the last day. There were, I should judge, from 300 to 500 of these human cat- tle, brought on for sale, consisting of men, women and children, from the sleeping, helpless infant in its mother's arms, to the hoary headed matron and sire of 80 or 100 years, I saw driven into the slave shambles — ^not of an Asiatic market, but of an American City, and sold for life to the highest bidder, of these CHRiSTAusr Eepublicans, Deacons, Doctors, Di- vines, (fee. The sale commences — two fierce looking men mount a table, or low bench, (the auctioneers) and cry out, "gentlemen, the sale is now to commence." Jed, Jack or Joe, they sing out to their own servants, "bring on group No, 1, and place them on the stand." The next SLAVERY UNMASKED. 127 moment up come three stout looking men, two women, and II little boy some five years old. "Gentlemen," says the leading auctioneer, " here is a likely group of field hands, as good as ever entered the cotton fields of any man's plantation, worth twelve hundred dollars, each, except the cub, and he will soon be worth that ; how much for them ? how much ? Do I hear $8,000 for the group? Five thousand are bid — five thousand, five thousand, only five thousand are bid for this valuable stock of six niggers, do I hear no more ? Gentlemen this property is to be sold, it must go at some price — five thousand five hundred — five thousand five hundred are bid — six thousand — going, going, at only six thousand. Are you done, at six thousand? six thousand five hundred — seven thousand, who says eight thousand ? Now is your time ; seven thousand five hundred is announced — seven thousand five hundred, that is it now, who for the odd five hundred, and make a clean breast of it? Seven thousand five hundred, once, twice, are you all done at seven thousand five hundred dollars, going, going, gone — at seven thousand five hundred." "Now bring up group No. 2." And in less than three minutes, you behold a sorrowful-looking .gi'oup, con- sisting of a man and woman, husband and wife, and parents of eight children, as follows : a son of about 20 years, a daughter of some eighteen years, another of 16, a third at 14, another boy of some 10 or 12, and down along to a sleeping infmt on its mother's breast. Oh, what a sight to behold, that father at the head of his dear, dear family, all paraded on that 128 SLAVERY UNMASKED. block, in a straight line — ^his wife next to liim, and the cliildren next to her. To see his cheek turn pale, and his teeth fairly chatter with fear, not of the lash, nor of being the gazing stock of gaping thousands, nor of any sort of mal-treatment to his own person. No, but the prospect of soon seeing his family separated and scattered to the four winds, through a life long period ! Oh, that was what harrowed up his very soul, and made his sable cheek turn pale. And that mother, too, entered largely into the same feehngs of grief and terror-stricken anguish, at the near prospect of so cruel and so common an event. The tear stole down the eye of the eldest daughter also. But soon they all went off together, at a single bid to one man, but he a negro drover, I suppose who will undoubtedly sell them off singly, or as he can meet with a customer. Next came on the stand a single one, and she a young woman of about 20 years, good looking, healthy and stoutly built. Said this im23 of satan, the auc- tioneer, placing his hand on her breast, " gentlemen," said he, "there is not another such breast in all Charles- ton ;" whether he meant to make an appeal direct to some of the w^orst elements of human nature, I cannot say, but this I do say, she was soon struck off, at a round price, to a good judge of this kind of stock. Now that old woman and girl, James, do you hear, boy ? And up comes an old woman, of about fifty, and her daughter of some twenty. Now, gentlemen, how much for these two ; do I hear $2,000 for the couple ? Eight hundred for the girl, sings out a man in the crowd. $800 for the girl, responded the I SLAVERY UNMASKED. 129 auctioneer. Will you say $1,600 for both? No, don't want the old woman, won't luivc her. Well, $800 for the girl— $850, $900, $950, $1000, $1,100, $1,200 — going, gone at $1,200. A few moments more the mother goes for $900, one in one direction, l,he other in another direction. The daughter weeps aloud, and the mother cries ; but it is of no avail. They are separated, perhaps, until the trump shall sound. BOARDING WITH .AJT EX-CLERGYMAN. On arriving in this city, I stopped a few weeks at a boarding house kept by an ex-clergyman ; quite a pious man for a slave-holder, that is, in his own esti- mation. He requested me to accompany him to his church one Sabbath ; I did so. It was a sacramental occasion. To that church belonged, I think, 300 whites, and 600 or 700 colored communicants ; to the whites, the preacher applied the term brother, or brethren, who were all seated below; but the col- ored, who invariably occupy the galleries here, he addressed them in the following terms: " my friends of the gallery," which is the way they always do. During the singing of the last hymn, I picked up my hat and walked out to avoid an invitation to commune with them ; for I had made up my mind not to do so with these clerical dealers in human chatties. Per- haps I had a wrong spirit. I did not feel right, that is certain ; — though not angry, nor piously mad, as some term it, but I felt as Dr. Bond used to say, extensively provoked, at the religious working of the institution. 6* 180 SLAVEEY UNMASKED. After dinner, being seated in the parlor witli the other boarders, though a httle modified in my feehngs, jet I was keyed up to a half savage point, and let out a few notes of the real New England t3'pe, simon pure ; just enough to make the hak of my pious host stand up like the bristles of a full grown porcupine. I said enough to mob 40 men better than I am ; but it would not look very well for a minister to do so on the Sabbath day, especially to a boarder ; so I came off a mighty deal easier than the young Yankee allu- ded to in a previous number, who was treated to a coat of tar and feathers astride of a rail, for a similar offence. Said I to my clerical host, I do not, I cannot have the same fraternal feelings — that brotherly affiliation for you here, that I have for my brethren north. Why not ? Because, I answered, you buy and sell the body of Jesus Christ. You make merchandise of human beings, men, women and children. Said I, I do not know how you can interpret the golden rule on gos- pel principles, and be slave-holders. How would you like, continued I, to have a race of men come here as much superior to you in knowledge and power, as you are to your poor slaves, buy you or take you, and sell you, and your wife and children, into bondage, and you unable to help yourselves ? " Take care, take care what you say," said a young Bostonian boarder; " remember where you are ; we would not like to see a Yankee mobbed in Charleston." Well, I replied, I am only passing an opinion on the evils of one of the institutions of my country, and if I am mobbed for that, then so mote it be. I did SLAVERY UNMASKED. 181 not come here to attack soutliern institutions, it is health I am after, and not battle. But many a man gets mobbed in the south, for just expressing his opinions, and those opinions may be in- geniousl}' drawn from him for the purpose. As I stated in a former number, so I repeat here, that there are a few in the slave-holding states who are heartily sick of the institution, as it exists among them ; but they constitute such a small minority that they are utterly powerless, not daring oven to say their souls are their own on the subject openly. It has been my fortune to find a few of this class here, from whom I have gathered some interesting and important data. The following is one : a pious and intelligent lady, whose name I am not at liberty to give, but her remark upon a Mrs. of this city ; the facts in the case having passed under her own observation, I will venture to give. There is Mrs. , said she, a lady who was fore- most in every benevolent enterprise, and who* stood for many years, I may say, at the head of the fashion- able elite of this city, and afterwards, at. the head of the moral and religious female society here. It was after she had made a profession of religion, and re- tired from the fashionable world, said the lad}^, that I knew her ; therefore, I will present her in her religious character. This lady used to keep cowhides, or small paddles, (called pancake sticks) in four different apart- ments in her house ; so that when she %v'ished to pun- ish, or have punished any of her slaves, she might not have the trouble of sending for an instrument of tor- 132 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ture. For many j^ears, one or more of her slaves were flogged every day; particularly, the young slaves about the house, whose faces were slapped, or their hands beat with tbe "pancake stick," for'every trifling offence, and often, for no offence at all. But floggings were not all ; the scoldings and abuse daily heaped upon them all, were even worse. " Fools" and "liars," " sluts" and " husseys," "hypocrites and good for noth- ing creatures," were the common epithets with which her mouth was filled, when addressing them, adults, as well as children. Very often she would take a po- sition at her window, in an upper story, and scold at her slaves while working in the garden at some dis- tance from the house, (a large yard intervening,) and continually order a flogging. I have known her thus on the watch, continued my informant, scolding for more than an hour at a time, in so loud and boisterous a voice that the whole neigh- borhood could hear her; and this without the least apparent feeling of shame. Indeed, it is no disgrace among slave-holders, and did not in the least injure her standing, either as a lady or a Christain, in the aris- tocratic circle in which she moved. After a great re- ligious revival in the city, she opened her house for social prayer meetings. The room in which they were held in the evening, and where the voice of prayer was heard around the family altar, and where she herself retired for private devotion thrice each day, was the very place in which, when her slaves were to be whipped with the cow-hide, they were taken to re- ceive the infliction ; and the wail of the sufferer would SLAVERY UNMASKED. 133 be heard, where, perhaps, only a few hours previous, rose the voice of prayer and praise. This mistress would occasionally send her slaves, male and female, to the inquisition for more savage punishment than she could possibly inflict at her house. One poor girl whom she sent there for torture, was stripped naked and whi]i}icd so horribly that deep gashes were made in her back sufficiently large to lay my whole finger in them, — large pieces of flesh had actually been cut out by the torturing lash, I have seen it in the hands of the unmerciful inquisitors ; may God have mercy on them for it, for the devil never will. Soon after, she sent another female slave there to be imprisoned, and worked on the tread mill. This girl was confined several days, and forced to work the mill while in a state of suffering from another cause. For two weeks after her return, she was lame from the vio- lent exertion necessary to enable her to keep the step on this infernal inquisitorial machine. She spoke to me with intense feeling of this out- rage upon her as a woman. Iler men servants were sometimes also flogged at the inquisition ; and so ex- ceedingly offensive has been the putrid flesh of their lacerated backs, for da3^s after the infliction, that they would be kept out of the house — the smell arising from their wounds being too horrible to be endured. They were always stiff and sore for some days after, and not in a condition to be seen by visitors. This professedly Christian woman was a most awful illustration of the ruinous influence of arbitrary power upon the temper. Her bursts of passion upon the 184 SLAVERY UNMASKED. heads of her victims were dreaded even by lier own children, and very often all the pleasure of social in- tercourse around the domestic board was destroyed, by ordering the cook into her presence and storming at him when the dinner or breakfast was not prepared to her taste, and in the presence of all her children, commanding the waiter to slap his face. Fault-finding was with her the constant accompaniment of every meal, and banished that peace which should hover around the social board, and smile on ever}'- face. It was common for her to order brothers to whip their own sisters, and sisters their own brothers ; and yet no woman visited among the poor more than she did, or gave more liberally to relieve their wants. But her own slaves must feel the power of her tyrannical arm, and know and keep their places. Except at family prayers, none were permitted to sit in her presence, but the seamstress and waiting maids, and they, however delicate might be their circumstances, were forced to sit on low stools, that they might be constantly reminded of their inferiority. A slave waiter of the house was guilty on a particular occa- sion, of going to visit his wife, and kept dinner wait- ing a little. (His wife was the slave of a lady of the neighborhood.) When the family sat down to the table, the mistress began to scold the waiter for his offence; he attempted to excuse himself; she ordered him to hold his tongue • — he ventured another apology; her son then rose from the table in a rage, and beat the face and ears of the poor waiter so dreadfully, that the blood gushed from his mouth, nose and ears. SLAVEKY UNMASKED. 135 This mistress, yoii will l)oar in uiIikI, was a professor of religion, tliat sou also; l)otli iiiotlicr and son, and the poor shive also, were all communicants of the same Church. What brotherly love is this ? Here you have a true picture of slave-holding re- ligion in the glorious South. SLAVES CHIEF WEALTH OF THE SOUTH. The wealth of the South is ])roduce(l by the slaves of the South ; they produce it, and their masters squander it. I now say that the chief wealth of the slave-holding States consists mainly in the slaves themselves, they being the chief operators here, conse- quentlv without them the most productive southern plantation would be nearly as valueless as the same amount of territory located in the deserts of Arabia. The valuation of southern slaves may safely be laid down at the average price of $1,000 per head. Some are held at $3,000 each, some at $2,000, and some at $1,500. I have seen them sold on the block in public for the last amount, and some very young babes, and others very aged will go at $200 a piece, but $1,000 each is a fair average for the whole. Now, according to the late revised slave-holding statistics, which have been just given to the world by the proper authorities, I find the number of slaves belonging to the slave-holding States, to be 3,523,412, which sum, multiplied by 1,000, the average value of each slave, will give the entire valuation of this vast drove of human cattle, raised, bought and sold under 136 SLAVERY UNMASKED. the stars and stripes of this model Kepublic, which in hard dollars and cents will be no less than $3,523,- 412,000. Just think of that. Our Southern neighbors and brethren, lawyers, planters, doctors and divines, are stock jobbers in human blood and bones to the amount of three billions, five hundred and twenty- three millions, four hundred and twelve thousand dol- lars. Oh my country ! What an amount to be invested in the bodies and souls of redeemed men. Great Sire of the universe, spare us as a nation the desolations of Egypt's accursed fate ! The valuation of property here is estimated among the Southerners themselves by the number of slaves a man owns. For instance, I called on a wealthy plan- ter one day, who resides in this city. After leaving, I inquired of one of his neighbors how much that man was worth. *' Why, he is rich," said the man, " he is worth 400 niggers." But to the descriptive part of this article ; and here I am forced to remark (notwithstanding all my sympa- thies are enlisted on the side of the poor slaves) that one of the most disgusting sights presented to a North- erner, in walking the streets of a Southern city, and one that meets him at every corner, not only in the streets, but on the quays, levees, and on all the public walks and squares, is the mighty, rolling, headlong mass, or tide of negro servants, male and female, black, brown and yellow, their squalid, filthy, careless appearance as they pass along, up and down, to and fro, now bearing you along in the press, now retarding SLAVERY UNMASKED. 137 your advance, now cutting your path at riglit angles, then comparatively deafening you with a loud laugh or a shrill whistle, is anything but agreeable to one of any amount of refined feeling. But the facts in the case are, the cruel, unnatural, debasing servitude in which these poor creatures have been bred has so effectually crushed and ground every ennobling prin- ciple of humanity out of them as to render them almost insensible to shame or fear, unless their master or overseer should chance to be close by. You en- counter them on the public walks from six in the morning until nine at night, and they are clad for the most part in the most fantastic style conceivable, from the gaudy household livery of a Southern nabob, to the tattered costume of a wandering Gipsy, many of them bare-headed, bare feet and legs, men, women and children. I have seen them during all the winter months, singing, whistling, chatting, running, jump- ing, and dancing along on the walks, with sundry other monkey shines too tedious to mention, with scarcely any regard to the thousands of whites they meet, unless it should be their overseers. One moment you run against one of them with a pile of wood on his head ; the next you encounter an old woman with a wash-tub half full of water on hers ; now you meet a grinning, bare-headed Topsy drawing a two- wheeled cradle, with some two or three white babes in it, sing- ing her lulaby to them, as unconscious, apparently so, of any other presence, as though she were in the centre of her mistress' nursery ; now a stocky woolly- headed chap passes you with a piece of board, some 138 SLAVERY UNMASKED. two by three feet platted on his pate, heaped up with fresh fish, singing out at a deafening rate, startling every disordered nerve in one's body — fish, fish, here's your good fresh fish. And then, to bring up the rear, and fully consummate your disgust, you see that hyena of the human race, the slave-drover, come up street with some two or three hundred men, women and children in a drove, some in chains, some in rags, and some half naked. All these are to be placed on the block on the morrow for public sale. I went to the house of a gentleman in this city on business ; and, by-the-by, it is not so easy a matter to obtain admittance into the house of a Southerner as in the house of a Northerner. You have in many cases first to enter a yard or inclosure, which is generally kept locked, then ring the bell at the door of the house a long time, and should the servant happen to be out or not near at hand, you might ring there a half hour or more before any of the whites of the family would open to you, though half a dozen of them might distinctly hear the bell. At this house I met a well-dressed, smart-looking house servant of a neighboring gentleman, who had preceded me at the bell by some five minutes. I came up, found him standing. No one came. I rang it also and no response, and so we had quite a time of talking. Said I to him, holding up a large book I had with me " would you not like to read this good book?" " No, Massa, can 't read." "What, you can 't read?" SLAVERY UNMASKED. 139 " No," said he, with a sort of sheepish laugjh, which went to say, " why Massa don 't you know better than ask such a foolish question as that ? why you might as well ask these donkeys of the streets if they can read as us niggers," '* Where do you live ?" " Down on street." " Who is your master?" " Rev. IMr. ." " What, your master a clergyman?" "Yes." " Well," said I, " I would not hear him preach ; a minister of the gospel who will bring up a man like you, and give him no chance to learn to read, I have no good opinion of his piety." The door opens and our talk is at an end. LOWER LAWISM. A St. Clair, or a little Eva, can scarcely be found in these parts, at least; it is possible they may be in some portions of the South. I have never met with them myself You may frequently meet with those whose exter- nal manner and deportment will indicate the refined gentleman — nay, the real Christian — whose conver- sation and treatment with strangers, especially those whom they consider worthy of their regards, are made up of an untold amount of urbanity and good humor, so that to the superficial observer, they might appear the rarest specimens of gentility and nobility of nature in the whole race. 140 SLAVERY UNMASKED. And it cannot be denied but there is a great amount of real refinement in the South, — in this city especially, such as the public, popular opinion of the world de- nominates refinement. But this polish is only the mere surface, it is all hollow-hearted, or nearly so, the result of a system of training, of tyranny reared upon the groans, sweat, and blood of more tlian three mil- lions of human slaves. Being bred to afiluence and wealth — with whom life is but a blank, to be filled up with sensual gratifications ; consequently, they find ample leisure to qualify themselves- — not for the practical purposes of life, but for these, their imaginary positions of refinement and honor, in which the practi- cal world finds them mere drones, — in some instances pests of society, and an incubus upon progress. There are, however, exceptions ; some of the Southerners are practical men, and would gladly revolutionize society for the better if they could, but they cannot, nor dare they scarcely breathe their sentiments aloud. But these men are few and far between. There is a great — a fearful want of moral principle among the South- erners generally, running through all their institutions? civil, social, and ecclesiastical. There are thousands upon thousands here, who suppose themselves good Christians — who imagine themselves the real follow- ers of Him who, when on earth, was the friend and companion of the lowly and down-trodden among men ; they* may be what they profess to be, I am not their judge. But there are some of the real genuine disciples of Christ, in the South, of the sable race, hundreds of SLAVERY UNMASKED. 141 whom I have seen in this State. In this city hun- dreds may be found — also, many a martyred soul has gone up from the CaroHnas to glory and to God, and doubtless many more will. One instance you will find in the following : — On the plantation of Mr. , in the upper part of this State, there was a slave — one of the discii)les of Christ, of the old school ; nothing could make him swerve from his allegiance to the great Teacher, llis master, though not a professor of religion, was not un- conscious of the superior excellence and integrity of his pious slave, and I believe he was so sensible of the good influence of his piety, that he did not deprive him of the few religious privileges within his reach. A gentleman from a neighboring plantation one day called to dine with the master of this pious slave, and in the course of conversation observed, that all profes- sion of religion among slaves was mere hypocrisy. The other asserted a contrary opinion, and added : "I have a slave. Sir, who, I believe, would rather die than deny his Savior." The idea was ridiculed by the for- mer, and the master urged to prove the assertion. He accordingly sent for pious Joe, who instantly obeyed, and appeared in the presence of his master and his guest. " Joe," said his master, " I command you to give up your religion, and here before us deny your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." The poor slave, as a matter of course, begged to be excused, constantly affirming that he would rather die than deny the Ke- deemer, whose blood was shed for him. His master, after vainly trying to induce obedience by threats. 142 SLAVERY UNMASKED. unlike St. Clair, had Hm terribly whipped. But the fortitude of the martyr was not to be shaken in this way ; he nobly rejected the offer of exemption from further chastisement at the expense of destroying his soul, and thus the blessed martyr died in consequence gf this severe infliction. Oh, my God ! thought I — prayed I, as the feelings of my heart fairly choked their utterance, may I at last meet with so favorable, if not so triumphant an entrance into the heavenly world, as this, thy martyred servant who sealed with his life's blood his testimony for Jesus. The days of martyrdom have not taken their final leave of our sin-cursed world — thousands of martyred souls, it is to be feared, will rise in judgment against the institutions of Christian America, and condemn them ! whose souls are now under the altar, crying, "how long, oh Lord, will our blood be unavenged upon them that dwell upon the earth ?" They have a law in this State, which has been rigidly enforced in this port for years, viz : " Tliat no colored person shall enter the State, unless as valet de. chambre to some aristocratic nabob, or as cattle for the market. There came into port one day a fine looking vessel, freighted with West India goods, the captain and supercargo of which were both fine, intelligent look- ing men of color. The vessel was an English craft, and the captain and supercargo were English subjects, but they had not been in port two hours, when the notable of&cials of this Lower Law State arrested these subjects of Vic- SLAVERY UNMASKED, 143 toria and thrust them into the Inquisition, where they were obliged to remain until one hour before their vessel should be ready to leave for another voyage. But to the hiquisitorial tortures ; and, by the way, they are constantly iin])roving in this mode (jf j)unish- ment. Through the instance of a friend of humanity, I was made acquainted, not long since, with a mode of refined torture invented by one of the fair sex of this city ; one, more dreaded by the poor slaves than the cat-o-nine tails, unless put on unusually severe. It consists in standing on one foot and holding the other in the hand. Afterwards, the following im- provement was made upon it by some of the far- sighted Inquisitors: A strap was contrived to fasten around the ankle, and pass around the neck, so that the least weight of the foot resting on the strap would choke the subject. The pain occasioned by this unnatural position, I need not say, was great ; and when continued, as it sometimes was for more than an hour at a time, pro- duced intense agony. I heard this same woman say, said my informant, that she had the ears of her wait- ing maid slit for some petty theft. She often had the helpless victims of her cruelty severely whipped, not scrupling herself to wield the instrument of torture, when she thought it was not put on severe enough by the one employed for that purpose. Her husband, it was said, was less inliuman than his wife, but he was often goaded on by her to acts of great severity. In his last illness, it is said, the poor girl on whose person he had inflicted some horrible pun- 144 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ishment, haunted his dying hours ; and when at length the king of terrors approached, he shrieked out, in utter agony of spirit : " Oh, the blackness of darkness, the blackness, I can see them all around me, take them away! take -them away!" and amid such exclamations he expired. Now these persons were of one of the first families in the city. Again, a Mrs. , of this city, I was informed by one who knew the particulars in the case, committed murder in the first degree, by starving a female slave of hers to death. She was confined in a solitary apart- ment, kept constantly tied, and thus condemned to the slow and horrible death of starvation. But little or no notice is taken of such occurrences here, no post mortem examination held over slaves in the South, as ever I saw or heard of. A horse, cow or negro dying produces about the same class of feelings among the generality of Southerners. But another sight more revolting still, which makes my very blood run cold as I think of it : " As I was traveling in the lower county of the State, some time since," said my informant, "my attention was sud- denly arrested by an exclamation of horror from the coachman, who called out : 'Look there Miss , don't you see?' I looked in the direction he point- ed and saw a human head struck up on a pole. "On inquiry," said she, " I found that a runaway slave, who, in consequence was outlawed, had been shot there, his head severed from his body and put upon the high- way, as a terror to deter other slaves from following in. his footsteps." Oh ! the tender mercies of slavery. SLAVEIiY' UNMASKED. 145 For two or tliroc weeks past, there lias been raging a most destructive fire in the upper country, sweeping with terrific and destructive violence tiirough the j)ine forests of this State, destroying dwelHngs, depot'^, raih'oad tracks, thousands of bales of cottcjn, cotton plantations, "&c., &c. Cars, in some instaiices are stopped wholl}-, being perilous to human life to piuss through such oceans of fire as would be necessary to perform their daily trijts. THE PEOPLE OF CnARLESTON. The sontherners generally, and the Carolinians in particular, though very polite and much i-cfined, are, nevertheless, for the most part, a ver}- vain, pompous, aristocratic, chafl^y people. The extravagant notions they entertain respecting themselves, of their chivalry, prowess, heroism, &c., &c., will never be fully award- ed by those who are familiar with them ; sim]ilv, be- cause they have little or no foundation in matter of fact. B}^ so saying, I would not be understood as im- peaching either their bravery or ambition, or their southern blood, far from it ; for of these, when up, they have enough, though keyed upon the lowest tension. But this much I will say, that in a certain sense, the mn jority of them are ideal beings ; they live an im- aginary existence, the sober realities of practical life are too tame for them. To be seated in a large hotel, or some other place of public resort, with hundreds of these southern bloods, and listen to their talk for hours 7 146 SLAVERY UNMASKED. togetlier, as I have often done, to a northerner, is more amusing than marvelous. Nay, the invidious compar- isons they often make between the south and the north — the pompous eulogiums pronounced upon the former — and threats against the Latter, of the possibili- ty of their yet being obliged to flog out the general government to obtain their rights, &c., &c., form quite interesting data for the notes of northern tourists. In flogging out the north according to their plan, the first move would be to carry the war into the cen- tre of Pennsylvania, then the New England states must fall, and all others would speedily fall into the hands of the victor, and thus a peace be easily con- quered, for the northern forces are all mobs, while those of the southern, are well drilled soldiers. A high spirited New Yorker chanced on one occa- sion to sit in hearing distance of the above sketched southern campaign into the north, and replied to them with no small emphasis, as follows : Gentlemen, said he, the city of New York alone can flog out your whole state. And I thought so too, and ship them all off to Liberia, or to some other place, white and black, in six months. The Carolinians are a very martial people. I never saw so many training bands in a city of its size in my life as in Charleston. Almost every other day you may see several military companies parading through the streets, with banners flying — drams beating, and bugles sounding. A single company of fifty men frequently have as many musicians as a whole regiment north, and they SLAVERY UNMASKED. 147 all colored men. Southern music is all performed by niggers, as they term them here — don't now recollect that I ever saw a white band south. The sight i.s rather novel to a northerner, to see about twenty col- ored musicians, all finely dressed, in rich military cos- tume, marching at the head of some fifty white soldiers. And by-the-way, they make better music, (being regularly taught by scientific teachers,) — than the whites, softer, more pathetic, more martial, more thun- dering, and more terrible, making the very earth trem- ble under you as they pass. The Carolinians are also a great pleasure-loving people. I mean such pleasures as arise from going to the theatre, the circus, operas, social parties, public balls, &c. The wealthy planters from the upper country, as they call it, the upper part of the State, may be seen pouring down to the great metropolis, this modern Corinth, for pleasure and re- creation, by scores, hundreds, and thousands; whole families, horses, carriages, house servants, and all — to spend tlic winter months as above remarked, in pleas- ure, revelling and sensual gratifications. This annual exodus commences about the first of November, con- tinuing until the following April. I have met scores and hundreds of these haughty planters at the Charles- ton hotel, and at other hotels of this city, and con- versed with them freely. "With scarcely an excejition, they are extravagant consumers of ardent spirits, though rarely or never to that degree as to disqualify them for a social, good-humored chat. Their liquors here, I am told, are of the choicest, purest, most ex- pensive quality, such as the aristocracy only can af- 148 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ford. Then when evening comes, to the theatre, to the theatre ! is the universal cry, and off to the theatre they go, by droves, and crowds, gray-headed, rosy-headed, and bald-headed. I had seen tumble out of the hacks, and omnibuses upon the steps of the theatre, male and female, from the age of fourteen to seventy years. There is a great, a wild, nay, an insane passion among this people for the theatre, as also for all the other mentioned places of amusements. They scarcely form a bar to church membership. From 7 o'clock at night until 11, some 25 or 30 carriages may be seen paraded in front of the theatre, horses, drivers, and servants waiting through these long, long hours, in the night air, for the concluding scene. Perhaps on the same night, and not more than 40 rods from this temple of Satan, a religious meeting is held, attended by only 15 pei'sons, while some fifty or more of its communi- cants went to see Miss Julia Dean perform, or some other itinerating play actor show their heels on the stage. Charleston, without controversy, is the most fruitful soil for all kinds of public exhibitions in the whole Union. Those traveling panoramas of the North, such as the " Burning of Moscow," of "Niagara Falls," "Bullard's Panorama of New York," with "Ole Bull's Fiddle Exhibition," &c., &c., &c., all of which h.ave long since become stale at the North, have had full swing here, making tens of thousands of dollars. Great military balls, firemen's balls, and other public balls, are very popular, and very numerously attended here, several being held during the same week, and indeed 8LAVEKY UNMASKED. 11'.' man}' on tlic same night got up at great expense, cost- ing not less, I sup})ose, than a $1,000 to $1,500 each. The supper alone of one of them, being prepared by the ladv Avitli whom I then boarded, she was to Iiave some five hundred dollars for getting up. The public races also come in for no very small share of attention among sinners and saints of these localities. The courses are about one and a half miles above the city. They embrace some 500 or 600 acres of very fertile land, well fenced in, all of which are exclusively devoted to this heathen practice, or to military parades and duelling. I never attended the races, and never would, but am informed that profes- soi-s do, not excluding even some of the clergy. It not unfrequently happens that 15,000 to 25,000 per- sons are in attendance at the same time, a large pro- portion of whom are ladies, convenient galleries being constructed for their reception. Here large wagers are staked, lost and won, won and lost, again and again. Drinking saloons are also mimerous on the OTound, and all well sustained. Through the chief streets leading to them, scores, hundreds and thousands of himian beings may be seen pressing along to the courses, running, hurrying, pushing, galloping along, some riding, some walking, some on horse back, some in hacks, some drayed by mules, some by ponies, some by donkeys, some by one way and some by another, and if there were half a dozen other modes of con- veyance, they would all be sure of n liberal patronage about these times. The annual cost of these Bacchanalian festivities. 150 SLAVERY UNMASKED. as near as I can calculate them, cannot fall much short of $1,500,000 worse than thrown awaj, the hard earn- ed toil, sweat and blood of the poor slave. I must further add that these Carolinian lords, are a lady -wor- shiping people, as much so as the knight errants of Spain during the Moorish and Saracenic wars. But in paying public devotions to the godess, they are exceedingly fastidious with regard to the color of the skin, and quality of the hair. Should the former chance to be a shade or two lighter than some of the imported belles of Europe, for instance from France, Germany, or Spain, with hair not quite so straight as the ringlets gracing the neck and shoulders of a Sem- inole Chief's daughter, then there is no divinity there. But should the skin be a shade or two darker, and the hair perfectly straight, the case is then mightily al- tered — divinity is legitimate there. In their secret noc- turnal devotions, however, these considerations do not amount to a cobweb. There is no hypocrisy, all is true, real, ardent devotion then. But to the ladies of the South. They, are, so far as my observations have gone, in appearance, a pret- ty, graceful, delicate, harmless, helpless set of pictures as I ever beheld. As much a blank in the practical world as the splendid images of the holy mother, so gracefully hung up in the halls of a Catholic Cathe- dral and other places. They are the most dependent, helpless, delicate set of adult beings, I will venture to say, that a man ever laid eyes upon. Total ignorance of all kinds of household work and temporal economy being one of the fundamental elements of their edu- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 151 cation — to be able to cook a meal of victuals, wash out a pocket-handkerchief, with similar other kinds of liglit work, would blast their caste, and send it up in an explosion, for aught I know. The remark, you know, has often been made to us Northerners by the southern people, viz : That the slaves could not take care of themselves, if once liber- ated ; but the proposition reversed would be nearer the truth. The whites of the South could not take care of themselves if once freed from their slaves; this they know, and feel; hence, the tenacity with which they hold on to the Institution. PASSAGE TO SAVANNAH. After remaining in Columbia a few days, being able to find little or nothing to contribute either to ray pleasure or profit, I returned to Charleston. The fact is, these is such a sameness in southern life that one soon be- comes weary with its monotony. It is negroes, mules, drays, and cotton-bales — cotton-bales, drays, mules, and negroes, the same thing over again and again, week in and week out, month in and month out. And I have good reasons for supposing it to be the same, year in and year out ; with a great many slave auc- tions, slave floggings, besides sundry other things of a similar character to boot. Though less monotonous than any other southern city I have visited, yet, even Charleston lacks those essential elements of stir, and life, to move the blood, and fully wake up a regular built down-easter. You may rightly judge, sir, that 152 SLAVERY UNM-iSKED. six and a half months spent in this queen of the south, rendered me pretty familiar with her people, and her INSTITUTIONS. And why should I not ? Opening up- on ihem a huudi-ed piercing eyes at once, all of which were constantly employed by daylight and gas, in spj- out those wonderful, mysterious, and awful localities and institutions which make humanity blush and stand aghast — having fully satisfied my curiosit}^ re- specting the above mentioned Africo-Carolinian insti- tutions and people, I began to think of the more re- mote south, so I resolved to start. Taking passage at eight, A. M., on board the Savannah packet, for Sav- annah, Georgia, we arrived there at four p. m., of same day, a distance of eighty miles. Had a fine passage, and excellent accommodations, the fare being five dol- lars, same as cabin fare on first class Lake Erie steamers from Buffalo to Detriot, a distance of nearly three hundred miles. Savannah is situated on the left bank of the Savannah river, at about twenty miles distance from the ocean. In passing up the riv- er, I saw many rich and most beautiful rice j)lantations on either side; some containing, I suppose, two or three thousand acres each, all fenced in, and drained off by hundreds of ditches, crossing each other at right angles, for miles together, like the streets of a well laid out city. The tide comes sweeping up twice in ever}' four and twenty hours, flooding the whole fields when the proprietors wish them flooded; the water flowing off tlirough the sea drains. Works are also so constructed as to prevent the tide from flooding them, when so desired. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 153 Ilcre is where the poor slave and the shy alligator not unfivquently come to a fearful and deadly issue ; blood and life being often lost equally on both sides. A person has to see with his own eyes, these poor creatures wallowing houre together, half neck deep in these ocean covered rice fieUls, performing their cruel, laborious tasks, to appreciate some of the horrors of southern slave life. That Rev. gentleman way up in Boston, in his three months tour through the south, never saw this sight, I conclude, besides a thousand and one other horrifying illustrations of the institu- tution, that a murderous Arab of Sahara could but notice, were he here only half of three months. Now, Mr. Editor, I will tell you what I saw, it was something, I must say, that was neither instructive, in- teresting, nor honorable, in my opinion, to a Christian minister ; but something that amazed me, shocked me, nay it provoked me, because it came from a New Eng- land clergyman. Being one day introduced into one of the large libraries here, I sat down at a table which was covered with pamphlets and reviews ; on taking up one of them, I discovered it to be the New Eng- lander. And on opening it, at the table of contents, I saw an article called a review of a work entitled "The South Side View of Slavery, or three months in the South in 1854, by Nehemiah Adams, D. D. of Boston." I read it, and then said to myself, did this pious D. D. ever preach on the golden rule ? or did the great founder of Christianity ever call him to prciich deliverance to the captives ? Did he ever do it? In short, did the Holy Spirit inspire him to turn 7* 154 SLAVERY UNMASKED. apologist for one of the foulest, most anti-Christian, and God provoking institutions that ever did, or ever can curse a sin-cursed world? No, sir, that book is not looked upon in the light of a God-send by any class here, and I doubt if it is any- where else, east, west, or north, by any living, hu- mane or semi-civilized human beings ; 'by none, it is presumed, except by the Eev. author himself, and that I very much question. The gentleman, no doubt, is solicitous as to how his work is appreciated in the south, and what opinion the good slave-holding people here have, of the piety of a minister of Jesus Christ, who could so far step aside fi-om his regular calling as to subserve the cause of human slavery. As to the former, I will unhesi- tatingly say, that though his book may be read by the southerners pretty generally, though a stenter to them, at that, but out of respect for the effort they will read it. Yet, Mrs. Stowe's celebrated Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Key — with similar other works of thrilling, mov- ing, awful interest, which stir mens' blood in their veins, and force the unbidden tear from their eyes, will be read, nay fairly devoured, root and branch, body and parts, by these very slave-holding southerners, old and young, male and female. While from the tame- ness of the "South Side View of Slavery," it will fall from their grasp for want of interest. He has taken the wrong side of the question to render him- self a popular writer among this peoj)le — as Napoleon used to say on some occasions, of his enemies, "they have not learned French ;" so we say of this Boston- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 155 iau southern author, ho has not learned the South. It is a great error to suppose, that writings of the character of our author in his "Southern Side View, &c.," will please the southerners ; it is true thcv will gratefully acknowledge the favor he has so gratitously tendered them in his work, the same as any other sinking world-wide reprobated cause would thankful- ly receive proffered aid from any direction. They will read his book, we say, and recommend it to theh- neighbors for perusal, simply because it amounts to a clank and chain plea for them, while at the same time, they will despise, from the bottom of their hearts, the man who is a northerner, and a professed minister of the Christian religion, who is wholly disconnected with an iNSTiTUTiox against which the whole civilized world has pronounced a just and righteous verdict of reprobation, and one they are beginning to be heartily ashamed of themselves. It is also equally erroneous to suppose, as many do north, that works as above remarked, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ida May, or the White Slave, and by- the-way, such as the great work just issued by Miller, Orton & Co., of your own city, entitled "Our World;" a perfect Cyclopedia of southern life, true to the letter — I have seen it ; it will be read here by thousands — I say, to suppose that works of this character will not take with the southerners, is a great mistake. It is true, they arc prohibited by law, and should a man pos- sess a sufficient amount of courage to offer them for sale here, he would soon have on a coat of tar and feathers, if not a halter, besides. And yet, these books are be- 156 SLAVEKY UNMASKED. ginning to be read extensively in the South, and they will be read, law or no law. But where, or how, do they get them? I will tell you: a great many of these southerners go north in the summer season to Boston, New York, Niagara Falls, &c. So at the first good opportunity, after arriving in this book-maldng countrj', they step into a book-store, and obtan their supply. And when returning home, the whole family read the same, then they are lent to neighbors and they all read them from sire to chick ; and thus a single work like " Uncle Tom," may go through hundreds of fami- lies, and be read by thousands of individuals. Being one day in the Charleston hotel on business, I observ- ed a man trying to obscure himself somewhat, from the multitude, by drawing his hat partly over his eyes, and occupying a recumbent position, at the same time reading very attentively a book. Hours passed by, and he yet remained reading ; presently starting by, evidently to relieve his position, I saw in large capi- tals on the cover of his book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A very interesting work, sir, I remarked : yes, he rephed in a sharp quick tone, at the same time com- menced reading again, as though his life, if not eter- nal salvation, depended on what he read. This gen- tleman was a southerner. The lady, also, where I boarded, borrowed Uncle Tom, and she read it day and night, and night and day, until she had finished it. Her mother had obtained " Uncle Tom, as it is," a Buffalo work, an J a near kin of Eev. Dr. Adams' work, but it was too tame for her; she would not read it, at least then. A few Imes only sufficed — she SLAVERY UNMASKED. 157 threw it u]\ The master ruHng spirit of the other work had stirred up the great deep of lier soul, and she wanted nothing else on the subject, just then. But of my journey ; we soon landed, and I took a hack for the Pulaski house. CHAPTER V. COLUMBIA. Again I am on the wing. Breaking loose from my moorings in Charleston, at four o'clock last evening I took the night express train, and this morning at five we landed at the Capitol of this, our Star Republic. These Carolina express cars do not make so good time as some of our northern freight trains. The distance from Charleston to Columbia is some 1-10 miles, so you may judge for yourself the time they make. Thir- teen hours in going I-IO miles, a trifle over eleven miles per hour, and the accommodations on them are in perfect keeping. And all the workmen on board are negroes, except the Conductor and Engineer. But the country through which they pass, what shall I say of it ? The gloomy, dismal North Carolina pine forests I had thought was the jumping off place, or the parley grounds between the abandoned of our race and the tribes of old Pluto. But they cannot compare %vith the swamps of her sister State. No ; not so far 158 SLAVERY UNMASKED. sovitli geograpliically, morally, politically, or slave- ocratically. Why tlie physical appearance of these swamps is enough to frighten any white man, and scare any negro. Land of darkness, enchanted gromids, infernal regions, infested by more than " Goblin damned, or devil carnate." Here alligators, serpents, lizards, owls, jack-o'lanterns, mosquitoes, miasmas, and the wandering ghosts of murdered fugitives meet in nightly counsel with the angel of death, concocting schemes of vengeance against the cruel oppressor. For twenty, forty, and sixty miles together, the car-wheels appear to roll on bogs, quags, and bayous, down, down, down towards the dreadful world. I am sure if Pio-Nino's purga- tory can parallel this gloomy place, then I would turn Catholic, and go on a pilgrimage to some foreign coun- try a rehc-seeking, and relic-worshiping, to save myself from going there for a few short ages only, if that were to be the price of my liberation. For a white man to sleep out only one night in these swamps, I am told, is sure death, though a native Carolinian, but the col- ored people may do it with impunity. Columbia is a fine appearing small town, of about 6,000 inhabitants, conspicuously situated on the summit of a large hill. It is very tastefully laid out, the streets being broad and all crossing each other at right angles. On either side, and through the centre of some of the main streets, large pahnetto and other trees, are seen gracefully waving their foliage, adding not a little to the beauty and pleasure of a morning walk. Some fine -Dublic buildings adorn the place, especially the SLAVERY UNMASKED. 159 new State Ilovise, — it is one of rare architectural beau- ty, being constructed of white granitic marble. The library, public records, documents, (See, «Sic., of the same, are of a respectable appearance, througli, mea- gre and very small in com})arison to many of our northern and eastern ones. Tiie hotels arc respecta- ble and well kept, no luxuries lacking on their tables, or attention wanting on the part of servants. But the bill is, to foot all of this ; the moderate sum $2,50 per day will meet it in most cases. Railroad fiire is also exorbitant at the South ; from Charleston here, 140 miles, the faro is $5,00 a trifle over three cents a mile. I have gone from Albany to New York, a dis- tance of 160, for $1,50 on the North River trains, minus one half the Southern rates. All of which, as a matter of course, besides a thousand things else, is to be laid to the account of the accursed institution. In this capital they also sell men, woman, and chil- dren under the hammer, away from their families, their churches, from the altar, and sacramental tables, where for forty long years, more or less, they have gathered around with kindred spirits for holy communion with God and each other. But the divine right of slavery contravenes and severs those hallowed Christain rites, steps in between God and man. Father and son, mo- ther and daughter, husband and wife, whom God hath joined together, the slave-holder claims the preroga- tive to sunder. Slavery knows no mercy, has no heart, no conscience, no soul, no bowels of compassion. No noble, God-Hke element ever enters into the con- stitutional make of any of the fraternity, (I was about 160 SLAVERY UNMASKED. to say. Do slave-holders really belong to the human family? Are they in the regular line of Adam's race ? Or, rather, were they not sired by some daring, reckless interloper, who from some infernal quarter, unbidden, introduced himself into this fair world of the Lord's creating, among men, and then palmed himself off as human ? And are not his descendants now playing the same game with the majestic world? The poor slave in these localities feels himself, if •possible, more hopelessly shut out from every pros- pect of freedom, than even in Charleston. For there the INSTITUTION, though walled up as high as heaven, or nearly so, against him, yet he flatters himself that possibly the time may come when some captain, sailor, or some other philanthropic person may be induced to help him off, to box, barrel, or in some other way, to pack, or sack him up as freight and ship him north ; which, by the way, has been done in more instances than one, as well as in some other ways that these blood hounds of the south have as yet failed to scent out. The people here are hard to be convinced that whole fleets of canoes can sail under water, or tha^ niggers can mount upon night clouds and make for the North Star, but scores and hundreds of them do get there, some how or other, and hundreds and thous- ands more will reach the north in the same way, if not in some other way. A circumstance occurred here previous to my arri- val, which I must not fail to relate, — a living, impres- sive illustration of the truth of the scenes depicted in Mrs. Stowe's immortal Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was SLAVERY UNMASKED. 161 related to mc by an eye witness of the whole scene, and he an iiitellifrent, rospcetable clergical •.'cntk-man of the north, a man whose word may be fully relied upon. The circumstanees, as he narrated them to me, were as follows : Said he, " One day as I was passing down one of the main streets of this city, I observed at a short distance in the advance a large crowd of men and boys collected, which seemed to be agitated and convulsed by some internal commotion. My curiosity led me to the spot to enable me to make minute observations with regard to the character and object of this collection. On arriving sufficiently near to see and hear distinctly all its movements, I saw two colored persons, a man and "a woman, chained to- gether. The woman was partly prostrate upon the ground, with a baby in her arms, but the man was standing up. A white man acting as overseer or dri- ver had hold of her, pulling, jerking her about to make her get up, singing out in an angry tone, saying "^get np you slut, you bitch, you she nigger, get up or I will kill you on the spot." At the same time lie commenced kicking, thumping and mauling her like a babbling donkey, and she crying, praying, and im- ploring, saying, " massa will kill, massa will kill me, you know he will, he did almos toder time, he will noo." Some of the bystanders would curse and kick her, saying, " damn her, kill her if she don't start soon. Finally said the overseer, '* if you don't start now I will hitch a chain to the mule and fasten it around your neck and snake you along like a log," and was about to do so, when a man, one of the chief citizens, 162 SLAVERY UNMASKED, "k came along, and said, " wliat is this fuss?" then ad- dressing himself to the overseer he said, " take these niggers away, take them away, why you are kicking up a row ; no wonder," he added, " that Mrs. Stowe wrote as she did : be careful or they will have another book of the kind after us." Come to learn the par- ticulars in the case," said my informant, " they were simply these : the woman had a day or two previous left her master's plantation without his leave, having repeatedly solicited it, but as often been denied the privilege of going a few miles off to a neighboring plantation to spend a few days with her husband, and father of her child. She watched a favorable oppor" tunity, started and got as far as this city, almost there, and was thus cruelly arrested, as above stated, by the overseer — who, the better to secure her return, had brought along her brother, a slave on the same planta- tion, to whom he chained her for double security. But she stoutly bolted the back track, and hence the trouble." Her master, as near as I could learn from what the gentlemen had gathered, was one of this bloods royal of this LOWER LAW line, whose savage, ferocious soul, could equally sport with the groans, tears, sweat and blood of the poor crushed down slave, having beat her almost to death for the same offence on a previous occasion. As before remarked, in the course of these numbers, the life of many a poor, disconsolate, down- trodden slave, has been taken in the Carolinas, by un- feeling, unprincipled masters, not in cold blood, but in warm, infuriated, devilish blood. How many, God and the judgment record only can tell. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 163 With a companion I approaclied the wooden bridge across the river, where it cost five cents each to cross the river on foot — a fair specimen of tlie want of pub- He spirit and enterprise. We took a ramble on the left-hand side of the bridge. Here is a saw-mill dri ven bv steam, and attended by two negroes, who, to make us think they were doing a great business, said they were cutting 1,500 feet a day ; which at the rate they were sawing seemed exceedingly doubtful. A mill that would cut 1,500 feet an hour could be con- structed here with but little outlay. Further to the left is a large brick -yard, in whiqh the boiler and part of a steam-engine, together with a brick-machine, are exposed to the weather. They showed no symptoms of having been worn out, but are left to rust out — a sort of monument of folly — of an enterprise begun without the energy or capital to carry it through — a fair sample of the thrift of South Carolina. Finding ourselves here in anything but beautiful scenery, I naturally began to retrace my steps, when our path "was suddenly crossed by an individual the like of whom I had not before seen, but from the inimitable discriptions of Mrs. Stowe, we both recog- nized him as an overseer. He is a man of broad, coarse features, contracted and darkened brow, thick shoulders, bloated face and course black beard and hair. From the capacious side pocket of his large blouse there protruded the handle of a huge whip, the thong of which at the thickest part could not be less than an inch and a quarter in diameter. Certainly a single lash from such an instrument on the naked back 164 SLAVEEY UNMASKED. of man or woman, white or black, would make tlie blood fly in all directions. As we were apjDroacli- ing, he stopped in the middle of my path and looked at me with a stare which none but a carniverous ani- mal, or a demon, could imitate. Knowing that I was on private property, and simply gratifying a l^ankee curiosity, I thought it good |Dolicy to be communica- tive, and accordingly accosted the gentleman with as polite a " Good morning, sir," as my sudden surprise would permit. Finding no response, I repeated. the salutation louder. At last he growled a query as to. what I said, which indicated an unwillingness to hear rather than an ignorance of what I had said. "I have been taking the liberty of looking round the brick-yard and want to see what kind of clay 3'ou have here." " A pretty place to take a walk with a lady, cer- tainly," replied he, suspiciously viewing us all over. " What State did you come from, pray?" As we were still within the brick -yard, and also within the reach of the whip, I did not think it pru- dent to mention Massachusetts just at that mo ment, and presence of mind serving, I promptly replied " Maryland — ^Baltimore City, Sir." " Oh, that is a slave State, I believe," said he, evi- dently relieved in his mind. At this moment the hard-contracted features relaxed, and the feeling of suspicion gave way to a sort of fellow-feeling. We felt deeply sensible of the honor ! He then began to utter oaths and imprecations upon the Abolitionists of the north, declaring that the sooner the question of SLAVERY UNMASKED. 165 slavery wns brought to a bloody issue the better. For his own part, he was willing to carry a twenty-eight pounder twenty miles on his own back, if necessary, in order to " fight the d — d Abolitionists." The negroes, he said, were kindly treated down here, and when they were siek on t]>e rice swamps they were so much cared for as to be sent into the u])per country to restore them to health ! Kice could not be grown without niggers, and therefore to abolish slavery would be to abolish the growth of rice in South Carolina ! Ue then de- fended the institution with the usual slang as to the blacks being better off in slavery in the south than in freedom in the north — being humaiiely cared for here, while in the north they are neglected or left to themselves ; and concluded his harangue by declaring his desire to dissolve the Union, in which sentiment I fully concurred, but for widely different reasons to his own. This concurrence of sentiment, however, in- duced a still better feeling, and he invited us to go to his brick-yard and see his niggers at work whenever the weather Avould permit. We thus parted on good terms, and the humanity which he had so emphati- cally described was lastingly impressed upon our minds as we glanced at his receding form, the rough severity of his outline, and the heavy cow-hide which, snake like, coiled around the handle projecting from his pocket. For such a man to speak of the humanity of slavery is highly instructive. It affords a solution to the inquiry, " What does humanity mean in a slave State ?" And when such terms as kindness and com- passion arc used, here, they should always be taken 166 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ■wdth the qualification which, they necessarily ac- quire within the sphere of whips, bowie-knives and chivalry. Our next ramble brought us to a portion of the river between the confluence of the Saluda and Broad rivers (which unite two miles from Cc^lumbia to form the Congaree), and the long bridge before s]3oken of. It is a spot of rare beaut}^, commanding a fine view of the river which is here half a mile wide, and the two streams merging into one ; the whole being inter- spersed with wooded islands, so as to render it dif- ficult, in some instances, to distinguish them from the main land beyond. The water is exceedingly rapid at this point, and being slightly obstructed by a mill-dam of about three feet in height assumes here the form of a water-fall, the history of which we learned from an old negro who was on the bank of the river. This negro — fishing and sitting on a pile of firewood, the waterfall, a small bridge over a canal, and a grist- mill near by with its slowly-moving wheel, form the foreground of the landscape ; which is only limited by the distant forest and the soft blue sky — the Saluda on the one side and the Broad river on the other, rivaling each other in richness and beauty. The trees now, although mostly bare of foliage, are hung with a more than classic drapery of gray hair-moss, such as is seldom seen in more northern climates. The holly tree and the mistletoe are here in their prime. The holly has nearly the brightness of leaf and redness of berry which it has in England ; and added to that is this peculiarly graceful clothing of hair-moss suspended SLAVERY UNMASKED. 167 several feet from its boughs. Nothing at this season of the year cau equal the riehness of the holly thus attired. To oue who has gathered " Christmas boughs," loaded with crimson berries in the far-oflf *' mother country," it seemed like meeting the com- panion of our youth, still retaining much of virgin beauty, but now clothed in the habiliments of an early widowhood, which seemed to increase rather than detract from her charms. It is, indeed, appropriate tliat nature should wear a garb of mourniug in this location, as our conversation with the old negro plainly indicated. The old man looked up from his line as we ap- proached, and made a very pohte and respectful salu- tation, which we cordially reciprocated. The contrast of his behavior with that of his "superior," above de- scribed, was at once strikingly apparent, lie appear- ed to be about seventy years of age, and his curly locks resembled in color the gray moss which adorns the trees, llis attire, however, was excedingly dcfeo- tive, and the coat and pantaloons which constituted his suit were so patched and worn as to leave but slight traces of the material of wliich they once were made. It is probable that they were the cast-oil' clothes of his former master, a portion of which had been retained for more than twenty years, and had been kept to- gether by numerous patches, which in process of time have almost taken the place of the original material. "Are you a free man?" I inquired — for I never like to ask a man if he is a slave. "No, massa; 1 belongs to Mr. Hancock." J. 168 SLAVERY UNMASKED. " And how often does Mr. Hancock supply you witli new clothes?" The old man looked up with astonishment and said, " Me never gets any new clothes." " They tell me," said I, " that you slaves are very happy, and that you do not want your freedom. That you like slavery and do not wish to get away and have wages like other men. Is it so ?" " Dare not say what we feel about dat, massy. There are some thriftless colored men as there are white men, who do not like work, and would be lazy if they were free ; but we, who are not so, would like to have our freedom, but it won 't do to say so, massy." The old man was guarded in his expressions, evi- dently fearing that we might be quizzing him in order that his owner might learn of us whether he desired to make his escape. We therefore changed the subject. ■ " There is a good strong current here, but they dp not use much of tlie power at the mill," I remarked. " No. There used to be a great Yankee dam liei'e, though," he replied, " but a few years ago a freshet washed it down, and since then it has onl}^ been a three-feet fall. It used to be eighteen feet, and a great business was done at the mill." This was another instance of decay. Here, within a mile of the capital city of South Carolina, is water power more than enough to grind wheat for all the inhabitants of the city, but it is allowed to run to waste. When it was in use, it was by Yankee enter- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 109 prise, and weutxJ}'^ the significant name of a "Yankee dam," but when loft to the care of a Southern miller, it is allowed to wa^li down its barriers and to sink into an insignificant, tliree-feet fall, onl_;^ a very small j)ro- portion of which is used lor })ower ! " It is no longer a •'Yankee dam;" it is a Southerner's dam, and is damned by the blighting influence of slavery. The old man narrated some facts in his own history. Three times had he been sold by his masters. The first time he fetched $1,200. He was then in his prime. He has now done his work, and cannot do more than help the men load wood on tlie wagons, as it is brought in an old boat from the opposite island. His ma.ster would now give him his liberty for $100, How magnanimous! Ave thought. After taking the man's labor for sixty years, without returning him any recompense, now that he is old and his work is done, and he could not be expected to maintain him- self another year, he may have his liberty — a liberty to starve to death with hunger and cold — for $100. We thought truly that the " humanity" of our seces- sion friend needed a qualification. One of his owners had, however, treated him kindly, and had even allowed him cyery Saturday night to visit his wife, who was residing three miles and a half distant. These visits he used to enjoy, but his wife is now sold away to a far distant plantation, and he docs not see her at all. His children are likewise separated from him, and he has none to administer comfort to his declining yeai^ Here is a man who has lived an honest life of industry and wearying toO ; bent down 170 SLAVERY UNMASKED. with age and sorrow ; his wife aud children sold away from him aud he is left alone in rags ! The man who owns him does not think him worth much, and conse- quently cannot afford to clothe him decently or comfort- ably, and when he dies he will die without any of his kindred to say endearing words to his departing spirit. At this moment the owner approached and w^e withdrew. Eambling up the hill away from that scene of solemn and melancholy grandeur, we espied a dusky object sitting on the corner of a bank, with her elbows resting on her knees and her face in her hands. As we approached she raised her head, and we saw that the traces of age were deeply marked on her face. Her teeth were all gone, her cheeks sunken in, and her forehead was deeply wrinkled. She could not have been less than ninety years of age. She was a slave-mother. "We stopped and she politely replied to our interrogatories. "Is that the only garment you have to Avear?" " Yes," she replied, " they give me plenty of corn to eat, but no clothes, and this is all I have. It has been patched a good many times and I cannot now see to patch it, so I keep it together as well as I can.'' The garment which appeared to form her only arti- cle of apparel was what had once been a cotton dress — probably the worn-out dress of a young mistress, but there were but few traces of the original to be seen, and the entire skirt was composed of innumerable patches of various hues, coarsely sewed together, evidently by some one whose sight was dim. In all our rambles in Europe, in the purlieus of London or Liverpool, we SLAVEUY UNMASKED. 17i never saw anything worn as a garment whicli could be compared to this as a specimen of wretchedness. "Where do you live, neighbor?" I inquired. " Jist up the hill, Sir; I lives in a shantcc bv my- self, and the}^ jist lets me have corn enough to eat, and that 's all." " How many children have you had ?" " Oh, I have had twelve childer, but they are all away. Massa sold them when they got big enough to work, and I have worked all my life in the cotton field. I think they ought to find me clothes to wear, but they do not, and I suffer a good deal from cold in the winter. I am been down to de spring for some water, and sat down here to rest myself. I have no one to fetch me water, and I don't know how to carry it. I have broken one of my bottle gourds, and can't get another myself. I am nearly worn out, and can't live long, thank God. I belong to Mr. Jones. He has been married three times, and the last is a young mis- tress, and she does not do anything for me. Some of my children have children and grandchildren now, but I have none near me to lend me a hand, so I has to fetch water and do everything for myself. I never sees any of them now ; they are too far off. I don't know where they are. They were sold to go into North Carolina, and I never hears from them now." " Have you any husband ?" " I had an old man, but he was taken away into Georgia, and I have not heard of him since. I sup- pose you pretend to be man and wife ?" " Do vou not believe that we are ?'' 172 SLAVERY UNMASKED. " No ; there are often people here as pretends to be married, and they are not. I guess you are not mar- ried. You can 't make me believe you are married." We were amused at this singular incredulity of the great-grandmother. It did not indicate a very ele- vated state of white society. The condition of this poor old creature, the mother of twelve children, and probably grandmother and great-grandmother to some thirty or forty slaves, is here left subject to the "hu- manity" of a young mistress, who does not give her any clothes. Suppose each of her twelve children sold for $500 — a very moderate estuuate — and the owner would realize from the "stock" thus raised no less than $6,000. The old woman had worked in the cot- ton-field some seventy years, and if her labor was worth only $100 a year beside her keep — a very moderate calculation — here was $7,000 more, making a profit of $13,000 as the proceeds of her miserable life; and now the men who have had the magnan- imity to take this immense sum from the sweat and toil and offspring of this poor decrepid old creature, have now turned her away to shift for herself on simply an allowance of corn, without clothes, and without a single child to comfort her in her lone- liness and feebleness. It matters not how soon she may be found dead in her comfortless shantee ; the sooner the better, as it will save the pittance of corn which she now consumes. The weather was mild then. It has since become cold, and if it continues severe it is not likely she can survive the winter. No matter; "She is only a nigger," and her work is done. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 173 As wc turned uway we noticed her two water vessels. They were the outer skin of dried gourds, cut so as to form water pitchers or bottles, and one was broken so as to hold but little water. The distant murmuring of that troubled stream is still on my ear; the trees dressed in the drapery of mourning still solemnly impressive of tli^ sad pictures of human misery which they cover with their shade ; the water-fall still speaks of the desolation and decay of a country blessed with natm-al advantages, but cursed with slavery ; the sad tales of aged victims which we have faithfully recorded from the lijxs of those who cannot write or print their own thoughts, serve very much to qualify in our minds the " hu- manity of slavery." May these scenes and sounds be likewise impressed on the liearts of freemen through- out our land ; may the fire of righteous indignation burn there so that the thought of extending this blight- ing curse to the fair valleys in our western territory — to the Kansas, the Neosha, the Arkansas — shall be a " thought that breathes" of action, of sacrifice, of valor, and of that stern determination to resist the wrong, which shall only cease when border ruffianism is de- feated and Kansas is free. CHAPTER VL SAVANNAH. Savannah is the chief city of Georgia, and second in size and business importance of all the Southern coast cities. As before remarked, it is on the left bank of the Savannah river, at a distance of some twenty miles from its mouth. It being situated on a gentle rise from the river, tastefully laid out, with broad streets, fine parks and public grounds, all of which are thickly shaded by rows of palmetto, cotton-wood and other shade trees peculiar to the country, give the city a fine view from a distance. In front of the Pulaski House, the chief hotel of the city, is a large public square, in the centre of which rises a beautiful colossal monument of snow-white marble, to the mem- ory of Count Pulaski, the noble Pole who heroically fell on the spot, in defence of Savannah, during our revolutionary struggle. I had not been in the city- long, before I went down to the old Fort, or to the place where it formerly stood, and pensively walked over the old battle ground, on which many of our forefathers slept their last sleep. Saw the very spot where England's mighty fleet landed their Anglo-Hes- sian legions, and fought their last battle in this State, for the subjugation of the South, and for the ultimate conquest of the revolted Colonies to her oppressive rule. . SLAVERY UNMASKED. 175 My mind largely partook of tiie moody, melancholy type, as upon this battle field I coutemijhitcd the ter- rible scenes over which the ocean storms of eighty years have howled mournful funenil dirges; or by the assistance of a highly excited imagination, 1 kindled into existence those hardy actors of the startling, mov- ing, bloody drama, which rocked the hills anil siiook the plains on which I stood. Yes, for a few moments I imagined myself an actor in the midst of this fleet of arms, which told u])on the fate of Empire. I saw them all acted over again, in my imagination, moving columns, sabre charges, streaming banners drenched in blood, now horse and rider rolling in the dust, now whole platoons mowed down by the battle fire, and now iron masses of cavalry trampling on human skulls, as they dashed u}ion the foe, &c., &c. After the disastrous affiiir of Camden, the disgi'ace- ful flight of Gates and his aimy, British supremacy became pretty generally established in the Southern States. A heroic few, under Lincoln, being in the Carolinas and in Georgia, during the summer and fall of 1778, and in September of the same year, a large French fleet of over thirty ships of war, under D' Es- taing, was seen hovering along the coast, which finally landed, and disembarked about five thousand troops, which l)eing joined by those of Lincoln, made quite an imposing appearance, and a murderous onslaught upon the works of the enemy. They were all spread out and marshaled on this field. Here infantry, cavalry, and artillery all joined in the dreadful murderous melee, each working with telling effect those engines 176 SLAVERY UNMASKED. of death, wliicli liave sent whole continents of man- kind into the world of doom. Here a score of -^Etnas in miniature, open wide their death-dealing craters at once, pouring oiit livid storms of iron hail upon the advancing foe, melting entire columns into dust. Now thunder, tempest, and storm, with all the appalling concomitants of unmitigated war, roll over and sweep across this vast plain, agitating and moving the mar- shaled hosts that are met in mutual mm-der, then echoing along the basis of the distant mountains till lost amid the groans of the woimded and dying. On the ninth of October, 1778, just as the first scin- tillations of morning light appeared looming up in the eastern heavens, two columns, consisting of three thou- sand five hundred French troops, six hundred conti- nentals and three hundred and fiftj of the citizens of Charleston, opened the first scene of that bloody day, the results of which have long since been viewed in the light of sober history, and read by almost every school boy. A few minutes after that deadly charge, fifteen hundred warriors were robed in winding sheets of gore. Among those that perished on this field, none were more deeply regretted than Count Pulaski. But how changed the scene now ? A large and beau- tiful city, skirting the lefi-, a rich, well cultivated country on the right, while in front a spacious har- bor, filled up with huge ocean steamers and the- whitening sail of a thousand vessels, floating the world's commerce. No heavy cavalry tramp, nor beating drum, nor clanging steel, nor trumpet blast to the furious charge SLAVERY UNMAStED. 177 is now hi'arcl, uo thundering ciuinon, nor deafening platoon discharges ; no dying groans, nor savage war- rior yet breaks upon the solitary silence of this hour. All is still, beautiful, silent, upon this spot of the sleeping warriors. I am here alone, with scarcely a sound in the distance to disturb my re very. The smoke of battle is all cleared away, the beauti- ful sun shines bright and lair on the llowery moss grown turfs that now so richly cover the gore-stained field, leaving not a solitary intlication of the solemn and awful realities involved in the history of these localities. No outward demonstrations that the wan- dering, shivering spectres of a thousand slaughtered warriors, nightly, though unperceived, march in ghost- ly platoons over this Held of blood in quest of their mutilated, mangled bones, now bleeching, or moulder- ing beneath its soil. It has been my fortune for the last four years, to stand on many a battle-field, but none of them seems to have thrilled me with the same peculiar emotions as this, and I can hardly explain whv. Perhaps it is owing to the peculiar state of mind into which I am thrown at this time, causing me more largely to partake of the contemplative type just now, than heretofore. Many of the poor Hes- sian, English allies, melted away on this field, before the murderous fire of the heavy French ordnance ; and after peace was declared between the mother country and her revolted colonics, a great number of these Hessians settled here, and became completely Americanized. Their descendants are good citizens, good Americans, good republicans. I board with one now in this city, 8* 178 SLAVERY UNMASKED. a descendant of one of the old Hessian soldiers ; lie is a refined gentleman, a deeply intelligent man, a prominent citizen here, an officer in one of the banks of this citj. I have formed an acquaintance with a man here, who, some ten or fifteen years ago, was quartered in the barracks of this city as a United States soldier. From here he went to Mexico during the war, serving first under Gen. Taylor in several engagements. Then with Scott at the taking of Vera Cruz, and several other battles. He is a zealous Methodist; we often went to prayer-meetings together, and on an invitation one da}^, I visited the barracks with him, where a de- tachment of the United States army are quartered. He took me into the various apartments and showed me the rooms, halls, public buildings, guard-houses, parade ground, &c., &c. From the top of one of these public military halls he pointed out the spot where, some years previous, he saw a poor captured fugitive hung, for trying to effect his liberty, or liberation from bondage, I both looked at, and conversed with the soldiers of this institution, and observed what I saw at Fort Moultry, in Charleston, as well as in various other forts, and places of rendezvous for our United States troops, that a large majority of them are of foreign birth, Irish and German, and of course, Catholics, xigainst this as a native-born American, I feel stoutly to remonstrate ; it is a dangerous policy for our coun- try to pursue ; and we shall all of us see and feel it to be so soon. As great an evil as slavery is to our SLAVERY UNM.VSKEI). 179 rountry, (and God and yourself, reader, know what I think of it,) it is not, nevertheless, the only evil in our midst. Popery is one which, from its very nature, is this moment assuming both a formidable and threat, ening position to the people of this Republic. While but few, comparatively, of all our millions, understand or appreciate its present aggressive position, the wealth, power and consummate trickery of the papal Church of Rome. And yet as Shakspeare says of Brutus — " He'd brook a devil to hold a scat in Rome. " So with thousands of our country, the leading politi- cians more particularly so, they would sell their birth- right, their liberties, their country, to hold a seat in Washington. I say this, not as a politician, for I am no such thing. I say it as an American citizen, and as a lover of God and of human progress. GEORGIA COLO^^Y AND SLAVERY. Being on a spot, where by the law of association so many historical reminiscences loom up before the eye of my mind, I can scarcely resist the temptation (as you will have seen by this time in former remarks) of entering a little into the history of the Georgia colony. Nothing particularly new, but yet not with- out interest, at least, to those of our readers who may never have got hold of the history of those times. General James Oglethorp, a valorous British soldier, and a humane Christian, was the founder of Georgia, and also of the city of Savannah. His first settlement was made in the year 1732, with a colony of one hun- 180 SLAVERY UNMASKED. dred and twenty persons, most of whom were poor debtors ; and says Lossing's history, " Oglethorp pro- posed to make his colony an asylum for the perse- cuted PROTESTANTS of Germany and other continen- tal States." He sailed up the Savannah river, to which he gave the name of that stream, for a settle- ment, until he came to a high bluff, where he landed, and after making a treaty with the Yamacraw Indians, established his colonists, and laid out a settlement on the site of this city. The excellent regulations and advantageous terms established by General Oglethorp, drew crowds of settlers to the new colony, and in about eight years Savannah had nearly three thous- and inhabitants. He formed advantageous treaties with various Indian tribes, he gave them presents, and they in turn gave him as much land as he wanted _ The Chief of the Creek nation presented Oglethorp with a Buffalo skin, painted on the inside with the head and feathers of an eagle, and made a speech which appears to have been prepared for the occasion, the ob- ject of which was to request for the Creeks the love and protection of the English. Soon after, Oglethorp re- turned to England, taking with him Tomochichi, king of the Creeks, vnih his queen and several other chiefs. The trustees of the colony offered land to the other emigrants, and more than four hundred persons ar- rived from Germany, Scotland, and Switzerland in 1-735. Among these were some of the associates of the famous Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian mission- ary. Nor were these the only persons of religious notoriety who arrived in the colony during this year. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 181 The immortal "Wcslc^ys, Jolin and Charles Wesley, came also and joined the colony at this time. Soon after, they were joined by George Whitcficld, who labored and toiled with indefatigable efforts to estab- lish an orphan asylum, and partly succeeded. I felt a sort of veneration for the very ground on which I stood, as I thought of these great and holy men of God, who stood upon it and preached Jesus more than a hundred years ago. Readers of American history will remember the S{)anish interference exercised over Oglethorp's settle- ment, the war that ensued, the defeat of the Spanish fleet, and many other interesting matters, that space will not allow us to recall at this time. They will also remember the very active part taken by the in- liabitants of Georgia in our revolutionary struggle. In the city of Savannah and colony of Georgia, it will be remembered, were kindled the fires of liberty from glowing sparks wafted from the shores of Massachu- setts Bay. Such men as Joseph Habersham took tlie lead, and hundreds of staunch patriots soon followed. The King's Governor, Wright, was seized and con- fined under guard. Enthusiastic meetings, in favor of independence were held, and the strongest resolutions against kingly power and authorit}^ discussed and pa&sed. And when the Declaration of Independence, was received in this city, it was read under the " liberty pole," and saluted with a discharge of thirteen guns. That is the way Georgia patriotism existed in those eventful days. And her present sons are a patriotic people, at least so far as external demonstrations can 182 SLAVERY UNMASKED. make tliem so. I have attended some of the anniver- saries of her great events, celebrated in this city, and heard the defending thunders, and saw the heavens filled with the smoke of her martial fires, all of which were designed for ten thousand hurrahs for liberty; while for the life of me I could not suppress the con- viction that at that moment there were more native Americans, if not native Georgians, in this State, more terribly and more hopelessly oppressed, than were its white population of seventy-six, Alas ! as old Napoleon used to say, " what a strange being is man." Yes, slavery does exist in patriotic Georgia, dark as death and wicked as hell, and I know it to be so, for I have seen it with my own eyes, not only now, but I will tell you what I saw of it in this State (at the time,) 1854, and in the same places. Dr. Adams mentions in his "South side view of Slavery." In one of my rambles in this city, one day upon the levee, I saw a vessel discharging a cargo of grain. This was in January 1854. The hands employed in this work were some sixteen women and girls, each of whom carried about half a bushel of the heavy grain at a load, in a measure on their head. Not allowed to speak to each other, they were dressed in a coarse sort of woolen skirt, which constituted about their entire apparel. Some of them had the appearance of fifty or sixty years of age, while others looked not to be over thirteen or fifteen years old, but all looked mournfully dejected, sad and gloomy. With down-cast eyes and faltering steps they performed their degrading, un- womanly task, under the crack of the driver's whip, SLAVEKY UNMASKED. 183 and sneers of gaping men and boys. One woman not exactly pleasing the overseer in all her movements, was reported to her owner, one of tiiese Georgia pa- triots; he said he would not flog her with the cat-o'-nine- tails, bnt would, nevertheless, give her something to remember for one while. And so he did, true to his word; he gave her a lesson for a life-long remem- brance, one that she will doubtless carry to the bar of God, and present in the last great day, as a burning, withering evidence against him, and the whole con- fraternity of pro-slavery men, north and south. He took her to one of those southern lower-law inquisi- tions, where there was an implement or machine of refined torturing capabilities. The following is a des- cription of it: It consisted of a pump, set in a deep well, in which the water rose to within some nine feet of the surface. The spout of this pump was elevated at least lourteen feet above the earth, and when the water was to be drawn from it, the person who worked ' the handle ascended by a ladder to the proper sta- tion. The water in this well, although so near the surface, was, nevertheless, very cold ; and the pump discharged it in a large stream. The woman was stripped almost naked, and tied fast to a post that stood just under the stream of water, as it fell from the spout of the pump. A man slave was then order- ed to ascend the ladder and pump water on the head and shoulders of this poor victim, who had not been under the water full more than a minute and a half, before she began to cry and scream in a most heart- moving manner. Then she began to exert her strength 184 SLAVERY UNMASKED, in the most convulsive tliroes, in trying to escape from her fastenings ; but they were unavaiUng efforts ; as well might the hopeless victim of a Eoman cross, while spiked fast to the wood, have disengaged him- self and fled from his executioners. After a -minute or so more, her cries became weaker and weaker, until finally her head fell forward on her breast; and then the man was ordered to stop pumping. She was then removed in a state of insensibility to her quarters, but recovered her faculties during the course of the day . The next day, though nearly deranged, and amazingly weakened, she was ordered to her task. I also saw a very respectable young mulatto man stripped to the skin and bound fast to a whipping post, and there, amid a large crowd of jjeople, flogged most savagely, drawing blood at almost every cut, and then the wounds washed over with salt and water, to prevent putrefaction and death. Now facts, you know, are stubborn things, most un- mistakably so ; they speak out with a tongue of fire sometimes, which burn their way through the con- science way down into the heart and soul, of even slave- holders occasionally, and sometimes of slavery apolo- gists also, though rarely, for they are the hardest of the Uvo. Now it is the force of these glaring, burn- ing facts, which stare me in the face and eyes at almost every step I take, by night and day, in this land of bolts and chains, which compel me to write so differ- ent a story from my Eev. friend of Boston. " Let truth be told, thousrh the heavens fall." SLAVEUY UNMASKEi>. IbO SLAVERY AND ITS APOLOGISTS. You liavc often read, talked, and also written spirit- edly, and elaborately on the great stirring question of the age, called Amehk'AN Slavery. But let me ask, did you ever sec it? touch it? handle it? or in any other way come into such fearful proximity with it as to be obliged to involuntarily close your eyes, brace up your system, and fairly chew your tongue to pre- vent it from uttering sentiments which if out, would have made you a martyr in a moment ? Ah ! reader, to write a cool jdiilosojihii'al treatise on the nature and management of revolutions in one's quiet room and alone, is quite another thing than to witness and brook its headlong, maddening masses, amid the roar of bat- tle; at least, so thought M.Guizot, premier of France, in 1848, as he saw the roll of its smoke overtopping thrones, armies, and nations, and like an avalanche of fire bearing everything before it. And so with yourself, cloistered up snugl}^ in your studio, reading, writing, and canvaSvSing the re- lative merits of the institution, though ever and anon becoming not a little excited as a vast array of testi- mony comes pouring in upon you from the four winds, bearing directly and heavily upon the dark institution. There you think you know something of it; you see, at least in your imagination the funeral pile, the som- bre flames, the smoked vi(itim ; then you seize your pen, and write out lines of light, in words of fire, just as you should, and s;Mid them blazing, burning, around the orbit of our common northern. But allow me to 186 SLAVERY UNMASKED. say, as of tlie theory and practice of revolutions, so also of the system of slavery ; one has to be an actor, or spectator in either, fully to ai^preciate the appalling power of desolation involved in their internal ma- chinery. Yes, reader, you will have to, if you never have yet done so, comedown here personally and look the thing fully in the face and eyes. You must see the chain-gangs, the whipping-post, the cat-o'-nine-tails. You must visit the inquisitions, and their dungeons of torture, and the slave-auctions, where parents and chil- dren, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, are parted to meet no more. You must also go on the rice and cotton plantations, into the sugar mills, &c., &c., besides a great many other things you must see, that paper and ink are inadequate to describe, in order fully to know the horrible system. But that will hardly pay, for one is sufficiently shocked at his own home, more than a thousand miles remote from the theatre of this reign of terror, at the more than dramatic facts borne to his ears by every breeze of heaven, without exposing himself to the fearful gauntlet run of picking them up. While here, I made the acquaintance of several in- telligent, observing gentlemen from the north, from New York, the New England States, and elsewhere, who had resided here for several years, in various parts of the State, on business ; and who, as a matter of course, having resided here so long a time, became perfectly familiar with the institution— have seen it m all its various phases ; and by-the-way, they look upon it with other eyes than the green specks of sla- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 187 very worn by Dr. Atlams in his soutliorn tour. Tlioy saw the monster as it was, and as it now is, and de- tested it as they saw it, just as civilized, liumanc peo- ple do, who are disconnected with it, exce})t some northern slavery apologists, who can " strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." And now, reader, after pausing a moment in roflec- tion, I took up my pen to soften a little, if possible, the manner or terms in which I referred to the production of a titled author ; luit in view of which I pen my apology, in the following terms, viz : I have no apology to offer for openly attacking titled men, and their works of injurious tendencies, be they whomsoever they may. Especially such works as anti-Uncle Tom, or " Uncle Tom's Cabin as it is," audits twin brother, the "South side view of Slavery," the direct tendencies of which are, if possible, to per- petuate the immorality of this curse and incubus of our federal government, and to envelope us hopelessly in the gloomy night of the dark ages, the north, as now reigns throughout the whole South. Now reader, tell me, will you, what are titles ? What are names ? "What are men ? What are principles ? Though lumbered up in musty folios, or hawked through the land in embossed octavos, with D. D., or LL. D. &;c., appended to the title page, unless they can Stand the test of the word of God, reason, and com- mon sense ? Why sir ! don't you think that I can see 'as far into a mill-stone as a doctor of divinity can? Coimt oat the drops of the ocean as soon ? And as readily compute the number of moments entering into 188 SLAVERY UNMASKED. the diu-ation of God? I have the vanitj^ to think I can, although incapacitated morally, physical!}' , and every other way, of appreciating the beauty, form, and symmetry of this southern, time-honored, Bible- cherished institution, as some of them. No, I am not yet prepared to get down on my knees to half of the time-honored institutions of this world. Like Napoleon the great, I would rather that jDublic opinion would prostrate itself at my shrine, than that I should before it, in some cases, at least. Now, I am not going to give my readers the whole code of my moral ethics, but only a sentence or two. I set down at my desk, take up a book and open to term legitimacy, and then opposite to its interpreta- tion as made by the popular exponents of tlie age, I write cobweb, and then pen down the following pro- position, viz : I hold that to be legitimate only which results in the greatest amount of good to mankind generally, whether effected through the instrumentality of a D. D., an LL. D., an A. M., a superannuated blacksmith from the back-woods of Nova Scotia, or a Jim Crow from the rice swamps of Georgia. I am not battling titled divines, far from it : for there are a great many deeply pious and intelligent men among them, many of whom are my warm per- sonal friends ; but where any of them bring their doc- torate to bear upon the anti-slavery cause, and usq** their endeavors to prop up tlie peculiar institution, let. them take what follows ; what they deserve from our great northern pulpit, the press. And now, in conclusion, a word or two on the anti- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 189 " South Side View of Slavery, " or " Slavery, as it is," iu the South, And to commence, 1 make the following assertion, viz : that men, women, and chil- dren, in bondage in this State, and through tl'.e South generally, are, for the most part treated worse, with more brutal severity, than men treat cattle in the north. It is true, some of the slaves are seldom or never whi|)ped, and so some favorite horses and other dumb brutes are not. But these cases are exceptions to the general rule, and these merciful masters would, were their slaves to make an attempt at freedom, most un- doubtedly inflict on them the most sunnnary punish- ment. I repeat the declaration, that the slaves here in general, are more cruelly treated than the dmnb brutes are. And here is proof iu point ; men do not tie up their cattle and give them a number of lashes at a time, as they do the slaves. They strike them, it is true, when iu a passion, or when the cattle do not go as fast as they desire them to. And they also strike the poor slaves in the same way. But, besides being flogged now and then, cattle are not tied up to a post, or whipping block, and receive from fifty to five hun- di-ed lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails, drawing blood at every blow. Besides, dumb beasts have thick hides, covered with hair, to defend them ; consequently the lashes do not give them so much pain as they do human beings. Just reflect for a moment upon the slender, delicate make of the human body — how thin and sensitive its sl^iii — ^liow quick it feels the pain of a blow. 190 SLAVERY UJSTMASKED, Did you ever see cruel men whip horses until the blood ran down their backs ? Did you ever see them put salt on the stripes to increase the j)ain of the poor victims ? Did you ever see drivers whip their horses until they fell down with faintness ? No, I know you never did; I am sure if a man were to do so in the north to a poor dumb brute, he would be fined, if not imprisoned for cruelty. But men, women and chil- dren, are whipped so here, hj the slave-drivers, and it cannot be denied. The " South Side View of Slavery" can never plaster over these facts and stains upon hu- manity. Now I appeal to you, reader, if it is not clear that slaves are here treated worse than common cattle. FOOD OF SLAVES IN GEORGIA. It is a general custom, wherever I have been, for the masters to give each of their slaves, male and female, one peck of corn per week for their food. This, at fifty cents per bushel, which was all it was worth when I was there, would amount to twelve and a half cents a week for board per hand. It cost me at least eight dollars per week upon an average, while I was south, for board. A peck of corn per week is all that masters, good, bad or indiiferent, allow their slaves, round about Savannah, on the plantations. One peck of gourd-seed corn is to be measured out to each slave once every week. With this they make a soup in a large iron kettle, around which the hands come at meal-time, and dipping out the soup, mix it with their hominy, and eat it as though it were a feast. SLAVERY IN. MASKED. 191 In all other places where I visited, the slaves had nothing fro)ii their masters hut the corn, or its equivalent in potatoes or rice, and to this they were not permitted to come but orice a day. The custom was to blow the horn early in the morning, as a signal for the hands to rise and go to work. When commenced, they con- tinued to work until about eleven o'clock, A. M., when, at the signal, all hands left off, and went into their huts, built their fires, made their corn meal into hominy or cake, ate it, and went to their work again at the signal of the horn, and worked until night, or until their tasks were done. Some cooked tlieir breakfasts in the field while at work. Each slave must grind his own corn in a hand-mill after he has done his work at night. There is generally one hand- mill on every plantation for the use of the slaves. Some plantations have no corn ; others often get out. The substitute for it is the equivalent of one peck of corn either in rice or sweet potatoes, neither of which is so good for the slave as corn. They complain more of being faint, when fed on rice or potatoes, than when fed on corn. On Mr. R 's plantation, to save time, the fol- lowing course was taken : Two crotchcd sticks were driven down at one of the yards, and a small pole being laid on the crotchets, they swung a large iron kettle on the middle of the pole, then made up a fire under the kettle and boiled the hominy. When ready, the hands were called around the kettle, with their wooden plates and spoons. They dipped out and ate, standing around the kettle, or sitting upon the 192 SLAVERY UjS^MASKED. ground, as best suited their convenience. When tliey had potatoes, they took them out with their liands, and ate them. As soon as it was thought they had sufficient time to swallow their food, they were called to their work again. This was the only meal they ate through the day. So I was informed by the overseer, Mr. M., a northern man, who, by the way, was getting heartil}^ disgusted with the iniquitous institution. Now think of the httle, almost naked, and half- starved children, nibbhug upon a piece of cold Indian cake, or a potato ! Think also of the poor, suffering female, just ready to be confined, without anything that can be called convenient or comfortable ! Think of the old toil-worn father and mother, without any- thing to eat but the very coarsest of food, and not half enough of that ! Then think of home, surrounded not only with the comforts but the luxuries of life. When sick, their, physicians are their masters and overseers in most cases, whose skill consists chiefly in bleeding and in administering large portions of epsom salts, when the whip and cursing will not start them from their cabins. PLAJS^TATIOX-SIDE VIEW OF SLAVERY. In my last, I showed the quality of food on which these human cattle, called slaves, are kept. I will now picture, or try to picture out, the places in which they live, are born, cradled, sicken and die. And may God forgive me if I draw a dark picture, (I will not stretch the truth, as there will be no need of it), and make some hard comments upon it. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 193 The hovels or huts in whieh these poor beiugs spend the few hours of release from the toils of the field, and the lash of the ckiver, are for the most part of the poorest kind. They are nothing near so gopd as the Irish shanties on our nortliern publie works. Not so good as the most of northern farmers would fur- nish to their dumb beast.s. The following is the style of architecture : — Four crotched posts are driven into the ground, say ten by fourteen or fourteen by eighteen, poles stretched across these from post to post, then sided up with rough boards, and partially roofed in the same way. All of which are minus stoves and chimneys; some, however, have a very rude apology for a fire-place in one end, and a board or two off at that side, or on the roof, to let out the smoke. Others, for the want of something in the shape of a fire-place, make their fire up in the centre of the hovel. None of these buildings have more than one apartment in them, and the only opening through whieh a human being may pass in and out, serves for both window and door. In warm weather, especially in the spring and sum- mer, the slaves keep up a smoke, or fire and smoke both, all night, to drive away the gnats and mosquitos, which are very numerous and exceedingly trouble- some in all the low country of the south, so much so that the whites are obliged to sleep under frames with nets over them, knit so fine that the mosquitos cannot fly through them. I have seen hundreds of these poor things in the streets, or on the plantations, for hours together, barefooted and bareheaded, male and female, 194 SLAVERY UNMASKED. old and young, during the winter months, toiling like beasts of burden. Some of them have rugs to cover them at night during the winter months, but more hsSve none. I have seen them lie down on the hard floor or cold ground, like an ox, after a da}- of sweat and toil, with neither bed, pillow, nor straw to rest their weary bones upon. During driving and terrible storms, which not un- frequently sweep with almost tropical violence over these low and marshy plains, they are obliged to run from one hut to another for shelter. In the coldest weather, where they can, they get wood and stumps, and keep up fires all night in their huts, and lay round them with their feet towards the blaze. Men, women and children are thus promiscuously piled in together, in most cases, like the cattle in the stall. Their houses are generally built compactly on the plan- tations, forming a sort of village of huts. I have, from a single stand-point, stood and counted as many as fifty of them huddled up in a compass not exceeding forty square rods. I repeat, in these miserable huts the poor slaves are herded at night like swine, without any convenience of beds, tables or chairs. Oh ! tell it not in Calcutta, publish it not in the streets of Constantinople, lest the Mahommedan and Pagan world should blush over Christian barbarism. To see the aged veteran of an hundred years, as I saw here, a man who fought in the wars of our Eevolution under Washington, as he told me himself — to see not only him, but scores like him, clothed in rags, beating off swarms of gnats and SLAVEUY UNMASKED. 195 raosquitos in the warm weather, ami .sliivcring over a bed of coals in the winter, is a burning stain upon a civilized nation and an outrage on humanity. As for wearing apparel, their mastere make it a practice of get- ting two suits of clothes for each slave per year — a thick suit for winter, and a thin one for summer. They also provide one pair of northern-made sale shoes for each adult slave every winter, which lasts them but a few weeks before they rip to pieces and give out. The males and females have their suits from the same cloth for winter dresses, which appear to be made of a mixture of the coarsest kind of cotton and wool, mostly uncol- ored, and of a sleazy^ spongy texture. The entire suit for the men consists of a pair of pantaloons and a short sailor jacket, without vest, hat, stockings, shirt, or any kind of hose garments / These, if worn all the while when at work, woidd not probably last to exceed two months ; therefore, for the sake of saving them, many of them, especially in the spring and summer months, work almost naked, male and female, looking too beastly brutal for a Christian country. On the whole, they are a poor, miserable, degraded race of beings in the very centre of our republican Christian America — worse off, and lower sunken, if possible, than the stupid heathen of any pagan land, from the fjict that the sunlight of Christianity and of civilization beams down upon them, which contrasts most unfavorably their con-liti'^i vith those of the pale race around them. God alone knows how much these poor, down-trod- den of our colored brethren suffer in our verv midst — X96 SLAVERY UNMASKED. the day tliat cometli shall declare it — and then, wo unto the doers of wrong, to the oppressor, and to all who wink or blink, or in any way sanction or connive at this curse of curses. Why, it is enough to melt a heart of stone, to see these poor, ragged, half-starved mothers nursing their naked children, with but a morsel of the coarsest food to eat, and worn down almost to the fainting point, by the labors of the field. I overheard one of these great gentlemen slave-hold- ers, a few days ago, saying to another slave-holder : — " You ought to have seen me, a day or two since, in the midst of my niggers^ with a revolver in one hand, and a bowie-knife in the other, ready to take the damn life of the first nigger that disobeyed my orders." For the slightest offence, such, for instance, as not quite completing a day's task, the being caught by the guard or patrol by night, &c., thirty or forty lashes on the bare back is the penalty. One slave here, the pro. perty of a Mr. ■ , was whipped, I think one hundred lashes, for getting a small handful of wood from his master's yard without leave. The apology they make for whipping so cruelly is, that it may frighten the rest of the gang. These cruel men say that what we call an ordinary flogging will not subdue the slaves ; hence the most brutal and barbarous scourgiugs ever wit- nessed by man are daily and hourly inflicted upon the naked bodies of the miserable bondmen ; not by mas- ters and overseers only, but by the keepers of slave Inquisitions, the constables in the common markets, and jailors in their yards. SLAVmiY UNMASKKD. 197 When the slaves are whipped, either in ]>uhlie or private, they have tlieir liands fastened b}- the \vrist.s, with a rope or cord prepared for the purpose. This being thrown over a beam, the limb of a tree, or some- thing else, the culprit is then drawn np and stretched by the arms as high as possible, without raising his feet from the ground or floor, and sometimes they are made to stand on tip-toe ; then the feet are made fast to something prepared for them. In this helpless, dis- torted posture, the monster in human shape flies at them, sometimes in great rage, with his imj)leiiient.^ of torture, and cuts on with all his might, over the shoul- ders, imder the arms, and sometimes over the head and ears, or on parts of the body where he can inflict the greatest torment. Occasionally, this devil^ the whipper, especially if his victim does not beg enough to suit him while under the lash, will fly into a whirlwind f)f pas- sion, uttering the most horrid oaths, while the bleeding victim of his rage is crying, at every stroke, " Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!" The scenes exhib- ited at the whipping post almost beggar description — they are awful, terrific, and frightful to anv not lost to all feeling of humanity. Many masters whip, gouge, and dig into the flesh of these poor beings, until they are tired — until the victim bleeds like the slaughtered ox — then rest upon it. After a short cessation, get up and go at it again, and after having satiated their revenge in the blood of their victims, they sometimes leave them tied for hours together, bleeding at every wound. Sometimes, after being thus whipped, they are bathed in brine or siUt water, which adds 198 SLAVERY UKMASKED. more and excessive pain to the raw and mutilated flesh. Occasionally they die under these savage and awful chastisements ; their bodies drop into the cold and silent grave, beyond the reach of the cruel driver's lash, and their spirits, I trust, go to a land of rest, and of eternal freedom. You will bear in mind that I am now writing of Georgia slavery, or of slavery in Georgia, the site of the " South-side View of Slavery." NEGRO SERMON. Unlike Charleston, the good people of this city allow their servants, and the free blacks, (there being a few of the latter here), to hold separate meetings, to have their own services, preachers, and places of worship. I had the pleasure of attending one of their meetings last Sunday, All the services were conducted by themselves exclusively, and it was a glorious meeting too, I will assure you. I find it both amusing and in- teresting to attend them, nay, it is moving, thrilling, electrifying, to place one's self under the influence of their powerful, God-like devotions. Here you see wor- ship performed unincumbered by cold and lifeless forms, uncompounded with a heartless religious eti- quette, and unadulterated by the pride, show, and pomp of this world, the bane of most of the modern churches. Worship that has a heart in it, a soul, a stirring divinity ; one that talks, breathes, burns ; one that made me think of the better days of our beloved SLAVERY UNMASKED. 199 church, north, when under the OLD SCHOOL worship; saints rejoiced aloud, and sinners wcjjt. By inquiry I found this chapel ; it was a Methodist churcli. There are, I am toUl, several colored Baptist churches here. The cha])el, as a matter of course, was situated way off in a by place. I went in and took a seat about midway up the aisle, a good position to see and hear both the preaching and singing. The preacher was in the pulpit, an African, dyvd in the wool, untainted by any mixture, — his face shone like a glass bottle or a polished boot, lie rose and gave out his hymn, it being that impressive one in our own hymn book, commencing with, "Go, preach my gospel, saith the Lord." Having read the whole of it, the congregation rose and commenced singing all over the house, unaided by tuning fork, or note book. And I will challenge the whole civilized world, with all their science, music, and books, to equal the music of that occasion. They would throw their heads back, close their eyes, open wide their mouths, and pour out a perfect flood of music, throwing one into delirious ecstacies without his consent. It had been a long time since I enjoyed so rare an occasion, since I saw so many smiling faces, and such a rich display of polished ivory as was ex- hibited by this simple-hearted, down-trodden people, in singing the high praises of God. There is some- thing in the African's voice so clear, melodious, moving, and captivating naturally, that we admire their singing ; but when the heart is filled with the 200 • SLAVERY UNMASKED. love of God, and their passions all subdued by Divine grace, the pathos is completely overjDOwering. The preliminaries ended, the preacher rose and read his text : Second Timothy, fourth, first eight verses in- clusive — Paul's charge to Timothy. Having thus an- nounced his text, he looked round upon the congrega- tion, and commenced thus to soliloquize with himself: " A¥hy takeum so large tex for so few congregation ?" (It being in the forenoon when comparatively few can attend.) " Why preachum such subjic on dis casion? Why takeum not som smooth sweet tex ? Cas, " remark- ed the preacher, " lookum round on de wo-rl an on de Church, an on de eberywhar, an see de wickidnis, an de coldnis, and de great need ob the plain preachin of de sujic. Now," said he, " Paul was great man, do more for de Bible den any oder man libbin, ha was dazine, cut out, and reared up forum great posle ob de gentile. Ha preach great while eberywhar, da stone him, whip him, an las da kill him. Noo he babd a son ob de name ob Timothy, so de ole man, j us for da kjllum, writeum long letters to dis son, and say, (here he read a clause of the text,) ' Oh, Timothy my son, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus, preach the word, take my place Timothy.' But my brodder- in what is it to preach de word? Why preach am Christ in de commanments, in de word, in de book of books, preachin him as great tonment ob de worl, and King ob de angils and de Jtldge ob de heavenly coun- ty to come." Here he quoted another clause of the text, ' reprove with all long suffering.' " Oh," exclaim- ed the preacher, " here comes de tug of war wid de SLAVERY UNMASKED. 201 poor preacher, be reproves de cliurcli-mcmbors for whol heap ob de little no-harm sins, an da sa da like him no mortal eas he no hisines lor dal, we i)ayum to preach de gospel, an no minem lie no bisness to," (A ]iortion of the text again repeated or read,) " for the time will come when they will not endure sound doc- trine, but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears," &c. "Now my Christian frins, I has no skilliton ob dc skoors, only I preaches right along. Noo dc time will come, we scover from de tex, when de people will be wors an wors, wickeder dan*noo an dats too bad eas da too wick- cilnoo. Den da no stan some preachin, da luss carry dem way off into de wicked worl, into de woUerin gin de dir. ty mire ob sin, to de drinking wisky, to de ball, to de quarillin an fightin gin, oh bad time dat. Den da turnum wa good preacher, who warnum ob da sins, an who sa de debel cochum by-and-by da no be better Christins soon ; den da gitum aloquint preacher, polis preacher to scratch da ears, da ears itch and da polis preacher scratcli da ears. So no longer stanum sound doctrine habum tickle ears so good. Oh de sweet preachin, da sa, sleep so nice in de meetin an habum ears scratch so nice feelum good, hab no more seole preachin. Noo da all rocken in cradle of caruil scurity, de blin leadin de blin, and da both fall in de ditch together. Oh de bad state ob de backslidin church when de ile ob de grace ob life go out forever. But," continued the speaker, " I specks to be judge by de deeds done in de l)ody, den who will be able to stan ? Will de proud church member ? No. Will dc whisky 202 SLAVERY UNMASKED. drinkin member? No. Will de figlitin, quarrelin cMirch member ? No. Will de proud polis preach- er ? No. Who den will ? lie tell you who — he who lobeum God wid all he heart, and he neighbor too all e while, an die wid de sweet grace er God in he soul, an go up to de kingdom foreber, he can stan in de judg- ment ob de worl to com." " Noo," added he, " dare be great many peoples be- longing to de church, who for twenty, thirty, or forty years lib good moral life, good peoples, da do no harm to nobody nebber, da git sick suttenly, takum tifot fe- vers, or some odder bad complainfe»in de head, an los- sum senses an die so. Noo case da no shout an holler, an talk a heap about de heavenly Canaan, de friens frade da no go up to de kingdom, da loss in de bad worl. Den on de odder side ob de quession, dare be great many peoples dat lib twenty, thirty an forty years, and serve da old massa Sattern, hard an de poor boys on de rise field, an da cotchum fever an die soon. But da repent in few minutes when de massa doctor sa do no git well gin, den da shout an holler, an sing, an sa da goum up kingum soon — da no talk ob dar twenty, or da forty years sins nuf, da talk to much ob de kingum for so long sinners. I tell you, my harrers, da served ole massa Sattern to good, da mus be judge corden to de deeds ob de body." His sermon occupied about an hour in its delivery. He said much more than the above, but it will suffice as a specimen. All his ideas were excellent, though clothed in his negro language and style. The whole, however, was eagerly devoured by hearers, as marrow SLAVERY UNMASKED. 203 and fat things. Only give them a chance and the in- tellect concealed under their sable covering would astonish the world. CATBAULING AND OTHKR MODES OF TOliTUKE. In a former page I stilted that the slaves of the south are treated with less humanity than the dumb brutes are. I here repeat the assertion with emphasis, southern cattle, oxen, horses, and d< )gs, are treated well, have enough to eat, arc not over worked, but southern slaves, great God! who shall describe the neglect, the sufferings, and sorrows, meted out to them from the cradle to the grave ? Were these poor people allowed their oath, they could testify to scen&s of woe ! of personal torture, that no pen or pencil can describe, that no white man is competent to express. And yet these horrible, thnlling, heathen practices, are so common in Georgia, as to excite little or no at- tention, among its citizens. On a rice or cotton plan- tation the evenings present a scene of reckoning, horror, and of blood. Those unfortunate ones against whom charges are preferred for non-perf ormance of their tasks, and for various other small faults, are obliged, after work-hours, at night, to undergo inquisitorial tortures. Reader, were you to take up your quarters for only two or three nights on one of these plantations, you would be waked from your slumbers, (if indeed you found sufficient quiet to sleep,) by the sound of the lash, the curses of the Inquisitors, and the cries of the poor negro, like a wail of woe piercing the dark mid- 204 SLAVERY UNMASKED. niglit air. Why, sir! could all the horrible tales of suiferings, murder, and death, of a single night on all the plantations of the south be collected in a single volume, it would thrill the Christian and barbaric world with emotions too horrible for endurance. A large proportion of the blacks have their shoulders, backs, and limbs, all scarred up, and not a few of them have had their heads laid open with stones, clubs, and brickbats, and with the butt-end of whips and canes; some have had their jaws broken, others their teeth knocked out, while others have had their ears cropped and the side of their cheeks gashed out. Some of the poor creatures have had their noses smashed in, and some have lost the sight of one, or both of their ejes, by the careless blows of the whip- per, or by some other violence. Among some of the modes of torture practised by the lower law people of this state, are the following refined specimens. Some tie up the poor victims in a very uneas}'- posture, where they must stand all night, then work them hard all day and torment them the next night. Others punish by fastening them down on a log, or something else, and striking them on the bare skin with a broad paddle full of holes. These blows break the skin, I should think at every hole where it comes in contact with it. Others when the ordinary modes of punishment will not subdue them, cathaul them. Now I will venture to say there is not one of my readers who knows what this cathauling means. I did not, until after having seen the institution, and stared the critter full in the face and eyes, though I SLAVEUV UNMASKED. 205 had often lieard the term used before making my southern tour. The following is the modus-operanch of this irreli- gious, anti-human mode of torture. The hel])less vic- tim, perhaps a nursing mother, a beautiful quadroon, or an aged man, is bound fast to a post, or something, else, stripped naked, or nearly so, then a cat is taken by one of these state-right inquisitors by the nape of the neck and tail, or by the hind legs, and he drags the claws across the back until I'ully sutisliod. This kind of punishment is not only awfully exerueiating, but it poisons the flesh much more than the whi]), and is more dreaded by the poor slave than almost any other mode. Some are branded by a red hot iron, others have their flesh cut out in large gashes to mark them, &c., &c. Some masters fly into a rage at the merest trifles, and knock down their slaves witli their fist or the first deadly missile they can lay hold of — a shovel, hoc, ax -helve, cane, or any thing else within reach, not unfrequeutly killing on the spot. And, it is a wonder that ten are not killed where one is ! only for the fact that they are a great deal tougher than the whites, or a far greater porportion of them would be killed. A poor fellow ran away from a plantation a little above Savannah. The negro hunters and dogs were sent in pursuit, they got upon his trail, the dogs first ; these he fought, killing two of them, but the hunters coming up, shot him down. The pco])le rejoiced on hearing the news of his death, but lamented the death of the dogs, they being such ravenous hunters of 206 SLAVERY UNMASKED. liuman beings. Poor Sandy, he fouglit for life, liberty, and hapiness, like a liero, but the cruel rifle ball brought him down like thousands of others in similar circumstances. A strange negro can hardly walk the streets of these southern cities without molestation. A few days before I left Charleston, I saw a decent looking mulatto man going at a rate amounting to a trifle more than a fast walk — a man meeting him, doubled up his fist and knocked him down. Every colored stranger that walks the streets is suspected of being a runaway slave, hence he must be interrogated by every negro -hater and negro-hunter, whom he meets, and should he not have a pass, he must be im- mediatety hurried off to the jail or lower law inquisi- tion. And yet some "masters here boast to us north- eners, that their slaves would not be free if they could. This shows how little they know of their degraded, down trodden chatties who are kept under only through fear. They are all sighing and groaning for freedom, and will have it, some day or other, if they have to cut the throats of their masters to gain it. The day of reckoning is coming, the day of retribu- tion, and as there is a God on the throne, — and as there is equity in his moral government — these southerners will feel it soon, unless they let the oppressed go free. If they do not share the fate of Pharaoh and his armies, they will a similar one quite as summary, for ten thousand times ten thousand of thousands of prayers, sighs, tears and groans, will not plead in vain for them long, before the throne. No, we live in fast times, everything goes railroad and lightning speed "in these SLAVERY UNMASKED. 207 last trempnclous duvs," and retribution will not be so long withheld from a eruel, oppressing people, it may be presumed, as in the patriarehal ages; especially where so much liglit and knowledge exist as is to be found in our country. I repeat, the southern oligarchy, with its institutions of blood and groans, is a doomed thing. It contains, I have sometimes thought, the elements of its own final overthrow. Of this class of elements I can but barely speak a word now, as this paper is nearly full, but will endeavor to do so in some future number. Now, no northern toiu'ist can fail of observing that a new and powerful race is springing up throughout the entire south. A race which in physical and intellect- ual qualities far surpasses the native whites, in whose veins the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-American blood flows. This race I shall term the Americo- African race ; the cross blood, or the mixture of the blood of the two races improves the stock, for cattle they are yet considered by the laws of this godless oligarchy. The increase of this race, with their brethren the blacks, is about four to one over the whites, and among them are to be found some most daring, shrewd and reckless fellows, Avho are prepared for almost any en- terprise. And yet these slave-holders blindly and se- curely sleep on, as though immortality were written upon the cherished institution, thus fulfilling the hea- then saying, " Whom the gods forsake they first make blind."' 208 SLAVERY UNMASKED, PLANTATION LIFE CONTINUED. In speaking of plantation slavery as it is, one knows hardly wliere to begin, or at what point to leave ofif. The physical condition of plantatioi\ slaves is not ac- curately known at the north. And gentlemen traveling in the south can know nothing of it. They must make the south their residence ; (as I before remarked) they must live on ' plantations, before they can have any opportunity of judging of the slave and his real condition. I resided in South Carolina and Georgia some fourteen months, exclusive of traveling through portions of nine other slave states, and had I not made peculiar inquiries, and mingled with the slaves, which most northern visitors very seldom or never do, I too should have left them with the impression that the slaves are pretty well treated after all. Such is the report of northern travelers pretty generally, who have scarcely any more opportunity of knowing their real condition than if they had remained at home. What confidence could be placed in the reports of the traveler, relative to the condition of the Irish peas- antry, or the serfs of Russia who formed his opinion from the appearance of the waiters of a Dublin hotel, or the lackeys of the Czar at St. Petersburgh ? And yet this is the kind of testimony with which the north abounds respecting the condition of southern slaves. ' Agents, mechanics, divines, gentlemen traveling for pleasure ; and almost all other classes of northern tourists are exceedingly gratuitous in this sort of testimony on their return from a southern tour. They may be SLAVERY UNMASKED. 209 honest in what they say; if so they liavc been most mis- erably duped by tliee/e67<r of couise, apolo- gizes strongly for southern Institutions. Says he, *' They would hold slaves in New York if they could." "I believe you, I believe you," replied our deacon. "New York," continued the northern sage of the counting-room, " is doing more to perpetuate slavery and the slave trade than the whole south." "That's it, that's it, I agree with you," responded old Alabama, " tickled all over," as black Jim says. IIow fat a cus. tomer this tool of pelf found in^his newly made south- ern friend I don't know. " Come," says he, when an hour or two of talk had made them quite familial-, "let us go to the bar and take some, what will you drink, sir?" "Well," replied the deacon, "I guess a httl© brandy." So after having paid a hearty libation to Bacchus, at it they went again, and struck up a five thousand dollar bargain, for aught I know. Over yon- der, seated on the mail-bags, behind the public saloon 12 266 SLAVERY UNMASKED. door, sits another soutliern gentleman, on his return from the west also, but the great God made him black instead of white, for which he now sits in chains, watched by his master and by officers, lest he should venture another journey -north in quest of freedom. Got a chance to talk with him occasionally, having learned his history somewhat. Said I to him, " What did you runaway for. Jack, did not you know better than to runaway ?" " No, massa, Ise foolish, Ise do rong, Ise sorry for it, wants to go back gin to ole boss." "You will never try it again, will you ?" " No massa^ no nebber, nebber, me git home gin to ole bosses." "Well, but would you not like to be free, be your own man?" said I. "No, massa, no," continued he. He took me for a slave-holder, sounding him as to the quality of property contained in his blood and bones, and answered accordingly, evidently hoping I would buy him and thus cause him to escape the dungeon, the whipping post, the block, or the far, far off south- ern plantations. I knew how to take him, I knew that he said one thing to please his master and the slave-holders, while he, from the great deep of his soul meant another thing. ^ We were moving rapidly along, within hailing dis- tance of Memphis. The bluffs here, for miles together, present both a grand and sublime spectacle, walled up by the hand of nature some hundred or hundred and fifty feet high, of solid granite, in some places re- sembling not a little the massive banks of the Niagara under the Suspension Bridge. In other places the banks of this river are composed SLAVKUV UNMASK EH. 267 of a sort of hard, red sand, seme fifty or sixty feet high. Then again its waters in the eentro of the stream appear higlier, and in n-ality are liigher than the surrounding eountr^- on either side. Uero we eoine up to Memphis, the ehief city of Tennessee, but the sandy bluffs are so higli as to quite conceal the city from public view at the levee. Made a halt here for nearly twenty-four hours, to unload fi'eight, aa well as take on several hundred tons more in the shape of cot- ton bales for New Orleans. And here, also, most of our southern passengers, already mentioned, got off. In the number was the poor fugitive and his master. The master appeared to be a good-natured, frce-and- ea-y sort of fellow, but a cunning, crafty slave-holder after all. He stopped to sell his man Jim at public auction, there being a large slave-auction here. " Now Jim," says he to the man, "if they ask you if you are a runaway, you tell them no, and I will give you a new hat." " That's right, massa, I'se the boy to tell um so," replied Jim, as they started off together for the slave-market. Some of our passengers followed to witness the sale. Presently our fellow-passenger of the coffles was called forward, placed on the stand, was felt of, examined, and questioned by the numerous dealers in the bodies and souls of men. " What 's your name?" asks one in the crowd. "Jim," an- swered the boy. "Jim, eh," vociferated the inquirer, " well, that's a good nigger name." " How old are you, boy?" "Don't noes zackly, reckons how I'me thirty-five." "Pretty old boy, for thirty-five," says another, who appears to question the age of the prop- 268 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ertj by some fifteen or twenty years. " You are a runaway," says another, " and you are not worth having." " I'se no runaway, am I massa ?" says he to his master. "No, no, Jim, you are no runaway, but a good, steady boy ; guess I'll have yqu down from there soon, if no better opinion is formed of you, than some of tliese gentlemen are so gratuitously be- stowing on you." "No, gemmens, I'se no runaway, I'se good boy what kin do de work ob de gemmens good as any boy. I'se de boy for de work — hoe corn, pick cotton, dig um sweet tater, wid ebery ting else to do ; I'se de boy for gemmens to buy," he would now and then say, evidently wishing to help on the sale of his own body and part, for the new hat was a prize worth his best efforts on the present occasion, having been bare-headed or hatless for weeks past. Finally, there was a bid got up on him of five hundred dollars — six hundred — seven hundred — seven hundred and fifty — eight hundred — nine hundred — nine hundred and fifty, — the hammer goes down with a smash, and off goes poor Jim to a nigger drovier, as hatless as ever. The master pockets the thousand dollars, minus fifty, chuckling over his good fortune. " Oood trade, after all," says he, in an under tone, to a looker-on, " for a dead horse.'' " I say. Bill," continued ho to his friend, " nine hundred and fifty dollars is not to be sneezed at for a runaway, is it ?" " No," replied his friend Bill, and added, " the nigger will be oft" before night, and np through Old Kentucky again in a few days, unless he coffles and collars him." " That's his own look out," rephed this dealer in human blood and SLAVERY UXMASKKH. 269 bones, " I've got tlie rliino, and lie the nigger, and now he may go to Canada or elsewhere for all me." Poor Jim ! I could but think of him. By almost superhuman efforts in traveling nights, living on ground nut.s, roots and bushes, and for weeks together wading through swamps, crossing rivers, j)lungiiig through bayous, and avoiding all places of ])ublic travel, he had succeeded in making his way from the lower part of Arkansas to within a few miles of Ohio, and was there captured, brought back to this slave- market, and sold to a southern trader for the New Or- leans trade. He will undoubtedly soon be shi])ped off with hundreds more of his own breed for this great mart of human souls, and there sold, body, soul and spirit, to some Epps, Legree, or to some of their neigh- bors up on Red river, and used up like Old Uncle Tom in a few short years. Ah, as I have more than once informed you, these slave auctions are barba- rous, horrid sights to behold, by a civilized, humane person. They are behind the spirit of the age, as much so as the heathen gladiatorial combats of Pagan Eome under the reigns of Nero and Caligula, of bloody memory. And yet, these heathen, horrid, anti-repub- lican, anti-human practices, are to be witnessed in all the southern cities, where they arc sanctioned by time, supported by law, enforced by religion, defended by the church, taught from the pulpit, propagated by Congress- men, and apologized for by some northern divines. And all this, to assist three hundred thousand proud, haughty, aristocratic, tyrannical men, to ride over and grind into the dust nearly four millions of native-bom 270 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Americans, more than "half of whom are of Anglo- Saxon origin. And then to look upon and treat the remaining six millions, composing the balance of south- em whites, as an inferior race to themselves, and but a step above the chattel breed. Oh, the mischief of this national, civil, social, moral and ecclesiastical incubus and curse, — who can calculate its extent ? There are some people I have seen, whose sympathies have been excited upon the subject of slavery, who, nevertheless, if they can be satisfied the slaves have enough to eat, think it is all well, — there is nothing more to be said or done. They are better off, say they, under such circumstances, than many of the poor whites north. NoAv if slaves were mere animals, whose only or chief employment consisted in the gratification of their bodily appetites, there would be some show of sense in this conclusion. But the fact is, however crushed and brutified these poor beings are, they are still men; men whose bosoms beat with the same high aspirations — the same ardent, boundless desire to improve their condition, the same wishes for what they have not, the same indifference towards what they have, the same restless love of social superiority, the same greediness of acquisition, the same desire to know, the same im- patience of all external control, as other men. The tremendous excitement which the singular case of Cas- per Ilauser produced, a few years ago, in Germany, is still remembered by thousands now living. From the representations of that enigmatical personage, it was believed that those from whose custody he declared himself to have escaped, had endeavored to destroy SLAVERY UNMASKED. 271 his iutellect, or rather to prevent it from being devel- oped, so as to detain him forever in a state of infantile imbecility. This suj)posed attempt at what they saw fit to denominate the murder of tue soul, gave rise to great discussions among the German jurists, and they soon raised it into a new crimc^, which they placed at the very lioad of social enormities. It is this crime, tue murder of tue soul, which is in the course of continuous and perpetual perpetration throughout the soutli, by churches, deacons, elders, leaders, ministers, and all other graceless dealers, rob- bers, and mongers in the bodies, souls and spirits of men. For the extirpation of tliis insult to Christendom and curse of the age, let us strike, strike, strike. Strike blows that will writhe, reel, burn ; strike on the Sabbath, strike on the week-days, strike at home and strike abroad, strike with the tongue, with the vote, and keep on striking until the last pro-slavocrat shall be piu'ged from the nation. MEMPHIS. Memphis, as already mentioned, is the chief city of Tennessee, and by the boatmen called the half-way house between Cincinnati and New Orleans. It is beautifully situated on the fourth Chickasaw bhiff, just below the mouth of Wolf river. This spot was for- merl}^ the site of Fort Assumption, and used for the purpose of protecting the country against the Chicka- saws, to chastise whom a French army of nearly four 272 SLAVERY UNMASKED. thousand, wliite, red and black were gathered here. They remained in a state of inactivity from the sum- mer of 1739 to the spring of 1740, during which time hundreds of them sickened and died, when in March, of the last named year, peace was concluded. The bluff on which it stands is some thirty feet above the highest floods, and its base is washed by the river for a distance of three miles, with a bed of sand-stone, the only known stratum of rocks below the Ohio to Yicks- burgh, a distance of six hundred miles ; it is the only site for a commercial mart on either side of the Missis- sippi. The appearance of Memphis from the centre of the river is very beautiful and imposing. Some dis- tance from the brow of the bluff a handsome range of fine buildings extends for several squares, and gives an air of business to it which is manifested by few pla- ces of its size. This point has been selected by the United States government for the erection of a new navy yard, and the necessary buildings for that pur- pose are now all completed, on a large scale. Several of us went down and examined them. The beautiful situation of Memphis, and its connection with a fine and fertile country, together with the great distance from any other point on the river where a large city could be built, give it superior adviintages in becoming a place of great importance. Immense quantities of cotton are grown in the interior country, and this is the principal mart and shipjjing point for it. About one hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton are an- nually shipped from this place. It contains at present some six churches, an academy, two medical colleges, SLAVERY UNMASKED. 273 some few private schools, a large number of stores, a telegraph office, and a population of some twelve or fifteen thousand. About seven o'clock in the evening I put on my cloak and left the long and pleasantly lighted saloon for an evening ramble through the city, in quest of some sight-seeing wonders. Passed up over the levee on to the ridge of the bluff; here I saw little less than a hundred camp-fires lighted and blazing for a mile or so up and down the bunk of the river, — the city not being lighted with gas made them shine the brighter, apparently so, at least. Around these fires encamped were some hundreds of negroes, overseers, drivers, dro- viers, oxen, horses, jacks, mules, and covered wagons without end, having the appearance, somewhat, of the baggage train of an army of invasion. These grounds, I learned, were the hotel accommodations for the poor SERVANTS, SLAVES, who come from the interior country to market, and to bring down the cotton for shipment, and themselves, some of them, for the block on the morrow, &c. The large seven and ten horse wagons were- posted j ust on the outer edge of the camp, the horses, jacks and mules hitched to the pon- derous wheels, and the fire in the centre. These ap- pearances were rearsouthem, and half heathen, I will assure you, to my New England eye. To see these poor creatures gather round their fires at an unseason- able hour to prepare their supper of roasted sweet potatoes and hoe cake — jack-knives and fingers ser- ving for plates, knives and forks, and the water of the muddy Mississippi for tea and coffee, made me realize 12* 274 SLAVERY UNMASKED. the fact that I was in a slave country again. But they (poor creatures) took it all in good part ; they ate and drank, and chattered, and whistled, and sung as hap- pily for the time-being as the inmates of an opera, if not more so, for their task was done for that day, af- fording a few moments repose. The lash was still, the overseers and drivers were most of them off to some place of public amusement or revelry, no doubt, and none to watch them but the city patrol, save now and then an imderstrapper in the shape of a sub-driver, so nigh on a level with themselves as to impose little or no restraints upon them. Being rather fantastically dressed, they reminded me of the Dutchman's rag, tag and bobtail, some in grey, some in drab, some in sheep's wool color, some in short jackets, some in no jackets, and some in ante-diluvian over-coats hanging in shreds. After finishing their meal they would sit round their fires like groups of wild Indians and amuse themselves in singing, and for the want of a more sentimental taste, or a better cultivated moral and intellectual state of mind, they would substitute such as the fol- lowing low and almost ludicrous specimens : — " City ho, city ho, whar ole boss lub-ura go, Lobe-vim liquor, lobe-um liquor, so it be wid dis nigger, Rho, row, re ro — rho, row, re ro, City ho, city ho," &c. As a nation, we reflect but little honor upon our- selves, I mean the professedly religious portions, by sending thousands and tens of thousands, nay hun- dreds of thousands of dollars annually for the conver--* sion of the heathen world, while we have millions of SLAVKHY UNilASKED. 275 heatben in our very midst^ with no missionaries among them but slavery propagandists. Where masters, churches, ministers and laymen exist, having no aflini- tics in common with the age in which they live, who arc a thousand years behind the age ; in short, whose institutions, tastes and aspirations are identified witli the darkest and most gloomy periods of the history of our race. And yet they are a part of us, of our great whole as a nation. May not we northerners, with propriety, in view of this humiliating fact, exclaim, Oh I wretched men that we are, who will deliver us from the body of this death ? How long is the north doomed to so uncomfortable, so disgraceful an alliance — to be chained to this body of death, this bleaching, putrescent carcass of moral and political death — ruin- ous to the south, ruinous to the north, fatal to liberty, and a very contamination to the heathen world, shaken from the stars and stripes of our land ? Sliall it last forever ? or until it swamps our whole country in revo- lution, or until in consequence we shall be stricken out from the roll of living nations and be no more ? No, forbid it heaven, forbid it, oh Almighty God, for- bid it, dear readers who have a tongue to speak and an arm to strike. The voice of more than three mil- lions of poor down-trodden slaves, added to those of over six millions of white southern plebians, call upon you to strike for freedom. God and our country call upon you to do it, and you dare not, you will not prove recreant to so loud and so imperious a call. There is no neutrality, no standing still in this war, the moment we cease our efforts, we lose ground. 276 SLAVERY UNMASKED. while eternal vigilance is . the watch-word of the enemy. What do you suppose the defiant boast of the south is ? Why, that they will never stop until they can call the roll of their niggers under the shadow of Bunker Hill. So they say, and so they swear. We shall see. VICKSBURGH. During the night that we laid at the Memphis levee, a poor man was drowned by falling overboard from our boat. He was a laboring man, came on board a day or two before, to go down the river, lent an assist- ing hand in loading cotton, made a misstep, and plunged head foremost into the river, and by the cur- rent was swept under the boat and drowned. Poor man 1 . my reflections were saddened by the occurrence. He became a sort of voluntary martyr in gratifying the generous zeal of his nature, to render assistance where it was wanted, in doing which he lost his life — fell overboard, and sunk to rise no more. The next morning we started, and this our fellow passenger, was left in the bottom of the Mississippi. Being an en- tire stranger on board, he had no relative or even friend to look after him. All felt bad, and pitied his untime- ly fate. Ah, truly, thought I, in the midst of life we are in death. At some point down the river, perhaps he had a wife, a mother, or some other dear friend or friends, whose greeting he expected soon to share ; watchful e3^es and eager expectations were doubtless posted at their gateways ; but the husband, the son. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 277 the fi'icnd came not. Hours succeed hour of cruel suspense — days and nights pass, fraught with unhappy forebodings respecting the missing one, and weeks and months, and even years, are yet to pass, and they know nothing of his fate, never more to meet him until tlie trump shall gound, and the sea deliver ujd the dead which is in it. Soon after leaving Memphis, probably a half day's ride, brings us alongside tlic Arkansas shore, which is a rough and tumble country, I assure you, suflicient to make even the bears and wolves, and rattlesnakes, to whom it ought to belong, homesick, I should judge. Soon we passed the mouth of the Arkansas river. A word or two with regard to this river, as it is one of the tributaries of the Mississippi. This river from wdiich the State derives its name, is next to the Missouri, the largest western tributary of the Mississippi. The length of this stream, which is said to meander a long distance in the Rocky Mountains, following its course, is about two thousand miles. It pours , a broad and deep stream from the mountains upon the arid and sandy plains below. The sand and the dry surround- in"- atmosphere, say the river men, absorb the water to such a degree, that in many seasons it may be forded man}' hundred miles below the mountains. And some of its tributaries arc so impregnated with salt, as to render even the waters of the main s-.rcam unpalat- able. The alluvial earth along its banks contains so much salt, that the cattle are said sometimes to be killed by eating it. To the distance of about four hundred miles from its mouth, it has many lakes and 278 SLAVERY UNMASKED. bajous. In high water, it is navigable for steamboats as high up as Cantonment Gibson, at the mouth of Grand river, by water seven hundred and fifty miles. On we move, on the surface of this muddy, rolling, whirling, fumbling Mississippi, with slavery on one side and slavery on the other side — on our right, Ar- kansas, and on our left Mississippi, both of which bear the impress and curse of the " peculiar institution." Presently we came in sight of Vicl^burgh, where we landed, and stayed some three hours. It being the Sabbath, I went up town and found a church, where a preacher was holding forth to a crowded house of colored j^eople, all slaves. It was a Methodist church, or a Methodist slave-preaching room, where some three hundred or more of these poor, ignorant, down- trodden of our race were being indoctrinated into the duties they owed to God and their masters, by a white man. Whether he was one of the regular preachers of the city, or whether he was a salaried chaplain, em- ployed by the owners of these human cattle to preach to them SLAVERY and the gospel, I did not learn. The poor things were very attentive, very devotional, ma- king fi'equent and loud responses to the preacher's talk. To anj-thing that pleased them in the discourse, they would cry out, "yes — yes — just so — that's right, massa," sufficiently loud to be heard two or three squares off. Their singing was loud, pathetic and heavenly — more thrilling, more spirit-moving by far, than any of their white preaching or praying in these parts. Simple, devoted souls — they will inherit SLAVERY UN.M AS K i: 1 ). 2 7L> estates, in the other world far above their masters' pkiutations and masters' wealtli, I thought. Vicksburgh is the county-scat, of Warren county, Mississippi. It is situated on a hill, tin; liighcst part of which is two hundred feet above high water mark. The principal business part of the city is situated on the boltoni, :dong the river. It was incorporated as u town in 1825, and as a city in 1880. The cotuitry surrounding it is a black, loamy soil, well adapted to the cultivation of all kinds of grain, tobacco, cotton, &c. The principal product, however, is cotton, of which some seventy thousamd to one hundred thous- and bales are annually shipped from here. The city contains about five thousand inhabitants, several pub- lic buildings, a good levee, &c., kc. : but it has such a dull and anti-progressive appearance, when contrasted with places of its size with you in the east, as to make one homesick. This place, reader, you will recollect, became somewhat notorious, sonic years ago, for the summary proceedings taken against the gamblers and gentlemen blacklegs, who infested it to so great a degree as to threaten the entire destruction of the wel- fare and morals of the whole community. A public meeting of the citizens was held, and warning given to to all gamblers who frequented the city, to remove with- in a given time. They refused to do so, and manifested a determination to overawe and break down public au- thority. The citizens thereupon united, and having caught a number of them, conducted them a short dis- tance from the city, and publicly executed several of them by hanging. Ever since, I am informed, this pro- -280 SLAVERY UNMASKED. fessional class of traveling gentry are exceedinglj^ scarce in Vicksburgli. They are a savage, ferocious set 6f men, inhabiting these localities, you may rightly judge, with whom the shedding of human blood and the taking of human life is neither a rare nor a very aw- ful occurrence. They can hang gamblers, fight duels, separate families, chain, imprison and torture negroes, with as good a grace here, perhaps, as in any other place on the face of this green earth. Here we lost some of our fellow passengers, but their places were supplied by others, who took pas- sage for New Orleans. After taking on a little addi- tional freight, we fired up and started oif in the direc- tion of the down stream country, and the next day, about noon, arrived at Grand Gulf, where we lost a whole family of the best passengers on board, who came the whole way from Cincinnati here on the Hungarian. The man was a native of Indiana, and formely a Methodist, but now in a backslidden state — was an excellent singer. We sang many of the old- fashioned tunes in the hymns of our Methodist collection. I talked with him on the subject of reli- gion : he felt, and thought of other years, and doubt- less secretly resolved to again renew his strength, and walk the heavenly road. Another man fell overboard and was drowned from our boat. He was an Irishman, supposed to be in li- quor, and a steerage passenger. It occurred about mid- night: he was at the stern of the boat, carelessly look- ing into the river, until finally losing his balance, he went overboard and was seen no more. Alas for the SLAVERY UNMASKED. 281 unfortunate — how many have slept tlicir last sleep in this mi"-hty river, and how many will rise in the last day from its bed, God only knows. Searcely less, we conjecture, than from the ocean's coral depths. And those who find a grave here arc more illy prepared to brook the fearful retributions of that dreadful eternity, into which they so unceremoniously enter, than most men : for God, Heaven, and eternal things arc seldom thought of on these waters, at least by the great masses that float on them. NATCHEZ. Soon after leaving Grand Gulf, we found ourselves at the levee of Natchez, the chief city in the State of Mississippi. Natchez is an old city ; it was founded in 1700, by D'Iberville, who had been sent out from France, to conclude the explorations begun by La Salle, but which had so unfortunately terminated by his death. D'Iberville proposed to found a city here, to be named in honor of the Countess of Tontchar- train, Rosalie. In 1714, the fort called Rosalie was built on this spot, then occupied by the Natchez, a powerful and intelligent tribe of Indians, in the valley of the Mississippi. The city is romanticaUy situated on a very high bluff of the cast bank of the river, and ia much the largest town, as above remarked, in the State. The river business is transacted in that part of the city which is called " Under (he IMC Great nimi- bers of boats are always lying here, and some very respectable merchants reside in this part of the city. 2S2 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Tlie ujoper town is elevated on the summit of tlie bluff, some three hundred feet above the level of the river, and commands a fine prospect of the surrounding landscape. The country on the eastern bank is wav- ing, rich and beautiful, the eminences presenting open woods, covered with grape-vines, and here and there neat country houses. This part of the town is quiet, the streets broad, some of the public buildings are handsome, and the whole, in short, has the appearance of comfort and opulence. Many rich planters live here, and the society is not only polished and refined, but highly aristocratic. It is the principal town in this region for the shipment of cotton, with bales of which, at the proper season of the year, the streets are almost barricaded, and it is the market for the trade of the numerous population of the contiguous country. Notwithstanding the elevation and apparent healthmess of the city, it has often been visited by the yellow fever. It is doubtless owing to this circum- stance, not a little, that the population does not in crease so fast as might be expected from its eligible position. It is at present supposed to contain some fifteen hundred houses, and about eight thousand in- habitants. Natchez was visited, you will recollect, in 1840 by a tremendous tornado, which swept through the city with great destruction,overwhelming many of the finest buildings, and leaving all in its path a mass of ruins. It has now, however, recovered from this shock scarcely any vestiges of which can be seen. A few hours after leaving Natchez, we pass the mouth of SLAVERY UXMASKED, 283 Red River, a place rontlcred almost rlassical, reader, you Avill recollect, by A[rs. Stowc, in licr celebrated work, " Uncle Tom's Cabin." A great many recollec- tions of the past were awakened in my mind, as we passed this spot. I saw, in imagination the craft that bore old Uncle Tom, Legrce, and all his band of chat- ties, as it rounded the point, and passed up that river. Here also I thought of poor Solomon Northrup, twelve years a slave up the valley of this stream, old Epps, &c- As you, reader, arc familiar with the history of the tragic scenes above alluded to, you will allow me to give here a description of the river and country where they were transacted. The Red River takes its rise in a chain of hills, near Santa Fe, iu New Mexico, called the Caous Mountains. In its upper course it receives the waters of Blue River and False Wachita. It winds through a region of prairies, on which feed droves of Buffiilo, cattle, and wild horses. These im- mense prairies are of a red soil — hence the name of the river — covered with grass and white vines, which bear the most delicious grapes. It receives a great many tributaries, that water an almost boundless re- gion of prairies, forests, bottoms, and highlands. Much of this country is exceedingly fertile, and capa- ble of producing cotton, sugar-cane, grapes, indigo, rice, tobacco, Indian corn, and also most of the pro- ductions of the more northern regions. The width of its channel, for four hundred miles before it enters into the Mississippi, does not correspond with its leno-th, or the immense mass of waters which it collects in its course from the Rocky Mountams. 284 SLAVERY UNMASKED. In higli waters, when it has arrived within three or four hundred miles of its mouth, it is often divided into two or tliree channels, and spreads itself into a line of bayous and lakes, which take up its supera- bundance of waters, and are a considerable time in fill- ing, and prevent the river from displaying its breadth and amount of -waters, as it does in high lands, five hundred miles above. About ninety miles above Natchitoches, conmiences what is called the "Eafts," which is nothing more than an immense swampy alluvial of the river, to the width of twenty or thirty miles. The river here, spreading into a vast number of channels, frequently shallow, of course has been for ages clogging np with a compact mass of tim- ber and fallen trees, wafted from the regions above. Between these masses, the river has a channel, which is sometimes lost in a lake, and found again by follow- ing the outlet of that lake back to the parent channel. There is no stage of water, I am told, in which a keel boat, with an experienced pilot, may not make its way through the Raft. The river is blocked up with this immense mass of timber, a distance, by its meanders, of between sixty and seventy miles. There are places where the water can be seen in motion under the loss : in other places, the whole width of the river may be crossed on horse back. Weeds, flowering shrubs, and small willows, have taken root upon the surface of this lumber, and flourish above the waters. It is an im- pediment of incalculable injury to the navigation of this large river and the immense extent of country above it There is probably no part of the United SLAVERY UNMASKED. 285 States, where the unoccupied hinds have higher chaims, from soil, climate, intermixture of prairies and tim- bered lands, position, and every inducement to poj)ula- tion, than the country above tlie Haft, where the river becomes broad, deep, and navigable for steamboats, in moderate stages of water, for nearly one thousand miles towards the mountains. The state of Louisiana has made an effort to have it removed, and the General Government have made an apj)ropriation, and caused an inquiry of survey to be made for the same purpose. This interesting river has a width of three or four miles, as high as Kiamesia, nearl}'' one thousand miles from its mouth. It widens, however, as it slopes to- wards the Mississijipi, and has, for a long distance from its mouth, a valley of from six to eighteen miles in width. Of all the broad and fertile alluvials of the Mississippi streams, no one exceeds this. It compares in many more points with the famous Nile, than the Mississi))}>i, to which that river has so often been liken- ed. But all this beautiful country belongs to the Slave Power. BATON ROUGE. About one hundred miles below the niouth of lied River we passed Baton ]{ouge, which is situated in east Baton liouge parish, and is the capital of Louis- iana. The city is handsomely situated on the last bluff that is seen in descending the river. The bluff rises from the river by a gentle and gradual swell, and the town, as seen from the river, rising so regularly and beautifully from the banks, with its singularly sha- 286 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ped French and Spanisli houses, and its green squares, presents very nearly the appearance of a finely paint- ed landscape. It is without controversy, one of the most beautiful and pleasantlj^ situated places on the lower Mississi23pi. The United States Government has here an extensive arsenal, with barracks of several hundred soldiers, and a fine hospital. The barracks are built in fine style, and present a handsome appear- ance from the river. From the esplanade, the pros- pect is both grand and delightful, commanding a great extent of the coast, with its handsome houses and rich cultivation, plantations below, and an extensive view of the back country at the east. There is here, also, a land-office of the United States, a court house, the penitentiary of the state, four churches, an academy and college, and a splendid state house. The popula- tion is about four thousand, two thousand of whom are probably slaves. Fifteen miles below, we pass Bayou Manchac, or Iberville, which is an outlet of the Mississippi, on the cast side, uniting with Amite river, and which falls into lake Maurepas. It is navigable for small vessels, I am told, only three mouths in the year. Eight miles below, wo. pass the famous Bayou Placquamiue, on the right side, which afibrds the best communication to the rich and extensive settlements of Attakapas and Opelousas. It is navigable for small crafts, for some miles in the interior, and its banks are lined with perhaps some of the most splendid and pro- ductive sugar and cotton plantations in the country. Here is where the poor captured fugitives and the refractory of the more northern slave states, are ship- SLAVKUY UNMASKED. 287 pcd, sold, wliip})cd, and worked up, body and .soul, to aggrandize these lordly, popish descendants of France and Spain. Tliough tlic wealthiest, most beautiful, and most conveniently located of the whole south, yet none of the states are so much dreaded by the slaves as Louisiana. I do not know how to account for this fact, except it be that the people here arc mostly ROMANISTS, with whom Incpiisition and blood come natural. This is, without exception, the most beautiful por- tion of country that it has been my fortune ever to set eyes upon. For hours together, as I promenade the upper deck, in this delightful, balmy atmosphere, my eye is lost in one vast, boundless, mighty expanse, all as level, nay, lower than the waters on which I float. Here arc plantations embracing thousands of acres of the richest land on this globe, belonging to single planters, who perhaps own from four hundred to six hundred slaves each, all in the highest state of culti- * vation, or apparently so, from my stand point at least. Nothing in old Virginia, the Carolinas, nor in Georgia, will compare with it in wealth, and beauty, that I saw while there. Here my ideal of southern grandeur, wealth, magnificence, &c., were not only fully realized but a little exceeded. For scores of miles within a day's ride of New Orleans, the princely mansions of planters and catholic priests, resembled not a little I thought, the palaces of European monarchs. What a pity, thought I to myself, as I looked over this splendid scene, that so fine a country should be pollu- ted by slavery and domineered over by papists. But, 288 SLAVERY UNMASKED. SO it is, and so it will continue to be, until Protestant Americans, and anti-slavery men shall come up to tlie work, and fully discharge the duties they owe to them- selves, to their country, and to their God. Thirty-five miles below, on the right, is the bayou La Fourchie. This bayou is well settled on both sides, for nearly thirty leagues. It also affords another communication to the Attakapas and Opelousas set- tlement. Donaldsonville, just below the mouth of the bayou, was the former capital of the state of Louisiana. This place is very pleasantly located, and has some fine buildings, among which are the court house, United States arsenal, state house. United States land office, &c. It Ls also a place of considerable trade and wealth, and while the capital remained there, was improving rapidly. The removal of that to Baton Rouge, will, as a matter of course, operate much against the inter- est and advancement of the place. Its population amounts to some two thousand, with probably an equal number of slaves. Ilere the Mississippi is broad, deep, and majestic in its bearing, resembling somewhat Seneca Lake, minus the quality of its clear, sluggish waters. Large ships from the Gulf, and from the Atlantic ocean come up as fiir as here for sugar and cotton. Some eighty miles lower down we passed Carrolton, which appears to be a thriving, stirring place. It is the residence of many business men belonging to New Orleans, from which it is distant only seven miles, and to which it is connected, not only by the river, but by a railroad, on which commodious passenger cars pass almost every SLAVERY UNMASKED. 289 hour of tlie day. There is, at Carrol ton, a most beautiful public garden, laid out in fine t;istc, and a hotel attach- ed, with ample accommodations for visitors. This is the daily resort of hundreds from the city, during the spring, summer and fall months, and affords a most agreeable retreat for all, from the heat and bustle of the citj. Its population is one thousand. Here is where I caught the first glimpse of the Crescent City. From the hurricane deck of the Ilungarian, I espied the gilded rotunda of the St. Charles looming up above the intervening forest trees, reminding us of the close proximity of some great city. Next we saw a forest of masts heaving up from what looked like *a thou- sand ships — then a forest of smoke pipes, from what appeared a thousand steamers. Now we come up to them, pass them, ships, steamers, floats, rafts, ferries, levees, &c., &c., until we reach the foot of Poydras street, where we come up to the levee, and wheel into line with a thousand or more steamers. 13 CHAPTER X/ NEW ORLEANS, Here I am, fairly and safely landed in this city of wonders ; for such it is indeed, both with regard to the material of which it is composed, as also to the posi- tion it occupies. Here you come in contact with al- most all nations, kindred, tongues and people under the whole heavens, or that swarm the face of tliis green earth : also all religions — Jews, Gentiles, Pagans, Mahometans, Protestants, Catholics, gold worshipers, disciples ot mammon, and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Upon the walks and in the hotels the foreign accents of French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, &c., &c., fall upon your ear with harsh discordant echoes. Here also, as in most other large cities, one is pained with so often beholding squalid poverty, so strangely and painfully contrasting with princely wealth and grandeur. But so it is, and so it has been, I suppose, from tlie commencement of our world's history until now, and will doubtless con- tinue so unto its end. Here also the human kind may be seen in all its variety, and human nature developed in all its infinite phases, from the polished lady and gentleman of high moral worth, to the most degraded cut throat that ever disgraced the records of humanity. Upon an elevated stand-point on Front street, twenty SLAVERY UNMASK Kl>. 291 thousand men may bo seen upon the spacious levee, at work, resembling very much a vast swarm of bees, rolling and tumbling over each other, among whom may be found bpatmcn, bankers, merchants, lumber- men, speculators, passengers, pedlars, lawyers, doctors, ministers, news-boys, n(^gro.\s, gossip})crs, mongers, hawkers, sportsmen, dandies, showmen, criers, rob- bers, blacklegs, cut tliroats and pirates, and also that hyena of his race, the slave-trader, hated of God and despised by men. This levee is said to be some ten miles in length. Now ascend an elevated stand-point and cast your vision over this stirring panoramic scene, where fifteen hundred ships and steamers, with their thirty thousand men, are seen loading and unloading, weighing, branding, inspecting, rolling and boding the drays, nmles, negroes and Irish, all mixed and remixed, packed and repacked, and unpackt;d and compounded with the infinite variety of produce — ^you would bo ready to say, that this is the world's mart. And so it is the great depot of this great, broad, fertile valley of the mighty Mississippi. The city is situated on the west bank of the river, about ninety miles from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico. The city of Lafayette has a distinct city chart3r, yet the increase of New Orleans has been so rapid, for a few years past, that it has grown up, so that by building they are united, and now appear like one vast city, occuj)ying about seven miles in length, and about one in brjadth, along the bank of the river, which, at this point, takes a wide circle, and passes to the north-east. The two cities occupy the bend of tho 292 SLAVERY UNMASKED. river, in form like a new moon, and hence has been given it the name of " Crescent Citv." The valley above and below is very level and low, and were it not for the levee, as it is called, would be inundated by the overflowing of the river, for nearly half of the year. The levee is an embankment of earth, thrown up jfrom six to eight feet high, and of sufficient breadth to make an excellent road. This embankment commences about forty miles below the city, and on the east side of the river extends as far up as Baton Eouge, a distance of one hundred and forty miles. Were it not for this embankment, not a rod of this vast extent of country could be cultivated. Yet it is now one of the most fertile and productive portions of the south, and on which is grown almost the entire crop of sugar in Louisiana, as well as large quantities of cotton. The city stands on a level, marshy piece of ground, from two to four feet below the level of the river at high water mark, which is prevented from overflowing by the levee above men- tioned. A traveler is struck, on entering the city, with the old and narrow streets, the high houses, orna- mented with tasteful corfiices, iron balconies, and many other circumstances peculiar to towns in France and Spain, and pointing out the past history of tliis city, fated to change its masters so often. The newer parts of the city are, however, built more on the American style, the streets being wide and regularly laid out. Many of the dwellings are built in a style of magnifi- cence and beauty, that will rival those of any city, while the beautiful grounds attached to them, filled SLAVERY UNMASKETD. 293 witli tbe luxuriant foliage of the south, give to them an air of comfort and case which are seldom enjoyed in a city. There are in the city some six public squares, laid out with taste, enclosed with handsome fencing, and adorned with a variety of trees and shrubbery. These afford a pleasant retreat from the heat and glare of the streets, and tend also to improve the health of the place. The old j)ortion is built in the form of a parallelogram. The city consists of this part, the sub- urbs of St. Mary's, Annunciation, and La Course, called Fauxbourgs, to which may be added also, the city of Lafayette, above, and Trenic and St. John's, in the rear. The whole city is divided into districts, of which there are three, called Municipalities. These Municipal- ities, including the Fauxbourgs and Lafayette, extend along the bank of the river seven miles, and backward to the distance of one mile, as above remarked. New Orleans has probably twice as much boat navigation above it, as any other city on the globe. By means of the basin, the canal, and the bayou St. John, it communicates with Lake Ponchartrain, with the Flor- ida shore, with Mobile, Pensacola, and the whole Gulf shore. It also communicates, by means of the bayous Placquemine and La Fouche, with the Attakapas country, and has many other communications by means of the numerous bayous and lakes, with the lower parts of Lousiana. A word or two about the amount of its commerce. In 1841-2, the property imported into New Orleans was estimated at $35,764,477. In December, 1843, there were six hundred ships in port here atone time, taking 294 SLAVERY UNMASKED. freight from all parts of the world. The exports for that year are estimated at $50,000,000. In 1845, the value of imports from the interior of the United States alone, was estimated at $57,199,122 ; 1846, $77,193,264; 1847, $90,033,256. From these data some idea may be formed of the business transactions of the mart. The public buildings of the city are constructed, many of them, in a large and beautiful style. The new custom-house, on the corner of Canal street and the levee, is the largest and finest building of the kind in the United States. HISTORY OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF NEW ORLEANS. A portrait of this singular, mysterious city, is a living, blazing picture of the world. It is indeed a world in miniature, in which nearly all the grades of civilization, from barbarian Cythera, in days of yore, to modern Paris, are represented. It is here we find the great mass of human beings moved upon by impulses as strange and incomprehensible as the future of their own destiny. Now, reader, with your con- sent, I shall attempt to draw a perfect and faithful portrait of the living, breathing mass, that fill up the great emporium of the valley of the Mississippi. To say that all live^ in the common acceptation of that term, who spend their time here, would be to give a false coloring to a large portion of the picture, Avhich you may rely upon as being true to the very letter. It is important, however, for you, reader, to know SLAVERY UNMASKED. 296 something of the early history of this section of the country, as well as general description of the city and so:nc things connected with it, to be able duly to ajTprcciate and understand why a life in New Orleans difiers so widely from any other in the whole range of civilization. While standing on the levee, looking over this great busy mart, where the products and treasures of that vast region of the ^^ississi])J»i valley and its tributaries, are constantly being poured out, it would seem tliat a word could not be said of New Orleans, without requiring a full history of its dis- covery, beginning of settlement, adventures of indi- viduals in other portions of the valley, along the banks of this great artery of the breathing earth, which is constantly pouring its ffoods into the bosom of the ocean. As a brief sketch is demanded of the early times of this range of country I shall notice only a few of the most prominent of them. Among the most singular facts in the history of dis- coveries, is that this mighty flood of many waters was first met with more than a thousand miles from its mouth. The first discoverer was a Spaniard, the ftimous De Soto. He started from the Island of Cuba, in the year 1538, wUh six hundred men, lauded on the coast of Florida, passed to the north, through Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and came to the river at the place now known as Chickasaw Bluffs. In passing from 1538 down to 1717, many adventurers from the old countries, as well as from the colonies, came, and scarcel}'" more than roused the panther and alligator from their lairs, and passed on, leaving them quietly 296 SLAVERY UNMASKED. to return to their repose, and tliere to remain until another should come after them, in search of the "foun- tain of immortal youth," which was the object sought after by those who first traversed this region of our country, and whom the Indians had now made to believe there existed such a fountain, in which, if a man were to bathe, he would, even if old, return back to juvenile years, his life be without end, and clad in immortal youth. But this glorious ideal fountain was never found ; yet on they came, and came, year after year, company after company, crowd after crowd, most of whom found a long, long resting place, unburied, in the midst of the swamps and desolations of a wild and unbroken wilderness. The result of these several companies, in search of the fountain of "living waters," was a settlement under the patronage of the French Government, after the purchase of Spain — one at Natchez, one at Balize, and one on Lake Ponchartrain, and finally, in the year 1718, at the city of New Orleans, this Babel of all Babels, this Sodom of all Sodoms, was commenced,' And here, allow me to request you, reader, to pause a moment, and contem- plate the horrible, unchronicled midnight deeds, which have been enacted in this modern Golgotha — to turn back to the pages of its dark and bloody history, although never written, yet, to read it, let the imagina- tion have its full and utmost range — excite it as wild, as livid, as the lightning flash amid the lowering thun- der cloud — then call up the ftillest measure of hiiman woe, of moral degradation, of human suffering, of wrecked hopes — contemplate the blackest, foulest rage SLAVERY UNMASKED, 297 of human passion, aiul all the dark iiiid damning deeds that the imps of the lower world could perpetrate, and you woiild have before you a faint moonlight picture of the early days of this ancient and modern scat of Satan and his fallen angels. Although a change some- what for the better has, in latter years, come over the drama of her life, yet not in the spirit of her dreams : for the same brewing, boiling, overflowing cauldron of human passion is still here, swallowing up its victims by thousands, and tens of thousands, soul and body both, as in olden times, leaving scarcely a shred or a remnant, to tell from whence they came, or whither they have gone. This was New Orleans a century ago, and this is New Orleans to day. And notwithstanding, as above remarked, a change is in her outward forms, by throw- ing aside the bowie-knife — measurably so, at least — the dirk and pistol, yet the weapons by which des- truction is now accomplished, are none the less sure, none the less fjital. For unlike the knife and the pistol, they never maim, but strike strong, murderous and deep, inflicting death not only on the body, but also the soul, spirit and being of the hopeless victim. Opposite New Orleans, and connected with it by ferry, is the town of Algiers, which is the principal workshop of the city. Here are several extensive ship- yards, and numerous artizans, engaged in building and repairing vessels. A short distance aboye it is the United States Marine Hospital, a splendid and impo- sing building, used for the purpose its name designates, the taking care of, in sickness, and pillowing in 18* 298 SLAVERY UXMASKED. death, the weary, djang head of the sons of the ocean, at the expense of the United States Government. Notwithstanding the reputed unhealthiness of this city, which at certain seasons of the year is most fear- ful, most awful indeed, sweeping regiments in a few days, whole platoons at once, of men, women and children into their graves — go into the various ceme- teries, of which there are several, surrounding this vast charnel house of slaughtered bodies and souls of men — go especially into the French cemetery, and into the Cypress Grove cemetery, where the foreigners are committed to their last sleep, and look at the newly made graves. Alas! it looks as though a Waterloo or a Marathon had been recently acted over again, and their slain entombed beneath these sods. There has been a foe here — the scourge of Ood — scarcely less terrible in its ravages to the citizens of this place than the angel of death to the Egyptians in times of yore. I allude to the terrible, devastating, incompre- hensible yellow fever — the plague and scourge of this valley, of its most important localities, especially so of this city. Notwithstanding, as I was about to remark, this fearful mortality, the unprecedented ratio of de- population in a single city by death, or rather, such numbers as die annually in New Orleans, it has never, theless increased in population very rapidly. It was incorporated in 1804, as a city, and in 1810 had a population of 17,176 ; in 1820, 27,242 ; in 1830, 46,- 320 ; in 1840, 100,193 ; in 1850, 120,000 ; and now it is thought to amount to 200,000. It is further computed that40,000 strangers are here during the winter months. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 299 CAUSES AND SOUUCES OF DISEASES HERE, New Orleans, as previously remarkcfl, is almost sur- rounded by swamps, was onee itself a swamp. In connection with the swamp, is being tlirown oft' un- ceasingly, from the whole surface b<^th in and around the city, one dense sheet of thick, death-dealing mala- ria. And to thicken this up and add to its qualities, the whole place, from one extreme to the other, is filled with the most filthy masses of stench and corruption that were ever suffered to remain above ground in a community claiming to be decent or civilized. In proof of this, I ask any man to go to that part of the city where he would certainly expect to find neatness and order, and look for some place to locate to escape the steam and odor from piles of filth, and he will find on one side or the other of almost every dwelling a horse stable, a mule yard, a negro pen, ,or piles of offals, from some lane or alley, which have been there long enough to become old relics of the city. Again, you may look in vain for a desirable dwelling, but none can be found unless on one side or the other a miserable shanty or hovel is located, filled up to the brim with the most degraded human beings, either blach or white. In connection with all this, and a great deal more of the same kind that time will not allow me to detail, every mouthful of food a person gets on. the table is a mass of poison, disease and death. I refer now more particularly to meats of every description. The animals of all kinds, to supply the city markets, are 300 SLAVERY UNMASKED. brought down from tlie upper states, bordering on the Ohio and Mississippi, in steamboats, and are, generally, from ten to fifteen days on the passage. They are forced, as a matter of course, into a change of food, water, and other circumstances, during the passage. They eat but very little, and when they arrive in the city are in a state of starvation, and in this condition are killed and taken into the markets. Now this meat is as improper for the table almost as though the ani- mal had died of ship fever, or something else as bad ; for the whole body is in a state of feverish inflamma- tion, produced by the change of diet and the starving condition in which the animal is when killed. Con- sequently the meat must produce a deleterious influ- ence upon the health of those who eat it. To present truly and clearly, the condition that meats are in when taken into the markets, the follow- ing facts I give from my own personal observation. The steamer on which I came down the river, the Hungarian, took on live stock and fowls after leaving Louisville, Ky., as part of her loading. Her upper decks were completely covered over with coops full of chickens, turkeys and geese, as thick almost as could be crowded in, amounting to several hundreds if not thousands. The .passage was long and tedious. For two days after being taken on board, the poultry began to sicken and die. The number dying daily increased, and for two or three days before we arrived in the city, a large number died. On arriving, those living I saw immediately sold, and the next day many of them were on the tables of the hotels and boarding houses. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 301 Now if these chickens were wholesome and proper food to be eaten, and would promote health and long life, then may wc look for hciilth in consuniiiig the pent up damps and vapors of the. dungeon or an emi- grant ship. It is also in almost a putrid condition that butter and {)reserved meats arc received, and they both have generally a rancid and forbidding taste and smell. Vegetables may bo classed with other things, for they arc usually produced by a forced growth, con- sequently, cannot become healthy and vigorous plants. The water here is also bad, nay, poisonous, although as clear and apparently as pure as the deep blue wa- ters of SEXECA LAKE up ill old York state, yet it is verily diseased and jioisonous. To dig a well and procure water in New Orleans, is a very easy matter ; for you would have it more than two-thirds of the time up even with the surface of the ground, and never, in the dryest time, more than a foot below. To drink freely of this water, no person would proba- bly live but a short time. To furnish a supply of water for dwellings, every house has a cistern from ten to fifteen feet high, stand- 'inport them arc a proud and chivalrous people, and claim to be civilized! Alliances of this nature have been continued so long between slave-women and white men, that there are a great many slaves in whom cannot be traced the least shade, either in form, feature, action or speech of the Ethiopian ; and they are also of all complexions, from the light flaxen hair and bright blue eye, and the sandy and freckled countenance, and the keen, black, piercing eye, and clear, beautiful white skin, with rosy cheeks, making the very perfection of loveliness and beautv. Yet they are proscribed, cruelly proscribed, shamefully proscribed, — are forbidden by the rules of society to hold rank above the lowest, blackest slave, and the common civilities of the social circle arc never extended to them. In short, the life of a mulatto girl, or a quadroon, as they are called, is as strictly marked out, and the path which she is to take has been so long beaten, that she is as much confined to it as if it was a fixed law in the slave code. There is also quite a respectable number of free col- ored pcojile here, some of whom arc wealthy, but their monev can never raise them above their caste. ITere is wherein American slavery is worse than any other now existing, or that has ever existed in all the past history of the world. Neither wealth, virtue, talent, beauty, nor accomplishment, can elevate them above their caste. It is not because of their color, for they 326 SLAVERY UNMASKED. are white, and many of them whiter, more talented, better looking, and more accomplished than many of the southern white population. These free quadroons and white women, hundreds of them, are real ladies, well educated, and dress with a profusion and taste quite astonishing to a northerner. They can marry colored freemen according to law, but such an alliance would not raise them above their class. The mulatto man, besides, would not have power to protect such a wife, the same as a white man would his. In becom- ing the wife of the man of color, she would necessarily perpetuate her degradation ; but in prostituting herself to the white, she would elevate herself, that is, in a certain grade of southern society. Now almost all these young women of color are edu- cated in these prejudices, and from the tcnderest age their parents fashion them for corruption. There is a species of public balls where only white men and fe- males of color are admitted, which is known here as also in Charleston, S. C, as the fandango ball. They are very common and very numerous in the south. The husbands, flithers, and brothers of the latter are on no account received. The mothers sometimes are, and witness, with no small amount of pride, the homage addressed to their daughters by these amor- ous white lords. When any gentlemen present is smitten by one of these southern beauties, — for they are more prepossessing in appearance than southern white ladies, — he goes to the mother, or in case her mother is not present, to the girl herself, to bargain for her person for a season, or for a longer term. All this SLAVKllY UNMASKED. 327 passes as a matter of course, without secrecy. ^J'liese monstrous unions, as previously remarked, have not even the reserve of vice, which conceals itself from shame, as virtue does from modesty. They exi)Ose themselves openly to all eyes, without any infliray or blame attaching to the men who thus demean themselves. REIGN OF TERROR — CIIAIX-OANGS OF SI.AVE-WUMEN. There occurred a circumstance here some time .', and that 1 liad killed her. But I told her I was glad of it, and I was sor- ry I hadn't done it for Jier yesterday ; and she died that night." Think of that, dear reader! and thank God that you arc not a soul/icrn slave. There are large chain-gangs of slave women in this city. These gangs are formed by fastening together two women, with a chain about ten feet long, around the waist of each, and in this condition arc driven about the city, day after day, as street scavengers, and among them are often many line appearing and deli- cate mulatto girls; yet they are here driven to the hard toil of shoveling dirt, and doing the heavy labor ot a beast; while the proud and- chivalrous southern gentle- man wnll pass by and see these women thus degraded and brutalized, and never have thought of feeling or shame, nor a blush come over them. Such scenes are an outrage upon humanity, a deep and damning diS' grace to the civilized world. I had been scarcely one hour in this city before I came right upon one of these 332 SLAVERY UNMASKED. chain-gangs of women. About twenty of them were hard at work shoveling clay from the bottom or low- water bank of the Mississippi, and wheeling it directly across the street where men and boys could see them. Some, I noticed were beautiful looking in countenance, quite slender in make, and two or three almost white. They blushed and walked with downcast eyes as they wheeled the ponderous barrow-load of earth across the road, most keenly feeling their unwomanly position. Dear reader, you may rightly suppose that I was pro- voked, outraged, nay, that all the elements of my very being rose in opposition to this horrible institu- tion called American slavery. And yet, here too, in this Christian land, will CJiris- tian men and woman witness this more than savage brutality, and heed it less than they would if the wo- men were dogs, while at the same time these pious ladies will contribute money and means to civilize and Christianize the poor heathen in some far oif land ; nay, more than this, they will indite long prayers and repeat them again and again, that Heaven would pros- per the great cause which lies so near their heart, of turning the poor, brutal heathen from his inhuman practices ; and yet these same heathen, if permitted to promenade the streets of this city with these pious ladies, would be shocked at sights of barbarity and cruelty, such as savages would never have the hardi- hood to inflict, unless to punish their most deadly ene- my. And here let me ask, in view of such cases or scenes as are daily witnessed under the sanction of public authority, if there is any sense of propriety in SLAVERY UNMASKED. 838 men, or any regard for common decency, should not public opinion frown upon such men, who nuike these regulations, with a force that wouM drive them into the haunts of savages, where they properly and constitu- tionally belong. LIFE IN NEW ORLEANS. The social relations of the great mass of society in the Crescent City are singularly peculiar, and doubtless unlike any other place within the whole range of civilization. And the {u-inciples by which the inter- course in society is regulated, are strange indeed, espe- cially to those who have been educated and taught to believe there is some meaning and worth in virtue and chastity, and that licentiousness, fornication, and adul- tery are crimes, if not in the sight of God, should at least be so considered in a moral point of view, as well as against the sacredness of the domestic circle and peace of society. But here these giant, horrid evils, together with the outrages of an abandoned prostitu- tion, appear to be regarded as matters that come as much within the routine of the social relations, and the open and unrestricted indulgence of the citizens, as a general thing, as much so as any of the common civilities of life. I mean by the great mass. It is true there are some noble, honorable exceptions. Ilence to be openly known in the practice of these vices — as a libertine, or living in adultery or as an excessively licentious man, does not degrade him, as at the north, or make him the less favored or Ic^ respectable. 334 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Indeed there appears to be no such, condition known here as adultery, fornication or prostitution, and I question verj much whether they have any such terms in their code, civil, commercial or otherwise, or ever had, or ever will. To the man who is notoriously of this description or make, it appears to give a force of character, and a degree of consequence, that commands respect and deference that makes him the beau ideal of a fine fellow and a gentleman in these parts. The light in which things of this character are regarded here, and the present practice in respect to them, at an earlier day than this, would have surprised any one ; but considering the character of the earl}^ settlers, it would perhaps })e remarkable indeed if this had not been exhibited, for those who first came into New Orleans were mere adventurers from various parts of the world, without attachments to home or place, and and many of them without social relations or even kindred. Consequently they were creatures of circum- stance, and while thus mingling in the varied scenes of this great valley, it would be strange indeed if they should not have mot females of the same class, and to whom they would become attached as companions. To presume otherwise would be to conclude against the experience of every age, as well as against every natural impulse of the human heart. There are hun- dreds upon the back of hundreds now living in this city like man and wife, with large families round them, and yet were never married. Connections of this kind though quite too common through the whole south, yet they exist in New Orleans to a fearful extent, to an SLAVERY UNMASKED. 335 exteut that is not generally known. As evidence on this point, a gentleman informed me, that one of the ofliciating clergy of this city one day accidently left at a house in the Third Municipality his book of record for recording marriages, which by the way, the law now requires every clergyman to keep. In looking it through, said the gentleman, we found to our ast(;nisli- mcnt that he had married within the last two years thirty three of our neighbors, heads of families, and many of them having children married, who had lived together as man and wife for thirty years, and as such every one had regarded them. They had been pri- vately married to enable the children to inherit their property, as a law in Louisiana has been enacted with a view to meet these very cases. There is also another condition found in the social relations of this American Corinth, that but very few individuals could reconcile themselves to sustain. It is in supporting and having two families. There are a large number of business men here from the north — merchants, mechanics, clerks, captains and officers of steamers, boatmen and captains of foreign as well as of American ves.scls who spend more than half the time here, and many of them have families at home ; yet here they have their mis- tresses and children, and are indeed a^s much at home with them as with their lawful wives. The condition and connection of these persons together are clearly defined and perfectly understood, as is also the fact, with most of them, that they have another iamily. Yet these things are not often made a matter of othei-s, business, and consequently they are all " very respectable." 336 SLAVERY UNMASKED. This class of females, to some extent, live as confidingly honest, and as strictly preserve the character of a wife, as if the man had no other attachments. And any act on her part of infidelity would be regarded as a suffi- cient cause of separation, and she would be discarded as readily as if they were lawfully married. Such separations often occur from jealousy, or from suspicion of attachment to another. And when once a separa- tion has actually been made, the parties appear more hostile if possible, and manifest a more deadly hatred towards each other, than is even witnessed in separa- tions of those lawfully connected. And these quarrels are seldom if ever reconciled, but continue to increase with a savage hatred, that not unfrequently ends sadly to one or the other, or to the one who has seduced the woman from her alliance. The men as a matter of course who thus live in these guilty connections, are generally persons of ample means, and usually appear to be proud of the distinction of being able to support two families. ^here is still another class of individuals here who have not the means to support two families. They are for the most part, men engaged in the same business with others, and required to be absent from the city nearly half the time. These men also have their mis- tresses, either white or colored, with whom they live as companions. And the regulations of these connections are, that while the man is in the city, the house which the woman occupies is their home, jointly and as distinctly as if they were married ; and when he is absent, the woman seeks another companion, for the SLAVERY UNMASKED. 337 time being, and in doing this does not in tlie least hazard the displeasure of the absent one, or "her hus- band" as she calls him. By this liberty that she luvs of seeking promiscuous company, and the assistance obtained from "/ter 7na«," she is able to support herself in great style, and with as much ease and comfort around her as can be desired. They usually occupy a room, or suite of roomi?; a parlor and bed room, fur- nished with as much elegance and splendor as money can purchase. Most of the females living in these connections have been flattered and seduced, lioor Onngs, away from their liomes and friends, by glowing descrip- tions and representations of the pleasures, and gaities, and unceasing enjojnnents, which go to make up life in New Okle.:\:ns. Connections of this character are as much a matter of contract, and the terms and con- ditions by which each shall be governed are as definite, as any other business transaction can be, and thus they live for years, and in many instances an attachment for each other is the result, and they finally settle down as man and wife, and sooner or later are married, •and become respectable, for New Orleans at hast. THE CRESCENT CITY UNM-\SEED. The extent of licentiousness and prostitution here is truly appalling, and doubtless without a parallel, and probably double to that of any other place in the whole civilized world. The indulgence and practice is so general and common that men seldom seek to cover up their acts, or go in disguise ; but in all these things 15 338 SLAVERY UNMASKED. keeping their mistresses or frequenting bad houses and having women coming to their rooms at night, they do it as openly, and as much before the eyes of the world, as any other act among the common civilities of the social circle. Some idea of the extent of pros- titution and licentiousness which is here exhibited on every side, can be formed from the fact that three fifths at least of the dwellings and rooms in a large portion of the city are occupied by prostitutes or by one or the other class of kept mistresses. Those women who are the companions of one man, and hold that position under a pledge of confidence not to seek intercourse with others, hold themselves very much above the character of common prostitutes, and regard them- selves as respectable ; and as such many of them move in society with some degree of favor and conse- quence. The regular prostitutes of this city are com- posed of a crowd, — nay an army of broken down fe- males so large that they can scarcely be numbered. One day in my tour of observation I came pat upon whole streets and squares of these localities occupied by these poor creatures. There, said I to myself, are thousands of ruined, fallen immortal beings, — once fair and beautiful, of elevated moral caste, the pride and centre of some distant family and social circle : perhaps a wife or daughter, the adored of her husband and parents, the morning star, or rising sun of a noble family, now set forever. The words of Byron rose fresh in my mind, "To what gulfs A single deviation from the track Of human duties lead !" SLAVEIIV UNMASKED. 339 Many ofthesc poor, ubundoncd things, I am intormcd, come here at the opening of business in the fail, and return to the north in the spring as business closes, aa regular as mechanics and other business men ; rpiite a number of them come out from New York and other northern cities under the protection of young men, a certain class of gamblers and blackdegs who have long made this their field of operation during the winter months. The prostitutes of this migratory class form the great mass of the inmates of the regular kejit brothels, of which their number here is legion. The character of these houses cannot be misjudged, as the females who occupy them are constantly makinsr voluptuous exhibition of themselyes at the doors and windows and very unceremoniously inviting men a3 they pass by to come in. And in some of the prin- cipal streets in the city, just at evening, it is no unu- sual sight to see the windows and doors of almost every house as far as the eye can recognize them, filled with these women. xVs bad as New Orleans is, its municipal regulations are such that these creatures are prohil)ited from publicly promenading the streets; henc'3 they are obliged to resort to other measures to make themselves known. In view of all these abom- inations, doubtless the main cause of so much licen- tiousness, and the immense number of prostitutes, of every class, grade and color that is human, is the over- whelming number of loose irresponsible men who frequent this place. Under such circumstances as men meet here, they almost lose their identity jis re- sponsible beings, having no checks around them, and 840 SLAVERY UNMASKED. under no obligation to society, consequently no pride of character, they soon become as bold and reckless in licentiousness and crime as though the pall of night perpetually shrouded their deeds. And yet men, and some women too, will come here, and mingle in the rounds of dissipation and pollution, who before and while at home and in other associations, would shud- der at the sight, and even at the very thought of deeds they have unhappily been lured into. Such persons I daily met at the world renowned St. Charles Hotel and watched them with my Argus eyes^ and saw them finally consummate the suicidal act upon their own im- mortal being — plunge themselves headlong into the bottom of the raging, boiling, overflowing cauldron of everlasting death. Another cause that aids in promo- ting these evils, is the small portion of men who have families here. Probably not one in twenty is married, and if so, leaves a family at the north, and while here entirely forgets that at home he has left a wife, who is little di'eaming of the rounds of licentiousness and dis- sipation, that constitutes the almost daily track of her truant husband. To say that now and then there is a righteous Lot among them, would be saying a great deal; truth and justice however forbid us to com- promise the good with the bad, but this much we are forced to say, they are " few and flir between." And thus it is, from such men, together with the thousands of transient and floating population in this singular city, that makes it more than a Sodom, and causes the sins of licentiousness, adultery and prostitution, to be regarded as the proper elements of society, and SLAVERY UNMASKED. 341 perfectly poiisistent with a respectable and moral stand- ing in community, and with the character of a gentle- man. And more than this is met with here, and withal, the most astonishing exhibition of degradation " in high life " that was ever witnes.sed, it may be pre- sumed, throughout any other j)ortions of the civilized earth. While here I was credibly and confidently in- formed from a source which may not be questioned, of the following refined anti-civilized practices which obtain here. It is this : the practice of a large num- ber of men with their wives, who visit New Orleans to spend the winter, and who to sujiport themselves take the round of the gay and fashionaV)le throng, and while thus moving here, the wife, with a perfect under- standing of the matter with her husband, suffers her- self to become seduced, and thus ftills into the arms of some wealthy, wild, dashing young southern blood, who is proud of his conquest. lie lavishes upon her costly pi'esents and monc}^, and in fact will bestow upon her any thing that she may demand, within the com- pass of his purse. And when he ceases to give large sums, the husband contrives to make the accidental dis- covery of their in timac}'', and in \he fearless rage of an injured husband, threatens to come down upon the seducer with all the heated vengeance of southern chi- valry. And to save himself the man will pay almost any sum the injured husband may demand. Thus the wife will go on, for months, making conquest after coti- quest, and being seduced at least by half a dozen differ- ent men she has victimized, and with all of them, prac- tising the most cunning and deceptive arts, charging 342 SLAVERY UNMASKED. each oue to be exceedingly circumspect and cautious, so as to avoid the least suspicion in the eyes of the world and her husband especially. During all this time, her hands are filled with costly and magnificent presents and money, and in fact, any thing she may desire, while each one of her victims regards himself as the sole possessor of the stolen fruit! She is enabled to pur- sue this course, and avoid suspicion among her favor- ites of being intimate with more than one, by meeting them at houses of assignation. The regulations by which these houses are kept, throw around a female the most perfect security against detection that can be imagined. They usually go in disguise, I am inform- ed, and often in mask, and very frequently are un- known to the men who see them there, and their name is never inquired for, as it is generall}^ understood, that none but respectable ladies^ both married and unmarried, frequent these houses. And yet during all these love scenes, captivations and seductions, the lady and her husband are in the foremost rank of the tashiona- ble circle, supporting a stvde and splendor of equipage that few can surpass or even imitate. And here it is, into this circle, are thrown the virtuous and unsuspect- ing visitors who come into this city for pleasure, pas- time or business, and if they can pass through and come out unsullied and as pure in mind and as chaste in their sense of propriety and as virtuous in feeling as when they entered, they are equal to tlie three Hebrew children at the fiery furnace, and hereafter may be perfectly secure, nay, bullet proof, against all the wiles of this wicked, seducing, sin -cursed world. CHAPTKH XL POOR WDITES OF THK SOUTU. The number of slavc-lioklcrs in the slave States of this Union, as asccrtuincl by the census returns of 1850, was three hundred and forty-seven thousand five hundred and twenty-five. An average of five persons and seven-tenths to a flimily, as assumed by the Su- perintendent of the Census, would give 1,980,89-i as the number of persons interested as slave-holders in their own right, or by family relation. The whole number of whites in the slave-holding States bemg 6 222,418, the slave-holding proportion is a fraction short of thirty -two per cent. The Superintendent of the Census, Professor De Bow, says of the nuntber, 3-17,525, returned as slave- holders : — " The number includes slave-hirers, but is exclusive of those who are interested conjointly with others in slave property. The two will about balance each other, for the whole south, and leave the slave-owners as stated. " Where the party owns slaves in different counties, or in different States, he will be entered more than once. This will disturb the calculation very little, being only the case among the larger properties." The addition of those who are "slave-hirers" merely, to the category of slave-owners, must I think, swell 844 SLAVERT UNMMASKED. tteir number much more than is diminished by the exch,s,on of " those who are interested conjointl/wih others m s are property." Such iustanees of conjoint mtcrest wdl occur most frequently in the femily rela- pl.ed the number of slare-hoMers returned by 6ye and seven-tenths A comparison of the returns from Mary land, the D.stnct of Columbia, and Virginia, vvhefe slaye.h,r,ng ,s mneh practiced, with Alateu^a Miss's K:ti^3:'Z'^'^''''"-^^'-''-^-'- wiS.t V^'"-'' ""' *<= District of Columbia, w,th 066,683 slaves, return 72,684 slave-owners. Ala- bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, with 897 681 slaves -turn 73,081 slave-owners. The relative exctsof JJistrie of Columbia, must be attributed, in part, to the i„c u.s,on of a relatively larger number of " slave- that at least seven-tenths of the whites in the slave btates are not slave-owners, either in their own right or bj. family relation. The number of white males in the slave States, aged twenty-one years and upward, in 1850, was 1,490,892. Considerin.. that the number of 847,525, returned as slave-owners, is subject to some deductions, and considering that of the dave-owners many are females and minor.,, it is proba- ndnlt r^ f-'"'"''"^ """''"'' °^ *« ^^^^ »ale adults of the slave States own slaves The non-slave-holding whites of the south, being not less than seven-tenths of the whole number of whites, SLAVERY UNMASKElt. ^-i^ would seem to be entitled to some inquiry into their actual condition; and especially, as they have no real political weight or consideration in the country, and little opportunity to speak for themselves. I have been for twenty years a reader of southern newspapers, and a reader and hearer of Congressional debates; but, in all that time, I do not recollect ever to have seen or heard these non-slave-holding whites referred to by southern gentlemen, as constituting any part of what they call " Oie soutUr When the rights of the south, or its wrongs, or its policy, or its interests, or its msti- tutions, are spoken of, reference is always intended to the rights, wrongs, policy, interests, and mstitutions, ot the three hundred and forty-seven thousand slave-hold- ers Nobody gets into Congress from the south but by their direction; nobody speaks at Washington for any southern interest except theirs. Yet there is, at the south, quite another interest than theirs; embracing from two to three times as many white people ; and, as we shall presently see, entitled to the deepest sympathy and commiseration, in view of the material, intellectual, and moral privations to which it has been subjected, the degradation to which it has already been reduced, and the still more fearful degradation with which it is threatened by the inevitable operation of existing causes and influences. From a paper on " Domestic Manufactures in the South and West," published by M. Tarver, of Mis- souri, in 1847, I make the following extracts :— " The free population of the south may be divided into two classes — the slaveholder and ttie non-slave- 16* ^4^ SLAVERY UNMASKED. holder. I am not aware that "the relative nimibers of these two classes have ever been ascertained in any of the States, but I am satisfied that the non-slave- holders far outnumber the slave-holders — perhaps by three to one. In the more southern portion of this region, the non-slave-holders possess, generally, but very small means, and the land which they possess is almost universally poor, and so sterile that a scanty subsistence is all that can be derived from its cultiva- tion; and the more fertile soil, being in possession of the slave-holder, must ever remain out of the power of those who have none. " This state of things is a great drawback, and bears heavily upon and depresses the moral energies of the poorer classes. * * * -. The acquisition of a re- spectable position in the scale of wealth appears so dif- ficult, that they decline the hopeless pursuit, and many of them settle down into habits of idleness, and become the almost passive subjects of all its consequences And I lament to say that I have observed of late years that an evident deterioration is taking place in this part of the population, the younger portion of it being less educated, less industrious, and in every point of view less respectable than their ancestors. * * * * j^ is, in an eminent degree, the interest of the slave-holder that a way to wealth and respectability should be opened to this part of the population, and that en- couragement should be given to enterprise and indus- try; and what would be more likely to afford this en- ""TT^T* t^a^ the introduction of manufactures ? ^ * To the slave-holding class of the popu- SLAVERY UNMASKED. ^^"^7 lation of the south-west, the introduction of manufac- tures is not less interesting than to tlie non-shive-hold- ing class. The former possess almost all the wealth of the country. The preservation of this wealth is a sub- ject of the highest consideration to those who possess it." This picture is distressing and discouraging; dis- tressing, in that it exhibits three-fourths of the whites of the siuth substantially destitute of property, driven upon soils so sterile that only a scanty subsistence is obtainable from them, depressed in moral energies, finding the pathway to respectability so difiicult that they decline the hopeless pursuit, ceasing to struggle, and becoming the almost passive subjects of the conse- quences of idleness; discouraging, in that it exhibits •this great bulk of the white population growing worse instead of better, evidently deteriorating, and ite Youncrer portion less educated, less industrious, and in ev°ery point of view less respectable, than their ancestors. „ t^ -r. ? r> In the January number, of 1850, of De Bows Re- W, is an article on "Manufactures in South Caro- lina," by J. n. Taylor, of Charleston, (S. C.,) Irom which I make the following extracts :— "There is, in some quarters, a natural jealousy of the slightest innovation upon established habits; and because an effort has been made to collect the poor and unemployed white population into our new fax^tones, fears have arisen that some evil would grow out of the introduction of such establishments among us u Let us, however, look at tliis matter with candor and calmness, and examine all its bearings, before we 348 SLAVERY UNMASKED. determine that the introduction of a profitable industry will endanger our institutions. * * * The poor man has a vote as well as the rich man, and in our State the number of the former will largely over- balance the latter. So long as these poor but indus- trious people could see no mode of living except by a degrading operation of work with the negro upon the plantation, they were content to endure life in its most discouraging forms, satisfied they were above the slave, though faring often worse than he. But the progress of the world is ' onward,' and though in some sections it is slow, still it is ' onward,^ and the great mass of our poor white population begin to understand that they have rights, and that they, too, are entitled to some of the sympathy which falls upon the suffering. They are fast learning that there is an almost infinite world of inclustry opening before them, by which they can elevate themselves and their families from wretch- edness and ignorance, to competence and intelligence. It is this great upheaving of our masses we have to fear ^ so far as our institutions are concerned. " The employment of the white labor which is now to a great extent contending with absolute want, will enable this part of our population to surround them- selves with comforts which poverty now places be- yond their reach. The active industry of a father, the careful housewifery of the mother, and the daily cash earnings of four or five children, will y&tj soon enable each family to own a servant ; thus increasing the de- mand for this species of property to an immense ex- tent. * * * SLAVERY UNMASKED. 349 " The question has often been asked, ' Will south- ern operatives equal northern in tlieir ability to aceom- plisli factory work ?' As a general answer, I should Tei>\y in the affirmative, but at the same time it may witli justice be said they cannot at present, even in our best factories, accomplish as much as is usual in north- ern mills. The habitude of our people has been to anything but close application to manual labor, and it requires tune to bring the whole habits of a person into a new train." The italicising in these extracts is Mr. Taylor's, and not mine. !Mr. Taylor expresses himself in a very confused and inartificial way, but it is not difficult to understand what he means. He is addressing himself to the slave- holding aristocracy, and he describes these poor whites very much as a French philosopher would describe the blouses of the Faubourg St. Antoine to polite ears in the Faubourg St. Germain. The collection into towns of the poor and unemployed white population of South Carolina had evidently given rise to some visions of social outbreak and anarchy, which Mr, Taylor feels called upon to dispel. These poor people who were willing to be industrious if they had the opportunity to be so, but to whom no labor was olfered except in degrading connection with plantation negroes, had been content to struggle on, enduring life in its most discouraging forms, contending witli absolute want, and often faring worse than the negro, but yet solaced by the satisfaction that they were above the negro in some respects. But at length light was begin- 350 SLAVERY UNMASKED. ning to penetrate even into Soutli Carolina, and these unhappy beings were catching a glimpse of the truth, that even they, in their depths of j)overty and humili- ation, had some rights, and were entitled to some of the sympathy which falls upon the suffering. They were fast learning that there existed, in happier com- munities, modes of industry, which, if opened to them, would elevate them and their families from wretched- ness and ignorance to competence and intelligence. This knowledge might occasion an up heaving of the masses, seriously threatening the social and domestic institutions of South Carolina, unless properly directed. If, on the contrary, these poor whites could be fur- nished with remunerating labor, they would place themselves in a position of comfort, and even become slaveholders themselves ; thus increasing the demand for that sort of property, and enhancing its security. From an address upon the subject of manufactures in South Carolina, delivered in 1851, before the South Carolina Institute, by "William Gregg, Esq., I make the following extracts : "In all other countries, and particularly manufac- turing States, labor and capital are assuming an antag- onistical position. Here it cannot be the case ; capital will be able to control labor, even in manufactures, with whites, for blacks can always be resorted to in case of need. * * * From the best estimates that I have been able to make, I put down the white people who ought to work, and who do not, or who are so employed as to be wholly unproductive to the State, at one hundred and twenty-five thousand. * * * SLAVERY UNMASKED. goi By this it appears that but oiic-liflli of tlie present poor whites of our State would be ueeessary to operate 1,000,000 spindle.s. * "=<• * Tl,,. aj.propriation an- nually made by our Legislature for our School Fund every one must be aware, so far as the country is con- cerned, has been little better than a waste of money. * * * While we are aware that the northern and eastern stiitcs find no difheulty in educating their poor, we are ready to d(>spair of success in the matte-r, for even penal laws against the neglect of education would fail to bring many of our country people to send their children to school. * * * j lmy^> jy,jg been under the impression, and every day's experience has strengthened my convictions, that the evils exist in the wholly neglected condition of this class of per- sons. Any man who is an observer of things could hardly pass through our country without being stmck with the fact that all the capital, enterprise, and intel- ligence, is employed in directing slave labor ; and the consequence is, that a large portion of our poor white people are wholly neglected, and are suffered to while away an existence in a state but one step in advance of the Indian of the forest. It is an evil of vast mag- nitude, and nothing but a change in public sentiment will effect its cure. These people must be ^brought into daily contact with the rich and intelligent — they must be stimulated to mental action, and taught to appreciate education and the comforts of civilized life- and this, we believe, may be effected only by the introduction of manufactures. * * * '^[y ex])eri- ence at Graniteville has satisfied me, that unless our 852 SLAVERY UNMASKED. poor people can be brought together in villages, and some means of employment afforded them, it will be an utterly hopeless effort to undertake to educate them. * * * We have collected at that place about eight hundred people, and as likely looking a set of country girls as may be found — industrious and orderly people, but deplorably ignorant, three-fourths of the adults not being able to read or write their names. * * * With the aid of ministers of the Grospel on the spot, to preach to them and lecture them on the subject, we have obtained but about sixty children for our school, of about a hundred which are in the place. We are satisfied that nothing but time and patience will enable us to bring them all out. * * * It is very clear to me, that the only means of educating and Christianizing our poor whites, will will be to bring them into such villages, where they will not only become intelligent, but a thrifty and use- ful class in our community. * * * Notwith- standing our rule, that no one can be permitted to occupy our houses who does not send all his children to school that are between the ages of six and twelve, it was with some difficulty, at first, that we could make up even a small school." It is noticeable that Mr. Gregg, like Mr. Taylor, begins by an attempt to allay patrician jealousies, excited by the idea of collecting the poor whites into masses. Mr. Grregg points out that the existence of slavery enables capital to control white labor as well as black, by the power which it retains to substitute the latter, when the former becomes unruly. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 353 The whole white popuhition of South Carolina, by the census of 1850, being only 274,5()3, nearly one half, according to Mr. Gregg's estimate, are .substan- tially idle and unprotUu-tive, ami would seem to have sunk into a condition but little removed fi-oni l»ar- barism. All the ea})ital, enterprise, and intelligence, of the State, being emj)loyed in directing slave labor, these poor whites, wholly neglected, whiling away an existence but one .stej) in advance of the Indian of the forest, never taught to ajipreeiate education and the comforts of civilized life, dejjlorably ignorant, and induced with great difficulty, and only by slow degrees, to send their children to school, do truly con- stitute "an evil of vast magnitude" and call loudly for some means o£ ^^ educating and Christian izitig'^ them. Gov. Hammond, in an address before the South Carolina Institute, in 1850, describes these poor whites as follows : " They obtain a precarious subsistence by occasional jobs, by hunting, by fishing, by plundering fields or folds, and too often by what is in its efiects far worse — trading with slaves, and seducing them to plunder for their benefit." Elsewhere Mr. Gregg speaks as follows : " Tt is only necessary to build a manui'acturing village of .shanties, in a healthy location, in any part of the State, to have crowds of these people around you, seeking employment at half the compensation given to operatives at the north. It is indeed painful to be brought in contact with such ignorance and de- gradation." 354 SLAVERY UNMASKED. Is it really true that South Carolina means to dis- solve this Union, if she cannot be permitted to extend further, institutions under which one fifth of her peo- ple are savages, while another three fifths are slaves ? In a paper published in 1852, upon the " Industrial Eegeneration of the South," advocating manufactures, the Hon, J. H. Lumpkin, of Georgia, says: " It is objected that these manufacturing establish- ments will become the hot-beds of crime. * * * But I am by no means ready to concede that our poor, degraded, half-fed, half-clothed, and ignorant popula tion — "svithout Sabbath Schools, or any other kind of instruction, mental or moral, or without any just appre- ciation of character — will be injured by giving them employment, which will bring them under the oversight of employers, who will inspire them with self-respect by taking an interest in their welfare." Georgia, it seems, like South Carolina, and under the influence of the same great cause, has her poor whites, degraded, half-fed, half-clothed, without mental or moral instruction, and destitute of self-respect and of any just appreciation of character. Is it really true that Georgia means to dissolve this Union if she cannot be permitted to blast this fair continent with such a population as this? A paper upon " Cotton and Cotton Manufactures at the South," by Mr. Charles T. James, (United States Senator,) of Rhode Island, which I find in Dc Bow's " Industrial Eesources of the South and West," con- tains statements similar, in substance, to those of Messrs, Taylor, Gregg and Lumpkin. Mr, James's SLAVERY UNMASKED. b55 pursuits liave made liiin ac([uaiiit('(l with tin' condition of manufactures in all sections of tlie country, and his essays arc written in a spirit of candor, and even kind- ness to the south, as their })ul>lication by De Bow sufli- ciently proves. Mr. James says : "This is a subject on which, though it demands attention, we should sjieak with delicacy. It is not to be disguised, nor can it be successfully controvertccl, that a degree and extent of poverty and destitution exist in the southern states, among a certain class of people, almost unknown in the manufacturing districts of the north. The poor white man will endure the evils of pinching poverty, rather than engage in ser- vile labor under the existing state of things, even were employment offered him, which is not general. The white female is not wanted at service, and if she were, she would, however humble in the scale of society, consider such service a degree of degrada- * tion to which she could not condescend ; and she has, therefore, no resource but to suffer the pangs of want and wretchedness. Boys and girls, by thousands, destitute both of employment and the means of educa- tion, grow up to ignorance and poverty, and, too many of them, to vice and crime. * * * The writer knows, from personal acquaintance and obser- vation, that poor southern person.s, male and female, are glad to avail themselves of individual efforts to procure a comfortable livelihood in any employment deemed respectable for white persons. The}' make api)lications to cotton mills, where such persons are wanted, in numbers much beyond the demand for labor ; 356 SLAVERY UNMASKED. and, when admitted there, the}^ soon assume the indus- trious habits, and decency in dress and manners, of the operativ'CS in northern factories. A demand for labor in such establishments is all that is necessary to raise this class from want and beggary, and (too fre- quently) moral degradation, to a state of comfort, comparative independence, and moral and social re- spectability. Besides this, thousands of such would naturally come together as residents in manufacturing villages, where, with ver}" little trouble and expense, they might receive a common school education, instead of growing up in profound ignorance." These remarks of Mr. James are quoted and endors- ed in an article upon the " Establishment of Manuflic- tures in New Orleans," which I find in De Bow^s Review for January, 1850. The writer, whose name is not given but who appears to be a citizen of New Orleans, says : * " At present, the sources of employment open to females (save in menial offices) are very limited ; and an inability to procure suitable occupation is an evil much to be deplored, as tending in its consequences to produce demoralization. "The superior grades of female labor may be con" sidered such as impl}^ a necessity for education on the part of the employee^ while the menial class is general- ly regarded as of the lowest ; and in a slave state, this standard is " in tlie lowest depths, a lower deep," from the fact, that, by association, it is a reduction of the white servant to the level of their colored fellow-menials. The complaint of low wages and want of employ- ment comes from every part of the south. aLAVEUV UNMASKED. '6iji Mr. Steadmau, of Tonucssce, in a pai)er upon the "Extension of Cotton and Wool Factories at the sonth," says : "In Lowell, labor is paid the fair eompensation of eighty cents a day for men, and two dollars a week for women, besides board, while in Tennessee the aver- age compensation for labor does not exceed fifty cents per day for men, and a dollar and twenty-five cents per week for women. Snch is the wisdom of a wise division of labor." In a speech made in Congress five or six years since, Mr. T. L. Clingman, of North Carolina, said : "Our manufacturing establishments can obtain the raw material (cotton) at nearly two cents on a pound cheaper than the New England estal )lishmentvS. Labor is likewise one hundi-ed per cent cheaper. In the upper parts of the state, the labor of cither a free man or a slave, including board, clothing, &c., can be ob- tained for from $1 10 to $120 per annum. It will cost at least twice that sum in New England. The diflerence in the cost of female labor, whether free or slave, is even greater. As we have now a population of one million, we might advance to a great extent in manufacturing, before we materially increase the wages of labor." A Richmond (Va.) newspaper, the Dispatch, says : " We will only suppose that the ready-made shoes imported into this city from the North, and sold here, were manufactured' in Richmond. What a great ad- dition it would be to the means of employment ! IIow many boys and females would find the means of 858 SLAVERY UNMASKED. earning their bread, who are now suffering for a regu- lar supply of the necessaries of life." The following statistics from the census of 1850 show the number of whites (excluding foreign -born) in certains states, and the number of white persons, (excluding foreign-born,) in such states, over twenty years of age, unable to read and write : Unable to read States. Whites and write. New Enirland states 2.399.651 G.209 New Yoik 2,393,101 23,240 Alabama -419,016 33,618 Arkansas 160.721 16 792 Kentiu-kv 7:^0,012 64,340 Missomi.' 515,434 34,420 Virginia 871.847 75 868 North Carolina 550,463 73 226 South Carolina 266.055 15.580 Georgia 515,120 40,794 Tennessee 751,198 77,01' The evils wliich afflict the slave states are various and complicated ; but they all originate with, or are aggravated by, that fatal in.stitution which Washing- ton, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and all the great men of the south of the Revolutionary epoch deplored, but which the madness of modern times hugs as a bless- ing- The wages of labor are always low in countries ex- clusively agricultural. Industry begins to be fairly rewarded, when it is united with skill, when employ- ments are properly divided, and when the general avera"-e of education and intelligence is raised by the facilities afforded by density of population. The grain- growing regions of Eastern Europe are tilled by serfs ; SLAVKUV UN. MARKED. it is only in Western Europe that we find industry en- joying any tolerable measure ol eonijjetence, intelli- gence, and respeetability. Agriculund countries are comparatively poor, and manufacturing and connner- cial countries are etnnparatively rich; because rude labor, even upon rich roils, is less juoduetive than skilled labor, aided by mncliinerv and aceuiiiuhitcd capital. That the south is almost exclusively agrii-ul- tural, results, especially in the more northerly slave states, (which have admirable natural facilities for mining and manufacturing,) from the institution of slavery, under which there cannot be in the organiza- tion of society that middle class, which, in free states, is the nursery <>f intelligent and enterprising industry The whites at the south not connected with the ownershi}) or management of slaves, constituting not far from three-fourths ot the whole number of whites, confined at best to the low wages of agricultural laljor, and partially cut off even from this by the degradation of a companionship with black slaves, retire to the out- skirts of civilization, where they lead a semi-savage life, sinking deeper and more hopelessly into barbar- ism with each succeeding generation. The slave- owner takes at fii-st all the best land, and finally all the land susceptible of regular cultivation ; and the poor whites, thrown back upon the hills and u})«)n the sterile soils — mere squatters, without energy enough to acquire title even to the cheap lands they (x;cupy, without roads, without schools, and at length without even a desire for education, become the miserable beings described to us by the writei-s whom I have 60 SLAVERY UNMASKED. quoted. In Virginia and all the old slave States, immense tracts belonging to private owners, or aban- doned for taxes, and in the south-west, immense tracts belonging to the government of the United States, are occupied in this way. Southern agriculture, rude and w^asteful to the last degree, is not fitted to grapple with difficulties. It seizes upon rich soils, and flour- ishes only while it is exhausting them. It knows how to raise cotton and corn, but has no flexibility, no power of adaptation to circumstances, no inventive- ness. The poor white, if he cannot find bottoms whereon to raise grain, becomes a hunter upon the hills which might enrich him with flocks and herds. In the first settlement of the new and rich soils of the south-west, these evils were less apparent; but the downward progress is rapid and certain. First the farmer without slaves, and then the small planter, suc- cumbs to the conquering desolation. How feelingly it is depicted in the following extract from an address delivered by the Hon. C. C. Clay, Jr., of Alabama : — *' I can show you, with sorrow, in the older por- tions of Alabama, and in my native count}^ of Madi- son, the sad memorials of the artless and exhaust- ing culture of cotton. Oar small planters, after taking the cream off their lands, unable to restore them by rest, manure, or otherwise, are going further west and south, in search of other virgin lands, which t^ej may and will despoil and impoverish in like manner. Our wealthier planters, with greater means and no more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, ex- tending their plantations, and adding to their slave SLAViiUY UN xM ASK ED. oOl force. . The wealthy few, who are able to live on smal- ler profits, and to give their blasted fields some rest, are thus pushing off the many who are merely inde- pendent. Of the $20,000,000 annually realized from the sales of the cotton crop of Alabama, nearly all not expended in supporting the producers is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus the white populati(jn has decreased and the slave inereased almost pari passu in several counties of our state. In 1820, Madison county east about 3,000 votes ; now, she cannot cast exceeding 2,300. In traversing that county, one will discover numerous farm-houses, once the abode of in- dustrious and intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, and dilapidated; he will observe fields, once fertile, now unfeneed, abandtjned, and covered with those evil harbingers, fox-tail and broomsedge; he will see the moss growing on the mouldering walls of once tJirifty villages, and will find 'one only master grasps the whole domain,' that once furnished happy homes for a dozen white fiimilies. Indeed, a country in its infancy, where fifty years ago scarce a forest tree had been felled by the axe of the pioneer, is already exhibiting the painful signs of sen- ility and decay, ajiparent in Virginia and the Carolinas." it is undoubtedly true that the condition of the south would bo vastly ameliorated if its pursuits were more diversified, if its great facilities for mining and manufacturing were improved, and if its wasteful systems of agriculture were changed. The profits of capital would be rais^'d, and the productiveness of la- bor would be enhanced. To a certain extent, i)erhap3, the free laborer might be benefited by the greater em- ployment and h'gher wages which would result; but the same fatal, overshadowing evil which has driven him from the field, would drive him from the work- shop and the factory, llveret in latere letlialis arundo. Even Mr, Gregg, from whom I have quoted above, says that "o// overseers, who have ex/)eriaice in the m/xiter, give the decided preference to blacJcs as opera- IG 362 SLAVERY UNMASKED. tivesy Mr. Montgomery, in his treaties on the " Cot- ton Manufacturies of the United States compared with Great Britain,'''' states that " there are several Cotton Factories in Tennessee, operated entirely hy slave la- bor, there not being a ivhite man in the mill but the superintendent.'''' The employment of slaves is com- mon everywhere at the south, in factories and mining. The author of " The Future of the South'' (De Bow's Review, vol. 10, page 146) says that " tJie blacks are equally serviceable in factories as infields.'''' A writer in the Mississippian says : — " Will not our slaves make tanners ? And can they not, when supplied with materials, make peg and other shoes? Cannot our slaves make plows and harrows, &c. ? The New England States cannot make and send us brick and frame houses, and therefore we have learned that our slaves can make and Jay bricks, and perform the work of house joiners and carpenters. In fact, we know that in mechanical pursuits, and manufacturing cotton and woollen goods, the}- are fine laborers." The statesman, like Gov. Hammond, looking at the matter from a statesman's point of view, may recom- mend, as he does, the employment of poor whites in factories, as being upon the whole, although immedi- ately less cheap, more for the general good of the com- munity. Men are not governed in matters of business by any such consideration as this. If slave labor is adapted to factories, as it would seem to be, and is cheaper than white labor, as it would also seem to be, it will be employed, be the consequences to the com- munity ever so disastrous. And where it is employed at all, it will be employed exclusively, as in the Ten- nessee factories, from the insuperable repugnance of whites to labor side by side and on an equality with black slaves. The difficulty in the case is invincible. The prop- erty-holders of the south own a vigorous and service- able body of black laborers, who can be fed for twenty SLAVERY UNMARKED. oOo dollars per annum, and clothed for ten dollars })cr an- num ; who can be kept industrious and preserved from debilitating vices by coercion, by no means inapt in the simpler arts, naturally docile, and under any tolera- ble treatment, " fat and sleek ;" such is the terriljlc, the overwhelming, the irresistible competition, to which the non-])r()])erty-h()lding thri'e-(iuartei-s of the whites at the south are subjeeteil, when they come into the market with their labor. It is not wonderful that they sock escape from the nightmare which broods over them, and fly by thou- sands to the refuge of the free States. The census of 1850 found ()00,'37i persons living in the free States who were born in the slave States, while only 20(3,038 persons born in the free States wen> living in the slave States. The number of emigrants from free to slave States, and from slave to free States, living in 1850, have been carefully collected from Table CXX, found on the 116th page of the Compendium of the Census of 1850. That table gives the nativity of the " white and free colored population^''' without distinguishing the two classes ; but the "y)-ee colored p'opulcdioii^ is too small, and its movement too slight, to affect the sub- stantial accurac}' of the calculation. On the 115th page of this Compendium is found the following state- ment : — " There are now 726,450 persons living in slave- holding States who arc natives of non-slave-holding States, and 282,112 persons living in non-slave-hold- in of this great country to determine whether the further spread of a system, of which the worst fruits are not seen in wasted resources and in impoverished fields, but in a neglected and outcast people, shall be left to the accidents of lati- tude, of proximity, of border violence, or of the doubtr fid assent of embryo communities; or whether, on the other hand, it shall be staye(Fby an interdiction, as univcrs;il as the superiority of Good to Evil, as per- petual as the rightful authoritv of reason in the aftairs of men, and as resistless as the embodied will of the nation. CHAPTER XII. THE EFFECT OF SLAVERY ON LABOR — FREE LABOR VS. SLAVE LABOR. The census taken in 1850, is imperfect and iiusatis- factoiy in many particulars. But it was a laborious attempt to ascertain a variety of facts, and, as a general thing it doubtless approaches near enough to accuracy to indicate the truth. At all events no other state- ment of the condition of the country at that time, as complete and reliable as this national census, has come before the public. Little is gained by merely ascer- taining and publishing the statistics of a State. It only brings the unwrought ore to the surface, and, if left there in that condition, it remains a pile of rubbish. A comparison of the facts learned from the census, an analysis of these facts, a series of inferences or deduc- tions from them, give practical value to those figures. If carefully studied, they expound the mj^stery of national life, and show the causes which sap the strength of communities and make them wither and languish even in their youth. These inductions con- vert the shapeless mass of figures into system and symmetry, and form the science of political economy. It is a matter of fair inference from these census tables, that some great and radical cause or circum- stance operates in all the slaves states, to retard their increase in population and wealth. This fact, if, it be a fact, is of great importance to the entire country, and should be ascertained if possible. To know pre- cisely the cause of a malady leads sooner or later to the discovery of a suitable remedy. In investigating this question, we are happily re- lieved from one element of dispute. The facts and SLAVEUY UNMASK KI), 369 figures arc presented to us l)y our common Govern- ment, and we arc not perplexed by contradictory assertions of existing facts, and by att<'in[)trf to ascer- tain the actual truth. The whole process of inquiry is a mere train of reasoning or inference from acknow- ledged data. It is probabK^. that no eom])letely satisfactory con- clusion could be attained by comparitig the statistics •'of States extremely n-mote from each otiier, and having few things in common. The States selected for this purpose ought to resemble each other in climate, soil, geographical position and natural advantages of all kintls, and diller mainly in tiie fact that one uses free labor and the other slave labor. These conditions arc most likely to be secured by taking states actually contiguous to each other, and very similar in natural or physical advantages, and date of settltMiient. We will then take Pennsylvania and Virginia of the old states, and Ohio and Kentucky of the new states. For the facts we will resort to De Bow's Com- pendium, published by the Senate of 185i, and no one south of Mason and Dixon's line will claim that a document coming from such source emanated from hostility to southern institutions, or misrepresents facta to the disadvantage of slave labor. The facts ascertained at each census during the present century and brought together in this comiien- dium, leave little doubt that slavery retards the natu- ral increase of population, lowers the average standard or aggregate of common school education, depreciates the value of land or prevents it from increasing in value in the same proportion as land wrought by free labor, and operates generally to reduce and wa.ste the property and natural resources of the community. In the case of Virginia and Pennsylvania the orginal and natural advantages are greatly in fovor of Virginia. Her river.s, harbors on the Atlantic, climate, soil and geographical position are unsurpa&sed, and when these colonics became sovereign states, Virginia 16* 370 SLAVERY UNMASKED. stood, where she ought to have remained, the Empire state. A comparison between Virginia and Pennsyl- vania is at least fair for Virginia. Virginia contains 61,352 square miles, Pennsylvania 46,000. Virginia has a shore line of 65-1 miles;" Penn- sylvania reaches the ocean through a difficult river and bay channel. Both states were slave states when the first census was taken. Compare the white popula- tion at each census. ^ 1700] Penn. 424,0991 j Penn. 586,094Lq,„ ( Penn. 786,804 ""'^]Virg'a 442,115P*^^'t);|y;^g,jj gu.osoP^l'^ j Virg'a 551,534 18'>oi ^*^°°-''"^'^''^9*liB'^r.J Penn. 1, 309.9001, „.. j Penn. 1,676,115 ^«-"^Virg'a 6n3,0S7r'^^*i Virg'a 694.3oupS40 j ^j^^,^ '^^^^g.g jg,|^ j Pennsylvania 2,258,160 /Virginia 894,800 The total population of free and slaves in these two states at each census during the present century is as follows : iooaJ Penn- G02,361L<,,,, j Penn. 810,0911, „,,, j Penn. 1, '140,458 ^«'-"M Virg'a 88O,20o|^^^'M Virg'a 974,622|^^-'^' ] Virga.1.065,379 iR^ni Penn. 1, 348,2331, o,,,( Penn. 1,724,0331, „_. Penn. 2,311,780 .^**"**^|Va. l,211,405P^*'^l7, 200,877 into manufactured articles worth $155,044,5110, while Virginia has not the means of converting her $18, 101),9!'»;J into $29,705,887. Wealth has consequently accunmlated in Pennsylvania and diminished in Virginia. Virginia has 189 miles of Canals; Pennsylvania, 980. The Pailroads of Vir- ginia cost .$12,720,424 ; of Pennsylvania, $58,494,075. The value of all the ju'operty owned by individuals in these States is returned as follows: I'ennsylvania, $729,144,998; Virginia, $89l,040,48.S. This wealth has been created by labor. It is the accumulation of surpluses — the aggregate amount of products not con- sumed in the cost of production, the balance going into the general stock of reserved property. The lirst fifty years ot the present century have seen Virginia siidc from her prominence into a fourth-rate State in popvdation antl wealth, while Pennsylvania has advanced step by step with the growth of the Ee- public. The accumulated products of Pennsylvania labor remain uncousumed to the extent of more than $729,000,000, while the products of Virginia amount to but .$391,040,488, of which at least $150,000,000 is in slaves. And yet the cost of labor is ajiarently greater in Pennsylvania. The average rate of wages for farm labor being $10 82 in Pennsylvania, and $8 in Virginia per month. But it is the value of lal.)or to the employer that must determine wheather it is cheap or dear to him. The cheap labor of Virginia has re- duced her to poverty. Kentucky and Ohio, with antecedents and condi- tions quite different from those of Virgnnia and Penn- sylvania disclose a similar train of consequences flowing from their different systems of labor. The area of these States is nearly the same, Ohio 874: SLAVERY UNMASKED. containing 39,96-i square miles, and Kentucky 37,680. The population at each census has been as follows : 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 18.50' Ohio 45,365 280 766 581,434 939,903 1,519.464 1,980,329 Kent'y 220,955 406,511 564,317 687,719 779,824 982,4ii6 In this 982,405 are included 10,011 free blacks and 210,981 slaves, while Ohio contains 25,279 free blacks and no slaves. The statement of the figures establishes beyond all question that some great cause operates permanently and with uniform force to retard the increase of popu- lation in Kentucky as compared with that of Ohio. No one can say that the climate in Kentucky is not genial to our race, or that the soil makes a grudging return to labor, or that the state is shut off by diffi- cult barriers from intercourse with the world, and has no great natural avenues to facilitate her commerce. The physical capacities and business of the state are most affluent and abundant. Her system of labor is tbe foundation and sole cause of this disparity. A brief examination of the census tables will ena- ble us to ascertain whether the defect in the Kentucky system of labor consists in the misdirection of labor or in the quality of tlie labor — in other words, whether Ohio bas chosen more productive occupations for her indus- try, or given to each department a better quality of labor than Kentucky uses in similar cases. The departments or occupations of labor in the two states are not extremely different. In agricultural la- bor, Ohio employes 270,362, Kentucky 115,017 per- sons. In other labor, neither agricultural nor mechan- ical, Ohio 92,766 and Kentucky 28,413. In common manufactures and the arts, Ohio 142,687, Kentucky 34,598 ; but it must be borne in mind that this state- ment embraces only whites, and does not indicate the occupation of the 210,981 slaves. Add these laborers to the corps of laborers, and distribute them in their probable divisions of labor, and no very material dif- ference would be discovered in the relative number in SLAVEKV UNMASKED. .Jio eacli state engaged in similar kinds of labor, except in that department requiring skill and training. It seems probable that in the manufaeturing and commercial labor of the two states, Ohio would have the greater ratio of persons employed. But it might be said that a large ])ortion of the industry of Kentucky is em- ployed is raising cattle and live stock, and that no great advantage is gained by em{)loying in that de- partment any but the rude labor demanded from a mere herdsman. The fact hardly sustains the infer- ence, even if the inference were a sound one. Ohio has in live stock $-44,111,741, Kentucky $29,661,436. It is the quality of labor, rather than its divisions or occupations, that distinguishes the industry ol' these states. Labor in the same occupation costs less and produces more in Ohio than in Kentucky. The aver- age product of an acre in these states is as follows: Wheat in Ohio 12 bushels ; in Kentucky, 8 ; Corn in Ohio, 36 ; in Kentucky, 24 ; Rye in Ohio, 25 ; in Kentucky, 11. The great bulk of products in both states is agricultui-al ; Ohio cultivates an area of 9,- 851,498 acres, and Kentucky 5,968,270 ; and the aver- age product of an acre in Ohio is nearly fifty per cent greater than in Kentucky. The products of certain great staples in each state are as follows : pounds. tiiiifi. ™, ( Kcnt'kv-.55,o01,10G „„„^ (Kentucky 17,7S7 Tobacco, j Ohio-.'.-. I0,4o4:449 "^'"»'- ■- ( Ohio 150 bushels. bushels. .„, , < Ohio 14,487,3.51 p„^„ ( Kentucky. ..j8,f,72,5".>l Uiieat-- ■JKp„t„^.ijy 2,142,822 *"*'"' -• '| Ohio .5'.»,n79,6H5 bushels. pounds. ( Oliio .5,8(15,021 Dairy (Ohio .5.5,2i;H,'.t21 Potatoes. -^ Kentucky. 1,03.5,085 prod'ts. "( Kentucky.. .lo,ir,l,477 pounds. tuns. „, , ( Ohio.... 10,1 '.t«,371 ,,„ \ Ohio 1.443,142 Wool I Kentucky 2,292,433 ^- "/ Kentucky. ... 113,707 The difference in the quality of labor is mo.st evident in those departments requiring skill. Ohio by me- chanical labor adds twenty-eight millions to raw mate- 876 SLAVERY UNMASKED. rials in tlie process of her manufactures, Kentucky only twelve millions. One of the most obvious results has been that a great difference exists in these states in the mass of surpluses, or property remaining after paying the cost of production, and constituting the capital or wealth of the country. The total value of property of all kinds belonging to persons in Ohio is $504,762,120, and in Kentucky $301,628,456. Ohio has 921 miles of canals made, Kentucky 486. Ohio has constructed railroads costing $44,927,058, Kentucky $4,909,990. But in contrasting in result of labor in these states, and looking at its aggregate product, it is im- portant to remark that the $301,628,456, given as the total value of property in Kentucky, incUides the value of 210,981 slaves. If it be assumed that the average value of these slaves equals $500 each, one- third of this $300,000,000 is not natural property, available to the owner everywhere, but fictitious pro- perty, made property by local laws and not by the laws of nations or nature. The accumidation of surpluses in Ohio exceeds $500,000,000 of natural property ad- mitted by all civilized nations to belong to its owner, while Kentucky has less than $200,000,000 of simihxr property, and little over $300,000,000, including the value of her slaves. The average products of labor in Kentucky are nearly fifty per cent less than in Ohio, and to enable Kentucky to compete with Ohio in the markets of the world, wages or cost of labor there should correspond with products. To a certain extent there seems, at first view, some such correspondence. Kentucky pays for her laborers $10 a month and Ohio $11 10, but these figures fiiil to disclose the true relative value received by the employer in return for these wages. The ten dollars which the Kentuckj^ employer pays for labor represents the rude and languid labor of a slave, too ignorant and too careless to be entrusted with the various implements and machinery which multiply SLAVEUY UNMASKED, 877 the powers of skilled free labor and make each single man a Briarcus. In addition to those wages, the per- son employing the slave must stipulate witli his owner to furnish a eertain amount of clotiiitig, pay all ex- penses of sickness, and make no di-dutlions for lost time, or damages caused by tlu> careless ads of the slave, and for this price he obtains the unwilling labor of a workman, incapable of earning the wages of a free laborer, even if he desired to do so. The Ohio laborer works for himself, and knows that his wages are measured by his labor, and belong to him. Ohio accumulates wealth from that labor while Kentucky remains poor. The apparent clicap labor of Kentucky is a clclusion. It re})els free men by destroving the digmty of manual labor. It costs nearly all it -produces, and leaves a comparatively small products to add to the stock of reserved property. The aggregate of education in the two comnmnitics seems to indicate that for some cause the states afflicted with slavery neglect, or are unable, to diffuse through their population the same average of common-school education which accompanies free labor. It is not necessar}' for the purpose of the present inquiry to determine whether an imi)erfcct system of common schools is one of the effects of slavery, occasioned by the fact that the class to be educated are only the white population, living at considerable distances from each other and unable to furnish a sufficient number of children upon an area small enough to be traversed by the pupils attending school in eacli district. Even if" that were the true exi)lan:ition of the fact, it would only go to show that education was undervalued, and that the parent deemed it of more importance to obtain land upon which he could work his negroes than to procure schools for iiis children — a pernicious economy impoverishing the public mind in order to increase the physical wealth. The jmpils in public schools in Ohio are 484,153; in Kentucky. 71,429. In other words, Ohio, with less 378 SLAVERY UKMASKED. than three times the population, furnishes a common- school education to more than six times the number educated by Kentucky. Ohio has 66,020 persons over twenty years of age who cannot, read or write, while Kentucky has 69,062. In the 66,020 are included 9,062 aliens and -1,990 blacks, leaving 51,068 native whites in Ohio uneducated. The native white popu- lation of Kentucky untaught is 66,687 and to this mass of ignorance must be added the still more profound ignorance of the whole slave population. All the volumes of books in public libraries in Ken- tucky are 79,-166 ; in Ohio, 186,826. The newspapers taken in Kentucky are 84,686 ; in Ohio, 415,109. The number of newspapers devoted to scientific sub- jects taken in Kentucky are 525; in Ohio, 10,400. The newspaper follows the schoolmaster. If a com- munit}^ cannot be reached by this great modern organ of instruction, there is little hope of improvement, for they cannot be taught even that they need teaching. Only 525 persons in Kentucky have discovered that any advantage can be gained by reading a record of all recent improvements and inventions which men of thought throughout the world applying to the arts of life and means of production ; while 10,400 persons in Ohio enrich their state with the earliest use of such knowledge. A very similar state of things is shown in the case of Virginia and Pennsylvania. The pupils attending public schools in Virginia are 109,711 whites and 64 tjlacks ; in Pennsylvania, 498,111 whites and 6,499 blacks. Of the free population of Virginia, 77,005 whites and 11,515 free blacks over 20 years of age cannot read or write ; while Pennsylvania has 66,928 whites and 9,344 blacks who cannot read or write. This includes the entire 2.258,160 persons in Penn- sylvania ; but to the ignorant in Virginia, stated at 77,005 whites and 11,515 free blacks, must be added almost the entire 472,528 slaves ; making in the aggregate a mass of ignorance formidable to the public safety in a very alarming degree. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 379 All the volumns of books in jiublic librari(\s in Vir- ginia are 88,4<32 ; in Pennsylvania, 3<);3,4U0. The number of newspapers taken in Pennsylvania is 983,- 218 ; Virginia 89,13-i. Virginia, seems not only not to hi>ve learned Ujc value of a newspaper, but even todread itasan eiiemy" to her interests. Whether om; of lier Members ol' Congress residing in Aceomae District, expressed tlie })ublie opinion of the State or not when he denounced the news})aper, it remains a matter of record that on the floor of the House of Representa- tives he declared there was no newspaper in his Dis trict, and he thanked God for it. And now he is Gov- ernor pi' the State ! If the system of labor adopted b}-^ Virginia and Kentueky has failed to create a public wealth like that obtained by Pennsylvania and Ohio ; if it has dei)rived the people of common education ; if it has burdened them with the task of governing and supporting a large body of uneducated and degraded persons who have everything to gain and nothing to lose by sub- verting tlifC whole social fal)ric — no one ought to wish that such a system of labor should be imposed on any new state. CHAPTER XIII. SOUTHERN MORALITY AND RUFFIANISM — FEARFUL REVELATIONS. The following are clipped from southern papers : — A Family of Fiends. In Monroe county, Virginia, on the Greenbriar river, and about fourteen miles below Lewisburgh, lives a man named Joseph Graham. He has three or four grown up sons living beneath his roof, and (until the 27th) one unmarried daughter. Miss Jane Graham, aged about -iO. This woman had an illegitimate daugh- ter, by a man who recently died in Missouri, leaving the sum of three thousand dollars to this chi'ld, who is now married to a Mr, Miller, of Nicholas county. Quarrels of the most violent character are represented to have been common in this fomily. A recent quar- rel had taken place, and one of the brothers sought to injure the character of his sister by leaving anonymous and defamatory letters upon the highway, and also by writing to Mr. Miller, of Nicholas, giving the mother of his wife a character as "black as hell, and as rotten as carrion." Without any knowledge of this. Miss Jane Graham, a few weeks ago, went to Nicholas county, to visit her daughter — found that she and her husband had sepa- rated, were living apart, and learned that the cause was the anonymous letter which Miller had received. Miss Graham, full of the violence and determination which characterized her, immediately returned home. A vio- lent quarrel ensued between her and the brother who wrote the letter, into which the old man and old woman SLAVERY UNMASKED. 381 were drawn, (lliey siding with the son,) the upshot of whieh was the foreibk; ejectment of Miss (Jrahani from the house. Slie went to the house of a brothrr-indaw — one Mr. Nolan, who lives hard by — who gave her slielter and protection. On the night of the 27th of July, Nolan and wife went to visit a neiglibor, leaving Miss Graham to take care of the children. After they were gone — (about nine o'clock, as the children ol' No- lan say, one or two of whom are competent witncs.scs) — Miss Graham dressed herself and went out. She took a bonnet belonging to her niece or to her sister. (Remember this.) Nolan and wife soon returned, and were surprised to find Miss Graham gone. At a little past ten o'clock, they were aroused by the cry of hre, caused by the burning of the barn of Mr. Jo.seph Gra- ham. From her well-known vindictive temper, it was at once suspected that she had fired the barn, and hence her absence was not noted as anything remark- able after such an act. The Grahams made no effort to learn anything of the absent member of the family — never even sug- gested pursuit or revenge for tlie injury done them. Their conduct in this respect added strength to the rumor that was beginning to find tongue — a rumor charging the family with putting Miss Graham "out of the way." This rumor grew so strong, that on Fri- day last, 4tli instant, a party of neighbors gathered to- gether for the purpose of searching for the body of the absent woman. They went to the house ot Graham to ask permission to search for the body on the premi- ses. Ilis answer was — " Go look in the ashes of the barn ; if her bones ain't there, they are in hell." The jarty went forward on their search. A few rods be- _ow the ruins of the barn, they found indications of a gcuflle — then of a running fight — then, again, of a more severe scuffle, in whieh a person appeared to have been thrown down. The ground was imprinted thickly with foot-marks of a human being and of a dog. From this place, they detected such signs as indicated the f< 382 SLAVERY UNMASKED. drawing of a human bod}^ along the grounds to a creek. This trail they followed to the creek, where it was lost; but on the other side they re-discovered it. Here dark stains, which appeared to be of blood, covered over with fresh ashes, were occasionally detected. This trail was followed with tolerable ease until they reached the bank of auother creek or brooklet beyond. Here there were such appearances as induced the searching party to think the bod}^, before dragged, had been rested for a moment and then shouldered. The print of a per- son's knees, and the toes of two booted feet were seen plainly imprinted in the soft earth, exactly as they would have been had a person got down upon his knees. From this point blood was occasionally de- tected on the leaves two or three feet from the groimd adding fresh conviction to the suspicion of the party that the body had been shouldered. Ashes were still occasionally seen to be scattered along the path. But about half a dozen rods from the path where the body was suj^posed to have been shouldered, all traces of the trail were lost. One of the party, looking in the direc- tion of the sun, saw an unusnal number of blue or car- rion flies flying about. He took it as an indication, and, by using a switch, succeeded in establishing a line of Ijuzzing flies toward a blown-down tree, below, on the bank of the creek. The instinct of flies was su- perior to that of man, and enabled them to detect signs that might have otherwise escaped them. Coming to the tree, thej found footsteps leading into the water, and, following down so as to get a view into the thick top of the tree and surrounding hedge, they discovered the dead body of Miss Jane Graham. The body was extricated from the bushes after much difiicult}-. It was considerably putrescent. The dress she wore had been taken off and lay beside her, having the appearance of having been washed and thrown up with the body without being wrung. Some signs of blood were still detected upon it, and it was much torn as by a dog. Her shoes were also taken SLAVERY UNMASKKI). 383 off and throAvu np after the body, as \v;i.s also the bonnet before spoken of. Her stoekiii<^s were upon her feet. There were signs of violence alwut the neck, as though the body had been (b'agged by a rersons go (nit on steam ferries, and other craft, on pleasure excur- sions to Sullivan's Island, and other j)laccs of publio resort, every Sunday afternoon, during the spring and summer season, where there are eating and drinking' saloons, and other horrible places of abandonment, to which multitudes go and stay until the midnight hour closes in upon their revelry. And, in fact, throughout the entire south, with but few exceptions, the Sabbath, instead of being a day of rest, or of worship, is a holi- (lay — occupied mainly in pleasure-taking and .sports. 888 SLAVERY UNMASKED. The first sounds that fall upon the ear, not only in the country, but also in many of the southern cities, on Sabbath morning, are the firing of guns, the beat- ing of drums, the noise of the hunting horn, &c., &c. It is also a sort of holiday to many of the slaves, dua^ing which they do over-work, visit each other at their quarters, roam the fields, or what not. As above remarked, the people here have, on the Sabbath, boat parties, riding parties, hunting parties, fishing paities, drinking parties, gaming parties, and dancing, parties. But in New Orleans is to be found the most reckless, high-handed Sabbath desecration of any other place in the whole country. It is a second Paris ; the Sabbath is regarded here by almost every one as a holiday, and its return is as much desired for a day of pleasure, as if no other day was appropriate for such purposes. Military parades are seldom held on any other. Horse-racing, where large sums are staked on the most famous racers, is on the Sabbath. Thea- tres and circuses have the most attractive bills and greatest display on Sabbath evening. The sa'vage, heathen bull-fights occur on Sunday ; and, in fact, exhibitions of every kind are usually on the Sabbath. Against these outrages, and other evils ignored by them, the pulpit is as silent as if they were in accord- ance with the rituals of the church. And, more than this, you will be astonished to see, not only ^^ good men^'' hui professing Christians^ minglingin the crowded throng that keep up these rounds of moral pollution and dissipation. But in all these evils, the authorities are chargeable with more censure than all others, for they have the power to prevent and suppress them wholly. There is so much to be met with of a demor- alizing tendency, and the tone of moral sense is so clearly out-spoken, that a person is not aware of what surrounds him, until he pauses and contemplates the scene in which he is moving, and the complete pros- tration of everything like a controlling influence of public opinion. It is a truth, recognized in every SLAVEliY UNMASKED. 389 civilized country, tluit good ord.-r, and even coniinon decency, cannot be j.ronioted or maintained, unless it be by the concentratetl force of the opinion of good men against the overt acts of the vicious. And when we see, as we do in this city, tlie haiUwj mm, jMiblic officers, the Mayor and Common Couneil, giving eonn- tenance and sanction to outrag.sand dcsi-t-rations, it is evident that the most wlioK'soinc regulations cannot sustain a healthy tone of moral feeling. As evidence of the conntenanee given to these things, and of the state of public feeling, the following notices will furnish some evidence how the Sabbath is regarded by the Mayor and Common Council and the rjood pv pie of New Orleans. These aimouncements are made in the city papers, and also in large, attractive hand- bills, posted in every part of the city : — " Washington Society Balls. " At a meeting of the subscribers, the following gen- tlemen were elected managers : — A. D. GROSSMAN, Mayor of the Dr. LI'ZEXnERr,, citv, " Win. KMKKSON, JOSHUA BALDWIN, Rocortlcr, J. STROUf), J. E. CALDWEI.L, .1. L. I'OULK, W. P. CONVERSE, W. Y. FLOWERS. A. B. BIEN, W. .T. EARTHME.V, n. G. STETSON, A. H. WAY, J. B. BYRN, N. C. JUDSON, Maj. (ion. J. L. LEWIS, J. S. WALLIS, Coi. J. B. WALTON, R. C. FAULKNER, Capt. JORDY, it. S. HATCH, E. A. TYLER, J. B. BEHAN. " At the same time, it was resolved that the s«;'rics should consist often balls, which will be all masked. "The managers will meet every Slnday! during the season, at one o'clock. Office hours, from nine in the morning until nine in the evening." Look at this, Christian reader. Is not here a great want of Christian missionaries, to convert the heathen in our own country? Is not this truly a heathen city? 390 SLAVERY UNMASKED, The Mayor, and Recorder, and twenty-one of the lead- ing citizens of a professedly civilized and Chridian city of about two hundred thousand inhabitants, meet every Sabbath to make arrangements for a masked BALL ! In view of such examples from such men, what else but a perfect Sodom could be expected of New Orleans. " Orand Balloon Ascension. '*The seveuth ascension of Madame Emma V., of Bordeaux, will take place on Sunday next, between the hours of one and two o'clock, from the corner of St. Charles and Poydras streets. Madame E. Y., re- turns her thanks to the public for the patronage be- stowed upon her last Sunday, having proved to the citizens of New Orleans that nothing has been exagge- rated in her previous advertisement. A special stand is reserved for the ladies." This, the reader will bear in mind, is done by per- mit of license from the Mayor. The following is copied from a hand-bill : — ^^ Pontchartrain Ball Room. " The proprietors of this well-known establishment re- spectfully inform their friends and the public generally, that it will be opened on Sunday next for the season, and that nothing on their part has been left undone to render this house one of the most agreeable in all re- spects. The deess and masked balls will be given in the following order : — " For white persons — Sundays, Tuesdays, Thurs- days and Fridays. "For quadroons — Mondays, "Wednesdays and Satur- days. " The orchestra is, without doubt, the best in the city. The Bar is furnished with the choicest Liquors. SLAVERY UNMASKED. 301 an(l tlie tables supplied with every delioaev that the maikct affords." Now with such attractions, who, without a grxxl amoint of stern religious principl.>, could n-fuse to at- tend' such a place, even on the Sahhatif ! ! j)rovick ; then these followers, nay, reliijiowi tewhers of Him who had not where to lay his head, are worth the round sum of six hundred and sixty-five million, (ivc hun- dred and sixty-three thousand dollars, invest4.'d in human beings. Could ancient Roman or Grecian Pagan priests boast so much ? No, never. Of what avail are the prayers, sermons, public teaching and lofty pretensions to piety, of a man who can sell his brother into perpetual bondage? If a man " love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?" If he can coolly and deliberately disregard the claims of his brother, why should he regard those of his God? In spite however, of the obvious incongruity of slavery with the instruction of the slaves, either mentally or morally, the impressionhas obtained north, through apologists for the institution that the slaves are the objects of a religious culture, which is preparing them, both for freedom in this world, and hap})iness in the next. It is true, that in some portions of the south, the slaves are allowed a little oral instruction, a few catechetical lectures, but it is only an hour or two each week, in the day time, and strictly confined to those " prominent portions of scripture which show the duties of servants and the rights of masters r The truth is, slaveholders generally are unwilling that Christianity should be taught to their slaves, any fur- ther than they can make a tool of it to serve their own purposes; and, as it happens to be a two-edgeedience to the commands of ids master. Hence a sort of instnu-tion hjus bet-n insti- tuted called religious teacliing, for which the masters pay a pretty good sum annually to tlK'se pious slain:- lioldlnrj missionaries. That some of the slaves arc truly and sincerely pious, th(Te can be no doubt ; but the great mass of them have a superficial rrligion, a false religion, or no religion at all. That this is .so, the southerners themselves are prepared to admit. In proof of the ignorant, debased, and low sunken con- dition of these poor, stupid, heaOien slava, who arc made and kept so by the politico-rcligioiLs institutions of the south, I will insert a short extract from a report on this subject, drawn up by one of the eccles- iastical bodies here, several of which I attcmh^d while south. In which report they unfortunatc-ly for t-liem- selves, or for the j)ec id far institudon, admitted the fact, or in effect, confessed that southern Christianity has sup- ported slavery to the almost total neglect of the souls of the slaves. The following is the hideous picture which they draw of the moral influence of slavery. " The influence of the negroes upon the moral and religious interests of the whites, is destructive in the extreme. We cannot go into special detail. It is unnecessary. We make our appeal to universal expe- rience. We are chained to a putrid carcass I It sickens and destroys us. We have a millstone hanging about the neck of our society, to sink us deep in the sea of vice. Our children are corrupting from their infancy, nor can we prevent it. Many an anxious parent, like the missionaries in foreign lands, wishes his chil- dren could be brought beyond the reach of the corrup- ting influence of the depraved Jieathen. Nor is thi.s influence confined to mere childhood. If that were all, it would be tremendous. But it follows into youth, into manhood, and into old age. And when 396 SLAVERY UNMASKED. we come directly into contact with their depravity in the management of them, then come temptations, and provocations, and trials that unsearchable grace only can enable us to endure. In all our intercourse with them, we are undergoing a process of intellectual and moral deterioration; and it requires almost super- human efforts to maintain a high standing, either for intelligence or piety." There is testimony from those who ought to know, and who do know whereof they report, testimony we trust the reader will feel bound to credit, though he discard that of northern tourists. As to the slave- holding Christians, professors, or what ever else they may be termed, I seldom or never found one, that I thought was a deeply devoted Christian at heart. In spite of their high pretentions to a consistent Bible piety, a haughty, waspish, acrimonious spirit could be detected, underlying all their piety. And how can it be otherwise, since they stoutly deny, if not wholly, yet in part, the fundamental claims of the law and of the gospel ? which in substance is to love God with all the soul, mind, &c., and our neighbor as ourself. Short of this, men may make high pretentions, long prayers, and many proselytes. Short of this, they may employ with wonderful success a thousand so- called, soul-saving expedients. But short of this they cannot he Gkristians. Short of this, what would they do in that world of eternal harmony, where every thing finds and keeps its proper place ? The devourers of widows' houses here, miist receive damnation hereafter. Alas! what then must become of those who make WIDOWS, and then devour them and their children in the midst of the Christian church? What too, must become of their apologists, however ingenious and grave they may be ? Those who have a system of soul saving, which inspires men with the hope of Heaven, while they refuse heartily to own every human creature as their brother ? A system of piety, which leaves men below the level of humanity! Is this SLAVERY UN'MASKKU. 397 Christianity? And arc thi>y Christians whose h carta are thus too hard and narrow t:) athiiit tlic common sentiments of humanity ! Alas, for such j.irty, IxUh unhuman and inhuman, what misdiicf lias it not done wherever it has been countenanced in llic church of God ! It is true, as I have taken occasion elwwhere in the course of this work to remark, that the slaves in the cities are allowed to attcntl church with the whites ; but they must occupy the niggers' scat which is tlie gallery. And after listening to a sermon an hour long addressed to the masters, have a few n-marka addressed to them, the whole of wliich I looked uj)on as little less than a downright insult to human nature. "The type of morality, in any country, is .seldom much higlier in the church than it is in respectable society out of it. In no civilized countries do mwing almost all of their time in a round of social jileasures, have attained to a considerable jierfection in the art of pleasing; and those who visit the southern sUites for the first time, are almost invariably captivated by the politeness, the hospitality, and pleasing attentions, of these ap})arently noble people. But, three successive trips through most of the southern states, and nearly three years residence in their midst, convinced the writer that manners however pleasing, are far from being any certain index of character, they often being carried to a high jiitch of refinement, in ca.ses where all the virtues whieli they seem to iniif all slave-ma.sters, often burst out in full fury in thrir (luar- rels with each other? The familiarity with which, under the influence of excited i)a.ssion, they talk of murder, is only to be equalled by the .savage ferocity with which, under the same influence, they often com- mit it. The atrocity of southern duels has long been notorious, — but what duel can be compared with tho.sc savage, brutal " rencontres " of which the southern papers are so frequently, and so fully mad(^ up, — ac- counts which among the people of those states .seem to carry with them all the interest of a l)ull- fight or a cock-fight, — in which two men or more, armed to the teeth, meet in the streets, at a court house or a tiivern, shoot at each other witli pistol.s, then draw their knive.s, close and roll upon the ground, covered with dust and blood, struggling and stabbing till death, wounds, or the submission of one of the parties jiut an end to the contest ? These scenes, Avhich if they take place at the north at all, appear but once an age, and then only among the lowest and most depraved of the emigrant population, (except indeed when a Dr. Gkah.vm, or some other semi-barbarian southerner, gives us an oc- casional bloody demonstration of their jMstol or bowie- knife proclivities,) are of frequent and almost daily occurrence at the south, among tho.se who consider themselves the most respectable people. Improvidexce is univer.sally allowed to 1)e a vicx? of the most dangerous character. Imjirovidence is an e\'il which prevails very generally throughout the slave-holding states. The careless, headlong raj)iditv with which a planter spends his money, is proverbial. This childish profusion has even been rai.sed among them to the rank of a virtue; while economy is de- cried and stigmatized as mean and little. This sort of profusion may dazzle and delight the weak-minded 402 SLAVERY UNMASKED. and tlie tliouglitless. It is very clear however that it seldom implies any of that benevolence or magnanimity which it has been supposed to indicate. It generally originates in the desire to excel, to gratify some whim of the moment, or what is oftener the case, in the de- sire to become admired as a person of wealth and lib- erality. It is one way of gratifying the universal desire of social superiority. A planter will spend some hundreds of dollars upon a single entertainment, and the next morning will refuse an extra pair of shoes to a lame old negro, who has labored for him all his life. Ask one of these spendthrifts to do an act, not of benevolence merely, but of common j ustice, by setting a slave at liberty, and he will laugh you in the face. I have both seen and heard of many acts of profusion in the south, but few or none of genero- sity. It is not there that institutions are endowed for purposes of public charity. No associations exist there, or next to none, for charitable purposes. When a subscription is to be raised for some object of public benevolence, the contribution of our southern planters is extremely scanty. They lavish thousands on their own pleasures, and the companions of these pleasures; they bestow little or nothing upon the sufferings of strangers. Indeed it would be absurd to expect it. They who are not moved by the scenes of poverty, degradation and distress, which their own plantations every day present, how can they be affected by the comparatively little miseries of which the}" only hear or which they but casually see? The quantity of money that can be got is a limited sum ; the quantity that can be spent is indefinite. Take the southern states throughout, and it is probable that seven slave- masters out of ten live beyond their income. The labor, the fruits of which would have sufficed to make fifty flimilies comfortable and happy, being engrossed, with the exception of the barest subsistence to the laborers, by a single family, does not suffice to make that single family happy or even comfortable. Im- SLAVERY UNMASKED. 103 providence subjects to all the miseries of actual pov- erty. Men in the possession of large estates are tor- mented all their lives by sherilVs and duns, and at their death, leave large families brought up in all the luxury of wealth, aiul the hel{)lessness of iiabitual in- dolence, penniless and unprovided for, a prey to the bitterest miseries of want. Idleness is another evil growing out of the system of slavery, — it is one of no ordinary magnitude. An idle person is the devil's workshop, is an old .say- ing containing more truth than i)()etry. Any one wishing to lind a living, startling illustration of this remark, let him go south, and he will soon be .satisfud. Almost all the slave-holders have no occupation ex- cept to amuse themselves. Born and bred to this oc- cupation, they become incai)ablc of any other. One would suppose that having so much leisure, they might turn their attention to the study of agriculture and art, upon which so wholl}^ depends not their ])ri- vate income.only, but the public wealth of the com- munities to which they belong. But no, — they have no taste for such pursuits, and they leave the managq- ment of their plantations entirely to their overseers. This neglect however ought not to be wholly ascribed to their disinclination for regular and usel'ul pursuite. If they go much on their plantations, so many cruel sights come under their view, they are so harrassed by petitions and complaints, they find themselves .so op- pressed by the cares of authority, that they hasten to relieve themselves from the burden, and to shift it to the shoulders of some case-hardened manager. All despotisms are alike. What happens to an oriental sultan, happens to a despotic slave-master. The weight of the empire presses too heavily upon their effeminate anr a real benefit upon the lord of it. They give him occupation. The efforts necessary to entertain, are not less agreeable to him who makes them, than to those for whom they are made. Kthe visitor be a total stranger, so much the better. There is the zest of .novelty added to the excitement of occupation. If he come from a distant part of the country, better yet. He will probably be able to suggest a great many new and interesting ideas, likely to give an agreeable motion to the stagnant soul of his host. Hospitality has ever been a virtue abundantly practised among all idle and indolent races. The Indian tribes of America, are all celebrated for its exercise. The plundering Arabs of the desert look upon it as a religious duty — for conscience and inclination are always apt to pull together. But, the exercise of this virtue among the people of the south, becomes the occasion of several practices of the most dangerous and deleterious kind. It is not • the cause of those practices, but only the occasion for them. In itself, it is essentially good, and displays the character of the slaveholder in the most amiable light it ever assumes. Hospitality is benevolence on a small scale, and how can benevolence on any other scale be expected, from men whose total existence is a continued viola- tion of its clearest and most urgent commands? The institution of slavery deprives a large portion of the people of their natural occupations. Gambling is the employment, which under similar circumstances, has ever presented itself to men, as a means of killing time. In order that this employment may be indulged in, whenever the want of it is felt, it is necessary that a peculiar class should exist, as it were the priesthood of the gaming table, always ready at all times, to SLAVERY UNMASKED. 407 gamble with all comers. These are the professional gamblers, '^i'hey praetiee gaming not for amnsement, but as a livelihood. If they left everything to ehaucc and strictly observed the laws of play, it would be impossible for them to live by their business; in the long run, they would be certain to loose as much as they won, and so could have nothing left whereupon to live. Ilencc they, arc compelled to play Jhlse. They must cheat^ or starve. They are not mere gam- blers, but swindlers. This explains the odium attached to their occupation. Merely to gamble is no imj)Uta- tion upon any body's character in the southern states, or at most it is an imputation of which nobody is ashamed. To be a gambler by profession, however, is infamous, because it is well understood, that every professional gambler is a cheat. But though the pro- fession is infamous, still it is crowdt*d. Its members throng the steamboats, the hotels, the cities, and villages of the south, and among them may be found, the most gentlemanly, agreeable, insinuating, talented, well informed men of the whole population, constantly' on the watch, and always laboring to attract, to allure, to please; many of them attain a peculiar polish and elegance of manners. New recruits are always crowd- ing in. The planter who has ruined himself by im- providence, dissipation or losses at the gaming table, the young disappointed heir bred up in indolence and luxury, by a father who dies insolvent ; these Sersons find scarcely any other way of gaining their ally bread, except to adopt gambling as a profession. There is no other business for which they are qualified — there is no other art, which they understand. It seems hard to hold these individuals strictly respon- sible for the evil they do. You cannot expect them to starve. This would not be natural. They are the victims of a social system intolerably bad. The pro- fessional gamblers are above described, such as tliej are, when at the head of their profession, and in the hey-day of success. In general, they soon begin to go 408 SLAVERY UNMASKED. down hill. Proverbially improvident, they are abun- dantly supplied with money, or wholly without it. The latter presently comes to be their habitual condi- tion. Their fate very nearly resembles that of prosti- tutes in a great city. Drunkenness relieves their dis- tresses for the time being, but by destroying their health and their intellect, soon precipitates them into lower depths of misery. They become at last a burden *\ipon their relatives and friends; find in an early death a refuge from despair; or are precipitated into. crimes which carry them to the penitentiary or the gallows. The vice of gambling is not confined to the superior portion of the higher caste. It pervades the lower class also. There are blacklegs and gambling houses adapted to the taste and manners of all. To the business of gambling, the professional gam- blers from time to time, add several other occupations. They become passers of counterfeit money, horse- thieves, and negro-stealers. Nothing but the extreme poverty of the country, prevents them from organizing an extensive system of plunder. Horses and slaves are almost the only thing capable of transportation, which can be stolen. In general, to pick the pockets of the planters by the help of a fxro-table or a pack of cards, is not only safe, but a surer operation than to attempt it in any other way. Party politics, state and national, afford the only topic, to any extent of an intellectual character, in which any considerable number of the southern popu- lation, take any deep interest, or which serves to any considerable extent, to dispel the fog of wearisome idleness, by which they are constantly threatened to be enveloped. Politics at the south, are rather specu- lative than practical. Every slave-holding community is essentially conservative, and opposed to all change. The southern politicians, puzzle and lose themselves in vain attempts to reconcile the metaphysical system of liberty acknowledged by their own state constitu- tions, with the actual system of despotism amid which c SIAVEUV UNMASKKF). 400 thoy live. Their ahlt^st roiusoiicrs can boast no ii»ure than to bo snbtU^ lo;^ician.s, and inj^cnioiis Hf)i)hi»t*», backed up with bowic-knivos, and club-canus, Tor the want of more convincing argum.-nu Stutt'sinanship is a thing they liave about as much contH^ption «>f as their phmtation slaves liavc of navigation. Yet the study of politics, barren, empty and profilloH-i as southern politics are, has saved many of the finost minds at the south from total stagnation, and alTords to groat numb.M-s a stimulant altogether more harm- less than gambling and strong drink. Great numb.-rs of southern planters are as great adepts in political mota[)hysics, as the Scotch pea.santry are or were, in Calvinistic divinity. Grant their prcmi8 chance thaso men have of making observations, and also the 8tand- points from which their observations are m id •. Thosn bilonging to the first class mentioned above, from the condition of their health, arc, to a great extent, rendered 18 410 SLAVERY UNMASKED. iucouipetent to make either extensive observations or correct ones, since they are unable to go out on the plantations — through the rice and cotton fields — to the negro quarters, &c., &c. The pale, emaciated counte- nance, feeble tread and hollow cough of the poor con- sumptive, dyspeptic, or otherwise wretchedly affected invalid, excites from his very appearance, the sym- pathies of all. Hence, both masters and slaves would proffer them the most kindly and hospitable attentions. Underlaying however, these sympathies with which nature and good breeding usually respond to such conditions, may be found a deeper, broader motive for such treatment, or hospitality as it is termed by some. These northern invalids are usuall}^ intelligent men, and some of them wealth}^, hence, not only able to pay their way, besides giving a little to the poor, half-starved slaves, as I have often seen them do ; but, also, on arriving north, to make a good plea for the dark insti- tution hj way of extolling the hospitality of the masters, therefore they can well afford these sympathies, since they make so good returns, such occasions, also, bring them in contact with better cultivated minds than their own, whereby they are enabled to add a little to the stock of their general information. The most revolting scenes of slavery, are seldom, or 'never witnessed by this class, who, borne down by the weight of their own infirmities, have neither the heart, nor the chance to behold the sufferings of the slaves. I was acquainted with a man of this class, a Mr. , of western Nciy York, who spent some three winters south, for his health. On his return he brought a very favorable report of the south and its institutions. He saw none of those horrible scenes, the recital of which make ones blood run cold — he believed them false — that the southerners had been belied, and that they were a noble, hospitable people. Passing through the place of his residence, soon after my last southern tour, an old friend remarked to me that his neighbor Mr. , had also been south, and had SLAVERY UNMASKED. \ \ \ just returned, Avell }ilo;usod with tlic s<-)uth(Tnors. At least, he had seen and reported quite dillVTeiilly from myself. So I stepped over to his house one afkTnrro whippings, nor st-;irer|y anything which go to make up h/c in the sn lion wjtf mysteriously changed into a liarmlcss f, Imnb. On returning nortli his shive-iiolding l .. \ isliad a giant representative in the person of otir rhnrtd friend, who stoutly apologised for them anrl tlu'ir hhody institutions. Said lie "the southerm'rs and southern institutions are falsified at the north — they are a noble, giMicrous people, more liberal than nortlu-ni men, and the ncgrois are better olf there than hen-, &c., &c." But murder will out, the secret of his sud- den conversion, soon became ([uite apparent. KlaU'litary 416 SLAVERY UNMASKED. instance.' ' You are liardl j able to convict Mr. Thomp- son of falsehood, then, Judge,' said I 'if I understood you rightly. He spoke, as I understood you, of exas- perated masters — and you say you did not see any. Mr. Thompson did not say it was common for masters in good humor to hang up their slaves.' The Judge did not perceive the materialit}^ of the distinction. ' Oh, they misrepresent and lie about this treatment of the niggers,' he continued. 'In going through all the States I visited, I do not now remember a single in- stance of cruel treatment. Indeed, I remember of see- ing but one nigger struck, during my whole journey. There was one instance. We were riding in the stage, pretty early one morning, and we met a black fellow, driving a span of horses, and a load (I think he said) of hay. The fellow turned out before we got to him, clean down into the ditch, as far as he could get. He knew, you see, what to depend on, if he did not give the road. Our driver, as we passed the fellow, fetched him a smart crack with his whip across the chops. He did not make any noise, though I guCvSS it hurt him somC' — ^he grinned. Oh, no! these fellows exaggerate. The niggers, as a general thing, are kindly treated. There may be exceptions, but I saw nothing of it.' (By the way, the Judge did not know there were any Abolitionists present.) ' What did you do to the dri- ver, Judge,' said I, 'for striking that man?' 'Do!' said he, ' I did nothing to him, to be sure.' ' What did you say to him. Sir ?' I inquired. ' Nothing,' he replied, ' I said notliing to him.' ' What did the other passengers do ?' ' Nothing, Sir,' said the Judge. * The fellow turned out the white of his eye, but made no noise.' ' Did the driver say anything. Judge, when he struck the man ?' ' Nothing, Sir, only he damned hmi, and told him he'd learn him to keep out of the reach of his whip.' ' Sir,' said I, ' if George Thomp- son had told this story, in the warmth of an anti- slavery speech, I should scarcely have credited it. I have attended many anti-slavery meetings, and I never SLAVKUY UXMASKKI). 417 lieard at instance of such col'l-Unn/- ism — and that the north regards him with, if jKissible, a more fiendish indilferencc still." LUIAPTER XV ill. SL.WEUV IN' A TRKi: STATK. The following was clipped from the New York Tri- bune of March 22d, 1856 : — As another illustration of the spirit of slavcrv. I ""send 3'ou the subjoined account of a recent outrage by citizens of Virginia upon citizens of Ohio, and that too upon Ohio soil. N.ot content with mobbing and maltreating our people in their own states when they chance to dilfer with Oieir opinions of the institution ot slavery, as has frequently been the case, they invatle the sacredness of our own soil and dicUite to il^ in matters of concience and of speech. The persons en- gaged in this outrage should not be chuvsed as " Bord-T Ruffians," for they are among the best men of W.-s- tern Virginia. The writer of the inclosed, Judg»> 18* 418 SLAVERY UNMASKED, Salmon Eicard, is to be relied upon entirely, botli as respects candor and integrity. I ask you what earthly power can prevent the ulti- mate dissolution of this Union? Grant everything now claimed by the Republican party, and would there not be just as much agitation as there now is, so long- as slavery has an existence in any part of the Union? The ball of disunion is in motion, and what shall stay its progress? Our people are becoming accustomed to hear the severance of the Union discussed, without that thrill of horror that once possessed them like an electric shock. "Quaker Bottom, 0., March 17, 1856. " Mr. Editor : For some weeks past, the people of this vicinity have been holding meetings to consider various matters of public interest, promment among which were the moral character of " negro-catching," the rights and privileges that should be enjoyed by our colored population, and the condition and needs of the people of Kansas. "These meetings have been attended by persons holding very diverse views on the different topics dis- cussed," but the object was free discussion, and all who felt disposed were invited to participate. " On last Friday evening, at the close of one of these meetings, when most of our people had dispersed, - we were assailed by a band of men from Virginia, armed with clubs. We were not suspecting such an attack, and were entirely unprepared for it. One of our men, A. S. Proctor, was assailed by a man, first with a club and then with an axe, swearing he meant to kill him ; others shouted, " kill him ! God d n him, kill him !" and when upon the ground, struggling with his adversary, he was struck over the head with a rail, and doubtless would have been killed had he not been saved by his friends. Henry Radford re- ceived a blow upon the forehead from a rock cutting SLAVKHV I KM ASKED. 419 it very severely. IMic Ucv. Mr. AkKl>. 121 of Topcka, was reliovcxc« in which it was packed. As they were a-sccnding a hill, a posse of forty invaders came down uiK)n them, and said they must examine the boxes, as they believcilders to the wheels," and assisted the horses in iuseending with their load. A vote of thanks was proposed at the ma.ss meetmg held at Lawrence on Monday iiight, to these aasiatauta, 422 SLAVERY UNMASKED. but as their names were unknown, a request was made that all newspapers favorable to freedom in Kansas would publish the circumstance, and thank them in the name of the people of " Yankeetown." The free State ladies of Lawrence deserve to be the mothers of heroes. Their conduct during the recent alarming crisis was as admirable as the calm courage of the men. Fear never entered the breasts of either, and neither were disposed to yield one iota to the inso- lent demands of " old Dave" Atchinson's rabble. The wives and daughters of the free State men refused, though repeatedly urged, to leave the city. Foi^ty la- dies of Lawrence enrolled themselves secredy, ivith the deter- raination of fighting hy die sides of their husbands and sons as soon as the combat commenced! Many of them had previously practiced pistol shooting, for the purpose of giving the invaders a suitable reception if they came again, as they came on the 30th of March, to desecrate the ballot-box, and prevent the actual residents of Kansas from casting their votes. One young girl — a beauty of nineteen years — told me that she dreamed last nio-ht of shooting three invaders. Let me give one instance of the courage of the ladies of Lawrence : — The Greneral feared that he would run short of pow- der, lead and percussion caps. A free State man on the Waulvarusa had two kegs of powder and a large quantity of Sharpe's rifle cartridges. If men had been sent after it, they would have been obliged to fight, or been arrested. The thing was talked about. Two ladies, editor's wives, both of them — Mrs. G. W. Brown and Mrs. Samuel N. Wood — volunteered to go and fetch it. They were permitted to go. They reached the cabin; the powder was put in pillow cases; and " people do say," — but they will talk nonsense you know,— that the pillow cases were concealed beneath petticoats, and that said petticoats were attached to other garments feminine of said ladies aforesaid. It is rumored, too, that the percussion caps were concealed SL.VVEKY UNMASKED. -123 in tlio ladies' stockin,^'s. I don't prctond to vouch for the truth of tins rumor, for 1 was not present wlien the ladies made their toilet. One gentleman, who sjiw the la lies lifted out of the wagon — for tliey could not rLtc themselves — said that he tliought l)ustles had come into fashion again 1 The ladies, on returning home, were pursuecl by one of the enemy's scouts. On coming up to them, he jh> litely lifted his hat and said, "Ladies, I tht)Ught you were gentlemen." " Thank you for the comj)linient,'' .siid one of the ladies, smiling. The scout looked into the wagon, and s;iw only a work-basket, which had purpo.sely been liiUd with sewing materials. " We were ordered," he saiose you can go." So saying, he galloped off. The powder and ladies reached Lawrence safely. At the mass meeting on Monday night, si.K louhatie than the de- termination of the people of Lawrence. Gov. Robinson was a.sked some days before, what he would do if such a demand should be made. " Why," said the General, " I would projiosc another Mi.ssouri Compromise. We would be willing to keep the nflcs, and give the invaders their contents!" 424 SLAVERY UNMASKED. When tlie subject was hinted at by "' the enemy," the.General quietly said — " Well, you'll have to take them by instalments !" Passing through Franklin, I observed that there was now no regular camp in the village, but there were some fifty or sixty idlers from the camp below, drinking and loafing around the place for lack of something better, or worse, to do. They watched me more closely as I passed than usual, but did not mo- lest me. Immediately below Franklin, the upland prairie breaks, and a broad, flat bottom, covered with a very luxuriant grass, stretches between the slope and the timber that skirts the Waukarusa. As I descended the slope, I saw a horseman before me. Numerous other parties were galloping across the plain in every direction, but he was traveling alone, and at a moderate pace. I overtook and saluted him. He was mounted on a powerful gray horse, had a long rifle thrown across the saddle before him, and a couple of pistol holsters. In appearance he was a cross of the gentle- man and "Border Kuffian;" only a slightly sinister expression gave the latter the preponderance. He was a strongly-built man, and well equipped for travel. It was Marshal Jones. It is not surprising that the conversation immedi- ately turned upon the events that were occurring. He spoke with a good deal of vindictive feeling, and when I urged the danger of precipitating hostilities, and told him that it was a question of immense moment to the whole country, and might even jeopardize the safety of the Union — "D — ^n the Union," he said. "We have gone in for peace long enough. We have got to fight some time or other, and may as well do it now._ We. have got tlie law and the authorities on oar side, and we will take that town. "But consider,' I urged, ' it will not end here. Even granting you can defeat the men in Lawrence, they have friends elsewhere who may resent it. If the SLAVERY UNMASK KU. 425 Missourians are killed, their relativ<'fl will Sfck to avenge thorn, and so with tlu- oilicrs. Civil war in a fearful thing, and, wlu'n the flame In'gins, noin* can know where it will end. I do not like to see Ameri- cans fighting with each other. "Look, stranger," said he, " you siicak ts, that woulil in nil probability justify the measure before any court of law. At all events, if there are guilty parties, let the arm of the law .settle it — let the guilty be jMinishcd, but do not let the innoci,'nt suffer with them." " Are you not in favor of enlbrcing the law? Are you not a law and order loving man ? They have re- sisted the laws, and there must be force to compel them." ■' I am a law and order, Union-loving man I liope ; but not to the extent of enforcing the laws in dispute. Whv not leave it to Congress, :is thev arc alwut to assemble? Common law and the United States atithor- ity, the people of Lawrence will never resi.st, nor will- ingly resist the laws of even that I.<\gislature, by furec." "it's no use talking: these laws have got to be en- forced, and wc have got to fight. We have seven hundred men in the camp down there, (a falftchood, by-the-by,) there is a large reinforcement comiiig on, that will arrive to-night or to-morrow, and the Platte 426 SLAVERY UNMASKED. County people will be here. All of these troops, Sir, are enrolled and accepted by the Governor. They are here to enforce the laws, and by G d they'll do it. We have got the law with us, and all this matter has been arranged by long heads who know what they are about. We shall insist that the people of Law- rence give up these fifteen men to us, and also that they give up their Sharpe's rifles and other arms, and we will destroj^ the big hotel." " But you cannot expect compliance with those re- quisitions. Those men are not in Lawrence. The guns they will not give up, especially when they are menaced." " Well, d n them, we'll make them." " Well, I cannot hope and pray for 3^our success." "What!" and his eyes lighted up more fiercely, " do you mean that you will hope and pray for the other side?" and as he spoke, he lifted his rifle a little on his arm : it might have been merely for a change of position — it might have been a menace. I, merely by chance, loosed the lower button of my overcoat, inside of which were my revolvers, and changing the subject, I pointed to the plain we were traversing, and said : — " This is a very rich bottom — it would make a fine meadow, or would it not suit for the production of hemp ? I am not much acquainted with its culture." He did not respond to my remarks, very cheerfully, but understood me. I had told him I was an Illinois- ian, and an editor, and travelling over the country. He cautioned me as a friend against speaking so freely when I went below, as there were many fellows who would trouble me. I. thanked him. As we approach- ed the camp, he said he was going there, but as I could not, he would see me over the creek. There was a guard there; I asked why, and the necessity of placing restri^'tions on travelers. He said they were acting under the Governor's orders, that they could let no one pass without examining him, and that he would SLAVERY UN MASK KI). 427 go to the fort with im*, ami see me over. A« we njv proached it, I obscrviil some half a dozen aniitMl im-n rummaging and seaivhiiig a couple oi' wag