The Atrocities of Slavery -- The Beauties of the Peculiar
Institution -- A few Well-substantiated Facts -- Visit to
Gallatin, Tennessee.
THE ATROCITIES OF SLAVERY.
A late number of the _Atlantic Monthly_ gives the following in
relation to General Butler and his administration in Louisiana:
Among the many personal anecdotes are the following, which are almost
too horrible to be published, but for the impressive lesson they
convey. One of the incidents was related more briefly by the General
himself, when in New York, in January last. We quote from the writer
in the _Atlantic_.
Just previous to the arrival of General Banks at New Orleans, I was
appointed Deputy Provost-Marshal of the city, and held the office for
some days after he had assumed command. One day, during the last week
of our stay in the South, a young woman of about twenty years called
upon me to complain that her landlord had ordered her out of her
house, because she was unable longer to pay the rent, and she wished
me to authorize her to take possession of one of her father's houses
that had been confiscated, he being a wealthy rebel, then in the
Confederacy, and actively engaged in the rebellion.
The girl was a perfect blonde in complexion; her hair was of a very
pretty light shade of brown, and perfectly straight; her eyes a clear,
honest gray; and her skin as delicate and fair as a child's. Her
manner was modest and ingenuous, and her language indicated much
intelligence.
Considering these circumstances, I think I was justified in wheeling
around in my chair, and indulging in an unequivocal stare of
incredulous amazement, when, in the course of conversation, she
dropped a remark about having been born a slave.
"Do you mean to tell me," said I, "that you have negro blood in your
veins?" And I was conscious of a feeling of embarrassment at asking a
question so apparently preposterous.
"Yes," she replied, and then related the history of her life, which I
shall repeat as briefly as possible:
"My father," she commenced, "is Mr. Cox, formerly a judge of one of
the courts in this city. He was very rich, and owned a great many
houses here. There is one of them over there," she remarked, naively,
pointing to a handsome residence opposite my office in Canal Street.
"My mother was one of his slaves. When I was sufficiently grown, he
placed me at school, at the Mechanics' Institute Seminary, on
Broadway, New York. I remained there until I was about fifteen years
of age, when Mr. Cox came on to New York and took me from the school
to a hotel, where he obliged me to live with him as his mistress; and
to-day, at the age of twenty-one, I am the mother of a boy five years
old, who is my father's son. After remaining some time in New York, he
took me to Cincinnati and other cities at the North, in all of which I
continued to live with him as before. During this sojourn in the Free
States I induced him to give me a deed of manumission; but on our
return to New Orleans he obtained it from me and destroyed it. At this
time I tried to break off the unnatural connection, whereupon he
caused me to be publicly whipped in the streets of the city, and then
obliged me to marry a colored man; and now he has run off, leaving me
without the least provision against want or actual starvation, and I
ask you to give me one of his houses, that I may have a home for
myself and three little children."
Strange and improbable as this story appeared, I remembered, as it
progressed, that I had heard it from Governor Shepley, who, as well as
General Butler, had investigated it, and learned that it was not only
true in every particular, but was perfectly familiar to the citizens
of New Orleans, by whom Judge Cox had been elected to administer
justice.
The clerks of my office, most of whom were old residents of the city,
were well informed in the facts of the case, and attested the truth of
the girl's story.
I was exceedingly perplexed, and knew not what to do in the matter;
but, after some thought, I answered her thus:
"This department has changed rulers, and I know nothing of the policy
of the new commander. If General Butler were still in authority, I
should not hesitate a moment to grant your request; for, even if I
should commit an error of judgment, I am perfectly certain he would
overlook it, and applaud the humane impulse that prompted the act; but
General Banks might be less indulgent, and make very serious trouble
with me for taking a step he would perhaps regard as unwarrantable."
I still hesitated, undecided how to act, when suddenly a happy thought
struck me, and, turning to the girl, I added--
"To-day is Thursday: next Tuesday I leave this city With General
Butler for a land where, thank God! such wrongs as yours can not
exist; and, as General Banks is deeply engrossed in the immediate
business at head-quarters, he will hardly hear of my action before the
ship leaves--so I am going to give you the house."
I am sure the kind-hearted reader will find no fault with me that I
took particular pains to select one of the largest of her father's
houses, (it contained forty rooms,) when she told me that she wanted
to let the apartments as a means of support for herself and her
children.
My only regret in the case was that Mr. Cox had not been considerate
enough to leave a carriage and a pair of bays on my hands, that I
might have had the satisfaction of enabling his daughter to disport
herself about the city in a style corresponding to her importance as a
member of so respectable and wealthy a family.
And this story, that I have just told, reminds me of another, similar
in many respects.
One Sunday morning, late last summer, as I came down-stairs to the
breakfast-room, I was surprised to find a large number of persons
assembled in the library. When I reached the door, a member of the
staff took me by the arm and drew me into the room toward a young and
delicate mulatto girl, who was standing against the opposite wall,
with the meek, patient bearing of her race, so expressive of the
system of oppression to which they have been so long subjected.
Drawing down the border of her dress, my conductor showed me a sight
more revolting than I trust ever again to behold. The poor girl's back
was flayed until the quivering flesh resembled a fresh beefsteak
scorched on a gridiron. With a cold chill creeping through my veins, I
turned away from the sickening spectacle, and, for an explanation of
the affair, scanned the various persons about the room.
In the center of the group, at his writing-table, sat the General. His
head rested on his hand, and he was evidently endeavoring to fix his
attention upon the remarks of a tall, swarthy-looking man who stood
opposite, and who, I soon discovered, was the owner of the girl, and
was attempting a defense of the foul outrage he had committed upon the
unresisting and helpless person of his unfortunate victim, who stood
smarting, but silent, under the dreadful pain inflicted by the brutal
lash.
By the side of the slaveholder stood our Adjutant-General, his face
livid with almost irrepressible rage, and his fists tight-clenched, as
if to violently restrain himself from visiting the guilty wretch with
summary and retributive justice. Disposed about the room, in various
attitudes, but all exhibiting in their countenances the same mingling
of horror and indignation, were other members of the staff--while near
the door stood three or four house-servants, who were witnesses in
the case.
To the charge of having administered the inhuman castigation, Landry
(the owner of the girl) pleaded guilty, but urged, in extenuation,
that the girl had dared to make an effort for that freedom which her
instincts, drawn from the veins of her abuser, had taught her was the
God-given right of all who possess the germ of immortality,--no matter
what the color of the casket in which it is hidden. I say "drawn from
the veins of her abuser," because she declared she was his daughter;
and every one in the room, looking upon the man and woman confronting
each other, confessed that the resemblance justified the assertion.
After the conclusion of all the evidence in the case, the General
continued in the same position as before, and remained for some time
apparently lost in abstraction. I shall never forget the singular
expression on his face. I had been accustomed to see him in a storm of
passion at any instance of oppression or flagrant injustice; but on
this occasion he was too deeply affected to obtain relief in the usual
way. His whole air was one of dejection, almost listlessness; his
indignation too intense, and his anger too stern, to find expression
even in his countenance.
Never have I seen that peculiar look but on three or four occasions
similar to the one I am narrating, when I knew he was pondering upon
the fatal curse that had cast its withering blight upon all around,
until the manhood and humanity were crushed out of the people, and
outrages such as the above were looked upon with complacency, and the
perpetrators treated as respected and worthy citizens, and that he was
realizing the great truth, that, however man might endeavor to guide
this war to the advantage of a favorite idea or a sagacious policy,
the Almighty was directing it surely and steadily for the purification
of our country from this greatest of national sins.
But to return to my story. After sitting in the mood which I have
described at such length, the General again turned to the prisoner,
and said, in a quiet, subdued tone of voice--
"Mr. Landry, I dare not trust myself to decide to-day what punishment
would be meet for your offense, for I am in that state of mind that I
fear I might exceed the strict demands of justice. I shall, therefore,
place you under guard for the present, until I conclude upon your
sentence."
A few days after, a number of influential citizens having represented
to the General that Mr. Landry was not only a "high-toned gentleman,"
but a person of unusual "AMIABILITY" of character, and was,
consequently, entitled to no small degree of leniency, he answered
that, in consideration of the prisoner's "high-toned" character, and
especially of his "amiability," of which he had seen so remarkable a
proof, he had determined to meet their views, and therefore ordered
that Landry give a deed of manumission to the girl, and pay a fine of
five hundred dollars, to be placed in the hands of a trustee for her
benefit.
BEAUTIES OF THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION--A FEW WELL-SUBSTANTIATED FACTS.
A Mr. P----, deceased, of Gallatin, Tenn., for years a slave-trader,
had children both by his wife and her body-servant, a beautiful
mulatto woman--thus making, generally, the additions to his family in
_duplicate_. One of his illegitimate daughters--a beautiful,
hazel-eyed mulatto girl--is now the waiting-maid of his widow. This
bright mulatto girl is married to a slave belonging to a prominent
member of Congress from Tennessee, and has a son, a particularly apt
and intelligent boy, whom the rebel women used to send around the
camps, head-quarters, and street corners, to obtain the latest news,
and report the same to them. Although but eight years old, he was too
shrewd to remain quietly a slave. When the daughter of a Federal
officer opened a little school, to teach a few contrabands, he came,
and learned very rapidly. But his intellectual growth was suddenly
stopped by the interference of his _grand_mother, who followed him to
the school one day, and dragged him from the room in a perfect rage,
threatening to kill him if he ever dared enter a _free_-school again,
at the same time declaring to him that "he was not President Lincoln
yet."
Another instance: The wealthy and prominent Colonel G----, of
Gallatin, Tenn., a very _respectable_ and _high-toned_ gentleman, who
is reputed a _kind-hearted_ and benevolent man, _remarkably lenient_
toward his slaves, whose praise is in the mouths of our Northern
soldiers for his kind hospitalities, finding that his slaves, in view
of the coming difficulties, did not increase fast enough for profit,
called them all together on the 1st of January, 1862, and said to
them: "Now, wenches, mind, every one of you that aint 'big' in three
or four months, I intend to sell to the slave-trader." He afterward
chuckled over it, adding that it "brought them to terms." Comment
needless.
In the fall of 1861, in Piketon, Ky., at the headwaters of the Big
Sandy, were two families--one known as the Slone family, the other as
the Johnson family. The slaves of the former were all liberated about
seventeen years before, by a will, stipulating that they should remain
with his wife and work the plantation while she lived. Mrs. Slone died
about two years after her husband, and not only emancipated these
slaves, according to the last will and testament of her deceased
husband, but, as they had taken more care of the old lady in her
declining years than her sons, she thought it but equitable and right
to disinherit the sons and leave the remnant of a once large estate,
reduced to $9,000, to the slaves. But the gloating avarice of her
gambling sons, backed by a vile public sentiment, prompted these
unnatural sons to attempt to break the wills of their father and
mother. After litigating the case about twelve years, and having been
defeated in the highest courts in Kentucky, they went back and set up
a claim of $2,000 against their father's estate, when these despoiled
slaves had to deposit the last of their estate as security, having
been for more than twelve years thus harassed and perplexed by
vexatious lawsuits. When the Union army under General Nelson came into
that country, and had that trumpeted battle at Ivy Mountain, and our
troops reached Prestonburg, twenty-five miles from Piketon, these
hunted and plundered ones concluded that _now_ was the time for them
to escape to the "promised land." They gathered together their little
_all_, cut fifty or sixty saw-logs, made a raft, loaded their worldly
goods on it, and floated down the river. When they reached
Prestonburg, General Nelson had them arrested, cut their raft to
pieces, and sent them back to Piketon. Afterward, when our troops,
under the intrepid Garfield, moved up the river, and made their
head-quarters at Piketon, these tormented and persecuted ones were
told that now they might avail themselves of the Government boats to
go down the river and leave the land of their tormentors.
The Johnson family slaves were liberated, at the death of their owner,
by a will, the writer and executor of which had run off into the rebel
army, carrying it with him. A distant relative of Mr. Johnson, a
worthless, shiftless, ignorant fellow, moved upon the plantation, and
claimed not only the property, but the slaves. "When our troops were
about leaving Piketon, the most intelligent of the Slone family asked
of Captain H----, A. A. Q. M., the privilege of using a push-boat to
transport the family down the river. Consent was given them, and, the
next morning, the _two_ families gathered together, the old and young,
men and women and children, numbering fifty-nine souls, and started
down the river. Colonel C----, commanding the post, had them arrested,
and ordered them back. One of his own officers represented to him that
these people had an order for the boat from General Garfield, and,
becoming alarmed, he let them go upon their way. Soon, however, the
biped hounds were on their track, in hot pursuit. Two slaves, married
into these families, had escaped and followed this boat-load. Although
their villainous masters had fought in the rebel army, they were
furnished with passes to pursue their fleeing slaves, under the
protection of the United States arms. These pursuers, weary and
exhausted, stopped at a slave-trader's above Paintsville, where a
large bend in the river enabled them to gain several miles by a cross
cut, took horses, and arrived at foot of Buffalo Shoals just as the
boat-load of fifty-nine frightened souls were going over it. They at
once leveled their rifles, and ordered the boat to lie-to, supposing
their slaves were aboard. They did so, and occupied a small vacant hut
on the bank of the river, awaiting a Government boat that would be
down on the following morning. Early the next morning, (Sunday,) two
lewd fellows of the baser sort, pursuing them in a skiff, landed at
the place of rendezvous, and were about to rush into the cabin, when
the leader of the negroes stopped them, saying:
"Porter and Radcliff, _you can't enter here_; we have none of your
slaves."
But the boldest of these desperadoes, tiger-like, crouched on his
hands and knees, and got in the rear of the cabin. Then, suddenly
rushing upon the old man, said, "Damn you, I'll shoot you any way,"
and fired, the ball lodging in the abdomen. He continued to fire,
indiscriminately, into the group of women and children, hitting one
girl in the knee, and a younger child on the side of the head. Then
these cowardly miscreants rushed away, but not until a ball from the
rifle of one of these freedmen took effect in the thigh of Radcliff.
These men seemed to love the negro so well that they were not willing
to let even freedmen leave the State, if they have but the least taint
of African blood in their veins; and now they stand as sentinels
around the tottering bastile, lest some of the victims escape.
Another instance: In Hospital No. 2, in Gallatin, there is now at work
a girl eighteen years of age, of pure Anglo-Saxon blood. This girl's
reputed mother says, that when her own child was born, it was taken
away from her, and this white child put in its place. She is satisfied
it was the illegitimate child of her master's daughter, which she had
_by her own father_.
In September, 1862, at Stevenson, Alabama, in collecting contrabands
to work on the fortifications, we found a _white man_, sixty-three
years old, who had all his life been compelled to herd with negroes.
He had been forced to live with four different black women as his
wives, by whom he had twenty-eight children. Colonel Straight, of the
51st Indiana Regiment, saw one of the old man's daughters, and said
she was as white and had as beautiful blue eyes as any girl he ever
saw in his own State. His was the same sad story--that he was an
illegitimate son of his master's daughter, in Virginia; was taken to
the slave-pen, where, with one hundred and twenty-seven others, he was
raised for the market. We started him to Governor Morton, of Indiana,
as a specimen of the men made chattels, and for which the South was
fighting. He was captured on his way North. This is wickedness,
"naked, but not ashamed."
We copy the following from the Montgomery (Alabama) _Advertiser_:
One Hundred Dollars Reward--Or Fifty Dollars if arrested in
the State, will be paid for the arrest and confinement in
jail, so that I may get him, of my boy Lewis, who left home
on Sunday, the 14th inst. Lewis is about five feet, seven
inches high, _light complexion, nearly white_, spare made,
well dressed, wore mustache and goatee, quick to reply when
spoken to, has "traveled," and _may attempt to pass for a
white person_; he may endeavor to get to Richmond, where his
mother and family reside.
William Foster.
Tuskegee, Ala., _June 14, 1863_.
We suppose that this "nearly white" slave, who, it is suspected, will
try to "pass for a white person," is William Foster's grandson, or
perhaps his own offspring. Foster, no doubt, thinks that the negro is
indebted to slavery for his moral and religious training. We advise
the conservative journals to copy the above advertisement, and comment
indignantly on the practice of amalgamation. The occasion will be a
good one; and we assure them that the instances are as plenty as
blackberries in Dixie.
At Athens, Alabama, in the summer of 1862, when that noble, earnest,
and efficient officer, General Turchin, was court-martialed because he
_hurt_ the rebels of that State, General G---- was invited to make his
head-quarters at Dr. Nicklin's, one of the largest slaveholders in
that part of the State, a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and really a highly cultivated and courteous gentleman. One
day he charged the General with being _radical_. The General said,
"No, I'm only a Republican; but I have a most radical commissary on
my staff." The next day the radical commissary was invited to the
house by Mrs. N----, who said she "wanted to see a Yankee who would
not deny being an Abolitionist." While at dinner the Doctor proposed
to investigate the causes of our wide differences. Captain H----
remarked at the same time:
"Would it not be better, while enjoying your hospitalities, to talk
upon subjects of agreement?"
"No," said the Doctor; "we arrive at truth only by comparing notes."
"Then," the Captain said, "I must be a freeman, and talk from my own
platform."
"Certainly," was the answer.
"Then," said the Captain, "you are on trial. You must give a reason
for the hope within you. We charge you with having commenced a wicked
and causeless war. And now give us your reasons for it."
"Well, in the first place, the Abolitionists are fighting against the
Bible, and against God. The Bible, an express revelation from Heaven,
says, 'When these servants, or slaves, are to be procured of the
heathen round about you, of them shall ye buy, and they shall be your
possession forever.' That settles the question of _moral_ right; and
in relation to the political question, you were for excluding us from
the territories, when they were manifestly ours equal with yours.
We had the same right there with our property that you had. Equality
of rights was the cardinal principle of our Government. In your
political action you strike a blow at the very foundation of our
Government--equality of rights."
To which Captain H---- replied: "Though not much of a theologian, I
have, nevertheless, looked into the Levitical law, and found a
paragraph like the following: 'He that stealeth a man, or selleth him,
or if he be found in his hands, shall surely be put to death.' Let us
analyze this 'stealeth a man'--the _foreign_ slave-trader--'and
selleth him'--the American slave-seller, or, 'if he be found in his
hands'--the American slaveholder. If you will show me how any of these
can escape punishment, then I will pursue the Biblical argument. In
regard to the political question, the citizen of Ohio and the citizen
of Alabama are treated just alike. A citizen of Ohio can take his
household goods, merchandise, and cattle into the territories. A
citizen from Alabama has the _same_ right, but he can not take his
slave; nor yet can a citizen of Ohio. Hence, they _have_ equal
rights."
At the close of the discussion the Doctor said, that "his neighbors
were greatly alarmed when the Union army came into the district, for
fear the slaves would leave them; but I said to my slaves, 'If you
prefer to go away and leave me, do so: come and tell me; don't sneak
away at night with your little bundle, but come right up and tell me,
"We want to leave," and I will give you five dollars, and let you go,
with this condition, that you never show your faces around my
plantation.'"
Captain H---- looked as though it were doubtful, but said nothing.
About a week afterward, the Doctor said to the General--
"I want you to take a ride with me over to the plantation. You
Northern men don't know how well our slaves love us. Whenever I go to
see them, they run out to meet me; inquire after my wife and children
with as much interest as _your_ children would inquire after you."
The General said he "would be glad to avail himself of the opportunity
to see the workings of their system," and started off with the Doctor.
On the way down, the Doctor remarked that he "had another reason for
wishing him to go down;" that "there were three cases of
insubordination, and I want to show you _my mode_ of controlling
slaves. When I told your Abolition commissary, Captain H----, the
other day, how I managed my boys, I saw he did not believe one word I
said. Now I want you to see for yourself; then you can convince him."
Arriving at the plantation, sure enough, the slaves came out, and made
special inquiries about his wife and family. The General said that the
saddest sight of all was, that all these women and _children_ gave
promise to increase the number of slaves--girls eleven years old were
among these.
The Doctor called up the culprits and addressed the principal
offender. "Aleck," said he, "unless you submit to the mild punishment
of our plantation discipline, all order and discipline will be lost.
You know my rule. I have told you before, whenever you are not
satisfied, just say so, and I will let you go. What do you say, Aleck,
Bob, and Dick?"
Bowing very low, the darkeys said, "Well, den, massa, gib us de fibe
dollars and we go."
He turned pale, and, being utterly dumfounded, after regaining
himself, and _not giving_ them the money, said, "Be off, then!" He had
too much of the Southern chivalry to back out, and came away a wiser
if not a better man, but said "nary word" about convincing the
Abolition commissary.