I come now to another, and I believe the most extraordinary exhibition
of degradation to which human nature can be reduced; and here I would
gladly pass it by, and if it were possible, I would forever conceal
from my countrymen, not only this complete annihilation from the human
breast of every particle of self-respect that keeps man above the
brute, but the most blighting and damning national disgrace that was
ever exhibited. It is the connections that are formed between white
men and colored women who are slaves. Individuals there are, of the
first _respectability_, who take for their bed companions not only
the Quadroon, but those of darker hue, and frequently those of the
blackest shade, and live with them as with a wife, and by whom they
have large families. As an instance of this kind, the late collector
of the port of New Orleans, a man who was the recipient of government
favor, and receiving a salary of six thousand dollars a year, has lived
for years with a mulatto woman, by whom he has had six children; and
finally becoming displeased with her in the fall of 1847, he discarded
her, and since has taken for his companion one of his own slaves, who
is as black as charcoal. Another instance: One of the first lawyers
in the city, a man of transcendent powers of eloquence and ability,
has had for his bed companion for the last four years a black woman,
a slave that he hires, and pays her master fifteen dollars a month.
Another lawyer, a native of New York, and brother of one of the most
distinguished judges in the State, had for his bed companion a mulatto
girl for seven years. During this time he was paying his addresses to a
highly accomplished young lady in the city, and last winter was married
to her. His new _white companion_ of course required him to discard his
black one. After he was married, the poor discarded slave who had been
his devoted companion for years, and had watched and nursed him through
long and dreary nights of sickness, and whose very soul was the living
embodiment of woman’s pure affection, became a raving maniac. She
rushed in all the horrors of her madness to the River, and attempted to
drown herself, yet was saved by a flash of returning reason that came
over her, and she was thus left another living monument of the deep and
damning shame that should forever follow him, who has thus outraged
every moral impulse of the human soul. And it will follow him, although
not in pointing the finger of scorn at him as he walks the streets,
for he has not violated any of the conventional rules of the moral
sense of the community in which he lives. But in his own conscience and
heart will he find an image, that when he calls it up before him, will
change the warm current of his blood into a blush of remorse and shame
upon his cheek. There are hundreds of instances of this kind, men of
the first respectability, having for their bed companions slave women
of every degree of color, from the darkest hue to the soft and mellow
tinge of the beautiful Quadroon. Another exhibition in these alliances
is, a man by the name of B----, a celebrated sportsman, and owner of
the race course opposite the city, and known to all the gentlemen of
the turf in this country. He is a man of great wealth, and is regarded
as second on the list of horse racers and sportsmen in this country,
Col. Johnson being at the head. He has had a mulatto woman for his bed
companion for years, and has now living four children--one son and
three daughters. A young man from the North, by the name of P----, who
was engaged in training horses, and had charge of his stable, married
one of his daughters, a beautiful Quadroon girl, well educated and
highly accomplished. Her father hired him to marry her by giving him a
large sum of money.