CHAPTER XXXV. THE CURSE OF SLAVERY.
The demoralization which the institution entailed upon all classes in the community in which it existed, was indeed fearful to contemplate; and we may well say that slavery is the curse of curses. While it made the victim a mere chattel, taking from him every characteristic of manhood, it degraded the mind of the master, brutalized his feelings, seared his conscience, and destroyed his moral sense.
Immorality to a great extent, pervaded every slaveholding city, town, village, and dwelling in the South. Morality and virtue were always the exceptions. The Southern clergy, backed by the churches, defended their right to hold slaves to the last. Houses of religious worship and the negro pen were often in sight of each other.
The Southern newspapers teemed with advertisements, which were a fair index to this monstrous social evil.
Now that slavery is swept away, it may be interesting to see some of these newspaper notices, in the light of the new dispensation of freedom.
The New Orleans “True Delta” in 1853, graced its columns with the following: “Mr. Joseph Jennings respectfully informs his friends and the public, that, at the request of many of his acquaintances, he has been induced to purchase from Mr. Osborn, of Missouri, the celebrated dark bay horse “Star,” age five years, square trotter, and warranted sound, with a new light-trotting buggy and harness; also the stout mulatto girl “Sarah,” aged about twenty years, general house servant, valued at nine hundred dollars, and guaranteed; will be raffled for at four o’clock, P. M., February 1st, at any hotel selected by the subscribers.
“The above is as represented, and those persons who may wish to engage in the usual practice of raffling will, I assure them, be perfectly satisfied with their destiny in this affair.
“Fifteen hundred chances, at one dollar each.
“The whole is valued at its just worth, fifteen hundred dollars.
“The raffle will be conducted by gentlemen selected by the interested subscribers present. Five nights allowed to complete the raffle. Both of above can be seen at my store, No. 78 Common Street, second door from Camp, at from 9 o’clock, A. M., till half-past two, P. M.
“Highest throw takes the first choice; the lowest throw the remaining prize, and the fortunate winners to pay twenty dollars each, for the refreshments furnished for the occasion.”
The “Picayune,” of the same city, gives the following:
“$100 Reward.—Run away from the plantation of the undersigned, the negro man Shedrick, a preacher, five feet nine inches high, about forty years old, but looking not over twenty-three, stamped N. E. on the breast, and having both small toes cut off. He is of a very dark complexion, with eyes small, but bright, and a look quite insolent. He dresses good, and was arrested as a runaway at Donaldsonville, some three years ago. The above reward will be paid for his arrest, by addressing Messrs. Armant Brothers, St. James Parish, or A. Miltenberger & Co., 30 Carondelet Street.”
A Savannah (Georgia) paper has the annexed notice.
“Committed to prison, three weeks ago, under suspicious circumstances, a negro woman, who calls herself Phebe, or Phillis. Says she is free, and lately from Beaufort District, South Carolina. Said woman is about fifty years of age, stout in stature, mild-spoken, five feet four inches high, and weighs about one hundred and forty pounds. Having made diligent inquiry by letter, and from what I can learn, said woman is a runaway. Any person owning said slave can get her by making application to me, properly authenticated.”
The practice of capturing runaway slaves, with blood-hounds trained for the purpose, during the days of slave rule in the South, is well known. We give below one of the advertisements as it appeared in print at the time.
“The undersigned, having an excellent pack of hounds for trailing and catching runaway slaves, informs the public that his prices in future will be as follows for such services:
| For each day employed in hunting or trailing | $2.50 |
| For catching each slave | 10.00 |
| For going over ten miles, and catching slaves | 20.00 |
“If sent for, the above prices will be exacted in cash. The subscriber resides one mile and a half south of Dadeville, Ala.
“B. Black.”
Slavery so completely seared the conscience of the whites of the South, that they had no feeling of compassion for the blacks, as the following illustration will show. At St. Louis, in the year 1835, Francis McIntosh, a free colored man, while defending himself from an attack of white ruffians, one of the latter was killed. At once the colored man was taken, chained to a tree, and burnt to death. One of the newspapers at the time gave the following account of the inhuman affair:—
“All was silent as death while the executioners were piling wood around their victim. He said not a word, until feeling that the flames had seized upon him. He then uttered an awful howl, attempting to sing and pray, then hung his head, and suffered in silence, except in the following instance. After the flames had surrounded their prey, his eyes burnt out of his head, and his mouth seemingly parched to a cinder, some one in the crowd, more compassionate than the rest, proposed to put an end to his misery by shooting him, when it was replied, ‘That would be of no use, since he was already out of pain.’ ‘No, no,’ said the wretch, ‘I am not, I am suffering as much as ever; shoot me, shoot me.’ ‘No, no,’ said one of the fiends who was standing about the sacrifice they were roasting, ‘he shall not be shot. I would sooner slacken the fire, if it would increase his misery;’ and the man who said this was, as we understand, an officer of justice!”
Lest this demonstration of “public opinion” should be regarded as a sudden impulse merely, not an index of the settled tone of feeling in that community, it is important to add, that the Hon. Luke E. Lawless, Judge of the Circuit Court of Missouri, at a session of that court in the city of St. Louis, some months after the burning of this man, decided officially that since the burning of McIntosh was the act, either directly or by countenance of a majority of the citizens, it is “a case which transcends the jurisdiction” of the Grand Jury! Thus the State of Missouri proclaimed to the world that the wretches who perpetrated that unspeakably diabolical murder, and the thousands that stood by consenting to it, were her representatives, and the Bench sanctified it with the solemnity of a judicial decision.