From the "Natchez (Miss.) Daily Free Trader," Feb. 12, 1838.
"_Found_.--A NEGRO"S HEAD WAS PICKED UP ON THE RAIL-ROAD YESTERDAY, WHICH THE OWNER CAN HAVE BY CALLING AT THIS OFFICE AND PAYING FOR THE ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT."
The way in which slaveholding "public opinion" protects a poor female lunatic is ill.u.s.trated in the following advertis.e.m.e.nt in the "Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer," June 27, 1838:
"Taken and committed to jail, a negro girl named Nancy, who is supposed to belong to Spencer P. Wright, of the State of Georgia. She is about 30 years of age, and is a LUNATIC. The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take her away, or SHE WILL BE SOLD TO PAY HER JAIL FEES.
FRED"K HOME, Jailor."
A late PROSPECTUS Of the South Carolina Medical College, located in Charleston, contains the following pa.s.sage:--
"Some advantages of a _peculiar_ character are connected with this Inst.i.tution, which it may be proper to point out. No place in the United States offers as great opportunities for the acquisition of anatomical knowledge, SUBJECTS BEING OBTAINED FROM AMONG THE COLORED POPULATION IN SUFFICIENT NUMBER FOR EVERY PURPOSE, AND PROPER DISSECTIONS CARRIED ON WITHOUT OFFENDING ANY INDIVIDUALS IN THE COMMUNITY!!"
_Without offending any individuals in the community_! More than half the population of Charleston, we believe, is "colored;" _their_ graves may be ravaged, their dead may be dug up, dragged into the dissecting room, exposed to the gaze, heartless gibes, and experimenting knives, of a crowd of inexperienced operators, who are given to understand in the prospectus, that, if they do not acquire manual dexterity in dissection, it will be wholly their own fault, in neglecting to improve the unrivalled advantages afforded by the inst.i.tution--since each can have as many human bodies as he pleases to experiment upon--and as to the fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, and sisters, of those whom they cut to pieces from day to day, why, they are not "individuals in the community," but "property," and however _their_ feelings may be tortured, the "public opinion" of slaveholders is entirely too "chivalrous" to degrade itself by caring for them!
The following which has been for some time a standing advertis.e.m.e.nt of the South Carolina Medical College, in the Charleston papers, is another index of the same "public opinion" toward slaves. We give an extract:--
"_Surgery of the Medical College of South Carolina, Queen st_.--The Faculty inform their professional brethren, and the public that they have established a _Surgery_, at the Old College, Queen street, FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEGROES, which will continue in operation, during the session of the College, say from first November, to the fifteenth of March ensuing.
"The _object_ of the Faculty, in opening this Surgery, is to collect as _many interesting cases_, as possible, for the _benefit_ and _instruction_ of their pupils--at the same time, they indulge the hope, that it may not only prove an _accommodation_, but also a matter of economy to the public. They would respectfully call the attention of planters, living in the vicinity of the city, to this subject; particularly such as may have servants laboring under Surgical diseases. Such _persons of color_ as may not be able to pay for Medical advice, will be attended to gratis, at stated hours, as often as may be necessary.
"The Faculty take this opportunity of soliciting the co-operation of such of their professional brethren, as are favorable to their objects."
"The first thing that strikes the reader of the advertis.e.m.e.nt is, that this _Surgery_ is established exclusively "for the treatment of _negroes_; and, if he knows little of the hearts of slaveholders towards their slaves, he charitably supposes, that they "feel the dint of pity," for the poor sufferers and have founded this inst.i.tution as a special charity for their relief. But the delusion vanishes as he reads on; the professors take special care that no such derogatory inference shall be drawn from their advertis.e.m.e.nt. They give us the three reasons which have induced them to open this "Surgery for the treatment of negroes." The first and main one is, "to collect as many _interesting cases_ as possible for the benefit and instruction of their _pupils_--another is, "the hope that it may prove an _accommodation_,"--and the third, that it may be "a matter of economy to the _public_" Another reason, doubtless, and controlling one, though the professors are silent about it, is that a large collection of "interesting surgical cases," always on hand, would prove a powerful attraction to students, and greatly increase the popularity of the inst.i.tution. In brief, then, the motives of its founders, the professors, were these, the accommodation of their _students_--the accommodation of the _public_ (which means, _the whites_)--and the accommodation of slaveholders who have on their hands disabled slaves, that would make "interesting cases," for surgical operation in the presence of the pupils--to these reasons we may add the accommodation of the Medical Inst.i.tution and the accommodation of _themselves_! Not a syllable about the _accommodation_ of the hopeless sufferers, writhing with the agony of those gun shot wounds, fractured sculls, broken limbs and ulcerated backs which const.i.tute the "interesting cases" for the professors to "show off" before their pupils, and, as practice makes perfect, for the students themselves to try their hands at by way of experiment.
Why, we ask, was this surgery established "for the treatment of _negroes"_ alone? Why were these "interesting cases" selected from that cla.s.s exclusively? No man who knows the feeling of slave holders towards slaves will be at a loss for the reason. "Public opinion"
would tolerate surgical experiments, operations, processes, performed upon them, which it would execrate if performed upon their master or other whites. As the great object in collecting the disabled negroes is to have "interesting cases" for the students, the professors who perform the operations will of course endeavor to make them as "interesting" as possible. The _instruction of the student_ is the immediate object, and if the professors can accomplish it best by _protracting_ the operation, pausing to explain the different processes, &c. the subject is only a negro, and what is his protracted agony, that it should restrain the professor from making the case as "interesting" as possible to the students by so using his knife as will give them the best knowledge of the parts, and the process, however it may protract or augment the pain of the subject. The _end_ to be accomplished is the _instruction_ of the student, operations upon the negroes are the _means_ to the end; _that_ tells the whole story--and he who knows the hearts of slaveholders and has common sense, however short the allowance, can find the way to his conclusions without a lantern.
By an advertis.e.m.e.nt of the same Medical Inst.i.tution, dated November 12, 1838, and published in the Charleston papers, it appears that an "infirmary has been opened in connection with the college." The professors manifest a great desire that the masters of servants should send in their disabled slaves, and as an inducement to the furnishing of such _interesting cases_ say, all medical and surgical aid will be offered _without making them liable to any professional charges_.
Disinterested bounty, pity, sympathy, philanthropy. However difficult or numerous the surgical cases of slaves thus put into their hands by the masters, they charge not a cent for their _professional services_.
Their yearnings over human distress are so intense, that they beg the privilege of performing all operations, and furnishing all the medical attention needed, _gratis_, feeling that the relief of misery is its own reward!!! But we have put down our exclamation points too soon--upon reading the whole of the advertis.e.m.e.nt we find the professors conclude it with the following paragraph:--
"The SOLE OBJECT Of the faculty in the establishment of such an inst.i.tution being to promote the interest of Medical Education within their native State and City."
In the "Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury" of October 12, 1838, we find an advertis.e.m.e.nt of half a column, by a Dr. T. Stillman, setting forth the merits of another "Medical Infirmary," under his own special supervision, at No. 110 Church street, Charleston. The doctor, after inveighing loudly against "men totally ignorant of medical science,"
who flood the country with quack nostrums backed up by "fabricated proofs of miraculous cures," proceeds to enumerate the diseases to which his "Infirmary" is open, and to which his practice will be mainly confined. Appreciating the importance of "interesting cases,"
as a stock in trade, on which to commence his experiments, he copies the example of the medical professors, and advertises for them. But, either from a keener sense of justice, or more generosity, or greater confidence in his skill, or for some other reason, he proposes to _buy up_ an a.s.sortment of _damaged_ negroes, given over, as incurable, by others, and to make such his "interesting cases," instead of experimenting on those who are the "property" of others.
Dr. Stillman closes his advertis.e.m.e.nt with the following notice:--
"To PLANTERS AND OTHERS.--Wanted _fifty negroes_. Any person having sick negroes, considered incurable by their respective physicians, and wishing to dispose of them, Dr. S. will pay cash for negroes affected with scrofula or king"s evil, confirmed hypocondriasm, apoplexy, diseases of the liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach and intestines, bladder and its appendages, diarrhea, dysentery, &c. The highest cash price will be paid on application as above."
The absolute barbarism of a "public opinion" which not only tolerates, but _produces_ such advertis.e.m.e.nts as this, was outdone by nothing in the dark ages. If the reader has a heart of flesh, he can feel it without help, and if he has not, comment will not create it. The total indifference of slaveholders to such a cold blooded proposition, their utter unconsciousness of the paralysis of heart, and death of sympathy, and every feeling of common humanity for the slave, which it reveals, is enough, of itself to show that the tendency of the spirit of slaveholding is, to kill in the soul whatever it touches. It has no eyes to see, nor ears to hear, nor mind to understand, nor heart to feel for its victims as _human beings_. To show that the above indication of the savage state is not an index of individual feeling, but of "public opinion," it is sufficient to say, that it appears to be a standing advertis.e.m.e.nt in the Charleston Mercury, the leading political paper of South Carolina, the organ of the Honorables John C.
Calhoun, Robert Barnwell Rhett, Hugh S. Legare, and others regarded as the elite of her statesmen and literati. Besides, candidates for popular favor, like the doctor who advertises for the fifty "incurables," take special care to conciliate, rather than outrage, "public opinion." Is the doctor so ignorant of "public opinion" in his own city, that he has unwittingly committed violence upon it in his advertis.e.m.e.nt? We trow not. The same "public opinion" which gave birth to the advertis.e.m.e.nt of doctor Stillman, and to those of the professors in both the medical inst.i.tutions, founded the Charleston "Work House"--a soft name for a Moloch temple dedicated to torture, and reeking with blood, in the midst of the city; to which masters and mistresses send their slaves of both s.e.xes to be stripped, tied up, and cut with the lash till the blood and mangled flesh flow to their feet, or to be beaten and bruised with the terrible paddle, or forced to climb the tread-mill till nature sinks, or to experience other nameless torments.
The "Vicksburg (Miss.) Register," Dec. 27, 1838, contains the following item of information: "ARDOR IN BETTING.--Two gentlemen, at a tavern, having summoned the waiter, the poor fellow had scarcely entered, when he fell down in a fit of apoplexy. "He"s dead!"
exclaimed one. "He"ll come to!" replied the other. "Dead, for five hundred!" "Done!" retorted the second. The noise of the fall, and the confusion which followed, brought up the landlord, who called out to fetch a doctor. "No! no! we must have no interference--there"s a bet depending!" "But, sir, I shall lose a valuable servant!" "Never mind!
you can put him down in the bill!""
About the time the Vicksburg paper containing the above came to hand, we received a letter from N.P. ROGERS, Esq. of Concord, N.H. the editor of the "Herald of Freedom," from which the following is an extract:
"Some thirty years ago, I think it was, Col. Thatcher, of Maine, a lawyer, was in Virginia, on business, and was there invited to dine at a public house, with a company of the gentry of the south. _The place_ I forget--the fact was told me by George Kimball, Esq. now of Alton, Illinois who had the story from Col. Thatcher himself. Among the servants waiting was a young negro man, whose beautiful person, obliging and a.s.siduous temper, and his activity and grace in serving, made him a favorite with the company. The dinner lasted into the evening, and the wine pa.s.sed freely about the table. At length, one of the gentlemen, who was pretty highly excited with wine, became unfortunately incensed, either at some trip of the young slave, in waiting, or at some other cause happening when the slave was within his reach. He seized the long-necked wine bottle, and struck the young man suddenly in the temple, and felled him dead upon the floor. The fall arrested, for a moment, the festivities of the table. "Devilish unlucky," exclaimed one. "The gentleman is very unfortunate," cried another. "Really a loss," said a third, &c, &c. The body was dragged from the dining hall, and the feast went on; and at the close, one of the gentlemen, and the very one, I believe, whose hand had done the homicide, shouted, in baccha.n.a.lian bravery, and _southern generosity_, amid the broken gla.s.ses and fragments of chairs, "LANDLORD! PUT THE n.i.g.g.e.r INTO THE BILL!" This was that murdered young man"s _requiem and funeral service_."
Mr. GEORGE A. AVERY, a merchant in Rochester, New York, and an elder in the Fourth Presbyterian Church in that city, who resided four years in Virginia, gives the following testimony:
"I knew a young man who had been out hunting, and returning with some of his friends, seeing a negro man in the road, at a little distance, deliberately drew up his rifle, and shot him dead. This was done without the slightest provocation, or a word pa.s.sing. This young man pa.s.sed through the _form_ of a trial, and, although it was not even _pretended_ by his counsel that he was not guilty of the act, deliberately and wantonly perpetrated, _he was acquitted_. It was urged by his counsel, that he was a _young_ man, (about 20 years of age,) had no _malicious_ intention, his mother was a widow, &c, &c"
Mr. BENJAMIN CLENDENON, of Colerain, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, a member of the Society of Friends, gives the following testimony:
"Three years ago the coming month, I took a journey of about seventy-five miles from home, through the eastern sh.o.r.e of Maryland, and a small part of Delaware. Calling one day, near noon, at Georgetown Cross-Roads, I found myself surrounded in the tavern by slaveholders. Among other subjects of conversation, their human cattle came in for a share. One of the company, a middle-aged man, then living with a second wife, acknowledged, that after the death of his first wife, he lived in a state of concubinage with a female slave; but when the time drew near for the taking of a second wife, he found it expedient to remove the slave from the premises. The same person gave an account of a female slave he formerly held, who had a propensity for some one pursuit, I think the attendance of religious meetings. On a certain occasion, she presented her pet.i.tion to him, asking for this indulgence; he refused--she importuned--and he, with sovereign indignation, seized a chair, and with a blow upon the head, knocked her senseless upon the floor. The same person, for some act of disobedience, on the part, I think, of the same slave, when employed in stacking straw, felled her to the earth with the handle of a pitch fork. All these transactions were related with the _utmost composure_, in a bar-room within thirty miles of the Pennsylvania line."
The two following advertis.e.m.e.nts are ill.u.s.trations of the regard paid to the marriage relations by slaveholding judges, governors, senators in Congress, and mayors of cities.
From the "Montgomery, (Ala.) Advertiser," Sept. 29, 1837.
"$20 REWARD.--Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man named Moses. He is of common size, about 28 years old. He formerly belonged to Judge Benson, of Montgomery, and it is said, has a wife in that county. John Gayle"
The John Gayle who signs this advertis.e.m.e.nt, is an Ex-Governor of Alabama.
From the "Charleston Courier," Nov. 28.
"Ranaway from the subscriber, about twelve months since, his negro man Paulladore. His complexion is dark--about 50 years old. I understand Gen. R.Y. Hayne has purchased his wife and children from H.L.
Pinckney, Esq. and has them now on his plantation, at Goose Creek, where, no doubt, the fellow is frequently lurking. Thomas Davis."
It is hardly necessary to say, that the GENERAL R.Y. HAYNE, and H.L.
PINCKNEY, Esq. named in the advertis.e.m.e.nt, are Ex-Governor Hayne, formerly U.S. Senator from South Carolina, and Hon. Henry L.
Pinckney, late member of Congress from Charleston District, and now Intendant (mayor) of that city.
It is no difficult matter to get at the "public opinion" of a community, when _ladies_ "of property and standing" publish, under their own names, such advertis.e.m.e.nts as the following.
Mrs. ELIZABETH L. CARTER, of Groveton, Prince William county, Virginia, thus advertises her negro man Moses:
"Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man named Moses, aged about 40 years, about six feet high, well made, and possessing a good address, and HAS LOST A PART ON ONE OF HIS EARS."
Mrs. B. NEWMAN, of the same place, and in the same paper, advertises--
"Penny, the wife of Moses, aged about 30 years, brown complexion, tall and likely, _no particular marks of person recollected._"
Both of the above advertis.e.m.e.nts appear in the National Intelligencer, (Washington city,) June 10, 1837.
In the Mobile Mercantile Advertiser, of Feb. 13, 1838, is an advertis.e.m.e.nt Signed SARAH WALSH, of which the following is an extract:
"Twenty-five dollars reward will be paid to any one who may apprehend and deliver to me, or confine in any jail, so that, I can get him, my man Isaac, who ranaway sometime in September last. He is 26 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches high, has a _scar on his forehead, caused by a blow_, and one on his back, MADE BY A SHOT FROM A PISTOL."
In the "New Orleans Bee," Dec. 21, 1838, Mrs. BURVANT, whose residence is at the corner of Chartres and Toulouse streets, advertises a woman as follows: