The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-02 00:00:00

I FRIGHTFUL ILLUSTRATION

OF SLAVERY.

The following is the leading editorial article in the
last Essex Transcript (American paper) :
" Many of our readers have probably seen a para-
graph statinc, that a young slave-girl was recently
hanged at New Orleans, for the crime of striking and
abusing her mistress. The religious press of the North
has not, so far as we are aware, made any comments
upon this execution. It is too busy pulling the mote
out of the eye of the Heathen, to notice the beam
in our nominal Christianity at home. Yet this case,
viewed in all its aspects, is an atrocity which has, God
be thanked, no parallel in heathen lands. It is a
hideous offshoot of American Republicanism and Ame-
rican Christianity. It seems that Pauline—a young
and beautiful girl—attracted the admiration of her
master, and being, to use the words of the law, his
"chattel personal to all intents and purposes whatso-
ever," became the victim of his lust. So wretched is
the condition of the slave-woman that even the brutal
and licentious regard of her master is looked upon as
the highest exaltation of which her lot is susceptible.
The slave-girl in this instance evidently so regarded it ;
and, as a natural consequence, in her new condition
triumphed over and insulted her new mistress—in other
words, repaid in some degree the scorn and abuse with
which her mistress had made her painfully familiar.
The laws of the Christian State of Mississippi inflict
the punishment of death upon the slave who lifts his or
her hand against a white person. Pauline was accused
of beating her mistress, tried, and found guilty, and con-
demned to die. But it was discovered on the trial that
she was in a condition to become a mother, and her exe-
cution was delayed until the birth of her child. She
was returned to her prison-cell. There for many weary
months, uncheered by the voice of kindness, alone,
hopeless, desolate, she waited for the advent of the new
and quickening life within her, which was to be the
signal of her own miserable death. And the bells there
called to mass and prayer-meeting, and Methodists
sang, and Baptists immersed, and Presbyterians sprin-
kled—and young mothers smiled through tears upon
their new-born children ; and maidens and matrons of
that great city sat in their cool verandahs and talked of
love and household joys, and domestic happiness—while
all that dreary time the poor slave-girl lay on the
scanty straw of her dungeon, waiting with what agony
the dear and pitying God of the white and the ulack
only knows, for the birth of the child of her adulterous
master. Horrible !—Was ever what George Sand
justly terms the great martyrdom of maternity "—that
fearful trial which love alone converts into joy unspeak-
able—endured under such conditions !—What was her
substitute for the kind voices and gentle soothings of
affection ? The harsh grating of her prison lock—the
mockings and taunts of unfeeling and brutal keepers !
What with the poor Pauline took the place of the hopes
and joyful anticipations which support and solace the
white mother, and make her couch of torture, happy with
sweet dreams ? The prospect of seeing the child of her
sorrow, of feeling its lips upon her bosom, of hearing its
feeble cry—alone, unvisited of its unnatural father ; and
thenstrongest, n a
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infant from her arms. the death march to the gallows,
the rope round her delicate neck, and her long and dread-
ful struggles (for attenuated and worn by physical suf-
I faring and mentil sorrow, her slight frame had not
sufficient weight left to produce the dislocation of her
neck, on the falling of the drop), swinging there alive
for nearly half an hour—a spectacle for fiends, in the
shape of humanity. Mothers of New England ! such
are the fruits of slavery. 0, in the
name of the blessed
God, teach your child ren to hate it and to pity its vic-
tims. Petty politiciansandempty-headed Congress
debaters are vastlyconcerned
m lest the " honour of the
country" should be compromised mised in the matter of the
Oregon boundary, Fools
as this murder of poor Pauline such horrible atrocity
deeply to warrant any further display compromises" us too
It would "compromise" Paradise itself. their patriotism.
An intelligent
and philanthropic European gentleman 'A 'ho was in New
Orleans at
the time of the execution,
friend in this vicinity, after detailing the n a
circumstances
letter to a
of the revolting atftir, exclaims. " God of goodness
God of justice l—there mast be a Future State to redressss
wrongs of this. lam almost tempted
the to say,
there
must be a future state, or no God ;"

went into a store in
a shawl , justre as she
i
e THE
HE
York BOLDEST
a
Tn. since At
o l a
purchasedy
was handing the clerk two fifty dollar bills, she.
a shawl," and, snatching the money
blow in the face from a well-dressed person, who exclaimed,cyed a
f"rolmforhbeardehaynodu, beNtl-4ilolgrated. The lady fainted, and on ree.
covering the merchant expressed surprise that her husband
should have acted so ungentlemanly, but his surprise was
greatly increased when the lady informed him that it was
not her husband, and that she had never seen him before 1
The bold thief, however, had made good his escape.—Anze-
ricer: Paper.
HONOURS FOR THE PRESS.--g. Emile. de Girardin,
the principal editor of LaPresse, has received from the Sultan
Abdul Itedjid, the decoration of the Nichan Milan