Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1825-03-30
BOSTON,.
FROM John Bull in America.


The first thing that struck me was
vast disproportion of negroes, in the
streets and every where else. | may
affirm, with perfect veracity, that near
ly one half the inhabitants Of Boston are
black Each of these poor creatures
has white man always standing over
him with large club about the thick
ness of mans arm. with which he beats
the poor slave for his amusement
assure you have seen, | may say, a
thousand instances of this kind ola morn
ing. There is hardly slave here thai
has not his head covered with scars, and
bound up with a handkerc hief; and al
most every step you take, you perceive
the stains of blood upon the pavement.
which, an assured by Governor Han
cock himself, is that of the negroes. |
have seen lady of the first distinction
here, walking the Mall, as it is called.
with stout black fellow behind her. and
occasionally amusing herself with turn
ing round and scratching his face till it
was covered with blood. This Mall is
a place of about half an acre, covered
with dust, with few rotten eIms. and a
puddle in The centre. Even the little
children here are initiated into human
blood almost as soon az they are able to
walk and the common amusement of
young persons is to stick pins in their
black attendants, while every boy has a
negro, Of about his own age, to torture
little for his pastime.
The blacks here as was assured by
his excellency the Governor, whose
name is Hancock, have but one meal a
day, which is principally potatoes. and
fare but little better than the miserable
Irish or English peasantry at home
The Governor told me story of man,
who tied his black servant naked to q
stake, in one of the Deighboring cane
brakes, near the city, which abound
with a race of moschetoes that bite
through boot. Here he was left one
night, in the month of December, which
is a spring month in this climate, and tn e
next morning was found stone dead,
without a drop of blood in his body. |
asked this brutal tyrant was not brought
to Justice? The Governor shrugged up
his shoulders and replied that he was now
amember of Congress X
Boston is terrible place for fever
and agues. Every one of the inhabi-
tants, except the slaves, is afflicted with
them in the spring and autumn, as sure
as the leaves appear in the former, and
fall in the latter. The consequence is
that they look like so manyghosts, with
out flesh OF blood, and if you 60 into the
shops, you hear the money jingling in
the pockets of the shop-keeepers, by
the mere force of habit. even if the poor
man should happen, at that moment, to
be free from the ague, or shake as
they call it.
Besides this, they have earthquakes
and InundatioDs, three times week if
not more. After the Earthquake gen.
orally comes an inundation. which dps.
troys all the crops for hundreds of miles
round, and covers the country SO, that
the tops oftrees and chimneys just ap-
pear above the water. This is succerd-
by fog so thick, that many persons
are lost in the streets of Boston, and
wander about several days, without be-
ing able TO find any of the houses. This
is the origin of the phrase Il guess so
universal in New-England for these
fogs are so common, that one half the
time people are obliged TO guess at what
they are about Hence, too, the half
pint Of whiskey which every man takes
10 the morning the first thing he does
after getting up, is called an anti-fogmatic.
The next morning | strolled ont into
the fields with view of seeing the sys-
TEN of rural economy practised in the
south. One Of the best managed plap-
tations, | was told, was that of his ex-
cellency Gov. Hancock, whose name is
signed to the declaration of indepen-
dence, said to be written by one Jeffer-
son, a player belonging to the Phila-
delphia theatre. The governor is
brisk, troublesome little man, about for
ty. His plantation is at piece called
Merrimack, on the river of that name.
saw plenty Of slaves, and scarcity of
every thing else.-The principle prod
ucts are rice, cotton, and tobacco. The
rice grows generally upon the high
grounds; but the cotton requires to be
covered with water occasionally. The
best is called Sea Island, because il grows
upon little islapds in the mill pond,
which the people here, according TO
their universal practice Of byperbole,