Southern Argus. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1834-1842, 1838-10-02

preeminently, the friend Of the blacks. |
Howbeit, for all her sacrifices, not q lash
was 5averted from their sable backs. She
had raised discomfort in the kitchen, she
had disguised her acquaintance, sickeued
her friends, and given her own dear little
nephews the stonlach-ache, without saw
ING Quashy from one cut Of the drivers
whip, ordiverting a single kick from the
shins Of Sambo. Her grocer complained
loudly of being called a dealer in human
gore, yet not one hogshead the less was
imported from the plantations. By an
error common to all her class, she mistook
negative for a positive principle; and
persuaded herself, that by not preserving
damsons, she preserved the niggers that
by not sweetening her own cup, she was
dulcifying the lot Of all her sable brethren
in bondage. She persevered in setting
her face against sugar instead Of slavery
against the plant instead of the planter
and had actually abstained for six
months from the forbidden article, when
a circumstance occurred that aroused her
.sympathies into more active exertions. It
pleased an American lady to import with
her black female servant in England.
The case was considered by the Iiamp-
shire Telegraph of that day, as one of
great bardship-the paragraph went the
round Of the papers-and in due time, at
tracted the notice of Miss Morbid. II
was precisely addressed to her sensibilities,
and there was a I" Try Warren" tone
aboutit that proved irresistible. She read
and wrote-and in the course Of one
little week, her domestic establishment
was maliciously but truly described as
consisting of s. two white slaves, and a
black companion"
The adopted protege was, in reality, q
strapping clumsy negress, as ugly as sin,
and with no other merit than that of being
of the same color of the crow She was
artful, sullen, gluttonous, and above all, 50
intolerably indolent, that if she had been
literally Ecarved to ebony as old Fuller
says, she could scarcely have been OF less
service to her protectress. Her notion OF
free labor seemed to translate it into lazl-
ness, and taking liberties; and as she seri-
ously added to the work of her fellow-ser-
wants. without az all contributing to their
comfort, they soon looked upon her as a
nuisance. The house maid dubbed her
ga diVil''--the cook roundly compared
her to ga mischivius beast, as runs out
on a herd o. black cattle both con-
Cured in the policy of laying all house
hold sins upon the sooty shoulders, Just as
slatterns select a color that hides the dirt.
II IS certain, that shortly after the M
stalment of the negress in the family, a
moral disease broke out with considera-
bic violence, and Justly or not, the odium
was attributed to the new comer. Its
name was theft. First there was shill-
ing short in some loose change-next, a
missing half crown from the n1antle-piece
i then there was a stir with teaspoon ;
anon, a piece of work about thlmble.
4 Things went, nobody knew how-the
/. +" divila of course excepted. The cook
!. could, the house-maid scoHId, and Diana
should aud ought to take an oath declara-
tory of innocence, before the mayor; but
as Diana did not volunteer an affidavit
| like the others, there was no doubt OF her
guilt in the kitchen.
i Miss Morbid, however, came to very
different conclusion. She thought that
whites who could eat sugar, were capable
of any atrocity, and had not forgotten the
stand which had been made by the "pale
faces" in favor Of the obnoxious article.
The cook especially incurred suspicion
for she had been notorious aforetlme for a
{ lavish hand in sweetening, and was accor-
! DINGHY quite equal to the turpitude Of steal
ing and bearing false witness. In fact,
the mistress had arrived at the determine
ton Of giving both her white hussies their
months warning, when unexpectedly the
thief was taken, as the lawyers say, !" in
the Manner and with the goods upon
the person. In a word, the ungrateful
black was detected in the very act of le-
vying what might be called her Black
Mall
The horror Of Emelia, on discovering
that the Moor had murdered her mistress,
was scarcely greater than that OF Miss
! Morbid She hardly she said, believed
her own senses. You might have knock
ed her down with feather! She did not
know whether she Stood on her head or on
her heels. She was rooted to the spot
) and her hair, if it had been her own, would
] have stood upright upon her head !! There
was no doubt in the case. She saw the
|! transfer of a portion Of her own bank
stock, from her escFutoire into the right
) hand pocket Of. her proiege---sbe heard 4
} clink as it dropped downWaTds- she wa
: petrified dumb 1ounded--thunder bolted
!, -annihiIaGed She was as white as
: lsheet, but she felt as If ell the blacks i
the world had just BloWnin her face.
Her frs, impulse was to rush upon th'
robber, and insist on rsstitution--her Sc
: cond was to sit down and weep, and be-
]. third was to talk. The opening as usua
5 was mere torrent of ejaculahons, inter
t mixed with vituperation- but she gradual
= " fellinf6 lecture with many heads
I First. she described sll that she had dom
COR the blacks, and then, alas all The
q the blacks had done for her. Next sh
< insisted on the enOrmity Of the crime, an
3 anon, she enlarged on the nature Of 4
( punishment. L was here that she wa
t Ernost eloquent. Sic traced the course G
Human Justice, from detection 70 coavic
I. tions and thence 10 execution. Liberal
3 throwing dissection into the bargain: an
+ then descending With Dante into she un
1 nsnti onabe regions, she painted is terror
= and tormenls with al tie curhstaniial {
h dslity that certain old Masters have dis
" played on tie same subject.
~. II