The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1843-10-30
WHITE SLAVERY.


Il is well known that the condition of the
poorer classes Of the population, in any part Of
Europe. even the freest, is worse in every re-
spect than that Of our negro slaves. In Great
Britain, where more freedom prevails, nomi-
natIy al least, than elsewhere ia Europe, their
condition is even worse than in Russia. under
the most despotic Government aud SO il must
rssafly be wherever moneyed oligarchy has
sway, no matter BY what name the Government
be called, or how free the institutions may be
in theory. Il is not the phraseoogy Of Con-
stituton or laws which gives liberty or equality,
but the manner in which they are administered ;
and if wealth influences the administration of
them, the poorer classes must necessarily be re-
duced to the condition Of slaves, and the bitter
ness of their slavery in a country of homogene-
Gus population, is aggravated by the rehec ion
that they are made of the same clay, of the same
hue and fashion, and endowed with the same
feelings and faculties as their more fortunate
oPpressors. Nature has done nothing to recon
cile them TO their condition, by showing them
cause and necessity for it.
In the thckly settled parts of our non-sIave
holding States the condition of the poorer class
of population is fast assimiating itself to that
of the servile class Europe. Already they
are but hewers of wood and drawers of water
10 their weather. brethren they are employed
as menals and lacqueys, and sometimes even
dressed in livery-wait behind chairs, clean
boots, and polish knives. Every newspaper
teens with evidences Of the wrelched condition
of this class of the population of both sexes, in
the densely peopled sections of the North. Ac-
counts of suicide from despair, and even of
death from want, are common; and of women,
and delicate young girls, laboring from day break
till midnight, for the bare means of sustenance,
grudgingly afforded them as a boon by their
wealthy neighbors or lyrannicsl employers. 1t
is true that in the eyes Of the law they are
free, and on equality with the highest: and
Mr. Biddle's white UGIet de chambre, or Mr..
John Quincy Adams Swiss body-guard, have
as many rights, in theory, as their bosses"
So in England, the law is open 10 every man ;
but il was well replied that ii was open as the
London Tavern waste those who could pay
for it.
Any man who has stood upon the evee at
New Orleans and been hustled about by the
brawny athletic negroes, with their merry faces,
and their loud deep laugh, chattering incessant-
ly, and with as little of slavery in their mien
and bearing as a Black-Foot ofsthe Saskatcha-
wan, must have thought TO himself that how
ever lamentabe their condition might be in
theory, it agreed most admirably with them in
prac ice. Finer specimens Of the physical man,
Of the same race, could hardly be found on the
plains of Bambouk, or in the 70 ests of Sanga-
"a and we doubt whether intercourse with The
whites has diminished the mental powers Of the
race.
But one who has beheld the unhappy chill
dren of poverty who infest the wharves of
populOus Northern city, haggard and spiritless,
watching delerentialy the countenances of ma
bob merchants or dandy clerks and duplicating
their fellow man for "leave to toll" must have
felt his cheek burn, and have thought that abo-
litionisls might End wide field for the exercise
Of practical democracy and philanthropy, with
out travelling 10 the South in search Of it.
We have been led TO these reflections by acct
dentally reading in a Northern print the follow
ing notice of a recent occurrence, which we
venture TO assert cannot be paraleled by any
thing in the annals Of Southern slavery. We
think it becomes the people among whom such
things can occur, to be a little more moderate in
their invectives against shareholders, and to
draw little less frequently upon their magma
ton for horrors in the South, when the reality
can furnish them such thrilling scenes of alroci-
ty at home:
HoRRmLE ATRocrrr We learn, from the Exeter
IN News Letter, that on Tuesday last 18th in
stant Alfred Hill arrested on complaint sgans
hun for the violation and murder Of a child not 9
wears old whom but a few weeks before he had
taken from the poor house in Newmarket. He was
carried before James II. Chapman, ESQ., Of New
market, for examination. IL appeared in evidence
that the deceased was 8 years old last March, anC
was in good health and in the bloom Of early you'll
when she was taken into the family Of the respon
dent. She soon began to fail and falter, and appear
cd TO be treated with great severity. Hill bad beer
seen TO beat her with goad and her scream
repeatedly heard by night and by day. She dice
on Friday morning, the pod ut. Post-mortem ex
animation took place from which il was evident tina
the child had been brutality violated in a toC
horrible to relate, and her body most cruelty scera
ted Although there direct evidence agains
Hill, the circumstances we're strong against hin
that he committed to jail to await the action o.
the grand jury in February next-Pha Chronicle
A young and delicate girl, perhaps left an
orphan by unfortunate but respectable parents
sent to the work-house and taken thence to serv,
as a mental. A monster chad been seen 10 bea
her with an ox-goad, and her screams were re-
Peatediy heard by night and by day." yet no
one practical philantbropist could be found tC
hurry to her rescue, or even appeal 10 the laws
in her behalf!
il the abolionsts, with all their vigilance
could find the slightest foundation in fact upon
which 10 charge Southern Shareholder with
the commission OF such Internal cruelty they
would ring the changes upon it for year, have
prints engraved representing child upon its