Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-04-16
Correspondence IF The Carono'Npe.
Letter from Georgia.
Treatment Of Slares- Southern Rqjiroads-
High Uater-Geoygid Femne College.


Macon, Georgia, March II, 1917.
M Dear Ckron When ] wrote to YOU
the other day at Savannah, | did not think !
would let you hear from me again Till | reach
ed New Orleans, but the opportunity Of drop
ping you a few lines without trouble induces
me TO do it.
Here | am in the heart Of Georgia a name
written in my boyhood's memory in the black
est characters, and associated in my youth
with all that was cruel and monstrous and
fearful. ] recollect well The idea | had Of
this country when ! was a boy, it a vague.
indefinite sense of distant horrors connected
with it can be called an idea. In the town
where | was horn and in which | grew up,
Georgetown, ID. c., it was a common thing
for gangs OF negroes, chained in couples TO
enter and pass through. on their way to Gror-
gia. The men, the wfetches who drove
them like beasts. lashing them with a long
whip when they faltered or Jagged, or show
ed any sense of human feeling and will, were
called Georgia-men; and | remember well
the feeling of horror and hatred they inspired
in my mind, long before | ever heard Of such
a thing as abolition, or thought Of slavery as
a mCnstrous Outrage upon human rights and
human Justice. Il Was the wanton cruelty
| sometimes saw inflicted on these poor craa-
lures in chains by their brutal drivers. and
the imagined sulIerings which popular ru-
NOR insl,lled and provoked in my mind,
which caused my indignation and aversion.
That Georgia, which was once my Tarta-
rus, ] am now in. | have changed, and il,
has changed since those days. | was a boy
with only feeling f.; | am now Il man with con-
v%ictions; what ! once hated and feared as
cruel, | now condemn and deplore as wrong
and inhuman. Georgia was then a compara-
lively new country, where planters settled
and negroes were scarce +; it is now, compara-
lively, an old country negroes are numerous,
and planters are pushing of into other regions.
But, was my childish ideal Of cruelty a fc-
ton then, or would il be a fallacy now -
From my own observations | cannot say the
negroes ! see in the towns are gel orally well
clad (for negroes) and seem to enjoy animal
spirits and animal life; and ! do not meet
with personal violence and injury. But
travellers can see but little of the reality (; they
can hear more. Coming up on The railroad
from Savannah, | overheard some planter;
talking abont the management Of their owT
and their neighbors' estates, and from them
| gathered enough to satisfy me that my ear
ly impressions Of Georgia, which is only
sample Of the whole southern country, were
Hut alt'EtAuFl ldlIltos hilb INT
spoke in high terms of self-gratulation o.
their oUn kindness and mercy 10 their shaves
"a term they never use, bulalways "handS'
or :" servants " they exposed the brutal cru
city and selfshness of some of their neighbors,
But through their talk of l%eniency 10 theiI
slaves, you could see that it was from a self
ish policy rather than feeling or principle
they acted even if they spoke truly of them
selves. As to the cruelty to the negroes, il
was specially illustrated by one Of these
planters in this way. He said he saw on
Col. - somebody's place an old negro all
bent up and lettering, so that he thought he
was very old, and he said 10 him show old
are you, old mani You are very old, amt
youl" - don't know, Massa; I'm bout
forty l 'spect, Sir" the negro answered.
And so, he said, these cruel masters " use up
their niggers;" "for his part he didn't be-
lieve in working before daybrolk and afIel
dark, he thought it better TO give niggers
plenty of sleep and something to do in doors
in rainy weather. And ! thought 500 too
but at The time gave him no credit fol
his humanity. il was dollar and ceni kind.
ness and nothing more or less. But enough
n ibis-it eanro, be changed by G'rlHN.a