Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-08-30
NORTHERN NEGRO LIFE AS DEsCRIB.
ED BY A SOUTHERN SLAVE.

The New York EIpress says: "We have been
not little entertained with the perusal of a
letter from an Alabama negro, sojOurning with
his master at Sharon Springs, New York, who
has been writing to some colored brethren of his
at home The document appears in the Mobile
Herald, and has an editorial endorsement for
its genuineness. The name of the writer is
Allan Foster. He says he is sick Of the North,
and Northern people, and wants to get home.
He has seen enough of freedom, among both
blacks and whites to last him for q lifetime-so
he says. But there is one part of the story
Allen should be left to tell in his own words,
thus:
eve spent few days in the city of New
York before we came to Sharon. In my strolls
of three days through that city saw more evil
dences of restitution, more ragged, balfclad,
miserable, beggard looking people than / ever
saw in Virginia and Alabama. met beggars
and loafers at every corner, and, strange as you
may regard it, it is fact, that cent is as
gladly received by these poor creatures as a
dollar would be by any servant in the city of
Mobile. / often ask these poor creatures why
they don't go to work. Their answer inva-
riably is, that they can get nothing to do, and
have no friends to help them get into bust
ness Those who are more fortunate, and
succeed in procuring employment, are paid
from nothing up to eight dollars per month
the former, relying upon the liberality of
guests for the means of support. The chamber
maids in the hotel at which we are now lodged
get four dollars per month, and regret that the
shortness Of the season (which is about three
months) will soon again throw them upon the
world without hope Of again being so plea
sanity and SO proftably employed until the
return of another summer. God only knows
how they work through the winters, which /
am informed are FIVE times as cold as yours
The porter at this hotel "a white man with a
wife and two children) and myself have be.
come quite intimate. He is a most extraor-
binary man of his class-is certainly the best
porter / ever saw. 1t would astonish you to
see the amount of labor he performs every day
and night. reckon there are an average Of
two hundred guests at the hotel. They are
coming and going almost hourly, and each
guest has one or more trunks, weighing, / sup
pose, from City to two hundred and fifty pounds.
This man receives and disburses it all, often
climbing story after story, under these heavy
burdens. When not otherwise employed during
the day he TRIMS lampS-ltse1 no trlne IN an
establishment like this. But this Is not all.
AT the approach Of rests appropriate hour,
when you and /, and all southern servants are
slumbering at our ease, this poor mans lonely
and most tedious task commences.
81 would not exchange condition with them
for all the brides and charms which Abolonism
could offer me. What has ever been denied
you or ME, that we wanted? Nothing ALSO
iutely nothing land God knows, my masters
has ever been my best friends"
The Express says: "This picture ofnorthern
life, in some ofits lower phases is by no means
overcolored, as everybody's observation and ex-
perience will attest. But our colored friend,
after all, had only glimpse of the stern reali-
ties. If he wanted to see the free negro or his
brother pale face even, in a condition indie
scribably worse than those Of them employed
at the city hotels, he should have taken a ram
bic at midday, or midnight, through the Five
Points, West Broadway or Church street. A
walk along North and East River wharyes, also,
might enlarge his experiences as to the misery,
vice, and general wretchedness of the free ne.
gro portion Of our population. Fortunate
slave He saw none Of these things.