Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1854-09-08
Northern Negro Life, as Seen through Southern
Slaves

Northern Negro Life as Seen through Southern
AL - Slaves Speetae1es.
We have been not little ENTERTAINERS says the N.
York Express, with the perusal of letter OF an Ala
bama negro soJourning with his master at Sharon
Springs New York, has been writing to some color
ed brother Of his at home. The document appears in
the Mobile Herald and has an editorial endorsement
for it's genuineness. The of the writer is AL
Ian 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 a fe-time-so he says. But
there part of the story Allan should be let tell
in his words-thus:
eve spent few days in the city of New York be-
fore we came to Sharon. In my strolIs of three days
through that city saw evidences of destitu
tion-more ragged, half-clad, miserable, beggared
looking people than ever saw in Virginia and Ala
bama met beggars and loafers at every corner and,
strange you may regard IT, 1t is tact that cent
is as gladly received by these poor creatures as
dollar would be by any servant in the city of Mobile.
often ask these poor creatures, "Why they don't
90 to work. Their answer invariably 49, that "they
can get noLing to do and have no friends TO help
them get into business" Those who more fortu-
nate and succeeded in procuring employment, are
paid from nothing up to eight dollars per month
the former relying upon the berality of guests tor
the means of support. The chambermaids IN the ho-
tel at which We now lodged, get 81 per month,
and regret that the shortness of the (Which is
about three months will soon again throw them up
on the world, without the hope Of again being SO
pleasantly and proftably employed until the return
of another summer. God on y knows how they work
through the winters which | am informed are hive
times as cold The porter at this hotel "a
white man with wife and two children) and myself
have become quite intimate. He is most extraor-
binary man of his ClasSs certainly the best porter
| ever saw. 1t would astOnsh you 10 see the amount
of labor he performs every day and night. reckon
there is average Of 200 guests at the hotel They
are coming and going almost hourly, and each guest
! has Or
so to $50 lbs. This receives and disburses 1t
ALL often climbing story after story under these hea-
w burdens. When not otherwise employed during
TIL. day, he trims lamps-itsel no trfe in estab
lishment like this. But this is not all. At the APP
proach of rests appropriate hour, when you and l.
and all other southern servants, slumbering at
our ease this poor mans lonely and most tedious task
commences.
This picture of nothern life, continues the ErpreSs
in some of its lower phases is by no means
oIored, as everybodys observation and experience
will attest. BIT our colored friend, after all, had
had only glimpse of the stern realities. If he wan
ted TO the free negro or his brother pale face
even, in a condition ndescribably worse than those
of them employed in the city hotels, he should have
taken ramble at midday, or midnight: through the
Five Points, West Broadway, or Church street. A
walk along the North and East River wharves, also,
might enlarge his experiences to the misery, vice,
and general wretcbedneSs of the free negro portion
of our population. Fortunate slave He none
of these things. But the little he did see, it seems,
enough to prompt him to write thus.
Is In the pOrer's room, this morning, | met with
of the brush and errand walters, boy about Is
years. He had just emptied his savings box and was
how many days. He had (75) twenty-five cents,
which seemed to be an hject | asked him what he
did with the money, to which he replied that he gave
it to his aged parents, who were mainly dependent
his eXertOns fora support. AT these hotels are
others employed to perform the mental Offices of
tho eStab liShm faces nv
guest the house. They are the hthiest, meanest,
most acoe-begone bipeds ever beheld, and work abb
soutely for less than Mr. s. gives me per month for
sweeping his room, &c. which you know does not
take fifteen minutes day. Talk about Southern
slavery and Southern poverty | declare that [
have more of them since came North than ever
before in all my life. Some people wonder that |
should 90 back to Alabama and deem il very strange
that do not avail myself of the offer of what they
call freedom. On the other hand. have hosts of ac-
quaintances who envy me my fortune in life and at
this hotel there over dozen who are anxious 10
90 with me TO Mobile.
8 | would not exchange condition with them for
all the brides and charms which abolitionism could
offer me. What has ever been de ned you or me,
that we wanted? Nothing absolutely nothing =
and Gods knows, my masters have been my
best friends
We have no reason to suppose that this negro has
been induced TO feel such experiences as these in
print, at the suggestion command of his master,
for Northern circulation! though it is highly proba-
BILE that some such Interpretation will be put upon it.
True not, however, trust the anti Slavery
Standard and Fred Douglas paper will give it a
free circulation else produce facts showing that
what is said of Northern negro Iife particularly is
not pretty much just the Alabama Allan has rep
resented. The discussion OF the slavery question
hitherto has been monopolized by white men excu-
sively are not sorry now, that the negroes them
selves, pen in hand are exhibiting disposition to
enter the field FAIR play, and an impartial hearing
the least can give them.
Protection Against Lightning.
Thunder storms the present year have been fire.
n,,d nr fonm