The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-10-06
The Character Of the Northern Emigra
ton to Kansas.

which 1t may be said with strict truth
that they print and publish, either under
the fear of Lynch law or under the in
spiration of its spirit, have stigmatized
our fellow citizens, who have nobly vol
unteered to pioneer freedom into Kansas,
as "crime-polluted and paupers." We
refer more particularly to the Richmond
Examiner, but the calumny has gone the
rounds of the slavery newspapers.
From what we know of our neighbors
and our acquaintance who have gone
to Kansas, and all that we have heard
and read of others, we feel confident
that a more baseless and libelous
assertion could not be made. This
emigration is as pure as that of the Pill
grims or the Huguenots, and more disin-
terested than either.
But admitting for arguments sake,
that the assertion was true, would it not
be highly commendable in these men and
women to arouse themselves, in the face
of brutal and murderous threats and
outrages; to this effort for independence
and a new life p? What better could they
do for themselves, their families, or their
country, than to start afresh on a virgin
soil, remote from painful recollections
and depressing influences? In all ages
colonization has received its greatest i'm
pulses from the necessities, sufferings
and often despair of those who have
achieved it. Even criminals of deep
dye, have been more nationally employed
in laying the foundation of new States
than in dangling idly in the air, which
Voltaire justly called the poorest use that
could be made of them. They obtain
in new settlements the consolation of q
true democratic equality, the encourage
ment of sympathy, and the purifying
and strengthening influences of con
scious independence. Hence respectable
communities and great States have grown
out of penal colonies, and men and wo-
men who cleft their country for theiI
country's good' have made a good coun-
try tor themselves.
For example, Virginia, magma mater
magma rtrun., the mother of nearly every
one of those States which propagate the
malicious libel to which we allude, ant
which would be aristocratic and inhumar
even if it were not false, was the recep
tacle of a population transported from
the mother country as commutation fol
hanging and other terrible punishment
OF felony. 1t would seem as if the mos
desperate of these felons had got th'
elixir of life, had now gathered in Mis-
souri,, and appointed the most accom-
Iplished of their gang TO be the legislator
of Kansas. A lively impression of tn
foregoing historical fact is conveyed in
passage of Defoe, author of Robinson
Crusoe, who was nearly cotemporar,
with the commencement of the system
of deportation, and was precisely cotem
porary with that state of colonial societ,
which he describes:
/ 1--WE arrived in York River, in Virgin
ia, and coming to our plantation, we wer
received by my husbands mother, will
all the tenderness and affection that coulC
be expressed. Ny mother was amight,
good natured woman, and used to diver
me with an abundance of stories abou
the country and the people. She oftel
told me that the greatest part of the IN
habitants of that colony were of tw'
sorts. First, such as were brought owe
by the masters of the ships, to be sold a
Iservants. Second, such as were trans
fported after having been found guilty 0
crimes punishable with death. Whel
they come here, says she, we make NJ
difference. The planters buy them, ant
they work together in the field, till thei
time is out. When that is expired, the,
have encouragement given to plant 10
themselves. For they have certain
number of acres of land allotted then
by the country, and they go to work +
clear and cure the land, and then to plan
it with tobacco and corn for their owl
use and as the merchants will trus
them for tools and necessaries, upon tn
credit of their crop before it is grown, 8
they plant every year little more thai
the year before, and so buy whateye
they want with the crop that is befor
!. them. Hence, child, says she. many
Newgate-bird becomes great man.
We have several justices of the peace
n officers of the trained bands, and magis
trates of the towns they live in, tha
have been burnt in the hand. With
J great deal of good-humored con6dene
she would tell me she was one of the sec
ond sort of inhabitants herself. An
here's the mark of it, child, says she
, and shows me very fine white arm an
: hand, but branded on the inside of th
hand. She said, smiling. you need no
! think such thing strange. my daughter
for some of the best men in the countr.
are burnt in the hand, and are not ash
AIMED to own it. There's Major -, h
was an eminent pickpocket- There
Justice Bar, he was a shoplifter. Bot
lof them were burn. in the hand. and
could name you several such as they are
Here my mother -in-law ran out into
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