The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1858-09-28
Chr 9Drstern Demotrut.
OH ADI OTvEE c.
THE FREE NEGROES OF THE NORTH.
CHARLOTTE, n

THE FREE NEGROES OF THE NORTH.
A correspondent of the Columbia Guardian,
speaking of the condition of the free negroes OF
New York, Boston and Philadelphia, says:
zone of the greatest dens of vice and immortality,
and sinks of pollution known III any city IN the
Union, is the Five Points of New York. 1t has
been we'll called .sthe gate to hell had heard
and read much about this place, and determined
to see who lived there, and what was their condI-
ton, and to my utter astonshment l found three
f,urs of the Inhabitants negroes, and the balance
of the population made up Of the ot-scourngs OF
creation To stand ON the point anl listen tor
one hour you would imagine yourself IN pandl-
monium and not in the heart of city protesting
to follow the teachings of Christianity. Here you
See all the shades and compexions OF the human
family-the Chinese, Malay, Monaghan, European,
and conspicuous above ALL the African and his
bvbrids. Here are spoken all the different tongues
known to the human family since the destruction
of the Tower of Babel From this point springs
all the notorious ring-leaders in crime and vice,
and here reions poverty misery and crime Al
tbonvb I was told that the place has been much
improved within the last five years, compared to
what it was, vet frem what [ saw and heard OF
the social and moral condition OF It's inhabitants
it is blot and stain upon the philanthropy OF the
neople of New York. Here Henry Ward Beecher,
made to live and labor missionaries, the balance
of their lives, in order to atone for the lies and
slanders they have uttered against the slave and
his master From this place they should be try
mo to run the poor free negro, instead OF trying
to run the happy slave from his master. Here is
the ,ot of all others where these rose acGteF phil
antbropists and Kansas shriekers should spend
their money instead of supporting eml9rant AID
societies, and buying rifles for Kansas.
| -. in 1ICOOISaI dress
for about six hours conversing freely with negroes
and whites. and in visiting their houses, holes and
dens and from what | saw and he ard expressed by
these people their wretchedness and poverty is be-
vond description The poor free negro breads the
anproach of winter as you would pestllence; ana
frequently to drown their misery through the long
winter nights these miserable creatures resort te
the rum bottle and make themselves lnsenslble te
hunger and cold by the drugged and poisonous
stuff Hero are crammed into one building froE
three to four hundred human beings; and some
times fftv and sixty men, women and children
negroes and whites, sleep in one room. The ole
Brewery was known to hold twelve hundred soul
in one night. Here is the only spot in all my
travels including upper and lower Canada wher'
| found the negro perfect level with the Whlt
man. but such a leuei! hundred degrees, In NOR
al and social happiness, below the slave OF tn
Soutb | have yet to the master who wou!'
lot such immortality, vice and filth exist on hi
nantation. as is to be found in and around the nv
f points of New York. The free negroes OF Char
? lesion and Columbia are gentlemen in comparlso
l with these poor creatures. There the orc Is rt
snectfnl and obedient to the white man, here the
are insolent and inpudent; being made SO by ha'
;no such associates as Greeley, Beecher, Stow'
a and the like. Here the mass of the whites al
against the free negro. They have no sympath
z for him. no warm attachment springs from an u'
. adulterated fountain. l can say with clear COZ
h viction that there is a deadly hatred existing b.
n tween the negro and white laborers OF the Nortl
and precious little sympathy from the middle an al,
higher classes. They spend all their sympatf
and money in behalf of the happy ana conteh't
slaves of the South instead Of their attention
# suffering humanity at home