Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-09-08
Free Negroes inLonisiana,


The Legislature of Louisiana, at its last
session, passed two laws in regard to free ne
groes-one of them, prohibiting free negroes
| from other States and foreign countries from
remaining in the State; the other, authorizing
free negroes to enslave themselves and pre-
| scribing the terms. Both of these laws went
into operation on the lst inst. In regard to
the latter, the Crescent of that date makes the
| following remarks:
1t will be an interesting thing for the free
dom shriekers of the North to know, that
numerous free negroes who reside in or habit
ually visit this city, and know something of
free negro life in the North, are availing
themselves of the provisions of the last act
above published, and seeking for The proper
kind Of tcite men to 0iom 10 surrender thar free
DOM and become ioih The children of tie female pOT
| tom sLlUes tor Llfe. Numerous respectable chi
| Zens have been called upon to accept, az their
| slaves, free persons of African descent, who
| would sooner be slaves in the South than free
| men in the North. The negro having tie option
ofselecting his master, it is not to he supposed
! that he will surrender his freedom TO any one
| upon whose kindness or good treatment he
| cannot rely, and some of the applications
| have been made TO men who are just as select
about the negroes they own as tue free ne
| groes are in selecting masters. So far as we
have heard, most OF these applications have
been rejected, and the disappointed darkeys
are looking around for white men to their
notion who will accept them.
Yesterday, a stylish free cOlored woman.
who drives a lucrative but not very moral
| business, called upon a weli-known citizen,
with her little girl, about eight years old.
! and proposed to make herself and her child
| his slaves Tor lie. She offered bin every as
| surance that she would pay for her time, as
hired slaves ordinarily do, and make herself
| more lucrative TO him than any natural slave
! he could buy. The gentleman declined the
proposition. He expressed bis willingness to
| become owner of the child, but not the
| mother. The mother could not unree her
| child without first unfreeing herself, and so
| she left to seek for some other man 10 be her
/ master.
More than this, two bright and Intelligent
| free-colored men. who do Il good business
| (both steamboat cooks Que making 500 aud
the other SIS per month) formally filed their
petitions in the First District Court, to be-
come The slaves for life of Il well-known gen.
tleInan of this city, he having consented 10 ac-
cept them. The names of these men are Jos.
Thomas aud VIM. Gray. Some time ago they
called upon Mr.. Blocker 10 be their attorney
in Tie matter. The gentleman, going care
fully and circumspectly about IA new branch
OF his business, talked with and sounded the
negroes till he satisfied himself they were
really in earnest. He talked to them at length,
read and expounded the above law to them,
and explained to them particularly, that in
surrendering their freedom 10 their proposed
master, they would not be provisional but
actual slaves to MIN, the same as If they had
been born his slaves. Only one temporary
difference from the state OF other slavescould
they count upon; their exemption from seizure
for prior debts of their master: but that TO
the calls OF debts acquired after their sarren-
der or TO the will or caprice of their master.
in his method of employing them, or in selling
them, they would be just the same as il slaves
from birth.
With all this before them, and having duly
calculated the choice between slavery in the
South and freedom in the North. Joseph
Thomas and VIM. Gray unhesitating!y adher-
ed to their original design, and yesterday. as
above stated, Mr.. Blocker filled their petitions
for slavery in the First District Court.
From what we bear at present, a great
many free negroes. not born in this State,
will pick out their masters aud become slaves,
sooner than leave the population and the
climate which pleases them so we'll.