Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-01-22
TALK WITH A FREE NEGRO.

Kansas.
TALK WITH FREE NEGRO.
In walking along one of the streets OF Hlch'
mond / was suddenly overtaken by a shower. l
went into the store of ruiterer and coniectioner
He was q free man of color. | soon entered into
conversation with him, ascertained his history,
and learned manv valuable facts of the condition
of tie slaves Of Richmond and vicinity.
... coLoRED LIDERAToR.
lie was mulatto Of about thirty five years Of
age. His eyes aud his conversation showed him
to be person kind hearted yet resoute of pur'
pose. The tone of his voice. the expression Of his
face, bespoke man familiar with sorrow and
cares. lie was very intelligent and used exceed,
ingly few negro phrases. lie had been slave,
but had bought his freedom; and since that time
had purchased his wife, brother, sister'in law,
with her husband and their two young children.
lie bad been rather favournd a slave. lie had
had kind proprietor, who lad permitted him to
hire himsolf-that is to say, to pay to his master
q certain monthly for the use of his own hodi'
ly strength and mental faculties, retaining as his
own funds whatever he might make "over and
above" the sum thus agreed upon between them.
He bad been porter at popular hotel, and was
lucky enough to soon sufficient with which to
purchase his freedom from his owner. The next
money he got was expended on articles Of traffic.
He prospered in his small retail trade. and with
its earliest profits he purchased his wife.
What low state of morals, by the way, does
it indicate, when robber, in fact, Of the lions
share Of poor mans wages is spoken of as a
kind and indulgent master How unspeakably
mean, too, to live on money thus ungenerously
taken from the hard hands of Owly, unprotected
toll !!
"You have acted nobly." said to him. "n buy
ing scven persons from slavery, and you must
have been very lucky to DO ablo to do il, as well
- to buy this house" (IIs had told me that he
owned the house and shop We were in.)
"Ah, sir !" said the good man, in q sad tone,
II wish could do something more efectua. It's
ail live for. No one" he added. lean have any
idss how people are prosecuted here, only on
account of their color.
p .as1 OPPRESSIVE Laws AND ORDINANCES.
'Indeed !" said, 81 wish you would tell me
some of the methods employed by the whites in
persecuting your people. l will publish them
He named host of them, from which selected
at the time the following particulars
l. The oath of a colored man, whether free or
slave, is not admissible in courts of Justice
therefore.
If white man owes debt to a person of color
and refuses to pay it, it is impossible for the cred
itor to resort legal remedies in order to collect
il.
If white man, from any cause or motive-for
the purpose, for example, of extorting money
choose to swear before a court that any colored
person. whether free slave, has been insoent
to him. he can the unfortunate object of his
malice to be whipped by the public officers.
, If worthless vngabond, with white skin
however black his heart may be, enters a store OF
free man of color, and steals, eren before The
owner's eyes, any articles from it, the unfortunate
merchant has no legal remedy, unless white man
saw the property thus feloniously appropriated =
for the fear of the municipal lash restrains him
from entering public mplaint or resenting the
robbery on the spot
Thus the blacks are always at the mercy of the
whites--a position which no anchored person,
am sure. would be willing to occupy.
In stating these facts, my informant related an
incident which shall narrate here as it is at once
. most striking illustration of the injustice some
times practiced by 'our Southern brethren" to-
wards their colored fellow creatures, and serves
70 show the practical workings of the laws relat
ing to the oaths of persons of the snbjugated
race.
A fow weeks before this interview, a white man
went to the green market and was putting some
vsgetablss-parsey. believe-in basket when
the colorsd woman in attendance asked him if he
had measured itf He turned round fiercely and
asked what she meant by insulting him ! Next
dsy he took out q warrant, had the market woman
brought before the mayor and swore positively, as
did his son also. that she had used insolent and
abusive language to him. She would have been
whipped, as usual, and had her sentence chroni
eled in the papers as the punishment Of "worth.
Jess free negro" il several white persons, who
were. present at the time and knew her to be an
honest inofensive SOUL had not promptly stepped
up and swors that she was innocent of the offence
charged by the plaintiff She was therefore dis.
charged but the cowardly perjurers were not ev.
on reprimanded.
2. Although free men of color pay the same
municipal taxes levied on white citizens, they are
not only prohibited from exercising any influence
in elections but from entering the public square
or the white mans cemetry.
3. They are prohibited from carrying any often,
sivs or defensive Weapons.
4. They are not allowed to go abroad after sun.
set, without . written permit from their owners or
carrying their papers of freedom
s. II they violate these regulations they are i'm.
psisonsd until claimed by their masters if slaves.
or visited and liberated by their friends if free.
II they are free but without friends to attend to
their intsrests-hear this and defend it if 30 can,
Northern men with Southern PruciPles"-