Worcester daily spy., 1861-11-01

1t seemed that, as one of the means of keep.
ing them quiet, the white clergymen during
the winter and spring had read them some
verses from it to show that the south would
prevail, enforcing passages which ascribed
great dominion to "the king of the south " and
suppressng those which subsequently, give the
supremacy to "tlle king of the north" A
colored man who could read had found the
latter passages and made them known. The
chapter is dark with mystery, and my auditor,
quite perpleXed as / read on, remarked "The
Bible is very mysterious book" read to
him also the thirty fourth chapter of Jeremiah,
wherein the sad prophet of Israel records the
denunciations by Jehovah of sword ,pestenee
and famine against the Jews for not proclaim.
ing liberty TO their servants and handmads.
He had not known before that there were such
passages in the Bible.
NEGRO REASONING.
The conversations of the contrabands on
their title to be regarded as ireemen showed
reflection. When asked if they thought them.
selves fit for freedom, and if the darkies were
not lazy, their answer was, "Who but the
darkies cleared all the land round here
Yes, they are lazy darkies, but there are more
lazy whites" When told that the free blacks
had not had fair chance under the laws
that they don't care to enforce their claims
against white men-that free colored black.
smith mad thousand dollars due him from
white men, but he was afraid to sue tor any
portion OF it. One man, when asked why he
ought to be free, replied 81 feed and clotbe
myself, and pay my master one hundred and
twenty dollars year and the one hundred
and twenty dollars is just so much taken from
me, which ought to be used TO make me and
my children comfortable" Indeed. broken as
were their speech, and limited as were their
KNOWLEDGE thQV raaSoned oI, ~, .l,.:.
rights as well as white men, Locke on Chan
ming might have fortified the argument for
universal libei ty from their simple talk So
true is 1t that the best thoughts which the
human intellect have produced have come, not
from a1uent learning or ornate speech but
from the original elements of our nature. com
mon to all races of men and all conditions in
life; and genius the highest and most cultured
may bend with profit to catch the lowliest of
human utterances.
THEIR CHARACTER.
In natural tact and the faculty of getting a
livelihood, the contrabands are inferior to the
Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of the
southern population 1t is not easy to see WHY
they would be less industrious, if free, than
the whites, particularly as they would have
the encouragement of wages. There would
be transient difficulties at the outset but no
more than bad system lasting for ages might
be expected to leave behind. The first gen
Grafton might be untitled for the active duties
and responsibilities of citizenship but this
difficulty, under generous provisions for edu
cation, would not pass to the next Even now
they are not so much behind the masses of the
whites. Of the Virginians who took the oath
of allegiance at Hampton, not more than one
IN hiteen could write bis name, and the rolls
captured a Haueras disclose an equally de,
ploTable Ignorance X X X As q rono tIa,,
may be less vigorous and thrifty than the
Saxon but they are more social. docile. and
atectlonate, fulfilling the theory which Chan
ming held in relation to them, if advanced to
freedom and civilizations
Ii IN the progress of the war they should be
called to bear arms, there need be no reasona-
bic apprehension that they would exhibit the
ferocity of savage races. Unlike such, they
have been subordiuated TO civilized life. They
are hy naf,,s-. :y,i4,'e- IrVptr. Iey nave
received an education in the Christian faith,
from devout teachers Of their own and of the
dominant race.
But as events travel faster than laws or pro-
clamato:.s, already in this war with rebellion
the two races have served together. The |
same breastworks have been built by their |
common toll. True and valiant, they stood .
side by side in the din of cannonade, and they |
shared as comrades in the victory of Hatteras !
History will not tail to record that on the 28th |
day OF August, 1861, when the rebel forts were |
bombarded by the federal army aud navy, un-
der the command of Major General Butler and
Commodore Stringham fourteen negroes, late |
ly Virginia slaves, now contraband of war,
and without panic worked the after
gun of the upper deck OF the Minnesota, and !
hailed, with vctors pride, the stars and
stripes, as they again waved on the soil Of the
Carolinas