Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-11-20
dNOttester 4aiIg Spy
Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune
Black Fighters i'm the Field,

da, as far as Fernandina, under the command
of Col. Beard, assisted by Rev. Mr.. French,
Tor the purpose of recruiting among the con-
trabands for the LIST South Carolina regiment
and OF damaging the enemy, according to the
military order of secretary Stanton, by bring
ing away all the slaves within reach The
Darlington returned on Saturday evening,
Nov. s, at 10 o'clock, p M, after an absence
Of twelve days, officers and crew reporting
Unprecedented success.
The details of this wonderful expedition, the
first experiment with colored soldiers, their
devastations along the coast, up the rivers, de-
strOying salt works, burning houses, taking
off slaves, skirmishing with the rebels, taking
prisoners and shooting
The Zachenns who did climb the tree
His dark-skinned conquerors to see
will doubtless be all told by your own cores
pondent, M. F., lCho qcGS there.
But other things may interest your readers,
and your present correspondent having exam
ined the one hundred and fifty bullet holes in
the vessel, and handled the battered bullets
dugfromher timbers, all unstained by the blood
of the gallant colored men at whom they were
aimed, would herein fill page of after histo-
ry which does not SO much interest the seek
ers after war news as the wife and mother,
and humanitarian.
l have looked down into the hold of the
Darlington, and seen the mass of living, NOV
ing humanity slowed away, SIN this middle
paSSGge," enduring the closeness and dimness
with songs of rejoicing, for their inconven-
fences were to end in freedom, not in slavery
L have shaken hands till the strong grippe of
the emancipated, in the first enthusiasm of
joy, made my very nerves culver. For more
than one old mother, who had escaped from
the tyranny that had robbed her of half her
household (and in one case of alD clasped
my hand so tightly, as she cried, ''bress the
Lord, nlissis. ''Thank the good Lord, mis-
sis" "We nebber 'spect to see this day, mis-
sis, nebber, nebber, nebber." That actual
ly shrank with pain.
Oh! what strength they have gathered from
their hard toll, in cane and cotton fields, for
the white tyrant's work. But this day OF
power is past.
The laborerS on the Sea Islands seem a
more oppressed and degraded class than those
gathered upon the mainland plantations or the
coast towns. 1t is said the flying rebels took
with them all the bright, sound, salable ones,
and left behind those who could not do much
in helping them to uphold the rebellion, by
maintaining and sustaining the only class, in
these fertile regions, that cannot or will not
sustain themselves.
This opinion gains ground by every ac-
cession of cOntrabands brought in from other
,
had no opportunity of selecting.
Many OF the shrewd and intelligent have
made use of their wit by escaping to our lines.
and are now doing good service in the Union
cause, which will find no recorder in the pres
ent. But the historic pen will, in coming
time, do justice to the noble deeds and daring
enterprises which they have accomplished.
They, and they alone, in this heart of rebel,
dom, hold the key that shall open all doors for
our entree. For they know every inch of
ground, they know every mark of high or low
tide, they know where the cotton is stored,
where the corn, rice and sweet potatoes grow,
where the enemy is weakest, and where the
people are most ready for liberty, and not
since the first hour of this fratricdal war, has
our government done better or wiser thing,
than to order them to be enlisted into the SER
vice of the country of their birth. Black
slavery at the north is different thing from
white slavery, and beg to say to those who
still lean to the side of the oppressor that
white slavery is constitutional" in Georgia.
Among the slaves brought from tho coast, is
grandmother and a numerous family The
elder woman is tall, stately and digniied.
The blood of some proud race flushes her al
most white face. Her daughters are both
whittier and darker than herself, and her grand
children are whittier still, and some of them
very beautiful.
One babe is perfectly white. 1t has not
florid blush, sandy hair and blue eyes. But
its skin is very fair, its eyes large, lustrous
and brown, while not vestige of the kinl1y
hair would shame the proudest Anglo-Saxon
mother to call it her own.
1t was amusing to enc ;;;?llio las been cui-
tured into belief that human liberty is not
based upon the color of the skin or curl of
hair, and that virtue and vice belong to no sex
but on the eternal principles of right and
wrong, to witness the attention paid to this
child of some freeman born into slavery
through the direful curse laid by the law upon
its mother.
No doubt this father, whoever he may be,
holds up his hands in holy horror at the idea
of legal amalgamation, reads his bible to find
some semblance to the old Jewish law, to
prove it a ''divine institution" ''and talks
wisely and on the streets too" about the de-
graduation and Righteousness of the negro
race.
This little white lamb among a colored
flock was petted and patted, and even kissed;
for it was kept sweet and clean in pink and
white. What a world of thought clustered
about this one sweet child!
'She has stolen it," said one. "She has
run away with her mistress's child" said an
other. But the great brown eyes, so full of
subdued sorrow, revealing even in babyhood
the wrongs of another, were so exactly dupli-
Gates of those that looked down upon it ten
derby, that there was not left room for a
shadow of doubt that she was its true mother
''Oh how the soldiers of fort Pulaski did
curse and swear at the institution of slavery
when they saw that baby" said an officer to
me as we stood looking at it. ''They now
wish to fight it to the DEATH"
Oh! that we could send that baby round to
all the forts and all the regiments, to make
them vow hostility to the death to slavery.
Who shall say that this little "Sarah" may not
be the very babe and sucking prOphesied of
in olden time, that should perfect the praise
of the Lord, sent here among the negro haters
of the army, to help to redeem our beloved
and suffering country from this terrific war.
She would be a sweet little STRATEGY" per-
chance, to keep half the army Of the Potomac
from laying down their hOnors, when emanci-
patton becomes law, the LIST of January, 1868.
But other things must claim attention.
Saturday night, the Darlington brought to
Beaufort 100 of these, who were chattels a
week ago, from Florida and Georgia. Sun
day, the 9Th, the Ben de Ford brought in
(some say 800 others) 25O from Georgetown,
S. c.. What shalnbe done with them? They
have come flying to us for protection; they
come poorly clad, most of them in condition
that renders immediate aid necessary. No
homes, no kettles, no pans, no wash tnbs. no
beds, no clothes except those that cover the
body to-day. Government will annor,ion 20