Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1862-05-16
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BELLOWS FAILS. MAY l6. 1862
Emancipation in the District.

emancipation In the District.
The follow ing is from Washington cor.
respondent:
The demoralizing influence of Slavery
upon human character has often been en-.
larged upon. but only one who has often
been an eye witness can fully appreciate Il.
1t makes common wreck Of manly honor
and OF womanly delicacy. Something oil
this | have seen in more Southern com.
mnnities. and more have read and heard.
which | believed, because Of what 7 had
seen. But the unmi,igated meanness, the
coarse brutality which the institution en-
senders were never shown in more re-
pulsive light than in this District since tie
success of emancipation became assured
The falsity of the pretenses of mutual at
tachment between the slave and the master
was also thoroughly exposed. Men and
women whose unrecompeused service had
for years supported in luxury and idleness
those who claimed them as properly. were
conveyed from the city by arIiice or by
force.
Some whom / have often heard speak
with hypocritical tenderness of their sery
ants, and whom from their conversation one
would suppose to be.actuated only by a re-
gard for the helplessness and inability of the
negro TO take care of himself, few days
before the passage of the blu had their serv-
ants conveyed into Marylan to seek bet
ter market. They were unwilling to sacri-
flee the few hundreds of dollars difference
between the Government compensation and
the price in the shambles. One would have
thought that the faithful service of years
would have plead with them to grant the
short period of freedom which was now
possible, especially as--if their was real at
.achment between the parties--the servants
would still remain with them on wages
All the fine pretenses and mock philanihro-
py with which the Northern mind has been
soothed were laid aside, and the naked sell
ii>hness, the unvarnished meanness, which
underlle the whole system were exposed
Here was negro women past the mid
die age, with two daughters, one Just enter
ing womenhood, the other a girl of eleven
years. The woman was an excellent sery-
ant, had for years acted as housekeeper.
The youngest daughter, almost white, with
massive and beautifully shaped head.
features which seemed modeied from an an
tique sculpture, already, child as she was,
helpful, and skilled in household duties
modest, but with a queenly self-possession,
was already worth SS0o--so her mistress
said. Would it be too much, / thought. for
the mistress to grant TO the fifty years of
faithful service of the mothers? Would il
be tc 0 much for the women to yield to Tie
womanly instincts in behalf of three young
girls, a compensated freedom which should
secure them from unlicensed lust and from
the fate of" breeding for the slave mart
Would the paltry hundreds of dollars which
ations Of justice, of gratitude, and Of humani-
typ
Three or four days before the passage Of
ille emancipation measure the mother came
to my house, bringing a simple token Of re-
membrance, and in tones ofdespair, told her
tale. The same day she and her children
were carried into Maryland.
This is an illustration of what happened,
with different degrees ofaggravtion, in many
instances. But there were many cases Of I
different character.
Tne wife of well-to-do grocer in this !
city was intending to send her coachman in |
to the country just before the passage of
the bill, but one morning he was missing,
and remained concealed in the city until it
had become a law, when he resumed his
duties.
A gentleman in Georgetown, who had
number of valuable servants" gave them
directions one night TO get everything in
readiness for an early start the next morn
ing, not informing them of their destination.
of course. When he called for them in tn.
morning he found they had complied with
his orders 10 be prepared for an early start,
but had gone without him. They conceal
ed themselves in the city, with some of the
f ee negroes, until the bill was signed when
they all reappeared at their old quarters
ready for service until the Commissioners
should reach their case.
A slave women had purchased her own
freedom and that OF a part Of her children,
Dut there was bright boy named Stephen
'til in the hands of her former mistress.
Tie day of the passage Of the bill the mis-
ress saw a man coming up the street, whom
he bad engaged to inform her Of the fact of
Is passage and to take Stephen into the
;puniry before il should be signed. When /.
be bell rang, she told Stephen she would
Inswer it. But be had Iolerably correct
dea OF what was going on--as slaves oitea
ave who listen with apparent siolidty to
he conversation OF their superiors-and
retreated behind door within 8