Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1862-08-01
From The Norfolk County Mass. Journal.
An Inside View of Slavery.

| I'LL AAoloS AZ " Va oAeSs VI y -
AMONG THE PINES: or South in Secession
Time. BY EDMUND KIRKE. New
York f: J. II. Gilmore.
TINS book deserves more than ordinary
recognition both from the press and the
public. Its vigor Of style, graphic pow
er Of narrative, and dramatic arrangement
of events, would give it note and popular
ity in any time, and before any audience.
And when We add to this, that it is most
remarkable revelation of facts, and that
these facts bear directly on our present
national contest, and intimately affect the
welfare of the American people, We give
it an interest scarcely equally by any work
yet published.
We have accidentally learned some
things relating to its author and the scenes
he describes, which we trust we commit no
indiscreton in giving the public. Ed
mund Kirkc is the assumed name of a
gentleman who was formerly leading
merchant in trade with the South, who
| did business of over n million dollars
yearly with that locality, and has at pres
tiit sum VA iilCNf fSF H''@'-~'Stt3 Al S7NSNs
! there which would constitute a fortune for
almost any one He knows the South
better than any man who has ever before
written concerning it, being familiar with
nearly every inch Of the soil Of four States
there, and having passed many winters on
the plantations of all these. Here he saw
the insi,lc workings of the Institution, and
gained familiarity with it which no mere
traveller has had it in his power to con-
ceivc of. He was not an Aboitionist
For the fifteen years which he spent
among the planters, he saw enough to pre-
vent his being pro-slavcry man, but he
was disposed, during this time, to let them
work out their own salvation, in their own
way. The music Of Fort Sumter woke
him up. lie couldn't handle u muskct,
| but he felt that he could, at any rate,
blow bugo This book is his first blast
i!!Ic means that it shall not be without sue
cessors. lie is not a literary man and
has no literary ambition. All he aims to
10 Is to contribute tbs fact which his re-
mlrkablc experience has taught him to
the nation's stock of knowledge.
He has y plan inw}at he IS doing. He
/ does not regard our contest as one 50 much
between slavery AMI freedom rs between
I tya sg-tems Of labor. His plan OF sub
daias slavery Is BY breaking down the DO
miuiiut o,irarrhy Of the South, who de-
morali12 the white nau 10 less than they
debasc the negro. H would clutate not
alane this latter class, but he would cle-
yate the Southern whites who arc not
Shareholders. This he believes may be
done by iujuSine among them n Yankee
element and he regards the proposed set
tIement Of the South by Northern sold
crs as the natural agency for this. On
this subject Of the poor whites, no book
has ever been so thorough and explicit.
Its daeucrreotype Of them is entirely faith
fal. And it is thought by these, that the
Shareholders, taking advantage OF their
ignorance and d.5ascmcnt, have governed
America.
The incidents of the book-startling
and dramatic as they always arc--arc true.
i Not true in that they occurred exactly
as they related. They did not transpiro
in the order here given them, and occu-
/ pied u wider range OF time in their oc-
currcncc. But ere y one Of them actu-
| ally happened, and came under the immc-
/ liatc observation of the author, This is
! the fact, to the minutcst detail. There
is abundant material in the book to con-
/ firm this, even If the high charaeterof the
author admitted Of It's question. Gharac
ter is Disseminated in it to the incest
! shades Of difference. No close observer
can fail to believe that such portraits as
/ he makes are drawn from originals. The
dialect OF the negro, the poor white and
the corn-cracker is each given with 4 care
fuI consistency which only years Of obscr-
yation among them could have enabled the
author to appreciate. Jim the son Of Il
white many on ordinary occasions talks
/ ike country nero housc-scryant, but
under excitement speaks almost like a
white man; and it is an established truth
that persons Of mixed blood, when aroused,
always show preaoniaating the character
istics of the stronger race. Scip, pure
AGicap, always talks and speaks III high
toned, elevated manner though he never
gets out Of the negro lingo and 1t Is Il
curious fact that the native African show;
always, when brought in contact with cd
s9daai sd Do Tl4di+s5NhRIGS4}ftF aGf92S9 fbaFedtiF fbaF
souls crushed out by slavery. Old Pomp
/ has the religion OF a good old "nigger =
who Gets an idea Of the Bible thoroughly