New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-05-02
FEEE LABOR UNDER UNION Hu1 70
AT THE sOUTU.

Il n bal
: fertile " Parish" (answerng to our Couots,
of Louisiana, lying on the Mississippi and L,I.
Pontchartrain, some thirty miles above No.
Orleans. 1t is one of those which Presd,,.
Lincoln was most unfortunately induced !,
, exempt from the purview Of bis January Pine.
iamatlon of Freedom, and had in 1860 . mn.
ulation OF 1886 free persons and 4,596 slave.
mostly engaged in sugar-making. Under Gen.
bankss arrangement q good share of il,
slaves have been induced (the word il b.rdJ,
strong enough for the fact) TO remain with
and labor for their masters, with a promise of
some small recompense for their labor ont or
the crop when sold-for, though still slave, b,
Louisiana law, the Confscation Act of Con,
gress and that forbidding tho return Of fugitive.
by our army render their practical retention !.
bondage difficult and precarious. The plan..r,
and their overseers, however, are doing THAR
best to keep things as nearly in the old rut,
as possible, in sangune anticipation Of "ths
good time coming" when the detested
" Yankees" shall be driven from the sscred
soil, and Slavery again be all in all.
Among these planters, however, is Mr.. TIP.
May, native Lousianian, who, regarding the
Rebellion as s-blunder and q failure, has 70.
solved to conform in good faith and as q loysl
citizen to the change which has been naueu.
rated, aud which he believes irresistible. He
was asked last Winter to run for Congress-.
aud replied that, though he had no political a..
piratiops, he embraced the opportunity to pro.
claim hrs unconditional adhesion 10 tho Union
cause. This was enough TO expose him to the
deadly hostility of the great mass of bis brother
planters, whose Unionism is wholly superficial.
Last September his plantation was swooped
down upon by thousand Rebel Guerrillas,
who proclaimed the confscation OF bic property
by the Rebel Government but were compelled
10 flight before they could consummate their
purposes. His negroes fed in terror at the ap-
proach OF the guerriIIas, and have not generally
returned; 80 that he was obliged to harvest
what the guerrillas left Of his crops by tree
white labor, hired at $35 per month.
He commenced this years industry entirely
on free basis, hiring forty Germans for the
year ut $l2 per month and board and ono
hundred negroes at So 10 $40 per month aud
board, and has now growing six hundred acres
of cane, three hundred of cotton and three
hundred of corn. SO well is he pleased with
the workings of free lObor that be recently in.
vited party of his NewOrleans friends, in-
GLIDING Col. 7. b. Thorpe, well known in
this city, and two or three revenue officers, TO
take q steamboat trip with him to bis planta.
ton, and see how we'll things went on there.
They went uccoruIngy, a"~
fine April day, Mr.. May and his friends landed
at May Lawn, as his place is named, to Gnd
that the neighboring planters, whose threats
that he should not raise a crop BY free labor be
had dsregarded, had that day united in raid
upon his plantation, hunting mis- hired negroes
with firearms and severely wounding seven OF
them. The rioters then rode over the place 10
gangs OF ten or a Dozen crushing down and
DESTROYING the young and tender plants, aud
finally skedaddled" ut the appearance Of tho
steamboat, taking of two Of the laborers with
them. Mr. May and his friends, after mourn
fu visit, returned next evening to New-Orleans.
having obtained the names OF the ringleadsrs
in devastating bis property and shooting hs
hired men, which he Immediately commun-
Gated to Gen. Bowen, Provost Marshal, BY
whom they were transmitted to Gen. Banks;
but, up to the latest advices, the criminals
were exultng 10 perfect impunity. though tho
scene OF their felony lies directly on the Mis-.
sissppi, about halfway between the two Union
strongholds, New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
We have often been triumphantly asked,
al tree labor 10 preferable to slave, why does
it not demonstrate its superiority in The prac-
teal economy of the South !" This outrage
on Mr. May supplies the answer. Free Labor
has never been allowed fair play in the Cotton
aud Sugar growing region, aud mover will b
while Slavery prevails there. Had any person
chosen. at any time these forty years, TO
work large plantation BY free labor alone.
hs neiQhbors would have found means to nip
tho experiment in the bud. He would have
been regarded a. public enemy, to be eItir'
pated by not, ravage. arson, or (if need be)
by murder. "PoOr Whites" living mainly By
fishing, hunting and chance jobs, with COW
and pig running at large, and hut and patch
of corn on the refuse corner OF some P'aa-
tatiou. receive contemptuous federation ior
their occasional usefulness in hunting runaway
slaves and in depressing negro insurrectons;
hut any serious rivalry of slave by free ASOr
nsvsr was and never will DO tolerated whore
Slavery bears sway. Gen. Banks will surely
learn. if he has not learned already, that tos
sloveboldins caste can never distinguish lsni'y
from weakness, and have no gratitude '0' 90.