American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1863-12-23

" All, self-interest warps mems minds
wonderfully, but don't believe there are
many who don't think sometimes-it's i'm
possible, l know that they don't"
Were there any others in this neigh.
borhood, asked, who avowedly hated
slavery? He replied that there were a
good many mechanics, all the mechanics
he knew, who felt slavery to be a great
curse to them, and who wanted to see it
brought to an end in some way. The
competition in which they were constant
ly made to feel themselves engaged with
slave labor, was degrading to them, and
they felt it to be So There was a good
deal of talk now among them about get
ting laws passed to prevent the owners OF
slaves from having them taught trades,
and to prohibit slave mechanics from be-
ing hired out He could go out to-mor-
row, he supposed, and in the course of
day get two hundred signatures to paper
alleging that slavery was a curse to Mis-
sissippi, and praying the Legislature to
take measures to relieve them of it as soon
as practicable. He knew poor, hard
working man who was lately offered the
services of three negroes for six years
each if he would let them learn his trade,
but he refused the proposal with indigna-
ton, saying he would starve before he
helped slave to become a mechanic.
He considered coersive government of
the negroes by the whites, forcing them
to labor Systematically, and restraining
them from a reckless destruction of life
and property, to be necessary. OF course
he did not think it wrong to hold slaves,
and the profits of their labor were not
more than enough to pay a man for look
ing after them-not if he did his duty to
them. What was wrong was making slav-
ry so much worse than was necessary. Ne
groes would improve very rapidly, if they
We're allowed any considerable measure of
the ordinary indictments to improvement.
He knew hosts of negroes who showed ex
traordinary talents, considering their OPP
portunities for mental development: there
were great many in this part of the coun-
try who could read and write, and calcu-
late mentally, as well as the general run
of white men who had been to schools
There were Colonel IS negroes, some
fifty of them; they were almost as free as
any people in the world, and he did not
suppose there were any fifty more con-
tented people, perhaps, They were not
driven hard, and work was stopped three
times day for meals; they had plenty to
eat, and good clothes; aud through the
whole year they had from Friday night to
Monday morning to do what they liked
with themselves. Saturdays the men gen.
orally worked in their patches (private
gardens), and the women washed and
mended clothes. Sundays, they nearly
all went to Sunday-school the mistress
taught, and to meeting, but they were not
obliged to; they could come and go as
they pleased all Saturday and Sunday; they
were not looked after at all Only on Mon
day morning, if there should be any one
missing, or any one should come to the
field with ragged or dirty clothes, he
would have to be whipped. He had of
ten noticed how much more intelligent
and sprightly these negroes were than the
common run; great many of them had
books and could read and write; and, on
Sundays, they were smartly dressed, some
of them better than he or his wifa ever
thought of dressing. This was from the
money they made out of their patches,
working Saturdays
Well, then, there were two other plant
ations near him, in both of which the ne
groes were turned out to work at half
past three every weekday morning.
might hear the bell ring for them-and
frequently they were not stopped till nine
o'clock that night. Saturday nights the
same as any other One of them belong
ed to very religious lady, and on Sun
day morning at halfpast nine she had her
bell rang for Sunday-school, and after Sun
day-school they had meeting, and anoth-
er religious service after dinner. Every
negro on the plantation was obliged to at
tend all these exercises, and if they were
not dressed clean they were whipped
They were never allowed to 60 off the
plantation, and if they were caught speak
ing to negro from any other place, they
were whipped They could all of them
repeat the catechism, he believed, but they
were the dumbest, and LATEST, and most
sorrowful looking negroes he had ever
seen.
As general rule, the condition of the
slaves, as regard their material comfort, is
s,raatlv ;mnroved within twenty years.