The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1865-02-04

lqusst;WopA give his people. ~ distant
ito day from that Enal triumph as he was
when his routed army was flying from
peacs.haa.ers Ds ~ too psainiy TESTIFY m that even
he sees the hopslessness Of the war for the
negroes. His missionaries sent to Rich
mond without credentials are the best evil
licences that The Washington authorities are
|endeavoring 10 find some way on. OF their
difficulties which shall save them from the
appearance Of yielding. The straightfor-
ward open, honest effort at negotiation is
dodged for q sneaEing attempt through
anaccreditea agents. Such is Washing
ton diploIaacy, truly.
Georgia Slaves.
Black men tell me that Savannah shows
the bes: features Of slavery; but the best
are bad, indeed. There have been many
good masters. after such a pattern as slavery
themselves and their negroes in idleness.
A Savannah lady never, in any place,
was without her black servant girl to wait
upon her whim or need, and 40 she learned
10 do little for herselI In what business
life such 8 city affords, the negroes have
had opportunities TO make their intelli-
genee valuable to their keepers. The
| town seems to have been rich and COM
Portable IN it's time, n place for ease and
society, and not one for driving hard bar
gains. Savannah societJ : is doubtless more
conservative, more humane. and religious
than Charleston society. The negro was
upon the whole, comparatively well treat
ed here. But he would be punished if he
tried to learn to read and write, and teach
ers even in Sunday schools were placed
under ban. One OF them was lightly pun
ished, not year ago, by fine Of $50, and
only escaped whipping beca use be was a
leader Of the church and much respected
by his master. a dandyish young Ala
bamisn. well-to.do camp servant. told
2arnin' among the Savannah darki.s This
looks true, for no: a few Of the black peo-
pie are intelligent enough to hold equal
talk with the whites. How they got this
book larnin, the imagination mus. dis
cover. Perhaps they picked il up orally
from the whites; perhaps they spelled il
ont by the light Of q tallow candle in the
| been an attentive and instructed listner to
these men who, day day, have told me
their livehood, nothing extenu uating nor
setting down aught in malice; for the
class OF slaves haye met appear far more
impartial and unprejudicel observers than
Savannah land it is not to be supposed
that these were theworst, )they:wef created
badly. Along the shore, for some distance
down. runs series Of rice plantations,
formerly nothing but swamp. gronnd, but
now parceled, sluiced and trencned for the
ordering and watering Of the corps. Here
q great many hands worked regularly, in
sight OF the city. The eyerseer cracked
his whip at his teams of slaves
Out westward, near Q the Savannah
shore, and in the plantations neighboring
the rear Of the city. or from ten to fifteen
miles, slavery could be seen in all its fea7
lures. Whipping and brutalizing were a
part Of the. plantation, and one fellow,
Captain or Major Hines, an Englshman
in the rebel army, I have heard, passed
into proverb among the slaves for his vim
dictive cruelty. Very vague rumors Of
anything like conspiracy or insurrection
have ever reached the slaves here, and yet
We have read of such things ourselves from
the Georgia papers BY. way Of Richmond.
II have gathered il from the blacks them-
selves, as well as the officers who have con-
versed with them ON the march, that in
every case their masters told them that the
moment the Yankees got hold Of them,
they would kill, burn, couseript them, or
send them TO Cuba-a name as dreadful to
the Georgia negro al Carolina would be to
Q Marylander-the slave would strike an
attitude of such speechless fright that the
most artful master was thoroughly de-
ceived, and then stampede away toward
the woods or swamps, whence, with u full
knowledge Of all the roads and by-pathe,
he joined the army by roundabout way
For four days slaves have kept the swamp
without food, watching their chance to
come into our camps without being shot
by the pickets, but never thinking Of re-
turning to their masters. Late at nigh:
one Of the sentinels heard . doleful sound.
out of the hollow Of tree-"O, n1asSa, don't
| you kill metz andia poor plantation negro
covered with swamp mud, and chilled
V-~se I.s
and was taken into quarters. The soldiers
tell many stories odstha cunning byg which
| the blacks circumventea their MASTERS. -
They appeared to believe everything. but
really believed nothing, except that the
Yankees were coming to deliver them.- i
"How long," said an officer to one Of them,
have you been expecting usfo "We'se
been awaiting for you desc four years.
Yet no white man told them. this; it was
picked up at the masters table, By caves
dropping heard at Sunday visits between
plantations, and telegYaphed by whispers
all through Georgia. Kow absurd to base
any safety for wrong upon. q thing so COM
plex, underground, mysterious, as oppres.
sed human nature! The negroes swan
fthe Eivers, inst % they nearly died In the
sWamps, to reach ear camps.
Vain Wa thelast care Of the master who
hid the treasure in the woods or brakes, or
under the furtpws-s0ne dashed and scar
red slave told It's hiding place. Itwasmar-
velous how the c0ntTabanls marched day
hy day : L0ots eSs stot;ng' their pick aninnies
through the teen miles tramp; little fell
lows stopping to pick mp children of near
their own size, and some oldinasn keeping
up With the army near all the way down
from Atlanta. Their prayers, songs and
dances around the camp fres>paid the sol
dier for oil his kindness, and what private
soldiers could do for the poor ycontraband
was always done with good will and even
with a certain fellowship. War, with all
its horrors, has not depraved the nature Of
our soldieTs--an army Of better men Q
might say eitizens) could no. be brought to-
gether, for after the war they promise to
become the most settled, sensible and Or
Derby part Of the population, however it
may seem to the contrary. Our private
soldiers (the greatest part of whom are
from twenty to twenty-five years of age)
speak without bombast, and behave like
gentlemen-even the rudest looking Of
them, fellows with torn and dirty hats and