Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1865-04-07
Correspondents Of the N. Y. Tribune.
WADE HAMPTON AND HIS SLAVE.

LAMBERTvILLE, N. Y. March 20, 1865.
About the time that renegade gentleman from
Massachusetts, Mr.. Hammond. made his notori-
Gus speech in Congress (Which has given him
all the fame he ever earned), that speech about
the Northern "mudsills," happened TO be srav-
cling in Southern Illinois, and spent the night
with Mrs. NJ, widow, who had been
born and raised in the neighborhoOd of the es-
tate of Mr.. Hampton, the father n-law of Mr..
Hammond and father of the present w Wade Hamp-
ton Mr. NJ, her husband, had left the
South because of their hatred to the Peculiar In
stitutiOn, and removed to Illinois to rid them
selves of its evil influence.
During the evening the lady spoke freely Of
their old neighbors, of the multitude OF their
slaves, and the cruelty of their treatment. She
knew of no estate where such fearful cruelty was
practiced. Described the dungeons, the racks
the pillories and the stretching boards, and de
tailed tragedy after tragedy, as known and some
times witnessed by herself of the savage bar
| barity inflicted upon these victims of the over
seer's wrath.
| One is fresh in my memory of a fine negro
girl, who for some trlfling Oifense was 81 hip
| ped that her back was mass of cudgeled flesh.
1t was hot weather, and 10 save her from the
| tlies she was immersed IN a cask of rain water
up to her chin, and to keep herself from drown
ing, was obliged to maintain her upright posi-
ton sitting on her feet with her mouth lust
above water. For hours the poor girl main
tanned her place, bowling in her agonies and
begging 10 be released. But their was no Weld
ing ON the part of her tormentors. But the
time of release came She faiuted, and her
head went down, and before they could reach
her her sufferings were over
Il saw this myself" said the narrator, "or ]
saw the girl in the barrel, heard her scream
and knew she was buried that night"
''They were So awful them people, that my
husband and could not stand it, and after that
we sold out and came away"
Gen. Wade HamptoD's letter to Gen. Sher-
man reminded me Of this tale of the host. This
man trained in the art of cruelty, will doubtless
"kill his two 10 one, If he gets chance, while
he shudders at the brutality of the Union arm
les. Can any thing else De expected of the true
disciple of this diabolical system? Are we
shocked at the details of the sufferings of oul
prisoners at Andersonville? Why should we be-
1t is only a carrying out of the teaching of a
Lifetime.
The slave was not often perhaps tortured to
death. Self-interest prevented that. But to
all that flesh and blood could bear aud live
were these victims of mans malice and greed
daily exposed.
And Wade Hampton, the gentlemen and
these, and now talks of "murderers and brutes. y
as il the thing was new to him. Ifslavery had
no other evil than its brutalizing influence on
the whites, we would say, "Destroy it forever
from the face of the earth.
A young friend writes us from Wilmington
y. c., of the heartrending condition of the ex-
changed Union prisoners, and of the feelings o.
the soldiers as they passed by. II have seer
our Union boys Che said }, drop upon their knee,
and swear to never cease the fight until the lasi
| Rebel had laid down his arms"
This incident Ofthe HaNpton discipline may
seem trivial in these days Of horror, but it viii
show how the pompOus General learned to be
humane. 1t will help to swell the mighty tide
of evidence against the pet institution 70,
mighty as that tide is it has not yet swept away
all the clinging love even of the North for the
patriarchal system, that gave the world such
chivalric Generals as Wade Hampton.
+ n r.