The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1866-01-06
The Negro at Home.

Here follows picture OF the African at
home. as drawn by French Missionary on
the Eastern Coast. This is the source from
black population of the south. As the negro
has been on earth as long as the white man,
will the friends of negro equality tell us why
he has remained to this day what he was
three thousand years ago; and how much
greater progress he is likely to make if en-
dowed with the right of suffrage?
" The negro. here, is not quite as savage
as on or rexr the sea coast. Before the white
man, chiefly before the missionary, he is as
timid and gentle as lamb. His doubtful
devotion, most generally simulated, compels
his master to be constantly on the guard.
say "his MASTER" because, here, they are
always slaves to each other. Peter has Paul
for his slaye-Paul has John-John has
Anthony. But Peter, who, through his owa
slave Paul, has perhaps hundred more, is
himself the slave of the "Cabessary," the
country ruler. ~
Those savages are general Of large stat
ure and elegantly built up to the neck-but
when you reach the head they look like mon
sters.
Thick lips, large mouth, fat nose, woody
head and no beard. They shavs-their heads
in every possible and fantastic style. They
all bear on the face q number Of marks or in
cisions made by . sharp instrument, some
IS many as twenty FIVE.
Here the female is an abominable creature,
without modesty, without shame, and as wick
ed as . viper. They are seen every hour OF
the day, pipe in mouth, running from dance
to dance and plunging in every imaginable
debauch and crime.
There may be hopes for retaining the
men, but nothing is to be hoped from these
women.
The black, when he has to work, actually
becomes SO disheartened that he can hardly
stir
The rattan is just as much needed by them
IS food is for the whites
They work little, but live on little. The
country produces without any labor al they
require for support-wild fruits and nutricious
roots.
The white man, on the coast of Africa, can
only travel in hammock or be carried by the
blacks. II the trip is somewhat long you re-
quire large number.
When l went to Godome. Kotona and Poro
Novo, there were eighteehto carry me. They
sing, they dance and keep the most diabolical
noise.
Sometimes it happens that the white man
is not pleased with his people. Then he
rises. se:zes his rattan, and administers each
one sound beating. They cry, they weep,
they beg. One would believe they have been
nearly killed-but, be easy. When he is done,
they take him up very gently, lay him back
in his hammock, and start at full speed, sing
ing, and dancing and laughing actually more
than before.
Thirty blacks will allow themselves to be
whipped by one while, as school boys by the
school teacher, although one black is four
times as strong as one white. One white
with rattan will run off easily one hundred
blacks. Yet, what would there be required
of the negro to avenge himself on the white :?
Very little-only to drop down the hammock
and run off. They would be sure that he
never would leave that spot and would soon
become prey to the wild beasts of the des-
ert. But, to the contrary, they would all give
their own life to preserve his.
Family ties, or organizations are utterly
unknown.
Every man has as many,,wiyes or women as
he can buy and keep. Every man can do
with his woman as be pleases, sell them, swap
them, dispose OF them any way. Every wo-
man is bound to support her own offspring,
and when that offspring has grown up and is
fit for market. the common father of the whole
crowd takes it to the coast. where, for few
" cauris" (sbellsl he transfers the whole
family, including mother and all to the slave
dealers.
1t is but just to add, that sometimes the
/" mothers" seize upon the joint stock hus-
band and sell him themselves