The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1866-07-14
Revival of the Slave Trade.

Revival Of the Slave Trade.
P. W. A., Georgia correspondent o
the New York News, thus writes:
The President of the council O.
branch of the Equal Rights Association
in this county, who is quite an intelli
gent person, and well known to me per
sonally, assures me that he has tn
strongest reasons for believing that th'
slave trade has been, and still is being
carried on between the United States
and Cuba, and perhaps over slavehold
ing countries. Upon being asked te
state his reasons for this belief, he re-
piled that a large number Of freedmen
Influenced by the bounties and high
wages offered, had gone from this State
to the Southwest. Some Of his own re-
lations and friends were among the
number who had thus changed theil
homes. The agent who offered these
inducements had visited the region OF
country bordering on the railway lines
and navigable streams in the other cot.
ton-growing States Where the freed
men had relatives living in the South,
west whom they wished to join, these
agents offered to take them to the i'm
mediate neighborhood, and find them
comfortable homes. They promised
in advance to give them twenty, twenty,
five and thirty dollars per month for
their labor, and to provide good houses
and abundant supplies of food and fuel.
In many instances they paid the little
debts owing here by the negroes, and
made liberal advances of money and
clothing, when they found it necessary
to carry out their purposes. Many OF
the poor creatures thus kidnapped have
never been heard of since, and those
who did write back, after the exchange
of a few letters, ceased the correspon-
dence altogether. TO the minds ofthe
freed people who remained behind,
there appeared to be some mystery in
all this. The extreme liberality Of the
agents occasioned some remark at the
time, but when the emigrants did not
write back, as they had promised to do,
or only sent few letters and then stop
ped altogether, and especially when
some of the letters received evinced the
greatest ignorance ofthe relations of
the parties, and bore strong evidence
of being forgeries, the conviction fas-
tened itself upon the minds of many
that their friends had been foully wrong
ed.
Under these circumstances, it was
deemed advisable TO send colored
agent to the Valley Of the Mississippi,
with instructions to visit Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and
to make diligent inquiry after the emf
grants who had gone from Georgia.
The agent has returned from his visit
to the Southwest, and reports that
many of the emigrants could not be
found in the localities for which they
had started, or where they had last
been heard from, or, indeed, in any
other part of the country. He reports
further, that these emigrants have been
carried out of the country, and probab-
ly sold as slaves! From the best infor-
nation he could get, the Southwestern
agents engaged in tn s nefarious trade
had opened plantations on the banks of
the Mississippi, Arkansas, Red and
other navigable rivers in that part Of the
country. The emigrants were carried
to these plantations and kept at work
until everything was got ready, when,
on some dark night, body Of armed
men, (supposed to be boats crew,
would make a descent upon the prem
ises, seize the negroes, hurry them
down to the river, force them on board
a boat lying in wait, and disappear
down stream. being careful to pass
New Orleans and other towns on the
route under cover Of darkness! Where
it was not convenient or advisable to
use violence, it was not difficult to in.
vent fraudulent pretext to get the nc
groes to 60 on board After the re-
moval of one batch of negroes in this
way, their places on the plantation
were supplied by fresh importations of
other victims, whOi in their turn, were
put to work until the boat returned and
the necessary preparations could be
made for their abduction. Thus the
were kept up and used as a
means, or slave pen,' for carrying.
on thr trade. .'- p -
At this point l inquired Of the Presi-
dent who the parties were who engaged
in this trade. He replied. unhesita-
tingly, the agents Of the Freedmen's'
Bureau, who are located In the cities
and along the railways and lines Of
travel, and their friends andA associ-
ates. He did not seem to believe that
the Southern people had any hand in
the matter, and left the impression upon
my mind that the trade was confined
exclusively to the Federal agents and
officers and their accomplices. He was
of the opinion, also, that the Bureau
had done q great deal Of mischief and
but little good, though he had no doubt
that If it had been properly administer
ed it might have been of much benefit
to his fellow freedmen, IS well as to
the whites. He hoped that the efforts
now being made by the freed people
themselves to stop this trade, would be
successful. Among the efforts alluded
to, understood him to say that repro
had been, or would soon be
made at Washington which wouldprob-
ably lead to the interference of the
He had heard of the re-