Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-10-05
A RADICAL HORROR.
Massao ohusetts-Her White Slave
Trade-How She FILLED Her
War Quota-Her Inhuman
Treatment OF Germans.

Mr.. George Bancroft, of Massachusetts,,
now Minister to the Court Of Prussia,
has a lob on hand which we imagine will
put to pretty sharp test bis diplomatic
abilities. He has to defend or explain
q transaction of the late civil war, which
transcends IN enormity anything that
New England has done, and which, thus
far, has been studiously concealed. The
slave trade which Massachusetts fostered
the coolie trade which she fosters yet
differ onlyin degree from the nefarious
commercial transaction, a traffic In white
human flesh, which we are about TO ex-
pose, aud to which we beg the attention
of our readers, and especially of our Ger
man readers.
Sometime in the year 1864, when the
terrors of the conscription looked the
selfish fanaticism of Massachusetts, full
in the face, and the price of substitutes
rose to 5000 and 800 apiece, there ar
rived in the harbor of Boston, the steam.
er Bellona, and the barks Garland and
Godefroy. They were freighted with
human beings, mostly men, and mostly
Prussians. They had come to land of
promise and well requited industry.
They had come to till the land and exer-
else their peaceful trades, and their
doom was penury and disease and death.
The story is soon told.
They had been visited-the poor crea
tures-at their homes in Germany, by a
smooth-tongued, plausible son of Massa'
chusetts, the agent of certain Boston
firms. His errand was to procure Ger
man immigrant laborers. The bloody
shareholders rebellion" he said, had
thinned the labor of the North, and there
was great opening for the skilled indus.
try of Europe He promised them en-
ployment for three years, 500 cash down
and $I2 month (ominous terms, but un-
meaning to the distant stranger). No
doubt he painted New England as land
of milk and honey, Massachusetts para
disc, and Boston harbor, whether they
were to be waited, the Golden Gate. AS
will be seen, they found it very differ
ent thing At last, the tempter pre-.
vailed contracts of very misty phrase
ology were signed; the poor Prussians
bade farewell to Fatherland, and the
deed was done. Besides the contract
which they signed, they were induced
to release any claim they might have,
on arrival, to compensation beyond the
800 and the $l2 month. The Bello.
ma and her consorts sailed.
Boston harbor is destined to have an
ugly name in history. Not only is Fort
Warren there with its tale of unavenged
wrong, but there are two small islands,
called Deer Island and Galloupe's Island,
which have their sad story to tell. On
these wretched spots, cut off from inter
course with the land, the poor German
immigrants were landed, and by force
were kept. The Bellona dumped down
the human cargo as if they had been SO
many mules, Presently, how long ex'
actly we are unable to say, there came up
a whisper to the German residents and
association of Boston that something was
wrong. Now and then poor, sick
stranger was found wandering homeless
who said he had been enticed from his
heme, and was starving in strange
land. This led to inquiry, and the start
ling facts were disclosed that all these
immigrants had been landed at Deer Is
land, surrounded and kept in terror by
the armed police of the city of Boston
inspected by military surgeon whose
name we have-the sick sent ashore and
turned adrift, and not dollar paid to
them, and the well forcibly transferred
TO Galloupe's Island, military post and
there, by threats and persuasion, en-.
listed in the United States army, and
sent instantly to the front, credited tc
the quota of Massachusetts, and the sub
stitute money, which was realized by the
operation, received and to this day KEEP
by the commercial firms with whom il
originated. And for all this there is nc
redress, and, as to it, there has been
scarcely any publicity. The Prussian
Charge d Affairs made some faint effort
at investigation The German societies
in Boston did all they could, but loyalty
and the public sentiment of Massachu'
setts approved it. The Yankee mer-
chants made good thing, and the poor,
friendless Prussian has the honor oi
sleeping in some national cemetery, or
to wander, MANNED, through our streets
Verify, this is the way the Yankees treat
the stranger r-Philddelphia Age.