Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1870-05-20
A BLACK DEMOSTHENES.

A BLACK DEMOSTHENES.
Part of speech delivered at Ca'rolton.
Mss. an May, 1869, BY Henry Boyed.
colored, ON the subject of the adoption
| or rejection Of the scalawag Constitu-
ton. distiunchising t,cemty thousand OF
the most intelligent 1oaite citizens of the
I State, wAich Consultation mas voted
doun By the colored vote IN June, 1869.
My CoLoRED FRIENDS:
appear to-day in your interest alone
The white man is able to take care of him
self; and as you can all see, / have, not
one drop of white blood in my veins,
Qaughter.) am a, regular, old fashion
cd. plain corn-feld niger. and have not
the capacity to instruct white people as to
their duties, even if had the will. I
was slave from my birth-I always en-
deavored to serve my master faithfully ac-
cording to that letter of the Bible which
reads: Servants, be obedient unto your
masters, for this is right" And [ can
lay my hand upon my heart to-day and
say before God, that | entertain no ILL.,
will toward any white man on earth, and
least of all toward my old master and his
sons, whom [ loved as my own brothers,
and with whom I played in boyhoedae In
all our neighborbood romps, frolics and
fights Qor boys will fght.) they stood at
my back, as | did at theirs whenever it
came to the pinch. and. thank God, will
do so yet. l will stand by them 50 long
as they stand by me, whether the oppres-
sion comes from the Yankees, or from
whatever else it may. Whenever it comes
to my making choice between white men,
I shall prefer those of my own section to
all the carpet baggers in the world
There amt very much difference between
white men and Yankees, and whenever
you find it all you'll find it in the white
mans favor. White folks are all cut pref
ty much out Of the same cloth. and both
sections have made their love for the mig
gers subserve their own interests. as all
men are selfish by nature and can't help
it, and I can't blame them.
When the late war broke out, an free
to acknowledge, was mighty glad Of it
[ somehow felt that my freedom was 60.
ing to come out of it some way or other
and, as l am perhaps as selfish as white
man II tell you I didn't do" we'll,
didn't cry much at the prospect. Well
when the first company left my county fo1
i. I...aalt iGeinnY.. to fght. the = J Yankees.
4 enlisted With the balance of them, anC
went along as first cook and head waiter
for one Of my young masters. l had ;
pretty good time. too, for while the white
folks were out citing and marching, anc
suffering and dying. I was lying back will
the meat and bread wagons. [ felt, fol
once in my life, it was pretty good thing
to be nigger after all-for the white
man wouldn't let me fight alongside o
him, and after I heard the first she'll &C
off, God knows l wasn't very anxious tc
do it either knew if | had been along
on the Yankee side [ wouldn't have hao
such easy time fer Is s.s selfish ,al e The Yam
body to do his fighting for him whenever
he could Not he. Some folks say be
was willing enough to let the South do il
all during the Mexican war.
>. I used to be right smartly amused hear
ing the white folks talk. My young mas
ter came in one night after battle, and
says he, "Henry, we've just had big
six hours fight. We whipped the ID
Yankees like smoke and drove 'em thirty
six miles Thinks I to myself. "Humph
prittv good driving-all in six hours,
tool" But heap Of people think the
nigger is fool.
Well. I sorter thought, maybe, the Yam.
KEGS were really fighting to free the Mig
gers But they didn't keep the wool over
my eyes long watched 'em mighty
close. One day the news came into camp
that Mr.. Lincoln had done issued his pro-
clamation, saying that if Mr.. Davis would
lay down lis arms and come back into the
Union aud 90 to paying tariff again the
Southern people might have their niggers!
Thinks I, humph! Mighty poor chance
to get any freedom from you. Mr.. Lin
coin. I tell you what felt mighty bad
for long time. I had the blues SO bad
I was almost black. l think in two weeks
I fell off twenty pounds. l was SO 'fraid
Mr.. Davis was going to do it I couldn'1
sleep. But byand-by the good word
came that Mr.. Davis said "he'd be id
if he'd do any such thing; [ amt fighting
for niggers-let the niggers go; I'm after
my own freedom first before anything else
in the world" [ tell you my heart jump
ed right up. in my mouth. Thinks |,
bully for Jeff. Davis He's my man =
All. my friends, if the Yankees had been
in Mr.. Davis place you'd been in cot
ton patch to-day, with the whip after you.
instead of sitting up here in this court
house hearing me speak But don't you
see the difference between the Southern
man and the Northern man? The North
ern man never missed the chance of TAX
ing care Of the dimes first.
And now the carpet-baggers come here
and tell US they are our friends, and the
Southern people our enemies they tell us
they set US free. Oh, yes, they've done
it all, no doubt. They set US free about
like Ben. Butler set the spoons free y
They done it all to help the Yankees and
to jurc the Southern man: they can't