The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-05-25
s'ouRiosfT7Es OF rou3 Early HsfosiY..:@n

Ias ouRfossffiFtIiiEa OF Out EARLY HmfToaY..:me..
The occasion of the Meoklenburg cen
tennial celebration has inspired research
and brought on much that shows the
spirit md body of those 'times. Among
otheF things.is o fac sinae ofa hhndbill
said 70 have been distributed in North
Carolina previous to the year 1900 and
which is the oldest publication of the
Meclenburg Declaration of Independence
of May 20, It's, yet discovered in print
in this country. The New York Herald
has also n fac sin,ile of the third page of
the Now York Journal and the General Ad-
ue,tiser, of June 20, 1775, containing the
freshest advices, both foreign and do
mestic, printed and published by John
Holt, 'near the Coffee House." Most of
the articles in this fragment of antiquity
have peculiar interest mt this time. 1t
appears from the quoted market prices
purchased the exhilarnting fluid of New
England rum at 62l cents per bottle.
Next we have five years time offered for
sale by an '.indentured servant, by trade
n weaver" Another advertisement is:
Public acknowledgements, at the Nor
chants Coffee House, will be peremptorily
sold, reliable negro boy, about fifteen
years of age, capable of all kinds of work,
faithful and honest" This recalls the
fact that slavery ut that time was COM
mon in the North ns we'll rs the South,
and, as the Herald truly says, negroes
were then valuable in New York as trans
ferrable property, and were eagerly
bought up. Slavery, It is said, was al
most coeval with the establishment of
New York. When the first fort was be-
ing built, in 1925, the Dutch West India
Company promised to allot to each "Pa-
troon twelve black men and women out
OF the prizes in which negroes shall be
ship were thus sold there rs slaves, ire
spective of their former condition. In
dians were similarly treated. Slaves
were brought indirectly from Africa
through the Dutch West Indies Fort
Amsterdam wns completed by negro
labor. One of the first prizes taken by
tho British from the Dutch was cargo
of slaves, and rs they held that all ne
groes captured were slaves, not prison
ers of war, they extended the trade which
was so hourishing Mt the time of this an
nounoement in Hollis Journal. A glimpse
of the terrors Of the indentured system
is also given. The Herald says:
"An indentured servant was vorso
treated Mt this time than the negroes
were subsequently on Southern plnnta-
tions. Breach of contract was punisha-
bic with fine and imprisonment; but in
order to keep their employees in COM
pleto submission, masters often kept
them short of food, and always treated
them as inferior animals, who were
owned body and soul for O term of years.
Constant desertions resulted, and hence
we have hore, first, a reward of three
pounds for German who had gone off
with two hats, two pairs of pants and an
other mans wife; and secondly, reward
OF forty shillings for a woman who went
OFF with no end of gowns and petticoats,
with the wife of one Lindsey, tanner
and enlisted in tile continental forces,
under General Wooster"
Such "reminiscences as these ought to
teach the present generntion of philan-
thropists the cardinal virtues Of charity
and toleration towards others.
One of the most interesting relics of
the past contained in this number of the
New York Journal is IN extract from o
sermon preached by the late President
Davies to Capt. Overton's Independent
company of volunteers, in Hanover
County, in Virginia, which, the editor
says, 1--WE hope will be agreeable to our
readers, not only because it contains
sentiments suitable to the present time,
but because it contains something which
we hope will prove prophetic of the sue
cess Of the Command erin Chief Of the
American army" This last alluson is
to what President Davies says of THAT
heroic youth, Colonel Washington,
whom cannot but hope Providence hns
hitherto preserved in so signal manner
for some important service to his coun-
try"
The declaration Of the Provincial Con-
gress of South Carolina on the 4th of
June, 1775, subscribed by every member
present and certified by Henry Laurens,
President, beginning with reference to
"the bloody scene on the 10Th of April,
near Boston" shows the patriotic and
fraternnl spirit of South Carolina in those
days, and is fittingly followed by the
first md fullest printed account of the
| meeting Mt Charlottestown, Mecklenburg
County, North Carolina, May 81 of the
same year. The preamble and the first
four lines of the twenty resolutions are
given in full, while the remaining clauses
are briefly summarized in n paragraph
postscript added to this letter, tlnted
June IS, shows plainly enough that the
| condition of affairs was desperate in
North Carolina; "for," said he, "such is
the ardor for perfection in martial disci-
plino that many gentlemen of the first
consequence in this town, as we'll rs the
commonnlty, regularly turn out to drill
morning and evening. Even the boys
form themselves into companies, and nre