The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-05-02
From the N. Y. Times.l
An Unsettled Account.

Every now and again we hear dreadful
things of what will happen when the ex
Shareholders of the South bring in their
bill Tor the value of slave property de-
stroyed by the Emancipation Proclama
ton. Did it ever occur to anybody to
ask what would happen if million or
two of ex-slaves should bring an action
for wages unlawfully detained, and for
damages sustained by reason OF being re-
strained of their liberty We can very
well believe that in some families in the
South there is kept, as a precious heir
loom, the roll of emancipated slaves, just
as French spoliation claims" are kept in
many New England families-a precious
legacy on which the gold shall some day
be paid. But the times are not propi.
tious, the claims are held in allegiance
until a Democrs tic Congress and Demo
cratic President shall give them tangi-
BILE value. No greater mistake was made
by Mr.. Tilden, during the campaign OF
1876, than his emphatic statement that
he was opposed, on principle, to every
variety of claim founded on a state of war
in the South.
In April, 1858, while the work of cap
turing fugitive slaves was busiest, Henri
eta Wood, free born mulatto woman,
living in Cincinnati, Ohio was enticed
across the river into Kentucky. There
she was seized under the infamous pro-
visions of the Fugitive Slave law and
was put into the custody Of one 'Zeb"
Ward, Sheriff of Campbell County, KY.
He kept her in duress seven months, and
finally sold her to a slave trader from
Frankfort; for this was during the good
old times when black men and women
were bought and sold like sheep and 9th
er chattels. In those days it was not safe
for any man to murmur against the op
Grafton of a slave law. The woman.
though black, was born free. and he who
had ventured 10 demonstrate against her
being sold into slavery would have been
reckoned disturber of the public peace,
sower of sedition. and a destroyer OF the
safeguards of society. So Henrietta
Wood went down into Egypt, otherwise
Mississippi, the property of one Brandon,
a cotton planter. In this servitude she
remained for fifteen years. When Abra-
ham Lincoln, of blessed memory, issued
his Proclamation of Emancipation, Hen
rietta Wood wasIiving in Texas, in bonds.
She remembered the frightful crime
which had been committed against her.
and she made way to Cincinnati, where
she brought suit against Zebulon Ward,
whilom Sheriff of Campbell County, for
duress and abduction. The case was
brought in the United States Court Of
Ward, now prosperous citizen of Little
Rock, Ark, put in defense, alleging
that he had bought Henrietta from one
Robert White and others. who claimed
to be her owners. This plea was ineffect-
ual, snd the court held that Ward should
pay ~ 500 and costs. This is not large
sum by way of indemnity for kidnapping
and for fifteen years of slavery, but from
it there is no appeal, and Zebulon must
needs pay the forfeit of his villainy. He
cannot escape the law, which will follow
him and his property into the remotest
nook of the Republic.
Files of newspapers Of the five years
following the passage of the Fugitive
Slave law are filed with stories of the
kidnapping of free men in free States
In one instance, near Edwardsville, Ill,
white man was arrested on the public
highway by an agent of slave-hunters, al
leging that reward of 5000 had been Of
fered for him. 1t happened that this
free-bnrn citizen had friends in Edwards
vile, who testified that he owned himself,
and SO he escaped being sold into slavery.
In Sandusky, Ohio, four men and women.
with several children were seized while
en- route for Detroit, and were brought
before the United States Commissioners
as fugitive slaves Their hastily-sum
finding that no warrant for the arrest of
these trembling fugitives had been pre-
sented. declared that their seizure was
upjustifable. Whereupon bystander,
who had been hitherto silent, produced
certain papers and said, II own these
slaves and hold you responsible if they
escape" They did escape under the COW
er of friendly crowd and Sloane was
mulcted in the amount of $3.50 and
costs, under the laws of the United States.
There never was any evidence that the
fugitives were not lawfully free.
We would willingly close this dark
chapter in American history. But Hen
rietta Wood, who after twenty five years.
has been avenged of the man who stole
her, has opened it again. And every
man who comes to Congress whining
about the losses of the South sustained
through the destruction of property in
human slavery, opens it, The loss of
property by the proclamation that chat
telhood in man has ceased to exist may
have been great. But there is another
side to the question. The United States
Government may be asked to make good
the loss of those whose property was sud-
denly clothed with the ight of manhood.
But who will recompense the millions of
men end women for the years of liberty
of which they have been defrauded p
Who will make good to the thousands of
kidnapped freemen the agony, distress,
and bondage of a lifetime? Let us have
both sides of this long unsettled account