The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-08-20

Wrle4a series of articles for his paper
eVs'@WeeK on the subject of slavery
a ~ ~ Violation of the finest senti-
melt7, that it would revive public
interest and carry his paper to the
peopie'it had never reached before
The Names of Mrs. Lydia M. Childs
and others was proposed. Lewis
Tappen, whe was one of the coun.
sellofs, finally said he knew of one
women who could do the work sue
cesioily; that she was poor and
ntSe pc paid for it, but that she
WON succeed. He then mentioned
Mrintewe, and advised DR. Bailey
to Vf1te to her, and by the way of
earusst, inclose her draft for 500.
| Tht lytteis was written and the draft
ssrAThe next week there appeared
IN the Nddondl Era, not the first of
serleso articles on slavery, but the
hrst chapers of a story called "Uncle
Toms Calm" The effect was in
stantaneeus and great. The scenes
delineated With such frequent strokes
OF elegant simplicity and covered
with the sonebreness of Christian
adherence of The slave system, went
home to the RAIDERS Imagination
with wonderful force. The circula.
tion of the National Era increased
at once, and soon secame very large.
Mrs. Stowe was popr and earned her
money so laboriotsly, that for fear
the great navel would be cut short
she was sent an additional $500.
Then she copyrighted the story,
which in book form has made her
fortune.
Into the books she wove all the
facts given her by Lewis Clarke in
connection with information CLEANED
elsewhere. For instance, the first
part of the character and story of
Uncle Tom himself was taken from
the experience of a colered preacher,
Josiah Henson, who had both arms
broken below the shoulder in trying
to ward off the blows of the club OF
brutal overseer. The broken bones
were not set, and the arms grew SO
distorted that Henson cannot now
feed himself. The whipping to death
OF Old Tom was suggested by the
fate of Sam Peter, a blacksmith on
the Kennedy plantation. who was
swung up by the hands to the limb
of locust tree (under whose sweet
blOssome Clarke stood this morning
and recited the story afresh,) and
given several hundred lasheS and
''salted." Two weeks later he was
dead, and Clarke heard him say to
his mother, in the words old Tom
used: Mother, tell master he has
killed me at last, for nothing, but
tell him if God will forgive him,
can" Clarke cut a bunch of blossoms
from the tree as a relic to bear away
with him. There were some terrible
masters in that section some fifty on
seventy-fve years ago. Among them
General Kennedy, Devil Bill Adams,
William Woods, a rchy Woods, Eben
Best and others are still quoted
among the old negroes with awe and
horror. 1t was the day of planta-
tions almost ducal in extent and
value, of the aggressive spirit of per-
sonal authority and Ostentation,
which the adventurous survivors OF
Revolutionary fields brought with
them from the camp and the field; {; OF
rural sport on the turf. at the card
table and at faro. The Crab Orchard
pike was the high road for the rich
drovers with their herds from Ten
nessee. Here they rested en- route
and at the old Kennedy mansion
play has gone high, and many des-
perate deed of yalor and many a
desperate vain folly have been done.
That was half century ago.
Lewis Clarke ran away ten years
latter; yesterday he returned, as one
of his friends said, like Moses, after
wandering forty years in the wilder
ness, to lead those he left behind up
to the heights. This morning was
the first time since he fed that he
stood upon the ground where he saw
so much that was dreadful. and so
much that was in its way pleasant,
for slave life was by turns a smile
and moan.
1t is singular fact in this neigh
borhood. whence sprung the most
powerful story of oppression and suf-
fering that was ever written, he stood
last night IN the pulpit of a hand
some village church built, paid for
and owned by some of the very me-
groes whose wrongs and hardships
pitched the key OF the story. He
could look out of one window and
see on sister hill another church