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

Two miles distant from Lowell.
Kentucky, over among group OF
hills through which used to wind the
celebrated Crab Orchard pike of half
a century ago, stands a fine old red
brick mansion facing south and COM
manding a view Of miles upon miles
of wavelike hills and valleys. Fifty
years ago it was the plantation of
Gen. Thomas Kennedy, Virginian,
who fought at Kings Mountain
with Marion. and came to kentucky
about 1880 to Wrest the garden OF
the central portion of the State from
the Indians. The old red brick house
and the ground all about it has re-
Gently become famous as being the
original scene in Mrs Stoves novel
of ''Uncle Toms aCabin.'' General
Kennedy owned 1000 acres of land,
$50 slaves, and was enormously
wealthy for those days. He was a
man of wonderful character and de-
termination, Black Douglass in the
Gerard Hills. He was tall, athletic
and hale man, with the erect carriage
of an Indian and the mien of COM
mander. He was in the main man
cf fair impulse and royal generosity
when calm but when angered he
was insatiably cruel to his slaves.
General Kennedy died in 1886, and
left the bulk of his property to his
son Thomas, then about twenty years
of age. In three years the young
man had run through more than
great fortune, and was dead at the
very outset of his career. Among
slaves left in his estate was an intelli-
G mt, high-strung octorOon boy,
named Lewis Clarke, who had been
granted comparative freedom, in be-
ing allowed to travel about with an
open pass, trading, weaving and oc-
cupying himself as he pleased, pay
ing his master certain sum every
month. When the estate came to he
settled, it was disc0y cred that some
of the slaves must be sold, and an
execution was issued against Lewis
among the Others. The rumor got
out and at that day the rumor was
a dreadful one among slaves-that
they We're to be 'sold down South"
On the first night of the Septemb Der
court, in 1S4l Lewis Clarke mounted
his poney and struck for liberty. He
was as white as the fairest Caucasian
in Gerard, with Scottish shrewd-
ness inherited from his father, a
white man, and longing for liberty
which had obtained for HIM the repu-
tatlon. SO depreciat0ry Of slave
values, of being 'SpOilt nigger."
He rode away and oyer the hills to
ohio and to Canada. Then he went
to Cambridge, Mass, lived for seven
years with A. ii. Stafford, brother
in-IaW Of Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe. Mrs. Stowe visited her rela-
tiOnS every Summer, and took deep
interest in Lewis Clarke, his expel-
ience and his narrative of incidents,
pathetic, humorous and terrible, of
slaye life, and the horrors which the
system made possible, and which
We're. in localities, frequent from
brutal and irresponsible masters, She
took full notes of all he told her and
afterward put them to the use which
made the entire Republic tremble
whpT "Uncle Toms Cabin' made its
appearance in 1853. Meanwhile.
however, Lewis Clarke had dictated
the story of his own harsh expert
ence to j. {. Lovejoy, of Cambridge,
Mass, and it was published in book
form in 1918, with the title "Narra-
tive OF the sufferings of Lewis Clarke
during a Captivity of more than
twenty-five Years among the AL
gerines of Kentucky. one of the So
called Christian States of North
America" Many copies were sold,
but it created so much excitement
chat several thousand copies were
suppressed and the plates DESTROYED.
There are lew copies of this in eX-
istence and 1 have been permitted
to read probably the only copy in
Kentucky. 1t details certainly
very wretched and cruel story of i'll
treatment during his childhood, be-
fore he became the slave of the Ken
nedys.
From Lewis Clarke's own Iips
gathered the story of how Mrs. Stowe
came to write "Uncle Toms Cabin
DR.. Bailey, who published the Phil
dntrophiSt in Cincinnati, had been
persuaded to move to Washington
CiIy about 1S4S or 1850, where he
established an emancipationist organ.
called the National Era. When the
fugitive slave law was passed il pro-
duced such an impression upon the
country, and was so strongly sustain.