Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-10-21
FIRE-WATER FOR THE ARR
CANS.
The New England slave Trade Sue-
ceeded by the Equally shameful
New England Rum Trade.
Correspondence of the Charleston Nelcs and
Courier

Correspondence of the Charleston Nelcs and
| Courier.
GoREE, WEST AFRICA, April 2. AS
| doubts are expressed in many Northern
Journals whether the freedmen In our
Southern States are as well treated as they
should be or not, and as continual agita-
ton of the subject, though understood to
be largely for political purposes, must
create an impression abroad unfavorsble
towards the South, 1t seems only fair
that those who herald such damaging
accusations should be put, II possible,
on the defensive, and show cause
| why they also cherish an abOmination in
their midst which in the injury it does the
black race compares, though adversely,
with the worst forms of African slavery. 1t
may not be easy to show why corruption
emanating from Massachusetts, is quite as
| potent factor for evil as was enforced SER
| vitude In South Carolina, but HE that Is
higher than the highest regardeth," and in
the even scales of justice 1t may be that Sa-
tan, the tempter, is worthy Of more wrath
| than was Satan "who set himself in glory
above his peers and by forceful measures
sought to equal the Most High"
AS a text to what am about to write l
will not follow the example of those who
/ cry up Southern outragesn merely for po-
| litical effect, but inviting criticism l give
the following well-ascertained facts: On
the 18th of September, 1880, the bark
| Charles r. Lewis sailed from Boston for
| Goree, West Africa, with one thousand bar
rels of New England rum on board, and
scarcely had she finished discharging at her
| port of destination when on the 31st Of Oc-
| tober, 1880, the brig Donna Anna arrived
| from New York with five hundred more.
| These facts are not mentioned as anything
very remarkable in themselves considered,
but they afford proof which cannot be ques-
/ 49, l.. - 4 H. - haIA
| month siXty-five thousand gallons OF In
toxicating liquors left our enlightened
| Christian shores for one obscure village In
| benighted heather Africa.
It is Boston, however-proud philan-
thropic, cultured, Christian Boston-which
maintains the grand pre-eminence IN this
| questionable branch of our commerce, and
1t seems almost Incredible that commu-
| nifty which has so Zealously advocated the
claims of the black man to protection, to
enfranchisement and to popular sympathy
| should, without some adequate protest,
allow whole shiploads of one Of the most
| destructive agents to goodness and civiliza-
ton known leave its shores and speed de-
| pravity, violence and death in regions where
no restraints of law or public sentiment pro-
tect the innocent aud helpless from the
maddening effects OF alcohol 1t Is indeed
| questionable whether the African slave
trade was productive of more miseries than
| the present African rum trade is, though
| the latter is more insidious in its develop
ments and effcc than was its former bold
/ and unblushing compeer.
From such an obscure part of the world as
| Senegambia the sfflictions of her suffering
millions ere seldom Photographed in our
| journals, but they are none the less real be-
cause they are not heralded, and If it is
| commendable to ''rescue the perishing" in
every cline and nation, Americans should
surely cease obscuring the clamps of Life"
which a few discouraged fever-stricken
missionaries are striving to hold up to those
who have dwelt in darkness and the shadow
of death for more than forty centuries. The
manufacture of New England rum is pro-
tected by the same government which has for
twenty years been professedlY striving to
| ameliorate the condition of the negro, and
it is exported to Africa free of duty and
without protest from the city and port
which, Of all others, should be ashamed of
such a glazing breach of consistency. OF
what use is 1t for newspapers to declaim
| against the Ku-Klux and their imaginary
deeds Of darkness towards our freedmen,
while openly, in broad daylight, whole ship
I loads Of murderous poison are passing from
Medford, right under the shadow of Bunker
| Hill monument, to spread misery, desola-
ton and death along the paths trod by
Stanley and Livingstone, Through the Dark
| Continent" P. STRICKLAND.