Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-13
SLAVERY "REMINISCENCES.
Early Experiences as Related in the Au-
photography OF Cassius n. Clay.

My father being the largest slave owner
in the State, early began TO study the sys-
tenn, or, rather, began to feel its wrongs
Whilst l was yet boy, my sister Eliza
being very fond of flowers and their cul.
ture, / had my miniature garden also; with
great delight living close to nature, and
feeling that serenity and passive happiness
love her. One day whilst absorbed in my
fayorite pastime ] heard scream. and
looking up, what was my horror to see
Mary coming into the yard with butchers
knife, and her clothes all bloody! All the
servants, from every cabin, big and little
ran wildly around in tears, with exclama-
tons of grief and terror.
Who was Mary? A handsome mulattc
girl, of about Is years of age. who had
been engaged years ago as one of the flower
gardeners. She was fine specimen of q
mixed breed, rather light colored, showing
the blood in her cheeks, with hair wavy
as in the case with mixed whites and
blacks. Her features were finely cut. quite
Caucasian while her eyes were large
black, languid and unconscious, excep,
when some passion stirred the fires of hel
African blood, when they flashed as the
lightning through cloud. 1t was Mary
who had assisted in laying out my garden
W
full bearing long after | was married, be
ing more than a foot in diameter.
After some years she was sent to the
house Of an overseer, at one of the separate
plantations, to cook for the whites the
hands and the overseer, his wife and two
or three grown daughters. Mary was very
bloody, but not hut. Payne, for that was
his name, was a d-unkard and, returning
home after Sprees made it his custom to
abuse Mary by words, which was not sub
mitted to in those days by any slaves when
coming from poor white trash" as they
called the ye-holGers, and so she in
turn used a woman's tongue in such way
as TO arouse the anger of the whole family.
Mary was sent into the kitchen or else
where, while the family, having made all
preparations to bar up the doors, prepared
to punish the woman severely, and, as tie
jury afterward decided, to kill her. They
called her in and sent her upstairs to shell
the seed-corn for planting All the field
hands were out at work But Mary, sus-
pecting mischief knowing Payne's temper
secreted a butcher knife in her bosom and
went sullenly to her work. As she antici-
pated, they soon came up and all attacked
her. She attempted to run down stairs and
out of the house; but, finding the doc.
securely fastened, she turned upon them
and slew Payne, and at length succeeded
In making her escape. She came home Il
the family. The whole community was If
arms, and Mary taken to Jail in few
hours. But my father being a man o
fortune and a long head Mary wa.
finally acquitted, and set free.
Sidney Payne Clay, our Oldest brother
who had been educated al Princeton Col
lege, New Jersey, and had returned home
was an emancipationist as well as Pres
byterian. BY my fathers will he was ap
pointed chief executor. As was the Gus
tom in all the border slave States, Mar,
was, by his will, ordered to be sent South
/ suppose to make murder odious. Now
the most astonishing feature of the slavt
system was the delusion that, as it wa
legal, it was morally right; whilst all th.
sentiments of the soul and the force of tn,
mind proclaimed it wrong For "tht
greatest of all rights" said the ELOQUENT r
J Breckenridge, is the right of man t,
himself This doctrine, Joined to SOM
passing remarks in the Bible, written in al
age when slavery was the result of a com
mon barbarism, confused the strongest in
tellect and led to the most conflicting re
suits. Never shall ! forget-and through
all these years it rests upon the memory a
the stamp upon a bright coin-the scene
when Mary was tied by the wrists and sent
frsn home and friends and the loved feat
ures of her native land--the home of he
infancy and girlish days-into Southern
Punishment forever and yet held guiltles
by a jury Of not her peers" bat her op
pressors Never shall l forget those two
faces-of nay brother and Mary-the op
pressor and the oppressed, rigid with euua
agony She cast an imploring look at me
DC in tRr.t rix
a word, as " sheep 10 the Slaughter
One more tale of the lost cause, and
! close this sad record. About 1910 IS. m,
father. having succeeded in a Ian sui
against a noighhor named Hendricks, the
angry master sent his slave Joe to burn oul
dwelling: but Joe, driven back by tht
watch dogs, went TO {. Fargo barn filed with
hay and grain and set fire &c that. in the
hope Of averting the anger of his master
which he had too much reason to dread
The barn made such a light that the poor
fellow was terrified, and stood looking
wildly at the flames, when he was seen anc
caught. Now, by the laws of the lost
cause" in no crime against the master
could a slave be a witness But the public
opinion was the same. Hendricks and
sons, having pat an iron collar on Joe with
a bell, and moving to the banks Of Station
remote and sparsely populated county, are
said 10 have whipped Joe three successive
days; and finally, when he died under
the lash, they tied large stone to hi:
neck, and sank him in that deep stream
But the stone heavy enough to sink the
fresh body, was too light when the gases OF
decomposition were generated, and Joe's
mortal remains arose to the surface and re-
vealed the secrets Of the prison house tc
the world. But what of that ? Slavery,
like necessity, knows no law But The
Hendricks family were driven, by the ire
pressi5le instincts of the human soul, into
exile, and they went West, where the mem.
DRY of the crime and the criminal was lost
In early times the use of an iron collar
was TO prevent the slave from running off
The collar on Joe had bell on it. so thai
everyone could see or hear it, and the collar
tbeiDg riveted on at a smiths shop) coult
not he taken from the runaway's mech
without great danger of discovery. Moth
ing shows the degradation OF the I" los
cause more than this custom, which wa:
generally abandoned before my time Yet
IN Lexington, in lS45, whilst / edited thu
True American, hearing one night some
disturbance in my hen house, | seized ny
pistol and went out to see the cause. TX
my surprise, q negro man had both hand!
full of chickens. He belonged to :. mild
hammered man of my acquaintance, wht
ran hemp factory. The man said, il
reply to my questions, that he was poorly
fed, and that he ought to help himself (
better fare. | told him, with some indig
nation, that he ought not TO come to me
who was the friend of his race, to rob- tt
which he replied Mars Cash, did no
think you would hurt me- This reason
ing was not at all satisfactory; but the low
moon cast & few rays through the trees
and saw the bright prongs of stee
collar as long on each side of his neck, al
the horns Of Texas steer. My rage
which was ct first almost notwithstanding
with pistol in hand-turned into pity; anc
l let the poor fellow go with all the chick
ems. Was l not also politically guilty
This nerved me to more deadly warfare
against the lost cause