Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-04-05
An Old-Time Negro Dance.

From George w. Cables illustrated
paper, in the February Century, accom-
panied by the music of the Creole
dances, we quote the following: ''It was
weird one. The negro Of colonial
Louisiana was most grotesque figure.
He was nearly naked. Often his neck
and arms, thighs, shanks, and splay
feet were shrunken, though, sinewy like
a monkeys. Sometimes it was scant
diet and cruel labor that had made them
SO. Even the requirement of law was
only that he should have not less than
a barrel of corn-nothing else,-a
month, nor get more than thirty lashes
to the twenty-four hours. The whole
world was crueler those times than now;
we must not Judge them by our own.
Gotten the, slaves attire was only q
cotton shirt, Or a pair of pantaloons
hanging in indecent tatters to his naked
waist. The bond-woman was well clad
who had on as much as a coarse chemise
and petticoat. To add tjgpon-a Mad
ras handkerchief twisted into a tJlrban
was high gentility, and the number
of kerehiefs beyond that. one was the
measure of absolute wealth. Some were
rich in tigaonS; especially those who
served within the house, and pleased the
mistress, or even the master-there were
Hagars in those days. However, Congo
Plains did not gather the house-servants
so much as the 'field-hands.' -
These came in troops. See them;
wilder than gypsies; wilder than the
Moors and Arabs whose strong blood
and features one sees at glance in so
many of them; gangs they are called
gangs and gangs of them, from this
and that and yonder direction: tall,
well-knit Senegalese from Cape Verde,
black as ebony, with intelligent kindly
eyes and long, straight, shapely noses;
Mandingoes, from the Gambia River,
lighter of color, of cruder form, and q
cunning that shows in the countenance;
whose enslavement seems specially a
shame, their nation the merchants of
Africa, dwelling in towns, industrious,
thrifty, skilled in commerce and hus-
bandry, and expert in the working OF
metals, even to silver and gold; and
Foulahs, playfully miscailed 'P0ulardS, ;
fat Chickens of goodly stature, and
with a perceptible rose tint in the
checks; and Sosos. famous warriors.
dexterous with the African large; and
III COIllIdSU ~ UllGSG. Will SliittlI cGlI y,
thick eyebrows, bright eyes, flat, up
turned noses, shining skin. wide mouths
| and white teeth, the negroes Of Guinea,
| true and unmiXed, from the Gold Coast,
the Slave Coast, and the Cape of Palms
| not from the Grain Coast; the En-
! giish had that trade. See them come,
| Popoes, CotocolieS, Fidas. S0coes, Ag-
was, short, .copDer-cOl0red Mincs-What
| havoc the slaycrs did make!-and from
! interior Africa others equally proud anG
Wariike; fierce Negroes and FOndS; taW.
| nv AWassas; IbOaS, so ligh;-c0IOr>d thai
one could not tell them from mulattoeS
but for their national tatt0Oing; and thG
half-ciyilized and quick-witted but fe
rociOus Amanda, the original Noudot
worshiper And how many m0rei Fol
here come, also, men and women from
all that great Congo coast,-Angola
Maiimbe, Ambrice, ETC., small, good
natured, sprightly boys, and gay gar
rulous gals, thicklipped but not tat
TODD; clattering. chaiIering, singing, ,anC
gutfaWing as they come; these are they
Tor whom the dance and the place arr
named, the most numerous sort of ne
gro in the colonies, the C0ngoes anC
Franc-Congoes, and though serpen
wOrshipers, yet the gentlest and kind
liest natures that came from Africa
Such was the company. Among thes
boSSaIs-that is, native Africans-the
was, of course, an evergrowing numbe
of negroes who proudly called them
selves Creole negroes, that IS, born il
America; and at the present time ther
IS only here and there an old natiy
African to be met with, vain OF his sin
gularity and trembling on his staff.