Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-03-20
GATHERING OF THE SLAVES.
The Negroes of Colonial Louisiana-Th,
Wild Troops of Field Hands.

The Negroes of Colonial Louisiana-The
Wild Troops of Field Hands.
The negro of colonial Louisiana was a
most grotesque figure. He was nearly
naked. Often his neck and arms,
thighs, shanks and splay feet were
shrunken, tough, sinewy like monkeys.
Sometimes it was seant diet and cruel
labor that had made them so. Even
the requirement of law was only that
he should have no less than barrel of
commanding elsa 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.
Often the slaves attire was only cot
ton shirt, or pair of pantaloons hang
ing 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 a tignon-a
Madras handkerchief twisted into a
turban-was high gentility and the num-
Der of kerchiefs beyond that one was the
measure of absolute wealth. Some were
IlGu III llElOltoJ ESPECIALLY tllOoC VIII
coed --;ti.i-- h.v l.ouse, anu 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 a glance in SO many
of them; gangs-as they were 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; Mandin-
goes, from the Gambia river, lighter of
color, of cruder form and q cunning
that shows in the countenance; whose
enslavement seems. specially shame:
their nation "the merchants of Africa"
dwelling in towns, industrious, thrifty,
skilled in commerce and husbandry and
expert in the working of metals, even to
silver and gold; and Foulahs, playfully
miscalled Poulards-fat chickens-of
goodly stature, and with a perceptible
rose tint in the cheeks; and Sosos, fam
Gus warriors, dexterous with the African
large; and in contrast to these, with
small ears, thick eyebrows, bright eyes,
Hat, upturned 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
English had that trade.
See them come. Popoes, Cotocolies,
Fidas, Socoes, Agwas, short, copper
colored Mines-what havoc the slavers
did make-and from interior Africa
others equally proud and warlike; fierce
Nagoes and Ponds; tawny Awassas
Iboes, so light colored that one could not
tell them from mulattoes but for their
national tattooing; and the half civilized
and quick-witted but ferocious Arada,
the original Voudou worshiper. And
how many more? For here comes also,
men and women from all that great
Congo coast-Angola, Malimbe, Ambrice,
etc., small, good natured, sprightly
boys" and gay, garrulous gals" thick
Tipped but not tattooed; chattering,
chafering, singing and guffawing as
they come; these are they for whom the
dance and the place are named; the most
numerous sort of negro in the colonies,
the Congoes and Franc Congoes, and
though serpent worshipers, yet the
gentlest and kindiest natures that came
from Afrisa. Such was the company.
Among these bossals-that is, native
Africans-there was, of course, an ever
growing number of negroes, who proudly
called themselves Creole negroes, that is,
born in America; and at the present
time there is only here and there an old
native African to be met with, vain of
his singularity and trembling on his
Rtaff.-The Century.