The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1886-02-06
An old-Tims Negro Danoe---The
Gathering.


From George w. Cables illustrated
paper, in the February Century, &C
companied by the music Of the Creole
dances, we quote the following. at
was wierd one. The negro of colo
NAL Louisiana was most grotesque
figure. He was nearly naked. Often
his neck and arms, thighs, shanks,
and splay feet were shrunken, tough,
sinewy like a monkeys. Sometimes
il was scant diet and cruel labor that
had made them So Even the require
ment of law was only that he should
have not less than 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 a
cotton shirt, or q pair of pantaloons
hanging in indecent tatters to his
naked waist. The bond-woman was
well clad who had ON as much as q
coarse chemise and petticoat To add
"tignon"-a Madras handkerchief
twisted into a turban-was high gen
tility, and the number of kerchiefs be
yond that one was the measure of alb
solute wealth. Some were rich in
"tignons;" especial those who served
within the house, and pleased the mis-
tress, OF even the master-there were
Hagars in those days. However, Con
go 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 81
many of them; gangs-as they wer,
called-gangs and gangs of them
from this and that and yonder direc
ton; tall, well-knit Senegalese from
Cape Verde, black as ebony, with in
tellgent, kindly eyes and long
straight, shapely noses; Mahdingoes
from the Gambia River, lighter o
color, of cruder form, and a cunning
that shows in the countenance; who's,
enslayement 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, ia
chickens,-of goodly stature, and witt
perceptible rose tint in the cheeks
and Sosos, famous warriors, deterou
with the African large; and in cor
trast to these, with small ears, THO
eyebrows, bright eyes, flat, uptnne,
noses, shining skin, wide mouths an
white teeth, the negroes of Guinea
true and unmixed, from the Col
Coast, the Slave Coast, and the Cap
of Palms--not from the Grain Coast
the English had that trade. See ther
comel Popoes, Cotocolies, Fidas, Sc
Goes, Agwas, short, copper-colore
Mines-what havoc the slavers. di
make l-and from interior Africa otl
ers equally proud and warlike: ferc
Nagoes and Ponds; tawny Awassas
Iboes, SO ight-colored that one coul
not tell them from mulattoes but 70
their national tattooing; and the hal
civilized and quick witted but ferociou
Arada, the original Voudou worshiper
And how many morel For here com,
also, men and women from all tina
great Congo coast,-Angola, Malimb,
, Ambrice, etc.,-small, good-natureC
sprightly boys, and gay garlulou
gals thick-ipped but not tattoed
chattering, chaffering, singing, an
guffawing as they come; these al
they for whom the dance and the plac
are named, the most numerous sort c
negro in the colonies, the Congoes an
Franc-Congoes, and though serper
worshipers, yet the gentlest and kline
Hest natures that came from Africa
Such was the company. Among thes
bossals-that is, native Africans
there was, of course, an ever-growin
number of negroes who proudly Gale
themselves Creole negroes, that il
born in America; and at the preser
time there is only here and there a
old native African to be met with, val
of his singularity and trembling o
his staff"