The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-03-31
An Cld-Time Negro Dance.

from george w. OaUIe ILLUSTRATE
paper, in the February Century, accom-.
panied by the music of the Creole
dances, we quote the following: 'It was
n 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 shrlnken, 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
mouth, 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.
'.Oftcn the slaves attire was only a
cotton shirt, or {; pair of pantaloons
hanging in indecent tatters to his naked
waist. The bond-woman was well clad
who had on as much as coarse chemise
and pctticoat. To add tignon-a Mad
ras handkerchief twisted into turban
was high gentility, and the number
of kerchiefs beyond that one was the
measure of absolute wealth. Some were
rich in tignon$; 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-serTants
so much as the 'feld-hands. :"
These came in troops. See them;
wilder than gypsies; wilder than the
Moors and Arabs whose strong blood
and features one sees at q glance in so
many Of them; gangs-as 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
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 miscalled 'Poulardls,'
fat chickens,-of goodly stature, and
with perceptible rose tint In the
cheeks; and Sosos, famous warriors,
dexterous with the African targe; and
in contrast to these, with small ears,
thick eyebrows, bright eyes, fiat, 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-
glish had that trade. See them come!
Popoes, Cotocolies, Fidas, Socoes, Ag-
was, short, copper-colored Mines-what
havoc the slavers did make!-and from
interior Africa others equally proud and
warlike; fierce Negroes and Fonds; taw-
ny 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 fe-
rocious Amanda, the original Voudou
worshipcr. And how many more! For
here come, also, men and women from
all that great Congo coast,-Angola,
Malimbe, Ambrice, etc.,-small, good
natured, sprightly boys, and gay gar
rulous gals, thick!ipped but not tat
TODD; chattering, chafering, singing, and
gufawing as they come; these are they
for whom the dance and the place are
named, the most numerous sort of ne
gro in the colonies, the Congoes and
Franc-Congoes, and though serpent
worshipers, yet the gentlest and kind
liest natures that came from Africa.
Such was the company. Among these
6oSsalS-that is, native Africans-there
was, OF course, an cvcrgrowing number
of negroes who proudly called them
selves 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 Sill
gularity and trembling on his staff: