The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1888-04-26
THE REAL SLAVE DEALERS.
HOW THE NORTH TRIES TO SHIRK
THE BURDEN OF IT'S SINS.

from Public Records and Judicial De-
cisions.
TO the Editor of the News and Courier:
l was glad to see your editorial on March
last on the Emancipation Proclama-
tion. 1t is surprising how much igno-
rance exists upon the subject Of emanci-
patton in some of the usually best in
formed circles. desire to call your atten-
ton to two instances of this in that
usually accurate journal, tho Nation. In
recent number there appeared the re-
Wow of q letter written FROM Washington
to paper in frankfort:
"The condition OF our negro popula-
ton is tho subject of Washington let
ter in the Frankfort Zeitung of Decem-
Der "a, 1887. The writer's view of their
social status is correct enough, but he is
rather at sea in his historical retrospect,
as when he says that the South was ut
one time moro opposed to slavery than
E3ns the North, and that the civil war
was a struggle between 'tho sons Of the
slave e-owners and the planters to whom
their fathers had sold their dark COM
moditios.' There iG q corollary to the
misleading statement that in 1880 tho
negroes were distributed throughout this
country, and were almost exclusively
slaves but that, during the first quar-
ter of century, the inhabitants OF the
Northern States gradually sold their
slaves to the South, where climatic and
the nature Of tho agricultural products
increase the value OF negro labor all of
which sounds as if the countryman of
Won Hoist had drawn his inspiration
from the pro-slavery pamphlets of Bu-
chanan's Administration.
We have not seen this letter, nor do
we know who is tho writer, but if you
will allow me space think eau con-
vince even the Nation, and it's readers
who shall happen to see the communion
tion, that the statements quoted are not
SO wide of the mark as the Nation seems
to think.
If such as the Nation suggests was in
deed the source Of the writer's informa-
ton, can the following facts and figures,
which are taken mostly from q work of
that time, be disputed? The author from
whom L take the figures, as L canrot at
this moment put my hand upon tho CEN
sus of 1880, was, it is true, Rebel
brigadier, the heroic defender of NIarye's
Heights at Fredericksburg, where he was
killed; but all the same can the state
ments be denied? Cobb on Slavery,
Philadelphia, II. Il [. w. johnson G. Co.,
1859
BY; the census of 1870 there were
4O,370 slaves in the States north of Vir-
Stnis. Now how were those $4,000
slaves emancipated? Gan any one pojut
to q single act by any Northern State by
which any negro was actually and i'm
mediately emancipated? We ask this
because it is clear that all the gradual
emancipation schemes had Just the effect
which which the Frankfort wtjter states,
to wit: it caused the inhabitants of the
Northern States generally to sell their
slaves TO the South. Laws prohibiting
slavery after some future daie were but
warnings to the owners of slaves to send
them out of the State before the Act
should go into effect. The inevitable
working Of such Acts was to send the
slaves South for sale.
Vermont, we know, claims the hopor
of having been the first to exclude
slavery. She claims that this was done
by her bill Of rights in 1777. But the
census of 1880 shows seventeen slaves.
1t required, it is true, no great philan-
thropy to sacrifice the value Of seven
teen slaves; but her bill of rights could
not have done n very perfect work since
it allowed seventeen slaves to remain in
bonds thirteen years after its ado ption.
, Slavery, which had been introduced into
Massachusetts soon after its first settle
ment, was "tolerated," as Chief Justice
Parsons gently expresses it, certainly
until the adoption of the Constitution of
= l780. Nor, indeed, did the Constitution
E'of 1880, by any express provision or
declaration, prohibit slavery. But a
very few days ago letter of Mr.. Thomas
Silloaay, of Boston, appeared in the
Charleston sun, giving instances of bills
of sale and disposition by will Of Indian
and negro slaves in Massachusetts, as
late as It'll. DIR. Oliver Wendell Holmes
makes Old Sophy, the nurse of ELSIE
Venner, the daughter of slave mother.
SO graz <ual was the decadence of slavery
in Massac 'busetts that as late as 1888 her
Supreme o. >urt could not say by what
specific Act the institution had been
abolished VIII. >chondon VS.. Hatfield, 4
Mass, 1928; Comm 'onweHlth VS.. Ave, Is
Pick, 200.
Belknap's New Hampshire, Vol:
II, 29O, published 175.% Tho matter 1t
THUS explained:
'slavery is not prohibite, Nby eny ex,
press law. Negroes wcre FeTer very
numerous in New Hampshire. Some OF
g them purchased their freedom during
the late war by serving three yc, 4B IL
me army. Others have been made Pet
by the justice and humanity of th y,
masters. In Massachusetts they aru a,
accounted free by the first article in the
Asdeclaration of rights, All men are born
Gee and equal. In the bill of rights of
sw hampshire the first article IS ex-
EGed In these words: sAll men arc
~. I'm. equally free and independent
winch, in tho opinion Of most pers ms,
VIII bear the same construction. But
others have deduced from it this infer
ence, that all who are born since the
CONSTITUTION was made are free; and that
] those who We're in slavery before remain
SO still. =. For this reason, in tho late
census, the blacks in New Hampshire
distinguished into free and slaves. It
Z Z e y not IN my power to apologize for this
Inconsistency"
Aae y author then goes on to explain. as
we Southerp ers afterwards continued to
DO 5'taa$afg much better off those who we're
layes were than those who were free in