Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-03-19
OlO-TlmE SLAVE TRADING

was stakeholder in the last car-
go OF Africans brought to New Or
leans said well-known creole busi-
ness man IN that city in a conversation
over the good old times" The gentle
man. who was u slave broker" con-
tlhtled: 1t was just at the beginning
OF the war that our last vessel arrived
from Africa with about seven hundred
savage AFRICAN negroes, poorly clothed
nan starved, and many of them bearing
tie marks OF brutal treatment from the
oHicers OF the vessel. Being savares,
captured IN the wilds of Africa. it was
uiIiicuIt 10 control them, especially as
they were more desperate in the belief
thdI their captivity meant death.
wen, the slave trade was MANAGED
oy stock company. We bought YES
sell manned and equipped her, and, of
course portion of the capital stock
was used IN the purchase of these
capLlFeS- those savage African tribes
were generally warning against each
oIher and generally put to death all
captlves which they could not utilize
among themselves as slaves or concu-
olneS- But they become more civilized
when we opened upa trade with them
SAID TINS Christian gentleman in the
most matter-of-fact way
I'VE paid from SIS to S25 fer each
captive and we sold them at from $50
to $3.50 each. You must remember that
these Africans were wild and savage.
They could not speak any known Ian
guage-only the dialect of their tribe.
and were very dangerous. First. we had
to tame them-make them believe by
q
intended no harm to them. Being only
accustomed to roam in their native
jungles, they knew not how to work,
and, after being tanned of their savagery,
we had to teach them to work on the
plantations. 1t was more difficult than
teaching a child to talk or walk 1t was
tanning savage and teaching where
there was little or no intelligence.
They were worked in gangs. under
guard, as are felons in the state prisons.
At night they We're chained in their
cabins. Gradually they learned enough
OF what to this day is called lingo to
make themselves understood, and that
is as far as the native African ever
progressed in this section. The stock
holders IN these enterprises We're main
ly planters We would bring over
about two cargoes a year-seven hun
dred or eight hundred in vessel. |
recollect at one time we lost about half
of our cargo by disease. Those who
died before reaching port were buried
at sea-there We're about three hundred
of them. Whenever the market became
OverStOcIed. or rather when the plan
tiers needed no more hands on their
plantations, we sold the Savages at auc-
ton. The rotunda of the old st. Louis
hotel, in the French quarter, was the
theater of these sales. which now seem
SO strange and barbarous.
The African savages were brought
into the rotunda of this human chattel
mart in chains. as if they were animals,
and the cries. or rather means, for
mercy and roars of agony of these
frightened savages We're pitiful and
Notwithstanding. They did not under
stand that they were to be transferred
from one master to another. but be-
lieved that they were to be beheaded on
the auction block. | do not see how |
ever could have been engaged in such
traffic. But then we did not see as we
do now, and then-it was the custom OF
the country" said the creole, dismiss
ing the unpleasant subject.
Resuming, the gentleman related
some of the still earlier history, as
handed down from sire to son through
several generations, and reaching back
to the earliest settlement or colonial
ton of this city, more than a century
and a half ago. The first cargo of
slaves landed on Louisiana soil was
brought from Africa by an English YES
sci. The English at that time had
.colonized' South Carolina with
African slaves, and then turned
their speculative heads to this sparse
Unsettled section. There was about
1000 white persons here and only Il few
hundred trifling soldiers, and the land
ing of 500 savage Africans was rather
dangerous. These negroes sold at S10C
and $50 each; a casll of brandy was
sold at 5OOf.-about S125.
..'These negroes continued the
speaker. were governed by special
set of laws known as the Black Code,
some of which We're in force until the
close of the late civil war. The slave
who struck his master or any of his
masters family, causing blood to flow
from the wound, was hanged. Slaves
who carried large sticks were subject
to beating by the first person who
met them on the highway. For steal
ing a horse or cow the offender was
punished by the brand of the fieur de lis
on the shoulder; for a second otfense
the offender was branded on both
shoulders, and for the third otfense he
was hanged. A negro invariably filled
the office of public executioner-per-
haps to add additional disgrace to the
punishment. For the smallest acts OF
disobedience the master could place
upon the slave the iron collar, which he
was compelled to wear at the mercy
of his angered master. TN. Y. Times.
Bits of Barber Wisdom
BARRIERS are not partial to seeing
ladies come into the shop to get their
hair cut. for no matter how pretty the
dear creatures look after having their
hair cut. they never look as well as they
did before. and their first look in the
glass makes the fact apparent to them,
and they invariably blame the barber
e.. - claim If was not cut Us they