St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-29
JUNGLE TOMS CABIN"
HIS BROTHER, LOUIS CLARK,
THE ORIGINAL OF GEORGE
HARRIS.
NOT A DROP OF NEGRO BLOOD,
Yet He Was for Years Held in
Slavery In the
South.

Joseph II. O'Neil, writes Robert Hey
wood in the Boston Post.
Mr.. Clark has held his position since
1867 through all the changes of the
administrations.
But the romantic part of his history
came before that
''If 1 and my brother had not been
born, Uncle Toms Cabin would never
have been written" said Mr.. Clark one
day last week. The venerable messen-
ger was occupying his customary seat
In the hall leading to the treasurer's
Office. He observed the look of incred-
ulity on his visitors face.
Tn tell you why that is So" he
added, with a smile of satisfaction,
because we told the story to Mrs.
Stowe. 1t is the story of our own
lives. My brother. Louis Clark, is the
George Harris of the novel, and my
sister, who was sold in the slave mar
ket at New Orleans, was our own sis
ter. Uncle Tom was a slave named
Sam Pete, that my brother saw whip
ped to death down in Madison county,
Kentucky, and my brother buried him.
My own mistress, who helped to get my
freedom, was Eva.
so you see Mrs. Stoves charac-
ters were given her. What did she
know about slavery? She wrote down
what we told her and sent it to
the National Era, that was published
in Washington. They asked to have
the story continued, but she couldn't
do 1t until she got at my brother and
me again. My brother was the one
she pumped usually, because he lived
most Of the time there at her broth
er-in-laws, Mr.. Safford'G, house in
Cambridgeport.
"You want to know how it came
about" he querled, as he saw the
look Of conviction and deep interest
that had replaced the visitors first
impression of surprise and incredulity
ut was very natural" continued the
old man. Il was a. runaway slave,
and SO was my brother
but aren't You a white MANI"
was the visions astonished question,
for the old mans complexion, though
sallow, has no tinge of African color
and the fringe of hair protruding from
under his cap is brown where it has
not turned white.
Yes, L am a white man. So far
as L know there is not drop of ne
gro blood in my veins-but that's where
the story comes in-I was white slave.
Il wasn't born a slave, and 1 said
when | was a. boy that / never would
be slave if L could help it, 1 was
born to enjoy the freedom that my
rather bought for us as soldier in
the revolutionary war"
Then Mr.. Clark proceeded to relate
his most extraordinary life history.
His grandfather was Samuel Camp
bell, who migrated from Virginia to
Kentucky, when that territory was
first settled. Campbell carried his
daughter, Mr.. Clarks mother, on the
horn of his saddle over the mountains
into the new country. There he mar
ried his second wife, a wealthy plant
res's, whose estate he went out to su-
perintend.
Mr.. Clark's father was a Scotch
Irishman. who was a soldier in the
American revolution. He was mus
tered out at Valley Forge at the end
OF the war, and made his way out to
Kentucky, which was just then being
opened up to settlement. He was an
old man when he married the daugh-
ter of Samuel Campbell then a veal
thy planter. John Milton Clark was
born in 1929
"A year after their grandfather Camp-
bell died. Mr.. Clark's mother. his
brother and sister were declared slaves
by the Campbell relatives. who set nm
the preteXt that Mrs. Clark's mother
had been a slave in Virginia. So this
family was parceled out as so much
additional property among the great
Campbell heirs. Mr.. Clark was then
child of five years.
He at first lived with Joseph Logan.
an uncle of Gen. Logan. But when he
dled his son first mortgaged him, and
then sold him and his brother and
sister. His sister was taken away to
New Orleans and sold in the public
slave market at New Orleans, lust IS
narrated in Uncle Toms Cabin"
Mr.. Clark owed his escape to his
young mistress. She was a pretty
young lady Of about eighteen, who had
been away to Cincinnati to school and
had imbibed abolition ideas. She took
pity on the white boy, who was her
servant, belonging to her uncle. She
sent young Clark to Cincinnati with a
letter to Salmon P. Chase, then a
judge in that city. Mr. Chase assisted
Clark in many ways. Through CHASSIS
influence he was given opportunities
to speak in public and tell his story.
This caused a sensation in many parts
of Ohio. People flocked to see and
hear the white black slave" as he was
callcd. They told him he should never
go back into slavery. 1t aroused
public opinion, for people then saw
that any of their children might be
kidnapped and sold into slavery. Clark
rroo O a iron h1yt tolI;
all of Queen Victoria's children could
be sold into slavery and no power on
earth redeem them, unless their iden-
tfty could be proven
Judge Salmon P. Chase sent him to
school at Oberlin, Ohio. While he was
en- route thither he stopped at Spring
field, and was entertained at the house
of the father Of John Sherman. Clark
was in company with some delegates
on their way to convention to nomi-
nate Whig governor at Columbus
Young John Sherman asked his father
who that young fellow was, alluding
to Clark. The father did not want to
tell his son that his visitor was a slave
being sent to school, so he said the
young man was the delegate from Ken
lucky. Then John Sherman said he
would like to sit beside the delegate
from Kentucky at the table. Mr.. Clark
has always remembered that. His
memory of the two great Shermans,
the senator and the general, is of two
youths of his own age, at that time
twenty-one.
Mr.. Clark then set out on more extern
sive travels. He went to Buffalo and
met Mr. Fillmore, who was afterwards
president of the United States. Fill