The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-01-06
LAST BIG SLAVE SALE
Thousand Negroes Sold Off
One Plantation.
HORACE GREELEYS MAN
RiSked His Life to Get the
Story for His P aper.
HORACE GREELEYS MAN

! follows: The only passenger On Dodru inc
Mallory line steamer San Antonio, which
was chartered by the Red Cross society to
carry a cargo Of provisions 10 the starving
/ Cubans at Matanzas, and which put in
here on it's return voyage, was Col. R ].
Hinton a special agent of the society. Col
| onel Hinton is a man ss years Of age, an
Enghshman by birth, who has experienced
many vicissitudes since he came to the
United States as a mere youth or ~ IN
search Of a fortune.
He was a correspondent Of Horace Gree
leys New York Tribune Immediately pre-
ceding the war, and in that capacity paid
a visit to the South, being strong anti
slavery sympathiZer, at a time when II
was dangerous for Yankee" scribbler
to be caught nostng around the ancestral
possessions of the slave barons of the
South Atlantic coast. THAT was my last
visit to Brunswick" said ne, in speaking
Of the visit, ''until now. I shah never
forget the occasion, so vivid was the i'm
preston made upon my mind. i was in
Savannah when 1 heard that a big slave
auction was to take place on Buffers Is
land, near the mouth of the Althama River
and securing passage on a small schooner,
in company with a number of wealthy
planters and slave traders, we had plea
SAINT run down the inside passage to the
landing place on the island.
at was in the early autumn and the
scenery was surprisingly beautiful, the
gray Of the marshes blending with the rich
golden hue of the rice fields stretching
oIa IF ba
slaves engaged dn the harvest was mingled
with the songs of the rice birds. assembled
in millions 10 get their share of the feast.
pierce Butler was grandson Of Major
Pierce Butler of South Carolina His name
was Mease, but he agreed to assume his
grandfather's name on condition of in
heriting a vast fortune in lands and slaves
from the estate of his relative. Some
years previously Fanny Kemble, the cele-
brated actress, had paid visit TO Altama,
the princely home of James Hamilton Cou-
per, and while a guest there she had been
met, wooed and won by the frey young
Southerner, Pierce Butler. But after a
year Of plantation life, Mrs. Butler. who
was violently opposed to slavery, could en-
dure in no longer, and removed 20 Phil
delphia.
"Butler was an inveterate gambler, as
were so many of the old-time slaveowners,
and his gambling proclivities soon en-
barrased him financially, which, in connec-
ton With a fit of pique at the determin
alton OF his wife, caused him to decide
upon the sale of his slaves. They were
to be cried off by auction to the highest
bidder. there being certain stipulations in
-, off, olI and Ia
crepit and so to the separation of families.
along the broad avenue we took our
way TO the rambling old mansion house
seated in the midst of sweeping grounds
overlooking the sea. In front of the house
we found the negroes drawn up for in
spection by their prospective purchasers.
The men were stripped to the waist so as
to better show their muscles and sinews,
and the women in a scant single garment
each with bandanas around their heads
turban fashion. There was a molly multi
tude of them, LOGO in number, comprising
every age, from the patriarchal slaves,
bent and bowed by years of toll and labor
to the infant pickaninnies in the arms Of
their slave mothers gazing, open-eyed, at
the strange faces of the big crowd of white
men that had gathered to attend the sale.
1t was a scene that l shall never forget.
The auctiOneer took up his position near
the block, which a stalwart slave was
Commanded to mount by one of the assis-
tants, and the bidding began. The man
stood with folded arms, his brawny limbs
showing the rigid muscles that stood out
upon them, and he resembled bronze
statue as he gazed Istlessly on the faces
seemed to me that he was indulging in
"reminiscences of the happy days that he
had passed under the great oaks OF his
island home, and possibly meditating on
the uncertain future that lay before him
when he would change masterV and prob
ably be sent far away form the land OF
his birth Finally he'was knocked down
10 the highest bidder and another took his
place.
Thus the sale went monotonously OF
from hour 10 hour, the planters watching
the sale, smoking, laughing, and chatting
as II the occasion was one to which they
were accustomed. Finally a man who had
been a foreman on the plantation, a mag
nifcent specimen Of manhood, his wife,
who had been hou.zemaid, and who was
more tidiIy attjred than the field hands.
bearing on her bosom a baby few months
Old. and with two dusky pickaninnies cling
ing 10 her skirts, were brought forewara.
A speculator made i BID on the man. but
the auctioneer explained that the purchas-
er must take the entire family, and the
Spectator turned his back with the re-
mark that he was not there TO buy women
and pickaninnes. and the family was pur-
chased by planter.
Then another man. his two young SIS
ters, and his wife were brought foreward.
Il was what was termed likely lot and
a trader from Vicksburg. Thomas Pate.
made a bid for the entire lot. They passed
into his hands. and. not knowing the way
- slave dealers, 7 felt gratihed that the
family had not been broken Up. The Sc
quei. I learned afterward, through a para
graph in a newspaper. Pate took the ne
groes away with him and sold one OF the
sisters 20 another trader named Pat SOM
ers. disp0sing OF the other TO resident %
=. Louis The transaction became no4sed
about and somers found that Pate had
signed thu guarantee q non-ssperation, and
sent the giri back % Pate, demanding the
return Of MS money.
"a quarrel ensued between Tire two men.
and. IN a bloody encounter thae followed.
sonzrs was shot dead. HIS nephew took
Up the quarrel and II about two weeks