The Tupelo journal., 1902-10-31
Know that England. u mother conn.

know that England, our mother coun.
try, never emancipated her slaves until
1S43, when IL, 000, 900 were set free in
the East Indies and one hundred mill
lions of dollars paid to their owners
by act of parliament? 1t is only with
in the last half century that the inn
p%ortation of slaves from Africa has
generally ceased. Up to that time
every civilized country bought them.
English statesmen and clergymen said
it was better to bring them away than
to have them continue in their bar
barism and c~annibalism. And it was
better. l believe it was Gods Provi-
dence that they should be brought
away and placed in slavery, but the
way it was done was inhuman and bru-
tai. The horrors of the middle passage,
as the ocean voyage was called, is the
most awful narrative l ever read, and
reminds m of Dante's Inferno"
About half the cargo survived and the
dead and dying were tumbled into the
sea. The owners said we can afford
to lose half and still have a thousand
per cent. profit. Rev. John Newton.
one of the sweetest poets who ever
wrote a hymn, the author of Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound, that
saved a wretch like me?" Saviour,
Visit Thy Plantation, ""Safely Through
Another Week." and many others, was
for many years a deck hand on a slave
ship and saw all it's horrors. He be-
came converted, but o. after became
captain of a SLAYER and for four years
pursued it diligently and mitigated it's
cruelty. Then he quit and went to
preaching, and says in his autobiog-
raphy that it never occurred to him
that there was anything wrong or i'm
moral in the slave trade where it was
humanely conducted. The Saviour
said: "Offenses must needs come, but
woe unto them by whom they come"
In Appleton's long and exhaustive
article on slavery it is said hat slavery
in some form has existed ever since
human history began. And it appears
to have been under the sanction of
Providence as far back as the days of
Noah and Abraham. The latter had a
very great household, and many serv-
ants whom he had bought with his
money. The word slave appears but
twice in the Bible. 1t is Synonymous
with servant and bondsman. There
has been no time since the Christian
era that the dominant nations have
not owned slaves-sometimes the bond
age was hard, but as a general rule
the master found it to his interest
to be kind to his slaves. AS Bob Toombs
said in his Boston speech: ut is not
to our interest to starve our slaves
any more than it is to starve our
horses and horned cattle" Shortly
after the little cargo that the Wan
derer brought were secretly scattered
around | saw some of them at work
in a large garden in Columbus Ga, and
was told that they were docile and
quickly learned to dig and to hoe, but
that it was hard to teach them to eat
cooked meat. They wanted it raw
and bloody. They were miserable lit
tie runts, Guinea negroes" with
thick lips and fiat noses, but they grew
up into better shape and made good
servants and l know were far better
off than in their native jungles, the
prey of stronger tribes, and made food
for cannibals.
No, there was no sin in slavery as
instituted in the south by our fathers
and forefathers, and hat is why I
write this letter-perhaps the last /
shall ever write on this subject. wish
to impress it upon our boys and girls
so hat they may be ready and willing
to defend their southern ancestors
from the baseless charge of suffering
now for the sins of their fathers.
Anorthern friend writes: "Do please
let up on the negro. We up here are
tired of him. Give us more of your
pleasant pictures of domestic life, ETC.,
but let the negro go dead"
He does not know hat the negro
and what is to become of him is a
question of tremendous moment with
us, and it must be written about. But
1 will refrain as long as it is prudent.
Just now | would like to hire a man to
cuss the black rascal who came into
my back yard the other night and
stole my grindstone. For five years
1 have let every darkey grind his AK
who wanted to, and now | can't grind
my own. The fact is. / have no ak to
grind, for they stole that first.
BILL ARP.