The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1902-10-23

and was our sin and Our curse. No
one in ten thousand will believe tha
the South never imported a slave from
Africa, but got all we had by purchas
from our Northern brethren. | woult
wager thousand dollars against tcl
that not man under fifty nor q schoo
boy who lives North Of the line knows
or believes that General Grant, thei
great military hero and idol, was
slave owner and lived off of thoir hire
and their service whllo he was fight
ing us about ours. Lincoln's procla
nation of freedom came in 1868, but
General Grant paid no attention to It,
lie continued to use them as slaves
| until January, 1865. (Scc his biogra.
ply by General Jamos Grant " ilson
IN Applcton's Encyclopedia.) Gen
eral Grant owned these slaves in ST.
Louis, Mo-, where he lived. lie was
bad manager and just before the wal
began he moved to Galcna and went
to work for his brother in the lanyard.
While thcro he caught the war fever
and got good position under Lincoln,
but had he remained in ST, LOUIS
would have greatly preferred one Oh
our side. So said Mrs. Grant a few
years ago to n newspaper otlitor in ST..
Augustine.
How many of this generation North
or South know or Will bolicvc that as
late as November, 1861, Nathaniel
Gordon, master of New England
sleve ship, called the Eric, was con.
victed in New York city of carrying on
the slave trade. (Sce Applcton.) Just
think of it and wonder. In 1861 our
Northern brethren made war upon us
because we enslaved the negroes VIC
had bought from them, but at the same
time they kept on bringing more from
Africa and begging us to buy them.
How many know that England, our
mother country, never omancipatcd
hel slaves until 1913, when twelve
millions were set free in the East
Indies and ono hundred millions of
dollars paid to their owners by act Of
parliament? 1t is only within the last
half century that The importation of
slaves from Africa has generally
ceased. Up to that time cvory civilized
country bought thum and cnslavcd
them. EDGllsh statesmen and clergy
men said it was better to bring them
away than to have them continue in
thor .barbarsm and cannibalism. And
it was better.
l. bolieve it was Gods providence
that they should be brought away and
placed in slavery, but the way 1t was
done was inhuman and brutal. The
horrors of the middle passage, as The
ocean voyage was called, is the most
awful narrative | ever read and re-
minds me Of Dante's Inferno"
About half the cargo survived and the
dead and dying were tumblcd into the
sea. The owners said we can afford
to lose half and still have 8 thousand
per cent profit. Rev. JOHN Newton :,
one Of the sweetest poets who ever
wrote hymn, the author Of L" Amaz-
ing grace, how sweet the sound, that
saved 2 wretch like 2" L" Saviour, Visit
Thy Plantatlon," "Safely Through
Another Week." and many others,
was for many years deck hand on a
slave ship and saw all it's horrors. He
became converted, but soon after be-
came captain of SLAYER and for four
years pursued it diligently and mitigat-
ed itscruclty: Then he quit and went
to preaching, and says in his auLobiog-
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: " Offences must needs como,
but woe unto them by whom they
come"
In Applcton's long and exhaustive
article on slavery it is said that 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 SER
wants, whom he had bought with his
money. Tho word slave appears but
twlco-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--sometimcs the bondage
was hard, but as a general rule the
master found it to his interest to be
kind Ito his slaves. AS Bob Toombs
said in his Boston speech: /" 1t Is not
to our interest to starvc our slaves any
more than it is to starve our horses
and horned CATTLE" Shortly after the
little cargo that the Wanderer brought
were secretly scattered around l saw
some of them at work in large gar
den in Columbus, Ga, and was told
that they were docilc and quickly
learned to dig and to hoe, but that it
was hard to teach thom to eat cooked
meat. They wanted it raw and
bloody. They were miserable little
runts, =" Guinea negroes" with thick
lips and flat noses, but they grew up
into better shape and made good ser.
wants, and l know were far better of
than in their native jupgles, The prey
of stronger tribes, and made food fol
cannibals.
No, there was no sin in slavery as
.instituted in the South by our fathers
and forefathers, and that is why
write this lctter--pcrhaps the last !
shall ever write on this subject. q
wish to Impress it, upon our boys ant