Year: 1867

MASKED.


General James s. Brisbin, a gallant
Union soldier Of twenty-seven battles,


has written letter to the Cincinnati


Gazette in reply to the structures made
/ upon him BY the Louisville Courier,


backed by the pack Of Kentucky reb-


els, because he has publicly charged


that many white men In Kentucky


have ooIored children. The letter


shows conclusively that the Democrat


ic rebels Of the South are the real


anlaIgamationists. and besides uncov-


ers many of the hideous enormities


and savage cruelties growing out Of


the false social systems Of the insur-


rectionary States. We make the fol-
lowing extracts, which are extremely


interesting and well worth the atten-


ton of every patriotic citizen


The price lists of the ola slave mar
kets show that a likely yellow girl
would bring four or FIVE hundred dol
lars more than a black girl. This was


not because yellow girls would make


better field hands than black girls (for


they would not make as g0od) nor was
it because they would make better


house servants than black girls but
it was because they a0ouLd nJGlee copcu-


bjges for The st1Ue n5dster and has sons.
These same lists show that a slave w0-


man with a child at the breast would


bripg three OF four hundred dollars


more than a woman with no child at


all. If the child was a male, and was


weaned. It could be sold for three or
four hundred dollars in gold without


the mother or, if sold with the moth


er, would bring as high as i've hun-
dred dollars. Thus the master could


buy a yellow girl. keep her one or two
years, and If nature was true IN her
course, sell her, and realize thirty per
cent on his investment, thereby uni
ting pleasure with profit. This was
often done I have, perhaps, had a
better opportunity of knowing the re-
al condition of the colored population
of Kentucky than any other man IN
the State. When [ was a Commission
er Of eolored troops il was made my
duty under the law of March Sd, 1865,
to issue certificates of freedom to the


wives and children of eolored soldiers.


1t often happened that black women
having yellow children would apply
for certificates of freedom for them
selves and families, and in examin-
ing the descriptive lists of their hus-


bands [ would find the soldier desert /
bed as a black man. This led to the
inquiry Of how they, black women
with black husbands. could have yell
low children, when it generally tran
sBiRed that tho ohildFoa were had, up
on their bodies, By the white master
or his sons; before or after their mar


riage, and sometimes both. In all


such cases the name of the actual par


ent, as shown by the mothers state
ment, was taken down BY my Adju-
tant General. Some Of these lists are
still In my possession, and Of their cor /
rectness / have not a doubt for, how
ever ignorant a man may be as to who


is the father Of a child, the mother is
generally supposed to know


The military police records of Lex
ington show that out of population
of 500 white male adults in 1865
there we're ffIgj-tbree men living In


coneubinage with colored women.


The Courier says ''blaok women did
not take the trouble to get married.
Why should they, when masters did


not recognize marriage among their
slaves? What black man could wish


to marry when the law of slavery gave
the white master absolute control over
the body Of bis black wife "She was
at all times subject to the caprice, lust


pleasure or brutality of her master or
his sons. The rights of the husband
could be invaded with impunity, her


baby sold out of her arms and she her
self torn from her husband and sold


to another master. Not many years
ago a slave master sold his own negro


children away from their mother to pay
a gambling debt Is it any wonder


that negro women did not take the


pleasure to get married p / will now
eitetWo cases of amalgamation in Ken
tucky as they came under my own OBJ
servation, and they will serve to show
to some extent tthe mixed condition
Of the population here as we'll as else
where throughout the South.


One day in 1865, while seated in my
! Office at Louisville, KY, a handsome
young woman, elegantly dressed, with
diamond rings on her fingers, came IN
1 and desired to speak with me private
| ". could hardly believe her when
/ She told me she was a negress and
/ slave, but soon learned that her state
nnent was only too true. She said she
4 had read in the newspapers that / was
4 issuing freedom papers, aud she had
come to get one. / explained to her
/ that it was only in my power to give
i certificates to the wives and children
Il Of eOlOred soldiers, when the poor girl
I seemed so much disappointed, that /
/ gave her a paper declaring her forever
free, and commanding all my military


subordinates In Kentucky to enforce
i her freedom She said she could not


sleep that night for thinking about
+ her freedom-that she was afraid her
master might die and she be sOld-that
she wanted a certificate to lay away In
her trunk that her mother who was


a yellow woman, had been dead for
many years that she lived with her
father on -- street, who was wealthy
and who treated her as one of the fam
lily; that he had a wife and other
daughters who knew the circumstan-


ces of her birth, but were very kind to
her. She further told me that she


had been educated and understood


music and French, and that there were
i few persons In louisville outside Of
i her Immediate family who knew that
sl.she had black blood In her veins. As
& she was pretty / asked her how she


managed it with the young gentlemen,
and when there was company at her
4 fathers house. She said she did not


attempt to 90 into society. | asked
her If she ever married, whether she


would marry a negro, or a white man Z


She replied that she would marry a
4 white man, if any, but that it was not
likely she would ever be married at


all, as a white man would not wish to


marry a negro girl, told her sRe
She said it would not be right so to


deceive any one, and that it would be
found out on her in the end. L wall
not moralize, Mr.. Editor, but only
think of it, here was a young girl
handsome, accomplished, educated, re-
fined, full of sense, feeling and sentl-
ment, liable to be sold at any moment,
and at best, cut off IN the bloom OF
I womanhood from the world, shut out
~. IA -.f