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FLORIDA.

The Hon. Timothy Pitkin of Connecticut, said, the slaves in Georgia, while Florida was owned by Spain, were in the habit of running away to Florida, and their masters could not recover themthat in consequence, hundreds and hundreds of letters were written to the President, urging him to purchase Florida, that it MUST be bought at ALL EVENTS—and that in consequence of this, the matter was discussed in congress IN SECRET SESSION, and the result was a vote to purchase that territory.-Conversation with A. A. Phelps.

[Florida was then bought, it seems, just to protect the slavery of Georgia.]

MR. PEYTON OF TENNESSEE.

Why, sir, those speculators, or rather Indian robbers, would find an old chief upon his patrimonial estate, where the chiefs and kings of his race had lived for centuries before him, with his slaves and his farm around him, smoking his pipe amidst his own forest trees, spurning any offer to purchase his home; and they would bribe some vagabond Indian to personate him, in a trade to sell his land, forging his name, and the first intimation that he would have of the transaction would be his expulsion by force from his home! This was common; and not only so, but, under the pretext of reclaiming fugitive slaves, the wives and children (of mixed-blood) of the Indians were seized and carried off into bondage. The famous Oseola himself had his wife taken from him, and that too, it has been said, by a government officer, and was chained by this officer to a log. Sir, what else could be expected but that these scourged, plundered, starving savages, would glut their vengeance by the indiscriminate slaughter of the innocent and helpless families of the frontier, whose blood has cried to us in vain? This has caused the Florida war.Speech in Congress, 1837.

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"A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

JAMES H. DICKEY.

In the summer of 1822, as I returned with my family from a visit to the Barrens of Kentucky, I witnessed a scene such as I never witnessed before, and such as 1 hope never to witness again. Having passed through Paris, in Bourbon county, Ky., the sound of music (beyond a little rising ground) attracted my attention; I looked forward and saw the flag of my country waving. Supposing that I was about to meet a military parade, I drove hastily to the side of the road; and having gained the top of the ascent, I discovered (I suppose) about forty black men all chained together after the following manner; each of them was handcuffed, and they were arranged in rank and file. A chain, perhaps forty feet long, the size of a fifth-horse-chain, was stretched between the two ranks, to which short chains were joined, which connected with the handcuffs. Behind them were, I suppose, about thirty women in double rank, the couples tied hand to hand. A solemn sadness sat on every countenance, and the dismal silence of this march of despair was interrupted only by the sound of two violins; yes, as if to add insult to injury, the foremost couple were furnished with a violin apiece; the second couple were ornamented with cockades, while near the centre waved the republican flag carried by a hand literally in chains. I perhaps have mistaken some punctilios of the arrange ment, for "my soul was sick," my feelings were mingled and pungent. As a man, I sympathized with suffering humanity; as a Christian, I mourned over the transgressions of God's holy law; and as a republican, I felt indignant to see the flag of my beloved country thus insulted. I could not forbear exclaiming to the

lordly driver who rode at his ease along side: "Heaven will curse that man who engages in such traffic, and the government that protects him in it." I pursued my journey till evening, and put up for the night. When I mentioned the scene I had witnessed, "Ah!" cried my landlady, "That is my brother." From her I learned that his name is Stone, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, in partnership with one Kinningham, of Paris; and that a few days before he had purchased a negro woman from a man in Nicholas county; she refused to go with him; he attempted to compel her, but she defended herself. Without further ceremony, he stepped back, and by a blow on the side of her head with the butt of his whip brought her to the ground; he tied her, and drove her off. I learned further, that besides the drove I had seen, there were about thirty shut up in the Paris prison for safe-keeping, to be added to the company; and that they were designed for the Orleans market. And to this they are doomed, for no other crime than that of a black skin and curled locks.

Ah me, what wish can prosper, or what prayer,
For merchants rich in cargoes of despair?

Who drive a loathsome traffic, guage and span,

And buy the muscles and the bones of man.-CowPER.

Shall not I visit for these things, saith the Lord? shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

GEORGE WHITFIELD.

As I lately passed through your provinces in my way hither, I was sensibly touched with a fellow-feeling for the miseries of the poor negroes. Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy slaves, and thereby encourage the nations from whom they are bought to be at perpetual war with each other, I shall not take upon me to determine. Sure I am it is sinful, when they have bought them, to use them as bad as though they were brutes, nay worse; and whatever particular exceptions there may be (as I would charitably hope there are some) I fear the generality of you, who own negroes, are liable to such a charge; for your slaves, I believe, work as hard, if not harder than the horses whereon you ride. These, after they have done their work, are fed and taken proper care of; but many negroes when wearied with labor in your plantations, have been obliged to grind their corn after their return home. Your dogs are caressed and fondled at your table; but your slaves, who are frequently styled dogs or beasts, have not an equal privilege. They are scarce permitted to pick up the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Not to mention what numbers have been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel taskmasters who, by their unrelenting scourges have ploughed their backs, and made long furrows, and at length brought them even unto death. When passing along I have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious houses built, and the owners of them faring sumptuously every day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to consider how many of your slaves had neither convenient food to eat nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatiguable labors.-Letter to the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, 1739.

JOHN RANKIN.

Often are the slaves driven through frost and snow without either stocking or shoe until the path they tread is dyed with the blood that issues from their frostworn limbs! And when they return to their miserable huts at night they find not there the means of comfortable rest; but on the cold ground they must lie without covering, and shiver while they slumber.

In connexion with their extreme sufferings occasioned by want of clothing, I

JOHN RANKIN.

127 shall notice those which arise from the want of food. As the making of grain is the main object of their mancipation, masters will sacrifice as little as possible in giving them food. It often happens that what will barely keep them alive, is all that a cruel avarice will allow them. Hence, in some instances, their allowance has been reduced to a single pint of corn each during the day and night. And in some places the best allowance is a peck of corn each during the week, while perhaps they are not permitted to taste meat so much as once in the course of seven years, except what little they may be able to steal! Thousands of them are pressed with the gnawings of cruel hunger during their whole lives-an insatiable avarice will not grant them a single comfortable meal to satisfy the cravings of nature! Such cruelty far exceeds the powers of description!

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Alas, poor hapless slaves are doom'd to toil,
With naked limbs, beneath the direful rage
Of fiercely burning suns, and chilling blasts
That beat upon them with alternate strokes ;
While long years of fierce starvation onward
Roll, with lingering pace, and the grating wheels
Of time, that measures out the dreary span
Of hard, servile life, scarcely seem to move,
And the toil-worn and weatherbeaten flesh
Longs for the peaceful, lasting sleep of death,
And seeks a shelter in the silent grave,
From hunger, toil, and raging clements.

You tell me that "If the poor negroes were set free, they would either starve or turn to highway robbing." But certainly their situation could not be worse than it now is with regard to starvation and robbing. Thousands of them are really starving in a state of slavery, and are under the direful necessity of stealing whatever they can find, that will satisfy the cravings of hunger; and I have little doubt but many actually starve to death. Should they starve when free, the fault would, in some measure, be their own, and should they steal they could be punished for it, in the same manner that white thieves are punished for their thefts.

The slaveholder has it in his power to violate the chastity of his slaves. And not a few are beastly enough to exercise such power. Hence it happens, that in some families it is difficult to distinguish the free children from the slaves. It is sometimes the case, that the largest part of the master's own children are born, not of his wife, but of the wives and daughters of his slaves, whom he has basely prostituted as well as enslaved. His poor slaves are his property, and, therefore, must yield to his lusts as well as to his avarice! He may perpetrate upon them the most horrid crimes, and they have no redress! The wretched slave must, without a murmuring word, give up his wife, or daughter, for prostitution, should his master be vile enough to demand her of him! It must be a horrid crime for any state to give one man such power over another, and such crime has every slaveholding state committed. I am far from wishing to intimate that this power is generally so grossly exercised as it might be. Some slaveholders are, doubtless, as chaste as any other people, and conscientiously endeavor to preserve the chastity of their slaves; but I wish to show the extent of the power with which they are vested, and the shocking manner in which it is sometimes exercised.

In addition to this, we may remark, that the proprietors of slaves have it in their power to crowd the males and females together, in such a manner as is calculated to induce criminal intercourse, and to the great disgrace of human nature this is sometimes done for the base purpose of breeding slaves for market, as though they were mere animals, and not human beings!

In this place I will further remark, that slavery not merely puts the chastity of the slave in the power of the master, but also exposes it to attacks from every lecherous class of men. Slaves cannot bear testimony against people that are white and free -hence a wide door is opened for the practice, both of violence and seduction, without detection; and the consequences of this are exceedingly manifested in every slaveholding country-every town and its vicinity soon become crowded with mulattoes. In this respect slavery is the very sink of filthiness, and the source of every hateful abomination. It seems to me astonishing that any government, much more that of the United States, should sanction such a source of monstrous crime as slavery evidently is!

Again, the proprietors of slaves may exact from them excessive labor, and thus

lay upon them an intolerable burden during life. It is well known that many masters are so avaricious that they cannot be satisfied with a reasonable quantity of labor. The manner in which these unfeeling monsters exact labor from their poor slaves may be illustrated by a single fact, the knowledge of which came to me from a respectable source, and though it appears most shocking to every humane feeling, yet I believe it can be fully attested."

>bably were directly from, africa, and having brought them home, he put them into

A wealthy citizen of Georgia purchased, on shipboard, ix African girls, who pro

the hands of his overseer, and ordered him to assign them a certain portion of labor during each day of the week, and in case they should fail to perform it, he was commanded to give them a considerable number of lashes each, and add the remainder of the task to the next day's labor, and in case they should fail to perform the whole, he was ordered to add to the number of lashes in proportion to the failure, and still to add the deficiency to the next day's labor, and thus he was daily to increase both the labor and stripes in case of failure. The overseer, hardhearted as he was, expostulated with him, and assured him that the labor was more than the girls were able to perform, but he swore with a tremendous oath that they should do it or die. The poor creatures commenced the dreadful task, but being unaccustomed to such labor, their hands were soon worn to the quick; this they endured with patience, and did all they could to perform what was assigned them, but they were totally unable to accomplish it; they failed on the first day, and received the cruel lashes. The next morning, with sore backs and bleeding hands they attempted the enlarged task-their hoehandles were soon made red with their innocent blood-they labored with great assiduity, but they could not perform the unreasonable task, and consequently received the enlarged number of lashes. On the third morning they commenced again, but the task was so much enlarged that all hope of performing it was entirely precluded, and the enormously increased number of lashes became certain-the unhappy creatures despaired of life, and concluded that they must inevitably die under the torturing lash, unless they could despatch themselves in some other method. This appeared to be the only means of escaping the most terrible cruelty. Hence they formed and executed the dreadful design of hanging themselves. The horn blew for dinner, all started to their huts, but these unfortunate girls lingered behind, and unobserved by the rest of the company turned aside into a thicket, and there all six hanged themselves! They were soon missed, and search was quickly made for them-they were immediately found, and the cruel master, enraged by the disappointment and loss, made every possible exertion to bring them back to life, that they might again fall under the weight of his vengeance! but all his attempts were in vain-their souls were gone into an awful eternity, and had their eternal destiny unalterably fixed! And being exceedingly exasperated on finding that they had escaped from his hand, he ordered a hole to be dug for them, and caused them to be tumbled into it like mere animal carcasses, while he vented the most awful imprecations upon them! And the overseer was ordered to exact from the rest of his slaves what labor he intended them to perform.

Thus we see that a single tyrant has driven six poor, helpless females out of life by exacting from them excessive labor. And who can estimate the sum of similar cruelties that are practised upon the poor Africans, by the many thousand tyrants, who, from the slaveholding states, have literally received license for tyrannical exercise? To permit men to hold slaves is in reality the same thing as to give them license to commit cruelties, and those even of the most shocking kind. By such license, the poor African girls we have just mentioned perished, and by it thousands are daily dropping into eternity from under the grievous burdens of excessive toil. That men will work their slaves to excess, must be expected when the inordinate love of gain is the predominating principle in the whole system of involuntary slavery. This principle induces many slaveholders to employ such overseers as are destitute of humane feeling, and naturally propense to cruelty, and thus well prepared to drive poor slaves to the highest degree of excessive labor, And in some instances they are given such an interest in the pending crops as stimulates them to the greatest severity in driving the miserable creatures whom they oversee. Thus the principles of avarice and cruelty, is heaping most oppres sive burdens of labor upon slaves, and that, under such circumstances, their situa tion is most deplorable, must be obvious to every one capable of reflection.

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