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SEPTEMBER, 1860. DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. 335 [[line]] [3 columns] [column 1] [[bold]] AN OCTOROON IN CLEVELAND.[[/bold]] [[line]] The residents upon Prospect, Erie and Huron streets and that vicinity may have frequently met in their walks, or seen pass their doors, a bright, intelligent, active little girl with long, black curls, a complexion not yellow or brown, but a combination of pure black and white, she being always accompanied by a grave and dignified colored servant of perhaps 45 years of age. There is a family history connected with that little girl which will not be uninteresting. The girl is an Octoroon, and the daughter of a very wealthy Mississippi planter, who has a plantation about ten miles from Natchez, where his family of slaves number about two hundred. This gentleman is now about 80 years old, and the girl is about eleven. She was the daughter of a favorite slave of his, and he desired to have her well educated and bro't up away from the influences of slavery, for, while he is a large slaveholder himself, he is not blind to the disadvantages under which she would necessarily undergo if she were to remain in a slave State. For several years she has lived in a separate establishment in Natchez devoted exclusively to her use. This year her father concluded to send her to the North to be educated. Accordingly, in April last his agent came to Cincinnati in search of a favorable location. He was referred, by Cincinnati parties, to Rev. J.C. White of this city, and came to see him accordingly. Arriving here upon a Saturday, he made inquiries the next day for Mr. W.'s church, and attended service there in the evening. It so happened that the Reverend gentleman that evening preached upon slavery, and those acquainted with this style, need not be told that his bold and scathing denunciation of the system was not calculated to prejudice a Southerner in his favor. The agent listened for a a time, and left the church in high dudgeon. Not caring to go back, however, with his mission unfulfilled, he called upon Mr. White the next day and explained the object of his visit. It was recommended to him that the best plan would be for the girl to go to Oberlin, into some pleasant family, and pursue a course of study at the college. This, however, the agent would not hear to. He had been entrusted to provide for his charge a house for herself. After one or two consultations, and examination of several houses, one was purchased of Mr. Clark, the former owner, for $7,000. It is situated on Prospect st, east of Erie, the grounds extending through to Huron street. A young lady in the interior of the State was sent for, and offered $600 if she would reside in the house and take general charge of the girl's education and training. Being unwilling to do so, unless her parents could reside here and board the girl and herself, she was not engaged, and finally a daughter of Mr. White was engaged to attend to the educational department. Special instructions were given that thorough instruction should be given in the common branches and in music. The agent returned to this city with the girl and her attendants about the first of June. The family consists of herself and five servants, from the homestead of her father; the eminently respectable man servant above spoken of, who attends to the commissions of his young mistress, to the garden, &c., and accompanies her in her walks; a foster mother or housekeeper; a cook and two maids, girls of about ten and fourteen years. The name of the man servant appears upon the door. The girl is quick to learn, and of a tractable, simple disposition, not at all spoiled by having been made a pet and delight of her father. An ample amount of money was deposited in the bank for her use, and apparently the whole household have an abundance of funds. The agent also invested $30,000 in her name in Cincinnati property. Mr. White was requested to exercise a general guardianship over the family, and thus matters move on, smoothly and pleasantly.—[italics] Cleveland Leader. [[/italics]] [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] [[bold]] 'MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM' IN MISSOURI. [[/bold]] [[line]] A correspondent of the Syracuse [italics] Wesleyan [/italics], writing from Oregon, Holt Co., Mo., says: BRO. PRINDLE:—Sometime ago, I wrote to you that there was then an effort making to indict me for selling Helper's Crisis, and lending 'My Bondage and My Freedom,' by Fred. Douglas. I am happy to say, that though the indictment was made out against me, yet they failed to present it, owing doubtless to advice of the Judge of the Court, which was, that they could not condemn me on the indictment, for it had been tired in several instances in this State, and had failed—and they dropped it. The people have been some stirred up once since then, in regard to some articles I wrote against Slavery, published in the St. Joseph [italics] Free Democrat [/italics]; and I am informed some of the advocates of Slavery said I must leave. One man as I am informed, said in reply to them in substance, 'I have never seen Mr. Blanchard (showing them a knife which he held in his hand,) but if you drive him out, it will be followed by the greatest funeral ever held in this place!' In the presence of a slaveholder not long since, one said referring to me, 'That man is permitted to say and write what he pleases;' and suggested that some measures should be taken to stop me; when the slaveholder said 'You have tired to indict him and failed, and now I think you had better let him alone.' The most ultra pro-slavery men we have here, are non-slaveholders. Sometime ago in conversation with a slaveholder (who is considered as ultra as any about here,) I told him I considered it my right on all suitable occasions to speak on the subject of Slavery and he cordially yielded his assent thereto. I have doubtless sold as many again of Helper's books as I would have done, if no effort had been made to indict me for this sale. I have received a few Tracts from Rev. G.S.F. Savage, of Chicago, for distribution, and I hope some individual or individuals, will furnish me with a supply of Anti-Slavery tracts and others for gratuitous distributions among the people, as I am confident they will do good. I have distributed some, and in my distributions have, with others, not forgotten the Rev. traders in human flesh, mothers and babies.—Now is the time to strike in this country for God and humanity. With the recent revelations of the corruptions of the Democratic party, the people are now as they never have been before, prepared to investigate political matters and hear both sides of the questions not agitating this entire Republic, from Maine to California, and from Florida on the South to our National Boundary on the North. [[line]] BURNING OF SLAVES.—By the following item from Augusta, Georgia, bearing date of June 12th, it will be seen that the people of that place, have been indulging in another [italics] Auto da Fe [/italics]: 'A man named Wm. Smith, a painter in Oglethorp county, Ga., was murdered by a slave on Saturday. The slave was apprehended, and [italics] burned at the Stake on Monday [[/italics]].' Southern members of Congress, especially those from Georgia are expected to be utterly oblivious to the above fact. Whenever charges are made that slaves are sometimes burned, they indignantly deny the allegation, and pronounce it a vile abolition libel; and so it is, on the legal principle sometimes recognized that the greater the truth the greater the libel. - [[italics]] A.S. Bugle. [[/italics]] [[line]] —An organized bank of kidnappers is at the present time keeping the colored population of Kansas in constant alarm. Their victims are selected principally from among the Arkansas exiles, who a few years since were driven from that State and took up their abode in Kansas. Their free papers are taken from them by the kidnappers and destroyed, and they are then coerced into the admission that they are runaway slaves, when they are taken to Missouri and sold for a more southern market. Very little effort apparently is made to stop these nefarious operations. [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] [[bold]] MISCELLANEOUS NEWS ITEMS. [[/bold]] [[line]] —Capt. James Ramsay, one of the oldest residents of Vermont, died in St. Johnsbury on the 3d of August. He was a pioneer in the anti-slavery cause. —The abolition of slavery in this State was celebrated by the friends of freedom in Jefferson and the adjoining counties, at Adams, on the 5th of July. W.J. Watkins, of this city, was the orator. —Rev. Cyrus Prindle estimates the membership of the American Wesleyan Church at 21,000. Others, he says, places the number as high as 25,000; but he thinks this is an over-estimate. —Dr. C. Van Renselaer Creed, a colored physician of New Haven, Conn., has recently removed an unusually large cancer tumor from the womb of a white lady in that city, who is now doing very well. Dr. Creed is called upon almost daily to perform some difficult surgical operation. —John Brown, Jr., has addressed a very glowing and touching letter to President Geffrard of Hayti—full of sublime sentiments and noble thoughts—expressive of his cordial appreciation of the sympathy and interest manifested by the Haytians for Capt. Brown and his earnest co workers in their efforts to establish Human Equality. —Frank P. Blair (Republican) has been triumphantly elected to Congress from the St. Louis district, over Barrett, (Democrat.) His majority for the long term is over a thousand; and for the short term some two or three hundred ballots were cast for 'F.P. Blair,' which, if not allowed to him, will give the seat to the Democratic candidate. —A slave-trading firm in Richmond, Va., writing from Mississippi, gives the following intelligence concerning the human flesh market at the present time:—'No. 1 men sell here from $1,600 to $1,650; second class men from $1,400 to $1,550; No. 1 grown up girls sell from $1,400 to $1,475; one extra sold for $1,500. - Tendency of the market upward.' —The Detroit Advertiser of July 30th, says that three fugitives from slavery arrived in that city just in time to assist in the celebration of the 1st of August. One of them already had a wife living in Detroit. We have, during the last two weeks, sent to Canada no less than fifteen fugitives, from Maryland, Virginia and Tennessee. This branch of the road was never in a more thriving condition. —Thaddeus Hyatt has gone to Kansas, with a view to examine, note and report upon the condition of that Territory. Kansas, in common with the whole North-West, has been reported to have been afflicted by a drought of unusual duration and severity, and Mr. Hyatt wishes to give the true facts to the public. He has commenced suits against the U.S. Senators who voted for his imprisonment, which are now pending. —A secret society of negroes was recently broken up by the police, at Mobile, Ala, and five of their number have been arrested. The discovery caused great excitement among the slaveholders, as they thought that the negroes in that region had been secretly preparing for a general insurrection. The society was called the 'Evening Star,' and its objects were simply to take care of the sick and bury the dead of their people. —Among the passengers by the Adriatic, which arrived in New York on Saturday week, was Lady Franklin, the widow of Sir John Franklin, the distinguished Arctic explorer—Her purpose, we understand, is to travel thro' the United States and Canada, and she will probably extend her tour as far as California, where she proposes to pass the Winter. While in New York she will be the guest of Mr. Henry Grinnell. —The Cincinnati Enquirer states that six very fine looking children, the oldest nine years, and the youngest nine months, all girls, with the exception of a boy aged five years, were recently brought into Court in that city and emancipated. The mother had some traces of negro blood, the children none whatever—On the contrary, they were of remarkably fair and delicate complexions, and had the hair and features of the white race. They were the slaves of Mr. Thomas J Murray, of Lincoln Co, Ga., who had purchased them a comfortable house and lot in Cincinnati, as a house. [[/column 3]]
