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JULY, 1861.     DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.     491
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on the spot.  This man was a Scotchman, another a Spaniard, a third a German, and the fourth a Carolinian.  The last had for thirty years kept a shop in the neighborhood of Charleston; he was proved to have asserted that 'the negroes had as much right to fight for their liberty as the white people,' had offered to head them in the enterprize, and had said that in three weeks he would have two thousand men.  But in no case, it appears, did these men obtain the confidence of the slaves, and the whole plot was conceived and organized, so far as appears, without the slightest co-operation from any white man.
[CONCLUDED NEXT MONTH.]
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SLAVERY IN AMERICA.
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In our last Monthly we published a letter from Mr. HAUGHTON on the above subject.--Since then we have received the Sligo (Ireland) Champion, containing a second letter from Mr. H., which is as follows:

DEAR SIR:--In my letter on the above subject of 2d inst., in reply to Capt. McGowan, and which you kindly give to your readers, I dwelt on those great principles of freedom which it has always been my aim to keep in view before the minds of my countrymen, and which are so paramount to all the other incidents of slavery, relating to food, clothing, kind or unkind treatment, &c.  These, every reflecting man must know vary, according to the temper and disposition of the slaveholder.  Some men are naturally disposed to kindness, others to cruelty; but in the case of slavery, this is a mere question of degree; all slaveholders are cruel; some are less so than others.  The whole history of our race proves that man can never be safely trusted with irresponsible power; and such power all slaveholders are given by law.  If your space permitted me, I could readily give you the decisions of American Judges to that effect.

Practically, whatever may be the amount of cruelty inflicted, the slave has no appeal, or redress.  Some few rights are apparently conceded by statute, in a few of the States, but these are destroyed by the stern decree of the law, that no colored person can give evidence against a white man.  A murder may be, and often is, committed before many slaves, but no punishment can follow, as there is no legal evidence of the deed done.  Public opinion alone guards the slave from abuse, and that affords him but poor protection, as I shall presently prove.  When O'Connell was living, his manly voice was often heard on behalf of the slave, and he made the souless Irishmen who apologized for slavery tremble at his terrible denunciation of the wrong.  Oh! that we always had such a man living among us, to advocate the rights of the wronged everywhere.  'Though dead, he still speaketh.'  Hear his indignant words:

'Of all men living, an American citizen, who is the owner of slaves, (owner was a wrong term--no man can own another, he holds him by fraud, which gives no title,) is the most despicable; he is a political hypocrite of the very worst description.  The friends of humanity and liberty in Europe should join in one universal cry of shame on the American slaveholders!  Base wretches, should we shout in chorus--base wretches, how dare you profane the temple of national freedom, the sacred fane of republican rites, with the presence and the sufferings of human beings in chains and slavery.'

I could fill your sheet with such noble words, but I hurry on to refute Captain McGowan's statements as to kind treatment, by one who was himself a slave, but who shook off his chains, and has been for years not only a free man, but one of the most intelligent men of his age.  As a writer and an orator, he has few equals, and not many superiors; and yet this man was long subjected to the stripes of many masters--I refer to Frederick Douglass.  I know him well, and he is widely known in America.  From his own narrative of his life, I give a few extracts, and his credibility as a faithful and true witness, touching the 
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wrongs of his race in America, is borne testimony to in two prefaces to his little work, by William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips--men so widely honored and esteemed, that none--save slaveholders--would desire further recommendation.  I know these parties well, and I esteem it one of the great pleasures of my life to be called their friends.

That slaves are often kindly treated, is quite true; many of them are well fed and well clothed.  Large numbers of domestic servants may be placed in this class; and there are a few employed in confidential situations, who are found so able and so faithful, that many privileges are granted to them.--Some are even allowed to purchase their freedom, but many of these poor fellows, after acquiring the stipulated sum, are heartlessly robbed of all by cruel masters, and then sold down South as dangerous fellows, where a life-long misery awaits them.  The great mass of slave population are, however, those engaged in field labor, and for these no hope dawns; an almost unvarying rigor is their hard lot; and so horribly cruel is their treatment, that one-half would be disbelieved by those who have not made an inquiry into their condition an object of anxious interest.  I should despair of securing a patient hearing, if I detailed atrocities which are of daily occurrence.  Now, I shall let Mr. Douglass speak for himself:--

'I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was of very short duration, and at night.'

'Mr. Plummer (the overseer) was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster.  I have known him to cut and slash the women's heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at him.  Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.'

'The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn (Indian) meal.  Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen sheets, one pair of linen trowsers, one jacket, one pair trowsers (of coarse negro cloth) for winter, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes.'

'No beds were given, unless one coarse blanket be considered such.  This, however, is not considered a great privation.  They find less difficulty from want of beds, than from want of time to sleep.'

'They never knew when they were safe from punishment.  They were frequently whipped when least deserving of it.  I have seen Col. Lloyd make old Barney, a man between fifty and sixty years of age, uncover his bald head, kneel down upon the cold damp ground, and receive, upon his naked and toil-worn shoulders, more than thirty lashes at a time.'

'Mr. Gore acted fully up to the maxim laid down by slaveholders--"It is better that a dozen slaves suffer under the lash, than that the overseer should be convicted, in the presence of the slaves, of having been at fault."  Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with any one, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more.  His fame as an oveseer went abroad.  His horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial investigation.'

'I had but resided a short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked difference in the treatment of slaves.  He is better fed and clothed.  Few are unwilling to incur the odium of being a cruel master.  There are, however, some painful exceptions to this rule.'

Mr. Douglass' account of how he learned to read and write by stealth--these acquirements being strictly forbidden to slaves--is highly interesting, but I must pass that by.

'Each cocked his pistol, and, with fingers on trigger, walked up to Henry, saying, at the same time, if he did not cross his hands, they would blow his damned heart out.--"Shoot me, shoot me!' said Henry, "you can't kill me but once.  Shoot, shoot--and be damned!  I won't be tied."'
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'I have observed this in my experience of slavery--that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free.  I was not getting one dollar and fifty cents per day.  I contracted for it; I earned it; it was paid to me; it was rightfully my own; yet, upon each Saturday evening I was compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh.  And why?  Not because he earned it--not because I owed it to him; not because he had a right to it; but solely because he had the power to compel me to give it up.'

'It is my opinion that thousands would escape from slavery, who now remain, but for the strong cords of affection that bind them to their friends.  The thought of leaving friends was decidedly the most painful tho't with which I had to contend'

'The wretchedness of slavery, and the blessedness of freedom were perpetually before me.  In writing to a dear friend, immediately after my arrival in New York, I said I felt like one who had escaped from a den of hungry lions.'

I conclude my extracts with one from one of the most eminent statesmen America has produced--President Jefferson, (a slaveholder.)

'The whole commerce between master and slave, is a perpetual exercise of the most bositerous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submission on the other.  The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to the worst of passions; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities.'

Such is the condition of affairs in the Southern States of America.  Such is the condition of affairs which Captain McGowan (an Irishman) lauds to the skies, and wishes to see his countrymen placed in.  Countrymen, such is not the condition in which I desire to see any of you placed; my wish is, to see you stand up like men--at home and abroad--in whatever land your lot may be cast, I want you to be bold in defence of the wronged; ever on the side of outraged humanity.  A voice within you tells you that I am right; obey that voice, and men will honor you, and God will reward you.  I do not say that every Irishman in America is opposed to the rights of the colored men, for such is not the case.  I hope there are many noble exceptions to that general rule, but it is a disgrace and a dishonor to our name, that many of them are on the wrong side.

I reply to Mr. McGowan, there are no 'white slaves in Sligo,' nor did I ever 'see men stolen in Ireland.'  I again thank you, Mr. Editor, for allowing me to appeal to Irishmen through your columns.  The seed I am sowing broadcast may, some of it, fall on strong hearts, but a portion of it will be received into good ground; may it produce good fruit--'some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold.'

Faithfully yours,
JAMES HAUGHTON.
35, Eccles St., Dublin, April 19, 1861.
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NOBLE CONDUCT OF A KENTUCKIAN.--The Cincinnati Press says that a gentleman recently came to that city from Kentucky and emancipated a negro under the following singular circumstances:  The negro had been seized in Indiana, near the border, some months ago, and cast into jail in Kentucky.  An order was at length issued for his sale, under the statute, there being no claimant for him.  There was no doubt that the man was born free, but he was without the necessary evidence to establish the fact, and in order that he might be rescued from slavery, a gentleman in that neighborhood purchased him for between $700 and $800, and came to Cincinnati and had his free papers made out in the presence of several well known citizens.--He then left for his home in Kentucky.  We learn that the gentleman who did this noble deed is himself poor, and by no means able to incur this expense.
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