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564 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. December, 1861 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] Dealings with Slavery and the Contrabands. [[short line]] FACTS, SCENES AND INCIDENTS. [[short line]] The recent orders of the government in relation to the contraband negroes have set the newspaper correspondents on the track of investigation, and the testimony that they give is quite curious. Their accounts of the condition and sentiments of the blacks in the rebellious regions into which our armies have penetrated confirm the statements recently made by Mr. PIERCE in the Atlantic Monthly. The negroes at the South, so far from being degraded animals, are shown to be as keenly alive to the events going on about them as the majority of their masters, and quite ready to take their freedom in any way that is presented to them. Here are some specimens of the evidence. The first is from a Maryland letter in the Boston Journal: In a former letter I spoke of the opinions of "my host," that he considered this to be an abolition war. He is not alone in the opinion; for the negroes also look upon it as such. The question arises: how did the negroes form this opinion in regard to it? It is plain they do not read the papers; neither have they been informed of it by abolition emissaries. They have formed their opinions by hearing it discussed by their masters, or by that instinctive feeling which all men have that they are entitled to freedom. Not a few have availed themselves of the commotion of the times, and as riches take to themselves wings, so they have taken to themselves legs, and ran away. Some masters, seeing the storm approaching, sold their slaves last spring. Some who loved secession more than Union, emigrated to Dixie, leaving their negroes behind, who in turn have emigrated to parts unknown. It is evident that through all this region the people consider that their hold upon human flesh as property is very much weakened, and the negroes are accordingly treated with great kindness. In reality it is weakened. Every negro has heard of the North, but now, with soldiers all over the country, it is certain that they will obtain a definite knowledge of geography. They are becoming restless, and though the soldiers pass on, the influence of their advent will not be lost. The negroes will remember it, especially the younger ones, who on some future morning, quite likely, will not answer when the master calls. I do not think that the soldiers encourage the slaves to run away, but it is an inevitable consequence from the occupation of the country by the troops that they should learn more of freedom than they knew before, and it would be strange, indeed, if knowing more they did not feel the kindling desire to make the most of their knowledge. The next is from a letter in the Boston Traveller, written at Hall's Hill, Va.: When I have been on picket guard I have sometimes had opportunities to visit houses, and have talked with a number of slaves.———They all talk the same way with slight variations. The following conversation with one that came into our camp a few days since will serve as a specimen of the whole. "How were you treated, Robert?" "Pretty well, sar." "Did your master give you enough to eat and clothe you comfortably?" "Pretty well, till dis year. Massa hab no money to spend dis year. Don't get many clothes dis year." "If you had a good master; I suppose you were contented?" "No, sar." "Why not, if you had enough to eat and clothes to wear?" "Cause I want to be free." "You say you have a wife and children owned by another man; that they are treated well, and you had a chance to see them once a fortnight. If you were all free how would you manage to support your wife and children." His eyes sparkled as he answered, "I'd hire a little cabin with a little garden, and [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] keep a pig and cow. I'd work out by the day, and I would save money. I've got eight dollars now that I laid up dis summer. But if I didn't save a cent, I should feel better to be FREE" "Can you read and write?" "No, sar. Massa know we can't read a word; but dis summer he's skeered to hab us see a paper." "What do the slaves say about the war?" "Dey tink Lincoln is gwine to free us." "Where did they hear that?" "Massa said so, last fall, afore he was President." "Did you ever hear of John Brown?" "I do so, sar. Eberybody hear 'bout him. Dar was great time when he come to Harper's Ferry. Folks was all skeered to death. Dey went up from all round here to see him hung." "Do you think he was a good man?" "Yes, sar, a mighty fine man" A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, writing from Nolin, Ky., says: A batch of eight slaves arrived in camp yesterday from the Green River country or beyond. The party, with one or two who had been here before, were all turned over to the Provost Marshal, who is as yet sorely puzzled to know what to do with them. If our Administration were not sometimes in the habit of having two or three different policies on the same subject, in operation in different parts of the country at the same time, there could be no hesitation. Secretary Cameron's recent instructions to Gen. Sherman would seem to have no doubt that the negroes are to be set to work whenever they come to camp. It is interesting to notice the terror the arrival of these slaves strikes into the secessionists and semi-secessionists of the country. So long as the army was occupied half the time in defending itself against the rebels, the other half in guarding and returning the rebels' property to them, treason was rather a safe and pleasant game to play at. Now, when the idea begins to be hinted that while the rebels are doing their utmost to destroy the Government, they need not in the meantime expect the Government to keep a zealous watch over their property for them, they are horror-struck alike at the audacity of this abolition Administration and at the mortal dangers which it threatens. Hitherto rebellion has been a pastime. A common sense treatment of this contraband question will soon teach the lesson that rebellion is but a synonym for beggary; and the number of 'ardent sons of the South who are eager to battle for their rights' will be wonderfully diminished. The Chicago Tribune's correspondent at Paducah, Ky., writes: A few days ago there was a 'scene' at Gen. Paine's headquarters worth describing. Some time previous, a black woman, accompanied by a child, came to the General's quarters, desiring protection; and in reply to the question 'if she was a slave,' stated that she was not, and that her free parents were at Clarksville, Tenn. She was employed to assist in the housework, which she continued to do up to the time we mention, when a lady who lived a few miles from town came to the headquarters and inquired for Gen. Paine, and on being presented to him as Mrs. F————, asked him if he had 'her nigger' there. The General, supposing that she meant a negro man for whom unsuccessful search had just been made, replied that he had not. 'Why,' said she, 'haven't you got my nigger woman and child here?' 'Negro woman and child,' said the General; 'perhaps so; come and see.' The woman was called and came to the door. 'That's the one; she's mine. She left me [at such a time] and stole a horse and a lot of other things, the mean thing,' &c., &c., with divers epithets more emphatic than refined. 'Stole a horse!' said the General, in a tone of utter amazement, 'I don't see how that can be. One piece of property steal another? I've heard of a horse running away with a wagon, and pigs getting into the garden [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] and eating up the potatoes, but I never heard that called stealing.' The hit was so palpable that of a room full everyone laughed outright, even to the lady's father; but she did not seem to see the joke, and maintained a sour gravity. A venerable looking gentleman, the lady's father, who was sitting near, spoke up and said: 'Daughter, take the oath, and be a good loyal woman.' But still she hesitated, and thought as she was a woman she ought to have her 'nigger' without taking the oath, when the General assured her that she not only couldn't get the negro without taking the oath, but that if she violated the oath after taking it, that he would be sure to know it, and that she would in that case not only lose her negro, but whatever property she had beside. The same correspondent also tells this story: The Colonel of the Illinois Ninth has a healthy way of dealing with such cases. He has a hearty contempt for the whole generation of 'nigger-catchers' as he terms them; and by being accosted by a couple of that stripe who showed him a description of his cook, he cursed them most heartily, and assured them that if they were inside the camp after he had counted three, (by which he meant three minutes,) that he would make his men kick them out, and that if he ever caught them there again, he would make his men duck them. A few days afterwards one of his own men came to him and aksed for a file of men to arrest two runaway negroes who belonged to his uncle in Missouri, and also for the privilege of keeping them in camp until he could send word to his uncle. The Colonel boiled over. He asked him if he thought he commanded a regiment of nigger-catchers. 'Begone to your quarters,' said the Colonel, 'and let your uncle do his own nigger-catching.' The Washington correspondent of the N. Y. Post, under date of Nov. 8th, says: The little steamer Stepping Stones, the other night brought up a half-dozen contrabrands, picked up by a tug-beat in the Lower Potomac. Their escape from the Virginia shore was almost miraculous. The six got into a canoe made of a pine log, and floated out into the stream in the night, where they were lucky enough to find the tug-boat Bailey, which took them on board at once. Two of them left wives behind, whom they did not venture to trust with their secret of escape. They express the opinion that a large number of fugitives have been drowned in the Potomac, as the runaway slaves, when they get to the river, become desperate in the fear of pursuing masters. From the accounts given by those and other fugitives from Virginia, the slave population there is suffering very much because of a lack of clothing and provisions. The master takes care of himself first, as a matter of course, and the rebel troops must be fed and clothed next, while the slave comes in last for his share, which is very small indeed.——–Under this state of things, many negroes run away to the land of plenty, and thousands of others expect soon to do the same thing, if an opportunity occurs. The far-seeing men of the South are looking forward to the holidays with much anxiety, for that is the time on which the great negro insurrections have always occurred. Should this season be passed in peace, they are confident that the negroes can be kept down through the war. A correspondent of the Tribune writes from Springfield, Mo., Oct. 30, as follows: If half the reports which we receive from Lane's command are true, it will require several more modifications of Gen. Fremont's proclamation to make the Kansas boys respect the inalienable right of secessionists to hold the negro in bondage. A friend who has just returned from Lane's brigade informs me that there were one hundred and fifty negroes with it, and was told there that one hundred had been sent to Kansas a few days before. As for this command, it is remarkable that negro servants are a good deal more numerical [[/column 3]]
