A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, An Essay on SlaveryWoodward, A.
History
A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, An Essay on Slavery
Woodward, A.
Slavery -- United States; Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896. Uncle Tom's cabin; Uncle Tom (Fictitious character)
be more happy than the receiver. Whatever they do, they seem to do it
cheerfully. They act as if they esteemed it a singular favor, to have
it in their power to relieve a friend. A Southern man will part with
his last dime to aid a friend, though, he may be forced, in less than
twenty four hours, to borrow money himself. I long lived among them,
embarrassed by a series of unprecedented misfortunes, and their
generosity I shall never forget. I shall carry the recollection of it
to my grave; it will, no doubt, soothe me on my dying bed. Dear
friends of the sunny South, in an evil hour I was separated from you,
and what I have suffered since both in body and mind, God only knows.
Ah! I could tell a _tale_, but I forbear. There is a marked contrast
in the manner in which strangers are treated North and South. Every
stranger in the South is presumed to be an honest man, until he proves
himself to be a rogue. Every stranger in the North, is presumed to be
a rogue, until he proves himself an honest man. Another Southern
peculiarity is, that no one can attack the character of another,
without incurring the risk of loosing his life. The slanderer in the
South is an outlaw, and the injured party incurs but little more risk
in stabbing, or shooting him, than he would in shooting a mad dog; for
public opinion justifies the deed, and a jury of his fellow citizens
will acquit him. This is literally and emphatically true, if the
female is the injured party. In the latter case, any relation or
friend is at liberty, to silence forever the tongue of the slanderer.
If he that slanders a female is in danger, he that seduces her runs a
risk tenfold. A few days previous to my leaving the city of Knoxville,
Tenn., an old man, by name M., walked into the court-house, (court in
session) and deliberately shot down a gentleman, by name N. He lived
after the discharge of thirty-six buckshot into his body, but a few
minutes. N. was an official character, and one of the most popular men
in the county, and though I remained in the city but a few days after
the perpetration of the atrocious act, I discovered that nine-tenths
of the community justified him in the horrible deed. It was not long
before I received information, that the murderer of N. was acquitted.
The crime of N. was seduction. Similar occurrences are frequent in the
South.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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