American Scenes, and Christian Slavery: A Recent Tour of Four Thousand Miles in the United StatesDavies, Ebenezer
History
American Scenes, and Christian Slavery: A Recent Tour of Four Thousand Miles in the United States
Davies, Ebenezer
Slavery -- United States; United States -- Description and travel
"Depôt on Adams-street, between Main and Second Streets.
"BOLTON & DICKINS."
"JAILOR'S NOTICE.--Was committed to the jail of Shelby County, on 25th
January, a Negro Boy named Silas. He says he belongs to William Wise,
of Fayette, County Tenne. He is about 30 years old, black complexion,
about 5 feet 11 inches high; weighs about 165 lbs. The owner of said
Negro is requested to come and prove property, and pay charges, or he
will be dealt with according to law.
"E. W. HARREL,
"_Jailor_."
"Feb. 13.--3tW."
In connection with Memphis, M. de Tocqueville narrates the following
touching incident, relative to the expatriation of the Indians, to
which I have already referred. "At the end of the year 1831, while I
was on the left bank of the Mississippi, at a place named by Europeans
Memphis, there arrived a numerous band of Choctaws. These _savages_ [so
his American translator renders it] had left their country, and were
endeavouring to gain the right bank of the Mississippi, where they
hoped to find an asylum which had been promised them by the American
Government. It was the middle of winter, and the cold was unusually
severe: the snow had frozen hard upon the ground, and the river was
drifting huge masses of ice. The Indians had their families with them;
and they brought in their train the wounded and the sick, with children
newly born, and old men upon the verge of death. They possessed neither
tents nor waggons, but only their arms and some provisions. I saw them
embark to pass the mighty river, and never will that solemn spectacle
fade from my remembrance! No cry, no sob was heard among the assembled
crowd: all were silent. Their calamities were of ancient date, and they
knew them to be irremediable. The Indians had all stepped into the bark
that was to carry them across, but their dogs remained upon the bank.
As soon as these animals perceived that their masters were finally
leaving the shore, they set up a dismal howl, and, plunging all
together into the icy waters of the Mississippi, they swam after the
boat." So much for Memphis and its associations!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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