Incidents of the War: Humorous, Pathetic, and DescriptiveBurnett, Alfred
History
Incidents of the War: Humorous, Pathetic, and Descriptive
Burnett, Alfred
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Anecdotes
Another instance: In Hospital No. 2, in Gallatin, there is now at work
a girl eighteen years of age, of pure Anglo-Saxon blood. This girl's
reputed mother says, that when her own child was born, it was taken
away from her, and this white child put in its place. She is satisfied
it was the illegitimate child of her master's daughter, which she had
_by her own father_.
In September, 1862, at Stevenson, Alabama, in collecting contrabands
to work on the fortifications, we found a _white man_, sixty-three
years old, who had all his life been compelled to herd with negroes.
He had been forced to live with four different black women as his
wives, by whom he had twenty-eight children. Colonel Straight, of the
51st Indiana Regiment, saw one of the old man's daughters, and said
she was as white and had as beautiful blue eyes as any girl he ever
saw in his own State. His was the same sad story--that he was an
illegitimate son of his master's daughter, in Virginia; was taken to
the slave-pen, where, with one hundred and twenty-seven others, he was
raised for the market. We started him to Governor Morton, of Indiana,
as a specimen of the men made chattels, and for which the South was
fighting. He was captured on his way North. This is wickedness,
"naked, but not ashamed."
We copy the following from the Montgomery (Alabama) _Advertiser_:
One Hundred Dollars Reward--Or Fifty Dollars if arrested in
the State, will be paid for the arrest and confinement in
jail, so that I may get him, of my boy Lewis, who left home
on Sunday, the 14th inst. Lewis is about five feet, seven
inches high, _light complexion, nearly white_, spare made,
well dressed, wore mustache and goatee, quick to reply when
spoken to, has "traveled," and _may attempt to pass for a
white person_; he may endeavor to get to Richmond, where his
mother and family reside.
William Foster.
Tuskegee, Ala., _June 14, 1863_.
We suppose that this "nearly white" slave, who, it is suspected, will
try to "pass for a white person," is William Foster's grandson, or
perhaps his own offspring. Foster, no doubt, thinks that the negro is
indebted to slavery for his moral and religious training. We advise
the conservative journals to copy the above advertisement, and comment
indignantly on the practice of amalgamation. The occasion will be a
good one; and we assure them that the instances are as plenty as
blackberries in Dixie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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