And if there wuz a pretty girl amongst the fugitives she too wuz often
and often bound to the conqueror’s chariot wheels till the chariot got
tired of this added ornament, then she fell down before it and the
heavy wheels passed over her. And so exit pretty girl.
But the world wuz full of them; what mattered one more or less? It wuz
no more than if a fly should be brushed away by a too heavy hand, and
have its wings broken. There are plenty more, and of what account is
one poor insect?
Many a poor aged one died broken-hearted in the toilsome exodus from
their homes and treasures.
But there wuz plenty more white-headed old negroes—why, one could
hardly tell one from another—of what use wuz it to mention the failure
of one or two?
Many a young and eager one with white blood throbbin’ in his insulted
and tortured breast stood up and fought for home, and dear ones, and
liberty, all that makes life sweet to prince or peasant.
What became of them? Let the dark forests reveal if they can what took
place in their shadows.
Let the calm heavens speak out and tell of the anguished cries that
swept up on the midnight air from tortured ones. How the stingin’
whip-lash mingled with vain cries for mercy. How frenzied appeals wuz
cut short by the sharp crack of a rifle or the swing of a noose let
down from some tree-branch.
How often Death come as a friend to hush the lips of intolerable pain
and torture!
Sometimes this tyrannical foe felt the vengeance he had called forth
by his cowardly deeds, and a white man or woman fell a victim to the
vengeance of the black race.
Then the Associated Press sent the tidings through an appalled and
horrified country—
“Terrible deed of a black brute—the justly incensed citizens hung the
wretch up to the nearest tree—so perish all the enemies of law and
order.”
And the hull country applauded the deed.
The black man had no reporters in the daily papers; if he had,
their pens would have been worn down to the stump by a tithe of the
unrecorded deeds that are yet, we believe, put down on a record that is
onbought and as free to the poorest class as to the highest, and is not
influenced by political bias.
But these accounts are not open yet, and the full history of these
tragedies are as yet unread by the public.
More awful tragedies than ever took place or ever could take place
under any other circumstances, only where one alien and hated race wuz
pitted aginst the other.
Ignorance on both sides, inherited prejudices, and personal spite, and
animosities blossomin’ out in its fruit of horror.
“They were burnt at the stake; they were sawed asunder; they were
destitute, afflicted, tormented.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account