The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837
Various
Periodicals
to heaven; and by way of encouragement to their color, affirmed, that
a great many _indecent_ people were already in heaven.
And now, what shall be said of the licentiousness which exists in
the South? Shall we attempt to palliate the fact? Most assuredly no.
That there are children born on plantations, who are very nearly
white, and of whose paternity there can be no doubt, is no less a
fact; and this always appeared to me as one of the most disagreeable
features in slavery. I have known a few instances in which a favorite
slave kept pace with her mistress in increasing the family stock, if
not the name. These children are usually employed as house-servants
as they grow up; and the mistress, though perfectly aware of the
relationship, generally regards them with peculiar kindness and care.
Great pains are usually taken by the mother to let these unfortunates
know to whom they are indebted for existence; and whether this
knowledge renders them more faithful to the interests of the family,
or from whatever cause it may be, they are the best servants, and
the most attached, that I have ever seen. These practises are the
productive source of much domestic unhappiness. It is not to be
supposed that a wife can regard her sable rival with other feelings
than those of deep aversion and dislike; without the power to banish
such from her daily sight. Negroes themselves, the men particularly,
look with no very pleasant eye on such liaisons. A circumstance
was related to me by one of them, which had excited in his breast
much indignation. 'Do you think such things are right, massa?' he
asked, at the conclusion. I assured the honest fellow of my deep
disapprobation of such wickedness, which seemed to afford him much
satisfaction.
While I state that such practices do exist, let it not be understood
that I extend these connections to all planters, or even to the
greater number of them. Such an accusation would be destitute of
either truth or justice. That they exist at all, however, is at
variance with every principle of morality, and for which let not
the shadow of an excuse ever be made. Yet turn we to other portions
of civilized society, and what do we behold? Vice is vice, wherever
it is found; and let not the haughty man of fashion, who spends his
hundreds upon an unworthy mistress, or the systematic seducer of
female innocence, from whose fatal snares neither virgin purity,
nor the holiness of the marriage tie are exempt, let them not, I
say, join their polluted voices in the general cry of the monstrous
depravity and licentiousness of the South. First pull the beam from
the eye of self, and then turn we to convince our neighbor of the
mote that obscures his moral vision.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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