The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South: In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White RaceCollins, Winfield H. (Winfield Hazlitt)
History
The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South: In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race
Collins, Winfield H. (Winfield Hazlitt)
African Americans; Lynching; Southern States -- Race relations
[22:7] In using _The Liberator_ one needs to be careful, for the
same instance is often found to be given two or three different
times,—weeks, even months apart.
[24:8] H. H. Bancroft, “Popular Tribunals,” Vol. I, p. 749.
[25:9] Quoted by _Liberator_, Aug. 24, 1860.
[27:10] The attitude toward both slaves and free Negroes varied
in different Southern States; but as a result of the anti-slavery
agitation, as we approach 1860 the more severe it becomes.
CHAPTER II
LYNCHING DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND THE CARPET-BAG RULE
It is said that an Abolitionist Society by a bribe of $3,000 induced
the slave valet of Henry Clay to leave him and go North. The Society
thought that this large sum would be well spent in producing what would
appear to be such a noteworthy example of dissatisfaction with the
condition of slavery. Though the Negro accepted the money and left,
he soon repented and returned to his master. Thereupon Clay gave him
$3,000 (for the Negro had long since spent the bribe), telling him that
when he had returned the sum to those who had tried to corrupt him that
he would be restored to his master’s service. The money was given back
as directed and Clay then took the Negro back as his valet.
Such a case was, no doubt, exceptional. In one way or another, however,
the abolitionists produced more or less dissatisfaction among the
slaves and were almost wholly responsible for the escape to the North
of something like an average of 2,000 a year. The Negroes did not
always find conditions in the North so favorable as they had been led
to suppose. As a consequence it did not infrequently happen that a
“runaway” Negro would become dissatisfied and return of his own free
will to his master in the South.
During the Civil War those slaves who for any reason had become
dissatisfied with their condition embraced the first opportunity to
gather in the wake of the Union army,—mainly, no doubt, to shun work.
While this was true as an exception, the great mass of the slaves
remained quietly at work on the plantations. Thus, instead of creating
antagonism between the two races, the War served rather to foster and
cement a good feeling between them; indeed, throughout its darkest
days they lived harmoniously side by side. Elizabeth Collins, an
Englishwoman, who was in South Carolina the greater part of the War,
says:
“In regard to the slave population of Charleston, I may say
that they appear to be, almost without exception, happy and
contented.”[30:1]
Indeed, an examination of several Southern newspapers and some books
of travel[31:2] revealed but two possible cases of lynching of Negroes
in the South during the War: A Mr. Harris, Uchee, Alabama, was murdered
by six of his Negroes, whereupon:
“The citizens of the county about ninety in number, after
consultation, determined upon the immediate execution of the
murderers.”[31:3]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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