Part 8

To be sick and die, and disposed of after death in New Orleans, is _more_ than a fearful scene to be presented for the contemplation of any one away from his kindred, his home and friends; and there is not a place in the wide world where a man would have so many fearful forebodings in passing these ordeals, from the sick chamber to the tomb, as would come upon him while alone, and in the silent watchings of the night he could feel his strength gradually giving away as the hour of his dissolution drew nigh. And when he takes his sick bed, in almost every individual, the impression is almost certain to come upon him that recovery is very doubtful; and every thing by which he is surrounded, and all the circumstances under which he is placed, have a strong tendency to make the impression change to certain conviction; and the longer he is sick the more clearly can he anticipate the day of his death. These convictions come upon him more firmly, from the fact that if he has been long in the city, he learns that it is the most sickly and dying place on earth. Hence he looks forward with dread and fear to the approach of the morrow. And what renders the sick room more fearful and terrific in this city to the stranger--to the individual without a family--to one alone and without kindred and near friends, is all that he requires, all his wants, and all that is done for him, come from those who have an eye single to his purse, and upon that the nurse, the attendants, and physician lay hold, as if “to the victor belong the spoils.” The charge per day for nursing is usually from two to four dollars, attending physician from four to eight dollars, and prescriptions for medicine at apothecaries, from ten to twenty dollars a week. Cupping and bleeding and incidental expenses at least twenty dollars more; and thus, if he can get through a course of sickness for less than one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars a week, he may think he has had his day under a very lucky star indeed. And then if he should die, whatever amount of means he may have, it will all be consumed, for every bill will be made out with special reference to the amount which he may possess. Such is the _fashion_ in this city, and few there are who do not follow it to the letter.

DEPOSITORIES OF THE DEAD.

The bodies of the dead are deposited in vaults or tombs, as they are called; yet all above ground, as it is impossible to dig a grave in consequence of meeting water within a few inches of the surface of the ground. There is, however, a ridge of land about three miles from the city which is occupied for a burial ground, where the poor and the slaves are put in holes about two feet deep, and this is called the “Potter’s Field.” The old French depository for the dead lies in rear of the centre of the city, on the skirt of the swamp, yet it is surrounded by dwellings, and may be considered as a _part_ of the city. And a more gloomy, deathly, and pestiferous place cannot be found within the range of the civilized globe. And why such arrangements for disposing of the dead should be permitted, is a matter of great astonishment to any one who can reason from cause to effect. For there immediately within the heart and centre of that city, above ground, inclosed only in brick walls, lay thousands and tens of thousands of bodies in every possible stage of decomposition that can be presented. And the odor from these vaults in hot weather is perceptible a great distance, and near by is almost suffocating. And such is the stench within the inclosures that it brings on the most deathly and horrid sickness. And yet this is in New Orleans, and there it lies, and I know of no more proper place for such an arrangement, so “divil take the hindmost,” as that is the rule by which all are governed. Consequently no matter what exists around them. These grounds are about a mile in length and fifty or sixty rods wide. They are divided into three parts, all of which are enclosed in a solid wall of brick masonry about ten feet wide and nine feet high. In these long ranges of walls are holes resembling an oven, just large enough to slide in one coffin. When the coffin is put in, the opening is filled up with brick laid in mortar, and a small marble slab is also put in, cut on purpose to the shape of the opening, on which is the name and age of the deceased, and any other device the friends may think proper to add. From the bottom of the wall close to the ground is the first opening or vault, and upwards one directly over the other are four, and thus in the whole surface of the side and cross walls, as thick as can be allowed, are these “holes in the wall,” as they are usually jokingly spoken of, making _graves_ for thousands and tens of thousands who are being constantly swept into them by the besom of destruction, made up from the malaria, the effluvia, from the swamps and city. And to render the _dose_ complete, the exhalation from this great charnel house, this mass of corruption and death, is mingling with the sirocco that is pouring in upon them from every point, and is drank down by the living mass who tread those streets as greedily as though it was the vital principle of their existence. These receptacles for the dead belong to the city, and each vault is rented for the term of twenty-five years for fifty dollars. At the expiration of that time, if not re-rented by the friends of the deceased, it is opened, and all that remains of what was once life and animation, bearing the impress and image of its maker, is scraped out, thrown together with the remains of hundreds of others, and burned up. And thus in ashes lie mingled in one common mass the rich and the poor, the proud and haughty aristocrat, and the low and humble plebian--the hard and iron frame of the daring mariner, and the lovely and beautiful form of the bright eyed and laughing girl.

The ground inclosed within the several walls is more than one hundred acres, and is divided into small plots, generally about ten feet long and five wide. On these are built single vaults or those large enough for five or six persons. Those belonging to individuals or families are never disturbed. There are some receptacles of this kind built on a larger plan, from thirty to forty feet square, and twenty to thirty feet high, and large enough to contain upwards of an hundred vaults. These are built by societies or military companies, and some of them are beautiful splendid structures. There are also some elegant family tombs built of the finest Italian marble and costing an immense sum. The most perfect and beautiful one in architectural structure and design, is said to have cost upwards of forty thousand dollars. It contains six vaults, three on each side of a niche, which is open on the front, and the walls on each side contain the vaults or openings just large enough to slide in a coffin. In the niche are arranged some of the most perfect specimens of Italian sculpture from the hands of the best artists of the age, representing the Savior, the Virgin Mary, and several other symbols of the Romish church. As a receptacle for the dead it is without exception the most imposing and forcible appeal to the heart of the living that can be contemplated. And while standing before it in all the perfection of art and science and the genius of man, an awe of awful sublimity steals over the soul, hushes every earthly thought, while those “silent and impressive lecturers,” the image of our Savior, surrounded by types of the heavenly hosts, and though presented by the cold and speechless marble, yet tell us in language too plain to be misunderstood, that all the desires and anticipations of the heart will end as a weary care, and when summed up in the substance and riches of this world they can never enter the portals of the tomb.

SLAVERY.

I come now to the subject of slavery as exhibited in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mississippi. And as an American citizen, in view of the Declaration of Independence, and the boasted genius of the institutions of my country, I would gladly crush every thought and banish every feeling of shame and disgrace that comes over me, while contemplating this blighting and damning curse of humiliation to every man who feels a pride in the glory and prosperity of his country. But when in the spirit of pride for FREEDOM and EQUALITY, to contemplate the horrors, the miseries, the cold blooded murders, that are the accumulated wrongs of man upon his fellow man in this land of LIBERTY, it banishes every aspiration of the human soul. Every noble impulse of love of country is buried in shame and deep humiliation. I have seen too much, and I have learned what I know, not from the idle tales of the demagogue, nor the preaching of wild fanaticism, nor from what have been charged as the _embellished_ stories of runaway slaves, but from having been an eye-witness, and having heard the groans and shrieks of the mangled and bleeding slave, while being murdered under the lash and blows of the most inhuman of all monsters, the drivers and traffickers in human flesh. That such things can be done and be tolerated in this enlightened age, and among a people claiming to be moral, _civilized_, and _christian_ too, is a mystery that will remain unexplained until the attributes of the human heart shall change. That fathers and mothers in this christian land can look around them and know what is the conduct and character of their sons, (in almost every instance pursuing a life of indolence and licentiousness,) and witness growing up around them _grand children_, sons and daughters of their slave women, and then see those same children of their own kindred blood sold as slaves and chattels in the market. And there are fathers too who will take their own children bearing the impress of themselves, and throw them into market like beasts of the stall. I know it will be said that such are few and far between and isolated cases. But such are not the facts. They are the scenes of every-day life, and they are the sons and daughters, and grandsons and grand-daughters of your Governors, your Judges, your Senators, and members of Congress; and also men in every condition of life. Ah, and more too--your Presidents and Vice Presidents of this _christian_ and _civilized_ land, this land of FREEDOM. And yet these distinguished men are the recipients of the tolerance and favor of LIBERTY-loving men, and voted for to be the guardians of our institutions. They are held up as _honest_ men, as patterns of piety, whose oblations are daily offered upon the altars of christianity!!

Of the impulses of such men I know nothing, and I cannot form any conception of the feelings of an American, of a Christian--of the one who gets his lessons from the Declaration of Independence, and of the other who learns his duty from him who taught the inspired precepts of the Gospel. That persons can thus act is an anomaly that cannot be explained by any principle that governs the human heart. But in this view, with the slaveholder, I know the force of habit--the influence of circumstances--the power of avarice--the desire of ease, all combined with custom, will sheath the heart in a bond harder and less impenetrable than the unyielding adamant. But while I know this I cannot offer an excuse for them; and there is no apology at this day and age which they can plead, that will screen an American citizen or a christian in sustaining these outrages upon the genius of our institutions--upon the spirit of the age--against morality, humanity, upon kindred ties, christianity and nature itself.

APOLOGIES FOR SLAVERY.

The assurance that is often given as an apology for slavery, that the slaves are contented and happy--that they are not abused, and are well provided for, is as basely false and untrue, as the system is infamous, horrid and cruel. For an individual to plead such an excuse for Southern Slavery, in view of occupying the place of a slave himself, even in its mildest form, I apprehend that such a man who knows any thing of slavery--of its abuses--its cruelties--its lashes and murders, his tongue would become palsied on his lips, and a shudder as stiffening as the chill of death would come over him at the prospect of a life of so much _pleasure_ and _happiness_, as he boldly asserts is the enjoyment of the slave. Put him there, and let him feel for one short month what he knows the slave feels, and then let him come out with an apology for such bondage, and tell of its blessings, its beauties and happiness. And I ask him in all sincerity, if he does not think the slave feels, when he is brought out to be sold, somewhat as he would, if he was forced to stand upon the same block, and hear the Auctioneer tell of his good qualities, his strength, his ingenuity, his powers of endurance, his unblemished character, and “fully guarantied against all the vices and maladies prescribed by law.” Let the experiment be tried with some of these apologists, and take them into the Arcade in the city of New Orleans and sell them at auction, and then let them be taken on to a Sugar or Cotton plantation in the same fields to work with the other _happy_ slaves, and go to his bed in the same long range of “_beautiful white cottages_,” that look so neat and _inviting_ as you pass down the Mississippi River. After he has been here a few years, nay, only through one season of growing cane or cotton, living upon their _good fare_, their daily _rations_ and doing their _daily task_, then let him come up, and tell how happy he has been, and what a curse _liberty_ is, and how much better slavery is than freedom. And yet, the reply to all this is, “oh, the negroes don’t know enough to realize anything better, and they cannot take care of themselves.” Ah, and why are they thus brutalized, and how does it happen that they know so little? Any one who knows any thing of Southern slavery, can explain these things, for they know that every part and parcel of the system, in every particular, is framed with direct design to brutalize, degrade, and deprave the slave. And they know too, that when a slave aspires to be a man, that it is a _crime_, and the charge is brought up against him, “_he is getting too damned smart_,” and for which is meted out upon his naked back the severest punishment that can be given by the lash, for the express purpose of breaking him down, and make him cower before his master like a dog. They have seen men with a whiter skin than themselves, and mulattoes too, but a shade darker, who were sons and grandsons of the first men in Kentucky and Virginia, and men who would consecrate talent and powers of intellect, and serve even in Southern bondage, as long as the Patriarch of old did, for a wife, if they could possess one. And do you not think such men can feel, and will they hug their chains, and tell you, when they are not under the fear of the lash, that they are contented and happy? And these apologists know too, that with American Slavery, as a condition of human bondage, there has never been, in any age, nor with any people, whether barbarous or civilized, any thing to compare in point of brutality, cruelty and extreme suffering, resulting from a combination of causes, that destroy life and shorten the days of its victims to an extent that legalizes murder; for it is a fact, proven by the acknowledgment of slave owners themselves, that of an hundred young men, taken from Kentucky and Virginia, put on Plantations in Louisiana and Mississippi, seven years will be the average of their lives. And this is produced by a change of climate, unwholesome food, over-working, miserable and filthy lodgings, and a general want of cleanliness in clothing and every thing they have.

FARE OF SLAVES ON PLANTATIONS.

A more loathsome and disgusting place cannot be imagined, than the huts in a negro yard of a plantation. They are generally about twenty feet square, and the hands on a plantation are divided into families, each of which occupies one of these pens. These families number from five to twenty, and the arrangements for sleeping are miserable in the extreme, and what is used for their beds is seldom if ever washed, or cleansed in any manner, and is used until rotted or worn into shreds. The same practice is pursued with their clothing. It consists of a coarse wrought fabric, of cotton and wool, and also of linen. The men wear pantaloons, and a heavy stout frock. The women who work in the field, wear only a long frock, without under clothes of any kind. These are put on and never changed or cleansed, or taken off night or day, until they are worn out. The provision for clothing the slaves, is usually one suit a year to each negro, and they are generally obliged to make this last or go without. But many cannot, and you will often see negroes with only the tattered and torn rags remaining on them, as evidence of a slight degree of modesty and shame, that is manifest in keeping them around him. And thus they live in the most filthy, degraded and beastly condition that can be conceived, and there is not a single provision of any kind, either in food, clothing or cleanliness, or for beds, or dwellings, or labor, but what is calculated to debilitate, exhaust and destroy the physical powers, and produce disease and death; and I make the assurance without the fear of contradiction, that there is scarcely a plantation in the whole range of the Sugar and Cotton growing districts, if examined by a competent board of health, that would not excite their astonishment, that human beings could live, even an average of seven years. In the first place, it will be found that many herds of slaves are kept on short rations, having allowed to each one, from three to three and a half pounds of meat a week, with only corn meal, which they wet with water, and roast on the fire. This is their regular daily food, and the meat is often the most loathsome, disgusting, rotten mass that can be imagined. On this point, I am aware it will also be said, there are but few, very few indeed, of such cases. But it is not true, and every produce dealer in the city of New Orleans, if he has not the fear of the planter before his eyes, will bear testimony to this fact, for I have seen it myself, and know that they sell thousands of packages, weighing from eight to ten hundred each, of smoked hams and sides of pork, that were so rotten that the bones had become loose and separated from the meat, and when they were opened for the examination of the Planter, the maggots would roll over the side of the cask upon the floor.

An instance of this kind I saw in the store of a produce dealer in the winter of 1837. A planter from Mississippi bought eleven casks of smoked meat from a merchant in Lafayette street, which he had purchased the day before for one and a half cents per pound. He sold it to the planter for one and three fourth cents, and when the casks were opened they were literally alive with maggots. After the purchase was made, the clerk, a fine honest New Jersey-man, being astonished at what he had done in selling such stuff to be eaten by human beings, for he knew that a dog in New Jersey could not be found but what would turn from it, asked the planter why he bought such food for his negroes? The planter replied, that it was pretty hard times and cotton was low, and the _boys_ do about as well on it as any. Now in view of this, I know it will be said again, that “such are rare cases;” but the reports of sales of meat in New Orleans tell a different account; for there are hundreds and thousands of such packages of rotten putrid meat sold to planters every year, and the negroes are obliged to eat it or starve, and at the same time the planters tell you “the boys do about as well on it.”

And yet in full knowledge of all these facts, we can find men who will speak of such things as trivial matters, and have some very _cogent_ apology to offer as an excuse to justify the outrage. But with many who practice this treatment with their slaves there is some show for excuse, and that is in their extreme ignorance; for there are a large number of planters, overseers, and drivers, who know nothing of the influence and effect of such food on the system, and that it has a tendency to produce disease and death. Hence for the reason the planters do not know their own interest, the loss to them annually by death is ten fold greater than the expense would be to give the slaves good comfortable quarters, with good wholesome fare, and treat them as human beings. But there are plantations on which these worst features are not found; yet in almost every case the slaves are over-worked, at least one-third beyond what is possible for the physical powers of any human being to endure. They are usually driven out soon as daylight, and often before, and work from fourteen to eighteen hours a day, and in the other part of the time, they are obliged to prepare their food, eat and sleep. This time of excessive hard work is only about _five_ months in the year, during the gathering of the crops. The other part of the season they are only worked from light in the morning until darkness at night. I know it is said they are obliged to work thus to save the crops from perishing. Very true. But why force such an immense crop into existence that will require so much labor to secure it? Cannot avarice be checked nor satisfied without working men and women into a premature grave? As well may it be said, that a farmer of the north is _obliged_ to work night and day to tend his crop of corn, having planted with his cultivator twenty acres in four days; consequently he is _obliged_ to work night and day for forty days to hoe and keep it in good condition that he may get a large yield. And in view of the condition of slaves on plantations generally, without taking into account the whipping, beating and cruelties that are imposed upon them, their treatment from beginning to end is an open violation and outrage upon the laws of animal life, and every thing by which they are surrounded is calculated directly to undermine the constitution and engender disease, and thus destroy them. And I make the assertion without the fear of contradiction from any apologist for slavery who knows any thing about it, from its great champion John C. Calhoun down to the most brutal driver that can be found, they cannot show one plantation in five hundred where the proper provisions necessary for the health and comfort of human beings are made. I know this to be a fact, and so does every man who has looked in upon a plantation in the sugar and cotton growing States of the South. And there is no excuse or apology with the planter for this, for he can do better if he would gamble less, drink and carouse less, and spend less money in sports and horse racing, and not trust these matters to overseers and drivers.

WHIPPING OF SLAVES.