“The following interesting narrative, given by a correspondent of ‘The Atlantic Monthly,’ will show, to some extent, the scenes which Gen. Butler had to pass through in connection with slavery.—
“’One Sunday morning, late last summer, as I came down to the breakfast-room, I was surprised to find a large number of persons assembled in the library.
“’When I reached the door, a member of the staff took me by the arm, and drew me into a room toward a young and delicate mulatto girl, who was standing against the opposite wall, with the meek, patient bearing of her race, so expressive of the system of repression to which they have been so long subjected.
“’Drawing down the border of her dress, my conductor showed me a sight more revolting than I trust ever again to behold.
“’The poor girl’s back was flayed until the quivering flesh resembled a fresh beefsteak scorched on a gridiron. With a cold chill creeping through my veins, I turned away from the sickening spectacle, and, for an explanation of the affair, scanned the various persons about the room….
“’To the charge of having administered the inhuman castigation, Landry (the owner of the girl) pleaded, but urged, in extenuation, that the girl had dared to make an effort for that freedom which her instincts, drawn from the veins of her abuser, had taught her was the God-given right of all who possess the germ of immortality, no matter the color of the casket in which it is hidden.
“’I say ‘drawn from the veins of her abuser,’ because she declared she was his daughter; and everyone in the room, looking upon the man and the woman confronting each other, confessed the resemblance justified the assertion….
“’A few days after, a number of influential citizens having represented to the general that Mr. Landry was not only a ‘high-toned gentleman,’ but also a person of unusual ‘amiability’ of character, and was consequently entitled to no small degree of leniency, he answered, that, no consideration of the prisoner’s ‘high-toned’ character, and especially his ‘amiability,’ of which he had seen so remarkable a proof, he had determined to meet those views; and therefore ordered that Landry pay a fine of five hundred dollars, to be placed in the hands of a trustee for her benefit.’
“It was scenes like the above that changed Gen. Butler’s views on the question of slavery, for it cannot be denied, that, during the first few weeks of his command in New Orleans, he had a controversy with Gen. Phelps, owing to the latter’s real antislavery feelings. Soon after his arrival, Gen. Butler gave orders that all Negroes not needed for service should be removed from the camps. The city was sealed against their escape. Even secession masters were assured that their property if not employed, should be returned. [It is said that pledges of reimbursement for loss of labor were made to such.] Gen. Phelps planted himself on the side of the slave, who would not exile them from his camp, branded as cruel the policy that harbored, and then drove out the slave to the inhuman revenge that awaited him.
“Yet the latter part of Gen. Butler’s reign compensated for his earlier faults. It must be remembered, that, when he first came to New Orleans, he was fresh from Washington, where the jails were filled with fugitive slaves, awaiting the claim of their masters; where the return of the escaped slave was considered a military duty. Then how could he be expected to do better? The spring cannot rise higher than the sprung.
“His removal from the Department of the Gulf, on account of the crushing blows which he gave the ‘peculiar institution,’ at once endeared him to the hearts of the friends of impartial freedom throughout the land…
“It is probably well known that the free colored population of New Orleans, in intelligence, public spirit, and material wealth, surpass those of the same class in any other city of the Union. Many of these gentlemen have been highly educated, have travelled extensively in this and foreign countries, speak and read the French, Spanish, and English languages fluently, and in the Exchange Rooms, or at the Stock Boards, wield an influence at any time fully equal to the same number of white capitalists. Before the war, they represented in the city alone fifteen millions of property, and were heavily taxed to support schools of the State, but were not allowed to claim the least benefit therefrom.
“These gentlemen, representing so much intelligence, culture and wealth, and who would, notwithstanding the fact that they all had negro blood in their veins, adorn any circle of society in the North, who would be taken upon Broadway for colored and educated Cuban planters, rather than free negroes, although man of them have themselves held slaves, have always been loyal to the Union, and when New Orleans seemed in danger of recapture y the rebels under Gen. Magruder, these colored men rose en masse, closed their offices and stores, armed and organized themselves into six regiments, and for six weeks abandoned their business, and stood ready to fight for the defense of New Orleans, while, at the same time, not a single white regiment from the original white inhabitants was raised.”
pp. 86-92, THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “General Butler at New Orleans,” by William Wells Brown (BiblioLife, LLC: 1867, 1923).
Saturday, November 30, 2013
NEGROES IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION...EXCERPT
“The commanding general soon discovered that he was amongst a different people from those with whom he had been accustomed to associate. New Orleans, though captured, was not subdued. The city had been for years the headquarters and focus of all Southern rowdyism. An immense crowd of “loafers,” many without regular occupation or means, infested the streets, controlled the ballot-boxes, nominated the judges, selected the police, and affected to rule everyone, except a few immensely wealthy planters, who governed them by money. These rowdies had gradually dissolved society, until New Orleans had become the most bloodthirsty city in the world, a city where every man went armed, where a sharp word was invariably answered by a stab, and where the average of murdered men taken to one hospital was three a day. The mob were bitter advocates of slavery, held all Yankees in abhorrence, and guided by the astute brain of Pierre Soule, whilom ambassador to Spain, resolved to contest with Gen. [Benjamin Franklin] Butler the right to control the city….He at first retained the municipal organization; but, finding the officials incurably hostile, he sent them to Fort Lafayette, and thenceforward ruled alone, feeding the people, re-establishing trade, maintaining public order, and seeing that negroes obtained some reasonable measure of security. Their evidence was admitted, ‘Louisiana having, when she went out of the Union, taken her black code with her;” the whipping-house was abolished, and all forms of torture sternly prohibited.
“The following interesting narrative, given by a correspondent of ‘The Atlantic Monthly,’ will show, to some extent, the scenes which Gen. Butler had to pass through in connection with slavery.—
“’One Sunday morning, late last summer, as I came down to the breakfast-room, I was surprised to find a large number of persons assembled in the library.
“’When I reached the door, a member of the staff took me by the arm, and drew me into a room toward a young and delicate mulatto girl, who was standing against the opposite wall, with the meek, patient bearing of her race, so expressive of the system of repression to which they have been so long subjected.
“’Drawing down the border of her dress, my conductor showed me a sight more revolting than I trust ever again to behold.
“’The poor girl’s back was flayed until the quivering flesh resembled a fresh beefsteak scorched on a gridiron. With a cold chill creeping through my veins, I turned away from the sickening spectacle, and, for an explanation of the affair, scanned the various persons about the room….
“’To the charge of having administered the inhuman castigation, Landry (the owner of the girl) pleaded, but urged, in extenuation, that the girl had dared to make an effort for that freedom which her instincts, drawn from the veins of her abuser, had taught her was the God-given right of all who possess the germ of immortality, no matter the color of the casket in which it is hidden.
“’I say ‘drawn from the veins of her abuser,’ because she declared she was his daughter; and everyone in the room, looking upon the man and the woman confronting each other, confessed the resemblance justified the assertion….
“’A few days after, a number of influential citizens having represented to the general that Mr. Landry was not only a ‘high-toned gentleman,’ but also a person of unusual ‘amiability’ of character, and was consequently entitled to no small degree of leniency, he answered, that, no consideration of the prisoner’s ‘high-toned’ character, and especially his ‘amiability,’ of which he had seen so remarkable a proof, he had determined to meet those views; and therefore ordered that Landry pay a fine of five hundred dollars, to be placed in the hands of a trustee for her benefit.’
“It was scenes like the above that changed Gen. Butler’s views on the question of slavery, for it cannot be denied, that, during the first few weeks of his command in New Orleans, he had a controversy with Gen. Phelps, owing to the latter’s real antislavery feelings. Soon after his arrival, Gen. Butler gave orders that all Negroes not needed for service should be removed from the camps. The city was sealed against their escape. Even secession masters were assured that their property if not employed, should be returned. [It is said that pledges of reimbursement for loss of labor were made to such.] Gen. Phelps planted himself on the side of the slave, who would not exile them from his camp, branded as cruel the policy that harbored, and then drove out the slave to the inhuman revenge that awaited him.
“Yet the latter part of Gen. Butler’s reign compensated for his earlier faults. It must be remembered, that, when he first came to New Orleans, he was fresh from Washington, where the jails were filled with fugitive slaves, awaiting the claim of their masters; where the return of the escaped slave was considered a military duty. Then how could he be expected to do better? The spring cannot rise higher than the sprung.
“His removal from the Department of the Gulf, on account of the crushing blows which he gave the ‘peculiar institution,’ at once endeared him to the hearts of the friends of impartial freedom throughout the land…
“It is probably well known that the free colored population of New Orleans, in intelligence, public spirit, and material wealth, surpass those of the same class in any other city of the Union. Many of these gentlemen have been highly educated, have travelled extensively in this and foreign countries, speak and read the French, Spanish, and English languages fluently, and in the Exchange Rooms, or at the Stock Boards, wield an influence at any time fully equal to the same number of white capitalists. Before the war, they represented in the city alone fifteen millions of property, and were heavily taxed to support schools of the State, but were not allowed to claim the least benefit therefrom.
“These gentlemen, representing so much intelligence, culture and wealth, and who would, notwithstanding the fact that they all had negro blood in their veins, adorn any circle of society in the North, who would be taken upon Broadway for colored and educated Cuban planters, rather than free negroes, although man of them have themselves held slaves, have always been loyal to the Union, and when New Orleans seemed in danger of recapture y the rebels under Gen. Magruder, these colored men rose en masse, closed their offices and stores, armed and organized themselves into six regiments, and for six weeks abandoned their business, and stood ready to fight for the defense of New Orleans, while, at the same time, not a single white regiment from the original white inhabitants was raised.”
pp. 86-92, THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “General Butler at New Orleans,” by William Wells Brown (BiblioLife, LLC: 1867, 1923).
“The following interesting narrative, given by a correspondent of ‘The Atlantic Monthly,’ will show, to some extent, the scenes which Gen. Butler had to pass through in connection with slavery.—
“’One Sunday morning, late last summer, as I came down to the breakfast-room, I was surprised to find a large number of persons assembled in the library.
“’When I reached the door, a member of the staff took me by the arm, and drew me into a room toward a young and delicate mulatto girl, who was standing against the opposite wall, with the meek, patient bearing of her race, so expressive of the system of repression to which they have been so long subjected.
“’Drawing down the border of her dress, my conductor showed me a sight more revolting than I trust ever again to behold.
“’The poor girl’s back was flayed until the quivering flesh resembled a fresh beefsteak scorched on a gridiron. With a cold chill creeping through my veins, I turned away from the sickening spectacle, and, for an explanation of the affair, scanned the various persons about the room….
“’To the charge of having administered the inhuman castigation, Landry (the owner of the girl) pleaded, but urged, in extenuation, that the girl had dared to make an effort for that freedom which her instincts, drawn from the veins of her abuser, had taught her was the God-given right of all who possess the germ of immortality, no matter the color of the casket in which it is hidden.
“’I say ‘drawn from the veins of her abuser,’ because she declared she was his daughter; and everyone in the room, looking upon the man and the woman confronting each other, confessed the resemblance justified the assertion….
“’A few days after, a number of influential citizens having represented to the general that Mr. Landry was not only a ‘high-toned gentleman,’ but also a person of unusual ‘amiability’ of character, and was consequently entitled to no small degree of leniency, he answered, that, no consideration of the prisoner’s ‘high-toned’ character, and especially his ‘amiability,’ of which he had seen so remarkable a proof, he had determined to meet those views; and therefore ordered that Landry pay a fine of five hundred dollars, to be placed in the hands of a trustee for her benefit.’
“It was scenes like the above that changed Gen. Butler’s views on the question of slavery, for it cannot be denied, that, during the first few weeks of his command in New Orleans, he had a controversy with Gen. Phelps, owing to the latter’s real antislavery feelings. Soon after his arrival, Gen. Butler gave orders that all Negroes not needed for service should be removed from the camps. The city was sealed against their escape. Even secession masters were assured that their property if not employed, should be returned. [It is said that pledges of reimbursement for loss of labor were made to such.] Gen. Phelps planted himself on the side of the slave, who would not exile them from his camp, branded as cruel the policy that harbored, and then drove out the slave to the inhuman revenge that awaited him.
“Yet the latter part of Gen. Butler’s reign compensated for his earlier faults. It must be remembered, that, when he first came to New Orleans, he was fresh from Washington, where the jails were filled with fugitive slaves, awaiting the claim of their masters; where the return of the escaped slave was considered a military duty. Then how could he be expected to do better? The spring cannot rise higher than the sprung.
“His removal from the Department of the Gulf, on account of the crushing blows which he gave the ‘peculiar institution,’ at once endeared him to the hearts of the friends of impartial freedom throughout the land…
“It is probably well known that the free colored population of New Orleans, in intelligence, public spirit, and material wealth, surpass those of the same class in any other city of the Union. Many of these gentlemen have been highly educated, have travelled extensively in this and foreign countries, speak and read the French, Spanish, and English languages fluently, and in the Exchange Rooms, or at the Stock Boards, wield an influence at any time fully equal to the same number of white capitalists. Before the war, they represented in the city alone fifteen millions of property, and were heavily taxed to support schools of the State, but were not allowed to claim the least benefit therefrom.
“These gentlemen, representing so much intelligence, culture and wealth, and who would, notwithstanding the fact that they all had negro blood in their veins, adorn any circle of society in the North, who would be taken upon Broadway for colored and educated Cuban planters, rather than free negroes, although man of them have themselves held slaves, have always been loyal to the Union, and when New Orleans seemed in danger of recapture y the rebels under Gen. Magruder, these colored men rose en masse, closed their offices and stores, armed and organized themselves into six regiments, and for six weeks abandoned their business, and stood ready to fight for the defense of New Orleans, while, at the same time, not a single white regiment from the original white inhabitants was raised.”
pp. 86-92, THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “General Butler at New Orleans,” by William Wells Brown (BiblioLife, LLC: 1867, 1923).