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THE SANDUSKY REGISTER, SLAVERY AT NEW ORLEANS, From the Atlantic Monthly. Let me describe one or two of the scenes I witnessed in New Orleans, that opened our eyes to the true nature of human bondage. following incident is the same so well told by the general himself to the committee of the New York Chamber of Comerce, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in January last, and which was then reported in full in the New York ‘Times.’ One of my objects in repeat ing this story is to illustrate my implicit con fidence—inspired by my knowledge of his character—in the General’s humanity and championship of the weak and down-trad en. Just previous to the arrival of General Banks in New Orleans I was appointed Dep “a Provost Marshal of the city, and held the office for some days after he had assumed command. One day, during the last week of our stay in the South, a young woman of about twenty years called upon me to com plain that her landlord had ordered her out of her house, because she was unable longer to pay the rent, and she wished me to author ize her to take possession of one of her fa ther’s houses that had been confiscated, he being a wealthy rebel, then in the Confeder acy, actively engaged in the Rebellion. The girl was a perfect blonde in complex ion: her hair was of a very pretty, light shade of brown, and perfectly straight, her eyes a clear, honest gray; and her skin as delicate and fair as a child’s. Her manner was modest and ingenuous and her language indicated much intelligence. Considering these circumstances, I think I was justified in wheeling around in my chair and indulging in an unequivocal state of incredulous amazement, when in the course of conversation she dropped a remark about having been born a slave. Do you mean to tell me,’ said, I, ‘that you have negro blood in your veins?’ And I was conscious of a feeling of embarrass ment at asking a question so apparently preposterous. ‘Yes,’ she replied, and then related the history of her life, which I shall repeat as briefly as possible. ‘My father,’ she commenced, ‘is Mr. Cox, formerly a judge of one of the courts in this city. He was very rich, and owned a great many houses here. There is one of them over there,” she remarked, naively, pointing to a handsome residence opposite my office in Canal Street. ‘My mother was one of his slaves. When I was sufficiently grown, he placed me at school at the Mechan ics’ Institute Seminary, on Broadway, New York. I remained there until I was about fifteen years of age, when Mr. Cox came on to New York and took me from the school to a hotel, where he obliged me live with him as his mistress ; and today, at the age of twenty-one, I am the mother of a boy five years old who is my father’s son. After re maining some time in New York, he took me to Cincinnati and other cities at the North, in all of which I continued to live with him as before. During this sojourn in the free States, I induced him to give me a deed of manumission ; but on our return to New Orleans he obtained it from me, and destroyed it. At this time I tried to break off the unnatural connection, whereupon he caused me to be publicly whipped in the Streets of the city, and then obliged me to Marry a ptured man, and sew he had err off, leaving me without the least provision against wanton actual starvation and I ask you to give me one of his houses that I may have a home for myself and three little chil dren.’ Strange and improbable as this story ap peared. I remembered, as it progressed, that I had heard it from Governor Shepley, who, as well as Cieneral Butler, had investigated it, and learned that it was not only true in every particular, but was perfectly familiar to the citizens of New Orleans, by whom Judge Cox had been elected to administer justice. The clerks of my office, most of whom were old residents of the city, were well in formed in the facts of the case, and attested the truth of the girl's story. I was exceedingly perplexed, and knew not what to do in the matter ; but after some thought I answered her thus: ‘This Department has changed rulers, and I know nothing of the policy of the new commander. If General Butler were still in authority, I should not hesitate a moment to grant your request,—for, even if I should commit an error of judgment, I am perfect ly certain he would overlook it, and applaud the humane impulse that prompted the act ; but General Banks might be less indulgent, and make very serious trouble with me for taking a step he would perhaps regard as unwarrentable. I still hesitated, undecided how to act, when suddenly a happy thought struck me and, turning to the girl, I added, ‘Today is Thursday; next Tuesday I leave this city with General Butler for a land where, thank God! such wrongs as yours cannot exist; and as General Banks is deeply engrossed in the immediate busi ness at headquarters, he will hardly hear of my action before the ship leaves,—so I am going to give you the house.’ I am sure the kind-hearted reader will find no fault with me that I took particular pains to select one of the largest of her fa ther’s houses,it contained fort rooms, when she told me that she wanted to let the apartments as a means of support to herself and her children. My only regret in the case was that Mr. Cox had not been considerate enough to leave a carriage and a pair of bags on my hands, that I might have had the satisfaction of enabing his daughter to disport herself about the city in a style corresponding to her importance as a member of so wealthy and respectable a family. And this story I have just told remini me of another, similar in many respects. One Sunday morning, last summer, as came down stairs to the breakfast room, was surprised to find a large number of pe sons assembled in the library. When I reached the door, a member of the Staff took me by the arm, and drew me into the room toward a young and delicate mulatto girl who was standing against the opposite wall, with the meek, patient bearing of her face, so expressive of the system of oppression to which they have been so long subjected. As r Drawing down the border of her dress, my conductor showed me a sight more re volting 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, for an explana tion of the affair scanned the various persons about the room. In the centre of the group, at his writing table, sat the General. His head rested on his hand, and he evidently endeavoring to fix his attention upon the remarks of a tall, swarthy-looking man who stood opposite, and who, I soon discovered, was the owner of the girl, and was attempting a defense of the foul outrage he had committed upon the unresisting and helpless person of his unfor tunate victim, who stood smarting, but si lent, under the dreadful pain inflicted by the brutal lash. By the side of the slaveholder stood our Adjutant General, his face livid with almost irrepressible rage, and his fists tight-clench ed, as if to violently restrain himself from visting the guilty wretch with summary and retributive justice. Disposed about the room, in various attitudes but all exhibiting in their countenances the same mingling of horror and indignation, were other members of the Staff, while, near the door, stood three or four house servants, who were witnesses in the case. To the charge of having administered the inhuman castigation, Landry (the owner of the girl) pleaded guilty, but urged in exten uation 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 what the color of the casket in which it is hidden. say ‘drawn from the veins of her abus er,’ because she declared she was his daugh er,and every one in the room, looking upon the man and woman confronting each other, confessed that the resemblance justified the assertion . After the conclusion of all the evidence in the case, the General continued in the same position as before, and remained for some time apparently lost in abstraction.— I shall never forget the singular expression on his face. I had been accustomed to see him in a Storm of passion at any instance of oppres sion or flagrant injustice , but on this occa sion he was too deeply affected to obtain re lief in the usual way. His whole air was one of dejection, almost listlessness ; his indignation too intense, and his anger too stern, to find expression even in his countenance. Never have I seen that peculiar look but on three or four occasions similar to the one I am narrating, when I knew he was pon dering upon the baleful curse that had cast its withering blight upon all around, until the manhood and humanity were crushed out of the people, and outrages such as the above were looked upon with complacency, and the perpetrators treated as respected and worthy citizens,—and that he was rea lizing the great truth, that, however man might endeavor to guide this war for the ad vantage of a favorite idea or sagacious pol icy, the Almighty was directing it surely and steadily for the purification of our coun try from this greatest of national sins. But to return to my story. After sitting in the mood which I have described at such length, the General again turned to the pris oner, and said, in a quiet, subdued tone of voice, ‘Mr. Landry, I dare not trust myself to decide today what punishment would be meet for your offence, for I am in that state of mind that I fear might exceed the strict demands of justice. I shall therefore place you under guard for the present, until I con clude upon your sentence.’ A few days after, a number of influential citizens having represented to the General that Mr. Landry was not only a‘ high-tened gentleman,’ but a person of unusual ‘ awra BILITY’ of character, and was consequently entitled to no small degree of leniency, he answered that, in consideration of the pris oner’s ‘ high-toned’ character, and especially of his amiability, of which he had seen so remarkable a proof, he had determined to meet their views, and therefore ordered that Landry give a deed of manumission to the girl, and pay a fine of five hundred dollars, to be placed in the hands of a trustee for her benefit A HENDOO SACRIFICE. The following account of the sacrifice of a Hindoo woman, on the funeral pile of her hus band, is an extract of a letter from a young lady in Calcutta, to her friends in this See. The Writer is a native of Pittsfield, Massacusetts, where her parents now reside, Calcutta, June 15. I opened my letter, my dearest friends, to tell you I have Witnessed one of the most ex traordinary and horrid scenes ever performed by hurman beings mely, the self-irumulation of a woman on the funeral pile of her husband. The dreadful sacrifice has made an impression on my mind, that years will not efface. I thank my God that I was born in a Christian land, and instructed in the Christian religion. ‘This event is so recent, I can hardly com pose myself sufficiently to relate it. Last night pit out close my eyes, nor could I dis prive this martyred woman from my recollection. I am almost sick today, and I am sure you will not wonder at it But this ceremony is so much celebrated, and by my countrymen so much doubts d, that I Was resolved to see if such ‘deeds could be.” I have seen, and the uni verse would not induce me to be present on a similar occasion—I cannot realize what I have seen—it seems like a horrible dream. ‘Yesterday morning, at seven o'clock, this Woman was brought in a ee to the place of sacrifice. It is on the banks of the Ganges, only two miles from Calcutta. Her husband had been previously brought to the river to ex pire. His disorder was hydrophobia— think of the agony this must have occasioned — He had now been dead twenty-four hours, and a person could prevail on the wife to save herself. She had three children, whom she committed to the care of her mother. A woman, called to the undertaker, was preparing the pile. It was composed of bamboo, Leavosd oils, ros in, and a kind of flax, altogether very com bustible. It was elevated above the ground, I should say twenty inches, and supported by strong stakes. The dead body was lying on a rude couch, very near, covered with a white cloth. The oldest child, a boy of seven years, who was to light the pile, was standing near the corpse. The woman sat perfectly unmoved during all the preparation , that pray er, and counting a string of heads, which she held in her hand. She was just thirty years old , her husband twenty-seven years older. The government threw every obstacle in the way of this procedure. They were not strong enough to resort to violent measures to prevent this abominable custom. Nothing but our re ligion can abolish it, and I do not believe there is a single particle of Christianity in the breast of a single native in all India. ‘These obstacles delayed the ceremony un til five o'clock, when the permit from one of the chief judges arrived. Police officers were stationed to prevent anything like compulsion, and to secure the woman, at the last moment, should she desire it. The corps was now placed on the ground, in an upright , and clean linen crossed round the head, and about the waist. Holy water was thrown over it by the child, and afterward, oil by the Brahmins. It was then placed upon the pn the left side. The woman now left the quin, and walked into the river, supported by her broth ers, who were agitated, and required more sup port than herself. She was divested of all her ornaments , her hair having dishevelled about her face, which a perfect resignation.— Her forehead and feet were stained with a red. She bathed in the river, and drank all water, which was the only nourishment she re s death. An oath was administered by the attending Brahmins, which is done by putting the hand in water, and repeating from the Shaster a few lines. The oath was given seven times. I forgot to say
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Daily Commercial Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Sat, Jul 25, 1863
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