An important part of the story of slavery in the US is how the effects of the institution over the years came more and more to restrict the freedom of whites, in both the South and the North.
The Anti-Slavery History of the John-Brown Year (27th Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society), 1861 [Reprint edition 1969] documents a number of contemporary incidents that were part of that process. The following refers to how the fine Christian white folks of South Carolina responded to free speech by a white citizen in January, 1860:
JAMES POWER, a young Irishman, who had been at work, for several months, as a stone-cutter, on the State-House at Columbia, S. C., gave offence to the sovereign mob of that metropolis, by the remark that Slavery "caused a white laborer, at the South, to be looked upon as an inferior and degraded man." The Vigilance Committee hearing of the seditious utterance, ordered the police to arrest him. On or about the tenth of December, he was seized, while trying to escape; put into a cell and kept three days, denied the use of pen and ink, and all communication with his friends outside. Then he was taken before the mayor, the treasonous words were proved, and he was sent back to prison; kept there six days, with but two scanty meals a day; then taken out and dragged about the streets and State-House yard, through the mud and puddles, to the amusement of some thousands of delighted spectators, including several members of the Legislature ; marched three miles out of the city, stripped and whipped thirty-nine lashes, laid on with terrible severity; covered to the waist with tar and feathers; and, without being allowed to put on his shirt or coat, thrust into the negro-car on the railroad, and sent to Charleston. At every station, the engineer blew a prolonged whistle, and gathered a mob to insult the sufferer afresh. A citizen of Charleston, on the train, gave him, at one of the stations, a cup of coffee and a biscuit; but was surrounded by the rabble, and threatened with vengeance if he should repeat the kindness. When he reached Charleston, POWER was put in prison and detained about a week; and, while there, was supplied with soap and water to wash off the tar, and oil to soften his sores. A mob repeatedly threatened to break into the jail, to take him out and subject him to further abuse. On Saturday, the 24th, he was transferred from prison to the steamboat for New York, and reached that city on the 26th, still suffering from the effects of his ill treatment. The New-York Independent, from which we glean these foots, - related, in its columns, from POWER'S own lips, - concludes, by way of comment on the case, " this man informed us that, in common with the great mass of Irishmen, in this country, he had always voted with the Democratic party." (p. 183-4)[my emphasis]As the same report described the situation in a more general way, with particular reference to the period following John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in October 1859:
The constitutional guarantee, to "the citizens of each State," of "all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States," was worth less than the spoiled parchment it was written on. The virtual constitution of the Slave-land seemed, almost, to be summed up in these words of the Atlanta (Ga.) Confederacy: "We regard every man in our midst an enemy to the institutions of the South, who does not boldly declare that he believes African Slavery to be a social, moral, and political blessing. Any person holding other than these sentiments, whether born at the South or North, is unsound, and should be requested to leave the country." And "requested " in a manner so persuasive, we may add, that compliance might be counted on with a very near approach to certainty. [my emphasis] (p. 167)Tags: confederate heritage month 2009, slavery
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