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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78285 ***
+
+
+
+
+                      “TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION.”
+
+                               NEW ORLEANS
+
+                                AS IT IS:
+
+                 ITS MANNERS AND CUSTOMS--MORALS--FASHIONABLE
+    LIFE--PROFANATION OF THE SABBATH--PROSTITUTION--LICENTIOUSNESS--SLAVE
+                      MARKETS AND SLAVERY, &c. &c. &c.
+
+                              BY A RESIDENT.
+
+“A heap of houses, a gulf of evils; on each of yonder stones you might see
+a gushing tear, or a drop of blood, if the afflictions, shut up between
+these walls, could but appear without.”
+
+                              UTICA, N. Y.:
+                        DE WITT C. GROVE, PRINTER,
+                                  1849.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In placing the following pages before the American public, no apology
+is necessary by the writer, to excuse himself for the plain-spoken
+manner in which he has given, in detail, the living character of “LIFE
+IN NEW ORLEANS.” The design has been, from the beginning, to draw a
+faithful picture of the heterogeneous mass of human beings, who mingle
+together in this great charnel house, and to delineate, as near as
+possible, the demonstrations of human passion, which, to a very great
+degree, lead on the devotees of pleasure, unchecked by moral force, or
+example, or precept, such as is brought to bear upon the evils that
+exist here. When the time for the redemption of New Orleans will come,
+judging from present appearances, no prophet, with any reputation as
+such, I am sure, would undertake to predict. The difficulty to be
+encountered, in beginning a work of reform, would be, a starting point;
+for you would not know where to begin or to find one, who would not
+first be obliged to “pull the beam out of his own eye.” Hence, the man
+who would undertake the task, must be a brave one indeed, who would
+have the daring to tell the whole truth, and in such manner as to
+appeal to the moral sense of this people. To awaken that, by any means,
+would be as fatal to the one who should attempt it, as would be to the
+mirror, held before the fierce rage of the goaded bull.
+
+A portrait of the city of New Orleans is a living picture of the world,
+and in this particular, it differs from every other city; for here the
+world is concentrated, in a living spectacle of almost every nation,
+kindred, and tongue, and from whom are poured out the baser passions
+that dictate the actions of men, in all the variety of shade and color,
+that can come up from the dark recesses of the human soul. And it is
+here we find the great mass of human beings, moved upon by impulses as
+strange and mysterious and incomprehensible, as is their own future
+destiny.
+
+To the virtuous and good in the city of New Orleans, I have only to
+say, that if I have drawn a faithful picture of “NEW ORLEANS, AS IT
+IS,” you only are made to suffer by these pages, in the same degree as
+the poor dog was, when caught in bad company. And to those who can see
+themselves, “as in a glass,” I have only to refer:--
+
+    O wad some pow’r the giftie gie us,
+    To see ourselves as others see us.
+
+
+
+
+NEW ORLEANS AS IT IS.
+
+
+ITS SETTLEMENT.
+
+The history of New Orleans, if fully written out from its earliest
+day, in connection with the first adventures and discovery of the
+Mississippi Valley, would be one possessing more interest to the people
+of this country, than that of almost any other portion of the American
+Continent. To do this, in any degree to satisfy the inquiring mind,
+is not the purpose of the author of these few pages. The writer only
+designs to give a brief portrait of the breathing mass, that fills up
+the great emporium of the Valley of the Mississippi. To say that all
+_live_, in the common understanding of the term, who spend their time
+there, would be to give a false coloring to a large portion of the
+picture, which the reader may be assured is true in all its lineaments.
+It is important, however, to the reader, to know something of the
+early history of this section of the country, as well as a general
+description of the city, and some things connected with it, to be able
+to duly appreciate and understand, why a life in New Orleans differs
+so widely from any other in the whole range of civilization. And while
+standing on the Levee, and looking over that great busy mart, where
+the products and treasures of that vast region of the Mississippi
+Valley and its tributaries, are constantly being poured out, it would
+seem that a word could not be said of New Orleans, without requiring a
+full history of its discovery, beginning of settlement, adventures of
+individuals in other portions of the Valley, along the banks of this
+great artery of the breathing earth, which is constantly pouring its
+floods into the bosom of the ocean. As a brief sketch is demanded of
+the early times of this range of our country, I shall only notice a few
+things.
+
+One among the most singular facts in the history of discoveries, is
+that this mighty flood of many waters, was first met with more than one
+thousand miles from its mouth. The first discoverer was a Spaniard, by
+the name of De Soto. He started from the Island of Cuba, in the year
+1538, with six hundred men, landed on the coast of Florida, passed to
+the North, through Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and came to the
+river, at the place now known as Chickasaw Bluffs.
+
+In passing from 1538, down to 1717, many adventurers from the old
+countries, as well as from the colonies, came, and scarcely more than
+roused the panther and alligator from their lairs, and passed on,
+leaving them quietly to return to their repose, and there to remain,
+until another should come after them in search of the “_fountain of
+immortal youth_,” which was the object sought after by those who first
+traversed this region of our country, and whom the Indians had now
+made to believe there existed such a fountain, in which, if a man
+should bathe, he would, even if old, return back to the sunny days
+of youth, his life be without end and clothed in immortal youth. But
+this glorious fountain was never realized, yet on they came, for many
+years, company after company; and most of them found a resting place,
+unburied, in the midst of the swamps and desolation of a wild and
+unbroken wilderness.
+
+The result of these several companies, in search of the fountain of
+“living waters,” was a settlement under the patronage of the French
+government, after the purchase from Spain, one at Natchez, and one
+at Balize, on Lake Pontchartrain; and finally, in the year 1718, at
+the city of New Orleans, this Babel of all Babels, this Sodom of all
+Sodoms, was commenced. And here let me ask the reader to pause and
+contemplate the scenes which have been enacted in this modern Golgotha.
+Turn back to the pages of its history, although never written; yet to
+read it, let the imagination have its widest range, excite it as livid
+as the lightning flash amid the lowering thunder cloud; and then call
+up the fullest measure of human woe, of moral degradation, of human
+suffering, and contemplate the blackest rage of human passion, and all
+the dark and damning deeds that the fiends of the infernal regions
+could perpetrate, and you would have before you a faint moonlight
+picture of the early days of New Orleans. But now, a change has come
+over the drama of life, yet not in the spirit of her dreams. For the
+same boiling caldron of human passion is still there, swallowing up its
+victims, and as in olden times, leaving not a shred or a remnant, to
+tell from whence they came or whither they have gone.
+
+This was New Orleans a century ago, and this is New Orleans to-day. And
+notwithstanding a change is in her outward forms, by throwing aside the
+bowie knife, the dirk and pistol, yet the weapons by which destruction
+is now accomplished, are none the less sure, none the less fatal. For
+unlike the knife and pistol, they never maim, but strike strong and
+deep into the very life blood of the victim.
+
+
+ITS LOCATION.
+
+The City of New Orleans is on the west bank of the river, about ninety
+miles from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico.--The City of Lafayette
+has a distinct city charter, yet the increase of New Orleans has been
+so rapid, for a few years past, that it has grown up, so that by
+buildings they are united, and now appear like one vast city, occupying
+about seven miles in length, and about one mile in width, along the
+bank of the river, which, at this point, takes a wide circle and passes
+to the north-east. The two cities occupy the bend of the river, in
+form like the new moon, and hence has been given it the name of the
+CRESCENT CITY. The valley above and below is very level and low, and
+were it not for the _Levee_, as it is called, would be inundated, by
+the overflowing of the river, for nearly half of the year. The Levee
+is an embankment of earth, thrown up from six to eight feet high,
+and sufficiently broad to make an excellent road. This embankment,
+commences about forty miles below the city, and on the east side of
+the river extends as far up as Baton Rouge, a distance of one hundred
+and forty miles. On the west side it has been necessary to build it,
+with but very little interruption, up to the line of the State of
+Arkansas, a distance of five hundred and fifty miles. Were it not
+for this embankment, not a rod of this vast extent of country could
+be cultivated. Yet it is now one of the most fertile and productive
+portions of the South, and on which is grown almost the entire crop of
+Sugar in Louisiana, as well as large quantity of Cotton.
+
+
+ITS HISTORY.
+
+From the commencement of the city of New Orleans up to the time of the
+“Seven Years War,” which is now always spoken of as “The Old French
+War,” between England and France, and in which many of our fathers
+participated, the province of Louisiana, being then in possession of
+the French, passed through many trying scenes; and several times barely
+escaped annihilation, not only by sickness and starvation, but by well
+concerted plans of massacre by the Indians who inhabited that range of
+country. At the termination of the “Seven Years War,” came up a new
+era, upon which soon followed those mighty developements, which to us
+now in the distance appear like the work of enchantment. The cession by
+France of all her rights and lands in North America to England, except
+the province of Louisiana, was stipulated by the deputies of the two
+governments, and the boundary line between their possessions, in the
+wilds of America, was determined should run along the middle of the
+Mississippi river from the gulf of Mexico, up as far as Ibberville,
+thence along the centre of that river, through Lakes Maurepas and
+Ponchartrain. This treaty was made in 1763, twelve years before the war
+of the Revolution. Immediately following the treaty, France ceded the
+entire province of Louisiana to Spain. This act of cession, however,
+for certain considerations, existing with the government of France,
+was not made known until about two years after the date of the treaty.
+When, the decree was first published, making, by a mere dash of the
+pen, Frenchmen into Spaniards, it produced the utmost consternation
+among the inhabitants of the province. The act of being thus secretly
+passed into Spanish hands, with new lords and masters, and without
+being consulted, or even a knowledge of the fact imparted until long
+after the consummation of the matter, was too revolting to those who
+had abandoned home and friends, and braved the difficulties and dangers
+of the savage wilds of the Mississippi valley, and who were as true and
+loyal Frenchmen as ever paid court to Crown or King. Public meetings
+were called, and they resolved as one man, not to submit to the outrage
+which the new order of things would impose upon them. And they further
+determined, that if they were to be thus dealt with, and finally
+deserted by the Mother Country, they would endeavor, with the limited
+means and power which they possessed, to commence business on their own
+capital; and thus brave the displeasure of both Spain and France. This
+determination they at once prepared fully to sustain.
+
+On the arrival of the Spanish Governor, Don Ulloa, with a strong force,
+in 1766, they met him at the point of the bayonet, and succeeded in
+driving him off, forcing him to leave the country and return home
+and lay down his commission. At this unexpected defeat and defiance
+of authority, the King of Spain was highly enraged. In consequence,
+however, of other troubles then on hand, which were such as to engage
+his whole attention, no further attempt was made to take possession
+of the province until 1769, when the King succeeded in finding a man,
+with all the requisite qualifications to undertake the work of royal
+vengeance, which had been three years waiting to glut itself with the
+blood of Frenchmen. The fit instrument to do this work, was a man
+by the name of Don O’Reilly, a renegade Irishman, who had “left his
+country for his country’s good,” to whom he gave the appointment of
+Governor. To accomplish a purpose by any means within the scope of
+human ingenuity, a fitter tool, or a more arch fiend, could not be
+found within the compass of royal favor. He came to the citizens of the
+province with fair promises of government patronage and favor, pledging
+them at the same time, that he would, in a great degree, respect the
+laws and regulations which they had enacted, and retain in office a
+due share of the citizens. By these assurances, impressed with so much
+apparent honesty, he succeeded in prevailing upon the authorities
+and the people to lay aside their arms, and meet him on the terms he
+proposed, and acknowledge him as Governor. For some time he continued
+to respect his pledges, and yet, while doing this, he was secretly
+fortifying himself, and arranging his plans, by placing his own chosen
+and subservient tools where he could at once call them out to do his
+bidding, when the time should come to throw off the mask of hypocrisy.
+He then assumed the power of the Dictator, made laws to suit his own
+purpose, trampled under foot and disregarded written contracts, and
+finally, to consummate his fiendish acts of treachery, and to gratify
+the vengeance of his Spanish Master, and in defiance of the most
+solemn pledges, he caused five of the principal men of the city to be
+arrested, and, without trial, to be shot. Five others he sent to the
+dreary dungeons of the “Moro Castle,” at Havanna, on the Island of
+Cuba. These acts of outrage and vengeance, together with violations of
+every assurance which he had given to seduce the too credulous people,
+soon brought down upon him the execration and abhorrence of the whole
+colony. The final result was, he soon worked out his own downfall.
+Following the dictates of his own inclinations, and supposing, at
+the same time, he was courting royal favor, the King was forced to
+recall him, and cast him off disgraced. Under his successor, a Spanish
+nobleman by the name of Unzoga, who remained with the colony a short
+time, the province enjoyed a short time of comparative peace and
+prosperity.
+
+This, however, was soon broken up by the war between England and Spain,
+which was declared in 1779. This occasion enabled the Governor, Don
+Galvez, to display his martial prowess, by invading Florida, then
+in possession of the English. Without meeting much to contend with,
+he took Baton Rouge, and Fort Charlotte, which stood near where now
+stands the city of Mobile. From thence he marched down upon Pensacola,
+which, after a long and determined resistance, finally yielded to the
+Spanish arms. By this decisive blow the laws and power of Spain were
+established in Florida, and the thorough introduction of the Spanish
+colonial system. This, however, was too severe a blow for the proud and
+independent English and French to bear quietly, without showing some
+signs of the galling nature of the yoke, which was thus being formed
+upon them. Yet the impositions succeeded so well for a time, that an
+attempt was made in 1785, to establish an office or branch of the Grand
+Inquisition in the city of New Orleans.--Against this assumption and
+scourge of despotism, the spirit of the hitherto subservient Frenchmen
+took fire. They arrayed themselves at once in the most determined
+hostility against it, and so daring and fearless were they in their
+opposition, that it was crushed without leading to a collision between
+the people and the troops. The agent who had the authority to arrange
+the matter was taken from his bed in the night, and put on shipboard,
+and sent back to Spain. Thus, ere it saw the light, was strangled one
+of the most hideous monsters that was ever permitted to prey upon the
+lives, property, and liberty of an unoffending people. And yet, this
+was to come into a city, and among a population who had no sympathy
+with the power that ruled them, nor any motive for obedience except
+fear and self-preservation; and what is most astonishing in this event,
+is, that such a system as the Spanish Inquisition should be attempted
+on this continent, in the midst of the light and spirit of that age,
+ten years after the announcement to the world of the Declaration of
+Independence.
+
+
+FIRST IMPULSE TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.
+
+Finally, after a few minor vicissitudes, through which the colony
+passed, up to 1792, Baron Corondelet appeared as Governor. Two years
+following his appointment, the treaty of St. Lorenzo was entered
+into between the United States and Spain, by which was granted free
+navigation to every kind of water craft, belonging to the United
+States, through the lower waters of the Mississippi. The effect of this
+treaty at once aroused a spirit of enterprise, and gave an impetus
+to trade and speculation, which fixed forever the prosperity and
+preeminence of the crescent city, as the great emporium of the western
+world. The Spanish Governor, however, not deeming the stipulations of
+the treaty of sufficient account for his consideration, continued to
+exercise his authority, much to the detriment of those who had been
+induced to embark in business, as permitted by the stipulations of
+the treaty. This interference on the part of the governor, did not
+much accord with the enterprising spirit of that class of traders
+who had embarked their all upon the waters of the Mississippi. This
+class of men differed widely from those with whom the governor had
+hitherto been accustomed to meet. They were schooled under different
+teachers than the servile minions of Spain, or the too credulous and
+confiding Frenchmen, who had long been submissive to his will. But
+the “live yankee,” and such too, as constituted the boatmen of the
+Mississippi, had never before crossed his path, and how to meet them,
+was a task which he was not able to accomplish. The traders from
+the beginning assumed a position to maintain their rights, and this
+begat in the governor an impression that they were insolent in the
+extreme, in daring to oppose his authority. The consequence was, the
+restrictions upon the traders were more stringent than ever; until
+finally, by an armed force under Andrew Elliot, the territory was taken
+possession of, and the refractory governor compelled to acknowledge the
+stipulations of the treaty and respect the right of the traders. From
+this time until 1803, the territory was quite prosperous, when Spain
+re-transferred all her rights and interest to France.
+
+
+THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.
+
+Immediately following this treaty between France and Spain, on the
+30th of April of the same year, France sold the whole territory to the
+United States, for fifteen millions of dollars. Gen. Wilkinson was
+ordered to take possession of the new purchase, which he did, amid the
+rejoicings of the warm hearted Frenchman, whose love of liberty had
+increased as the galling yoke of his Spanish master bore down upon his
+neck. To him the day was one that he had long desired, the day for
+knocking off his chains and throwing them in the face of the insolent
+Spaniard.--From this hour, the riches of the Mississippi Valley were
+unlocked. The march of improvement, and the swelling tide of business,
+poured out her treasures into every clime, and at once determined that
+this valley was the grand centre to which the extremes and every part
+of the circle of this vast continent must yield their homage.
+
+
+STEAM NAVIGATION.
+
+Nine years after this event was an important and memorable era in the
+scenes of the Mississippi Valley; and never will it be effaced from
+the memory of the thousands and tens of thousands who lined the banks
+of the river to witness the crowning efforts of genius, and the almost
+omnipotent power of man over matter. It was at this time, the first
+steam boat was taken into the bosom of the father of waters. Although
+it was but yesterday that the astonished multitude stood amazed,
+yet they are still there, and are now witnessing thousands of these
+floating palaces flying to and fro, bearing upon their huge frames
+the productions of this vast region of our country. In the vision of
+the master genius of our land, the immortal JEFFERSON, the reality
+which now lays before us, was vividly drawn up, a short time before he
+consummated the purchase of Louisiana, and in the language of another
+it is thus presented:
+
+“The purchase of Louisiana is considered the greatest political
+event, next to the Revolution, commemorated in American history. The
+circumstance ought not to be overlooked that this mighty conquest,
+exceeding in territory the greatest monarchy in Europe, was achieved,
+without the guilt or calamities of blood, from a military autocrat,
+whose ceaseless ambition was an universality of empire, and who, in
+the untamable pursuit of his purpose, went on demolishing nations at a
+blow, and partitioning the earth at pleasure, until vanquished by the
+consolidated power of Europe. The mind is lost in the magnificence of
+the achievement, and the vastness of its consequences; its glories can
+only be commemorated in the unceasing homage of the unborn millions
+who will participate of its blessings. ‘There is no country,’ says a
+writer, ‘like the valley of the Mississippi on the face of the globe.
+Follow the mighty amphitheatre of rocks that nature has heaped around
+it. Trace the ten thousand rivers that unite their waters in the mighty
+Mississippi; count the happy millions that already crowd and animate
+their banks, loading their channels with a mighty produce. Then see
+the whole, bound by the hand of nature in claims which God alone can
+sever, to a perpetual union at one little connecting point; and by that
+point fastening itself by every tie of interest, consanguinity, and
+feeling, to the remotest promontory on our Atlantic coast. A few short
+years have done all this; and yet ages are now before us: ages in which
+myriads are destined to multiply throughout its wide spread territory,
+extending the greatness and the happiness of our country from sea to
+sea. What would we have been without the acquisition of Louisiana? what
+were we before it? God and nature fixed the unalterable decree, that
+the nation which held New Orleans should govern the whole of that vast
+region. France, Spain, and Great Britain, had bent their envious eyes
+upon it. And their intrigues, if matured, would eventually have torn
+from us that vast Paradise which reposes upon the western waters.’”
+
+
+CHARACTER OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
+
+I have thus given a brief sketch of a few of the leading incidents
+which tended to bring into existence and develope the resources of this
+important section of our country. What makes it of so much interest,
+at this time, is, that its birth and youth, and transformation,
+as by magic, has been before the eyes of the present generation.
+Nevertheless, they seem to pass it by as being among the most common
+incidents in the life-time of every man. It is like the idle tale of a
+school boy. And here it is proper to call the reader to one important
+consideration, from which will readily be recognized the causes which
+have produced this state of things, so peculiar in New Orleans, and
+which gives a character to this city unlike any other in the world.
+These causes commenced with the beginning of the settlement, and
+increased by the frequent changes which so often occurred, in the
+government and possession of the territory of Louisiana. First came
+the French adventurer in search of the “FOUNTAIN OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.”
+Then came the bigoted, iron rule of the dark frowning Spaniard; and,
+mixed up with these, from all parts of the world, were fugitives from
+justice, disaffected politicians, and desperate adventurers of all
+descriptions. At length appeared also the shrewd and ever calculating
+Yankee, with a force and power to leave the unmistaken impress of his
+_guessing_ nature upon every thing that he laid his hands upon. And
+finally the poor African, stolen from his native home, was brought to
+mingle with the heterogeneous mass, and impress his nature and give a
+shade of character upon the length and breadth, the height and depth
+of every thing that has had existence in New Orleans. This crushed and
+down-trodden being came in with the commencement of the cultivation
+of sugar cane, in 1751. African slaves were sent from the Island of
+St. Domingo, by the Jesuits, to their brethren in New Orleans, to
+superintend the making of sugar. From their first introduction, the
+females have been to all intents and purposes, the wives of both the
+French and Spanish, and are now the same with the Americans who have
+taken up their abode here. And in this there has been no respect to
+color, from the dark sooty black, down to the soft and mellow tinge
+of the beautiful quadroon. Thus, it will be freely acknowledged, the
+African has had no small share in impressing the peculiarities of his
+nature upon the living picture of a life in New Orleans. From this
+heterogeneous mass, which in the beginning was thrown suddenly and
+promiscuously together, has originated a state of society differing
+widely from any other part of the civilized world. And now, as at the
+beginning, the Spaniard is there, with his low dark brow, concealing
+deep under its arch the small keen black eye, with snake-like language,
+which tells of treachery, deceit, and midnight assassination. Here too
+figures the brilliant, the proud and restless Frenchman, with all the
+life and animation peculiar to his nature, with his heart constantly
+running off at his tongue’s end. And now, at every turn, you meet the
+cool, calculating, determined emigrant from the Northern States, who
+moves on, with an eye single to the “almighty dollar.” To these may be
+added, within a few years past, the warm-hearted son of the Emerald
+Isle, together with the cold and ever measured tread of the plodding
+Dutchman. And to complete the picture, in this mixed mass of living
+beings the neat and tidy Quadroon is seen, civil, courteous, unassuming
+in all his manners, yet with a down cast look, indicative of a deep
+realizing sense of the damning curse that rests upon him in consequence
+of the yellow tinge of his brow.
+
+
+THE FLAT-BOATMEN.
+
+And now to be considered alone, and distinct, that nondescript of all
+human demonstrations, are the “_Flat Boatmen_,” of the Mississippi
+River. Of this class there are annually visiting the city of New
+Orleans not less than ten thousand, and yet when there, that is their
+home. They are, indeed, an amphibious race of beings, living on land
+or water, and always enjoying the comforts of a hotel wherever night
+overtakes them. They belong, however, to the Mississippi, and are,
+to the length and breadth of that mighty river, what the wild Arab
+is to the deserts of Arabia. Daring and fearless, they never regard
+danger, as more than the common incidents of every day life. In their
+composition, they present the striking features and peculiarities of
+the disciplined sailor, the fearless whaleman, and the bold and strong
+backwoodsman, added to all the free and social qualities of the well
+educated New Englander. And while combining, and being made up of
+such traits of character, they present a class distinct, original,
+eccentric, and unique; yet, with all the better attributes of the human
+soul cultivated to a high degree, presenting a noble and generous
+nature, and as warm a heart as ever beat in the human breast. This
+class of “half horse and half alligator,” as they claim to be, have
+borne such a conspicuous part in the great Valley of the Mississippi,
+that a better view of their character cannot be given than the
+following narrative, taken from the lips of the celebrated James Girty,
+a short time before his death.
+
+  “In the year 1814, I was captain of the barge Black Snake, belonging
+  to the Poyntz’s at Maysville. I started with the barge, about
+  two-thirds loaded, for New Orleans, in the latter part of November.
+  When I reached the mouth of Cumberland, I found a considerable
+  quantity of arms belonging to the United States, which had been
+  despatched from Pittsburgh for the troops engaged under General
+  Jackson, in the defence of New Orleans. They had been taken down thus
+  far, depending on an engagement made with Ben Smith of Cincinnati,
+  under which he had contracted to deliver them within a given time
+  at New Orleans. The government agent had been waiting some days
+  for Smith, who had not yet made his appearance; and finding an
+  opportunity offering, and fearing they would be needed, immediately
+  decided to send them by me. I made all possible despatch, and happily
+  succeeded in reaching New Orleans with my precious freight on the 3d
+  of January, 1815. Eager to have a hand in the approaching battle,
+  I reported myself immediately to Gen. Jackson, who gave me the
+  appointment of Captain, with authority to impress into service the
+  whole body of barge and keel-boat men in port. I entered on the work
+  without delay, and with great activity and success. You know as much
+  as I can tell you of the glorious 8th. After every thing in the shape
+  of a red coat had disappeared, I discharged the remaining part of the
+  cargo and crew, for which last I had no further use until I could get
+  a freight up the river, which I did not get until the latter part
+  of May, when I hired a crew and started for Pittsburgh. I reached
+  Natchez in June. It was the custom of those days to give the hands
+  a holiday at Natchez, one at the mouth of the Ohio, and one also at
+  Louisville or Shippingsport.--It was four o’clock in the afternoon
+  that we threw up our poles and fastened our bowlines at Natchez. The
+  men were eager for a dance, and some would not wait even for their
+  supper, scampering off to the dance houses under the hill. I got my
+  supper and went up also. I looked on until 11 or 12 at night, when
+  finding all my entreaties to get them back to the boat unavailing, I
+  left them, some engaged in dancing, others betting with the gamblers
+  on the _Roulettes_, and went on board the Black Snake. As the day
+  dawned, all hands were also at their posts, but in a wretched plight,
+  many of them having their heads badly cut and bruised.
+
+  “It seems the gamblers had won all their money, and a fight ensued,
+  in which those gentry came off victorious. After breakfast, I judged
+  by the threats of the hands, and other circumstances, that it would
+  be advisable to get the Black Snake under way; but on giving orders
+  to that effect, not a man would raise a pole, until he had had his
+  accustomed frolic out, and I was compelled to give way, determining
+  in my own mind, to leave at 4 o’clock, when the day of privilege
+  would be out. When that hour came, it was of no use to propose
+  starting, none of the men would budge, until they had obtained
+  revenge; and they had privately agreed that they would not assist
+  me up any farther, if I would not go with them and help whip the
+  gamblers.
+
+  “I saw there was no alternative, and after supper, I repaired with my
+  whole crew to the dance house, armed with knives, chopping axes and
+  setting poles. The gamblers had expected us and were prepared with
+  pistols, knives, and rifles, for the fight. The _scrimmage_ commenced
+  without exchanging a word. At first they gave us hard usage, but
+  their ammunition was soon spent, and they gave way, bearing three of
+  their number off who were killed in the scuffle. One of our men was
+  mortally wounded, who made out to walk to the boat, where he died
+  in half an hour. We cut cable and crossed the Mississippi, worked
+  the Black Snake three miles up the river, and came to for the night.
+  About day-light next morning, while burying the dead man, the Sheriff
+  of Adams county and a posse of almost an hundred men, came up and
+  made us all prisoners.
+
+  “They left a man of the party in charge of the barge, and took us all
+  down to the ferry-boat and across to Natchez, where we were brought
+  before a judge and tried. No evidence being found against any but
+  myself and Bill Lloyd, one of my hands, the rest of the crew were set
+  free, while Bill and I were sent to Washington jail; my barge was
+  sent on, and I was detained to stay in jail until Court, which was
+  to sit the first Monday in October. After I had been in jail about
+  two weeks, one of the Associate Judges of the Court by which I was
+  to be tried, came out to Washington to see me. I found in him an old
+  Pennsylvania acquaintance, on whom I had some claims. He gave me poor
+  encouragement, telling me he feared the Court would not let me out on
+  bail. I told him I had $2,700, which I could leave with my security.
+  Still he discouraged me. He said the evidence was point-blank against
+  me and Lloyd, but promised he would call again, ordering the jailor
+  to see that I did not want for anything that lay in his power to
+  give, and bade me good-bye. In about a week, he came again, and told
+  me he had succeeded in making it a bailable case of $3,000, and had
+  also obtained a man to go my security. The door was opened. I gave
+  the Judge $2,700 and the necessary security.--The Judge advised me to
+  leave immediately, and never show myself in Natchez, saying he would
+  willingly pay the $3,000, if I would keep away. I told him I would
+  be in Washington at the sitting of the Court, if I lived--on this I
+  was determined. That afternoon I wrote a letter to a friend of mine
+  in Natchez, who was a woman that kept a dance-house--now living and
+  wealthy, and of course, respectable--requesting her to get clear of
+  the evidence against me. I received an answer to this next morning,
+  assuring me I need fear nothing; that I might make my appearance
+  at the proper time with perfect safety, for there would be no one
+  present to witness against me. I left Natchez the same day, on foot
+  for Pittsburgh, which I reached in the latter part of July. I lost
+  no time collecting money, and gathered up $1,500, and started in a
+  large covered skiff on my return to Natchez. This was the last of
+  August. My skiff had two pairs of oars, and I took three yankees on
+  board to work their passage as far as Cincinnati, and the oars were
+  plied night and day till we got there. At Cincinnati I hired a man to
+  help me the rest of the way down; by the time we reached Louisville,
+  he got tired and ran off. I went over Falls by myself, and landed at
+  Shippingsport in search of another hand, and the first man that met
+  my eye was Bill Lloyd. You may guess my astonishment. My first words
+  were, “Why, Bill, how did you get out of jail?” “Oh,” said he, “it
+  got so d--d sickly among the thieving scoundrels in there, that the
+  jailer was glad to open my door to get me to take charge of the sick.
+  I opened the door for the rest, and all went out that could walk out,
+  and then I walked off to the mouth of Tennessee, and there I got a
+  chance to push up on that keel-boat there,” said he, pointing to it.
+  “Well, Bill, you need not fear anything while you are with me,” I
+  remarked; “I am going back to stand my trial, and I want to hire a
+  hand to help me down. The river is low, and if I don’t get some good
+  hand to help me row, I fear I shan’t get there in time.” In short,
+  I agreed to give Bill a dollar a day, and to let him off at Walnut
+  Hills: so he came on with his horn and blanket, and we were off in
+  a jiffy. Bill was a worthless fellow, and I knew it, but he was a
+  stout and good oarsman. He had not been long with me, till he found
+  out that my chest was heavy, and I watched him close. When we were
+  near the mouth of the Ohio, he became dissatisfied, and objected
+  to going any further towards Natchez, proposed to go trapping up
+  the Mississippi, insisting there could be a great deal made on the
+  Missouri, with other suggestions of the sort. I paid little attention
+  to his statements or arguments, keeping down the Mississippi, and
+  told him, if he wanted to stop, to do so; as for me, I should go on
+  to Natchez. He said no more until we were in the bend above Beef
+  Island, when he broke out afresh, accusing me of suspicioning him of
+  a wish to rob me. I told him I was not afraid of him in any shape. A
+  fight ensued, which I knew must end in the death of one or the other,
+  with the skiff and my money for the victor’s spoils. After much
+  struggling, I put him overboard. I set the blade of an oar against
+  him, shoving him off from the skiff, then thrusting the oar to him,
+  told him to save his life. He made no other reply, than to clench the
+  oar and threw it back to me, telling me to “go to hell,” and swimming
+  about fifty yards, safely reached the head of Beef Island. I landed
+  at Natchez at one o’clock, and on the morning of the first Monday in
+  October, I left the skiff, and with my chest on my shoulder, walked
+  up to the dance-house. My friend was still up, as were several more.
+  I deposited my chest with her, and looking around the room, I espied
+  the most important witness against me. I turned to her, reminding her
+  of the promise she had made me. She told me she had been trying to
+  get rid of him all summer; that he was the only evidence against me
+  left in the country, and that she would yet get him out of the way.
+  I observed the time was short, and calling him forward, told him I
+  would give him five hundred dollars to leave the place that morning,
+  and not appear against me. He swore there was no use to talk to him,
+  for he had braved the worst of the yellow fever for the purpose of
+  remaining there and appearing against me, and I might depend upon
+  it, he would be on the spot when called to testify. My friend said,
+  never fear, all would be right; and as I was about bidding her and
+  witness good-bye, proposed that we should take a gin-sling together.
+  She mixed one for witness, one for me, and one for herself. Having
+  all drank, I started for Washington, and reached there by 9 o’clock.
+  Being quite tired, I lay down on the door-step and directly fell fast
+  asleep and did not awake until the sheriff, calling the Court, awoke
+  me. Every body seemed astonished at my presence. My case was the
+  first one called. I answered to my name, and when the judge enquired
+  of me if I was ready for trial, my counsel did not happen to be
+  present, and I answered that I was as ready then as I ever should be;
+  that I had no evidence when I was sent to jail, and had none now. The
+  attorney for the State directed the Sheriff to call his witnesses,
+  to see if he was ready for trial, who called 11 names in succession,
+  not one of whom was present, but some one answered, name by name, as
+  they were called, what had become of them. Some had left the country,
+  and some had died of the yellow fever, until the name of the one I
+  had left in Natchez was called, and the answer was that he had died
+  that morning at half past eight. There being no evidence against
+  me, I was, of course, discharged, and returned the same evening to
+  Natchez. I asked my friend what had caused the fellow’s death who was
+  to have been the witness. She said she supposed it was in the course
+  of nature, nor could I, then or afterwards, get any satisfaction from
+  her on this point. Next day, I called on my security, settled my
+  business with him, then went to my friend’s house, opened my chest,
+  and counted out $500 for her. She perceived what I was doing, and
+  told me, if I wanted to make her my enemy for life, I could have a
+  chance, and if I dared to offer her money, she would blow my brains
+  out. I made several excuses to induce her to take the money, saying
+  that I owed it to her honestly for her kind treatment of me, and that
+  I did not mean anything dishonorable by it. She remained resolute,
+  and said if I wanted to continue friends with her, I must not offer
+  her money. I then bade her good-bye, and before dark, my chest and
+  skiff and myself were all on the way to New Orleans.”
+
+For one to look upon the visage of such a man as Girty, there would at
+once arise a suspicion of damning deeds, as dark and dread as his own
+sun-burnt brow; yet in him was always found an integrity of purpose,
+from which many in the higher walks of life, could learn a lesson, and
+profit by it. In his time, thousands of dollars’ worth of property
+and money were confided to his care, and accounted for to the last
+farthing. Nor was he ever known to break an engagement, or betray a
+trust.
+
+And now the reader has before him all that New Orleans is to-day, and
+from this mass of elements is constituted its society; and certainly,
+short-sighted indeed must be any one who cannot in some decree
+anticipate the leading features which would be presented from such a
+mingling of the impulses of human passion, and form some opinion of the
+perfect Babel of human tongues, as well as human _actions_, that is
+found there.
+
+
+CITY GOVERNMENT AND POLICE.
+
+There is not a city in the United States so well regulated, and so
+thorough in enforcing laws and regulations, as are the authorities of
+the city of New Orleans. And in no place is a person, in purse and
+property, more safe, at all times of day and night, and in every part
+of the city. And yet, in this respect, it is far different from what is
+understood by the people of the Northern States. The impression exists
+with almost every one, that to walk the streets at night, or to be
+caught in the suburbs of the city, the bowie knife, the dirk, and the
+pistol, will be the first thing to flash in his face; and to escape the
+gang of assassins is impossible. But far from this are the facts. Even
+females can walk the streets after dark without an attendant, and be
+perfectly secure from insult or molestation.
+
+The city is divided into three municipalities, each being under a
+distinct and separate government. Hence, no doubt, a strife arises, in
+enacting and enforcing wholesome and salutary laws, at least so far as
+security for person and property are concerned. Certainly there are
+fewer murders, robberies, and burglaries, according to the population,
+than in any other place in the civilized world of its size. Another
+very important and very salutary regulation is, the disposition they
+make of vagrants. A man appearing ragged, dissipated, and degraded, and
+laying about the streets, without any visible means of support, either
+by labor or money, is arrested and taken before the Recorder, and
+unless he can make some show for himself, he is sentenced to the work
+house for sixty or ninety days, and in all this transaction you find
+no low unprincipled pettifogger, as is the case in New York, volunteer
+to defend him. Such an interference by a lawyer, in New Orleans, would
+forever disgrace him. After the vagrant has served his time of sentence
+out, you will see him make his way out of the city, cursing the very
+stones on which he treads, not even venturing to look behind him,
+fearing that he may be again arrested before he can escape. The effect
+of this stringent regulation is to keep the city entirely clear of
+this class of day and night peculators. It is also a note of warning
+to that horde of plunderers and robbers who operate on a larger scale;
+for they are sure there will be no favor shown them by a pettifogging
+construction of the laws, nor _flaws_ found in the indictment, by which
+he can escape against the evidence of his guilt. And in more than this,
+you will find New Orleans differing from other cities. You cannot
+find here a coat of mail thrown around the culprit by the influence of
+money, through which the law cannot penetrate. Neither can you find in
+the halls of justice, a back-door avenue by which you can reach the
+jury box, or the prosecuting attorney, or the Court. Hence the vicious
+are cautious how they lay their hands on their neighbor’s property, and
+woe to him who invades his neighbor’s rights, so as to fall within the
+meshes of the law. These regulations and features in the government
+of the city are the only wholesome rules of which it can boast, and
+present the only redeeming trait in the whole frame-work of its laws,
+its manners or customs, except the system of common schools.
+
+
+COMMON SCHOOLS.
+
+The system of common schools is deserving of more than a passing
+remark; yet what is due, in commendation of such a gem in the midst of
+such a mass of corruption, cannot be allowed within the compass of the
+design of these pages. Suffice, however, to say, that it is one of the
+most perfect models for common school education ever instituted, and it
+is to be hoped that other, and older States, may profit by the example.
+The citizens of Louisiana feel a pride in this great work, and well
+may they. In particular the citizens of New Orleans should be proud of
+this monument of their wisdom and benificence. Some of the municipal
+arrangements of this system, are as follows. Large and commodious
+buildings are erected, to which all the children of a certain district
+are sent. Each school is divided into four classes, according to the
+ability and knowledge of the child. When they have passed the several
+departments, and been subjected to the rigid and thorough examinations
+which are necessary in passing from one to the other, and have gone
+through and received a diploma, they are qualified to enter the junior
+class of any college in the United States. And here the road is open
+to all, the poor as well as the rich, the system forbidding any
+distinction, and to all classes free of expense for every thing which
+the pupils require for instruction, in books, maps, charts, and other
+materials, all of which are furnished by the State.
+
+
+THE LOCATION OF THE CITY.
+
+To give the reader a correct idea of the city of New Orleans, and the
+great curse to which it will ever be exposed, it is important to know
+its peculiar location. The range of country along the banks of the
+Mississippi, is called the _coast_, commencing about forty miles below
+and about sixty miles from what is called the “_Balize_.” This is a
+term signifying a sea mark, or pole elevated as a guide for seamen, and
+this was done by those who first made the discovery of the mouth of the
+Mississippi. No other term is now used, but “_Balize_,” when going out
+of the river. The _coast_ is a narrow strip of low, flat land, from one
+to two miles wide, and in rear of which, running nearly parallel with
+the river, is deep, dismal swamp land, filled with legions of the most
+deadly, poisonous snakes, and herds of alligators. This belt of land is
+perfectly level, until it meets a ridge at “Baton Rouge,” on the east
+side of the river, about one hundred and twenty-five miles above the
+city. The soil is a deep black sandy alluvial, of great fertility, and
+seems not to deteriorate by cultivation. This whole coast along the
+river is now occupied by the sugar planter, and for nearly eight months
+in the year the eye of the traveler sees nothing before him but the
+waving sugar cane, presenting one unbroken livid landscape of the most
+beautiful green ever beheld upon the lap of nature.
+
+The city is located on the west bank of the river, and the wide and
+graceful sweep which the river takes at this point, in crescent shape,
+crowds it far back into the belt of land, leaving but a narrow space
+between the river and the swamp. This swamp is several miles wide,
+skirting the rear of the city the whole length, and into this mud hole,
+the water and filth (what little passes off) are taken. This boiling
+fountain of death is one of the most dismal, low and horrid places,
+on which the light of the sun ever shone. And yet there it lies under
+the influence of a tropical heat, belching up its poison and malaria,
+from whence it is constantly being swept through the city, feeding the
+living mass of human beings who stand there, ready, as it were, to
+take down the dregs of the seven vials of wrath, that is incessantly
+being poured out upon them. Another evil is, the city, by the bend
+of the river, is thrown so near the swamp that the range of land on
+which it stands, is exceedingly low. Consequently, during a rain or
+in a wet season, it is almost entirely under water, and always after
+a heavy shower, or several days of damp wet weather. The state of the
+atmosphere and heat are such that in a few hours the water in the
+gutters and in the yards and vacant lots, becomes covered with a yellow
+greenish scum, in which there appears to be a fermentation, which you
+can distinctly hear, as you pass along the side-walk.
+
+
+SOURCES OF DISEASE.
+
+In connection of the swamp, is being thrown off, unceasingly, from
+the whole surface, in and around the city, one dense sheet of thick
+malaria. And to thicken this up, and add to its qualities, the whole
+city, from one extreme to the other, is filled with the most filthy
+masses of stench and corruption, that were ever suffered to remain
+above ground in a community claiming to be decent or civilized. In
+proof of this, go to that part of the city where you would certainly
+expect neatness and order, and look for some place to locate, to escape
+the steam and odor from piles of filth, and you will find on one side
+or the other of almost every dwelling, a horse stable, a mule yard,
+a negro pen, or piles of offals, from some lane or alley, which have
+been there from time immemorial. Again, you may look for a desirable
+dwelling, but none can you find, unless on one side or the other is a
+miserable shanty or hovel, filled with the most degraded human beings,
+either black or white. In further proof of what New Orleans is, in this
+respect, the following incident will give some idea of what is found
+there. In the summer of 1847, during the rage of the yellow fever,
+when hundreds were dying daily, the citizens and authorities, from
+some cause which I believe has never yet been made public, and perhaps
+only known to but _few_, got an impression, that filth and corruption
+_might possibly_ beget disease. Consequently they appointed a committee
+of examination to search the city, to ascertain if any thing could be
+found that would have such a tendency. In this arrangement, a very
+worthy and efficient gentleman, Mr. N., was assigned to Gravior, one of
+the principal streets in the second municipality. While on his mission
+he went into the _chamber_ of a house, but a few rods in rear of the
+St. Charles Hotel, occupied by an Irish family, and while conversing
+with the _lady_ of the house, his attention was attracted to another
+room by a noise like the grunting of swine, yet for the moment, he
+concluded it could not possibly be _up chamber_. The report, however,
+soon came again, and was so convincing that he arose and opened the
+door, and to his astonishment met an old sow nursing five pigs, which
+she had reared in that room, until they were almost large enough
+to become _gentlemen_ hogs. And this is _life_ in New Orleans. In
+connection with all this, every mouthful of food a person gets on the
+table is a mass of poison, disease and death. I refer now to meats,
+of every description. The animals of all kinds, to supply the city,
+are brought down from the upper States, bordering on the Ohio and
+Mississippi, in Steam Boats, and are, generally, from ten to fifteen
+days on the passage. They are forced into a change in food, water and
+other circumstances, during the passage. They eat but very little, and
+when they arrive in the city, are in a state of starvation; and in this
+condition are killed, and taken into the markets. Now this meat is as
+improper for the table as if the animal had died of ship fever; for
+the whole body is in a state of feverish inflammation, produced by the
+change of diet and the starving condition in which the animal is when
+killed. Consequently, the meat must produce a deleterious influence
+upon the health of those who eat it.
+
+To present clearly, the condition that meats are in, when taken into
+the markets, the following facts are given. The Steamer Dove, in her
+trip to New Orleans, in Oct. 1848, was completely covered on her deck
+with coops full of chickens, as thick as could be crowded in, amounting
+to several thousand. The passage was long and tedious. For two days
+after being taken on board, the poultry began to sicken and die. The
+number dying daily increased, and for two or three days, before we
+arrived in the city, a large number died. On arriving, those living
+were immediately sold, and the next day, many of them were on the
+tables of the Hotels and boarding houses. Now if these chickens were
+wholesome, and proper food to be eaten, and would promote “health _and
+long_ LIFE,” then may we look for health in consuming the pent up damps
+and vapors of the dungeon or an emigrant ship. It is also in almost a
+putrid condition that butter and preserved meats are received, and they
+both have generally a rancid and forbidding taste and smell. Vegetables
+may be classed with other things, for they are usually produced by a
+forced growth; consequently, cannot become healthy and vigorous plants.
+
+
+WATER IN NEW ORLEANS.
+
+And now comes the water, and while I am writing, before me stands a
+tumbler of as pure water as was ever thrown from the bosom of the
+earth; hence those who have been in New Orleans, can fully realize
+that I can well appreciate the contrast. To dig a well and procure
+water in New Orleans, is a very easy matter; for you would have it,
+for more than two thirds of the time, even with the surface of the
+ground, and never, in the dryest time, more than a foot below. To drink
+freely of this water, no person would probably live but a short time.
+To furnish a supply of water for dwellings, every house has a cistern,
+from ten to fifteen feet high, standing above ground, for rain water.
+This water is used for drinking, cooking, and washing. Standing as
+this cistern does, exposed to the heat of the sun, the water becomes
+exceedingly warm, and always has a brackish, insipid taste. Another
+supply of water, to those who prefer it, is from the river. It is
+taken through the main part of the city in pipes, and this is the
+most disgusting and loathsome beverage, that a person ever put to his
+lips. To have some proper conception of this water, for drink, call
+to mind the filth from cities, towns, and villages, for an extent of
+two thousand miles, together with the dregs that are constantly being
+poured off from ten thousand boats of every class, from the floating
+palace of the magnificent “Autocrat,” down to the shabby coal carriers
+of the Monongahela, which are constantly floating upon its surface.
+And then look at the dirty gurgling mass, as it rolls along, and
+constantly boiling up from the bottom: dip up a tumbler full, each
+of which is thick with what you may call “_mud_,” if you please, and
+each glass-full will have at least, when left to settle, a tea spoon
+full of this “delicious” _mud_; and I am sure, it being so well mixed,
+that no other “_mud_” can be found as _rich_ as this. Yet those who
+live here, along the range of the Mississippi, drink it, and say they
+“_like it_.” But one thing is as certain as any cause and effect, that
+a more frightful source of disease does not exist in the Mississippi
+Valley, than the use of the river water for drink. As evidence of this,
+is the change it produces with almost every person when he commences
+taking it. The effect is a very powerful alterative influence upon
+the system, terminating as thorough as the most drastic cathartic.
+This derangement, in a majority of cases, follows with great obstinacy
+for weeks, and often months, baffling all remedies. The effect is
+a great irritation of the mucous coat of the stomach and alimentary
+canal, resulting in extreme prostration of the physical powers, and a
+general derangement of the whole system; thus rendering it an easy prey
+to the various diseases peculiar to a hot southern climate. Now, all
+these causes, and all the circumstances by which the inhabitants of
+New Orleans are surrounded, together with the excessive dissipation,
+in every manner prompted by human passion, make that city, as it truly
+is, “one great charnel house.”--Although there are periods when New
+Orleans is called “_very healthy_;” yet that time is, when the Yellow
+“_Jack_,” the Cholera, or “_Danza_,” is not sweeping the inhabitants
+off by scores every day. At all other times, while the mortality is
+three times as great as any other city of its size, with corresponding
+sickness, yet you will then hear, that it is “exceedingly healthy.” But
+notwithstanding all these reports, New Orleans never can be healthy. As
+well could health be enjoyed while living upon the adder’s breath, or
+breathing the odor from the deadly Upas tree.
+
+
+POPULATION.
+
+The population of New Orleans is about one hundred thousand, and this
+includes that portion who reside there during the fall and winter
+months. The number who may be regarded as residents, according to the
+proper understanding of what constitutes a residence, will probably not
+exceed sixty or seventy thousand. There is doubtless, every winter, a
+transient population of thirty or forty thousand, who spend from six
+to eight months in the city, and as soon as the warm season commences,
+take their departure in swarms, as regular as wild geese do from the
+North on the first appearance of a flake of snow. But on the return
+of cold weather they are not all of them found to return; for, as
+a general thing, a large majority get enough of New Orleans in one
+season. And separate from the Creole population, or that portion who
+are descendants of the first settlers, the French and Spanish, I do
+not think there is one in twenty of the residents of New Orleans, men
+who are now in business, who design to spend their days in the City.
+They are now, however, engaged in a routine of business that fixes them
+there for a time; yet they are firmly resolved, at no distant day, to
+seek another home. But before that time will be determined upon, by
+many who are now moving in the busy scenes of that fated City, they
+will be taken to a house and a resting place that will be more certain
+and unchanging than the bed of that mighty river which will forever
+pour its immense flood into the bosom of the Ocean. To the man of
+middle life, when he begins to turn the “descending scale,” and the
+warm current of his youthful blood begins to cool, and run sluggish
+through the channels of life, and before the bright visions of his
+fancy begin to flit the dark clouds of the uncertain future, to such
+a man will New Orleans present no charms, and the longer he remains
+there, will its varied and blighting realities appear more and more
+desolating. The Creole population know no other home, and consequently
+have nothing before them from which to make a comparison that will
+enable them to appreciate a higher and better state of existence. Hence
+they will always be found there. But to the adventurer, he who has come
+in from the Northern States, and whose early life is filled up with the
+impressions of the pure and wholesome associations of a well educated,
+refined and moral people, this City presents nothing that can call up
+the pleasing and delightful scenes of his early days, but the contrast
+is calculated to beget an insatiable hankering for his early home.
+
+
+THE CREOLES.
+
+The Creole population of New Orleans are a peculiar and singular
+people. And here it is proper to explain who are recognized as
+_Creoles_, for I find, that almost without exception, every person
+of the North understands the term, _Creole_, to mean that portion of
+the inhabitants who are, more or less, shaded with African blood;
+and in short, the impression is, that when you speak of them you are
+speaking of those called _Quadroons_. Yet they believe that in this
+class are included those of a much darker shade than the yellow persons
+or mulattoes who come strictly within the class of quarter-blooded
+Africans or _Quadroons_. The term Creole simply means _native born_.
+The Creoles are principally descendants of the French and Spanish
+settlers. They are exceedingly genteel, civil and courteous, and in
+all the embellishments that adorn the gentleman and lady, they excel,
+and in all their articles of dress they exhibit a degree of taste
+and perfection in arrangement, that makes them easily recognized in
+the common walks of life as well as in the promiscuous assembly. And
+yet they are strongly attached to the footsteps and ways of their
+fathers, and are exceedingly cautious in preserving their identity,
+and consequently do not desire to become familiar with the manners
+and custom of those “Goths and Vandals,” who have come down upon them
+from the North. This portion of the population of New Orleans reside
+principally in the first municipality, which is now the center of the
+City. The second municipality, or American part, as it is termed, is
+above, and the third is below. In the third, the inhabitants are a
+mixed mass, of all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues. The Creoles
+being thus hemmed in, are gradually yielding and giving way to the
+superior energy and force of character and adaptation to business of
+those who surround them, and have given tone and vigor to every thing
+of a business nature in New Orleans. Hence, the Creole reads in the
+future his destiny, and is compelled to reflect that what he now looks
+upon as Vandalism, will ere long crush every thing of his name and
+character in the dust. This foreshadowing of his doom makes him jealous
+of his more busy neighbors, and oftentimes, in view of the change that
+is going on like magic before him, he becomes exceedingly captious, and
+thus forbids himself to become social with his Yankee neighbors. But
+the immutable laws of population which will ever make the weak give
+room for the strong, force of character, influence and power of change
+in associations, the ingenuity and adaptation to business of those who
+surround them, and who already begin to mark them as their prey, will
+take every thing from their hands, and leave them in the shades of
+oblivion, only to be found by the cold and speechless marble that marks
+their final resting place.
+
+
+SPLENDID BUILDINGS.
+
+Of costly and splendid buildings in New Orleans, there are but very few
+worthy of note. The St. Charles Hotel, however, presents the proudest
+monument of that city, and of buildings of that character it stands
+unrivalled, and without a comparison in the world. This magnificent
+establishment, in size and beauty, in its external appearance, and
+architectural designs, impresses upon the beholder that sublimity and
+grandeur, which perfection in the science of architecture is ever
+calculated to produce. The most casual observer, when unconsciously
+brought to view this _speaking_ monument, feels an awe stealing
+over him, which at once charms him into the stillness of a statue;
+and he stands a silent gazer upon that tongueless yet speaking mass
+before him. There are other buildings in our country that are costly
+and magnificent in structure; yet in comparison to the St. Charles
+Hotel they fail in that speaking eloquence which it is the power of
+perfection in the science of architecture to display.
+
+This immense structure was commenced in the spring of 1835 by an
+incorporated company, and was completed in three years.--The entire
+cost of the building was between five and six hundred thousand dollars.
+The front, on St. Charles Street, as viewed in passing down, presents
+a projecting portico of six Corinthian columns, standing on a granite
+basement, and four similar columns, on each side of the portico,
+ranging with the front wall of the centre part of the building. Behind
+these four columns is an open space, one hundred and forty feet long,
+covered with large granite slabs, thus affording a wide and extensive
+range for promenading. The entrance to the bar-room is on the front
+of the portico, in the basement, on each side of which is a range of
+stores in front. It occupies the centre of the main building, and
+is octangular, or eight square, and is seventy feet in diameter and
+twenty feet high. To support the floor above, is a range of heavy Ionic
+columns, in a circle round the room. In rear of this is a bathing
+establishment, consisting of fourteen rooms, perfectly arranged, and
+adapted to warm or cold baths. In the basement also are the wine and
+liquor cellars, store house, and other domestic apartments, necessary
+for such an immense establishment. The saloon, or reception room, for
+gentlemen, in which also is the office, is directly over the bar-room,
+and of equal size. In the centre of this room commences a winding
+stair-case, that leads through the upper stories to the dome. As it
+ascends up, in each story, around the stair way, is a space or gallery,
+that leads into a suite of bed rooms. The gentlemen’s dining room is
+one hundred and twenty feet long, fifty wide, and twenty-two feet
+high, beautifully finished in the Corinthian order of architecture.
+The floor above is supported by two rows of columns, arranged so as
+to give space for four tables, through the whole length of the rooms.
+The ladies’ dining room is in another part of the building, entirely
+separate, and is fifty two feet long and thirty six wide. The angle in
+front, and to the right of the portico, is the ladies drawing room, and
+is forty feet long and thirty two wide. The gentlemen’s sitting room
+is also in front, on the opposite side of the building, to the left of
+the portico. It is thirty eight feet square. There are, in the whole
+establishment, three hundred and fifty-two rooms, besides nine private
+parlors, with bedrooms adjoining. These rooms, throughout the whole
+building, are furnished with a taste and elegance, unsurpassed by any
+other Hotel in this or any other country. To complete and perfect this
+magnificent structure, a dome, in diameter and heighth, surmounts the
+centre of the building, that appears so perfectly in harmony with all
+the other parts, that to add to or diminish it would seem to destroy
+every line of beauty, which is now so richly displayed.--And yet to
+finish and fill up the conceptions of the imagination, on the top of
+this dome, away in the dizzy height, is a beautiful Corinthian turret,
+that keeps up, in its proportion, the image of perfection, that looks
+out from every part of this unrivalled specimen of architecture. The
+dome is fifty-six feet in diameter, and around this, at a distance of
+eleven feet, is a range of columns that support the projecting cap of
+the dome, thus making a beautiful gallery for promenade, from whence
+the eye can range at a glance over the whole city, and trace in the far
+distance the windings of the rushing tide of _many waters_ that lays
+before it.
+
+The influence that this vast and magnificent structure has upon every
+one, is such that it places every other building in New Orleans so far
+in the back ground, that they will not receive even a passing notice.
+The St. Louis Hotel, however, is a building of much elegance and taste,
+yet presenting nothing remarkable to attract the attention of the
+passer by, except its immense size and the space it occupies. It fills
+the entire block, between Royal and Chartre Street, fronting on St.
+Louis, three hundred and ten feet, and on Royal and Chartre, in width,
+one hundred and twenty.--The original design of this immense building,
+was for a City Exchange, a Bank and Stores, a Hotel, and a large
+dancing room, in imitation of the Saloons of Paris. For a Hotel, the
+arrangements for such are, perhaps, the most complete and perfect of
+any other in the world; yet it has failed in every particular in being
+sustained, and this is in consequence of its location, being in the
+first municipality, or the French part of the city. Hence it can never
+become the resort of business men, or him who comes in for pasttime or
+pleasure. The determination of every thing in New Orleans is in another
+direction, and nothing hereafter will succeed unless it comes within
+the range of the American part of the City,--the second municipality.
+It is of no use to try in any other part, for “Capt. Scott” is there,
+and they may as well “give in” and “come down,” first as last, for they
+will surely be killed, if they don’t. There are no other buildings of
+note, or any that will rank with the common average in cities generally.
+
+
+THE OLD SPANISH CATHEDRAL.
+
+Perhaps, however, as an exception to this, may be considered the “Old
+Spanish Cathedral,” or Church of St. Louis. It stands in the centre of
+the “Crescent” and also of the City, overlooking the “Place d’Armes” or
+Parade Square. This unique and singular structure forcibly impresses
+the stranger by its ancient and venerable appearance, and is calculated
+to excite in the beholder, suspicion, that within its cold and gloomy
+walls have been perpetrated, dark and damning deeds, on which will dawn
+no light, until that time shall come when the crimes which have been
+committed within pent up walls, and in the dark haunts of vice, and
+under the fall of midnight, shall be spread out upon the long scroll
+that eternity has been rolling up. But the suspicion, that wrong or an
+impious act has been done within these consecrated doors, or within
+view of those sacred altars, would be sacrilege indeed, although it
+has stood here for more than half a century, and is now bearing upon
+its floor the footprints of three generations who have daily assembled
+here, and bowed in humble reverence and adoration before the image
+of their Savior. Yet could it reveal and unfold the records of the
+“confessional,” what tales of bleeding penitence--what strange and
+incomprehensible impulses of the human heart, would here be developed.
+But all these things are locked in the silent chambers of death, and
+rest with that venerable old man, Pere Antonio de Sedella, who was
+Curate of the parish for nearly fifty years. His image will live in the
+memory of succeeding generations, for the story of his virtues and the
+overflowings of his warm and generous heart will be told by the happy
+recipients of his favors, and impressed upon the records of every age.
+He was gathered to the home of his fathers in 1837, in the fullness of
+days, at the age of ninety years. His remains were deposited within
+these sacred walls, and lie buried at the foot of the altar where for
+half a century he daily knelt, presenting the case of some wayward and
+wandering child, who had poured into his ear, confessing the deeds
+and errors of the carnal heart, beseeching him, in the spirit of true
+penitence, to ask for mercy at the throne of grace.
+
+
+PUBLIC GROUNDS.
+
+Of public grounds, or places for promenade, there are none in New
+Orleans, and yet in no place in this country could beautiful walks
+and promenade grounds be made so enchanting as in that city. The
+climate and soil are such that every thing necessary to make such
+places desirable, and even charming, would come up, as by magic,
+if a beginning was only made. But as yet there has scarcely been a
+“picayune” devoted for any thing of this purpose. There are, however,
+inclosures of considerable extent, which no doubt were designed for
+this purpose. One of these is the “_Place d’Armes_,” inclosing about
+six acres of ground by a strong and well constructed iron fence.
+Although this place has long been noted, yet it is without ornament
+of any description, and has no attractions at any time, except on
+every _Sabbath_ day, when it is filled with the military of the city,
+who assemble here, under their respective officers, for inspection
+and review. This is also the place of reception for distinguished
+men, on all occasions of public demonstration in their behalf. And
+it was here, within this inclosure, four days after the “battle of
+New Orleans,” that General Jackson assembled the heroes of the 8th of
+January, and bade them farewell. And yet below, and in full view of
+this place, which on that memorable day, to all human conception, was a
+doomed city, to be given up to rapine and robbery, lay the “Plains of
+Chalmetta,” the “Battle ground,” the Waterloo of America, that field of
+glory and of arms, and not a stone, or a memento, meets the eye of the
+passer by, to tell where our brave soldiers, with their hearts on their
+bayonets, fought against such fearful odds, and the deeds of noble
+daring of those fathers and brothers, who there faced the cannon’s
+mouth, to save their homes, their wives and daughters, their mothers
+and sisters, from the grasp of an infuriated and brutal soldiery. But
+here, within the “Place d’Armes,” and in the very place, is fixed a
+stone, about eighteen inches square, where stood that “iron nerved
+old man,” and like an “infant wept,” when he received the warm grasp,
+and bade each soldier adieu, as the long line in single file passed
+before him. The stone is fixed deep in the ground, and is a “silent and
+impressive lecturer” on the records of the past; yet it is here simply
+as a memento of the footprints of the savior of his country. And here
+too, again and again, has the soldier, the statesman, and the civilian,
+met the warm embrace, and received the gratitude of the grey-haired
+old man, the mother, the son and daughter, presenting a monument more
+splendid and magnificent and enduring, than the lofty structure of
+granite or marble.
+
+Of this somewhat interesting place, I cannot present a more graphic
+description, than the following, from a New Orleans paper.
+
+
+THE PLACE D’ARMES.
+
+What a queer neighborhood is that in the immediate vicinity of the
+_Place d’Armes_, in the First Municipality! A stranger can scarce
+realize that he is in an American city, so foreign an air pervades the
+vicinage. There one beholds the time-worn buildings of the old Spanish
+architects of the last century, crumbling and mouldering slowly away.
+In a few short years they will be numbered among the things which were,
+and in their places will soon spring up smart rows of brand new brick
+buildings, rejoicing in all the freshness of newly moulded clay and
+coatings of bright fresh paint, looking as if age could never creep on
+them and sap their foundations, loosen the mortar, rot the heavy beams
+and joists, cause great chinks and cracks to open in the walls and
+the roof, letting the rain and wind in to assist in the work of ruin
+and decay. Even the old _Place d’Armes_ itself has a queer, ancient,
+foreign look. The tall and aged sycamores, with the brown bark peeled
+off in great blotches from their trunks, leaving white-bald places; the
+dead and crackling branches, the dying leaves, changed by the approach
+of winter, but still clinging pertinaciously to the parent stock as if
+loth to fall and perish, seem to moan and mourn as the wind whistles
+through them, at the desolation which has crept into that old square.
+Where are its trim well-kept walks, where its neat benches, on which
+many a lover has uttered his devotion to his mistress and received from
+her lips his judgment? Where those gay promenaders, full of life and
+hope, uttering soft nothings and prattling in foreign tongues of _la
+Belle France_, or of deeds in old Spain! Where those children, rosy
+cheeked and cherry lipped, lightly bounding over the smooth grass and
+indulging in the pure and innocent sports of childhood, known only to
+that happy state of existence? Generations have slipped away while
+those old trees have been growing there--death has gathered them in by
+scores, and the cemeteries still tell the time when they retired to
+their quiet homes from the cares of the world forever. Bright wreaths
+of gay flowers sometimes may be seen upon the final receptacles of
+some of those old frequenters; evergreens growing around their graves,
+wetted by the tears of those in whose breasts the memory of the
+departed dwells ever. Where is the little fountain that once spouted
+so gaily in the centre of the square? where those funny, finny little
+denizens of the basin, in whose sportiveness the children took so
+much delight? Fish or fountain exist no longer; the little dolphins
+who never wagged their little tails, and who kept continually blowing
+little jets of water from their mouths--the plaster naiads, who watched
+over all, with a perpetual smile upon their lips, are gone also. The
+basin is filled up, and the next generation can only learn that there
+was once a fountain there! There is one old relic left yet--the black
+old gun which has bellowed forth from its great round throat a command
+to all blacks to get home as soon as possible, night after night, for
+many a long year. There stands the stout and hale old fellow yet, with
+iron constitution, affected but slightly by the hand of Time, and
+looking like some weather-beaten old veteran of the wars, who has been
+banged about a good deal, stood fire in frequent campaigns, but is
+still as rough and tough as the best youngster in the service.
+
+Then there is the old cathedral, with its old towers and turrets
+frowning--all old places are by special poetical license invested
+with the power of frowning--over all, flanked on each side by the
+Court House and Municipal Hall, built in the olden time, and though
+furbished up, and whitewashed, and painted, still bearing the date
+of their origin upon them as plainly as the black looking ancient
+Cathedral. Those bells, too, in what time they first tolled a knell
+or rang for the quiet rest of some departed soul we cannot now tell.
+For many a year they have been cracked, but still are made to perform
+their office morning, noon and night, in obedience to the will of the
+founder of the Cathedral. No ghosts would infest those belfries or
+their neighborhood. In front stand a string of crazy old hacks and
+cabs, jingling jarvies and barouches, built long and long ago; the
+horses have a dejected air, and exhibit many points of a character
+which would indicate that they subsisted, like chameleons, upon very
+thin air, or dragged on a miserable existence in hopes of better days,
+living upon the force of imagination merely. You will be told, though,
+that these nags, “rum ’uns to look at though they be,” are “reg’lar
+good ’uns to go.” The drivers are mostly negroes who indulge in bad
+French and drink root beer at the stand of the fat old black woman at
+the corner. On one side of the square we have drinking houses, _cafes_
+and _restaurants_--scarce any thing else. The corner is the resort of
+all the inhabitants of the region, a well kept place, where persons
+can indulge in dominoes, strong _cafe_ and all sorts of drinks from
+orange flower water and _eau sucre_ up to Cogniac. Every afternoon
+it is thronged, and a babel like confusion prevails from the mixture
+of languages, French, Spanish, German, Italian and English. In the
+same row of buildings is the well known _Cafe de Quatre Saisons_,
+and Victor’s _restaurant_, one of the crack places of resort in the
+city, where _bon vivants_ and _epicures_ have a decided propensity
+to congregate. On the opposite side is the queerest combination of
+trades. Here is a depot of the fruits of Pomona, with stacks of
+apples, piles of oranges, strings of bananas, baskets of pecans,
+walnuts and shell-barks; little monuments of guava jelly and pyramids
+of cocoa nuts, piled up like cannon balls. Presiding over all is a
+stout, olive colored Spaniard, in a striped guernsey shirt and fur
+cap--he is the deputy of the goddess, handles her luscious offerings
+and pockets the proceeds. Side by side with this is a hardware store,
+with long-legged spiders, and griddles, and sprawling gridirons;
+podgy, apopleptic looking iron pots and wide-mouthed copper kettles;
+casks of spike, coils of wire, shelves of knives and forks; packages
+of locks and bolts and bars and hooks, mute commentators upon the
+dishonesty of mankind. Then comes another fruit depot, another and
+another, all looking exactly alike, arranged the same and all attended
+by individuals of the same pattern. Hardware, perishable fruits and
+spirits are the commodities exclusively dealt in in this row. How the
+second story is occupied no one can say. The balcony railings are
+usually hung with damp and dingy looking clothes, sheets, towels,
+stockings, gowns, pants, and vests. Broken flower pots with starvling
+rose bushes and blighted geraniums, dragging out a miserable existence,
+may occasionally be seen, and pale, attenuated females with uncombed
+hair and drabbled dresses, deluging them with soap suds. An old man
+sometimes smokes his short clay pipe moodily, silent and alone, leaning
+over the balcony and listlessly watching the passers-by; and now and
+then a child will clamber upon the railings and terrify the beholder by
+demonstrations of descending head foremost to the pavement below. The
+inhabitants by day are few, but at night the place swarms--it is alive.
+Fiddles, flutes, tamborines, grinding organs are going it at a great
+rate; busy feet are toeing and heeling it, but whereaway it is hard
+to tell. The sounds issue through the chinks of the window shutters,
+creep out beneath the doors, curl out of the chimney tops with the
+smoke; a strange jumble of queer sounds, half expressed notes, abridged
+cachinations, bits of German glees, replete with consonants melodiously
+uttered, pervades the atmosphere with the indistinctness of a dream,
+till the Cathedral clock sonorously peals forth the hour of 12. Then
+the noise which has been gradually growing less and less distinct,
+suddenly subsides entirely--the lights fade away and the quiet of the
+night is disturbed no more.
+
+
+DWELLING HOUSES.
+
+The dwelling houses in New Orleans, at least seven-tenths of them,
+are the most miserable apologies for the comfort and convenience of a
+family that can be imagined, and there are but very few modern built,
+and well arranged, and completed, with a view to make a house desirable
+for a residence. The reason for this, doubtless, is the excessively
+_high price for building lots_; and the enormous expense of building
+obliges those who build, to erect as cheap buildings as possible. A
+house designed for renting, also, is built as cheap as can be done,
+for such an one will command nearly as much rent as the most splendid
+mansion, if it has equally as much room and as favorable location.
+Hence you will find, in every part of the city, in the best locations,
+the miserable old Spanish house, only one story high, renting from
+eight to twelve hundred dollars a year, and the building is not worth
+twenty dollars. And yet these buildings will remain where they are
+until swept away, either by fire or water. The excessively high price
+of rents for buildings, for any purpose, together with the enormous
+expense of living, will very much retard the rapid improvement, and
+permanent advancement of New Orleans.
+
+
+“GOING SOUTH TO SEEK A FORTUNE.”
+
+The impression prevails very generally, in almost every section of this
+country, that wealth can be accumulated with great ease, and quite
+rapidly here, and this has caused a great excess of business men, and
+much competition. Consequently profits are small, and but very few make
+annually more than enough to meet expenses, and many very soon become
+satisfied with the experiment of “going South” to make a fortune.
+You will not, therefore, find but very few “_old merchants_,” in New
+Orleans. And with this view also, “to seek their fortunes,” will you
+find hundreds of young men, in the fall of the year, wending their way
+South, to look up a way of business for themselves, and yet not one in
+every fifty obtain employment, or meet with any thing to do. I have
+seen many such come into New Orleans, with letters of introduction and
+recommendation of the highest character, and failing to get business,
+and too proud to return home, and being on expense, and without any
+income, would soon spend all their means in hand, and finally, from
+necessity as it were, would drop into the floods and whirlpools of
+dissipation, and be taken as straitway down to ruin and destruction,
+as if they were forced by the irresistible laws of gravitation. I
+have also watched the bright hopes and cheerful countenance of many a
+young man when he first looked in upon the wild and animating scenes
+which are here presented. He feels at once a new impulse stealing
+over him, and the bright visions of his fancy, which have led him on,
+he imagines will be more than realized, for the _substance_ and the
+_life_ before him he believes to be real, and in which he will soon
+participate. But little does he dream that all he witnesses is as
+false and groundless as the baseless fabric of his own wild fancy.
+I have thus followed him, a few short months, moving among the busy
+throng that fill up these streets, and finally night after night have
+left him in the low roofless hovel, feeding at the table with the most
+miserable and degraded herd of Slaves in human form. This is no sketch
+of scenes drawn out in vivid colors of fancy, for it is stern, living
+reality, and language contains no power to embellish them, for they are
+before you, in the history of thousands, who have been buried here,
+and gone down to a premature grave. And here let me say to the young
+man of the north, if you should have a desire, or an idea come up, of
+“_going South_,” check it at once,--crush the thought, ere it brings
+before you treasures of a golden harvest, which you may imagine is in
+store for you there; for let me assure you that the day has long since
+passed when fortunes can be easily gathered at the “_South_,” or in New
+Orleans; and no other place in this widespread country can be found,
+where so few realize the anticipations which urge them on to engage in
+the pursuits and business of the day and when the hour of trial comes,
+and blasted hopes gather thick around, so many sink away into the
+vortex of irretrievable ruin, and if ever known again it is amid the
+scenes of vice and dissipation, herding with vagabonds and gamblers.
+And this is the fate of hundreds of the business men of New Orleans.
+And this too is no fancy sketch, but the reality of every day life. And
+yet these men are worthy of a better fate.
+
+
+THE CHURCHES.
+
+Of the churches in this city, not including those of the Roman order,
+and the influence of professing christians, there cannot be much said
+in their favor; yet there has been something done by them, and some
+influence of a favorable tendency has been quietly and slowly working,
+which in some degree checks the wild rage of human passion, or at least
+has driven it back from the public view, and to a great extent from the
+light of day. And the reason, doubtless, why more has not been done,
+and why a more salutary influence is not produced by religious efforts,
+is that the christian standard is as much below the Bible requirements
+of christian life, as the moral standard is degraded below that point
+which justly forbids almost every man a character for morality.
+Hence, when the christian standard falls far below, as it does here,
+the ordinary estimation of a moral life, it cannot be expected that
+the influence of professing christians of such a grade, can be very
+forcible or of much avail. And I apprehend that nothing will ever be
+done here to crush those monster evils that stalk through these streets
+at midday, and to indulge and participate in which is not unbecoming
+a _gentleman_, a _good citizen_, a _moral man_, and a _christian_,
+unless it is by raising up a proper moral standard, by which men shall
+be tested who are to be the recipients of patronage and public favor.
+This, however, would look like a hard beginning, for some _one_ would
+be called upon “to throw the first stone.” And I fear echo would
+answer, Where is he?
+
+There are a number of Churches in the City, and many of them of
+recent organization. The Episcopalians have five, Presbyterians
+three, Methodists two, Baptists one, Universalists one. The Clergymen
+who officiate in them are generally men of distinguished talent and
+ability, and the morning service, on the Sabbath, is usually well
+attended. In the afternoon the audience is very small, consisting
+only of a small portion even of the members. No Church could be well
+sustained in New Orleans, with a second rate preacher. They must be men
+of popular talent, of forcible and attractive eloquence, and withal
+not very _close_ preachers. Hence the influence of preaching and of
+Christian teaching is superficial indeed. The principal cause, and
+doubtless, the great obstacle in the christian and moral standard of
+New Orleans, is the total disregard and desecration of the Sabbath.
+Not only is this done by professed christians, but by those who have
+been differently educated and early impressed with the benefits and
+wholesome and salutary influence produced by a due observance of this
+day.
+
+
+THE SABBATH.
+
+The Sabbath appears to be regarded by almost every one as a holiday,
+and its return is as much desired for a day of pleasure, as if no other
+day was appropriate for such purposes. Military Parades are never on
+any other day but the Sabbath. Horse racing, when a large purse is
+at stake on the most famous races, are on the Sabbath. Theatres and
+circuses have the most attractive bills and greatest display on Sabbath
+evening. Bull fights also are never on any other day, and in fact,
+exhibitions of every kind are usually on the Sabbath. And yet, in this
+enlightened age and against the good sense and judgment of every other
+section of this country, and in full view of the evils that flow from
+these examples, the authorities grant permits and licenses for these
+things, and men in the highest official stations in the State and city
+favor them by their presence on the Sabbath. And also, against these
+outrages and other evils that are begotten by them, the pulpit is as
+silent as if they were in accordance with the rituals of the church.
+And more than this, will you be astonished to see, not only _good
+men_, but _professing christians_, mingling in the crowded throng
+that keep up these rounds of moral pollution and dissipation. But in
+all these evils the authorities are chargeable with more censure than
+all others, for they have the power to prevent and suppress entirely
+these blighting curses that pervade this city. But compared with other
+causes that seek no hiding place, amidst the whirlwind and rage of
+human passion that lays desolate every refined and noble impulse of the
+human heart, the desecration of the Sabbath is but as the breath of the
+summer breeze, compared to the tornado’s blast.
+
+
+SOCIAL RELATIONS.
+
+The social relations of the great mass of the citizens of New Orleans
+are peculiar, and doubtless unlike any other place within the wide
+range of civilization. And the principles by which the intercourse
+in society is regulated, are strange indeed; especially to those who
+have been educated and taught to believe there is some meaning and
+worth in virtue and chastity, and that licentiousness, fornication,
+and adultery are crimes, if not in the sight of heaven, at least
+should be so considered in a moral point of view, as well as against
+the sacredness of the domestic circle and peace of society. But here
+these evils, together with the outrages of prostitution, appear to be
+regarded as matters that come as much within the routine of the social
+relations, and the open and unrestricted indulgence of the citizens, as
+a general thing, as any of the common civilities of life. Hence, to be
+openly known in the practice of these vices--as a libertine, or living
+in adultery, or as an excessively licentious man, does not degrade
+him, or make him the less favored or less respectable. In fact, there
+appears to be no such condition known here as adultery, fornication, or
+prostitution; and I doubt very much whether they have any such words in
+their Dictionary. To the man who is notoriously of this description it
+appears to give a force of character, and a degree of consequence, that
+commands respect and deference, that makes him the beau ideal of a fine
+fellow and a gentleman. The light in which these things are regarded
+here, and the present practice in respect to them, at an earlier day
+than this, would have surprised any one, but considering the character
+of the early settlers, it would perhaps be remarkable indeed if this
+had not been exhibited; for those who first came into New Orleans were
+mere adventurers, without attachments to home or place, and many of
+them without social relations or even kindred. Consequently they were
+creatures of circumstance, and while mingling in the varied scenes of
+the Mississippi valley, it would be strange indeed if they should not
+have met with females of the same class, and to whom they would become
+attached as companions. To presume otherwise would be to conclude
+against the experience of every age, as well as against the natural
+impulses of the human heart.
+
+
+ILLEGITIMATE FAMILIES.
+
+There are hundreds of men and women now living together, who have
+around them large families, and yet were never married. Connections
+of this kind exist in New Orleans to a much greater extent than
+is generally known. As evidence on this point, a very worthy and
+intelligent lady living in the Third Municipality informed me that a
+Methodist minister accidentally left at her house his book of record
+for marriages, which the law now requires every clergyman to keep. In
+looking it through, she found that he had married within the last two
+years thirty-three of her neighbors, heads of families, and many of
+them having children that were married, who had been living together
+as man and wife, and as such every one regarded them. They had been
+privately married to enable the children to inherit their property,
+as a law in Louisiana has been enacted with a view to meet these very
+cases.
+
+
+CONCUBINAGE.
+
+There is also another condition in the social relations, that but
+very few individuals could reconcile themselves to sustain. It is
+in supporting and having two families. There are a large number of
+business men from the North--captains and officers of Steam Boats, and
+captains of French, English, and American vessels--who spend more than
+half the time in this city, and many of them have families at home; yet
+here they have their mistresses and children, and are as much at home
+with them as with their lawful wives. The condition and connection of
+these persons together are perfectly understood, as is also the fact,
+with most of them, that they have another family. Yet these things are
+not often made a matter of others’ business, and consequently they are
+all “very respectable.” This class of females, to some extent, live as
+confidingly honest, and as strictly preserve the character of a wife,
+as if the man had no other attachments. And any act on her part of
+infidelity would be regarded as a sufficient cause of separation, and
+she would be discarded as readily as if they were lawfully married.
+Such separations often occur from jealousy, or from suspicion of
+attachment to another. And when a separation has actually been made,
+the parties appear more hostile, and manifest a more deadly hatred
+towards each other, than is ever witnessed in separations of those
+lawfully connected. And these quarrels are seldom if ever reconciled,
+but continue to increase with a savage hatred, that not unfrequently
+ends sadly to the one or the other, or to the individual who has
+seduced the woman from her alliance. These men who thus live in these
+connections are generally persons of ample means, and usually appear to
+be proud of the distinction of being able to support two families.
+
+
+KEPT MISTRESSES.
+
+There is another class of individuals here who have not the means to
+support two families. They are usually men engaged in the same business
+with the others, and required to be absent from the city nearly half
+of the time. These men have their mistresses, either white or colored,
+with whom they live as companions. And the regulations of these
+connections are that while the man is in the city, the house which the
+woman occupies is their home, jointly and as distinctly as if they
+were married; and when he is absent, the women seeks other companions,
+for the time being, and in doing this does not hazard the displeasure
+of “her husband,” as she calls him. By this liberty that she has of
+seeking promiscuous company, and the assistance she gets from “_her
+man_,” she is able to support herself in great style, and with as much
+ease and comfort around her as can be desired. They usually occupy a
+room, or suite of rooms, a parlor and bed room, that are furnished
+with as much elegance and splendor as money can purchase. Most of the
+females living in these connections have been flattered and seduced
+away from their homes, by glowing descriptions and representations of
+the pleasures and gaities and unceasing enjoyments which constitute
+a life in New Orleans. Connections of this character are as much a
+matter of contract, and the terms and conditions by which each shall be
+governed are as definite, as any other business transaction can be, and
+thus they live for years, and in many instances an attachment for each
+other is the result, and they finally settle down as man and wife, and
+often sooner or later are married, and become comparatively respectable.
+
+
+EXTENT OF LICENTIOUSNESS.
+
+The extent of licentiousness and prostitution in New Orleans is
+doubtless without a parallel, and probably is double that of any other
+place in the whole range of the civilized world. The indulgence and
+practice is so general and common that men do not seek to cover up
+their acts, or go in disguise; but in all these things, keeping their
+mistresses, or frequenting bed houses, and having women come to their
+rooms at night, they do it as openly, and as much before the eyes of
+the world, as any other act among the common civilities of the social
+circle. Some idea of the extent of prostitution and licentiousness
+which is exhibited on every side, can be formed from the fact that at
+least three-fifths of the dwellings and rooms in a large portion of the
+city are occupied by prostitutes, or by one or the other class of kept
+mistresses. Those women who are the companions of one man, and hold
+that position under a pledge of confidence not to seek intercourse with
+others, hold themselves very much above the character of prostitutes,
+and regard themselves as respectable; and as such many of them move in
+society with some degree of favor and consequence. But however true and
+devoted the men who keep them may think they are, not one-twentieth
+part of them but what have other favorites, with whom they meet, not
+only in their own rooms, but also at the houses of assignation. And
+in this same condition are living many men with their wives, in whom
+they have most implicit confidence; yet they have their chosen and
+confidential companions and friends with whom they meet, not only in
+their own houses, but at the rooms of assignation. Yet in doing this
+they are only indulging in the same course that their husbands are
+following, in meeting other companions in the same way and under the
+same circumstances. And with all these individuals, of every class, is
+carried out the wild rage of human passion, that is nursed and fostered
+by every association and connection in the social relations of New
+Orleans.
+
+
+REGULAR PROSTITUTES.
+
+The regular prostitutes come in at the opening of business in the
+fall, and return to the North in the spring as business closes, as
+regular as the merchant; many of them come out from New York and other
+northern cities under the protection of young men, a certain class of
+gamblers and black-legs who have long made this city their field of
+operation during the winter months. The prostitutes of this migratory
+class form the great mass of the inmates of the regular kept brothels,
+of which there is an immense number in the city. These houses are
+easily recognized, as the girls who occupy them are constantly to be
+seen at the doors or windows, inviting men as they pass by to come in.
+And in some of the principal streets in the city, just at evening,
+it is not unusual to see the windows and doors of almost every house
+as far as the eye can recognize them, filled with these girls. The
+municipal regulations are such that these creatures are prohibited from
+promenading the streets; hence they are obliged to resort to other
+measures to make themselves known. In view of all these abominations,
+doubtless the main cause of so much licentiousness, and the immense
+number of prostitutes, of every class and grade, is the large number of
+irresponsible men who frequent this place. Under such circumstances as
+men meet here, they almost lose their identity as responsible beings,
+and having no checks around them, and under no obligations to society,
+consequently no pride of character, they become as bold and reckless in
+licentiousness, as if the pall of night covered their deeds. And yet
+men, and _some women_ too, will come in here, and mingle in the rounds
+of dissipation and pollution, who before and while at home and in other
+associations, would shudder at the sight, and even at the very thought
+of deeds which they have been engaged in. Another cause that aids in
+promoting these evils, is the small portion of men who have families
+there. Probably not one in twenty is married, and if so, leaves a
+family at the North, and while here, entirely forgets that he has left
+at home a wife, who is little dreaming of the rounds of licentiousness
+and dissipation, that is the almost daily track of her husband. To say
+that there is a righteous Lot among them--these husbands of confiding
+wives, would be hazarding too much more than I am willing to do, in
+view of what I have witnessed in the conduct of men of whom better
+things should be expected. And thus it is, from such men, together with
+the thousands of transient and floating population in this city, that
+makes it more than a Sodom, and causes the sins of licentiousness,
+adultery and prostitution, to be regarded as the proper elements of
+society, and perfectly consistent with a respectable and moral standing
+in community and with the character of a gentleman. And more than
+this is met with here, and withal, the most astonishing exhibition of
+degration “in high life” that was ever witnessed.
+
+
+PROSTITUTION OF WIVES.
+
+It is in the practice of a large number of men with their wives, who
+visit New Orleans and spend the winter, and who to support themselves,
+take the round of the gay and fashionable throng, and while moving
+here, the wife, with a perfect understanding of the matter with her
+husband, suffers herself to become _seduced_, and thus falls into the
+arms of some dashing wild young man, who is proud of his conquest. He
+lavishes upon her costly presents and money, and in fact will bestow
+upon her any thing that she may demand, within the compass of his
+purse. And when he ceases to give, not unfrequently will her husband
+make the accidental discovery of their intimacy, and in the fearless
+rage of an injured and outraged husband, threaten to come down upon him
+with all the vengeance of Southern chivalry. And to save himself he
+will pay almost any sum the husband may demand. Thus she will go on,
+for months, making conquest after conquest, and being seduced at least
+by half a dozen, and with all of them, practising the most cunning and
+deceptive arts, charging each one to be exceedingly circumspect and
+cautious, so as to avoid the least suspicion in the eyes of the world
+and her husband. And yet, during all this time, her hands are being
+filled with costly and magnificent presents and money, and in fact,
+any thing that she may desire, while each one regards himself as the
+sole possessor of the _stolen fruit_! She is enabled to pursue this
+course, and avoid suspicion among her _favorites_ of being intimate
+with more than one, by meeting them at the houses of assignation. The
+regulations by which these houses are kept, throw around a female the
+most perfect security against detection that can be imagined. They
+usually go in disguise and often in mask, and very frequently are
+unknown to the men who see them there, and their name is never enquired
+for, as it is generally understood that none but _respectable ladies_,
+both married and unmarried, frequent these houses. And yet during
+all these love scenes, captivations and seductions, the lady and her
+husband are in the foremost rank of the fashionable circle, supporting
+a style and splendor of equipage that few can surpass or even imitate.
+Of those who possess this extraordinary faculty of adapting their sense
+of propriety to circumstances, there are many who come here as regular
+as the returning season, and have become so familiar and intimate with
+the routine of fashionable life, that they may be regarded as the
+principal “stars,” around which all others must circle to enable their
+lights to become visible to the world. These ladies are usually well
+educated, highly accomplished and intelligent, all of which give them
+a ready command of every thing that can be available in the scenes
+of dissipation which make up the holidays and sporting season of New
+Orleans. And in this round of enjoyment and gaiety, there is no place
+that can equal it in lowering the moral sense, and prostrating every
+virtuous impulse, and creating in the feelings of almost every person,
+male and female, a light estimate of a life of fidelity and chastity
+between the sexes, not only among the married but the unmarried. Thus
+it is, the moulding of all these things is done by those who, for their
+own gratification, arrange all the rules of social intercourse to favor
+their own seductive schemes and plots. Hence, the manner and style of
+dress are always of that character to present and expose the charms of
+the female form, and are in every respect calculated to present them
+to the consideration of the other sex, as not being very modest or
+reserved. Under such circumstances, a ready familiarity is produced,
+which is increased by her more familiar conversation and ready
+intimacy, and all designed and tending directly to the accomplishment
+of her purpose. And here it is, into this circle, are thrown the
+virtuous and unsuspecting visiters who come into this city for pleasure
+and pastime, and if they can pass through and come out unsullied,
+and as pure in mind and as chaste in their sense of propriety and
+as virtuous in feeling as when they entered, they will hereafter be
+perfectly secure against the vices and contaminations of the world. But
+those who do so are few indeed; for they must be more than “Cesar’s
+wife,” that can enter these enchanting scenes, where every thing they
+come in contact with is an appeal to the passions, and not a thought
+or an expression do they hear, but what is calculated to betray and
+seduce, and forever banish the purest impulses of the heart.
+
+
+FASHIONABLE LADIES.
+
+I come now to another singular demonstration, to be met with only in
+New Orleans. It is a circle of “_fashionable ladies_,” who occupy a
+position in society only a step below the leaders among the “upper
+ten thousand.” They are also girls of excellent education, of
+superior accomplishments, and of great personal beauty, and present a
+combination of all the charms that can make a female attractive. There
+are quite a large number of them here, and they occupy no mean position
+in point of influence and condition in the circle of society. By their
+course of life they have amassed large fortunes, and are living in a
+style that few can imitate. Their dwellings and every thing around
+them, are of the greatest comfort and ease; and every thing they can
+desire, in servants, horses and carriages, is at their command. They
+have brought themselves into this position by their superior charms and
+attractions, in being able to select their companions from among the
+rich and reckless young men, who annually come down here to learn the
+ways of the world. In their intercourse in society they claim to be
+entirely above the common herd of prostitutes, and regard themselves
+quite respectable. The reigning belle, at the present time, among them,
+is a girl from Louisville, Kentucky. And in all that can render a
+female beautiful, attractive and charming, she doubtless presents more
+in form and features that captivates the beholder, than was ever before
+met with in a human being. In addition to all these combinations, the
+splendor of her costume, when in full dress--the display of costly
+diamonds and jewels, together with her artful and winning smiles and
+transcendent beauty, strike the beholder with an awe that banishes from
+the mind every idea that he is in the presence of and looking upon a
+corrupt and vicious being, whose whole current of life has been one
+continued stream of pollution and death. It is so unnatural that a
+being of such mould, angelic in form and expression, and with a mind
+of superior caste flashing out from every glance, should stand before
+you with every impulse and every attribute of the soul prostrated to
+the most venal and debasing practices that sicken and disgust the
+moral sensibilities. And yet at her shrine, and in her wake, are found
+the rich and exalted in society, who are proud and even boast that
+they have been her companions, and being thus favored is a climax in
+“_fashionable life_,” which they regard as a distinguished honor. And
+here she moves, a being that attracts more attention, and is followed
+by more eyes, and with a longer gaze, when she walks or rides out, than
+any prince or princess that moves in royal sphere. It is said that her
+jewelry and diamonds, in finger-rings, ear-jewels, and breast pins, and
+wristlets, and gold chains, and watch, are worth upwards of thirty-five
+thousand dollars. And these have all been lavished upon her by those
+who have fallen within the circle of those seductive charms, that,
+serpent-like, never miss their victim.
+
+
+AMALGAMATION.
+
+I come now to another, and I believe the most extraordinary exhibition
+of degradation to which human nature can be reduced; and here I would
+gladly pass it by, and if it were possible, I would forever conceal
+from my countrymen, not only this complete annihilation from the human
+breast of every particle of self-respect that keeps man above the
+brute, but the most blighting and damning national disgrace that was
+ever exhibited. It is the connections that are formed between white
+men and colored women who are slaves. Individuals there are, of the
+first _respectability_, who take for their bed companions not only
+the Quadroon, but those of darker hue, and frequently those of the
+blackest shade, and live with them as with a wife, and by whom they
+have large families. As an instance of this kind, the late collector
+of the port of New Orleans, a man who was the recipient of government
+favor, and receiving a salary of six thousand dollars a year, has lived
+for years with a mulatto woman, by whom he has had six children; and
+finally becoming displeased with her in the fall of 1847, he discarded
+her, and since has taken for his companion one of his own slaves, who
+is as black as charcoal. Another instance: One of the first lawyers
+in the city, a man of transcendent powers of eloquence and ability,
+has had for his bed companion for the last four years a black woman,
+a slave that he hires, and pays her master fifteen dollars a month.
+Another lawyer, a native of New York, and brother of one of the most
+distinguished judges in the State, had for his bed companion a mulatto
+girl for seven years. During this time he was paying his addresses to a
+highly accomplished young lady in the city, and last winter was married
+to her. His new _white companion_ of course required him to discard his
+black one. After he was married, the poor discarded slave who had been
+his devoted companion for years, and had watched and nursed him through
+long and dreary nights of sickness, and whose very soul was the living
+embodiment of woman’s pure affection, became a raving maniac. She
+rushed in all the horrors of her madness to the River, and attempted to
+drown herself, yet was saved by a flash of returning reason that came
+over her, and she was thus left another living monument of the deep and
+damning shame that should forever follow him, who has thus outraged
+every moral impulse of the human soul. And it will follow him, although
+not in pointing the finger of scorn at him as he walks the streets,
+for he has not violated any of the conventional rules of the moral
+sense of the community in which he lives. But in his own conscience and
+heart will he find an image, that when he calls it up before him, will
+change the warm current of his blood into a blush of remorse and shame
+upon his cheek. There are hundreds of instances of this kind, men of
+the first respectability, having for their bed companions slave women
+of every degree of color, from the darkest hue to the soft and mellow
+tinge of the beautiful Quadroon. Another exhibition in these alliances
+is, a man by the name of B----, a celebrated sportsman, and owner of
+the race course opposite the city, and known to all the gentlemen of
+the turf in this country. He is a man of great wealth, and is regarded
+as second on the list of horse racers and sportsmen in this country,
+Col. Johnson being at the head. He has had a mulatto woman for his bed
+companion for years, and has now living four children--one son and
+three daughters. A young man from the North, by the name of P----, who
+was engaged in training horses, and had charge of his stable, married
+one of his daughters, a beautiful Quadroon girl, well educated and
+highly accomplished. Her father hired him to marry her by giving him a
+large sum of money.
+
+
+A MAN SELLING HIS OWN CHILDREN.
+
+Another connection of this kind, was a man who bought a beautiful
+girl from Kentucky, for a bed companion, and paid for her eleven
+hundred dollars. He lived with her about sixteen years and had five
+children. In the fall of 1837 he determined to remove from the city,
+and take up his residence in the Island of Barbadoes. Before leaving
+he sold this woman and _his_ five children for thirty-three hundred
+dollars. I was informed that this family was the most interesting
+and lovely group of children ever witnessed, and in only one of them
+could be traced the least shade of African blood. Instances of this
+kind often occur, and yet men who do it are regarded as _human_, and
+those who make laws to legalize such acts are _christian_ in their
+_tendencies_ and _education_, and those who support them are a proud
+and chivalrous people, and claim to be _civilized_!! Alliances of this
+nature have been continued so long between slave women and white men,
+that there are a great many slaves in whom cannot be traced the least
+shade, either in form or feature, of the Ethiopian; and they are also
+of all complexions, from the light flaxen hair and bright blue eye,
+and the sandy and freckled countenance, and the keen black piercing
+eye, and clear beautiful white skin with rosy cheeks, making the very
+perfection of loveliness and beauty. Yet they are forbidden by the
+rules of society to hold rank above the blackest slave, and the common
+civilities of the social circle are never extended to them. The life
+of a mulatto girl, or Quadroon, as they are called at the South, is as
+strictly marked out, and the path which she is to take has been so long
+beaten, that she is as much confined to it as if it was a fixed law in
+the slave code.
+
+
+SLAVE GIRLS HIRED AS BED COMPANIONS.
+
+And this class of girls also claim the privilege, as a matter of right,
+when one arrives at the age of puberty, from twelve to fourteen, if not
+previously engaged by the master, to look for a man such as she may
+fancy, and engage herself to be his bed companion. And in this relation
+she remains with him for a specified sum per month, which she pays
+to her master. The amount paid these girls is usually from twelve to
+twenty dollars a month. If they are genteel and beautiful, and combine
+all the perfections in form and features that can be presented in a
+female, they will command a price accordingly. And thus in proportion
+as their qualities and charms are regarded, will they be considered
+valuable, and their price in market is in that proportion. They have
+their points of ambition, and pride of situation, and assume an air of
+aristocracy according to the rank and station of the man with whom they
+live, as much as any other class in society. To be the paramour and bed
+companion of some man of great wealth, or lawyer, or professional man,
+or some popular and distinguished _gentleman_, gives them a condition
+and standing that is enviable indeed to those of the same class, who
+are living with men of less means and lower standing in society. And
+this makes a circle of the “upper ten thousand,” as clearly marked
+as among the white aristocracy. These girls are usually educated and
+instructed by their masters in a certain way, for the express purpose
+of producing all the attractions and charms that can be presented in
+a female, whose value is much increased by a greater combination of
+all that is beautiful and lovely in woman. It is very frequent that
+these girls are engaged while children for bed companions, as soon
+as they shall arrive at the age of puberty, by some wealthy man, and
+not unfrequently will some disgusting drunken old bloat meet with
+a beautiful Quadroon child, and engage her of her master for a bed
+companion, as soon as she becomes of proper age, and the price which
+he agrees to pay is of no consideration with him. Her loveliness and
+charms, even in the purity and simplicity of innocent childhood, have
+aroused the impulses of his beastly nature, and have her he will at any
+price. And this outrage is too horrid for contemplation, for they are
+thus forced into a situation where they pass their days in the greatest
+misery and grief that can be imagined. Girls of this class also are
+often purchased by men expressly for bed companions; not only when they
+are children, but when they are of mature age.
+
+
+QUADROON GIRLS BOUGHT FOR BED COMPANIONS.
+
+The price paid for a healthy Quadroon girl, from the age of twelve to
+fourteen, ranges from one thousand to two thousand dollars, according
+as the purchaser may fancy them, and as they are regarded to present
+the beauty and charms of a Quadroon. Connections of this kind, not
+only between those who purchase them, but those who hire them, often
+continue for years, and frequently become such, that an attachment
+and even an affection grows up, as strong and as enduring as was ever
+witnessed between man and wife. And many instances of these connections
+have been known, where a man, after living with a girl for a number
+of years, will turn her off for the purpose of being married; and yet
+when he is so, and has a family around him, his attachment still
+continues to the being in whom he has so long confided, and whose
+heart he knows to be as warm and as devoted to him as is her love
+of life. In view of this, he drags out a miserable and disconsolate
+existence; and the discarded and broken hearted Quadroon, on whose
+brow is a tinge of yellow shade that will forever doom her to unending
+disgrace, sinks away into a lone and premature grave, a poor forgotten
+and wretched slave, and never more to be remembered only by him whose
+heart has melted into hers, in the true spirit of unending affection.
+Not only such scenes as these are frequently witnessed, but instances
+often occur, when a man has discarded one of these girls and has been
+married, he is forced to purchase her for the purpose of selling her
+again, and binding the one to whom he sells her, that he will take her
+away from the city, so that he may never meet her and that she shall
+never return. He is obliged to do this, in consequence of her affection
+for him, and also his attachment to her. When these girls, while being
+kept as mistresses, have children, they are usually sent back to their
+master, who either hires them boarded with some negro woman, or “turns
+them into the _yard_” with his other slaves, until the child is old
+enough to be left from its mother. Thus the father of this child--the
+_lawyer_, the _gentleman_, or the _merchant_, or whatever he may
+be--has the pleasure as well as the _gratifying reflection_ that his
+_kindred_ will not become extinct, and that his blood will continue to
+course in the veins of another human being through the next generation,
+and also he can remember with the _pride_ of a father, that when the
+mother of his child has lost her charms, there is another beautiful
+_Quadroon girl_ to take her place who has been cast off as a worthless
+and useless _thing_. And this is, almost without exception, the course
+that is forced upon them by a long established custom. When they are of
+no account in this way, they usually hire their time, at a low rate,
+from three to five dollars a month, and resort to various means to
+support themselves. Some will keep houses of assignation, and others
+will rent a house, with rooms furnished, and rent them to men who
+keep a bed companion, and board them. While others will rent a house,
+and hire negro girls, slaves of the lowest class, who will steal away
+from their pens, and come in and spend the night. They will also agree
+with “negro traders” to send in a number of girls from their slave
+pens. These are the lowest grade of brothels in New Orleans, and there
+are hundreds of them scattered through every street and lane in the
+city. And yet with these women are a large number of men, boarding and
+lodging, who are seen in the morning, creeping out through some back
+lane or alley. And follow these same men, and you will meet them in
+the Saloon of the “St. Charles;” and in all the rounds of dissipation
+and pleasure, they appear as well dressed and as intelligent and
+accomplished in their manners and conversation, as any person you
+meet with in the city. Many, and doubtless most of these persons are
+here from necessity, in not being able to meet expenses that would
+accrue in any other boarding place; and also, a large portion of these
+men who are found in these dens are those who come in from the North
+to “seek their fortunes,” and as I have before said of them, when
+failing to obtain employment, join in some catch-penny concern, in
+the way of “Peter Funks,” or gambling on a small scale, and borrowing
+of some acquaintance on account of respectable connections, succeed
+in obtaining a small pittance to pay for board and accommodations at
+a negro brothel. And I repeat again, young man, keep away from this
+city. Banish every idea that may come up, of the great advantages and
+facilities that you may think are found here for making money and soon
+a fortune, for they are no part nor beginning of things in New Orleans.
+
+
+DISREGARD OF THE SABBATH.
+
+There is in this city so much to be met with of a demoralizing
+tendency, and the tone of moral sense is so clearly out-spoken,
+that a person is not aware of what surrounds him, until he pauses
+and contemplates the scene in which he is moving, and the complete
+prostration of any thing like a controlling influence of public
+opinion. And it is a truth recognized in every civilized country, that
+good order and even common decency cannot be promoted or maintained,
+unless it is by the concentrated force of the opinion of good men
+against the overt acts of the vicious. And when we see, as we do in
+this city, the _best men_, public officers, the mayor and common
+council, giving countenance and sanction to outrages and desecrations,
+it is evident that the most wholesome regulations cannot sustain a
+healthy tone of moral feeling. And there is also a total disregard of
+an institution, that all good men revere and respect, as of divine
+origin; and if not as such, hold it to be, in its observance, the
+great conservator of the best interests of society, and that no people
+or community can preserve its character for morality and good order,
+without a due observance in christian form of its requirements. But
+here the civil authorities, together with all _good_ men, by official
+acts and personal example, desecrate this day to every purpose that the
+baser passions may demand. And these official acts are, in granting
+licenses for horse racing, bull fighting, theatres and exhibitions of
+all kinds, and even brothel balls, on the Sabbath. As evidence of the
+countenance given to these things, and of the state of public feeling,
+the following notices will give some evidence how the Sabbath is
+regarded by the mayor and common council, and the _good people_ of New
+Orleans. These announcements are made in the city papers, and also in
+large attractive bills, put up in every part of the city.
+
+
+  “Washington Society Balls.
+
+  “At a meeting of the subscribers, the following gentlemen were
+  elected managers:
+
+    A. D. Crossman, _Mayor of the city_,
+    Joshua Baldwin, _Recorder_,
+    I. E. Caldwell,
+    W. P. Converse,
+    A. B. Bien,
+    H. G. Stetson,
+    J. B. Byrn,
+    Maj. Gen. J. L. Lewis,
+    Col. J. B. Walton,
+    Capt. Jordy,
+    E. A. Tyler,
+    J. W. Behan,
+    Dr. Luzenberg,
+    Wm. Emerson,
+    Wm. Freret,
+    J. Stroud,
+    J. L. Poulk,
+    W. F. Flowers,
+    W. J. Earthman,
+    A. H. Way,
+    N. C. Judson,
+    J. S. Wallis,
+    R. C. Faulkner,
+    H. S. Hatch.
+
+  “At the same time, it was Resolved, that the series should consist of
+  ten Balls, which will be all MASKED.
+
+  “The managers will meet every SUNDAY! during the season, at 1
+  o’clock. Office hours, from 9 in the morning until 9 in the evening.”
+
+Now here are the Mayor and Recorder, and twenty-two of the best
+citizens of a civilized and _christian_ city of over one hundred
+thousand inhabitants, meeting every Sabbath to make arrangements for a
+MASKED BALL! and in view of such examples from such men, what else but
+a perfect Sodom could be expected of New Orleans?
+
+
+  “Grand Balloon Ascension.
+
+  “The seventh ascension of Madame Emma V., of Bordeaux, will take
+  place on SUNDAY next, between the hours of 1 and 2 o’clock, from
+  the corner of St. Charles and Poydras streets. Madame E. V. returns
+  her thanks to the public for the patronage bestowed upon her last
+  SUNDAY, having proved to the citizens of New Orleans that nothing has
+  been exaggerated in her previous advertisement. A special stand is
+  reserved for the Ladies!”
+
+This is done by permit of license from the Mayor.
+
+
+  “Pontchartrain Ball Room.
+
+  “The proprietors of this well known establishment respectfully inform
+  their friends and the public generally, that it will be opened on
+  SUNDAY next for the season, and that nothing on their part has been
+  left undone to render this house one of the most _agreeable_ in all
+  respects. The DRESS AND MASKED BALLS will be given in the following
+  order.
+
+  “For White persons--SUNDAYS, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
+
+  “For Quadroons--Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
+
+  “The Orchestra is without doubt, the best in the city. The BAR is
+  furnished with the choicest LIQUORS, and the tables supplied with
+  every delicacy that the market affords.”
+
+Now with such attractions, who could refuse to attend such a place even
+on the _Sabbath_!! provided that _license_ is given by the authorities.
+And yet the _attractions_ and _entertainment_ are not _all_ advertised
+in the bill.
+
+But the matter of astonishment in these things is, that in this
+enlightened age, and in a civilized community, and in this country too,
+public officers in a city could be found, who would, under the sanction
+and seal of their office, grant a license for a regular _brothel_ Ball
+Room. The assemblage of prostitutes and lewd women at these rooms, is
+without exception, taking all the circumstances into account under
+which they meet, the most wanton, debasing and licentious exhibition
+of human passion ever witnessed. There are three of these Ball Rooms
+licensed in the city, open every night and filled to overflowing. The
+prostitutes all appear with MASKS on their faces, and so well concealed
+that it is impossible to recognize them. The excessive drinking and
+carousing practiced at these places, enables the girls to induce men
+under such circumstances to accompany them home.
+
+Women are admitted free of charge, and men pay one dollar for
+admission. The Bar and the eating tables are the principal sources of
+revenue, and that is immense. It is at these places where many rich
+scenes are exhibited in the detection by some confiding and much abused
+mistress, who has long been haunted by the green-eyed monster with
+visions of unfaithfulness on the part of her paramour. She becomes
+confirmed in the belief, that he is playing “fond dalliance” with
+some beautiful Quadroon, or some other bright-eyed “Donna,” and to be
+sure of a capture under circumstances that will allow of no escape,
+she goes in MASK to the Ball Room, and there she beholds all that
+her imagination has conceived of inconstancy, of treachery, of false
+hearts and _love_ unrequited. And here she watches, with more than
+argus eyes, and follows their every step, and listens until she hears
+the outpourings of the soft words of honeyed love, and then, with more
+than a tiger’s rage, she rushes upon the unsuspecting girl with whom
+“_her man_” is so devotedly playing the agreeable, and with the jerk
+of a whirlwind, the mask is torn from her face, her dress flies in
+shreds, and what is left of the poor torn and tattered creature, is
+a miraculous escape from annihilation. After thus accomplishing all
+that she desires in making this public demonstration of their long
+continued intimacy, she leaves the room in triumph, and returns to her
+house and settles the affair with “_her man_,” by a course of “curtain
+lectures,” usually being satisfied in settling the play as an even
+game. And there too, in mask, will many a confiding and devoted wife
+look for her husband, and witness the realities of all the forebodings
+of her imagination, through long nights of lone watching. She has
+found him here, and follows his footsteps while, arm in arm, he joins
+in the whirl of the giddy dance, with the wild and polluted being who
+is holding her loved and cherished one by charms as fatal and deadly
+as the serpent’s steady gaze. It will be seen by the announcement in
+the bill that three nights in the week balls are given to Quadroons,
+or mulattoes; and on these evenings the attendance of men is nearly
+double that of the white balls. And this affords a confirmation of the
+truth of the old saying, “there is no accounting for tastes;” and also
+of the truth of what is asserted of the _gentlemen_ of the South that
+they will seek for companions among the yellow and even black women,
+and discard the white ladies. Notwithstanding these things, Southern
+men regard the act of eating at the table with a colored person as a
+disgrace, and an outrage and an insult too great to be submitted to.
+And yet they will have colored girls and colored men for their bed
+companions, for body servants, for cooks; and in fact, every thing they
+eat, drink or wear, they will see pass through their hands without the
+least shudder or repugnance, or sickness of stomach.
+
+The following notice presents still further the tone of _moral sense_
+of the authorities and the people of this city. It was displayed in
+large bills for twelve successive Sundays in the winter of 1847-8.
+
+
+  “Bull Fight.
+
+  “_On_ SUNDAY, _Dec. 12, on Washington Square, Third Municipality._”
+
+  “The proprietor respectfully begs to inform the public, that a
+  splendid BULL FIGHT will take place as above. Four of the finest and
+  largest Attakapas Bulls will be brought into the ring, two of which
+  will be slain by the Matadores, and the other two teased by the
+  Banderilleros and Capeadores.
+
+  “The company is composed of the following persons: Gregorio
+  Camerenas, chief, and first swordman; Juan Gonzales, Lancer;
+  Mondragon, Camerena and Jacome, Banderilleros, or arrowmen and M.
+  Rocha, P. Gomes and A. Blancas, Capeadores or teasers. Performance to
+  commence at 4 o’clock P. M. Admittance one dollar.”
+
+This announcement gives the reader a programme of the interesting
+performance of bull fighting. Yet sports of this kind are very little
+understood in this country, and are not what it is generally supposed
+they are. The idea of them has arisen from the expression used when
+speaking of such scenes as _bull fights_, giving the same understanding
+as those of kindred performances, as “cock fights,” or “dog fights,”
+which every one knows to be contests between two animals, usually
+trained for the purpose, and the same impression prevails almost,
+universally in regard to “_bull fights_;” supposed to be a contest
+between two fierce bulls. But such is not this SPORT! and that the
+public may not be misled, and to correct a general false impression,
+such sports should be announced as “bull murdering.”
+
+The arrangements for such displays are in a circular inclosure, about
+six rods in diameter, with a very strong fence. Around this circle are
+seats in amphitheatre form, capable of holding five or six thousand
+persons. Into this ring a single bull is admitted. At the same time
+in the ring are usually eight men, trained to the _civilized_ and
+_christian_ sport of bull-_murdering_. Those who performed in New
+Orleans were native Mexicans, and came from Matamoras for the express
+gratification of the _Mayor_, _Common Council_, and _good_ people of
+the city. When they appear in the ring, they are dressed in fantastic
+style, and each one wearing a small crimson cloak. And this is his main
+protection, and used mostly, in “teasing” the bull; for when in the
+fierceness of his rage he fixes his eye upon his victim, and plunges at
+him with tremendous velocity, and death seems almost inevitable, the
+man adroitly slips the cloak from his shoulders and steps one side,
+and holds it precisely where he stood, and on this point the blow of
+the animal is sure to strike.--Hence the cloak receives the full force
+of the goad of the bull’s horns. It is evident from the actions of the
+animal, that the bright and dazzling color of the cloak charms his
+eye so that he is unable to turn his attention from it; for he will
+often strike the cloak down, and turn round and examine it with great
+minuteness in search of the man, and seems astonished that he has not
+caught him. When the bull is cut loose and passes into the ring, a man
+sits over the gate-way and drives into his back a barbed dart. It is
+prepared and put in a stick about eighteen inches long, and when driven
+into the animal it remains there to tear and lacerate the flesh, for
+the purpose of exciting his rage and making him more furious. And this
+it does, for when the dart strikes him, with a roar of vengeance, he
+rushes in with tremendous fury, and often clears the ring in a moment
+of every man in it. There appear to be paroxysms of terrible rage
+in the expression of the eyes of the animal, that strikes a fearful
+awe in the men; and they will throw themselves out of the ring in an
+instant, although the bull is standing perfectly still. The performers
+with the cloaks are Capeadores, or “teasers.” After this part of the
+“_sport_” has continued for a sufficient time, four other performers
+come in, each having four bearded darts, the body of which is a stick
+about six inches long, and beautifully trimmed with colored tissue
+paper representing rosettes. There are the Banderillas or arrow-men.
+The great feat and climax in this part of the “_fight_” is to fasten,
+by a stroke with the hand, one of these rosettes in the curl between
+the eyes of the bull, and escape the goad of his horns. To do this,
+is a triumph that is greeted with stamping and rounds of applause,
+which convinces the daring one that the audience is fully alive to the
+great feat that he has performed in decorating a bull’s face with a
+_beautiful rosette_! There are but few performers who have the courage
+to attempt this act, as a failure is always treated with hisses and
+cries of “turn him out”--“turn him out.”
+
+The next great expert act with the darts is to fasten one in the centre
+between the horns, on the neck, and escape unhurt. This act also is
+greeted with rounds and shouts of applause, all of which excites the
+audience and arouses the fury of the bull. The darts being disposed
+of, and most of them sticking in the head and neck of the animal, the
+same men take each three bearded rockets, prepared on sticks about
+eighteen inches long, and so constructed that when they are driven into
+the bull they will ignite, and after burning and hissing for a time,
+will explode with as much force and noise as a heavily charged musket.
+These are alternately driven into the head and sides of the bull, and
+while they are burning, hissing, and tearing his flesh, a more wild and
+terrific scene can scarcely be imagined. He roars, plunges and lashes
+his sides, with the most intense writhings of maddening pain and fury
+that can be conceived. After the rockets are exhausted, the chief or
+swordsman comes in, with a straight sword two feet and a half long, for
+the purpose of ending the contest by taking the life of the bull. To
+perform this act, and strike the animal through the heart at the first
+blow, is the climax of all feats in the whole round of bull-fighting.
+The swordsman is obliged to do it according to prescribed rules in the
+science of the sport. He must strike his blow in a particular spot, and
+when it is done, must stand on the left side and drive the sword in
+just forward of the point of the right shoulder through the heart of
+his victim. And while this attempt is being made, and the swordsman is
+following the infuriate animal, it in turn rushes furiously after him,
+and seems fully conscious that the time has come for the exhibition
+of that part of the “sport,” as announced in the bill to be performed
+by the chief. During this struggle the audience becomes wrought up
+to the highest tone of excitement. The swordsman while seeking for
+an opportunity to strike the fatal blow, if successful in the first
+attempt, is greeted with shouts and rounds of the most frantic applause
+ever witnessed, and at the same time showers of money are poured in
+upon him from almost every hand in the audience, and often amounting to
+several hundred dollars. He is allowed to strike three times, and if he
+fails in giving a deadly thrust, the other extreme of disapprobation
+is meted out upon him in long continued hisses and cries of “take
+him out,” “take him out,” and thus the audience will _magnanimously_
+interfere and save the life of the unconquered bull, who has at least
+for an hour defied the power of eight men to destroy him; and yet here
+he is, foaming and lashing his sides, and writhing under the most
+intense agony, full of ghastly and bleeding wounds, and the tearing
+of dozens of darts and rockets that goad him at every step; while
+thousands of human beings are looking on with an intensity of feeling
+and exultation of pleasure, that is impossible to be expressed by
+language. Under these circumstances and cries of “take him out,” a man
+comes in on horse-back with a lasso, and catches the bull by the horns
+and drags him out. Another bull is then let in, and the same round
+of teasing and goading with darts and rockets is gone through with,
+and then he is dragged out with the lasso. The darts and goads are cut
+out, and the next _Sabbath_ he is let in again, and goes through the
+same “fight,” with the addition of its being his turn to be killed.
+Thus as the bill announces, four bulls are let into the ring for the
+“sport” of one _Sabbath_, and two are teased, and two are slain. In
+witnessing scenes of this kind, there is exhibited throughout the
+whole assemblage, a blood thirsty and savage desperation, and withal,
+a strong desire that the bull may succeed in goading tearing out the
+very vitals of some one of the inhuman monsters against whom he is
+contending. It would seem that the “sports” could not be _agreeable_,
+and meet the expectations and desires of the audience, unless a scene
+of that kind could be exhibited; for when the bull makes a deadly and
+determined plunge, and his victim barely escapes as by a miracle, as
+will often occur, the spectators appear disappointed in not seeing the
+man gored through and through, and crushed into a mangled and bleeding
+corpse. And to see this done, it appears that every one would go away
+perfectly satisfied in having witnessed all that could be done in
+the “sport” of “bull-murdering.” Take it all in all, a more brutal
+and fiendish exhibition of cruelty cannot be conceived, and yet, on
+the _Sabbath_ day, in this civilized land, will the good men of New
+Orleans legalize and sanction this horrid practice. But in this, no
+one will be disappointed, for it is in perfect harmony and character
+with other scenes in the great drama of human life in this city. The
+same kindred and brutal exhibitions are allowed, and usually come
+off on the _Sabbath_, in cock fighting and dog fights, with animals
+trained expressly for such “sports,” and they are often made up by
+bets of large sums. There are many who make these “sports” a matter
+of permanent business, and to which their whole time is devoted as
+a science. A fight of this kind was made up in the winter of 1837,
+in which a “ruling passion strong in death” was exhibited to an
+extent almost incredible. A _gentleman_ who was in the last stages of
+consumption, had arranged a cock fight to come off in about six weeks,
+when the animals would be properly trained. The bet was $3,000 a side.
+It was evident, however, that he would not survive the time, either to
+witness his triumph or defeat, for he could scarcely be expected to
+live from one hour to another. Yet the excitement and struggle, and
+determination on his part was so great, to live until the day of the
+fight, that he was assured by his Physician for three weeks before the
+time, that were it not for his determination and anxiety, he would
+not live an hour. The day came, and the fight was made, and he was
+victorious. He immediately passed from the cock pit to his carriage,
+and on reaching the side walk, he sunk down and was a corpse in a
+moment.
+
+
+DRINKING HOUSES.
+
+Of the accumulation of the sources of evil and causes of contamination,
+there is none perhaps stands out so glaring as the immense number
+of drinking houses in every part of the city, sustained only in
+selling liquor by the dram. And of this practice, it may be asserted
+without dispute, it is the great propelling power that drives on the
+maddening car of human passion into every other scene of vice and
+pollution that is its proper element. This practice of almost constant
+drinking through the day, pervades all classes of society. Not only
+the male portion, with scarcely an exception, but the _ladies_, or
+a large majority of them, indulge in the daily use of intoxicating
+drinks. Under all circumstances, in the social relations, in the
+interchange of civilities, wines and liquors of all kinds constitute
+the principal offerings in the courtesies of every day life. And it is
+astonishing indeed, to see how perfectly hardened and proof against
+the intoxicating effects of Alcohol, the great mass of the people have
+become. But notwithstanding this constant steeping in liquor, and being
+able to keep up under it, more than three-fourths of the men who are
+moving about the streets, have become literally sots, and according
+to the northern standard of intoxication, are confirmed drunkards.
+And how can this be otherwise, for there are but few who take less
+than a dozen drams, and from that number up to twenty-five and thirty
+a day, and yet these are all high-minded, _sober_, and respectable
+_gentlemen_, full of _Southern chivalry_--incapable of brooking an
+insult, and ready to fight in defence of their honor and good name. It
+is under such circumstances, that we see men of the South so tenacious
+of their character, and manifest so much pride in having the world
+understand that they are gentlemen. But of this _Southern chivalry_,
+and those high-minded and noble traits of Southern men, of which we
+have heard so much boast, it is all gammon. It is not there, and the
+high-toned sense of propriety in observing the practice and rules of
+what constitute the true gentleman, does not prevail in society at the
+South, in as great a degree as it does in the more northern states. And
+certain it is, the standard of what constitutes a good and respectable
+man, is far, very far below the wholesome and elevated standard which
+prevails at the north. For no man here could live and sustain a common
+respectability, should he be guilty of the sayings and doings of a
+Southern _gentleman_.--And in all that is mean and low and contemptible
+in society, in backbiting, neighborhood scandal, and tea-table slander,
+there is as much, according to the population and facilities for such
+matters, as in any other section of the country. And in addition to
+this, there are among these high-toned and chivalrous bloods, more
+drunken brawls, and breaking canes over each others heads, and hair
+pulling, and cat fighting, than is met with in any other part of the
+world. As evidence of this, the scenes that are often witnessed in
+the popular resorts and drinking houses in New Orleans, will convince
+any one of the true nature of Southern chivalry. Seldom does a week
+pass without some of these _magnanimous_ fights, of hair pulling,
+scratching, and the lowest kind of puppy squabbles, will be exhibited
+among the _gentlemen_, those of the first respectability in the city.
+And yet all these fights will occur, from a high sense of honor and
+self respect, prompted by an elevated tone of _genuine_ Southern
+chivalry. The number of grog shops sustained by these _gentlemen_ in
+New Orleans, is _more_ than legion. They are found in whole blocks--on
+three of every four corners, where one street crosses another, and
+ranges of buildings from street to street, every door leading into
+a drinking house. The style and splendor in which some of these
+establishments are fitted up, surpasses the most costly and richly
+furnished parlor in the mansion of any millionaire in this country.
+At the head of these “enchanting resorts” may be regarded the “GEM,”
+opposite the Post Office on Royal street. The magnificence and rich
+display of furniture and fixtures in this _grog-shop_, shows at once to
+what extent dram drinking is practiced among the “upper ten thousand”
+in this city; for none other but a _gentleman_, with white kid gloves
+and burnished boots, would dare presume to enter within its brilliant
+and shining walls. The expense of fitting up this room in furniture and
+fixtures, simply for the purpose of a drinking house, was upwards of
+eight thousand dollars. The floor is covered with a beautiful Saxony
+carpet, costing three dollars and half a yard. Cast-iron settees and
+chairs, with rich crimson cushions. Two mirrors suspended back of the
+counter, costing seven hundred dollars each, together with beautiful
+landscape paintings from the pencils of the best artists in the
+country. Three massive chandeliers light the room, making it as light
+as the sun at midday. And thus, is carried out, in perfect order and
+taste, every article of fixture and furniture in this “Guillotine” for
+the _legs_ of _gentlemen_ in this city.
+
+This “GEM” was opened in November, 1848, and the first day the receipts
+were three hundred and seven dollars for drams at ten cents a drink.
+There are a number of other houses of this character fitted up in the
+same costly style, and among them is the “Verandah,” the “Orleans
+House,” and “Phenix,” with many others, and all of which furnish their
+bars with the most costly wines, liquors and cordials, that can be
+obtained from all parts of the world. In this display of attraction,
+where _gentlemen_ can become drunken, fight and quarrel, and pass it
+away without the event being noticed, except for a few days when the
+conqueror and his friends will exhibit their prowess in boasting and
+bragging of the “fine licks” and the “black eyes” given an antagonist,
+and who perhaps was twice his superior in force and strength, yet
+being a little more “tight” of the two, and perhaps having met with
+an unlucky blow from some side arm of a friend of his competitor, he
+came off second best. And here it is in these pot house brawls among
+the boasted chivalry of the South, originate nine-tenths of the duels
+and deadly combats which take place. From fights of this kind often
+originate hostile and angry feelings, that finally on the next occasion
+are followed by direct insult designed to provoke a challenge.
+
+From these houses downwards there is every grade of grog shops, to
+the lowest sipping of whiskey from a tin cup in negro pens, where
+slaves steal away and imitate the example of their masters in taking a
+few social glasses in view of participating in the common civilities
+and courtesies of fashionable life. The practice of drinking so
+often during the day, with almost every one, is such that eating and
+sleeping is of small account, and they are indulged in with very little
+regard to regularity except the meal at dinner. The hour for dining
+is usually from three to four, and this is the feast for fat things,
+and the only time at which much food is taken. Breakfast is usually
+coffee in abundance, and generally is taken in bed before rising. And
+after rising coffee is taken again with some light article, and this
+is done from eight o’clock in the morning and at any other time as
+they may happen to get from their beds before the hour for dinner.
+Tea is usually taken from seven to eight in the evening, and usually
+amounts to nothing in the consideration of the good _livers_ in New
+Orleans. The rounds and revels of dissipation are at their height from
+nine o’clock in the evening until two in the morning, by which time
+the devotees of pleasure and the great mass of the inhabitants have
+become fully surfeited with the things of this world, until they are
+overcome with the _load_ that is upon them, and one by one they pass
+away from their labors and repose for a few hours, when they return
+on the morrow refreshed and invigorated, and repeat the same round
+in the drama of “life in New Orleans.” From the low dens and grog
+shops, the miserable victim who crawls away in his poverty and rags,
+is caught up at first sight by the minions of the law, and hurried
+before the Recorder’s Court on “suspicion” of being a vagrant, and
+unless he can find some one to vouch for him he is thrown into the
+work house for sixty or ninety days, while the proud and _chivalrous_
+southern gentleman who has been drinking, carousing, and fighting at
+the “Gem,” the “Verandah,” the “Orleans House,” or “Hewlett’s,” comes
+out next day as one of the bloods of the city. But follow for a short
+time these chivalrous knights, and you will see their steps as sure
+downwards as that hour succeeds hour, until they are found in the
+lowest “picayune groggery,” steeped in the very dregs of pollution
+and death. An illustration and graphic commentary upon a life in New
+Orleans, was exhibited before the Recorder’s Court in the fall of 1848,
+in the arrest under the vagrant law of “DANGEROUS and SUSPICIOUS,”
+in the person of one of those shocking and abandoned wrecks of the
+“noblest works of God,” a man of mind and genius who had fallen, and
+had become as he said of himself “like the gnarled oak shorn of its
+green boughs,” yet he had in his better days moved and revelled in
+the rounds of fashionable life, and having a ready and fluent speech,
+and flashings of caustic wit and good humor, it called around him
+warm and devoted friends, whose kindness was showered upon him in
+repeating glass after glass until he fell below the standard of a
+_gentleman_, and finally was cast off, and thus took a downward leap,
+and when he appears again it is as a “dangerous and suspicious person”
+before the bar of justice as a criminal. But the scene does not stop
+here, for that very authority before which he now stands arraigned on
+“suspicion,” sets the machinery in motion that takes the victim in at
+the “LICENSED PALACE,” and carries him along through every grade down
+to the lowest dens of degradation and misery, and finally brings him up
+before the same authority as the natural and legitimate fruit of that
+document to which its hand and seal is fixed as a license for these
+blighting and damning curses, these groggeries that fill up this city
+at every turn.
+
+The following incident occurred before the Recorder, and is copied from
+a city paper.
+
+
+“DANGEROUS AND SUSPICIOUS.”
+
+  “But where is the iron-bound prisoner? where?”--CAMPBELL.
+
+A very haughty and gloomy-looking individual might be seen passing
+upwards from Baronne street Watchhouse, towards the Recorder’s office,
+yesterday morning, about nine o’clock. He was _one_ of the number
+who seemed to have undergone the Cæsarean operation at the hands of
+Madame Fortune, but who, more than any of the rest, seemed to have been
+ripped untimely from the womb of the circumstances by which he had been
+surrounded. There was a sullenness of manner about him, perfectly in
+keeping with the bitter sneer which sat enthroned on his cynical lip.
+His dark eye flashed indignation towards the officer in whose keeping
+he was, and every now and then, as he raised his iron-bound hands to
+heaven, he shut his teeth as though he could have crunched a bar of
+adamant into a pulp. Anon he shut his eyes, and opening them, there
+came the searching glance and the dark scowl, which seemed to ask, in
+the language of Shakspeare,
+
+    “Which of you has done this?
+    Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
+      Thy gory locks at me.”
+
+The garb of the outer man was indicative of the severe storms which
+had passed over it--its looped and windowed raggedness told a tale of
+misery and wretchedness too often repeated by the numerous children of
+misfortune.
+
+As the officer unloosened the handcuffs, preparatory to the old man’s
+being placed in the dock, for examination before the Recorder, not a
+muscle of his face, nay, of his frame, but was in motion. Shortly
+after being placed there, he burst into a flood of tears, and, in a
+paroxysm of the extremest agony, swooned into the arms of a fellow
+prisoner. After a few moments, however, he recovered his consciousness,
+and staring wildly round the Court, (as though he were among a horde of
+savages in the wild desert,) he exclaimed, after a manner which showed
+him to be well conversant with the drama:
+
+    “I did not faint--no, though a sickening pang
+    Tugg’d at my heart, and made the cold sweat creep,
+    Like ice-drops, o’er my body; yet, even then,
+    Did conscious innocence uphold my soul,
+    And turn’d the horrid words to senseless sounds,
+    That ought not to dismay.”
+
+“Verulan Langdale!” said the crier of the court. The prisoner raised
+himself slowly up from his seat, and running his fingers through
+the grey and tangled locks, which fell scantily over a well formed
+forehead, bowed to the court, in token of his identity.
+
+_Recorder._--You are charged with being a dangerous and suspicious
+person, following no honest occupation or calling for a livelihood.
+Have you any good citizen to vouch for you?
+
+_Prisoner._--May it please the court, I know of none--the world knows
+me not--I am as you see me, the gnarled oak, shorn of its green boughs.
+I am like Othello--my occupation’s gone. I came here to look after
+a daughter, who eloped a long time ago with a merchant of this city
+who, dying, left her all his worldly effects, and she became rich.
+By chance, I heard she was in this city. She was--she is--but she is
+the occupant of the Lunatic Asylum, and she has rendered me well nigh
+fit to occupy the same cell. I have craved from those who have had
+charity--my wants were small and they were over supplied. I was going
+towards Ohio, where I have a son engaged in the profession of the law.
+
+_Recorder._--May I ask you if you yourself have any profession on hand,
+and if you are an American citizen?
+
+_Prisoner._--I recollect Wordsworth saying in one of his fine poems,
+when speaking of a foreigner in England--
+
+    From Indian blood you deem him sprung:
+    Ah, no! he spake the English tongue,
+      And bare a soldier’s name;
+    And when America was free
+    From battle and from jeopardy,
+      He cross the ocean came.
+
+I bear a “soldier’s name”--I have held a commission in the British
+service, under the last but one of the Georges’. I have fought, long
+before I became an American citizen, under the stars and stripes,
+and have been but lately mustered out of the American service--I
+have ever thought and do think with Chateaubriand that--“The fairest
+crown of an old man is his silver hair, and the recollection of an
+honorable life.” Pronounce your sentence, if you think me dangerous and
+suspicious.
+
+As the old man repeated the last sentence in a firm and energetic tone,
+he drew back the folds of his old woolen vest with the hands which had
+lately been in fetters, and pointing to some half dozen scars, said--
+
+I don’t know how suspicious you may think me, but the enemies of my
+adopted country always declared me _dangerous_.
+
+As he gave utterance to these words, a thrill of sensation passed
+through the crowd, which the Recorder did not ask to check. He himself
+turned aside to--peruse some other charge entered on the watch sheet.
+After a short pause, the Recorder, addressing the prisoner, told him he
+was at liberty to seek his son, and he hoped his search in that quarter
+would be more successful than it had been on another occasion.
+
+_Prisoner._--I hope so.
+
+It is unnecessary to say that the old veteran had funds liberally
+supplied him. A subscription was set on foot in court, to which the
+Recorder most liberally subscribed, and “words, cheery words,” fell
+upon his ear as he left the court, where, but a few moments before, he
+had stood, to all appearances, a vagrant of the worst class. He did not
+leave the dock without bowing to his fellow prisoners; then turning
+to the crowd who ushered him out, he looked again on those he left
+behind him, as though loth to leave his fellows in misfortune. It was
+a momentary gleam of commiseration, for it lit up the face with the
+sunshine of the soul, until the recollection of his past sufferings,
+awakening all the misanthropic feelings which lay lurking in his
+breast, found a vent in the language of the gifted Maturin:
+
+    “I was a blighted branch--the storm was on me--
+    And in my rifted core the winds of heaven
+    Sung wintry welcome, and made stern abode.
+    The mildewed moss upon my brown sere bark
+    Made verdure seem like blasting. Such was I.
+    The sun is on me now, the storm on thee.
+    Bear it as I have done.
+
+Such oftentimes are the slender grounds on which our laws deprive men
+of one of the choicest blessings said to be ensured by our republican
+form of government--their liberty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The life-drawn scene which is here presented in the person of the old
+man, is a sad tale of desolation and woe, with which the Recorder’s
+court and the work-house of this city is familiar; yet the subjects for
+such exhibitions are usually much younger, having been like the old
+man, “shorn of their green boughs” long before they could point to a
+head with “silver locks,” and claim for them the respect and reverence
+due to a ripe old age, even though clothed in rags.
+
+
+VAGRANTS.
+
+For a time, so great was the increase of the class of vagrants, that
+the common council was forced to pass a law requiring the police to
+arrest every such person on “suspicion” of having no regular calling,
+and if no one will vouch for his ability to gain an honest living, his
+doom is the work-house without further ceremony.
+
+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.
+
+Of the cruelties, in whipping, beating and murdering slaves, it has
+never been told nor described worse than is practised; and I have been
+told by overseers on plantations themselves, of what is _necessary_
+in the discipline of a set of hands, first to _subdue_ them, and
+then to _keep them in subjection_. The first exhibition I had of
+slavery, was at Louisville in Kentucky, in the fall of 1837, and I
+shall never forget the nature of the scene before me; for it was the
+first time that this singular phenomenon was presented to my view,
+that in this land of _freedom_, where _liberty_ was engraven upon the
+escutcheon of every shield, and yet, not a stone upon the earth,
+but what was pressed by the bondsman’s foot; nor an inch of soil,
+but what was watered by tears, and the sweat of his brow, and whose
+very flesh too was torn and reeking from the chains and lash of the
+inhuman task-master. And who is doing all this? was the enquiry. It
+is KENTUCKY--the noble, proud and chivalrous _Kentucky_; whose sires
+and sons, on the battle fields of the revolution, poured out their
+blood like water, and when expiring in their last struggle, while
+their voice ceased in whispers, would breathe out the magic words,
+“LIBERTY or DEATH.” And it was thus with Kentucky, on the bloody fields
+of the second revolution. And on that day, her sons were in arms,
+struggling for their country’s rights and the extension of _American_
+Freedom. And here was this singular phenomenon before me, of a proud
+and chivalrous people, offering up their oblations upon the altar of
+FREEDOM, and bearing in one hand the standard of LIBERTY, while in
+the other were forged chains for the bondman’s limbs, and the scourge
+for his back, and whose groans and shrieks were borne off upon the
+same breeze with their own shouts of LIBERTY or DEATH!! And this is
+no sketch of scenes drawn out with vivid colors of fancy; for it was
+stern living reality, and human language conveys no impressions and has
+not power to embellish them with ideal matter, for there was before
+me at almost every corner of the streets, that proud emblem of our
+nation’s greatness. It was the STARS and STRIPES calling upon the sons
+of Kentucky to again rally in defence of their country’s honor. And
+yet beneath the ample folds of this cherished emblem of FREEDOM were
+passing almost every moment the native born citizens of this proud
+State, driven to their daily task from the fear of the scourge and the
+lash. And more than that did I witness on a steamboat where was thrown
+out to the breeze our nation’s Flag, significant that the sons of
+Kentucky, her soldiers in arms, were there marching to and fro upon her
+deck and hurrying down to the plains of Mexico, to the field of battle
+and strife; while below them on the same boat, confined in chains like
+a pen of cattle, were their own _brothers_, upwards of an hundred
+citizens of this proud land, who were being dragged down to that bourne
+from whence none ever return--the great charnel house of American
+slavery, the low land and swamps of the Mississippi Valley. The next
+scene of interest that I saw was on a plantation a few miles above
+the city of New Orleans. I passed into the negro yard and the first
+slave I met was grinding corn with a double hand-mill like a common
+coffee-grinder. He was chained to a post and was literally naked. A
+plank lay within reach of his chain, the _soft_ side of which was his
+bed. His punishment was for running away, and he had been confined
+there to his mill seven weeks. In passing along to a shop, I found two
+negroes working at blacksmithing. Both were chained to the block, and
+were hampered with rings and chains on their legs. One of these was
+a heavy stout mulatto man, and on his right ancle was a ring of iron
+weighing from six to eight pounds. On the same leg near the knee was
+another ring weighing from four to six pounds, and a chain fastened
+from one ring to the other, making at least on this leg sixteen pounds
+of iron. The rings had worn and irritated the leg, and they were almost
+completely imbedded in the swollen flesh. From the knee to the top of
+the foot was one continued putrid running sore; and without exception
+the most loathsome and forbidding exhibition I ever witnessed. And yet
+he was at work preparing the heavy irons for a sugar mill. I asked
+him what he had those chains on for? He replied; “I run away, and by
+G--d I will again when I get these off and am well.” He had worn them
+eight weeks. The rings and chain on the other negro were not as large,
+nor was he much mutilated by them. The first was a noble fine looking
+mulatto man, with large head and prominent reflective faculties, and
+evidently with much force of character--presenting nothing of the
+African blood, except in the shade of his skin. He informed me that he
+came from Kentucky, and had been on the plantation seven years, and in
+that time he had seen the drivers kill eighteen boys. All slave men are
+called boys. Whether this was true or not, I had no other testimony
+except the circumstantial evidence which was around me on all sides,
+and I am sure this was sufficient to convince any one that an effort
+was being made to kill at least four more. In passing towards the sugar
+field, I found a negro setting on a block. A physician from Mobile, who
+was with me, spoke to him, and as he raised his head a swarm of flies
+started off, and looking on the right side of his head above the ear, I
+discovered the hair full of maggots, and the whole side was one mass of
+putrid matter. The skull was evidently broken in, as the matter which
+was running out indicated diseased bone. How he came in this condition
+I know not, yet the same effect would be produced by striking him with
+a heavy bludgeon or club. He was perfectly unconscious, and did not
+answer a question intelligibly, as he was insane. After this scene I
+was perfectly convinced that the negro in the shop had told the truth,
+that “eighteen boys had been killed on that plantation within seven
+years.”
+
+And here I am aware that I shall be met with the usual reply--“that
+such acts as killing slaves are _improbable_, for it is so decidedly
+against the interest of the planter to allow his property to be
+destroyed in this manner.” I have myself before I learned to the
+contrary made the same reply; and yet one thing is sure, the reply does
+not make or prove these things false; and of their truth, I have the
+testimony of a large portion of the passengers, gentlemen and ladies,
+on the steamer “Allen Glover,” on her first trip down to New Orleans,
+in November, 1837. And I repeat that these cruelties are not isolated
+cases; for men and women are whipped to death, and murdered by inches,
+and shot down, as a common occurrence in the more Southern States. In
+proof of this, I was told, on a plantation about twelve miles below
+the city of New Orleans, by the overseer, that but very few plantations
+passed more than three or four years without having a slave killed by
+the driver. He said the season before the driver on this plantation
+killed the best boy they had. He was beating and kicking the boy,
+and finally the negro knocked him down. The driver rose up and shot
+him through the heart. He was a spirited boy from Kentucky, about
+twenty-three years old, and had been often beaten by the driver for
+the most trivial thing, and often without the least provocation. And
+he had borne the goads of the lash so long that his proud spirit broke
+loose in the fatal blow which he knew would send him to his grave in an
+instant. And while telling me this, the overseer pointed to the second
+plantation below, and said the driver about two months before killed a
+boy by shooting him. When these occurrences take place they are seldom
+known beyond the limits of the plantation; for it is _lawful_ to kill a
+negro if he raises his hand against a white man; and I can assure you
+that few ever make the attempt without being instantly killed.
+
+
+A WOMAN WHIPPED TO DEATH.
+
+A most brutal and inhuman case of whipping and murdering negroes was
+done by the driver on J. R.’s plantation, about forty miles from
+Natchez, in November, 1848. I will give the fiendish monster’s account
+of it in his own blasphemous language, while boasting of the deed to
+another driver. He said, “G--d d--n my soul, if I didn’t whip a woman
+last week until she childed right on the ground while I was whipping
+her; and a few days before I whipped another woman till I thought she
+was dead, but she revived a little and I told the niggers to carry her
+in the hut. The next day she sent for me, and when I went in she told
+me that she was going to die, and that I had killed her. I told her I
+was G--d d--n glad of it, and I was d--n sorry I hadn’t done it for
+her yesterday; and she died that night.” Yet this is all legalized,
+“moderate correction;” and doubtless will be considered as an “isolated
+case.”
+
+The driver’s duty on a plantation is to see that the negroes are at
+work, and to do this he usually follows them into the field, and
+exercises a general supervision over their labor. His equipments are a
+heavy knife, a revolver pistol, and a large whip, the lash of which is
+about seven feet long. While in the field, if the negro does not work
+rapidly, or if he violates the rules of the plantation, this lash comes
+down upon him with a power and force that cuts through his clothes and
+tears his skin and flesh in shreds. These blows will often be repeated
+by a peculiar swing of the lash from right to left, every one of which
+will cut a hole where it hits like a scoop with a gouge.
+
+
+THE “BREAK-DOWN WHIPPINGS.”
+
+The “break-down whippings,” as they are termed on the plantations, are
+usually done by placing the slave with his face to a post in which is
+framed a cross bar. An iron collar or ring is put round his neck and
+fastened to the post. The arms are extended each way and fastened to
+the cross-bar by rings around the wrist. They are then stripped bare,
+and thus are whipped from twenty-five to fifty lashes and upwards,
+and sometimes as long as a man can continue to use the whip without
+being exhausted, and they often die there under the lash. If a slave
+is brought down from Kentucky or Virginia, and sold to a planter at
+the South, and it is understood that he has any pride, or occasionally
+assumes a degree of independence unbecoming a slave, or shows any
+reluctance against being driven beyond what is consistent and human,
+he is, as the drivers say, “getting too damned smart” and must have a
+small touch of the “Mississippi break-down;” and without any further
+ceremony he is put on to the post and whipped until the driver thinks
+he “will not be quite so _smart_.” And in many cases it is necessary
+to repeat this “break down” operation a number of times before the
+“smartness” will all pass out of them.
+
+The change from Kentucky and Virginia slavery, to a large cotton or
+sugar plantation in the more Southern States, is as great almost as
+liberty and slavery, and there are many slaves taken from these States
+and sold far South, that can never be subdued only by death; and this
+they are sure to meet unless they give up their “smartness.” And in
+them is only seen exhibited the motto of every American citizen,
+“LIBERTY or DEATH.” They will never yield, for they have the feelings
+of an American, and the pride and spirit of their own _fathers_ who
+are among the most distinguished men of their native State. And this
+is _American_ slavery--one of our “cherished institutions!” and the
+forbidding of its further extension is now threatening the existence of
+this happy Union, and to deluge this land in blood!!
+
+
+WOMAN WHIPPING ON THE PLANTATIONS.
+
+The whipping of women on plantations is in a different manner. Their
+frock is turned up over their head, and they are made to lie down with
+their face to the ground, their arms extended and tied to a stake. A
+board is then taken which is prepared in shape like a shovel. The wide
+part is bored full of small holes, and with this they are beaten on the
+bare flesh, from twenty-five to two hundred blows. After these blows
+are repeated a few times the skin tears away, and the blood and flesh
+is forced through these holes with great force and flies several feet
+from them; and yet this is very _modest_ and “moderate correction.”
+
+Females are required to do as much work on a plantation as men, and
+there are generally about thirty women to seventy men. The treatment
+of slave women is so severe, and their labor so hard, that very few
+children are raised on the sugar or cotton plantations; and if they are
+alive at birth they grow up feeble and puny, and from neglect and the
+want of proper cleanliness and care very few become men and women.
+
+The relations and intimacy among slaves on plantations are managed with
+great care, and every thing that is allowed to exist between the men
+and women, is permitted with a view to degrade and brutalize them, and
+destroy all moral sense, as well as self-respect. A rule or regulation
+of any kind calculated to elevate the thoughts above the brute, or a
+disposition on the part of the slave to cultivate the moral sense,
+would be crushed at once, and an attempt on the part of a slave to do
+so would meet with the most severe and cruel punishment. Hence kindred
+ties, and parental affection, and the attachment between man and wife,
+are among the first things to be broken up, as the permission of such
+demonstrations would have a tendency to humanize the slave, and make
+him, under such circumstances, somewhat an object of sympathy. A
+connection among them as “man and wife,” in which the planter sometimes
+officiates in a mock ceremony of marriage, is allowed under certain
+rules, yet care is taken that such alliances do not continue for a long
+time. When they are broken up they are allowed to seek other companions
+for a short time. Thus they succeed in preventing anything like an
+affection, or attachment, or respect for an alliance in the character
+of “man and wife.”
+
+The following extract of a letter from a highly respectable gentleman
+in Galveston, has been kindly furnished me, and a more truthful
+picture, to the life, cannot be drawn, and one too on which the good
+people of this country can look, and stand rebuked by the lesson of
+_moral sense_, which came up in the honesty of his soul from this poor
+slave, in view of the life which he would have entailed upon himself
+and kindred, had he fulfilled the marriage vow with poor Lucy. The
+occurrence took place in December, 1848--
+
+  “Bob had agreed to be married, and on the night of the wedding did
+  not appear. His lady love came for him the next night after, and
+  the matter was thoroughly discussed between them. She, poor thing,
+  reproached him for his inconstancy with tears and sighs at a great
+  rate. Bob finally said to her by way of comfort--‘Lucy what is de
+  sense ob niggers marrying--it don’t mean any ting. When white folks
+  marry, dey say matches made in heben--when nigger marry children
+  all slaves--nigger dont own he wife--nigger woman dont own her
+  husband--more misery, misery, all come ob nigger marrying.’”
+
+Alas! too true. How often we laugh when we ought to be ashamed that our
+sensibilities are not more deeply shocked.
+
+
+RESTRICTIONS UPON SLAVES.
+
+The restrictions over the slave in New Orleans are exceedingly rigid
+and severe. At 8 o’clock in the evening a cannon is fired in the Place
+d’Armes, as a note of warning for all slaves to leave the streets and
+“turn in.” If they are caught out after this hour without a written
+pass from their masters, they are taken by the watch to the calaboose
+or city prison; and in the morning are whipped twenty-five lashes, and
+their master is obliged to pay three dollars to get them discharged.
+When the slaves become too “damned smart,” or for any thing which they
+may do, require punishment, the general practice with the slave owners
+is to send them to the calaboose, where they have all the shackles and
+preparations necessary to do up such _jobs_ in good _order_ and on
+_short_ notice. In doing this, also, the masters save themselves from
+the indignation of the slave, which would naturally become aroused if
+the punishment was inflicted by the hand of the master himself. The
+slave to be whipped is sent with a note to the calaboose, in which is
+money to pay for the _job_. If twenty-five cents is in the note he gets
+twenty-five lashes,--if fifty cents or a dollar he gets accordingly.
+And this whipping slaves at the calaboose at one cent a blow is a very
+lucrative business, and many a poor fellow comes away with scarcely a
+shred of skin on his back, and very often he does not know for what
+crime or for what purpose the whipping has been given him, unless
+it is because “he is getting too damned smart.” For the _crime_ of
+attempting to gain his liberty, for running away, a slave is punished
+more severely than for any thing that he may do where death is not
+the penalty. And very often for repeated acts of this kind, where the
+design is _only_ to whip him within “an inch of his life,” a mistake is
+made in the distance of an _inch_, and he is whipped within a quarter
+of an _inch_ and dies in a few moments. Next on the list of crime, a
+slave is punished for stealing almost as severely as for running away,
+and they are often whipped severely on mere suspicion of having stolen.
+For the punishment of slave women in New Orleans, for any crime,
+either theft or being “quite smart,” or for general correction, they
+are usually sent to the work house, and from here they are organized
+in chain gangs, and put in charge of a driver, and sent out to clean
+the markets and collect the dirt and rubbish in the streets. When a
+slave woman is sent to the work house by her master for punishment,
+he is obliged to pay twenty-five cents a day for the privilege of
+having her worked in the chain gang. In November, 1848, I saw a chain
+gang of forty-nine women and girls in Exchange street, cleaning away
+the rubbish, brick and dirt, that had accumulated in tearing down
+buildings for the purpose of extending the street through from Custom
+to Bienville streets. They were shoveling dirt and brick into large
+boxes, on each side of which were fastened long sticks extending each
+way far enough for handles. They would load the boxes and carry them
+some distance to be taken away by carts.
+
+
+CHAIN-GANGS OF WOMEN.
+
+These chain-gangs are formed by fastening together two women with
+a chain about ten feet long around the waist of each, and in this
+situation they are driven about the city day after day as street
+scavengers, and among them are often many fine appearing and delicate
+looking mulatto girls; yet they are here driven to the hard toil of
+shoveling dirt, and doing the heavy labor of a beast; while the proud
+and chivalrous southern gentleman will pass by and see these women
+thus degraded and brutalized, and never have thought or feeling of
+shame, nor a blush come over them, that such scenes are an outrage
+upon humanity, and a deep and damning disgrace to the civilized world.
+And yet here too, in this christian land, will _christian_ men and
+women, witness this more than savage brutality, and heed it less than
+they would if the women were dogs, while at the same time these pious
+_ladies_ will contribute money and means to civilize and christianize
+the poor heathen in some far distant land. And more than this, they
+will indite long prayers and repeat them time and again, that heaven
+would prosper the great cause which lies so near their heart, of
+turning the _brutal heathen_ from his _inhuman_ practices; and yet
+these same heathen, if they could promenade the streets of this city
+with these pious ladies, they would be shocked at sights of barbarity
+and cruelty, such as savages would never inflict, unless to punish
+their most deadly enemy. And here let me ask, in view of such scenes as
+are daily witnessed under the sanction of public authority; if there is
+any sense of propriety in men, or any regard for common decency, should
+not public opinion frown upon such men who make these regulations with
+a force that would drive them into the haunts of savages where they
+properly and _constitutionally_ belong.
+
+
+SLAVES COMPELLED TO FIND WORK.
+
+The treatment of slaves in New Orleans as a general thing is horrid
+in the extreme. There are many who are driven daily into the streets
+and obliged to find work, and at night return with their wages, and if
+they do not do it, are sent to the calaboose and whipped from fifty to
+an hundred lashes. There are also hundreds of slaves owned by Irish
+draymen, who are worked from fifteen to twenty hours a day, and do it
+continually for months in succession. The most severe and cruel master
+that ever had power over flesh and blood, is an unlearnt and ignorant
+Irishman, and in New Orleans, you cannot frighten a negro so badly by
+any thing that you may say or do, as to tell him you will sell him to
+an Irishman. They almost prefer death to an Irish master, and they
+certainly are the most unfeeling, inhuman monsters that can be found
+on earth. There are also a large number of slaves who are obliged to
+steal or beg their living, and yet are forced to work and give every
+farthing they earn to their masters. The sleeping pens also of the
+slaves generally are unfit for the meanest cur that runs the street;
+and yet in connection with all this, the practice of whipping, kicking
+and beating the slaves is so common that sympathy does not appear to
+be one of the attributes of the human soul. An instance of severity
+in punishment that came under my own observation, was inflicted on a
+mulatto girl about twenty-three years old. She was whipped by a negro
+trader, two hundred lashes and was literally cut to pieces. There was
+scarcely a particle of skin on her back, and her breasts were torn open
+in gashes and hung in shreds cut almost entirely from her body. Another
+mulatto girl I saw who had been beaten by a _lady_, one of the wealthy,
+_accomplished_ and fashionable women in the city. She knocked the girl
+down, stamped on her head and face and broke out two of her front
+teeth. She was blind with one eye, and her head and face was swollen as
+full as the skin could be pressed.
+
+
+CHIVALROUS LADIES.
+
+It is a very common thing to hear a _lady_ in New Orleans, boast of
+beating and whipping negro men and women, and they will do it with as
+much pride and manifestation of prowess, as though they had bearded a
+lion in his den; and yet the poor negro, when a lady attempts to whip
+him, is only obliged to stand and bear what comes upon him without
+daring to move or raise his hand. If he should be so uncourteous as to
+stir, or run away when a _lady_ was beating him, it is a _crime_ for
+which he is sent to the calaboose and is more severely whipped than
+for almost any thing that he may do. And yet such are the _ladies_ of
+New Orleans, and they are pious and _christian ladies_ too, and their
+hearts are BIG with sympathy for the poor heathen who are so degraded
+and suffering so much for the blessings of _civilization_.
+
+
+SLAVE MARKET.
+
+Go to the slave market in New Orleans, in the Arcade, on days of
+Auction sales for slaves and you will see and learn what you cannot
+in any other place in the world but a slave market. For it is here
+before you in unmistakable character, how completely unfeeling,
+inhuman and brutalized a man can become, and yet be a “_gentleman_ and
+_respectable_.” And surely it would be _unkind_ and _ungenerous_ in
+the extreme, to say that those _fine looking_, _rich_ and _generous
+hearted_ men who stand there daily and _only_ sell slaves, are not
+“_gentlemen_ and _respectable_.” And notwithstanding all the brutality
+which you see them exhibit, they claim to have in a large degree, the
+common sympathies of our nature, as well as _moral sensibilities_. But
+an astonishment amounting to amazement comes over you when you view
+these men as they are truly exhibited here. You see before you an
+hundred men, women and children of all ages, colors and complexions,
+and many of them as white and even whiter than the auctioneer or the
+purchaser. You hear their rude jokes and loud laugh, while describing
+the qualities and condition of some female, and you can see her shrink
+back and drop her head with the true feelings and sense of female
+delicacy; and yet this just rebuke upon them only calls out another
+rude joke as evidence of greater brutality, while the delicacy and
+blush of shame, which their rudeness has brought upon the brow of a
+slave, should teach them even in a slave market to observe the common
+rules of decency, while treating with females, although they may be
+slaves. For certainly man should never forget that modesty is one of
+the natural impulses of the female heart, and never can be invaded in
+the broad light of day, without changing the warm current of her blood
+into a blush of shame upon her brow.
+
+When slaves are put upon the block to be sold, their age is told,
+their capabilities for different kinds of labor are described, their
+disposition, their perfections and imperfections all come out in
+detail, and if they are healthy and in good condition, the Auctioneer
+proclaims that “they are fully guarantied against all the vices and
+maladies prescribed by law,” and “now, how much is bid for him!” and
+while the sale is progressing, the slave usually stands like a statue,
+not a muscle in his countenance moves, nor an expression other than a
+wandering gaze. And yet you can see that there is an agony and struggle
+with the feelings of the soul, deeper than tears can call up, or groans
+express. Here they stand as cold and chilled as the speechless marble,
+awaiting their doom and destiny. And while all this is going on, you
+can hear in the crowd of slaves, in low whispers, the mother pleading
+with the inhuman slave-dealer, and begging and beseeching him in all
+the agony of a mother’s heart, that her child may not be torn from her.
+And in return for this she gets the blasphemous curse and a look of
+more than demon’s glare, that bid her be silent, and tells her that the
+child is not her own.
+
+And now of such scenes as are here witnessed, I only ask that the
+people of this LIBERTY-loving land, that fathers and mothers, those
+whose impulses have never been chilled by avarice and the desire of
+ease, and the blighting and deadly influence of long familiar custom;
+let them stand in the slave Auction, in the city of New Orleans, for
+one hour only, and then let them answer whether they have nothing to do
+as _moral beings_, as _Christians_, and as American citizens, with this
+outrage upon humanity--this mountain of shame and disgrace that bears
+down upon the soul of every American--this libel upon the genius of our
+institutions. If they must go away with sealed lips from such scenes
+as are here presented, and never raise their voice against them, then
+may all the accumulated wrongs of the earth be set upon this land, and
+never be rebuked, nor resisted by the moral sense of community.
+
+The number of slaves sold here at auction is very great, and it is
+the only place in the city for such sales. There are a large number
+of traders’ pens, where slaves are received on consignment, and sold
+on commission. The traders also buy for speculation. The largest of
+these establishments is in Esplenard Street. They are a long row of
+low buildings, and on the front step, on the side-walk, the slaves
+are made to stand for exhibition from 9 o’clock in the morning till 4
+o’clock in the afternoon. There are often in these slave-pens, arranged
+in a line on the side-walk, from five to eight hundred, and these are
+all fine-looking, robust, stout young men and girls, from the age of
+sixteen to twenty-five. There are also, in rear of the public sale-room
+in the Arcade, a number of small rooms, occupied by negro traders and
+speculators, who bring the negroes from their pens every day, and keep
+them here for exhibition. This depot in the Arcade is the largest slave
+market in New Orleans.
+
+To satisfy curiosity, in the fall of 1848, I stepped into one of the
+rooms, in which were about thirty slaves, principally girls from the
+age of fifteen to twenty. I observed a fine-looking mulatto girl, about
+seventeen years old, and enquired her qualities. The trader called her
+up, and replied, that “she was an excellent sewer, and a first-rate
+dress-maker--good body-servant and lady’s waiting-maid and nurse--good
+disposition, kind and careful with children, and perfectly healthy,
+and without a fault or blemish of any kind.” After this description,
+he said to her--“Put out your foot and pull up your clothes. See what
+a fine foot and ancle she has got.” He then bid her turn round, and
+putting his hands on her waist and hips, said--“See what a beautiful
+form.” And then removing the slight covering from her neck, he
+remarked--“And what fine full breasts she has: she will raise at least
+eight children.” And during all this _common place_ exhibition, I
+closely watched the blood course through her veins, and could discover
+a deep tinge of crimson flash over her cheek, and her eyes fell to the
+floor, as evidence that she involuntarily shrunk from the rudeness
+that was thus being forced upon her, while the trafficker in human
+flesh stood there as brutal and unfeeling as though every heart was as
+callous to moral sensibility as his own. I turned away with a shudder
+from the scene before me, ashamed of the curiosity that had prompted
+me to make this invasion upon female delicacy, and call out such an
+exhibition of human depravity as this trader presented, while her sense
+of propriety and delicacy had not even the privilege of covering her
+face, nor the apology of temptation.
+
+
+DEPRAVITY OF SLAVE-HOLDERS.
+
+There is no place in the world in open day light, where every shade
+of modesty and common decency is so entirely disregarded, as in these
+slave Auctions and slave pens, in charge of traders and speculators.
+And they are without exception the most thoroughly schooled in all that
+can annihilate every sense of propriety and self respect. Although they
+are generally wealthy and _respectable_, and usually men of families,
+yet they herd in with the slave women that they have in market, like
+beasts of the field, and in this have no concealment or regard for
+public observation, or of the ultimate consequences in filling up the
+slave market with their own children. And this wanton intercourse
+with slave women is general on plantations, and in small towns and
+villages, among planters, overseers and drivers, and also among young
+men of every class and condition in life. It is also a uniform practice
+with the planters in the lower slave states, when called upon by
+those to whom they extend their hospitalities, to offer them a bed
+companion from among their slaves. And in doing this they only treat
+their friends with the common civilities of the day. And Southern
+gentlemen will often take with them when travelling a slave woman for a
+companion, and do it with as little regard to concealment in the matter
+as though she was his wife, in occupying the same state room on steam
+boats and at public houses. As excuse for such things, I am aware of
+the same old argument--“that these instances are rare occurrences, and
+only practiced by a few men of no account.” But I repeat the assurance,
+and I give it from what I have seen, and have learned from reputable
+sources, and the acknowledgements of slave holders and traders
+themselves, that these things are a part of the _social system_ against
+which the moral sense of community has never raised its voice.
+
+As an instance of this kind, the following is in character. In the fall
+of 1848, while the steamer Dove, was on her passage from Louisville
+to New Orleans, a negro trader was on board with sixteen slaves, nine
+cows, and two horses. He was an old trader, and had acquired a large
+property--was a _gentleman_ and _respectable_, and had a wife and
+several beautiful daughters in Louisville, Kentucky, where he resided.
+But, trader-like, he herded in with his negro women for bed companions
+during the whole voyage, as openly and as shameless as though he was
+only conforming to the most chaste and refined sentiments of the
+travelling public.
+
+Another of those _isolated_ cases of southern _refinement_ was
+witnessed in the steamer “New Orleans,” on her upward trip in Dec.
+1848. A _gentleman_ (of course,) had with him for a travelling
+companion a fine looking mulatto girl, who occupied the same state
+room with him, and this intimacy was known to the captain and officers
+of the boat, and all the passengers. I refer to these things thus
+particular as evidence, the truth which can easily be ascertained
+that there _are_ at least _isolated_ cases of these outrages, and I
+again repeat the assurance that these demonstrations are among the
+_legalized_ practices of every day life in the slave States; for
+certainly whatever is so common, must by all the rules of common law be
+legal!!
+
+
+REFLECTIONS.
+
+I leave this matter without comment, and only request the reader to ask
+himself from whence come these exhibitions? Why this utter annihilation
+of every particle of moral sense that places man above the brute? And
+why this degradation of their own feelings, and want of self-respect?
+And yet to answer these questions, you can only say, that they are the
+_legitimate_ fruits of slavery--of man being empowered by the laws of
+his country to hold his fellow beings in bondage,--and wherever this
+_might_ creates the _right_, these things will be prominent in the
+social relations. I know it is said that under this _blessed_ system
+the slaves enjoy themselves, are contented and happy, and will “hug
+their chains.” And I know too that this assertion is _false_ in every
+particular, and that those who make it do so with the full knowledge of
+the falsehood which they utter; for it is thrown back in his face in
+language that he cannot misunderstand, every time he looks upon a slave
+in the deep agony of spirit which he is witness to every day, coming up
+from the dark recesses of that poor slave’s heart that he has stricken
+down by the laws of the land, and kneels cowering before him like a
+dog! If you do not believe this, just turn the scene upon yourself,
+and let the laws of the slave code and the condition of the slave come
+down upon you for a few short months, and then go among and tell your
+fellow citizens whether these things are true, and whether these are
+only a few “_isolated_” cases of these wrongs, and whether you think
+the picture is overdrawn and embellished with ideal matter. But before
+you take this load upon yourself, I can tell you this is no fancy
+sketch; for the poet’s wild and delirious imagination has not power
+to portray these scenes with the colors of fancy; for the breathings
+of the deep agonies of the human soul cannot be portrayed by the
+impotence of thoughts uttered in language from the tongue of man. For
+I have seen the aged slave mother, who had dragged through a life of
+prostitution, and had around her daughters, who were being driven out
+into the same ceaseless round of degradation. And I have witnessed a
+mother’s feelings poured out from the fountain of tears, and have heard
+her mourn and lament that the _monster_ death had not taken her child
+before she had become the fit sport and prey of the _monster_ man.
+And in view of such a life, I have heard the slave mother exult and
+rejoice, as they ever do, while her daughter and child lay before her a
+cold and stiffened corpse. And yet you may think this is an idle tale,
+but when you have seen what I have often witnessed, the slave mother
+look on her child who had just closed its eyes in death, and say, “I
+am glad she is dead--master has been trying to sell her for a long
+time, and she is now well sold. God has got her, and he is a good kind
+master, and I am glad she has gone, for she will not have to suffer
+misery, misery, as the poor slaves do.” And this is literally true
+word for word, as I heard uttered by a slave mother in New Orleans,
+over the corpse of her daughter about twelve years old. And this is
+the universal expression of feeling with the slave mothers when their
+children die. They never mourn nor weep, but rejoice and seem happy.
+
+I now leave all the facts and representations with the reader, with the
+most positive assurance that they are true in every particular, and so
+far as the subject of slavery is presented, human language contains no
+power adequate to portray the reality to the conception of him who has
+never witnessed it. It must be seen and _heard_ to be realized. You
+must look over a Sugar or Cotton plantation--you must look into the
+slave pens in the city of New Orleans--you must stand in the Auction
+market on the day of sale, and hear the mother plead that her child
+may not be torn from her. You must witness brothers and sisters bid
+each other farewell, _forever too_, as they follow their new master off
+to an early and premature grave. You must witness the deep agony of
+spirit, deeper than can be called up from the fountain of tears. You
+must witness the sundering of kindred ties, and hear the happy mother
+rejoice that her child is dead. All this you must witness, and then
+the long days of unending toil--the cruelties--the tortures of the
+lash--the murders by the club, the knife and the pistol, and when you
+have seen these things you can realize what slavery is; but you cannot
+_feel_ what it is, for none but a slave can do this, and you cannot
+tell it, nor describe it to him who has not witnessed it.
+
+In view of the institution of slavery in all its phrases, there is
+not a redeeming feature--not one bright spot--not one solitary rule
+or regulation in the whole system, can be offered as an apology for
+its abuses, and from beginning to end it is one scene of pollution
+and death; for its base is _avarice_, its superstructure _idleness_,
+its summit _licentiousness_, and can there be any thing but wrong
+in a fabric sustained by such principles? And I ask if the _moral
+sentiment_, the spirit of _Liberty_, and the promptings of humanity,
+have nothing to do with this mountain of wrongs--this great national
+curse--this damning shame, that shocks with a blush the countenance of
+every American when he is pointed to, and taunted with this libel upon
+the genius of our institutions--upon humanity itself? And must American
+citizens forever forbear and submit to these outrages?--And must the
+philanthropist seal in perpetual silence his lips, and never plead for
+the wrongs of his crushed and bleeding fellow men? Is moral indignation
+never to be aroused only by crimes committed at our own door? Are
+_Liberty_ and _Freedom_ mere empty sounds to be forever stayed by the
+power of tyrants, and the threats of those who trample them under their
+feet? And must the American citizen forever suffer the disgrace, and
+be taunted by this libel upon the Declaration of Independence? If this
+must be--if the patriot, the philanthropist, and the christian, can
+submit to these things and discharge their duty to themselves, to their
+God and their country, then more criminal than the slaveholder will
+they be, for they must answer it to the bar of their own conscience,
+as well as to the spirit of the age in which they live. And if they
+are now idle their condemnation will be overwhelming. But this cannot
+be so--the warning note has gone out--“Slavery must fall.” The eyes
+of the civilized world are upon it. The philanthropist, the patriot
+and the christian, are bearing down upon it with a force of moral
+power that never fail to crush the wrong and drive the evil from the
+land. And blind indeed must that man be who cannot see the tendencies
+of the spirit of the age. And dark and benighted must he be, who has
+not yet learned that the people of this country have determined that
+this mountain of wrong, this curse of all curses, shall be driven from
+among us, for it has been seized hold of by the divine aspirations
+of the human soul, and no power on earth can stay it. That morbid
+sensibility, that fawning sycophant servility to the slave power, that
+fearful foreboding of the future, that came up a few years ago against
+the light and truth, that demonstrated itself in burnings, mobs and
+riots, have become changed, and in place of madness and alarms the
+spirit of _justice_ and LIBERTY have become the ruling passions of the
+day. EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAWS is engraven upon the escutcheon of every
+shield, and it cannot be stricken out by the breath of an orator, nor
+made less potent by the cry of disunion. The slaveholders may meet in
+convention--manifesto may follow manifesto, from the great champion of
+slavery and bondage--the threat and cry of dissolution may be thrown
+out to call up the servility and obsequiousness of the North, to check
+the current of thought and speech that is bearing down so fearless upon
+every part of this great citadel--the “peculiar institution” may be
+held up as guarded by the sanctity of age and law, and constitutional
+entrenchments, but “IT IS TOO LATE,” and they will be swept away by the
+MORAL SENSE which is aroused in a spirit of action through the length
+and breadth of this land. And the evidence that this work has begun,
+is that the slaveholders themselves have become aroused, and they see
+in letters of “livid light” its doom and destiny, written upon the
+walls--MENE, MENE, TEKEL. And although they are lashing themselves into
+phrenzy and madness, yet when the storm of passion shall become hushed,
+and the “second sober thought” prompted by reason and justice comes
+over them, they will be caught up by the spirit of the age--their moral
+sensibilities will be awakened, and while the hoary headed fabric is
+trembling to its base, they will seize its trembling pillars and tear
+them away, and thus hasten its fall; and when the deed is done, they
+will look over the ruins with amazement, and wonder how they could
+“live and breathe” amid those scenes of pollution and death.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+Text that was in small caps is in all caps.
+
+- Some inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
+
+- Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.
+
+- Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following
+  changes:
+
+  Page 6: "one at Natches" to "one at Natchez"
+  Page 8: "fit instrument to dot his work" to "fit instrument to do this
+  work"
+  Page 10: "the colony passed, op" to "the colony passed, up"
+  Page 11: "The purchase of Louisania" to "The purchase of Louisiana"
+  Page 12: "to mingle with the heterogenous" to "to mingle with the
+  heterogeneous"
+  Page 13: "the warm-hearted son of the Emerated" to "the warm-hearted
+  son of the Emerald"
+  Page 13: "have borne such a conspicous" to "have borne such a
+  conspicuous"
+  Page 15: "a bailable case of 3,000" to "a bailable case of $3,000"
+  Page 16: "let him off at Walnut hills" to "let him off at Walnut Hills"
+  Page 17: "settled by business" to "settled my business"
+  Page 19: "forbidding any distincttion" to "forbidding any distinction"
+  Page 20: "of the most deadly, poisonons" to "of the most deadly,
+  poisonous"
+  Page 20: "meets a ridge at 'Baton Rogue'" to "meets a ridge at 'Baton
+  Rouge'"
+  Page 21: "state of feverish inflamation" to "state of feverish
+  inflammation"
+  Page 29: "up smart rows of bran" to "up smart rows of brand"
+  Page 30: "_cafes_ and _restaurats_" to "_cafes_ and _restaurants_"
+  Page 45: "a large portion ofthese" to "a large portion of these"
+  Page 50: "writhings of maddenning" to "writhings of maddening"
+  Page 52: "drives on the maddenning" to "drives on the maddening"
+  Page 53: "of any millionare" to "of any millionaire"
+  Page 56: "Tugg’d at my heart, aud" to "Tugg’d at my heart, and"
+  Page 65: "that this singular phenomonon" to "that this singular
+  phenomenon"
+  Page 76: "every day life in the slavs States" to "every day life in
+  the slave States"
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78285 ***