Valley Spirit

EXPERIENCE IN THE NORTH. Being a Series of Letters from the Correspondence of a young Carolinian, on a Tour of observation in the Northern States, to his Uncle in South Carolina.

EPISTLE NO. 4

Darrow, Ohio, March 15th 1860.

Respected Sir: I believe I owe you an apology for not writing sooner. The fact is I had begun several letters, but before finishing, I always found something in the beginning concerning which I have had occasion to change my views. Indeed I must confess that recent events and observations have led me to look upon Slavery in a somewhat different light; though not to such a degree as to make me an advocate of slavery or to cause me to condemn the doctrine of the Republican Party. The recent negro riots in Canada have convinced me of the danger we are in from the negro element. I should be in favor of colonizing the free negroes to some Territory in Africa or South America, to be acquired by the United States by purchase or conquest; and I entertain no doubt that the Northern States would cheerfully pay the cost of their removal, not only for themselves but also for those of the South, if emancipated-- Without colonization I am opposed to emancipation. It is the universal testimony of people here that negroes are a worthless and dishonest class, and they are consequently looked upon with contempt and disgust. In the free States there appears to be an irrepressible conflict between the two races which manifests itself in such outbreaks as that at Chatham. Where there are few negroes in any community, with little influence, not much harm is done, but when they form a numerical majority in any precinct township or School-district, where they exercise the right of suffrage, the case is different. Their motto is rule or ruin. No party questions divide them; it is a question of white or black, and whites must succumb, and allow their educational interests and township affairs to rest in the hands of negroes.

It was with feelings of extreme horror that I read the account of the late Pendleton Mills catastrophe, and I cannot find terms sufficiently strong to denounce the spirit of avarice and grinding oppression which induced the inhuman proprietors of this establishment to allow this building to be occupied by these unfortunate white men and women, knowing it to be unsafe! Had a southern man allowed his slaves to occupy such an untenable building as a workshop, thereby causing the death of six hundred human beings, what a howl of horror would have been heard in the north from Maine to Oregon! And yet this affair is passed over in comparative silence, and this social Nero is allowed to pursue the even tenor of his way. I am obliged to call this an inconsistency on the part of the Free Party of the North, which can only be exccused [sic] by the consideration that their great philanthropists are so occupied by the project of ameliorating the condition of the slaves of the South that these enormities have escaped their notice, though committed beneath their very nose.

This inconsistency is also strikingly manifested by the stolid indifference and want of sympathy shown by the Republican press for the shoemakers of New England in their present contest for a fair compensation for their labor. It is stated, on good authority, that in some cases they have been compelled to make shoes for four or five cents per pair, and this while their employers were rolling in Luxury, yet this wholesale robbery is not rebuked by the Republicans. Even Greely, the champion of free labor, in the Tribune of the 18th says that "having resolved to demand higher wages, even at the cost of an industrial war, they should quietly proceed to send a large proportion of their number to the Great West, where there are a great many who are willing to give bread and meat for shoes, though unable to pay money." This is certainly very cool for an editor who is constantly prating about the deplorable condition of the negroes in the South and who would sever the Union to better it, and yet has not a word of sympathy for the poor downtrodden and oppressed white laborers of the North. He must have been reading "A Penny a Day and how four Mouths it fed;" yet all rational men must acknowledge that the man who is compelled to make shoes for five cents per pair must lead a life miserable indeed.

Dayton is a handsome inland City. There are a great many negroes in the place and vicinity. (Please say nothing about those "Congo Indians") and the present being the second generation from those who came here from the South. I know of no better place of judging of their character and capacity, which in all truth I must say are low enough, even when compared with the slaves of a Carolina plantation. They are generally found in a degraded condition, doing the very meanest kind of drudgery. Their constitutional laziness, however, induces them to shirk hard labor as much as possible, and we often find the more intelligent and better classes serving in such as boot-blacks, porters, barbers, cooks and hotel waiters. At the Hotel where I am stopping we are regularly, served by negroes and you might imagine yourself in a Southern Inn, except that the negroes are very rude and ill-mannered, and also that no person is expected to use the least politeness in his dealings with them. People seem to be very fond of aping the manner of a slave-driver, and "Clean my boots, you black rascal," and "attend to my horse, you d--n nigger," are not unusual mandates. Here in Ohio, where I had expected something better, I find that the negroes are more despised and maltreated than in any place I have visited. It seems to be considered a duty to hate these unfortunate beings, and to oppress them in every possible way. A person here would be ashamed to lend a helping hand to a negro, to speak a word of sympathy, or to address one in a gentlemanly tone. My experience has taught me that the slaves of the South occupy an enviable position when compared with these poor northern outcasts. I have conversed with several refugees who would gladly return to their old masters if an opportunity offered. They long for the flesh pots of Egypt. The other day one of them to whom I had spoken a kind word, and who knew me to be a southerner, came to me and begged me to write a letter to his old master, offering to return if allowed. I did so and if it succeeds in securing for him a home, I shall be satisfied with the part I took in the affair, much as I hate slavery as a principle. If, however, negroes are in a worse condition, poor whites must be infinitely better off. I shall have something to say on this point in a future letter; meanwhile I must now close.

Respectfully your Nephew,

Berkley.

P. S. You are probably aware that the Republican "National" Convention meets at Charleston on the 23d of May. It will pay you to attend as you will then have an opportunity of hearing some of our big guns. By the way, I think it argues bad for Southern hospitality that the delegates are to be fleeced out of $50 per day for board, as stated by the papers.

B.

P. P. S. Mr. Peyton says it is the Democratic Convention that is to meet at Charleston; but he must be mistaken, as it is the Republicans who are making all the Row about the high price of provisions there, and if this is the case they are certainly not interested in the matter.

B.

--The party of gentlemen engaged in the survey of a route for a Railroad from Chambersburg to Gettysburg arrived in this place on Thursday last. The point at which they terminated the survey was somewhere near the Franklin Railroad bridge. We understand the examination of the route has proven very satisfactory to the gentlemen engaged in the survey. It has been found perfectly practicable, of easy grades, and not requiring any unusual expenditures in the construction of the Road. We are promised a copy of the Report on the Survey in time for publication in our paper of next week.

--We were shown by Mr. J. S. Nixon, who is well known in this community to possess a penchant for collecting everything that is curious in Nature and Art, a double-headed snake, which he has now in his possession. His snakeship has two veritable heads and no mistake or deception about them, both of which he seemed to use. Whether this sample belongs to a regular species of double-headed snake or is merely a lusus naturae in that way we are not prepared to say. Two heads on a snake we look upon as a waste of the raw material, we would rather prefer them with no head at all.