USA > Louisiana > Sketches, historical and descriptive, of Louisiana > Part 26
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
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dollars, were not to exceed thirty lashes ; but the stripes were allowed to be repeated after the interval of a day. It was permitted to fire on armed negroes, who had de- serted their masters ; also on those unarmed, if they re- fused to submit when required, or presumed to defend .themselves against their masters or overseers ; and like- , wise on those who entered a plantation with an intent to steal. Those who killed or wounded a negro, except in the above cases, were threatened with the severest penal- ties of the law. The amusements among slaves were re- stricted to Sundays ; and the planters were forbidden, un- der a penalty of ten dollars, to suffer any strange negroes to visit their plantations after dark; and they were also forbidden, under a like penalty, to permit any intrigues or plots of escape to be formed on their plantations by ne- groes belonging to others. No slave was permitted to leave the plantation of his master without a written per- mission, under a penalty of twenty lashes; and if any slave was found riding the horse of his master without the like permission, he was liable to receive thirty lashes. Fire arms, powder, and lead, found in the possession of slaves, were liable to confiscation ; and such slaves were adjudged to receive thirty lashes. No planter was al- lowed to employ more than two slaves to hunt for him at the same time ; and on their return from the chase thev .were obliged to deliver up their arms. No slave was al- lowed to sell any thing, not even the productions of his own labor, without the permission of his master.
This picture, however dark and deformed it may ap- pear, exhibits many favorable traits, when compared with the slave system in operation before the administration of the Baron : yet a man of reflection, unacquainted with slave policy, would be apt to consider even this as the production of some Goth or Vandal, designed to disfigure and to brutalize the image of the Creator. 'T'he labor itr. posed on slaves is equal to the powers of the most robust
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men ; and yet for their subsistence they are tantalized with a small pittance of corn, which they are obliged to grind or pound for themselves, and also with the hard choice of a little waste land, which they have not time to cultivate, or a few rags to hide their nakedness, or to guard them against the severity of the weather. Hunger and labor render them feeble, and the calves of their legs are as flabby as the dulap of a cow. Those who have the greatest number of slaves, treat them the worst ; avarice is the hydra of their cruelty.
Authors have remarked, that the bitterness of slavery is more severe in free than in arbitrary governments. According to this sentiment the slaves in the United States were always worse treated than those in Louisiana; but this was not the case, though the sentiment holds good . with respect to the Spanish provinces, where, in conse- quence of a late revolution in their slave system, slaves are treated with kindness, and even live as well as their masters. If they acquire sufficient money to purchase their time, the law directs their ransom. Those treated improperly have a right to demand letters of sale, and are authorised to seek new masters for themselves. If they are refused this privilege, the magistrate of the place ex- amines into the nature of the complaints, and, if well founded, grants the permission required, or disposes of the injured slaves at public vendue. Instances of the lat- ter kind often occurred in Louisiana.
It is a stain on the character of civilized nations, that slavery was ever authorised among them ; and how a chris- tian people can reconcile it to their consciences, no one can determine, except it be on account of interest. Here then we find a motive for all our actions, much more powerful than the dictates of morality and religion. While we keep so many of our fellow creatures in bond- age, let us cease to talk about liberty and the rights of man; let us not claim for ourselves what we deny to oth-
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ers. The slavery occasionally imposed on some of our citizens by the Barbary powers, has more than once ex- cited the sympathy and indignation of the United States. 'Those the most clamorous for revenge, whether individu- als or organized bodies, and the most forward to condemn the practice of those powers, seem not aware, that they ' stand self-convicted of the same offence; the censures they bestow on the pirates of the Mediterranean, are so many libels on their own conduct. Modesty dictates, that we be more reserved on the subject of personal liberty, at least till we emancipate those whom we retain in bondage. With what justice can we demand the enjoyment of a right, when at the same time we prohibit it to others ?
We all know, that slavery is coeval with history, per- haps with the world. The sources of this system among the ancients were various ; particularly the absolute pow- er exercised by parents over their children, either to kill, or to sell them ; and likewise that of disposing of their criminals and insolvent debtors, as well as their prisoners taken in time of war.
To the disgrace of America, and of human nature, ne- gro slavery has its origin on our continent. The benevo- lent father De las Casas, the advocate of oppressed hu- manity in the new world, exclaimed against the slavery of the Indians; and, finding his efforts of no avail, proposed to Charles V, in 1517, the slavery of the Africans as a substitute. This proposal had the effect of lightening the chains of the natives, and of forging new ones for the in- habitants of another hemisphere. The Spaniards, how- ever, from some religious scruples, refused at first to en- gage in the importation of slaves from Africa ; though they eased their consciences by opening their ports to their admission, and by employing other nations to traffic for them. The Abbe Raynal says, that about nine milli- ons of negroes were landed in the Spanish colonies, and that less than fifteen hundred thousand existed in his time.
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Such an amazing diminution of the Africans must be at- tributed to barbarous cruelty. The example of the Spa- niards was soon followed by the other European nations.
The most substantial argument in favor of slavery, is derived from the right of the strongest. The origin of this right may be traced to the dark ages of barbarism. Modern civilized nations do not sell their children, nor enslave their insolvent debtors, nor even their prisoners of war, to whose services they have some shadow of claim ; but they depredate on the harmless and inoffensive Afri- cans, merely to gratify their avarice, without the least provocation, and without any apprehended danger of their power. The laws of most European nations disclaim the. right of slavery ; and the great oracle of English juris- prudence declared some years ago from the bench, that, by the laws of that kingdom, a right of property could not exist in the human species. . The common law of the United States recognizes the same doctrine. If slavery be maintained in some of the individual states and terri- tories, it is by virtue of particular statutes, added to the mutual concessions inserted in the federal constitution.
Slave-holders pretend to justify negro slavery on two grounds. The first is, that other nations still continue the practice ; and therefore to abandon it themselves would have no sensible effect on the general system. The se- cond is, that the slaves they purchase were reduced to this condition in their own country ; and therefore they are now in as eligible a situation as if they had never crossed the ocean.
This reasoning has no better foundation than avarice ; and to this single quality of the mind must be attributed all the miseries of the many millions of human beings in bondage. Can the wickedness of other nations be justly adduced as an apology for our own ? If precedent be al- lowed to sanctify crimes, why are robbers and murderers exposed to the vengeance of the laws ? If other nations
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have done wrong, it becomes us to avoid the pernicious example. Were we to adopt some plan for the gradual- abolition of slavery, it might possibly have some effect on the policy of others. . We have prohibited the importation . of slaves ; Great Britain has done the same ; and some other nations appear inclined to abandon the traffic. These prohibitions will induce slave holders either to treat their slaves with more kindness, and by this means enable them to preserve their number by propagation ; or they will gra- dually waste away under the rigors of their fate, and even- tually become extinct. However, none of the consequen- ces of either case strike at the root of the evil.
To purchase Africans, who were reduced to bondage in their own country, is as criminal as to purchase those of a different description. The wars among the tribes of Africa are mostly fomented by slave merchants, and these merchants secure millions of prisoners merely for the purposes of traffic. Is it no crime to tear men from their country, families, and friends ? The Africans are not des- , titute of sensibility, and they frequently manifest it in a manner, which does honor to human nature. The indig- nity and cruelty with which they are treated, often induce them to put a period to their existence, even in the pre- sence of their masters and overseers ; and shall we con- clude, that this is the effect of insanity rather than of a greatness of soul! When the whites cease to purchase slaves, wars in a great measure will cease among the A- fricans, and their numerous tribes enjoy as much peace and harmony as other nations in the same circumstances. There are physical evils enough in the world without the addition of artificial ones ; and it becomes us as men and as christians to provide against the asperities of the for- mer, and to prohibit the creation of the latter.
Notwithstanding the guards placed on the slave system by the constitution and laws, and by the treaty of cession, which secures to the Louisianians the enjoyment and per-
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petuity of their rights, perhaps a way may be devised to remove this badge of our disgrace, without an infringe- ment of either. It must be admitted, that the right of property in slaves cannot be invaded ; yet doubts may arise as to the extent of this right, and it will be necessary to ascertain it with precision. The laws of some nations impose on the child the condition of the mother ; the con- sequence is, that the children of freemen are often born slaves, and many of them drag out their existence in ser- vitude under their own fathers. Louisiana presents at least one instance of melancholy depravity; the father disposed of several of his children as slaves, together with their mother. Among some rations the contrary principle obtains ; the child born of a female slave follows the condition of the father. This principle is much more just than the other, though it is attended with one dilh- culty not easily removed ; the father cannot be so readily ascertained as the mother. At any rate, this kind of right, from the very nature of things, is limited to actual slaves ; it does not attach till they are in existence ; it is not present and absolute, but contingent and future. ~ If this position be correct, and it is supported by some good authorities, it seems to follow, that the legislature may provide for the emancipation of the children of slaves, at any age it pleases, born at some stipulated future period. Were such a measure adopted, it is easy to see, that a gradual abolition of slavery would take place among us. Perhaps this plan is less objectionable than some others, which have been frequently suggested ; and it may be so modified and extended as to embrace a provision for the ' benefit of the objects of it.
The advocates of slavery not only contend, that the child ought to follow the condition of the female parent, but that the right of the master extends to the possible issue of the mother ad infinitum. The consequence of this doctrine is that slavery must continue as long as female slaves
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propagate their species ; and that, to provide for the e- mancipation of future generations, would be illegal and unconstitutional. This doctrine obtains in many parts of the United States, particularly in the Indiana Territory ; in which "slavery and involuntary servitude" are express- ly prohibited by the ordinance of 1787. The obvious con- struction of this prohibition is, that the slaves at that pe- riod in existence were entitled to their freedom; or at least, that the children of female slaves, born after the adoption of the ordinance, were born free. If therefore the doctrine already mentioned be correct, they can claim no legal exemption from slavery, and of course the prohi- bition is a nullity. The practice in that territory seems to correspond with this strained and pernicious construction of the ordinance. Slave property, while it exists, ought not to be infringed ; and if no legal means can be devised to abolish it, let it be perpetual.
It is difficult, even for men of moderate tempers, to suppress their indignation at one of the pretexts adduced in support of slavery, that the whites are unable to labor in some climates on account of the excessive heats! If we be allowed to consult our convenience without regard to the means ; if each white is at liberty to make fifty or a hundred blacks wretched and miserable to promote his interest, and to gratify his avarice ; then let us abandon our moral and political creeds, and study only to render our consciences inaccessible to remorse. The God of na- 'ture never intended, that one part of the human race should be governed by the whims and caprices of the oth- er; nor that artificial evil should become a substitute for attainable good. The pretext is futile in every point of view. Nature has fitted men for labor in the climate where they are born and educated. A citizen of Georgia is as well qualified to labor in that state as a Yankee in New- England ; the effects of heat and cold are about the same on both. Add to this, it so happens, that, in the warm
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latitudes the lands are much more prolific, and much more easily cultivated, than in colder ones ; of course less labor is required to gain subsistence. The native inhabitants of Lower Louisiana experience no inconvenience from the heats ; and those employed in navigating the rivers are exposed to more fatigue than is common to any other class of our citizens. Besides, in that country, and in the Mis- sissippi territory, hundreds of families from the middle and eastern states, have planted themselves. For several years after their arrival, their characteristic industry was evident ; and they experienced no dangerous effects from the climate, except a troublesome lassitude for the two or three first years. The accumulation of wealth enabled them to purchase slaves ; after which, like their neigh- bors, they contracted habits of indulgence. The heats, therefore, furnish no material obstruction to manual la- bor ; and the effects of them in the southern states and territories are more than counterbalanced by the exube- rant nature, and the valuable productions, of their lands. Much indeed is due to the people of slave states, to whom slavery has become familiar from long habit, and, perhaps, iu their view, necessary to their prosperity, if not to their existence. Their feelings, and even prejudices, are enti- tled to respect ; and a system of emancipation cannot be contrived with too much caution.
The fact is, that the people of the eastern states expe- rience more inconvenience from the rigors of the seasons than those of the south. In New-England the mercury sometimes rises to one hundred degrees, and as often falls twenty degrees below zero. The extremes of heat are greater in New-England ; but they are not of so long con- tinuance, nor is the air so humid and unelastic as in the southern parts of the union, which are doubtless more or "less prejudicial to health. Still these traits are more to- lerable than the opposite extreme in New-England, where the country is covered with snow, and bound in icy chains
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for nearly six months in the year. Both men and beasts suffer from the rigors of winter ; and the necessary sub- sistence for them, is obtained at a prodigious expense and labor. In Lower Louisiana the whites may labor nine months in the year, without experiencing any inconveni- ence from the heats ; and three months labor in that quar- ter is productive of more real value than twelve months in New-England. Add to this, cattle and swine need no other food than what the earth spontaneously yields ; and every planter has it in his power to supply himself with · almost any number he pleases. In whatever light, there. fore, we view the subject, the greatest advantages are at- tached to the southern states and territories.
The pernicious system of slavery deserves reprehension · from another motive. No country can become populous where it prevails ; and this truth is attested by numerous examples. We need cast our eyes only on the West-India Islands, and on the southern states of the union. No part of the country possesses a more happy climate, or a better . soil, than the great state of Virginia; yet her white po- pulation is comparatively small. Kentucky is a slave state ; and if her population be considerable, it must be attribu- ted to accidental causes, which are not difficult to explain. The state of Ohio is now in its infancy : slavery is exclu- ded from her bosom ; and this very circumstance will in- duce a rapid population, augment her strength and resour- ces, and soon enable her to rise superior to her neighbor.
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CHAPTER XIII.
ANTIQUITIES.
MANY antiquities worthy of notice cannot be sup- posed to exist in Louisiana. Indeed, all the monuments to be found of a hoary nature, may be traced to the anci- ent aboriginals of the country ; and although they are not antiquities in the proper sense of the term, yet they de- serve a place in history as worthy of the curious and in- quisitive. Were it possible to present them in detail, and to give an accurate description of them, the philosopher might be assisted in his enquiries into their origin, and be able to gratify the curiosity of mankind relative to the early state of this part of the globe. Until the country be
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more explored, and accurate observers are enabled to in- vestigate the remains of antiquity, we must be satisfied with partial accounts of them, perhaps in many respects erroneous, derived from various sources, and many of them of doubtful authority. All the historian at present can do is, to collect these accounts, to compare and weigh the authorities on which they are founded, and to form the best judgment in his power.
From the ancient fortifications and tumuli, and some other remains of antiquity, found in various parts of the western country, some have been led to believe, that they are the productions of a civilized people. Carver says, (and his accounts in general have been found correct) that he examined an ancient fortification near Lake Pepin on the Mississippi, of about a mile in circuit, the angles of which were distinguishable, and appeared to be fashioned with as much military skill as if constructed by Vauban himself. Probably this account is not exaggerated, as sub- sequent travellers have given a similar description of the same work, and as other works equally remarkable, if not of equal extent, are found in various parts. Some of those in the state of Ohio have been examined, and they manifest a degree of mathematical precision, not to be expected from illiterate savages, and it is extremely diffi- cult to ascribe them to chance. It is admitted on all hands, that they have endured for centuries. The trees on their ramparts, from the number of their annulæe, or radii, indi- cate an age of more than four hundred years. Most of the ancient fortifications, of which we speak in general, are spacious, and surrounded by deep ditches, and are fur- nished in some instances with regular covered ways. The walls or parapets of earth still remain, and are generally from three to five feet high ;. so that the lines may be ea -. sily traced, in most instances covered with large trees, as old, perhaps, as any in the forest. Some of these works have regular bastions ; and they are all well. calculated.to
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defend the places where they are situated. It is worthy of remark, that many ancient circular intrenchments are found in Ireland and Scotland, and in various other parts of Europe ; but from the drawings made of them, they - appear much less perfect in their construction than those in the western country.
Perhaps the most remarkable ancient fortification with- in the bounds of our territory, is situated in the neighbor- hood of Chilicothe. It has been accurately surveyed by an intelligent and skilful officer of our artillerists. It is a regular polygon of twenty-four sides, each of which is about fifty-five yards in length. It has four large, and four small gate ways, situated opposite to each other. About . the centre of the work, the whole of which embraces up- wards of twenty acres of ground, is a large mount of a conical figure, nearly seventeen feet high, on the summit of which are five or six large trees. Indeed, on all the lines of this extensive fortification, the trees are as large as those of the adjacent forest. This work manifests a degree of mathematical skill, not possessed by the abori- gines, and by a few only, of those deemed intelligent whites. To suppose it the invention of any other than a skilful mathematician, requires a greater extent of credu- lity than is allowable among men of sense and reflection.
Perhaps it will never be known by whom, nor at what time, these fortifications were erected. Mankind are in the dark on this subject, and simple conjectures must supply the place of correct authorities. There is, however, some reason to believe, that they were constructed by a people much more civilized than the present race of savages. Till we are better informed, it seems fair to attribute them to the. Welsh, particularly as there is some evidence to prove, that three small colonies of that nation landed in America more than three centuries before the days of Columbus. The science of fortification, as practised by
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the Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, and generally by the other nations of Europe, was probably well under- stood In Wales long before Madoc and his people left it. This was probably the last of the arts to escape them, as no doubt they continually practised it in defending them- selves against their enemies ; and from their peculiar si- tuation we have reason to conclude, that it was not wholly obliterated till after a lapse of several centuries.
On a subject of so much obscurity, no apology is ne- cessary for the conjectures hinted at. If the origin of the numerous fortifications, dispersed over the western coun- try, cannot be traced with any reasonable degree of cer- tainty, it is not wholly superfluous and unpardonable, to indulge such conjectures as the obscure nature of it will afford.
The reader may attach what credit he pleases to the following story : Soon after the settlement of the French in the Illinois country, something like the cog-wheel of a mill, constructed in a rough manner, was found floating down the Missouri. The man who discovered this spe- cimen of mechanic skill, lived to a great age ; and there are now some old people on the Mississippi, who have of- ten heard him relate the occurrence. The reader is re -. quested to bear in mind what we have said in another place, relative to the existence of a white nation about the heads of that river.
Several publications have announced that, on opening a copper mine on the Mississippi, some distance below the falls of St. Anthony, the laborers found some tools adapted to the work, several fathoms below the surface of the earth ; and that in digging a well, a furnace of brick work, with some coals and fire brands, were discovered thirty feet under ground. - Of the great depth of these tools, coals, and fire brands, we have some doubt; but such a discovery is the more probable, as the French opened and
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worked some copper mines in that quarter more than a century ago, and they eventually abandoned them on ac- count of the hostile disposition of the Indians.
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The bones of the Mammoth, or of some other enor- mous animal, may at least be ranked among the curiosi- ties, if not among the antiquities, of Louisiana. To what kind of animal they belonged, or at what time they were - deposited in their present beds, is difficult to ascertain. Such accounts are given of their quantity and size, as al- most to exceed belief. Some, (who have viewed them) pretend, that an entire skeleton may be formed, more than sixty feet long, and more than twenty-five feet high. This is not altogether a figure of rhetoric; for certain it is, that many bones of an uncommon size and length are found in various places, particularly on the Osage river, and be- neath the surface of the ground. A square of several hundred yards in extent, situated in the vicinity of a salt spring, is filled with them ; and what is still more extra- ordinary, they are intermixed with human bones. The ground, in which they are deposited, is of a spongy na- ture, and receives the substances rolled down by the rains from an adjoining hill. About the year 1796, a gentle- man at St. Louis collected several sets of the teeth, some of which were but little decayed, and presented them to the Baron Carondelet at New-Orleans. They were com- pared with those of the elephant; and it was the opinion of the Baron, that they belonged to that animal. Some of the bones alluded to are petrified, and others much decayed; and the author of these sketches has frequently examined those of both descriptions.
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