UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

Each
"
was
the
KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
185
"
But take this same familyand planthem
in South Carolinaor Virginia how different
drunk and trading with thesetwo very men,
the result! No common school opens
itsdoors to theirchildren ; the onlychurch, way of showingthem " what a niggerwould
isfifteenmilesoff,over a bad road.
This circumstance
perhaps,
get by tradingwith them."
The whole atmosphere of the country in
at once marks them out as belonging
which theyare born associatesdegradation to that band of half-contrabandtraderswho
and slaverywith usefullabor ; and the onlyspringup among the mean whites,and occasion
standardof gentility isability to livewithout owners of slavesso much inconvenience
work. What branphof useful labor opens by dealingwith their hands. Can any
a
way to its sons 1 Would he be a blacksmith
words so forcibly show what sort of white
"
1 The planters around him prefer to men these are, as the idea of their standing
buy theirblacksmiths in Virginia Ẉould in stupid, brutal curiosity, a whole day,
he be a
carpenter ?
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planter in his as witnesses in such a hellish scene ?
neighborhood owns one or two now. And Conceive the miseryof the slavewho falls
In fact,between the freelaborof the one
North and the slave labor of the South, the night in a miserable logshanty,keptby
there is nothingfor a
poor white to do. a man of this class. All was dirt,discomfort
Without schools or churches, these miserable
and utter barbarism. The man, his
families grow up heathen on a Christian wife,and theirstock of wild,neglected children,
soil, in idleness, vice,dirt and discomfort drank whiskey, ed
of all sorts. They are the pest of the over the miserable man and woman who
neighborhood, the scoffand contempt or pitydid allthe work and bore all the caprices of
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even of the slaves. The expressive phrase, the whole establishment. He man
so common in the mouths of the negroes, of
not long in discovering that these
"
poor white trash," says allforthisluckless slaves were in person, language, and in every
race of beingsthat can be said. From this respectșuperior to their owners ; and all
classspring a tribeof keepersof small groggeries,
and dealers, by a kind of contraband abode was owingto theirministrations.
thathe could getof comfort in thismiserable
trade,with the negroes, in the stolenproduceBefore he went away, theycontrivedto have
of plantations. Thrivingand promisinga
private interview, and begged him to buy
sons may perhapshope to grow up into them. They told him that theyhad been
negro-traders, and thence be exalted into decentlybroughtup in a respectable and
overseers of plantations. The utmost stretch refinedfamily, and that their bondagewas
of ambition is to compass money enough,by therefore the more inexpressibly
The poor creatures had waited on him with
any of a varietyof nondescript measures,
to "buy a niggeror two," and beginto
most assiduous care, tendinghis horse,
'
appear like other folks. Woe betide the brushinghis boots,and anticipating all his
unfortunate negro man or woman, carefully wants, in the hopeof inducing him to buy
raisedin some goodreligious family, when them. The clergymansaid that he never
an execution or the death of theirproprietors
so wished for money
as when he saw the
throws them into the market,and theydejected
visages with which theylistenedto
are boughtby a master and mistress of this his assurances thathe was too poor to comply
class! Oftentimes the slave is infinitely with their desires.
the superior, in every
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respect, in person, This miserableclassof whites form,in all
manners, educationand morals ; but,for all the Southern States, a materialfor the most
horrible and ferociousof mobs. Utterly
thatțhe law guardsthe despotic authority
of the owner quiteas jealously. ignorant, and inconceivably brutal, theyare
From all that would appear, in the case like some blind,savage monster, which,
of Souther,which we have recorded, he when aroused,tramplesheedlessly over
must have been one of thisclass. We have everything
its way.
certainindications,
the evidence, that the Singular as it may appear, thoughslavery
two white witnesses, who spent the whole isthe cause of the misery and degradation of
day in gaping,unresisting survey of his this class,yet theyare the most vehement
diabolicalproceedings, were men of this and ferociousadvocatesof slavery.
The reason is this. They feel the scorn
order.
It appears that the crime alleged
againstthe poor victim was that of getting
and that theywere sent for probablyby
so coopers and masons. Would he be a intothe hands of such masters ! A clergyman,
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shoe-maker ? The plantation shoes are made
now dead,communicated to the writer
in Lynn and Natick țowns of New England.
the followinganecdote : In travelling
of the Southern States, he put up for
loafedand predominat-
gentle-
galling.