University of Virginia Library

4. IV.

FOR two weeks past I hev bin in North Carolina,
and hev hed an oppertoonity uv bein uv
service to my friends and the good cause.

I wuz there collectin funds fur the new College
at this pint, to wich I am devoted heart and sole,
and wuz a makin my home at Kernel Abslum
Podgers, who resides just back of Rawly, and
whose table and cellar, permit me to say, are unsurpassed
in the South. Kernel Podgers is a gentleman
uv the old skool, who lives in luxurious
elegance onto a plantashn uv 1500 akers, and who
hez troo piety into him, and alluz wears a shirt-frill.
Afore the war he owned 200 niggers, and
his sole runnin out after em, he hez managed,

sence the war, to collect the most uv em and get
em together on the old place. He hez bin busily
engaged in subdooin uv em and bringing em back
to ther normal condishun; but alas! ther wuz difficulties
in the way. The men niggers, with an
obstinacy wich I can't account for, refused to work
for $4 per month, and the wimen, hevin ben mostly
married to ther husbands by the chaplin uv a regiment
wich wuz stashened here doorin the war,
refused to resoom their old relations, and things
looked serious. Most men would hev yielded to
circumstances and give up, but Kernel Podgers
wuz not uv that stripe. He owed a dooty to these
misguided beins wich he felt he must fulfil; and
besides, he is desirous of buildin a new house next
summer and sendin two daughters (by his wife)
to a seminary next season, and he felt that he
must bring em to their senses. He sed that he
stood in the relation uv a father, figgeratively
speekin, to all uv em, and literally to many uv
em; and wuz he agoin to let em go on a flyin
out ov their normal speer? Not any.

The fust day I wuz there, a crisis occurred.
John Podgers, his son, insisted upon takin away
the wife uv a mulatto, and the nigger, forgettin
his posishen, wuz impudent. John struck him,

and the degraded wretch waded in and whaled
him unmerciful. This, uv course, cood not be endoored.
The Podgers' blood riz, and that nigger
wuz seized and catted till he died. Ef I remember
right, he expired while undergoin discipline.
It may be he lived till mornin; but it matters not,
ceptin that I like to be accurate.

It wuz a solem and impressive scene. The
Kernel had the Ethiopian's wife present doorin
the infliction uv the punishment, and to show her
that he did not perceed without authority, before
commencin he read to her from Scripter the chapters
treatin uv Ham and Hager, and the passage
commencin “servance, obey your masters,” and
then walloped him with more vigger than I spozed
wuz left in a man so old. He pinted to the nigger
on the ground, after he wuz cut down, and tellin
her that he hoped it wood be a lesson to her, bade
her go to her quarters. But the perverse creecher
didn't. She ran away and complained to the officer
at the neerest post, who instid uv sendin uv
her back under guard, with his compliments to
Kernel Podgers, actilly forwarded her complaint
to Gen. Sickles, who forthwith struck a blow at
the foundashens uv the fabric uv Southern sosiety,

and ordered the arrest uv the Kernel, who wuz to-wunst
placed in doorance vile.

There wuz eggscitement in the visinity. I never
saw sich a fermentashen. Men run to and fro with
blancht cheeks, and askt, “Wat next? Is our rites
to be taken from us? Is Johnson a holler mockery?”
And they made up a purse, and begged
me to go to Androo, and stand between em and
destruckshen. I run up to Washinton, and hed an
interview with his Eggslency, the President. He
knowd Kernel Podgers, — in his younger days he
hed made his coats, — and ez I tetched upon the
old man immured in a dismal dungeon, he wept.
But A. Johnson hez decision uv character. Wipin
his eyes, he isshood a order for the revokashen uv
Sickleses absurd order that niggers shoodent be
whipt, and a speshl order commandin the offiser
who hed the Kernel in custody, to turn him over
to the Civil Courts, to be tried in accordance with
the laws of North Karliny.

Armed with these documents, I flew back, and
the nite I arrived I hed the satisfackshen uv takin
the Kernel out uv Jail, and takin him afore a Justis
uv the Peace, where he gave bail to appear afore
the Common Pleas to answer a charge uv manslaughter,

prefered by the widder uv the dead
nigger.

A day or two after, the case wuz heard, I appearin
for the Kernel. I held that the case be
dismissed for the followin reason: —

1. The charge uv manslaughter wuz absurd, for
the reason that in the minds uv the Southern people
there hez alluz bin the gravest doubts ez to
whether the nigger is actilly a man. I held that
the length uv his heel, the thickness uv his skull,
the length uv his arm, all showd that he wuz uv
a distink species. Ef this is the case, ez a matter
uv course the Kernel goes free.

2. The Kernel can't be held, allowin the nigger
to be a man. The laws uv the State uv North
Karliny permit the whippin uv niggers, but they
don't prescribe the quantity uv whippin wich may
be inflicted. It's a matter wich is left entirely to
the discreshen of the whipper. It's a matter with
wich the whippee hez nothin to do; neither hez
the State. Ef the Kernel hed shot the nigger he
wood be liable, for shootin ain't permitted; but ez
whippin is, and ez the quantity ain't prescribed, uv
course it intends the matter to be left solely to the
discreshen uv the party who hez the power to whip.
Nothin kin be clearer than that. Shel Kernel Podgers

be punisht becoz a nigger hedn't powers uv
endoorence? Forbid it heven!

Here I rested the case. I showed to the satisfackshen
uv the Court that the law was not only
just but humane, and that any sich absurdity ez
punishin the Kernel for carryin out its pervisions
wood be strikin a blow at the framework uv
society.

The Court coincided with me, and to-wunst discharged
the Kernel, amid the acclamashuns uv the
crowd. The event wuz sellebratid that afternoon
by whippin every nigger within a cirkle uv ten
miles. The exercise did our people good. It
wuz soothin.

In the mean time John Podgers hed gone afore a
Justice uv the Peace and made complaint uv Susan
(that is the name uv the female wich wuz the cause
uv the diffikilty) ez a vagrant, and she wuz so declared
by the Justis and put up and sold. Under
the circumstances no one wood bid agin John, and
she was struck off to him at $50, wich the Justis
under the pecoolyer circumstances uv the case refoosed
to take. I saw John a marchin uv her home,
and felt happy.

The Kernel's gratitood wuz boundlis.

“Wat kin I do for yoo?” sed he, wringin my
hand in a fever uv joy.

“Nothin,” sed I, “nothin! Virchoo is its own
reward. But our College is languishin for want uv
means — let yoor gratitood take that shape.”

He subscribed and paid $200, wich constoots
him a perpetooal Honorary Perfesser, and $100 to
make his wife a perpetooal Honorary Perfesser. I
borrowd uv him $50 to take me home, ez I coodent
uv coorse yoose College funds, and departed $350
better. I left regretfully. Now that this portion
uv the South is gettin her rites, it is trooly a deliteful
place too live, and I shood like to end my days
here. But my post offis, and that college! — I kin
never leave em, never. To that college I hev dedikated
the few remainin years uv my life, and I'll
never desert it so long ez there's a dollar to be
raised for it out uv anybody.