116. CXVI.
AT HOME AGAIN. — A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF
SOUL-HARROWING OUTRAGES INFLICTED UPON
THE PEOPLE OF CONFEDERATE × ROADS BY A
PARTY OF FREEDMEN, AND HOW THE INSULT
WAS WIPED OUT.
Post Offis, Confedrit × Roads }
(wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky),
September 16, 1866.
I found my flock in a terrible state uv depression, at which,
when I was told the cause, I didn't wonder at. There wuz,
back uv the Corners, over towards Garrettstown, about three
quarters uv a mile this side of Abbott's grocery (we estimate
distance here from one grocery to another), five or six families
uv niggers. The males of this settlement had all been in the
the Federal army ez soljers, and hed saved their pay, and
bounty, and sich, and hed bought uv a disgustid Confederate,
who proposed to find in Mexico that freedom which was denied
him here, and who, bein determined to leave the country, didn't
care who he sold his plantashen to, so ez he got greenbax,
three hundred acres, wich they hed divided up, and built
cabins onto em, and wuz a cultivatin it. There wuz a store-keeper
at the Corners who come here from Illinoy, and who
hed been so greedy uv gain and so graspin ez to buy their
prodoose uv em, and sell em sich supplies ez they needed.
These accursed sons and daughters uv Ham wuz a livin there
in comfort. The thing wuz a gittin unendoorable. They
come to the Corners dressed in clothes without patches, and
white shirts, and hats on; and the females in dresses, and
hoops under em; in short, these apes hed assoomed so much uv
the style uv people that ef it hadn't bin for their black faces,
they wood have passed for folks.
Our people become indignant, and ez soon ez I returned, I
was requested to call a meetin to consider the matter, which I
uv course did.
The horn wuz tootid, and the entire Corners wuz assembled,
excepting the Illinoy store-keeper, who didn't attend to us
much. I stated briefly and elokently (I hev improved in public
speakin sense I heered His Serene Highness, Androo the I., all
the way from Washinton to Looisville), and asked the brethren
to ease their mind.
Squire Gavitt hed observed the progress uv them niggers
with the most profoundest alarm. He hed noticed em coming
to the Corners, dressed better than his family dressed, and
sellin the produx uv their land to that wretch —
At this point the Illinoy store-keeper come in, and the Squire
proceeded.
— he shood say Mr. Pollock, and he hed made inquiries, and
found that one family hed sold three hundred and seventy-five
dollars worth uv truck, this season, uv which they hed laid out
for clothes and books two hundred dollars, leavin em one hundred
and seventy-five dollars in cash, which was more money
than he had made sense the accursed Linkin passed the
emancipashen proclamation. And what hed driv the iron into
his soul wuz the fact that wun uv them niggers wuz his nigger.
“The money they hev,” pursood the Squire, “is MY MONEY;
that man worth $1500 is my man; his wife is my woman; her
children my children —”
“That's a literal fact!” shouted Joe Bigler, a drunken, returned
Confederate sojer; “they hev yoor nose exactly, and
they're the meanest yaller brats in the settlement.”
This unhappy remark endid in a slite unpleasantness, wich
resulted in the Squire's bein carried out, minus one ear, and
his nose smashed. Joseph remarked that he'd wantid to git at
him ever sense he woodn't lend him a half dollar two months
ago. He was now satisfied, and hoped this little episode
woodn't mar the harmony uv the meetin.
Elder Smathers observed that he hed noticed with pain that
them niggers alluz hed money, and wuz alluz dresst well, while
we, their sooperiors, hed no money, and nothin to boast uv in
the way uv close. He wood say —
Pollock, the Illinoy store-keeper, put in. Ef the Elder wood
work ez them niggers wuz workin, and not loaf over half the
time at Bascom's grocery, he mite possibly hev a hull soot uv
close, and now and then a dollar in money. It wuz here, ez it
wuz in all strikly Dimekratic communities, the grocery keepers
absorb all the floatin capital, and —
He wuz not allowed to proceed. Bascom flung a chair at
him, and four or five uv his constitooents fell on him. He wuz
carried out for dead. Bascom remarked that he wuz for the
utmost freedom uv speech, but in the discussion uv a great
Constooshnel question, no Illinoy Ablishnist shood put in his
yawp. The patriotic remark wuz cheered, but when Bascom
ask't the whole meetin out to drink, the applause wuz uproarious.
Bascom alluz gets applause; he knows how to move an
audience.
Deekin Pogram sed he'd bore with them niggers till his
patience wuz gin out. He endoored it till last Sunday. After
service he felt pensive, ruther, and walked out towards Garrettstown,
meditatin, as he went, on the sermon he hed listened
to that mornin on the necessity uv the spread of the Gospil.
Mournin in sperit over the condition of the heathen, he didn't
notis where he wuz till he found hisself in the nigger settlement,
and in front uv one uv their houses. There he saw a
site wich paralyzed him. There wuz a nigger, wich wuz wunst
his nigger, — wich Linkin deprived him uv, — settin under his
porch, and a profanin the Holy Bible by teachin his child to
read it! “Kin this be endoored?” the Deekin asked.
Deekin Parkins sed he must bear his unworthy testimony
agin these disturbers. They hed — he knowd whereof he
spoke — hired a female woman from Massachusetts to teach
their children! He hed bin in their skool-room, and with his
own eyes witnest it.
Bascom, the grocery keeper, hed bin shocked at their
conduct. He wuz convinct that a nigger wuz a beast. They
come to the Corners to sell the produx of their lands; do they
leave their money at his bar? Nary! They spend sum uv it
at the store uv a disorganizer from Illinoy, who is here interferin
with the biznis uv troo Southern men, but he hed never
seed one uv em inside his door. He hed no pashence with
em, and believed suthin shood be done to rid the community
uv sich yooseless inhabitance. Ef they ever git votes they'r
agin us. No man who dodges my bar ever votes straight
Dimocrisy.
Ginral Punt moved that this meetin do to-wunst proceed to
the settlement, and clean em out. They wuz a reproach to
Kentucky. Of course, ez they were heathens and savages,
sich goods ez they hed wood fall to the righteous, uv whom we
wuz which, and he insisted upon a fair divide. All he wanted
wuz a bureau and a set uv chairs he hed seen.
The motion wuz amendid to inclood Pollock, the Illinoy store-keeper,
and it wuz to-wunst acted upon.
Pollock wuz reconstructed first. Filled with zeal for the
right, his door wuz bustid in, and in a jiffy the goods wich he
wuz a contaminatin our people with wuz distributed among
the people, each takin sich ez sooted em. Wun man sejested
that ez they wuz made by Yankees, and brought South by
Yankees, there wuz contaminashen in the touch uv em, and
that they be burned, but he wuz hooted down, our people
seein a distinction. The contaminashen wuz in payin for em;
gittin em gratooitusly took the cuss off.
Elated, the crowd started for the settlement. I never saw
more zeal manifested. A half hour brought us there, and then
a scene ensood wich filled me with joy onspeekable. The niggers
wuz routed out, and their goods wuz bundled after em.
The Bibles and skool books wuz destroyed first, coz we hed no
use for em; their chairs, tables, and bureaus, clothin and beddin,
wuz distributed. A woman hed the impudence to beg for
suthin she fancied, when the righteous zeal uv my next door
neighbor, Pettus, biled over, and he struck her. Her husband,
forgettin his color, struck Pettus, and the outrage wuz completed.
A nigger hed raised his hand agin a white man!
The insulted Caucashen blood riz, and in less than a minnit
the bodies uv six male Ethiopians wuz a danglin in the air, and
the bodies uv six Ethiopian wimin wuz layin prostrate on the
earth. The children wuz spared, for they wuz still young, and
not hevin bin taught to read so far that they cood not forgit it,
ef kept carefully from books, they kin be brought up in their
proper speer, ez servance to their brethern. (By the way, the
inspired writer must hev yoosed this word “brethern,” in this
connection, figeratively. The nigger, bein a beast, cannot be
our brother.) Some may censure us for too much zeal in this
matter, but what else cood we hev done? We are high toned,
and can't stand everything. These niggers hed no rite to
irritate us by their presence. They knowd our feelins on the
subjick, and by buyin land and remainin in the vicinity, they
kindled the flame wich resulted ez it did. Ez they did in
Memphis and Noo Orleans, they brought their fate onto their
own heads.
Pollock recovered, and with the Yankee school marm who
wuz a teechin the niggers, left for the North yisterday.
It speeks well for the forbearance uv our people that they
wuz permitted to depart at all.
Petroleum V. Nasby, P. M.
(wich is Postmaster),
and likewise late Chaplin to the expedishn.
