University of Virginia Library

127. CXXVII.
MR. NASBY IN NORTH CAROLINA. — THE ABROGATION
OF GENERAL SICKLES'S ORDER.

[1] For two weeks past I hev bin in North Carolina, and hev
hed an oppertoonity uv bein uv servis to my friends and the
good cause.

I wuz there collecting 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 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 been mostly married to ther husbands by the
chaplin uv a regiment wich wuz stashened here doorin the
war, refoosed 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 uv 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 yoor 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 her back under guard, with
his compliments to Kernel Podgers, actilly forwarded her
complaint to General 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
reasons: —

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 quality uv whippin
wich may be inflicted. It's a matter wich is left entirely to
the discreshen uv 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 Professer, and $100 to make his wife a perpetooal
Honorary Professer. 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.