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not excluded from the public conveyances in which they had taken passage themselves, at the North; and I have always supposed that when they were so excluded, it was from fear of offending Southern travellers, more than anything else.[1]
Sitting near some men lounging on the river-bank, I took notes of the following interesting information, delivered in a high-keyed, blatant drawl:—
"The best medicine there is, is this here Idee of Potasun.
- ↑ A South Carolina View of the Subject. (Correspondence of Willis's Musical
World, New York.)—"Charlestown, Dec. 31.—I take advantage of the season
of compliments (being a subscriber to your invaluable sheet), to tender you this
scrap, as a reply to a piece in your paper of the 17th ult., with the caption: 'Intolerance
of coloured persons in New York.' The piece stated that up-town families
(in New York) objected to hiring coloured persons as servants, in consequence of
'conductors and drivers refusing to let them ride in city cars and omnibuses,' and
coloured boys, at most, may ride on the top. And after dwelling on this, you say,
'Shame on such intolerant and outrageous prejudice and persecution of the coloured
race at the North!' You then say, 'Even the slaveholder would cry shame upon
us.' You never made a truer assertion in your life. For you first stated that they
were even rejected when they had white children in their arms. My dear friend, if
this was the only persecution that your coloured people were compelled to yield submission
to, then I might say nothing. Are they allowed (if they pay) to sit at
the tables of your fashionable hotels? Are they allowed a seat in the 'dress
circle' at your operas? Are they not subject to all kinds of ill-treatment from
the whites? Are they not pointed at, and hooted at, by the whites (natives of the
city), when dressed up a little extra, and if they offer a reply, are immediately over-*powered
by gangs of whites? You appear to be a reasonable writer, which is the
reason I put these queries, knowing they can only be answered in the affirmative.
"We at the South feel proud to allow them to occupy seats in our omnibuses
(public conveyances), while they, with the affection of mothers, embrace our white
children, and take them to ride. And in our most fashionable carriages, you will
see the slave sitting alongside of their owner. You will see the slave clothed in
the most comfortable of wearing apparel. And more. Touch that slave, if you
dare, and you will see the owner's attachment. And thus, in a very few words,
you have the contrast between the situation of the coloured people at the North
and South. Do teach the detestable Abolitionist of the North his duty, and open
his eyes to the misery and starvation that surround his own home. Teach
him to love his brethren of the South, and teach him to let Slavery alone in
the South, while starvation and destitution surround him at the North; and
oblige,
"Baron."
