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Personal Protection for the Negro

Posted by $ SpiritWoman 1 day, 22 hours ago to History
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Nehemiah Adams, "The Southside View of Slavery", 1854:

"A strong public sentiment protects the person of the slave against annoyances and injuries. Boys and men cannot abuse another man's servant. Wrongs to his person are avenged. It amounts in many cases to a chivalric feeling, increased by a sense of utter meanness and cowardice in striking or insulting one who cannot return insult for insult and blow for blow. Instances of this protective feeling greatly interested me. One was rather singular, indeed ludicrous, and made considerable sport; but it shows how far the feeling can proceed. A slave was brought before a mayor's court for some altercation in the street; the master privately requested the mayor to spare him from being chastised, and the mayor was strongly disposed to do so; but the testimony was too palpably against the servant, and he was whipped; in consequence of which the master sent a challenge to the mayor to fight a duel.

A gentleman, whose slave had been struck by a white mechanic with whom the servant had remonstrated for not having kept an engagement, went indignantly to the shop with his man servant to seek explanation and redress, and in avenging him, had his arm stripped of his clothing by a drawing knife in the hands of the mechanic.

It's sometimes noted that the killing a negro is considered a comparatively light offence at the south. In Georgia it is much safer to kill a white man than a negro; and if either is done in South Carolina, the law is exceedingly apt to be put in force. In Georgia I have witnessed a strong purpose among lawyers to prevent the murderer of a negro from escaping justice."


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  • Posted by kddr22 1 day, 6 hours ago
    “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
    Ayn Rand
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    • Posted by $ 1 day, 1 hour ago
      I assume you are talking about my 'individual' rights as a private American citizen, which rights Obamma dared trample on?
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      • Posted by kddr22 1 day ago
        As straightforward as it says A=A
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        • Posted by $ 1 day ago
          Nice to know there are still citizens in the U.S. who believe in individual rights, GUARANTEED by the Constitution, that is, by the U.S. government.

          Obamma was a traitor TO HIS OATH. Perhaps not to the U.S., as it seems the country must be at war for treason to be earned, but he did BETRAY HIS OATH. And I can scream and yell at him, but he can't understand.
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      • Posted by VetteGuy 20 hours, 45 minutes ago
        How so? You make this claim, but no details. What rights did Obama 'trample on' and how.

        No fan of Obama, by the way. I think he and Holder set race relations back decades. I think without Obama, we would be much closer to seeing all people as individuals, instead of as groups.
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        • Posted by $ 18 hours, 41 minutes ago
          Pay particular attention to the antagonist, Silas Lynch, mulatto Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina and his 'policies', in the movie "Birth of a Nation" to understand more of Obama's 'crimes'. He lies, of course.
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        • -1
          Posted by $ 20 hours, 9 minutes ago
          Sorry. You don't need to know. Read the topic as it was meant to be read. And understood.
          Or you could watch the 3-hour block buster film of 1915: Birth of a Nation.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 1 day, 20 hours ago
    I don't understand. Is there something relevant to current goings on, or is this really just an independent history discussion? What is the point you want to make about the thinking of the times from the quote?
    Also no idea who is down voting, but maybe the answers will illuminate.
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  • -1
    Posted by $ 1 day, 21 hours ago
    Well, SOMEBODY read this topic! Good for him/her/it.

    Doesn't care to say why he/she/it doesn't like it.

    He/she/it might prefer my topic on the Jewish Communist Sol Auerbach, and Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's". Or maybe not.

    He/she/it might prefer to always believe the Southern Negro was always mistreated and oppressed.

    I suppose in his/hers/its mind if the Negro was not oppressed, there would be no reason to hate the white dudes.
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  • -1
    Posted by $ 1 day, 22 hours ago
    To continue:

    "There have been mournful cases in which the murderer of a negro has escaped deserved punishment; but it was not because it was a negro that was killed. The murderers of white people have as frequently obtained impunity. The arguments of lawyers at the bar have been quoted to show that the life of a negro at the south is not equivalent to the life of a white person; even if this be correct, we forget that lawyers, in changing sides, sometimes change their minds, and are unwilling to have their previous views quoted as authority.

    The laws allow the master great extent in chastising a slave, as a protection to himself and to secure subordination. Here room is given for brutal acts; barbarous modes of inflicting pain, resulting in death, are employed; but it is increasingly the case that vengeance overtakes and punishes such transgressors.

    It is well for themselves that the blacks do not have the temptations which the liberty of testifying against the whites would give them. While they are thus restricted by law, for obvious reasons, from giving testimony, their evidence has its just weight with juries, when it is known. Offenders do not escape more frequently at the south, by legal quibbles, imperfect legislation, and the ingenuity of lawyers than in the free States. The whole impression with regard to personal protection extended over the slaves, as compared with personal safety elsewhere, was far different from that which I had been led to expect."

    Mark Twain:

    "Mark Twain in his autobiography told the story of a negro he saw while riding in his carriage, being baptized in a pool of water, who, coming back up sputtering and choking, said: "Some gemmun's ni**** gwine drown someday!"

    It is obvious the Southern black slave understood his value to his master."
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  • -1
    Posted by $ 1 day, 22 hours ago
    To continue:

    ""A slave had recently set fire to a cotton house, after the crop was in, and the loss was great. He was arraigned, and plead guilty. The judge asked who was his master. He pointed to him. The judge inquired if he had provided counsel for him. The master honestly replied that as the slave was to plead guilty, and there was no question in any mind of his guilt, he had not thought it necessary. The judge told the clerk not to enter the negro's plea, and informed the master, that unless he preferred to provide counsel, he would do it, as the law allowed him to do, at the master's expense. The master brought forward two young lawyers. The judge said, with due respect to the young gentlemen, that the master knew how grave was the offence, and that experienced men ought to manage the case. He appointed two of the ablest men at the bar to defend the negro. But the evidence, as all knew it would be, was overwhelming, and the jury convicted the prisoner. Whereupon one of the counsel rose, and reminded the judge at what disadvantage the defence had been conducted and moved for a new trial. It was granted. The case was pending at my last information.

    I asked myself, where at the North would a white culprit meet with greater lenity and kindness ? If the administration of justice is any good index of the moral feeling in a community, I began to see that it was wrong to judge such a community as the one in question merely by their slave code, or by theoretical views of slavery however logically true.

    Not long since, two men were convicted of worrying a negro with dogs and killing him. They were confined in Charleston jail. The people of their own district meditated a rescue; but the governor, without changing the ordinary course of proceeding in such cases, conveyed them, under military guard, to the district where the murder was committed, and they were executed in sight of their neighbors."
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