The Way a Southern Female Slave Treats the Abolitionists

The Way a Southern Female Slave Treats the Abolitionists

PREFERS FREEDOM - The Lawrence (Mass.)  American says that the slave woman Betty, whose case was the cause of some little excitement in that city a few months ago, and who returned to accept her liberty, after returning with Mr. Sweet to New York, suddenly left her mistress, who she loved so much, took passage upon the underground railroad, and safely escaped to Cincinnati, where she was joined by her husband, who is a free man.

Nashville, Tenn., April 22, 1858

J. GORDON BENNETT, Esq.

For the last few weeks the above paragraph has been going the rounds of the black republican papers of the North, and now I think it is high time the truth was known. I love the truth, and hate the Devil and the abolitionists who - both combined, no doubt - have concocted this base fabrication.

Now be it know to you and - through the columns of your widely circulated HERALD-to your numerous readers that the said Betty referred to in the above paragraph is here in this city, and has been here for the last three months. 

True, she came home some six weeks prior to myself and family coming - but by my permission and because I had promised her she should come at Christmas; and her desire to come then is not to be wondered at, when you take into consideration that all the slave throughout the entire South have from Christmas to New Year's as a holiday week, which to them is a happier week than ever rolls over the heads of any Northern operative. Knowing that I could trust her, as she had withstood the loving embraces and the pleading, and, at last, the jeers, sneers and taunts of the Boston abolitionists, I sent her home, purchased her a through ticket, amply supplied her [illegible] gold to pay her incidental expenses, went with her [illegible] to pier No. 1, put her on board the Perth Amboy boat for Philadelphia, and instructed her how to avoid and keep out of the society of the abolitionists-all  of which she duly observed, and arrived here in about ten days from New York and is now happy and contented with those she "still loves." This is a true statement of the whole affair, which can be verified by all the city of Nashville. As for Betty, she feels highly indignant at the slanderous reports that are circulated about her a the North, so prejudicial to her character, for she knows that none but the meanest negroes run away, and therefore they must start with the premise that she is a mean negro. Those libellous scurrilous black republican editors had better look out how they tell such egregious lies about Betty, or she will have them up for defamation of character. I am glad, Mr. Editor, that she considers herself infinitely above those abolitionists who kept her in "durance vile" for forty-eight hours in that rotten old shell of old Grover's, singing abolition songs for her special edification, and showing her those three cent lithographs of negroes of both sexes in a perfect state of nudity, being whipped until "rivers of blood" run down their backs. "O! Lorl massa," she said when she was restored to me, "des folks dun no nuffin 'bout de Souf; dun no nuffin 'bout us niggers; 'clar, neber was hurt so bad in all my born days, neber, as I was by dem what ye call 'em, dem abolitionists, when da pulled me and pinched me till I was black and blue all  over; and as for the Norf, O Lor l I's seed nuf; the abolitionists ain't no 'count no how."

A very significant, just and true verdict, coming as it does from a poor, benighted and ignorant Tennessee negro girl. Perhaps some of those pseudo-philanthropic abolitionists would like to purchase Betty's freedom. Suppose they send a delegation consisting of that little, insignificant, contemptible, starving editor of the Lawrence American, and old Grover, together with his strong minded daughter-"Yankee Nell"-from Lawrence, and that notorious chap, Pete Brigham, and the renegade preacher, Theodore Parker, of Boston, and I think they will succeed in their mission; especially let "Yankee Nell" come, who on bended knees in the Boston court house begged Betty, "with tears in her eyes, to declare for glorious freedom," and, after compelling Betty to sleep with her for two whole nights, was at last defeated in her plans, and will have to forego that luxury, perhaps forever. Yes, let her come, let them all come, and I will engage that they shall have a warm military reception, and I will further guarantee that Betty will spurn them again as she did last summer in Boston.

By publishing the above you will do honor the cause of truth and right; and I will have the honor to remain.

Very respectfully yours, &c.,             Louis Sweet