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THE PINEHURST OUTLOOK
THE JEFFERSON
THE MOST MAGNIFICENT HOTEL IN THE SOUTH
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
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Eighteen Hole Golf Course of Country Club of Virginia Nearby
The many points of historic interest in, andaiound the City, ai.d its central
location make Richmond a very desirable stop-over point for tourists.
Rooms single and en suite, with and without baths. Turkish and Romen
Baths. Every comfort for the tourist, every convenience for the traveling man.
f For handsomely illustrated booklet or reservations, address
THE JEFFERSON, Richmond, Virginia
O. F. WEISIGER, Manager
PINEHURST DEPARTMENT STORE
Millinery Opening
Our Annual Millinery Opening will take place on
Wednesday, March 10th
Wait and see our Splendid Assortment of Outing Hats
Toilet Articles in Parisian Ivory, Chaffing Dishes, 5 O'clock
Teas, Useful Leather Goods, Silk Waists, Silk Sweaters, Golf
Coats, Sporting Coats, Tennis Goods. Also we carry a full
line of Dry Goods, Men's Furnishings, Boots and Shoes, Fancy
Wools, Embroidery Silks, Groceries, Hardware, Sporting
Goods, Guns, Ammunition, Fruits and Vegetables.
Quality Service Price
FLORIDA: EiM ridge
25 MILES NORTH OF PALM BEACH
Hunting, boating, fishing, bath
ing, tennis, golf. Write for folder.
T B4 Hambvt
Hobe Sound, Fla , Box 25
TALES OF SLAVERY DAYS
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Col. Old HCttlI Jtnriing- iqe
JLlg-ht and Olden Mupwrstliloim
EARLY in the last
century it was seen that
the bringing of slaves to
this country would have
to be stopped, or at least
checked. This trade had
been inaugurated by the
English when Sir John
Yeamans was Governor
of North Carolina, the seat of government
being then at what is now known as Old
Brunswick, below Wilmington, and di
rectly across the river from the famous
Fort Fisher. Sir John brought a curse,
which yet remains, like a black blight,
upon the land. Now the people would
give millions of money to undo what he
did, but it seems it can never be undone.
As far back as the Revolutionary War
it was felt by some leaders, and even
Washington himself, that slavery would
have to have an end some time, and as
far back as that day there were manu
missions of slaves by some of the great
families. As time passed thousands of
cargoes were brought in, landing all
along the Gulf of Mexico and up to the
lower South Atlantic coast, between Nor
folk and Florida.
For a good many years before the Civil
WTar the plan of stopping importations of
slaves was more and more discussed. The
United States had long been active
against the slave trade, and various States
took up the matter, and their action wras
very decided in forbidding the landing of
slaves in their territory. Yet, in spite of
this drastic legislation, there were num
bers of slaves who were brought in in all
sorts of secret ways. The slavers no
longer dared to bring the black people
into the larger ports, but shipped them in
here and there, sometimes at neglected
places where no watch was kept. All the
world was finally in search of slave trad
ing vessels, and only the most daring men
would take the risk of this business, as
capture meant perhaps death or imprison
ment, since the ships of the various coun
tries which pursued the slavers would fire
upon them if they declined to stop. The
English, who had been the first to bring
the slaves into this country, were the first
to take action in abolishing the slave
trade. It must be stated that New Eng
enders were very active in this business,
and that they made fortunes out of it.
It is said that in this section it was the
New Englanders who really brought in
the bulk of the slaves and who devised
the slyest plans for eluding the vigilant
cruisers which haunted the African coast
in an endeavor to catch the vessels which
were coming to these shores or to South
and Central America. It is also main
tained by many authorities that, while
here had been slaves all over New England
they had been largely disposed of because
it was not found profitable to have them
in that cold climate, where they did not
thrive. If It must not be thought that in
the early days negroes alone were slaves,
for the Caribs, natives of the islands in
the South Atlantic, and also the Indians
on the mainland, were taken into slavery
in great numbers; in fact, this absolutely
destroyed the natives of the islands, none
now remaining, while the Indians on the
mainland, all along the coastal plain, very
largely met this same fate, only excepting
the Seminoles in Florida, who hid in their
vast swamps, where yet they remain, in
numbers almost unknown.
The negroes were, of course, objects of
very high value, and as the country devel
oped and the number of slaves brought in
decreased, these values rose very rapidly.
Whereas in 1820 a negro man of the right
age, say, under thirty, was valued at $600,
his value had doubled by the time the
Civil War began. If There were in the
South representatives of every African
tribe of reasonable stature on whom the
slave traders (almost entirely Arabs)
could get their hands, and it was said that
in South Carolina there were representa
tives of two score tribes at least. Some
of these men were of very large stature
and of graceful figure, with noses of the
Roman type, finely arched feet and well
formed limbs, while others were of a
very low type. These characteristics yet
show themselves in various ways. There
was very considerable miscegenation be
tween white and negroes, of course unlaw
ful, since in all North Carolina, for exam
ple, only one marriage of whites and
blacks has ever been legalized, this hav
ing been done by a special act of the
"Carpet-Bag" legislature of 1868.
There was never any slavery worth
speaking of in the mountain regions, and
but little in the mountain foot-hills. The
greatest numbers of slaves were always
near the coast where the farms were
larger and the conditions of life de
manded what may be termed the whole
sale employment of labor, as in the rice
fields, for example, where it was found
that the negroes thrived all the year
around, the conditions being very like
those in their own country. Tf There are
some curious side-lights on the slave ques
tion in this State, and one of these devel
oped at a meeting held very early in 1861
by a number of planters in the Roanoke
River section. Representatives of seven
counties then met at Scotland Neck to
consider secretly the question of offering
North Carolina, or a part of it, to the
Emperor of the French, Louis Napoleon,
this territory, to be held, as Mexico later
was, under a sort of protectorate. This
matter was gravely considered, your
correspondent was informed by the late
Dr. Wood, a cousin of the late dis
tinguished United States Senator Matt
W. Ransom, who wras present at this con
ference, which resulted in nothing.
It was stated by one gentleman present
that the Emperor of the French would not
assent to the continued existence of
slavery, to which another stated that this
would be an insuperable impediment to
such an alliance as the one proposed, as
the planters could not do without slave
labor, and "believed that they could not
control free labor. This is the only in
stance known in which such a matter was
very seriously mooted by anyone, for it