The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 65, March, 1863

Poems of Religious Sorrow, Comfort, Counsel, and Aspiration. New York.

Sheldon & Co. crown 8vo. pp. iv., 204. $1.25.

The Black Man, his Antecedents, his Genius, and his Achievements. By William Wells Brown, Author of "Sketches of Places and People Abroad," etc. New York. Thomas Hamilton. 12mo. pp. 288. $1.00.

A Manual of Elementary Instruction, for the Use of Public and Private Schools and Normal Classes; containing a Graduated Course of Object Lessons for training the Senses and developing the Faculties of Children. By E.A. Sheldon, Superintendent of Public Schools, Oswego, N.Y.; assisted by Miss M.E.M. Jones and Professor H. Krusi. New York. C.

Scribner. 12mo. pp. 465. $1.50.

Elements of Military Art and History: comprising the History and Tactics of the Separate Arms; the Combination of the Arms; and the Minor Operations of War. By Edw. De la Barre Duparcq, Captain of Engineers in the Army of France, and Professor of the Military Art in the Imperial School of Saint-Cyr. Translated and edited by Brigadier-General George W. Cullum, Chief of Staff of the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States; late Aide-de-Camp to Lieutenant-General Scott; and Chief of Staff and of Engineers of Major-General Halleck, while commanding the Departments of the Missouri and Mississippi. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 8vo. pp. 456. $4.00.

Papers on Practical Engineering. No. 8. Official Report to the United States Engineer Department, of the Siege and Reduction of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, February, March, and April, 1862. By Brigadier-General Q.A.

Gillmore, U.S. Volunteers, Captain of Engineers, U.S.A. Illustrated by Maps and Engraved Views. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 8vo. pp. 96. $2.50.

St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: newly translated, and explained from a Missionary Point of View. By the Right Rev. J.W. Colenso, D.D., Bishop of Natal. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 261. $1.25.

The Soldier's Book: A Pocket-Diary for Accounts and Memoranda, for Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates of the U.S. Volunteer and Regular Army. By Captain Robert N. Scott, Fourth U.S. Infantry. New York. D.

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The Trial of the Constitution. By Sidney George Fisher, Author of "The Law of the Territories," "The Laws of Race as connected with Slavery," etc., etc. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. pp. 391. $2.00.

Meditations and Hymns. By "X." Philadelphia Protestant Book Society. 18mo. pp. 184. 60 cts.

1

One who met him many years ago in Edinburgh, at the conclusion of a lecture, tells us, as we write these closing sentences, of his splendid figure, as he saw him twirl an Irish shillalah and show off its wonderful properties as an instrument of fun at a fair.

2

See Numbers LVI., LVIII., and LIX. of this magazine.

3

Du Tertre, the missionary historian of the Antilles, proudly says, previously to this date, that the opinion of France in favor of personal liberty still shielded a French deck from the traffic: "Selon les lois de la France, qui abhorre la servitude sur toutes les nations du monde, et ou tous les esclaves recouvrent heureusement la liberté perdue, sitost qu'ils y abordent, et qu'ils en touchent la terre."

4

Melpomene, § 196.

5

This was the scarlet dye of the Caribs, which they procured from the red pulpy covering of the seeds of the Bixa orellana, by simply rubbing their bodies with them. The seeds, when macerated and fermented, yielded a paste, which was imported in rolls under the name of Orléan, and was used in dyeing. It was also put into chocolate to deepen its color and lend an astringency which was thought to be wholesome. Tonic pills were made of it. The fibres of the bark are stronger than those of hemp. The name Roucou is from the Carib Urucu. In commerce the dye is also known as Annotto.

6

Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. I. pp. 32, 34; No. II. pp. 23, 25, 47; No. III. p. 3. "And you, Quashee, my pumpkin, idle Quashee, I say you must get the Devil sent away from your elbow, my poor dark friend!" We say amen to that, with the reserved privilege of designating the Devil. "Ware that Colonial Sand-bank! Starboard now, the Nigger Question!" Starboard it is!

7

Mémoires de la Société Ethnologique, Tom. I. Ptie 2, p. 147.

8

The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the African Negro, by Hermann Burmeister.

9

Sometimes Fetichism furnished a legend which Catholicism, in its best estate, would not despise. Here is one that belongs to the Akwapim country, which lies north of Akkra, and is tributary to Ashantee. "They say that Odomañkama created all things. He created the earth, the trees, stones, and men. He showed men what they ought to eat, and also said to them, 'Whenever anybody does anything that is lovely, think about it, and do it also, only do not let your eye grow red' (that is, inflamed, lustful). When He had finished the creation. He left men and went to heaven; and when He went, the Fetiches came hither from the mountains and the sea. Now, touching these Fetiches, as well as departed spirits, they are not God, neither created by God, but He has only given them permission, at their request, to come to men. For which reason no Fetich ever receives permission to slay a man, except directly from the Creator."—Petermann's Mittheiltungen, 1856, p. 466.

10

Droit Public des Colonies Françoises, d'après les Lois faites pour ces Pays, Tom. I. p. 306.

11

On the other hand, an elaborate Manuel des Habitans de St. Domingue cautions the planters on this point: "Carefully avoid abandoning the new negroes to the discretion of the old ones, who are often very glad to play the part of hosts for the sake of such valets, to whom they make over the rudest part of their day's work. This produces disgust and repugnance in the new-comers, who cannot yet bear to be ordered about, least of all to be maltreated by negroes like themselves, while, on the contrary, they submit willingly and with affection to the orders of a white." This Manual, which reads like a treatise on muck or the breeding of cattle, proceeds to say, that, if the planter would preserve his negroes' usefulness, he must be careful to keep off the ticks.

12

In Cuba, the slave who had lived upon the island long enough to learn the language was called Ladino, "versed in an idiom."

13

American Oriental Society, Vol. I. p. 423, et seq.

14

Harvey's Sketches of Haiti, p. 292. See a vocabulary in Manuel des Habitans de St. Domingue, par L.J. Ducoeurjoly, Tom. II. Here is a verse of a Creole song, written in imitation of the negro dialect:—

  Dipi mo perdi Lisette,  Mo pas souchié Calinda,*  Mo quitté bram-bram sonette,  Mo pas batte bamboula.**  Quand mo contré l'aut' negresse,  Mo pas gagné z'yeu pour ly;  Mo pas souchié travail piece,  Tou qui chose a moué mouri.

* A favorite dance.

** A kind of tambourine or drum made of a keg stretched with skins, and sometimes hung with bells.]

The French of which is as follows:—

  Mes pas, loin de ma Lisette,  S'éloiguent du Calinda;  Et ma ceinture à sonnette  Languit sur mon bamboula.  Mon oeil de toute autre belle  N'aperçoit plus le souris;  Le travail en vain m'appelle,  Mes sens sont anéantis.

15

There was a proverb as redoubtably popular as Solomon's "Spare the rod"; it originated in Brazil, where the natives were easily humiliated:—"Regarder un sauvage de travers, c'est le battre; le battre, c'es le tuer: battre un nègre, c'est le nourrir": Looking hard at a savage is beating him: beating is the death of him: but to beat a negro is bread and meat to him.

16

A Commissioner's fee under the Fugitive-Slave Bill. History will repeat herself to emphasize the natural and inalienable rights of slave-catchers. In 1706 the planters organized a permanent force of maroon-hunters, twelve men to each quarter of the island, who received the annual stipend of three hundred livres. In addition to this, the owners paid thirty livres for each slave caught in the canes or roads, forty-five for each captured beyond the mornes, and sixty for those who escaped to more distant places. The hunters might fire at the slave, if he could not be otherwise stopped, and draw the same sums. In 1711 the maroons became so insolent that the planters held four regular chases or battues per annum.

17

A coarse rum distilled from the sugar-cane.

18

Other motives became influential as soon as the slaves discovered their advantages. A master in want of money would offer emancipation for a certain sum; the slave would employ every means, even the most illicit, to raise the amount upon which his or her freedom depended. A female slave would demand emancipation for herself or for some relative as her price for yielding to a master; attractive negresses wielded a great deal of power in this way. A great evil arose from testamentary acts of enfranchisement, or equivalent promises; for the slave in question would sometimes poison his master to hasten the day of liberty. On the other hand, many masters of the nobler kind emancipated their slaves as a reward for services: the rearing of six living children, thirty years of field or domestic labor without marooning, industry, economy, attachment, the discovery of a poisoning scheme or of an émeute, saving the life of a white person with great risk,—all these were occasional reasons for enfranchisement.

19

Here, however, the reader must understand that the infernal system of slave-stealing is left entirely out of the account.

20

Mémoires et Correspondence de J. DE MAISTRE, p. 92.

21

Atlantic Monthly, Vol. VIII., p. 765.