NORTHERN MAN’S OBSERVATION ON SLAVERY…
Nehemiah Adams was a clergy man who was born at Salem Mass on Feb 19, 1806. He graduated from Harvard in 1826 and from the Andover Theological Seminary in 1829. Mr. Adams took an active part in all the theological and ecclesiastical questions of his day. In 1854 he became impressed with the idea that the Northern antagonism to slavery might be diverted into a neutral effort with the South to plan for the good of the African race. His “South Side View of Slavery” published in 1854 was fiercely attacked by the anti-slavery press. Here is a selection on his observation of slavery in New Orleans during his visit there when writing his book:
“No one who has spent a month in New Orleans will deny the fact that the colored population of our city is a happy, well-dressed, and improving race. They are far above the poorer class, or day laborers, of northern towns, in all that tends to comfort and freedom from care. It affords matter of astonishment, and an interesting subject for reflection, to those from the Northern States, to stand on the corners of any of our thoroughfares, of a Sabbath morning or an afternoon, and witness the constant succession of group after group of colored people, arrayed in plain, neat, and elegant attire, consisting often of whole families, from aged grandsire to toddling grandchild; their faces expressive of content and abundance ; their conversation indicative of genuine happiness, as they wend their way to the various places of worship provided in the city for their accommodation. There is no countenance sharpened by want; there is no miserable caricature of humanity, redolent with filth, with rags fluttering in the breeze; there is no infantile visage crushed into the mold of age; but ever varied as our colored population is in features and dress, there is the undoubted proof of enjoyment, of plenty, of kind treatment, and of contentedness.
Travis [><]
Source: “A South-side View of Slavery” by Adams, Nehemiah, 1860
Link to free e-book: https://archive.org/details/southsideviewofsl00adam