Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/68

60 Italian, Asiatic, African or American,' he said, laughing."

In 1850 there were 244,985 slaves in the state of Louisiana alone, and Virginia was a breeding-place for many of them. Hundreds of them died because of the severity of slave-life; hundreds upon hundreds of them still continued to die on board the vessels that transported them to our shores; and untold numbers of others were murdered, or as incidental to attempts at capture, were destroyed.

The raids in Africa were carried a score of leagues inland, untold and unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated upon the natives in thousands of cases. No end of cruelty, no end of bloodshed, no end of diabolical torture was the order of the day. Although growing side by side with America's maiden efforts in a humane civilization, and the introduction of all manner of anti-cruel methods, the treatment of the African slave, nevertheless, from start to finish has simply been a picture long drawn out of hellish brutality, unbridled sensuality, and demoniacal practices. No other kind of cattle have ever been thus dealt with in the world's history. It is a panorama beastly of infamy.

Sometimes the cargo of negroes aboard the slaver mutinied; rarely were they successful, however, and here is a case where they were not. It occurred in 1844, aboard the American slaver Kentucky, which left the coast with 530 slaves aboard of her. They were in the hold and packed together as usual, chained two and two. The mutiny was quickly suppressed, but the captain decided to make an example of the ringleaders, so he shot and hanged 46 of the men and a