Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1859 — TERRORISM OF SLAVERY. [ARTICLE]

TERRORISM OF SLAVERY.

The social system of the South is a source of continual anxiety and ter-or to the fovhite inhabitants. They are always in dreakl of a slave insurrection at some point or other. They fear their slaves are only waiting lor a favorable opportunity to rise, and .that, at the first signal, insurrection will spread like fire in dry stubble. And they feel‘confident that, if such a fearful state of affairs' ever does come to pass, the slaves : will- exact fearful, awful, retribution for theT] wropgs and cruelties they have suffered at I the hands of their oppressors. The country would run with blood for a season, until the black race should be utterly annihilated. With such a state of things starring them I in the face, there can be no wonder that the Southern people are continually experiencing a reign of terror. They are ever vigilant—always anxious. They know not in whaf direction to look for the impending danger. The demon of insurrection shakes his gory head at them in their sleep, and whe* awake they look for its momentary appearance. They feel that a sword.is hung over their heads suspended by a single hair, and are every moment in dread of its falling. Nothing more is needed to prove this than to Consider -the terrible excitement created by the abortive attempt at insurrection at ’ Harper’s Ferry. It has become notorious that a party of seventeen white men and five blacks held a town of two thousand inhabitants in mortal fear from Sunday morning to Tuesday morning—until, in fact, some thousand soldiers jhad arrived from neighboring cities. What does this fact prove? Not that the two thousand inhabitants of Harpier’s Ferry were ajl cowards, and afraid of that garrison of (twenty-two crazy men and fanatics; but Jtnat they expected their glaves to rise in arms against them, and were therefore afraid to leave their homes, lest in their absence the long-oppressed and infuriated blacks should wreak their vengeance in thp blood of-innocent children and helpless women. Each man felt it to be his duty during such trying times to remain at home and defend his own hearth-stone. There are said to be 32,000 slaves in the several counties of Virginia and Maryland lying within twenty miles of Harper’s Ferry. The citizens expected at every moment to see an army of these blacks approaching their town. Instead of attacking Brown ajtd lua twenty-orte followers, they telegraphed with all haste to Baltimore and Washington City for assistance, exaggerating in their fears the number of their befrom twenty-two to “two hundred and fifty whites, and a gang of negroes,” and another account said there were “from five to seven hundred whites and blacks.” On' the announcement of the oubreak a thrill: of indescribable terror coursed with 1 ’I

lightning speed through every Southern nerve. Look at the awful excitement in Harper Ferry on that frightful Tuesday afternoon, when the news came from Sandy Point, a little town about four miles distant, that the blacks were murdering women and children. The rumor blanched the cheeks of the men of Harper’s Ferry; but not one started to help the men of Sandy Point until the United States marines returned from there and reported the whole thing a hoax. Look again at the false rumor o’l Monday eftJinoon in the streets of Harper’s Ferry, that Coek with a large arImy of blacks had garrisoned a country school-house, within two or three miles of the village. This rumor also made the : faces of the men of Harper’s Ferry pale on i that terrible afternoon, when direful rumors | flew thick and fast through the streets of i Harper’s Ferry; but not a soul proceeded to ascertain its truth or falsehood. But what more could be expected of men ■who feared that there were one or more spies or deadly enemies in arms in almost every house’ They knew not what the extent of their danger was, and hence their efforts were paralyzed. We suppose it is fair to presume that the same feeling that existed at Harper’s Ferry on the development of Brown’s insurrection, does at all times exist throughout every portion of the slave States. The whites are oppressed with ahorrid reign of terror—a sleepless nightmare—and always will be until they diminish in numbers the servile race among them. In many sections of the South mounted patrols of slaveholders night-' ly scoure the country, to see that all is well. They are in a state of constant alarm and fear. And their demagogual cry, that “the Republicans desire to overthrow slavery by force,” but increases their danger, by lead- i ing their negroes to believe that such indeed is the case, thus moving them to thought and action. Many of the slaves can and do read the papers placed in their way by the whites, and many more, the confidential servants of their masters, hear the Arguments made use of by Democratic politicians at the South, that Republicans intend to abolish slavery in the States. Thus the' word goes forth amq'ng the negroes through- I out the entire ssouth, by word of mouth, until the slaves on the most remote plantation 1 hear and believe that the dominant party in' the North is plotting for their liberation by' force. This being the case, the greatest 1 wonder is that insurrections are not more frequent. The next wonder is that slaveholders are so foolishly blind to their own interests and safety; and the next, that they persist in their endeavors to drive their antislavery brethren, by the grossest insults and falsehoods, into a hostile attitude. Reader, the above is a true • icture. Is it the true policy of our government to extend and perpetuate an institution that causes 1 such untold anxiety and alarm to its citizens!