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[We give the following communication verbatim et literatim, as we find it so difficult to improve it.- If the reader is not convinced of the wickedness of abolitionism, it is not our fault.

FOR THE GAZETTE AND MERCURY.

I feel in duty bound as a Citizen of the united States under this Great and Good govenment to make a general Acknowledgment of the folly and aggravating Crimes that has ben transacted in the abolition Cause. I Se Clearly now, what I experience I know and what I know I Can testify to. I have ben a mong the Slave at the South and firstly would make my acknowledgement to them knowing if the abolition cause Should go in to affect it would strip them of there liberty and Contentment and distress there families there liberty is there mind and there mind is there buesness and there buesness is there living they are well bred and Clothed and Contented generally.

2ond next to there owners dear Sers not insensible of your humane Hospitality I would make a full acknowledgment to you pleas to forgive. it Sprung from infirmety through weakness out of revenge and envy there fore it has Created a great deal of infidelity to our Sorrow, we look upon you to be very near and dear to us by the ties of our Countrys union you have nothing to fear on that ground to what we have Should it be divided, I suppose there is some on this part of the Continent who has had the light of there understanding darkend and there minds Captivated to believe a lie so much as to dispise a Slave holder but will Say with solaman He that is dispised and Hath a Servant is better than he who honoureth himself and lacketh bread, grain is very scarce in this Country at present, the next I would make my acknowledgement to the States of ohio indiana and the Illinois.

as it would so materialy ingour the market for your Corn pork and every thing of which you rais in so great abondance, you know they do not rais thos articles down in the Slave States, next to the merchant and factory men, was Slavery once erradicated Cotton could not be bought for double the price that it now fetches I have raisd it my self, and so it might be said of Sugar rice indigo &C and of Cours our splendid factories must Com doun. Next I would ask forgivness of my brother farmers and machanicks generly. Slavery never has infringed upon our right thus far but rather proved a blessing and I believe if it is perpetuated doun to the Lastest periods of time South of the 36 or 37th degree of N latitude it will still.

Next to the Lawyer, Should the Cause have the affect you perhaps might plead a black Case and loos your fen, if there is eny evil in Slavery why has not Congress had the wisdom to discern the real interest of the destrict of Columbia when it was under there immediate controal. I say there is no inequity in it but it is like the Surplus it reaches its good to all as it now Stands in the united States.

I suppose it is generaly understood how a man from new Hampshire has ben Crying doun Slavery to quite an extent got what money he Could by it, and went to the South and bought a plantation and Slaves.

Should eny of the rest of yow think of going I might be Som benefit to you bY way of Caution when you buy that is when you buy male Slaves pick for large feet and a well proportioned fraems healthy Countenance &C and the females pick one that has a thin heel Cord and a Comly fact.

Yours & C

J__, S__.

Colerain.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This letter in the Greenfield, Massachusetts, paper is purportedly from a man who is pro-slavery. The editor comments that it was included verbatim because it was difficult to edit. It is probably written by an abolitionist with the intent to make pro-slavery advocates look uneducated and lower class. The misspelling and poor grammar are very contrived and the general structure of the letter seems to point to someone who is quite literate trying to appear illiterate. The Gazette & Mercury was the newspaper in Greenfield, Massachusetts, from June 27, 1837 to July 13, 1841, when it changed its name to the Gazette & Courier.

 

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"For the Gazette and Mercury" a Pro-slavery newspaper article

publisher   Greenfield Gazette and Mercury
date   Aug 1, 1837
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
width   3.0"
height   9.25"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L05.046


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See Also...

Pages from "The Great South: A Record of Journeys" on cotton statistics in U.S.

"Ellis, Field hand"

"The American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1838"


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