I asked
him if there were any other cars on the line like Mr. Tyson's, and he
said, "Yes, several, miss." "Are they handsomer than his?" "Some are,
they are all different in their fancy principle." He told us, of his own
accord, that they had both been slaves. He bought his freedom for five
hundred dollars. They both had been kindly treated as slaves, but he
said, not only the hickory stick, but the "raw hide," was frequently
used by unkind masters and mistresses; and, on my asking him whether
slaves had any redress in such cases, he said their free friends may try
to get some redress for them, but it does no good. This was _his_
testimony on the subject, and I shall give you the testimony of every
one as I gather it for you to put together, that you may be able to form
your own deductions. Mr. Tyson had told us they _had_ redress, though he
is an enemy to the "institution" of slavery, as it is here called, but
still maintains, what is no doubt the case, that they are oftener much
happier in America than the free negro. Indeed he told us a well-treated
slave will look down on a freeman, and say, "_Ah! yes, he's only some
poor free trash. He's a poor white free trash._" It was curious to
notice Jerry's sayings, only some of which I can remember. Mr. Tyson
looked down the line from the balcony yesterday, and said, to Jerry, who
had got out of a passenger car for a minute, "Jerry, do you see the
train coming?" "Yes, sir; it blowed right up there;" meaning it had
whistled.
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