It is said that an Abolitionist Society by a bribe of $3,000 induced the slave valet of Henry Clay to leave him and go North. The Society thought that this large sum would be well spent in producing what would appear to be such a noteworthy example of dissatisfaction with the condition of slavery. Though the Negro accepted the money and left, he soon repented and returned to his master. Thereupon Clay gave him $3,000 (for the Negro had long since spent the bribe), telling him that when he had returned the sum to those who had tried to corrupt him that he would be restored to his master’s service. The money was given back as directed and Clay then took the Negro back as his valet.

Such a case was, no doubt, exceptional. In one way or another, however, the abolitionists produced more or less dissatisfaction among the slaves and were almost wholly responsible for the [30]escape to the North of something like an average of 2,000 a year. The Negroes did not always find conditions in the North so favorable as they had been led to suppose. As a consequence it did not infrequently happen that a “runaway” Negro would become dissatisfied and return of his own free will to his master in the South.

[30]

During the Civil War those slaves who for any reason had become dissatisfied with their condition embraced the first opportunity to gather in the wake of the Union army,—mainly, no doubt, to shun work.

While this was true as an exception, the great mass of the slaves remained quietly at work on the plantations. Thus, instead of creating antagonism between the two races, the War served rather to foster and cement a good feeling between them; indeed, throughout its darkest days they lived harmoniously side by side. Elizabeth Collins, an Englishwoman, who was in South Carolina the greater part of the War, says:

“In regard to the slave population of Charleston, I may say that they appear to be, almost without exception, happy and contented.”[30:1]

Indeed, an examination of several Southern [31]newspapers and some books of travel[31:2] revealed but two possible cases of lynching of Negroes in the South during the War: A Mr. Harris, Uchee, Alabama, was murdered by six of his Negroes, whereupon:

[31]

“The citizens of the county about ninety in number, after consultation, determined upon the immediate execution of the murderers.”[31:3]

The other case was in Mississippi: Some Negroes 

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