This proposal, the gentleman very
facetiously observed, the party jumped at, expecting some good sport;
but added, "The fellow spoilt it, for he refused to stand still,
although we 'used up' a cowhide over him for his obstinacy." The
frivolous manner in which this intended outrage was related, filled me
and my fellow-passengers with disgust. I thought it was not safe to
remark on the proceeding, for I could see he was a very strenuous
upholder of that disgraceful system of oppression, which stigmatizes and
degrades the Americans as a people, and will continue to do so, until it
is utterly abrogated, and their characters retrieved.
This would-be patrician was a pedantic, swaggering bully, who, it was
evident, entertained high notions of his importance, and owned, perhaps,
large possessions,--in a word, he was an American aristocrat, and the
description I have given is a fair one of his class in the south.
Pointing to a hill, as we entered a little settlement on our way to
Macon, he exclaimed, "See there, gentlemen, twenty years ago I toiled up
that hill without a cent in my wallet (purse), but now" he continued,
with the air of a potentate, "my niggers are the sleekest in our
country.
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