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Show 80 THE GOLDEN HOUR. that first cries FREEDOl\1 TO TilE LAVE gains the day in this war. . t llr of annil10' the 'laVCS: ·would It 'Vc hear son1c a '" b • . 11 ~ ,..,t t t ·y the effect of dorng thorn ·1n1plc, not be we 111 o 1 unclaboratc J.U · t'I CC ?• , ,1 tl 0 For that slave's heart far down on the \VOI u l . l t t. s is now all car. It 1s a co nun on Sou thorn p an a lOll . tl at the slaves on the plantat1ons of error to suppose 1 fuc .r S tll arc rnorc i(/norant, degraded, and obtu c, 1M on b . l , 1 s inforn1cd in pubhc matter ·, than or that t 1cy arc · . . 1 B ,,,0r States The contrary 1 truer. It tho c rn t 10 01 u · has been 1r 0r ruan y generations the inYariablc cu ton1 c. d t tl e Plantations of the Cotton and Sugar to sen o lC . . 0 11States every ncgr cnr the border who at any tunc (4/ shO\VS a d C .U· ,C .1r10 1. frccuon1. ' or who has attcrnptcd to run rc 1 been oYcrtakcn or \vho bows enough Oll, or 1as c. ' • • 1· ntc1 11' gcncc .r01. nn inference that he \Vlll be l'C,'tlVC ll u • l tl 1,.0 unc cr The number of over ccrs and stnct- 10 yo\. · ness of patrol on these plantations make it corupara-tiYcly unin1portant whether the slave is di ·contcntcu or otherwise. The consequence is, that there has been throuo·h 1~any years a gradual accuruulation in the far s:uth of the mo t inflammable and intelligent negroes; and any serious insurrections \vould. be far more apt to con1c from them than fron1 thcrr rnorc comfortable Border-State comrades. But they li ten on the Border al. o for that word to whose Orphic mu ic the hearts of men arc n1a<lc to dance, though they were as stones and trees. The THE PROBABILITIES OF INSURRECTION. 81 Border-SLate negro has had his senses whetted by a certain kind of perpetual fear and evcr-recurrin cr anguish. For these arc the la vc-brecding States. N 0~ one half of the slaves born in any of the Border States arc or can be retained there ; the demand for them is insufficient. This 1nakcs the yoke through all· this region terribly galling. Y car by year parents watch the growth of their children, knowing that they cannot be kept at home, - that there each will be ouly another mouth to feed and back to clothe,_ knowing that so soon as the year of noblest promise and strcn oth b comes, it comes only to bring tho bitter parting an<l heart-break. No farrncr gathcr1::l in his harve t more regularly than the slave-trader of the Bonier States, putting in his scythe this year for the hu1nan hear ts which were not quite ripe for plantation-service la1::lt year. Thus they listen, thus they watch, more than they that watch for the morning: God's captive I Tacl, of whom he says, They shall prosper ·who love thee ! F |