From The New-York Times January 16, 1861:
AFFAIRS IN SAVANNAH.; TESTIMONY OF A N0RTHERN MECHANIC CONCERNING THINGS IN SAVANNAH. …
Our informant — who had engaged in a mechanical business — was warned out of the city by one of the Vigilance mob at brief notice. Of these functionaries there is a lower and a higher order. The latter, or minute men, assume to give the notices, and, in default of the suspected person’s absence, the former, or mob proper, may proceed to tar and feathers; but the higher order deal less in extreme violence, and give several days’ notice to quit. Several of these Vigilance men visiting our informant, and another in company with him, were filled with ire at finding their own office and province interfered with by an unauthorized notice from the meanor sort Ferreting out, therefore, the particular limb of the mob who had ventured to give such notice, and finding him to be a quondam Northern emigrant, they visited his usurpation upon himself by notifying him, also, to depart.
It is this kind of half regulated and systematized mob law which controls society. Property is not secure; but the “Rattlesnake Club” offer to protect holders who will see their members comfortably supplied and provided.
Our informant states that those slaves who enjoy the better sort of advantages, are more intelligent than the lower class of masters. They dress well in their religious assemblies — the women often sporting silks, and the men handsome canes and even valuable watches. They are as familiar with current events as the whites themselves, and really expect to be made free by the incoming Administration. It is not a secret to them that the whites are fearful of insurrection. Consequently, they have become impertinent and insubordinate, — so much so that the flogging-house is always full, and drives a thriving business. Twenty-five lashes is the penalty for very considerable crimes, such as stealing, carrying weapons, being on horseback without a master’s permit, or out after 9 o’clock Sunday evening. About 10 cents a lash is the flogging fee, and the lashes draw blood. Our informant, who witnessed the whipping performances, says that many negroes endure the twenty-five lashes with compression and biting of their lips, but without a murmur. Others beg piteously, and this is apt to moderate the severity. In case of a negro’s recovery after flight, the lashes are made sometimes to cut so severely that the flesh must be salted, and the negro laid up for two or three weeks. Desertions have become so common that negro hunting with hounds is a regular and money-making occupation. The negroes, in escaping to the woods, double in their track, and, with greased hands, (to obviate the cent,) throw themselves over fences, and thus put the hounds at fault for a time. For recovering slaves that have been missed for a week, the slave hunters charge from $50 to $100. …
What the planters want is not, as they say, “equal rights” in the Union, but “Southern rights.” Of the two hundred and fifty or three hundred young men who went to the assistance of Charleston many died of camp service and more were sickened by colds and fevers. The Governor has prohibited the departure of any more, as their services maybe required against insurrection or mob violence.
You can read the entire article at The New York Times Archive
The young men of Savannah weren’t the only people who wanted to help out South Carolina. Also from the January 16, 1861 issue of The New-York Times:
BOSTON, Tuesday, Jan. 15.
In the House of Representatives yesterday, Mr. TYLER, of Boston, introduced a resolution that in view of the great suffering in South Carolina, the immediate consequence of the citizens of that State acting under a mistaken idea of their rights and obligations; and in view of the prosperity and abundance of this Commonwealth, a sum be appropriated from the State Treasury, to be invested in provisions and stores for the relief of our suffering fellow-countrymen in that State.
Entire article is here
Another article from the same issue of The Times reported on a pro-secession meeting of laborers in New York City. The entire article is at The New York Times Archive. Here’s a paragraph:
Resolved, That we, the workingmen of New-York, hereby pledge ourselves to oppose this British Anti-Slavery Party in every legitimate way; that we feel, with sorrow, that Great Britain has conquered the North with the pen, having Abolitionized the Press and the pulpit, and while the heel of her oppression is upon white men in Ireland, England and Scotland, she tries to divert attention from her sins at home by false philanthropy for negroes in America; and believing our Southern brethren now engaged in the holy cause of American liberty, and trying to roll back this avalanche of Britishism, we extend to them our heartfelt sympathy, and when they shall need it to resist unjust oppression, we believe we shall not be found wanting in more effectual support.
