Jean-Charles Houzeau

“ Before acquiring the right to hold helots, the cotton grower should match the courage and selflessness of the Spartan. Even supposing that he constitute an elite race, wouldn′t his duty be to take the weak by the hand and to support him, to call for the ignorant and educate him?
But it is precisely against the Christian idea that the slave master protests. He does not justify slavery as a temporary way of working, as a local requirement of the climate. ”

“ After informing the government of Washington of the forces of the Unionist Party in the western Texas, after exposing the failure of the planters′ efforts to effect the mass uprising, an uprising which by the way will always be lacking in weapons, food and ammunition, the memo moves on to the consideration of the future of slaves. An immediate and absolute liberation, as well as a mass transport abroad, are also impractical measures, while fatal to the interests of the country and to the Negroes. We must first stop slavery at its source, by stating that any future child is born free. ”

“ He proclaims his right a divine right; he states its social form as final, perfect, which he undertakes to expand to the whole United States, and to Mexico, who rejected it.
Challenging the ideas of his century, trampling the teachings of the religion, he braves all with audacity, because he is wealthy. He claims to satisfy more at ease still, his greed and his passions. The demon that drags him has been the loss of stronger powers and more talented too. ”

“ There were more than a hundred wounded in the hospital, and I could see all the horrors that war leaves in its trail... There were negroes and mulattos who had fought for the freedom of their race and who spoke to me about slavery with tears in their eyes. The wounded of both parties were together, no distinction was made ​​between them.
Unlike our European practice, anyone can come at any time to the hospital, relatives and friends come to sit at the patients' bedside and comfort them. The nurses are women, as in London. ”

“ We knew that local influential people were body and soul in favor of the extension of slavery. In a recent meeting, the residents of this small town had decreed that they would oppose the export of cotton passing through their community, but we also knew that party leaders had reprimanded them strongly on this point. Indeed, cotton dodging the blockade by way of Mexico, is paid in ammunition, of which the South is in great need. ”

“ As of now, perhaps half of the slaves are of mixed race, and we count among their ranks some so white that it is no longer possible to distinguish them from Anglo-Saxons. And so is being frankly discussed the putting in servitude of all the whites who own no land. ”

“ In the morning, at sunrise, the plain often offers special effects of mirage. Objects on the horizon are two images, both straight: the silhouette of the dunes, by splitting, crowns the first ridge of a second one. ”

“ The attempt instigated by the South to restore slavery in Mexico, has made her the theater of a street war that lasted three months. Of her small population, nearly 300 citizens were killed in the infamous attack. But this people who have Indian blood in their veins, are very brave and very committed to freedom. ”

“ I would address all the generous hearts of men in all countries who profess ideas of justice, and the great nations which, for half a century, have committed to significant sacrifices in order to stop the slave trade. ”

“ There are, in fact, in that part of the country, a very small number of slaves, and the climate, far from being dangerous for white people, is reputed one of the safest in America.
After this conference, and the exchange of cordial wishes which concluded it, I proceeded to my final preparations for departure. By the intervention of a friend, I committed a Mexican who lives in Calaveras near San Antonio to have me as a carter for a trip to Brownsville. ”

“ Southern troops never lack fresh meat: they shoot down young oxen, even under the eyes of the settlers. It is, they say, a sacrifice that individuals owe to the country.
The small ridge of the Rocky (in Mexican La Rochetta) separates the San Antonio river basin from that of the Nueces river. Thinly scattered oaks crown its rounded peaks. Sandstone formations then succeed to marl, and the country changes its appearance completely. In the Nueces basin truly begins the evergreens area. ”

“ They serve their orders in the dark, as if they were ashamed of their deeds. They break doors at midnight, strangle the victim prior to interrogating him and, pistol at the belt, hunting knife in hand, line up quietly around the accused, hidden under the mysterious and sinister cape of the black-robed penitents. ”

“ Everything therefore brings together your duty of humanity, the part that an enlightened mind plays in the movement of civilization, and finally the interest of your country itself; everything comes together to protest with a firm voice, and which can cross the Atlantic, against this pagan conspiracy. ”

“ The poor Mexicans who live in these desert and wild places, scarcely subsist by hunting mustang horses and from the plunder of wagons. They shed their clothes, crawl on their belly between the bushes, and when they manage to surprise the travelers asleep, kill them with a knife and then take ownership of the loot. ”

“ Each of us took a different direction. After an hour of searching I went back to the camp, where Vidal and Rodriguez had already returned, the latter with the oxen. We waited for Casanova for getting on our way. An hour passed yet, and we did not see him return. We called for him by repeated cries, which were lost unanswered in the immensity. The morning fog had formed a veil of clouds that shrouded the sun, there was no wind to remind the traveler the direction of his steps. It was obvious that our companion, after having strayed from the wagons, got lost in the bushes ”

“ You can then divide the enslaved population into classes, and raise those gradually to their freedom, in proportion to the individuals′ abilities, and the aptitude that they show for regulated life. The first level of emancipation would give the servant the right to choose his master for the year, in unpaid work. Later the worker could get a growing pledge, then he would rent by the month, and finally, would be entirely free to discuss the terms of engagement and salary. ”

“ But now the tide has burst its banks, and the servitude is no longer confined to such conscription of labor which was explained by the circumstances of climate and population, and that the patriarchal conduct of the master was, for a time, to tolerate. Possession of man by man develops in its final consequences. ”

“ A number of people had begun to leave the country due to harassment or dangers to which they were exposed. Travellers were suspected of seeking to escape the mass uprising. All those who did not have good reasons for going to Mexico, who could not find sponsors or friends among the eight companies of volunteers stationed in Brownsville, were considered traitors, and placed under arrest until further inquiry. ”

“ A man was in jail for reasons that will appear very childish in Europe, as he had said: "If one day I get married, I do not see why I should not marry a black woman or any woman of a different color."
The weekly express from Corpus Christi and San Antonio reported in advance the arrival of fugitives or disgruntled. Carriages were stopped, horses were seized, and travelers had then to answer for their intentions. ”

“ Mustang horses hunters know these places; they pursue the wild animals in these directions, forcing them to pass through the mire, and while the horse is struggling in the mud, where it sinks up to its belly, the hunter comes and seizes it. ”

“ On the other side of the arenal, the grass does not take long to reappear, followed by bushes and tall trees. In a plain interspersed with a series of curtains of mesquite trees, separated by narrow clearings that all looked alike, we had to search for, early on March 15, some oxen that had strayed. ”

“ Mulattoes besides are preferred over the Negroes because they generally show more intelligence and skill. The masters foster alliances, and often they raise without mystery, in the middle of their farm, their own slave and mixed-blood children, along with their free and legitimate children. ”

“ For six or seven days′ journey, the traveler crosses a sandy plain, cut with salt marshes, with only rushes and tough grasses for vegetation. A strong wind that comes from the sea during the day and from inland at night, raises a penetrating dust. ”

“ The question is no longer a question of color, it is no longer the prejudice of the skin. For fifty years the trafficking has been legally abolished, the introduction of African negroes was nothing but an infiltration fraud. The current generation of slaves is essentially an American one ”

“ But they are slaves; the master, at any time, has the right to bind them to a tree and strip them of their clothes. He has the right, the perfectly legal right to apply to them the stirrup leathers, without being accountable to anyone of his reasons. ”

“ The second attraction that lies in the possession of slaves is the exercise of the droit de seigneur over women. All are likely not consenting. There are some whose delicacy of feelings and purity of character do not yield to the alledged qualities of the noblest lady of an estate. ”

“ He has the right, if the resistance is stubborn, and if his weak victim, driven by the courage of despair, wears him out to the point of making it a futile struggle, he has the right to call for the sheriff and his deputies... ”

“ The city is filled with refugees from any condition and any color, from all parts of the South. There are outcasts, outlaws, runaway slaves, volunteers who abandoned the slaveholders' flag, etc.. It is a town of 7,000 souls, which already had, as Cadiz in Spain, one of the most mixed populations of the world. ”

“ And, still speaking to the same audience, I would add :
Do not assume that the interest of humanity alone is at stake. The development of modern slavery does affect you by closer ties. Suppose the planters confirmed in their power. ”

“ Your emigrants, should they get to encounter setbacks, will also be declared "whites without resources," and as such will be sold for the benefit of the public treasury, at the court auction, to the highest and last bidder. ”

“ Countries with the rule of law have no idea of these occult, reckless, passionate powers, against which there are neither resistance nor appeal. The planters′ government has unbridled them, instructing them to strike ”

“ The new arrivals will be seized at the receiving dock, and if they do not have in their suitcase the means of acquiring a farm and become planters, the best they can expect is a simple put in temporary rental. ”