222 DISPUTE WITH MASSACHUSETTS. [CHAP. XVI. 



other, so much insisted upon by many writers, must arise chiefly 

 from prejudice, seems proved, not only by the mixture of the 

 races, but by the manner in which we see the Southern women, 

 when they are ill, have three or four female slaves to sleep on 

 the floor of their sick room, and often consign their babes to black 

 nurses to be suckled. 



That the attainder of blood should outlast all trace of African 

 features, betrays a feeling allied to the most extravagant aristo 

 cratic pride of the feudal ages, and stands out in singular relief 

 and contrast here in the South, where the whites, high and low, 

 ignorant arid educated, are striving among themselves to main 

 tain a standard of social equality, in defiance of all the natural 

 distinctions which difference of fortune, occupation, and degrees 

 of refinement give rise to. 



A few years ago a ship from Massachusetts touched at Charles 

 ton, having some free blacks on board, the steward and cook being 

 of the number. On their landing, they were immediately put 

 into jail by virtue of a law of South Carolina, not of very old 

 standing. The government of Massachusetts, in a state of great 

 indignation, sent a lawyer to investigate the case and remonstrate. 

 This agent took up his abode at the Charleston Hotel, where we 

 are now comfortably established. A few days after his arrival, 

 the hotel was surrounded, to the terror of all the inmates, by a 

 mob of &quot; gentlemen,&quot; who were resolved to seize the New Erf* 

 gland envoy. There is no saying to what extremities they would 

 have proceeded, had not the lawyer s daughter, a spirited girl, re 

 fused to leave the hotel. The excitement lasted five days, and 

 almost every northern man in Charleston was made to feel him 

 self in personal danger. At length, by the courage and energy 

 of some of the leading citizens, Mr. H was enabled to es 

 cape, and then the most marked attentions were paid, and civili 

 ties offered, to the young lady, his daughter, by the families of 

 the very men who had thought it right, &quot; on principle,&quot; to get 

 up this riot. The same law has given rise to some very awk 

 ward disputes with the captains of English vessels, whose color 

 ed, sailors have, in like mariner, been imprisoned. To obtain re 

 dress for the injury, in such cases, is impossible. The Federal 



