Charles Grandison Parsons

Inside View of Slavery; Or, a Tour Among the Planters. by C. G. Parsons, M.d., with an Introductory Note by Mrs. H. B. Stowe. Charles Grandison Parsons

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 Excerpt: ...surrounding them with occasional views taken by myself during my various excursions,--some pencilings drawn by the slaveholders themselves. They, certainly, will not be accused of prejudice against the South. And I will first copy from a speech of Hon. W. C. Preston, of South Carolina, as reported in the Columbia Telescope. At the time of its delivery he had represented that State in the U. S. Senate for nearly six years, and he continued a member of that body for more than six years afterwards. But not more on account of his high position in the South, than of his power of graphic and life-like delineation, are his remarks worthy of our careful attention. "No Southern man can journey,--as I have lately done,--through the Northern States, and witness the prosperity, the industry, the public spirit which they exhibit--the sedulous cultivation of all those arts by which life is rendered comfortable and respectable--without feelings of deep sadness and shame, as he remembers his own neglected and desolate home. There, no dwelling is to be seen abandoned, no farm uncultivated. Every person, and every thing, performs a part toward the grand result, and the whole land is covered with fertile fields, with manufactories, and canals, and railroads, and edifices, and towns, and cities. Along the route of the great New York canal (that glorious monument to the memory of De Witt Clinton), a canal, a railroad, and a turnpike are to be seen in the width of perhaps a hundred yards, each of them crowded with travel, or overflowing with commerce. Throughout their course, lands that before their construction would scarcely command five dollars the acre, now sell for fifty, seventy-five, or a hundred. Passing along it, you see no space of three miles without a town or vi...