Lopez has been released on his finding surety to a consid-
erable amount — 15,000 dollars, I believe — but a certain
Colonel Henderson, and others, have yet to be tried, and
are to plead their own cause, as they are said to be pos-
sessed of great ability in — making speeches. The New
Orleans gentlemen laugh, and call the whole thing "a
farce," which will not result in any thing but — Jong
240 ^ HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
speeches I There is no earnestness in the prosecution, and
this gives rise to somewhat more than a suspicion that
certain slave states have an interest in the expedition.
I have rambled about the city during the few fine days
which have occurred while I have been here, but have
found few objects of interest for the eye, excepting those
lovely, colored Creole women, who, with their delicate
features, fine eyes, and pretty heads, adorned with showy
handkerchiefs^ tastefully arranged, according to the cus-
tom of New Orleans, produce a very piquante appearance ;
and I have seen in the streets young servant-girls, quad-
roons, whose beauty was perfect. Their figures also are
generally slender, and remarkably well-proportioned.
New Orleans has long been known as a " very gay city,"
but has not so good' a reputation for its morality, into
which French levity is strongly infused. This, however,
it is said, decreases in proportion as the iVnglo-American
people obtain sway in the city. And their influence grows
even here rapidly. The French population, on the con-
trary, does not increase, and their influence is on the de-
cline. Nor have I heard the most favorable testimony
given to the commercial morality of New Orleans. On
one occasion I heard a merchant, a friend of mine, say, as
he stood among the sugar-hogsheads on one of the great
wharves of the city, " There has been more rascality prac-
ticed on this very place than would be sufficient to sink
the whole city I"
Nevertheless, there is a good public spirit at work to
make the city worthy to maintain its place on the earth.
One excellent institution now in progress of erection here
is a large sailors' home, in which it is intended to board
and lodge in an excellent manner, and at a reasonable rate,
sailors whose vessels are lying in the harbor either to land
or to take in cargo. Hitherto, mariners arriving at the city
have had no other abode than in ale-houses, which were
regular nests of thieves. The large and magnificent house
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 241
which is now being erected by good men of the city, will
henceforth provide a comfortable and safe haven for the
mariner. Two of my gentlemen friends, who are workinor
for this cause, hope to interest Jenny Lind in it, who is
shortly expected hither from Cuba ; and as the house is
intended for the benefit of the Swedish as well as any oth-
er seamen, it is probable that this patriotic and generous
Swede will interest herself in its behalf
I read to-day in a New Orleans paper, "The Daily Pic-
ayune" (picayune is the name of a little Spanish silver
coin which is current here, value sixpence), a beautiful
and earnest address to the inhabitants of New Orleans,
beseechins: them to leave the celebrated Swedish sins^er at
full liberty in the exercise of her well-known beneficence,
and not to fail in proper respect to a stranger by their ob-
trusiveness or exhortations, etc.
And it must be confessed, that although Jenny Lind has
often had just cause to complain of the Americans' well-
meant, but frequently thoughtless and childish obtrusive-
ness, yet I have often had opportunities of knowing and
admiring the beautiful and magnanimous manner in which
people here have felt for her. How many there are who
have satisfied themselves by a silent benediction rather than
cause her a moment's annoyance ; how many who would
not allow themselves to approach her, because they knew
that they could not give her pleasure by so doing, nor would
venture to invite her to their homes for the same reason.
1 remember hearing an estimable old gentleman, a judge
at Cincinnati — a magnificent old man he was ! — say that
he accompanied her, in the newspapers, every step of her
journey, with that interest and solicitude which a father
might have for his daughter ; and that he felt real distress
that she should, in any degree, compromise her beautiful
reputation by any unadvised step. And I have heard so
much said about Jenny Lind in America, that I know that
while people love in her the singer and the giver of money,
Vol. II.— L
242 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
they love still more the young woman, in her beautiful
role and reputation — the ideal Jenny Lind.
But I must now speak of Louisiana and New Orleans
Louisiana, as you know, was first discovered by the Span-
iards and French. The French were the first who at-
tempted to colonize Louisiana. They began and left off, â–
and then be^an afresh. It would not succeed. But a
great deal was said in I**rance and England about Loui-
siana as a promised land, an El Dorado, with immeasur-
able internal wealth ready to be brought to light, and
faith in this gave rise to the gigantic financial speculation
of John Law, based upon the fabulous, delusive wealth
of Louisiana, and afterward to the great bankruptcy of all
who had taken part in that wild speculation. Louisiana,
or that vast country embracing the southern part of the
Mississippi, and which at that time included Arkansas,
passed afterward from the dominion of the French to that
of the Spaniards, then back to that of the French, until,
in the year 1803, Louisiana was purchased by the govern-
ment of the United States, and united to them as an inde-
pendent state. In the mean time, Louisiana had been
cultivated and peopled by the French, Spaniards, English,
G-ermans, and other nations, and New Orleans had slowly
grown up amid inundations and hurricanes, and with
small prospect of ever becoming that "crescent city"
which it now is.
The population of Louisiana did not exceed fifty thou-
sand souls, not reckoning the Indians, when it was incor-
porated with the United States. Seven years later the
amount of its population was three-fold. The new epoch,
and new life, however, of both Louisiana and New* Or-
leans, first commenced when, in the year 1812, the first
steam-boat came thither upon the Grreat River. This was
soon followed by hundreds of other steam-boats, and New
Orleans rapidly increased to a city of the first rank among
the cities of the South.
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 243
The whole of Louisiana is flat, in part swampy and
under water, and in part rich and fertile country ; sugar,
cotton, maize, rice, indigo, are the products of Louisiana.
In the northern portion, where the sand elevates itself into
little hills, are forests, which ahound in many kinds of
trees^ — oak, chestnut, walnut, sassafras, magnolia, and
poplar. In the south the palmetto, mulberry, live-oak,
cedar, and pine, and every where an abundant growth of
the wild vine. There are also many navigable rivers,
tributaries of the Mississippi, which, as well as bogs and
small lakes, abound in alligators. These alligators, though
they do not venture to attack full-grown men, not unfre-
quently carry off little negro children. Louisiana is said
to produce many poisonous plants, serpents, and other
noxious creatures. It seems to me an undesirable place
in every way. I would not live in it for all its sugar and
cotton.
I must now tell something of the internal history of
New Orleans, or, rather, a story which has struck me.
That noble-minded Mr. Poinsett, the old ex-minister oif
South Carolina, told me that slavery seemed to operate
still more prejudicially on women than on men, and that
women not unfrequently were found to be the crudest
slave-owners. And, whether it was a mere accident or a
confirmation of the truth of. this assertion, the most ter-
rible instances which I heard mentioned in South Caroli-
na of the maltreatment of slaves were of women, and of
women belonging to the higher grades of society. I be-
% lieve I already have told you of the two ladies in Charles-
ton who were publicly accused for the murder of their
slaves, the one by hunger, the other by flogging, and who,
although they were acquitted by cowardly laws and law-
yers, yet fell under the ban of public opprobrium, and
were left to a dishonorable solitude and to — the judgment
ofG-od.
My friend of the Mississippi, the pure conscience of
244 " HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Louisiana, had asserted the same fact as Mr. Poinsett,
and, as if it were in substantiation thereof, JNFew Orleans
has not in its chronicle of crime a more bloody or a more
detested name than that of — a woman, Mrs. Lallorue, born
Macarthy. It is to the honor of New Orleans that this
wealthy lady has been obliged to fly from the fury of its
hatred. But how lons^ before that time had she torment-
ed her victims ?
It appears that the behavior of her brother to his mis-
tresses of the colored race excited her hatred toward them.
Other slave-owners maltreat their slaves in the irritation
of the moment or the excess of temper, but Madame Lal-
lorue maltreated hers because she enjoyed and relished
their sufferings. She was the possessor of a large plant-
ation, and indulged upon it her arbitrary sway in such a
manner as roused her neighbors in arms against her.
They announced to her that they would no longer hear of
such transactions ; and that in case they did, she should
become amenable to law.
On this, Madame Lallorue fled to New Orleans, where,
less under observation, she could devote herself to her own
private pleasure. She here derived an income by hiring
out her slaves, who every week were compelled to bring
home their earnings to her. If, however, they did not re-
turn to the time, or if their earnings were less than she
thought proper — woe to them ! Her own house-slaves had
no better fate ; on the slightest occasion — which never
fails for those who desire it — she confined them in the
cellar, fettered with iron chains, where she visited them .
only to practice her cruelty on them. I will not tell you
the means which she used to indulge her lust of cruelty
— the chronicles of heathenism and fanaticism know noth-
incr worse. Enousfh — the doleful cries of her victims
found their way above ground, through stone walls and
bolted door, and made themselves heard. It was noised
abroad in the city. The heart of the people swelled with
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 2 15
indignation. They gathered in crowds round the house
in which she lived ; they vowed to release the victims, to
pull down the house, and take vengeance on this monster
in the shape of woman. The husiness was in rapid prog-
ress ; the walls of the house were beginning to fall, when
— the mayor appeared with an armed force. Madame
Lallorue's house was preserved, and an opportunity was,
afforded her to escape through a hack gate. She fled,
half dressed, out of New Orleans ; and, somewhat later,
left America.
She afterward lived in Paris, and received there the in-
come of an immense property acquired in Louisiana, by
what means we know. She died, it is said, only a short
time since. Who can douht a hell after death when they
see the life and pleasure of such persons on earth! Ma-
dame Lallorue's husband, a Frenchman, still resides in
New Orleans, and is said to be a man of good character.
He must at that time have lived separate from his wife.
This circumstance occurred ten or twelve years since.
If it really be true that women are the worst of slave-
owners, it must proceed from their temperament being in
general more excitable, and from the climate having an
unusually irritating effect upon the nervous system by its
stimulating character ; besides which, women generally
exceed men in their extremes either of good or evil ; they
are by nature more eccentric, more spiritual, nearer the
spirits, whether they be angels or devils.
In Sweden also — in the highest circles of Stockholm —
we have known ladies whose domestics bore bloody marks,
and whom the police were obliged to take in charge.
Countess L. was amiable, kind, agreeable to every body
except her domestics, and she was not able to keep a serv-
ant in her house beyond six weeks. We have had the
ladies of two foreis^n ministers — both En2:lish — both of
whom, from their treatment of their servants, deserved
the Christmas gift which one of them received from an
246 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
acquaintance of the family — a bloody medal of braA^ery!
A good thing is it that the servants of these ladies could
leave them, thanks to the laws of a free country! But
here, in this free country, people can, in the face of such
facts, still defend slavery as a patriarchal institution, quite
compatible with the laws of a free people, and with hu-
man rights and happiness!
I have had here several contests with a lady who de-
fends these opinions, and who, in order to prove the jus-
tice and equity of slavery, and the happiness of the negro
slaves under this excellent institution, avails herself of ar-
guments and sophisms, backward and forward, with such
an amazing contempt of logic and all sound reason, that
I have sometimes become dumb from sheer astonishment.
I avoid, in a general way, as much as possible, conver-
sation on this subject. The question of slavery is a sore
eye which winches at the slightest touch. It is painful
to the good, and it irritates those who are not good, while
it serves no purpose one way or the other. I am there-
fore silent when I can be so with an easy conscience ; but
for all that, it is evident that the question can not rest ;
that the work of light has commenced for the release of
the children of Africa, and that their condition, even here,
is improving with every passing year.
I would gladly tell you of some good female slave-own-
er who might be placed as a counterbalance to Mrs. Lal-
lorue, but — I do not know any; such, however, must
exist. The very bad make a great noise, and the good
but very little. But I must tell you of a gentleman, a
slave-owner, who seems to me to stand in the slave states
as an opened door to the house of bondage.
Two years ago there died in New Orleans a gentleman
named Macdonald, who left behind him a property of
many millions of dollars, the whole of which he bequeath-
ed for purposes of public benevolence in Louisiana. This
singular man, who lived in the most miserly manner, ex-
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 247
pended next to nothing upon himself, and never gave
away any thing, not even to his near relatives, who were
almost perishing of want; his one thought was how to
save, to accumulate, and by the increase of each day to
double his capital, and to this end all his activity and in-
dustry were applied, even in the smallest thing. He was
parsimonious even of his words, and parted with nothing
unnecessarily.
Nevertheless, he had great thoughts and plans. He
considered himself as destined by Providence to acquire
an immense property, by means of which to achieve great
things for the good of the state of which he was a native.
He regarded himself, therefore, as the steward of his
wealth, and maintained that he had no right to give even
the smallest portion thereof for the most trifling object.
These, at least, were the pretexts with which he gilded
his parsimony and his hardness of heart.
He said, " If I, year after year, double my capital in
this (a certain given) proportion, I shall in the end become
the richest man in Louisiana ; I might, continuing in this
way, ultimately purchase the whole of Louisiana, and then
— " Then he would do great things, which would make
Louisiana the finest and the happiest state in the Union,
And Macdonald had views for this purpose, and plans
which prove him to have been possessed of a deeply think-
ing mind. But the poor man forgot that he was mortal,
and, although he attained to an extreme old age, yet he
had not nearly acquired the wealth after which he strove
when he was surprised by — death. His magnificent
plans will die with him, and eiTect little or nothing for
Louisiana, except possibly in one respect, and that is the
one of which I spoke, as — the opening of the prison-door.
Macdonald was a planter and the owner of slaves. He
determined to emancipate his slaves, and that in a mode
by which they should gain, and he lose nothing.
He said to them,
248 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"You shall work yourselves free, and purchase your
own release from slavery for the same sum which I paid
for you. I will give you the means of doing this. You
shall work for me five days in each week, as heretofore,
for food, clothing, and habitation ; you shall work for me
also on the sixth day, but I will pay you wages for that,
and give you credit for the money thus earned, which I
will employ for you. Thus the first year. During the
second year you shall be paid for two days' labor in the
week, provided that you work industriously and well ; the
following year three, and so on, till the sum is acquired
which is requisite for my reimbursement, and for you to
have a little over, so that you may possess enough to be-
gin life with in Liberia, whither I shall send you when
you are free."
The slaves knew that Macdonald would keep his word.
They began to labor with new heart, because they now
labored for their own freedom and their future well-being.
Some accomplished it more rapidly, others more slowly,
but within two years all the slaves on the plantation had
worked themselves free. Macdonald fulfilled his part to
them as he had promised, and they could now become free
without detriment either to themselves or others. They
had become accustomed to work, to forethought, and self-
government, at least so far as regarded their own affairs.
In the mean time, Macdonald's plantation had been un-
usually well cultivated, and the slaves had repaid their
original purchase-money.
I do not know whether it was Macdonald's intention to
have his plantation afterward cultivated by white labor-
ers or by free blacks ; but one thing appears to me cer-
tain, and that is, that Macdonald's mode of effecting the
emancipation of slaves is deserving of consideration and
imitation, as one of the wisest which can be devised for
the gradual and general release of both the blacks and tho
whites of North America from the fetters of slavery.
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 249
I know many estimable and thinking men of New Or-
leans who consider that such a mode of emancipation, as
would, by degrees, convert the negro slaves into free la-
borers, might be put into operation without much diffi-
culty, and that all those dangerous results which people
imagine are, in great measure, only fears and fancies.
I have been told that the severest slave-owners in this
neighborhood are French, and I can credit it from the
French popular temperament ; the Scotch and the Dutch
take the second place. Slaves of sm^all and poor proprie-
tors often suffer very much from hunger, as do also cattle.
I heard to-day of one place where a considerable numbei
of cattle had literally perished for want of food.
I have made inquiries after the Christmas dances and
festivities of the negro slaves, of which I heard so much,
but the sugar-harvest was late last year, and the sugar-
grinding was not over till after New-year's day; the cotton
h still being plucked on the plantations, and the dances are
deferred. I have now traveled in search of these negro fes-
tivities from one end of the slave states to the other, with-
out having been lucky enough to meet with, to see, nay,
nor even to hear of one such occasion. I believe, neverthe-
less, that they do occur here and there on the plantations.
For the'rest, I have experienced so much kindness, have
met with so many good and warm-hearted friends, that I
have been both astonished and affected. I had always
heard New Orleans mentioned as a very lively but not
very literary city, and Mr. Lerner H. had prepared me to
find that the people of New Orleans liked to see that which
was beautiful. It was clear, therefore, that for that very
reason they would not like to look at me ; and yet they
have come and come again to me, have overwhelmed me
with kindness and presents, as well men as women, and
made my days pleasant in many ways. For my own
part, I have no other memories of New Orleans but those
of pleasure and gratitude.
L 2
250 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Octavia le V. returned home a few days ago. Those
eyes, which remained dry and bright when she was in
danger of losing all her ornaments and her money, over-
flowed with tears v/hen she had to part from her newly-
found friend. I kissed away the tears from those pale
cheeks. I feel that I am heartily attached to her.
Mrs. G-. has been an incomparable friend to me at this
time when I had to prepare my wardrobe for Cuba — some-
what elegant, and of a light summer texture at the same
time — and when I had divers little misfortunes, partly
caused by the dress-maker, but principally through my
own blunders. You know how annoying all such bus-
iness is to me ; but you can scarcely imagine how I have
felt it here, where weariness both of body and mind, as
well as ignorance of prices and persons in the dress-mak-
ing and millinery world, rendered all my difficulties ten-
fold. Neither can you at all imagine how kind and ami-
able Mrs. Gr. has been during all these great little troubles
— her patience, her good temper; nor, lastly, how well she
has helped me with every thing. Yes— I am ashamed
when I compare myself with her ; but then she is one of
the most amiable people I ever met with.
In the evening. I have now had my last drive with
Anne "W". alons: the beautiful cockle-shell road to Lake
Pontchartrain. The air was delicious, and the sky once
more gazed upon us with blue eyes from between the
clouds, which parted more and more. The road, for the
most part, runs through flat and still unreclaimed forest-
land. One does not here see our beautiful moss and lich-
en-covered mountains and hills, but thickets of the prime-
val forest, from which, on all sides^ look forth those beau-
tiful palmetto-trees, with their large, fan-like leaves wav-
ing in the air, and the regular and graceful form of many
half-tropical plants, which, indicating a new phase of
earth's vegetable productions, have a wonderful fascina-
tion for me.
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 251
In the morning, in the morning, my Agatha, I shall
go on board the great steamer, "The Philadelphia," and
in three days I shall be at Cuba. I shall be very glad to
get there, both because I shall see some new beauties of
nature, and because I shall breathe a milder air, and shall
escape during the winter months this variable American
climate, which is so trying to my strength both of body
and mind. I have become physically ten years older dur-
ing this twelve months' journey in North America.
But be not afraid for me, my dear heart, but trust, as
I do, that my traveling fairy, your little friend, which
has hitherto conducted me safely through all perils —
which conducted me without any misadventure down the
whole extent of the Mississippi to New Orleans, at the
very time when four steamers, with their passengers, were
blown into the air upon its waters, and caused me to re-
move from St. Charles's Hotel to this good home the day
before the hotel became the prey of flames — the same will
conduct me safe and sound once more to my own sister-
friend, to YOU.
P.S. — I have been gladdened here by letters from my
friends in the North, the Downings, the Springs, and the
Lowells. These friends accompany me like good spirits,
and I must tell you so, because you must love my friends.
Maria Lowell writes, the little traveling companion who
went with us every where, and to Niagara, and yet which
never spoke, and remained so quiet, was — a little boy,
who now, large, and stout, and rosy, is little Mabel's or-
acle. She listens to every sound he utters, and says to it
all, "What does little brother mean?" Beloved, happy
Maria I
Jenny Lind is now in Havana, and people speak dif-
ferently of the success of her concerts. I believe, never-
theless, that she will gain the victory over her adversaries,
who in reality belong to the French party in the country,
and who contest her rank as a great singer. She will be
252 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
received here in New Orleans with enthusiasm ; every
heart is warm, every ear open to her. She will leave Ha-