Negro festivals, 1854

Negro Festivals.

The colored folks of Frederick County, to the number of 1400, divided into two parties, had a general rejoicing on Whit-Monday. The Examiner says, one party, numbering 800, went to Derr’s Island in the Monococacy (sic), and the other numbering 5 or 600, to the mouth of Bush Creek, where they enjoyed themselves immensely.

On the same day, a large number of darkies of this town proceeded to the Banks of the Antietam with a band of music, where they conducted themselves with propriety, and enjoyed themselves very much.

The Examiner truly remarks, “could the Stowes, the Garrisons, Phillipses, Parkers and the incendiary abolitionists have witnessed the unalloyed happiness of these sable sons of Africa, and seen the profusion of luxuries that crowned their festive boards, it might have upset some cherished theories about the sufferings and oppressions of the wretched slaves and abated the vindictiveness against merciless slaveholders.”