After the close of the war, the fact that they had been made free by proclamation and by law spread rapidly among those who had been slaves, and from thenceforth the business of kidnapping and running them off became much more dangerous. While travelling through Texas, our informant met many negroes on the road with pistols at their sides, or guns upon their shoulders, and, when asked what it meant, they would reply, "Des am dangerous times, sa; we has to protect ourselves, you know."
He saw, too, as before stated, both black men and white men hanging to the limbs of trees by the roadside, some of whom, doubtless, had been hung there because of resistance to kidnappers. All manner of means were devised by these kidnappers to catch the negroes when and where they could make the least resistance and the least noise. Even _ten months after the war;_ as before stated, one of these dealers--the partner, probably, of an extensive firm, made up of both Americans and Mexicans--proposed to William Higgins to get up a fandango, or dance, at his saw-mills, and invite thereto all the negroes in the neighborhood, for the purpose, and only for the purpose, of enabling these kidnappers to seize and run off as many as could be ensnared within the trap, or got hold of; and, as we have seen, it was _four months after the war_ that the drove of from six to eight hundred negroes were seen on the road to Brazos San Diego.
It will be a wonder with some readers how it was possible to continue such a business after Union troops had been stationed at Austin, the capital of the State, under so able a commander as General Sturges; and after they had been stationed at Bastrop, and at other large towns throughout the State. The explanation is simply this: While the sentiment of the Union troops was entirely opposed to any such traffic, and while, in pursuance of law, their duty plainly was to hang any man whom they found engaged in such a business, yet the sentiment of the white people, among whom the troops were located, was largely, if not universally, in favor of the traffic, and hence they would not inform against those who were engaged in it; and had the troops learned of, and attempted to arrest, any of the parties, every white man of the town or neighborhood would have risen in arms and attempted the rescue of the parties. Law, without public sentiment to sustain it, is a dead letter, or nearly so, under all circumstances, and where public sentiment is decidedly opposed to a law, its execution is next to impossible.