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Title
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Unnamed Mississippi Cook - MS-COOK21
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Identifier
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MS-COOK21
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Source
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"Mississippi, Wilkinson County Newspaper Slave Ads, 1823-1849", Woodville Republican
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Date
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December 19, 1835
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gender
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Female
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Home
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Works in kitchen of the Mississippi Hotel
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events
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3. Hired out to Mississippi Hotel
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Notes
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In "Cage to Clamorte" Chapter in Ancestry.com collection, page 33.
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Transcription
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Natchez, Nov. 24, 1835 HORRIBLE.—This morning, as a negro man was lead-ing two chained bears through the court yard of the Mississippi Hotel, kept by Mr. Parker, a mulatto woman from the kitchen, imprudently took her little boy out to see the animals, allowed him to go near them. One of the bears instantly seized the child in his paws, (sinking his claws in the child's abdomen,) threw him on the ground, & began, with frightful avidity, to feet upon his carcass. The shrieks of the frantic mother, who true to nature, had thrown herself upon the prostate body of her child, and was vainly striving to unclasp the merderous jaws of the beast, brought in a moment to the spot the keeper of the Hotel and a number of gentleman lodgers there:— and an attempt was made to rescue the boy by striking the bear with the head of a corn hoe. But the rapacious animal heeded them not, and continued his deathly feast by sucking the blood from a bite in the arm,— when most providentially, the other bear was instigated, prob-ably by the smell of the fresh wounds, to contest the banquet, a battle ensued between them which afforded an opportunity of snatching away the child, and also diverted them from a fresh attack on any one else. At this instant fire-arms were brought, and two or three deadly aims incapacitated each of them for fur-ther mischief. Dr. Dashiell was called to the child and promptly dressed his wounds. He will probably recover, but a lesson has been taught to his mother, and to all mothers, of the criminal folly of leading their children into danger in order to please them with sights. Let them remember this bear story. (Natchez Courier.) printed in the Woodville Republican, December 18, 1835
