Chapter 17Emigrant traffic increased considerably during the summer of 1837, driven by widespread unemployment back east. New York banks stopped making payments in specie because Old Hickory created too much credit, which resulted in inflation and speculation in western lands. Multitudes headed west in a desperate search for a better life. Martin Van Buren replaced Jackson, becoming our eighth president and the first to be born after the signing of the Declaration. At long last, the black slave situation intruded on our part of the world.
Hastily summoned to the encampment, I found a huge n***o defiantly facing a crowd of curious Indians. Shirtless and gleaming like melted tar, the man’s back was lash-scarred, the mark of an obstreperous slave. The whites of his eyes showed when he spotte
