63. The others, whom I found in the same garret, and at the same time,
were a young black widow woman, with an infant at the breast, both of
whom were born free. Her husband had died but a few days previous to her
seizure, and she was in a state of pregnancy at the time. She stated,
that the man in whose house she resided, together with his brother, and
three other persons, came into the room (a kitchen,) where she was in
bed, seized and dragged her out;--fastened a noose round her neck, to
prevent her from screaming, and attempted to blindfold her, which she
resisted with such violence, that she prevented them from succeeding.
She said, while one of them was endeavouring to fix the bandage over her
eyes, that she seized his cheek with her teeth, and tore a piece of it
entirely off. She said one of them struck her head several times with a
stick of wood, from the wounds of which she was almost covered with
blood. She shewed me a large scar upon her forehead, occasioned by one
of the blows, which a gentleman, who saw her the day previous to her
seizure, has since informed me was not there before. She said, while she
was struggling against them, and screaming, the man in whose house she
lived _bawled out_, "Choke the d----d b----h! don't let her
halloo--she'll scare my wife!" Having conquered her by superior force,
she said they placed her with the child in a chaise, (her description of
which, with the horse and the driver, who was one of the victors,
corresponds precisely with that given by the mulatto man of the
carriage, &c. by which he also was conveyed,) and refusing to dress
herself, three of them, leaving the two who belonged to the house,
carried her off in the condition that she was dragged from bed, to a
certain tavern in Maryland, and sold them both to the Man-Dealer, who
brought them to the city of Washington. She stated, that one of her
captors drove the carriage, and held the rope which was fixed to her
neck, and that one rode each side, on horseback.--That, while one of
them was negociating a bargain with her purchaser, he asked her who her
master was; and, replying that she had none, her seller beckoned to him
to go into another room, where the business was adjusted without
troubling her with any farther inquiries. She stated, that her purchaser
confessed, while on the way to Annapolis, that he believed she might
have had some claim to freedom, and intimated that he would have taken
her back, if the man[24] of whom he bought her had not ran away; but
requested her, notwithstanding, to say nothing to any body about her
being free, which she refused to comply with. She affirmed, that he
offered her for sale to several persons, _who refused to purchase, on
account of her asserting that she was free_. She stated, that her
purchaser had left her in Washington for a few weeks, and gone to the
_Eastern Shore_, in search of more black people, in order to make up a
drove for Georgia.
64. These facts clearly exemplify the safety with which the free born
inhabitants of the United States may be offered for sale and sold, even
in the metropolis of Liberty,[25] as oxen; even to those who are
notified of the fact, and are perhaps convinced of it, that they are
free![26]
65. The discovery of these captives, on their road to the dismal
_gulf_[27] of (perhaps) interminable slavery to themselves, and their
multiplying progeny; in this very accidental, unless providential
manner, filled me with a mixture of astonishment, compassion and joy.
With a view to commence immediate legal measures, for restoring them to
their liberty, I took my pencil and noted down their narratives
circumstantially.
66. I had not quite finished, before the purchaser of the mulatto man
came into the room. He seemed a little surprised to find me writing, but
made no inquiries about it, and having obtained all the information that
I wished, I continued noting it down, notwithstanding his being present,
until my memorandums were completed; when I left him in the room,
without having had any conversation with him, except answering some
questions, which he asked me relative to the wounded slave. Without
hesitation, I commenced a suit in the circuit court of the United
States, for the District of Columbia, for the restitution of their
liberty. The first attempt to secure the persons of the captives, by a
writ of habeas corpus, was ineffectual. I accompanied the deputy marshal
myself, to the house in which I found them. The landlord declared, that
"if he had known I was writing so long in the room where the Negroes
were, he should have been very angry with me; and that if I had no other
evidence of their freedom, but their stories, we should not see them."
He said he believed "Negroes were made to serve the Whites, and that
they had no more sense than horses." He stated, that the person who saw
me writing, suspected some difficulty, and had directed him to conceal
the Negroes, and that he had done it. He told me, in a sneering manner,
that if I wished to take the part of the negroes, he could find me
plenty of such business. He informed me that he had been in the way of
keeping Negroes for the Traders many years, and took better care of them
than they received in the jail.[28]
67. Notwithstanding the writ of habeas corpus was returned to the
magistrate unexecuted, I still persevered, and obtained a process of
injunction, in order to prevent the removal of the captives from the
District, until the commencement of the session of the court; by which
it was ascertained that they still remained in the same house. A second
writ of habeas corpus having been issued from the court while sitting,
they were at length produced, which, fortunately, was accomplished on
the very day that the purchaser of the woman and child left Washington,
with a coffle of ten or twelve coloured persons, with whom he had just
returned from Maryland.[29] The court having examined them, placed them
in safe custody for further examination at the ensuing summer session,
so that time could be had for procuring the requisite testimony from
Delaware. For defraying the expense of accomplishing this purpose, and
of prosecuting the suits, a subscription was drawn up by Francis T. Key,
esq. who volunteered his own services as attorney, gratis, as did also
J. B. Caldwell, and J. B. Lear, Esqs. The subscription was commenced by
general Van Ness; the heads of the executive departments of the
government, with but rare exception; several gentlemen of the senate and
house of representatives, and the mayor and citizens of Washington
generally, (possessors of slaves as well as others,) to whom application
was made, joined in the contribution. I was highly gratified to meet
with this practical evidence, that the disposition to extend the hand of
relief to abused _African_ strangers, is not at the present period, by
any means confined exclusively to the limits of a solitary religious
society. Between one and two hundred dollars having been collected,[30]
I proceeded myself to the state of Delaware; and having travelled from
Wilmington to Lewestown and Georgetown, returned with unequivocal proof
of the legal right of the captives to their liberty, which was
accordingly restored to them by the court at the ensuing June session.
68. One of the attornies having addressed letters to several respectable
citizens of Delaware, for the purpose of obtaining information
respecting the correctness of the statements of the captives, an answer
was received relative to the female, of which the following is an
extract:--
69. "Your letter of the 30th ult. I received by yesterday's mail, and am
happy to find the unfortunate negro woman is once more rescued from the
fangs of the ----s and others, as vile a banditti as ever were permitted
to disturb the peace of society. The statement by ---- [the woman] is no
doubt true. This poor creature was rescued from the ----s some time last
winter, and seems in the case which occurred then, as well as that which
you relate, to have been saved by an almost miraculous intervention. The
----s stand now indicted for taking her off last winter.--Their gang is
numerous, daring--full of money, &c."
70. Understanding that several of the persons concerned in the cases had
been arrested, and having been informed by one of the representatives to
congress, from Delaware, that the laws of that state inflict corporeal
punishment for offences of this kind, such as whipping, cropping the
ears, and exposure in the pillory, I wrote a reply to the above letter,
of which the following is an extract:
71. "Not for vengeance, but for the sake of humanity, I hope this fell
banditti, with which the free (or ought to be free) soil of America is
polluted, may be routed. But, for Heaven's sake, and for the sake of
their wives and children, and _for my sake_, let the wrath of justice
and law be so managed, that their _animal_ bodies shall not be
tormented, in consequence of my exertions to arrest the progress of
their outrageous and unpardonable conduct, equal to the scratch of a
pin. Yet I cannot help charging that state jurisprudence, which permits
the easy repetition of the crimes of which they have been guilty, with
being exceedingly defective. It seems to me, that where there is no
work-house in a state, such persons should be limited under sufficient
securities and penalties, to their own farms, or some prescribed
boundaries;--and, in case they transgress these, to be declared to be
outlawed, and liable to be estimated and treated no other than as wolves
and tygers, to which they have already assimilated themselves of their
own accord."
72. Governor Miller of North-Carolina, says in his speech already
alluded to, "The principle will be conceded, that the end of punishment
is the prevention of crimes." Lacerations and mutilations of the human
frame, exasperate its occupant in the highest degree, and are very
likely to excite an obstinate perseverance in crimes, by way of
retaliation and spite. Imprisonment, with labour, if it does not reform
the disturber of the public peace, by the opportunity of reflection and
salutary instruction, it certainly restrains his career for a specific
time, effectually.
73. The satisfaction of beholding the yellow man, and the black woman,
with her two female infants, (one of them having been born but a short
time previous to their release,) seated in the stage, under the care of
one of the senators of the legislature of Delaware, who had attended the
court as a witness in behalf of the woman; afforded me a rich reward for
thus having performed an indispensable _duty_, which I owed to their
Creator, to them as their _neighbour_, to the principles of our social
and political system, and to myself.
74. The specimen here given of _man-stealing_, forms but a mere speck in
an extensive system of this nefarious profession, which for many years
has been, and continues to be pursued, with increasing vigor and
_pecuniary_ profit, in all the middle states. Even the city of
Philadelphia is not exempt from this moral pestilence.
75. To enumerate all the horrid and aggravating instances of
men-stealing, which are known to have occurred in the state of Delaware,
within the recollection of many of the citizens of that state, would
require a heavy volume. In many cases, whole families of free coloured
people have been attacked in the night, beaten _nearly_ to death with
clubs, gagged and bound, and dragged into distant and hopeless captivity
and slavery, leaving no traces behind, except the blood from their
wounds.
76. During the last winter, since the seizure of the woman and infant,
as related above, the house of a free black family was broken open, and
its defenceless inhabitants treated in the manner just mentioned,
except, that the mother escaped from their merciless grasp, while on
their way to the state of Maryland. The plunderers, of whom there were
nearly half a dozen, conveyed their prey upon horses; and the woman
being placed on one of the horses, behind, improved an opportunity, as
they were passing a house, and sprang off; and not daring to pursue her,
they proceeded on, leaving her youngest child a little farther along by
the side of the road, in expectation, it is supposed, that its cries
would attract the mother, but she prudently waited until morning, and
recovered it again in safety.
77. I consider myself more fully warranted in particularising this fact,
from the circumstances of having been at New-Castle at the time that
the woman was brought with her child, before the grand jury, for
examination; and of having seen several of the persons against whom
bills of indictment were found, on the charge of being engaged in the
perpetration of the outrage; and also that one or two of them were the
same who were accused of assisting in seizing and carrying off the woman
and child whom I discovered at Washington. The ingenuity and stratagems
employed by kidnappers, in effecting their designs, are such as to
prove, that the most consummate cunning is no evidence of wisdom or
moral purity, nor incompatible with the most consummate villainy. A
monster, in human shape, was detected in the city of Philadelphia,
pursuing the occupation of courting and marrying mulatto women, and
selling them as slaves. In his last attempt of this kind, the fact
having come to the knowledge of the African population of this city, a
mob was immediately collected, and he was only saved from being torn in
atoms, by being deposited in the city prison. They have lately invented
a method of attaining their objects, through the instrumentality of the
laws:--Having selected a suitable free coloured person, to make a
_pitch_ upon, the _conjuring_ kidnapper employs a confederate, to
ascertain the distinguishing marks of his body and then claims and
obtains him as a slave, before a magistrate, by describing those marks,
and proving the truth of his assertions, by his well-instructed
accomplice.
78. From the best information that I have had opportunities to collect,
in travelling by various routes through the states of Delaware and
Maryland, and from statements of an ingenuous trader exclusively, (as I
believe,) in lawful slaves, I am fully convinced that there are, at this
time, within the jurisdiction of the United States, several thousands of
legally free people of colour, toiling under the yoke of involuntary
servitude, and transmitting the same fate to their posterity! If the
probability of this fact could be authenticated to the recognition of
the congress of the United States, it is presumed that its members, as
agents of the constitution, and guardians of the public liberty, would,
without hesitation, devise means for the restoration of those unhappy
victims of violence and avarice, to their freedom and constitutional
personal rights. This is a work, both from its nature and magnitude,
impracticable to individuals or benevolent societies to accomplish;
besides, it is perfectly a national business, and claims national
interference, equally with the captivity of our sailors in Algiers. The
most successful, economical, politic, and just method of effecting this
object would, perhaps, be to institute a board of commissioners, with
authority to redeem every individual satisfactorily ascertained to be
legally free, at a fair appraisal of the common value of a similar
slave. Inquiries might be made in those districts where many coloured
persons are known to have been kidnapped, and all possessors of slaves
might be required to report the names, ages, and origin of their
possession, of all the coloured persons in their custody, under legal
affirmation, to the clerk of such county, to be transmitted by them to
some department designated for the purpose in each state. The most of
the present holders of these _stolen men_, probably acquired possession
of them as innocently as they do of legal slaves, and an attempt by
coercion, although justifiable with respect to the captive, would render
the enterprise abortive, through evasion, and probably would be more
expensive if successful.
79. It is my impression, that the introduction of slaves for sale into
almost every state in the union, is prohibited by specific statutes, and
if an annual inspection and registering of all slaves were enforced, it
would guarantee a compliance with such laws in a most effectual manner,
and dissolve the man-hunting fraternity at once.
80. I shall close this subject, which indeed "_is almost too deep and
awful to look into_," by declaring my solemn and decided conviction,
that the abstract relative principles of moral and political justice;
the sacred axioms of our Declaration of Independence, and of our
Constitution, as well as sound policy and prudence, obligate this
nation, most unequivocally, to ransom every human creature held in
_lawful_ bondage for life, against his will, without accusation of
crime; at an equitable valuation of his worth to the possessor under
existing laws, within the jurisdiction of the republic; and to place him
so nearly in a state of _personal_ liberty, and the enjoyment of his
natural and moral rights, as to secure to him the fruits or reward of
his own labour, the benefits of mental improvement, and exemption from
corporeal laceration. I do not consider it to be our duty to grant them
a participation in the _civil_ privileges of citizenship;[31]--but, they
have an incontestable claim to the protection of the laws, and to the
common privileges of aliens and strangers, or at least of prisoners of
war, so far as is compatible with the public peace and welfare. They are
created a distinct race of people, and the designs of the Author of
Nature ought not to be thwarted, by permitting their conjugal commixture
with a race physically different. Without examining the problematical
question of the inherent physical or moral superiority of either in the
scale of being, (which is not relevant to the present subject,)[32] I
must affirm, that in my humble view there is both a moral and political
propriety in prohibiting by energetic laws, the sexual commerce between
the descendants of Europe and Africa, either by marriage, _slavery_, or
otherwise. The extinction of slavery would promote this purpose far more
than its toleration. Uncontrolled slavery, as facts have manifested, in
the United States as well as the West Indies, facilitates and protects
licentiousness, and a species of brutal debauchery, the consequences of
which are deplorable and afflicting beyond description.[33]
81. It was a wise sentiment of the late Dr. Benjamin Rush, that "Nothing
can be politically right that is morally wrong; and that no necessity
can sanctify a law that is contrary to equity." It is morally and
politically wrong both, (and without necessity too,) that an innocent,
"feeble and untutored people"[34] should be detained by a powerful and
enlightened people, professing superior honour and justice, in a state
of beastly, unwilling, unrequited servitude, and indescribable moral and
physical degradation! But let not the fell stigma be attached entirely
to the present retainers of the slaves. Every citizen of the republic,
entitled to the right of suffrage, is responsible for his proportionable
quota of the miseries inflicted on the defenceless Africans, in our
privileged country. Human nature is such, that a large proportion of
men, will improve every means within their reach, for advancing their
fortunes, indulged by political laws. In this country the laws emanate
primitively from the people. The outrage upon the rights of our present
slave population originated in Africa. Our laws have, from their
infancy, until recently, sanctioned the perpetration of that outrage, in
Africa, by permitting its principles and products to be transferred to,
and adopted in, our own country; and they still sanction their
continuance. Laws ought to be responsible for their own operations and
results. If a law were enacted authorizing the sale of all the debtors
now in prison in the United States, for unconditional and perpetual
servitude, with their posterity, and they should be accordingly sold, it
would be morally unjust, with respect to the purchasers, but not the
slaves, to proclaim an immediate emancipation, without restoring the
purchase money: that is, it would be unjust not to restore it. Hence the
people of the United States, considered collectively as a nation, having
confirmed and _legalized_ the transfer, (or abdication) of the assumed
power of African despots and banditti, to their assigns in America, and
now holding the sovereignty over the laws in their own hands, are the
_master aggressors_ upon the victims of those savage tyrants, and are
bound to make them appropriate reparation. While justice is rendered to
the slave, remuneration is due to the holder, for the loss he sustains
in consequence of his prior confidence of the continuation of his legal
power over him. It would be necessary and right, probably, until several
successive rising generations shall have been moralized by education,
that the government should retain, or leave with their present
possessors a rational and definite civil guardianship over the persons
of these national prisoners. The redemption of the existing population
of slaves would preclude the necessity of purchasing any of their
descendants; and thus the blessings of freedom and moral improvement
might be guaranteed to unknown millions of unborn members of the human
family. As the interests of the southern white population would be
vitally benefited by the accomplishment of this object, even if they
were to consummate it without the co-operation of the northern states,
the additional impulse of humanity cannot fail to influence their
unanimous assent and a generous compromise. Such an act of national
magnanimity, beneficence and justice, would diffuse joy and admiration
amongst all colours and all nations. There would be no murmuring. It
might be effected without making any man feel the poorer for it; and if
it did, that is no excuse for injustice and oppression. A great
proportion of the necessary sum might be raised from duties on the
imported products of the labour of slaves, which are generally luxuries,
as rum, sugar, coffee, &c.; and the amount of all the funds heretofore
raised, or to be raised, from the taxation of slaves, is justly due to
them, for this purpose; for they have resulted exclusively from the
products of their toil and sweat. It is both the right and the duty of
the citizens of the north to unite with their brethren in the south, in
washing away this obnoxious stain upon the national character. Let the
public will and honour be consulted; let the national voice be elicited
by universal public meetings, and concentrated, so as to vibrate with
irresistible effect, in the sanctuaries of freedom and justice. Mr.
Randolph, in the house of representatives, on the subject of
constitutional compromise, said, (alluding to the words "_three fourths
of all other persons_," made use of in the constitution, in order that
the statute book should not be stained with the name slave,) "he wished
to God our consciences were not stained."
REFLECTIONS
ON THE
_BLACK COLONY PROJECT_.
Since the foregoing part was composed, a highly respectable meeting,
consisting of a considerable number of the Members of our National
Legislature, with many benevolent and intelligent citizens of the
District of Columbia, has been held in the City of Washington (on the
21st Dec. ult.) for the purpose, as expressed by the gentleman who
presided as chairman, (Mr. Clay,) "_of considering the propriety and
practicability of colonizing the free" people "of colour in the United
States, and of forming an asylum in relation to that object_."
As the proceedings of this Meeting indicate a flattering prospect of the
consummation of a measure, on which I had recorded my sentiments, and
hope[35] of its adoption, several weeks previous to the time that the
meeting was announced, it is deemed useful and appropriate to annex a
sketch of their deliberations, as published in the National
Intelligencer.
* * * * *