[1] The liberty of the black population in but a single state, is
estimated at about thirty millions of dollars.
[2] Governor Miller's message to the legislature of North Carolina in
1815.
[3] The Capitol at Washington.
[4] "Political subordination, however hateful to a liberal mind, is as
bright as day when compared with the dark and hopeless bondage of the
Negro."
[5] Since writing the above, I have been favoured with the perusal of a
letter from the brother of the late Governor of the State of Delaware,
to his friend in Philadelphia, dated Lewes, November 27, 1816, in which,
after mentioning the arrest of a banditti of kidnappers, &c. he relates
the following narrative:--
"A melancholy catastrophe has recently occurred here. A pilot, who owned
a young black man, last Thursday morning, when in the bay off here, for
some small offence, struck him three or four times with a rope's end;
his man observed, 'Master, you have promised whenever I am unwilling to
serve you, that I might choose another master; I now want to leave you.'
'Very well, (replied the master) but I will settle with you first, pull
off your shirt,' and signified or said he would beat him until sun-set.
His man replied, 'I will die first,' and immediately jumped overboard
and drowned himself."
[6] The aboriginal Americans have offered their civilized brethren a
most beautiful and instructive lesson on this subject. The author of
"The Star in the West," Elias Boudinot, LL. D. relates the following
fact. From page 232:--
"The writer of these sheets, many years ago, was one of the
corresponding members of a society in Scotland for promoting the gospel
among the Indians. To further the great work, they educated two young
men, of very serious and religious dispositions, and who were desirous
of undertaking the mission for this purpose. When they were ordained and
ready to depart, we wrote a letter in the Indian style, to the Delaware
nation, then residing on the northwest of the Ohio, informing them that
we had, by the goodness of the Great Spirit, been favoured with a
knowledge of his will, as to the worship he required of his creatures,
and the means he would bless to promote the happiness of men, both in
this life and that which is to come. That thus enjoying so much
happiness ourselves, we could not but think of our red brethren in the
wilderness, and wish to communicate the glad tidings to them, that they
might be partakers with us. We had therefore sent them two ministers of
the gospel, who would teach them these great things, and earnestly
recommended them to their careful attention. With proper passports the
missionaries set off, and arrived in safety at one of their principal
towns.
"The chiefs of the nation were called together, who answered them, that
they would take it into consideration, but in the mean time they might
instruct their women, but they should not speak to the men. They spent
fourteen days in council, and then dismissed them very courteously, with
an answer to us. This answer made great acknowledgments for the favor we
had done them: They rejoiced exceedingly at our happiness in thus being
favored by the Great Spirit, and felt very grateful that we had
condescended to remember our red brethren in the wilderness: But they
could not help recollecting that we had a people among us, who, because
they differed from us in colour, we had made slaves of, and made them
suffer great hardships and lead miserable lives. Now, they could not see
any reason, if a people being black, entitled us thus to deal with them,
why a red colour should not equally justify the same treatment: They
therefore had determined to wait, to see whether all the black people
amongst us were made thus happy and joyful, before they could put
confidence in our promises; for they thought a people who had suffered
so much and so long by our means, should be entitled to our first
attention; that therefore, they had sent back the two missionaries, with
many thanks, promising that when they saw the black people among us
restored to freedom and happiness, they would gladly receive our
missionaries. This is what in any other case, would be called close
reasoning, and is too mortifying a fact to make further observations
upon."
[7] An inn-keeper, in the south part of Virginia, who hires his stand,
complains that his landlord _does_ him _much_ harm, by inviting nearly
all his respectable company to the festivities of his own dwelling
house.
[8] The ingenious and benevolent Mr. J. M'Leod, teacher of a respectable
seminary in the city of Washington, has assured the author, that he has
extended the science of encouraging promptitude in duty to such a
degree, that, (by his permission) his pupils have often flocked to his
lodgings, in crowds, before the dawn of day, emulating each other, who
should first rouse him from his bed, in order to proceed upon their
studies. At the same time, he did not permit his rules to be violated
with impunity. He pursued the same policy with soldiers, while an
officer a short time formerly, in the United States' army, and with the
same success. While a private teacher in a family in which slaves were
kept, his sympathy was so deeply wounded by the severity of their
punishments for misconduct, that he frequently gave them a quarter of a
dollar out of his own pocket, as an inducement for doing their duty so
as not to incur the displeasure of their masters. Might not such a
system of _genuine_ and _generous republican government_ as this be
adopted with mutual benefit to both _the people and their rulers_, on
the slave plantations universally?
[9] "Give me an uninformed brute," said Mirabeau, "and I will soon make
him a ferocious monster. It was a white, who first plunged a negro into
a burning oven,--who dashed out the brains of a child in the presence of
its father,--who fed a slave with his own proper flesh. These are the
monsters that have to account for the barbarity of the revolted savages.
Millions of Africans have perished on this soil of blood. In this
dreadful struggle the crimes of the whites are yet the most
horrible:--They are the offspring of despotism; whilst those of the
blacks originate in the hatred of slavery--the thirst of vengeance."
[10] Several letters have been addressed to the Pennsylvania Society for
Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, by individuals residing in the
southern and south-western states, expressing their desire to emancipate
their slaves, and requesting the Society to receive them under its
patronage.
In a letter from Dr. John Adams, to the Society, dated Richmond Hill,
Dec. 19, 1815, he states that, "A certain Samuel Guest, deceased, had,
by his will, directed that his slaves, amounting to about 300, should be
emancipated, and his lands sold for their benefit; which, being
prohibited by law, unless they should be removed out of the boundaries
of the commonwealth of Virginia, he requests the aid of the Society, and
recommends their transportation to Guinea."
The committee of the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of
Slavery, to whom this letter was referred, reported, "that it did not
appear that the convention could, at present, propose any specific plan
for accomplishing the benevolent intention of Samuel Guest." This is
really a distressing case. If there exists _any where_, the power of
affording a remedy in such instances as this, the omission of exercising
it is, in effect, an act of converting freemen into slaves! This subject
demands the serious attention of the government, and of every citizen,
who, like Howard, the model of beneficence, is "a patriot of every
clime."
Since the original of the preceding note was written, the following
statement has been published in the National Intelligencer:--
"The legislature of Indiana are now actively engaged in the organization
of the details of the state government. Much debate has taken place on a
petition or letter from W. E. Sumner, of Williamson county, (Tennessee,)
requesting that the legislature may enable him to bring into the state a
number of slaves, with the view which he expresses in the following
words:
"I have about 40, and my intention is, if permitted by the laws of
Indiana, to bring and free them, to purchase land for them and settle
them on it; to give them provisions for the first year, and furnish them
with tools for agriculture and domestic manufactory, and next spring
with domestic animals. You must be aware, sir, that this must be
attended with no small expenditure of money and trouble. I think, that
after a man has had the use of slaves and their ancestors, twenty or
thirty years, it is unjust and inhuman to set them free, unprovided with
a home, &c. &c. All that I have were raised by my father and myself, and
the oldest is about my age (46.) I am also very desirous to leave the
slave states, and spend my few remaining days in that state where
involuntary slavery is not admissible; and will, with the blessing of
God, prepare to do so as soon as I can settle my affairs."
"The mode in which this letter should be treated is the subject of the
debate. It appears to be agreed that the constitution of the state
forbids a compliance with his request."
The writer has been assured that this conscientious, just, and generous
individual is one among the number of those who made similar
propositions to the above, to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and
with the like disappointment.
[11] A few days subsequent to the time that the above suggestions were
originally committed to paper, the House of Delegates of the Virginia
Legislature, passed the following resolution, by an almost unanimous
vote; "That the Executive be requested to correspond with the President
of the United States, for the purpose of obtaining a Territory upon the
North Pacific, or at some other place, not within any of the states, or
the territorial governments of the United States, to serve as an asylum
for such persons of colour, as are now free, and may desire the same,
and for those who may be hereafter emancipated within this commonwealth,
&c." If the present system of restrictions upon emancipation should be
persevered in, for an indefinite length of time, the necessary final
result must be frightful to contemplate. If a state, containing soil
sufficient to subsist only 1,000,000 of slaves, besides the free
population, provides no outlet, for the excess of that number, by
permitting their emancipation or otherwise, _starvation_ must be the
consequence!
[12] On first hearing this epithet used, I was at a loss to account for
its meaning. I have since observed that, in the middle states, the
general title applied to slave-traders, indiscriminately, is
"_Georgia-men_."
[13] Would it be superstitious to presume, that the sovereign Father of
all nations, permitted the _perpetration_ of this apparently execrable
transaction, as a _fiery_, though salutary signal of his displeasure at
the conduct of his Columbian children, in erecting and idolizing this
splendid fabric as the temple of freedom, and at the same time
oppressing with the yoke of captivity and toilsome bondage, twelve or
fifteen hundred thousand of their African _brethren_ (by logical
induction,) making merchandize of their _blood_, and dragging their
bodies with _iron chains_, even under its towering walls? Yet is it a
fact, that _slaves_ are employed in rebuilding this sanctuary of
_liberty_.
[14] It is a notorious and afflicting truth, that in the United States,
the head of a _poor black man_ has been cut off _with impunity_, by a
white man (or master;) that black men have been _wantonly shot_ by white
men; and that a free black man (whom I have seen myself) was _hoppled_,
and being unsuccessfully offered for sale as a slave, was bound to a
post in the winter, and left without food until his feet _were frozen_,
where he would probably have perished, had he not extricated himself by
his own struggles.
[15] This statement was furnished by a respectable citizen, who was one
of the first that found the dead body, near his own house.
N.B. Nothing can more strongly indicate the true state of the case than
this _disguising of names_. The _Author_ dared put _his_ name; but he
was in _Pennsylvania_: he would, probably have exposed his
_Maryland_-informant to _death_ by naming him. W. C.
[16] It is a frequent custom in the district of Columbia, Maryland, and
Delaware, for masters to endeavour to reform their bad slaves, by
terrifying them with threats of selling them for the Georgia market, or
"_to Carolina_" them; which is often carried into effect. There are,
notwithstanding, several individuals, so conscientiously opposed to
selling men against their will, that the most unpardonable conduct will
not induce men to do it; and they prefer rejecting them, and letting
them keep all the wages they can get for their own use.
[17] One of the members of the house of representatives (Mr. ADGATE,)
related to me, while at Washington, the following fact:--"That during
the last session of congress, (1815-16,) as several members were
standing in the street, near the new capitol, a drove of manacled
coloured people were passing by; and when just opposite, one of them
elevating his manacles as high as he could reach, commenced singing the
favorite national song, "_Hail Columbia! happy land_," &c.
N.B. This is an excessively stupid song, written more than 20 years ago
by one HOPKINSON, a lawyer of Philadelphia, who seems to have been born
to be an ornament of Grub-Street. But, however silly the thoughts or
inflated the expressions, down it goes if national vanity or party
strife lay hold of it. "_Hail Columbia_" is much about upon a level with
"_God save the king_;" they have both had about the same cause to keep
them in vogue; but, I must confess, that the Americans, with _manacles
on their hands and chains round their necks_, singing songs in praise of
the _freedom_ of that Country, is going a little further than our fools
when they bleat and bellow and bawl out that parcel of stuff, that low
bombast, which the news-papers, in their cant, call "Our great National
_Anthem_;" an "_Anthem_" that talks, amongst other things, of
"confounding _politicks_ and all their _knavish tricks_!" Come, come: we
must not pretend to _laugh_ at the Washington Negro!--W. C.
[18] Judge Morrel, in his charge to the grand jury of Washington, at the
session of the circuit court of the United States, in January 1816, for
the district of Columbia, urged this subject to its attention very
emphatically, as an object of remonstrance and juridical investigation.
He said the frequency with which the streets of the city had been
crowded with manacled captives, sometimes even on the sabbath, could not
fail to shock the feelings of all humane persons; that it was repugnant
to the spirit of our political institutions, and the rights of man, and
he believed was calculated to impair the public morals, by familiarizing
scenes of cruelty to the minds of youth.
[19] Extract from the preamble to the first act passed by the
legislature of Pennsylvania, for the gradual abolition of slavery in
that state:
"Sect. 2. And whereas the condition of those persons who have heretofore
been denominated negro and mulatto slaves, has been attended with
circumstances which not only deprived them of the common blessings that
they were by nature entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest
afflictions by an unnatural separation of husband and wife from each
other and from their children--an injury the greatness of which can only
be conceived by supposing that we were in the same unhappy case," &c.
Darwin, who may well be styled an _arch connoisseur_, both in physiology
and morality, in his classification of human diseases, includes one
which he denominates _Nostalgia_, and thus defines it:
"_Nostalgia._ An unconquerable desire of returning to one's native
country, frequent in long voyages, in which the patients become so
insane as to throw themselves into the sea, mistaking it for green
fields and meadows. The Swiss are said to be particularly liable to this
disease, and when taken into foreign service frequently desert from this
cause, and especially after hearing or singing a particular tune, which
was used in their village dances, in their native country; on which
account their playing or singing this tune was punished with death.
Zwingerus.
Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, And dear that hill, which
lifts him to the storms. Goldsmith." Zoonomia, Cl. III. 1. 1. 6.
The late _indefatigable Rush_, in his Inquiry into the Causes of the
Derangement of the Human Mind, states, that the slaves imported into the
_West Indies from Africa_, frequently become distracted when they are
about to commence the toils of perpetual slavery on the plantations.
N. B. This "_indefatigable_ RUSH" was, indeed, _indefatigable_ in
_puffing himself off_ for a friend of _humanity_, in which he was pretty
successful too. He made his court to the Quakers, and even exceeded some
of them in cunning. It was as puny a creature, in point of talent, as
ever contrived to get a reputation for wisdom. Principles he had none:
he wrote about every thing, and about nothing well; but, as a
_pretender_ to humanity he was consummate. Only mind how he _here_ calls
for indignation against the "_West India_" planters. Not a word about
those of his own "_free country_!" What a hypocrite! He was a Doctor of
Physic; and he knew well that he would have lost his best patients,
those that paid best for the _blood-letting_, (for which he was so
famous) if he had made free with the Slave-holders of his own
"free-country."--W. C.
[20] To those speculators in human flesh, who purchase free people as
well as slaves, without discrimination, I must now apply the title of
_Man-Dealers_, instead of Slave Traders.
[21] While interrogating him about the manner of his being seized and
bound, he gave his chains a shake, by moving his feet on the floor, and
with vexation muttered, "When the devil gets 'em he'll _chain them_."
"No, no," said I, "you shouldn't make such speeches as that, perhaps
they were brought up to such things, and don't know any better." "_Well
but_," said he, "_they know what's right_." I have since been assured,
that several instances of _black_ man-stealing had occurred, in which
fathers, sons, brothers, and even wives and daughters, were
promiscuously engaged.
[22] I was informed, on my arrival in the neighbourhood where this
affair was transacted, that this _person_, on hearing that the mulatto
man had been intercepted at Washington, said he had a _bad pain_ on his
mind, and believed he should _clear out_; which he had done accordingly.
[23] Thos. Clarkson states, in his History of the Abolition of the Slave
Trade, that "the arrival of slave ships on the coasts of Africa was the
uniform signal for the immediate commencement of wars for the attainment
of prisoners, for sale and exportation to America and the West Indies."
In Maryland and Delaware, the same drama is now performed in miniature.
The arrival of the Man-Traffickers, _laden_ with cash, at their
respective _stations_, near the coasts of a great American water, called
justly, by Mr. Randolph, "a Mediterranean sea," or at their several
_inland posts_, near the dividing line of Maryland and Delaware, (at
some of which they have grated prisons for the purpose) is the well
known signal for the professed _kidnappers_, like beasts of prey, to
commence their nightly invasions upon the _fleecy flocks_; extending
their ravages, (generally attended with bloodshed, and sometimes
murder,) and spreading terror and consternation amongst both freemen and
slaves throughout the _sandy regions_, from the western to the eastern
shores. These "two-legged featherless animals," or _human bloodhounds_,
when overtaken (rarely) by the messengers of law, are generally found
armed with instruments of death, sometimes with pistols with _latent_
spring daggers attached to them! Mr. Cooper, one of the representatives
to congress from Delaware, assured me that he had often been afraid to
send one of his servants out of his house in the evening, from the
danger of their being seized by kidnappers.
While at Wilmington (Del.) I accidentally heard a black woman telling
the gate-keeper of the bridge, that she had set out to go to Georgetown,
(Del.) but was returning without having reached it, for fear of being
caught on the road by the kidnappers.
[24] I was informed in Delaware, that her seller absconded in about ten
days after the outrage was committed.
[25] The mulatto youth had been purchased in the city of Washington, and
kept in it in irons several weeks, by a person who confessed his regret
that he had not removed him before the suit for the recovery of his
freedom had commenced; and that, if he had known it sooner, he would
have taken him on to ----, (the place of his residence,) even if he had
been satisfied of his being free. One Slave-Trader, to whom he had been
offered, was however so conscientious, that he refused to purchase him,
or the lad who was with him, (before mentioned) being confident that
they were illegally enslaved.
[26] I have been assured by a gentleman of the highest respectability,
that a former representative to Congress, from one of the southern
states, acknowledged to him, that he held a mulatto man as a slave,
having purchased him in company with slaves, who affirmed that he was
free born, and had been kidnapped from one of the New England states;
who was well educated, and who, he had no doubt, was born as free a man
as himself, or my informant. Upon being asked, how he could _bear_ then
to retain him, he replied, that the customs of his part of the country
were such, that these things are not minded much.
[27] I was informed that the mulatto man was probably destined for the
New-Orleans market, not very far distant from the _Gulf of Mexico_,
which probably embraces more personal slavery, including its
neighbouring regions, than any region of equal extent on the globe.
[28] On the ensuing day, having persevered in endeavours to secure the
captives, the son of this landlord (to whom I presume _manacles_,
_hand-cuffs_, _iron man-fetters_, _hopples_ _&c._ are as familiar as
steel-traps and snares to the hunter of the _animals which yield fur_,)
expressed his sympathy for the loss of the purchaser of the mulatto man,
(who still remained in his chains,) should he be set at liberty. I asked
him whether he considered it worse for the trader to lose a few hundred
dollars in money, than for the mulatto man to be transported to a
strange country, and be deprived of his liberty for life. To which he
replied, after a short pause, _that he did not know as there was much
difference_! I assured him, that if he _did not_, I was _sorry_ for him.
This illustrates the invincible force of morbid education and of habit.
[29] By information, derived from distinct and corresponding sources, a
few days after this caravan left Washington, there is no doubt of the
fact, that it contained, in addition to the slaves, a young black woman,
who had been emancipated in Delaware, and was sold by the same person as
an agent, that assisted in seizing and sold the black woman and child;
and also a legally free mulatto man, in irons, who had been sold in the
night by his employer, near Philadelphia, and who was most unmercifully
beaten with a club, on the night previous to their arrival in the city,
for telling a person that he was free.
[30] Additional aid was also rendered by the Abolition Society at
Wilmington.
[31] It would be equally as absurd to do this, as it would to import
2,000,000 prisoners of war from Turkey or China, and make citizens of
them.
[32] "It is not for us to inquire why, in the creation of mankind, the
inhabitants of the several parts of the earth were distinguished by a
difference in feature or complexion. It is sufficient to know, that all
are the work of an Almighty Hand." [From the first section of the
Preamble to the Pennsylvania act for the Abolition of Slavery, before
referred to.]
[33] M'Gurran Coulon, in his "Observations on the Insurrection of the
Negroes in the Island of St. Domingo," read before the National Assembly
of France, attributes the _troubles_ of that island, "above all, to the
injustice of which the whites have been guilty, in refusing to let the
mulattos partake of the blessings of liberty." This was evidently one of
the chief _proximate_ causes;--but the primitive radical origin of those
implacable conflicts between different shades of colour, may be traced
to the miserable fatal policy which permitted the production of those
shades. "The white father falls a victim to the unnatural rage of his
mulatto son." "In a country where it is by no means unusual for the
known children of the Planter to undergo all the hardships, and the
ignominy of slavery, in common with the most degraded class of mortals,
is it there we are to seek for instances of filial affection?" [Inquiry
into the Causes of the Insurrection of the Negroes in St. Domingo.]
[34] Recent message of the President of the United States to Congress,
alluding to the red natives of America.
[35] See Parag. 40. I consider it a fortunate circumstance, and one
which will protect me effectually from the imputation of plagiarism, in
respect to the similarity of what I had previously written on the
subject of colonization by "_beneficent societies_" and the national
ransom of slaves (see Parag. 80 & 81) to any thing advanced at this
meeting; that I had communicated the contents of the original manuscript
of the preceding work to page 98, except some notes and slight
alterations, to Roberts Vaux, Esq. one of the members of the common
council of the city of Philadelphia, on or previous to the 8th of Dec.
1816--And the fact is made public, in this manner, with his consent and
approbation.
[36] Several free persons of colour, of both sexes and all a little
shaded with a yellowish tint, being employed as servants in the house in
which I lodge, I inquired of two of the females, a few days ago, whether
they would like to go to Africa, as it was the country of their
forefathers. One of them expressed great repugnance at going there, and
the other said her fathers did not come from Africa, "and (said she) if
they (the Americans) did not want us, they had no need to have brought
us away: after they've brought us here, and made us work hard, and
_disfigured the colour_, I don't think it would be fair to send us back
again."
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
There is some inconsistency in the placing of italic and small
capital markup. They are as in the original.