ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES
The attitude of the people of Tennessee toward the negro expressed
itself not only in legislation and judicial decision, but also in
organized societies, such as manumission and colonization societies, in
the churches and in an abolition literature that is unique in American
history. It is the purpose of this chapter to give the organization and
work of the manumission and colonization societies.
The abolition forces made a determined effort to abolish slavery in the
constitutional convention of 1796, and, failing in this, they straightway
decided to establish anti-slavery societies. There is some doubt as to
when the first manumission society was organized in Tennessee. It is
clear that an effort was made to organize such a society in 1797. The
Knoxville Gazette of January 23, 1797, published a letter from Thomas
Embree in which it is stated that a number of the citizens of Washington
and Greene counties were to meet in March, 1797 and organize abolition
societies patterned after those of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and
Winchester.[1] The purpose of the society was to work for a more liberal
basis of emancipation and for complete abolition as soon as the slaves
by education could be prepared for it. Joshua W. Caldwell, author of
The Constitutional History of Tennessee, claims that either a Tennessee
Manumission Society was organized in 1809, or that the one mentioned
above was still in existence.[2] It is not corroborated by historical
evidence that there was organized a manumission society in Tennessee in
either 1797 or 1809.
There was a preliminary organization of an anti-slavery society in
December, 1814, at the home of Elihu Swain, the father-in-law of Charles
Osborn, who was the moving spirit of the organization. Rachel Swain,
later Rachel Davis, a daughter of Elihu Swain, said she was present at
the organizing of the society.[3] The temporary organization was made
permanent at the first session of the society, held at Lost Creek meeting
house, Jefferson County, Tennessee, February 25, 1815.[4]
At this first meeting, the society was given the name of the Tennessee
Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and a constitution was
adopted. The constitution consisted of a preamble and four articles.[5]
The motto of the society was, “That freedom is the natural right of
all men,” and each member displayed a placard to this effect in some
conspicuous place in his home. The society went at once into politics by
pledging its members to vote for only those candidates for office in the
state government who favored emancipation.
There were several anti-slavery societies organized in Tennessee during
this same year. They soon discovered the unity of their purpose and
decided in 1815 to federate. For this purpose, these societies held a
general convention at Lost Creek Meeting House of Friends[6] in Greene
County, November 21, 1815, and organized the Tennessee Manumission
Society on a federated basis. There were twenty-two branches of this
society.[7] By 1827, there were twenty-five anti-slavery societies in
Tennessee, and 130 in the United States. Of this number, one hundred and
six were in the Southern States, Tennessee ranking second in the list.[8]
The Tennessee society numbered one thousand members.[9] Its officers were
a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. At the suggestion
of Mr. Elihu Embree, a committee of inspection was provided to censor
the publications of the society.[10] The dues of this society were 12½
cents per year.[11]
The qualifications for membership were republicanism, patriotism,
abolitionism, and morality. The society held its annual meetings at Lost
Creek Meeting House. Its work consisted in memorializing legislatures
and congresses, protecting runaway negroes, fostering the spirit of
manumission, addressing the churches on slaveholding and opposing the
domestic and foreign slave trade.[12]
The society repeatedly memorialized Congress on the subject of slavery.
These memorials prayed the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia, the prohibition of the interstate slave trade and separation
of families, the proscription of slavery in the territories, and finally
the abolition of slavery in the United States.[13] These petitions
were presented by Tennessee congressmen, and referred to the judiciary
committee, which never reported on them.[14]
In 1821, the society petitioned the state legislature to grant easier
terms for manumission, to establish a plan of gradual emancipation,
to urge upon those owning slaves to teach them the Scriptures, and to
prohibit “the inhuman practice of separating husbands and wives, within
the limits of this state.”[15]
The legislative committee to which this memorial was referred dealt with
it frankly. It advocated easier terms for manumission, but desired to
restrict them to the emancipation of the young, healthy slave in order to
prevent avaricious masters from freeing the aged slaves who would become
a charge to society. It believed that the state should devise a policy
for freeing the slaves unborn, and recommended the passing of a law,
prohibiting the separation of husband and wife. The committee reported
unanimously, but the senate laid its report on the table.[16]
James Jones, president of the society, stated at its eighth annual
meeting that the objects of the society should be: First, to obtain the
support of the people to the abolition propaganda because the people
rule; second, to establish as many branches as possible to obtain
this end; third, to recommend to all friends of humanity to use their
suffrage to place men in the legislature who would support gradual
emancipation.[17]
At the tenth annual meeting of the society, a memorial was addressed to
the churches of Tennessee which showed the inconsistency of religion and
slavery and bitterly arraigned society for the crime of slavery. This
criticism of the church, society, and government in this petition was
the strongest condemnation of slavery made by the society during its
existence.[18]
The minutes of the eleventh annual meeting in 1825 show that the society
was still active. There were at this time twenty-two branches, eleven of
which reported a membership of 570.[19] This meeting was well attended
and appointed a committee, consisting of James Jones, Thomas Hodge, Jr.,
and Thomas Doane to begin the publication of a quarterly journal to be
called the manumission journal. Thomas Hodge, Jr. was made editor of the
journal, which was to be published at Greenville, Tennessee. The society
drafted memorials to Congress and to the churches of the United States,
and appointed James Lundy as delegate to the Annual Convention of the
American Abolition Societies in Philadelphia.[20]
Interest in the society seems to have begun to wane after 1825. The
convention in 1826 was not well attended. Only ten branches were
represented at this meeting.[21] The state was beginning to be alarmed
at the increased number of free negroes resulting from emancipation and
immigration.
The thirteenth meeting in 1827 was a rather important one. It sent
the usual memorials to Congress, legislature of Tennessee, and to the
churches of the country.[22] It made expulsion a penalty for aiding
slaves to escape. The branch organizations were to try those accused of
misconduct. This regulation indicates pernicious activities on the part
of some members of the society.
This meeting was noted for an address made by Thomas Doane in which he
made a very serious criticism of slavery. He said:
Slavery is unfriendly to a genuine course of agriculture,
turning in most cases the fair and fertile face of nature into
barren sterility. It is the bane of manufacturing enterprise
and internal improvements; injurious to mechanical prosperity;
oppressive and degrading to the poor and laboring classes of
the white population that live in its vicinity; the death
of religion; and finally, it is a volcano in disguise, and
dangerous to the safety and happiness of any government on
earth when it is tolerated.[23]
This convention also appointed a committee of which James Jones was
chairman to prepare a report to the American Convention. Jones, in this
report, expressed primarily his own feelings and showed his earnestness
as one of the greatest anti-slavery leaders of his time. He urged
religious and benevolent societies and all friends of freedom throughout
the Union to join in petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia and to use its power of regulating interstate
commerce to suppress the interstate slave traffic. “It is time,” he said,
“for people to be aroused to their duty, and ask their rulers to abolish
such things in plain, explicit terms.”[24]
Jones not only saw the injury that slavery was causing to society,
socially, economically, and politically, but he also foresaw what the
final catastrophe would be unless some constructive policy of abolition
was instituted for the nation. He said in a letter in 1830 to Benjamin
Lundy: “For if Congress will not listen to the voice of humanity until
destruction cometh, I wish posterity to know that some among us now are
desirous to have justice done.”[25]
Several branches of the society were active in creating sentiment for
emancipation by means of public meetings, addresses, and memorials to
various organizations. The Jefferson Branch, located in Jefferson County,
the seat of the state society, led the work in the local societies. In
1821, in an address delivered before the Jefferson Society, the speaker
took the following optimistic attitude toward manumission:
When we compare the public sentiment relative to slavery at
this period, with what it was, even a few years ago, have we
not reason to hope that a propitious epoch is now at hand
for benevolent humanity to exert itself in the cause of the
afflicted innocence? Is not the evil which avarice and cupidity
have drawn around our senses, gradually vanishing? Is not the
monster of cruelty beheld more generally in his native form?
We hail the increase of this sentiment as the beginning of
auspicious consequence both to ourselves and the unfortunate
sons of Africa. We hope that the sentiment will spread until
we become a willing people to forsake our iniquity, and let
the sufferers go; not by a miraculous interposition do we look
for it to be accomplished with precipitation; but by such
means as deliberate counsel and the direction of Providence
may dictate, to be conformable with Justice to those who claim
their services, and to the circumstances of those in servitude,
by alleviating their wretched condition, and instilling into
their minds such instruction as may prepare them for assuming
their proper rank and station among rational beings, when the
universal principles of propriety, justice, and equity, shall
sanction it.[26]
It has already been pointed out that interest in manumission began to
wane in 1825. In 1827, the annual convention of the state society was
poorly attended. No records of its life and activities after 1830 have
been found.[27] A definite change of policy toward the free negro was
being formulated during this period and it found expression in the
Exclusion Act of 1831. This change of policy of the state meant the death
of manumission as an organized movement.
There were also some independent anti-slavery societies in the state.
November 21, 1820, the Humane Protecting Society was organized in
Greene County. Its purpose was to extend the rights of man to all,
irrespective of race and color, and protect those “unlawfully oppressed.”
The qualifications for membership were good moral character, friendship
toward the government of the United States, and agreement to pay ten
cents on the hundred dollar’s worth of one’s unencumbered estate as
dues.[28]
In 1826, there was organized at Nashoba, Shelby County, West Tennessee,
the Emancipating Labor Society, by Miss Frances Wright of Scotland. In
1825, she bought eight tracts of land, aggregating 1,940 acres, lying on
both sides of Wolf River, in the vicinity of Germantown and Ridgeway,
paying $6,000 for the land.[29] The society was managed by a board of
trustees under certain restrictions.[30]
Admission to the society was to be strictly individual, except in case
of children under fourteen years of age, who might be admitted with one
or both parents, reared and educated until twenty years of age, and
emancipated at twenty-one. The society planned to buy slaves from those
people who wished to emancipate their slaves but who felt that they
could not sustain such expense. The society did not buy old men, women,
and children; but would take them and support them. In 1827, Miss Wright
presented the society with eight slaves and the work of a family of
females.[31]
The economics of the scheme were typical of the communistic philosophers
of the period. The slaves were charged with the capital invested on which
they were expected to pay six per cent interest; the farm equipment,
consisting of farming implements and live stock, was loaned them on the
condition that they constantly replace the same from their earnings.
One-half of the produce of the plantation was placed to their credit, and
purchased by the society at the market price. They shared equally with
the society the proceeds derived from the sale of all live stock raised
on the plantation. By a system of weekly accounts of income and expenses,
they knew their financial status at the end of each week. As soon as any
slave had a credit equal to what the society had paid for him, he was
emancipated. If he wanted to leave the state for Hayti or Liberia, he was
given the privilege of remaining in the society until he had sufficient
means to pay his transportation to one of these colonies.[32]
The character of the management of this society is very interesting.
The slaves were not put under an overseer and lashed to work, but were
directed in their work as if they were free laborers. The idea was to
make men and women who would voluntarily develop habitual industry under
advice and encouragement, rather than to exact labor from them by a
decree of force. They were to be fitted for a state of freedom by being
developed into self-governing men and women, and responsibility was
substituted for discipline just as rapidly as self-initiative could be
developed.
The negroes were fed, clothed, and housed. Those who showed any interest
in acquiring information were taught. A constant aim of the organization
was to improve their habits and conduct. The organization’s chief
purpose was to develop humanity, rather than to net the society any
pecuniary gain.[33] The society was not a success because of Miss
Wright’s absence in Europe and the impracticability of the plan. The
trustees resigned in 1831. Miss Wright emancipated the slaves and sent
them to Hayti. The trustees redeeded the plantation to Miss Wright in
1832. The estate became involved in court and some minor points remained
in controversy as late as 1886.[34]
A fourth anti-slavery society was the Moral Religious, Manumission
Society of West Tennessee, which was organized December 18, 1824, at
Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee.[35] The spirit of this society is well
known in the following extract from the preamble of its constitution:
We, the undersigned, having fully considered the subject of
Tyranny and Slavery as practiced by individuals on their
brethren in our neighborhood, and elsewhere in America; and
being fully convinced that it exceeds any other crime in
magnitude:
1st. In motive—being moved thereto by the “world, flesh and the
devil,” or with pride and laziness.
2nd. In the execution, it is cruel and unjust.
3rd. In the consequences, ignorance, hardness of heart and
inhumanity are produced. This ignorance of right and wrong is
manifested in the words and actions of tyrant and slave and all
of those who approve of the practice in others. They go forth
in practical infidelity and irreligion, which tend to destroy
the blessings of Christianity and republicanism as they exist
in this otherwise happy land.[36]
This society limited its membership to fifteen, none of whom could be
slaveholders.[37] Any additional membership constituted a branch society.
The officers of the society consisted of a board of directors, one
of whom was designated as chairman. Majority vote of the membership
determined the policy of the society on any question. No levy for funds
was made on the membership, but its revenues consisted of contributions
and donations. The directors were trustees of such funds. The society
met quarterly at the Republican Meeting House about six miles from
Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee.[38] One of these quarterly meetings
was held on the Fourth of July, and was regarded as the annual meeting
of the society. The constitution was rather elaborate, consisting of
twelve articles, and could be amended by the consent of two-thirds of
its members.[39] The policy of the society was not so radical in method
as might have been expected from the general tenor of its documents.
The constitution in articles 6 and 7 states that the acceptance of
Christianity would destroy in the tyrant “the will to enslave” and would
therefore eliminate personal slavery. It was the will of “men of talents”
to tyrannize that had to be controlled, and argument was the leading
means to use to accomplish this purpose. The society, therefore, proposed
to circulate copies of “The Genius of Universal Emancipation” through
their several communities, the state, and the nation, to issue addresses,
to petition churches and legislative bodies, and to preach the Gospel of
humanity to slaveholders.
This society issued in 1824 a memorial to the Methodist Episcopal
Conference which met that year at Columbia, Tennessee. The conference
agreed to the anti-slavery spirit of the memorial and to a coöperation
with the society in the realization of its aims.[40] March 22, 1825,
the society at its thirtieth quarterly meeting sent an address to the
Manumission Societies of America, making suggestions for the celebration
of Fourth of July, 1826, as Jubilee Day.[41]
The Moral, Religious Manumission Society sent an address to the American
Convention in 1826 that was too radical for publication.[42] The society
seems to have been dissolved about 1827.[43]
The manumission societies came to realize that the state would not
tolerate a large element of free negroes within its borders. They saw
that their success was conditioned on the colonization of the free
negroes as rapidly as they were emancipated. The Tennessee Manumission
Society in its memorial of 1816 to the churches of the United States
advocated in regard to free negroes, “that a colony be laid off for
their reception as they became free.”[44] The Presbyterian Synod of
Tennessee in session at the Nashville church the following year, adopted
resolutions favoring colonization, and congratulated the society for
its efforts in this direction.[45] A colonization society seems to have
been organized in 1822, but there is no evidence of its continued
existence.[46] The Tennessee Manumission Society, in its report to the
American Convention for the year 1823, suggested that Congress make
an appropriation for the purchase of a parcel of land on the American
continent for the colonization of free negroes.[47] In 1825, the
legislature of Tennessee advised its senators and representatives in
Congress to use their influence in promoting a scheme of colonization of
the free people of color.[48] In this same year, James Jones, president
of the Tennessee Manumission Society, wrote Benjamin Lundy that he was
much gratified at the progress being made to colonize the free people
of color in the Haytian Republic,[49] and he quotes the resolution of
the Tennessee Manumission Society, favoring the Haytian Republic as
a rendezvous for free negroes.[50] Two years later, the legislature
of Tennessee, in response to memorials and petitions of manumission
societies and churches again instructed the Tennessee representatives
in Congress to give their aid to the government of the United States in
carrying into effect a plan of colonizing the free people of color.[51]
From 1816 to 1829, there was constant agitation in Tennessee for a
colonization society.
In 1829 the American Colonization Society worked out a plan for state
societies. The state societies were to be auxiliaries to the national
society, and were themselves to be a confederacy of county societies
which in turn were to be composed of town and district societies. The
town and district societies were to hold regular annual meetings and
send delegates to the annual meeting of the state society, which was to
be represented at the annual meeting of the national society.[52] In
accordance with this plan Mr. Josiah F. Polk, agent for the American
Colonization Society for the states of Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and
Alabama, on December 21, 1829, organized, at Nashville, the Tennessee
Colonization Society, consisting of sixteen members. A president and
one vice-president were elected. The membership soon increased to
seventy-three and a fund of one hundred dollars was collected.[53]
The society held its first meeting on January 1, 1830, and elected a
complete set of officers. Rev. Philip Lindsey, D.D., president of the
University of Nashville, was made president of the society; R. H. McEwen,
recording secretary; Henry A. Wise, corresponding secretary; and Orville
Ewing, treasurer. Six vice-presidents and a board of six managers,
consisting of prominent citizens, were elected.[54] The society at this
time numbered about one hundred and twenty members[55] and contained
twenty auxiliaries.[56] These auxiliaries had a large membership, and
a list of strong officers of the most prominent people of the state.
Andrew Jackson was much interested in colonization. He was vice-president
of the American Colonization Society from 1819 to 1822.[57] Polk, in
reporting on his work to the American Colonization Society, in 1829,
said that much might be expected from the Tennessee Society.[58] Henry
A. Wise, who was secretary of the Tennessee Colonization Society, made
a very flattering report of its work to the national society in 1830.
“We may expect,” said the African Repository, “benefits of the most
important character, from the energy and liberality of the citizens of
Tennessee. It cannot be forgotten that the legislature of this state was
among the first to express its approbation of our scheme, as meriting
the countenance and aid of the National Government.”[59] “Believing as
I do,” said a Tennessee correspondent of the African Repository, “that
under Providence it is the only feasible and judicious plan to ameliorate
the condition of the free people of color in these states, and that it
is a cause in which patriotism and humanity, are largely embarked, I
shall do all I can to aid its progress; and I hear, with pleasure, of its
continued prosperity.”[60] Polk, in his report of 1830, states that “The
colored population is considered by the people of Tennessee and Alabama
in general, as an immense evil to the country—but the free part of it, by
all, as the greatest of all evils.”[61] A correspondent of the African
Repository from Tennessee stated in 1831 that “the colonization movement
had many friends in Tennessee and that they were determined to make every
possible effort to aid the good cause.”[62]
The society at its meeting on November 8, 1831, appointed a committee
of seven to solicit funds to defray the expenses of sending free
negroes to Liberia. A committee of three was appointed to memorialize
the legislature of Tennessee to make an appropriation for the aid of
the society.[63] The legislature appointed a committee on colonization
to consider the petition of the society, and, on September 30, 1833,
passed two resolutions, requesting this committee to investigate the
expediency of asking Congress for an annual appropriation of $100,000
and the general assembly for $5,000 to aid in colonizing free negroes in
Liberia.[64] In response to this request, the legislature in 1833 passed
a law, giving ten dollars to the state society for every free negro sent
to Liberia, provided that not more than $500 was expended in any one
year.[65]
The society held its annual meeting in the Hall of Representatives at the
State Capitol, October 14, 1833, and was addressed by James G. Birney,
of Alabama, agent of the American Colonization Society. “We admire this
institution,” said the Nashville Banner, “and feel the utmost veneration
and respect for the humane motives of its founders, and for those who are
engaged in promoting its objects. It would afford us unfeigned pleasure
to see all its generous designs crowned with complete success.”[66]
The petitions received by the legislature in 1832 and 1833 from the State
Colonization Society and its auxiliaries contain the leading reasons
advanced by these societies for colonization. The memorialists said:
We take it to be self-evident general proposition, that the
benefits of government, should be extended alike to all
its citizens; we are compelled, however, by our peculiar
circumstances, to violate this general principle, by
withholding from that class of citizens, the exercise of many
political rights. They are excluded from the ordinary means of
education, on the ground of prejudices which are quite natural,
and which will probably never be removed. Nor is it at all
likely for the same reasons, that they will be suffered to
participate to any great extent if at all, in the benefits of
an enlarged system of common schools, when carried into effect
in our State; they must therefore of necessity remain ignorant,
and by consequence vicious.
Their intercourse, and association with certain classes of
our white population is calculated to produce, and does
produce, in the estimation of your memorialists, serious
evils to the country. But the preceding considerations are
light, and trivial, when compared with the injury sustained
by the slaveholder, from this class of persons, as must be
obvious to every member of your honorable body; Nor should
the eminent danger to our social and political condition, by
their presence, be overlooked, which arises from the fact, that
there neither does, or can exist, between them, and our white
population, any common bond of patriotism or private regard.[67]
The Colonization Society had an intermittent career. A sentiment for
colonization, however, persisted in Tennessee to 1860, but it did not
remain organized. “There is something in this position of the cause
of Tennessee,” said the African Repository in 1846, “which we cannot
understand. There are many friends of colonization in the state. We
have applications from many of the colored people for transportation to
Liberia. Many slaves have been manumitted for the purpose of being sent
there, and yet little or no money can be raised for the advancement of
the enterprise.”[68] The next year the Repository stated that “We are
gratified to perceive that Tennessee is beginning to awake on the subject
of African colonization. Between eighty and one hundred free people of
color are now preparing to emigrate from that state to Liberia. They
wish to go in the vessel that leaves New Orleans in December next; and
the means to take them will probably be raised in the state. A writer in
the Record proposes to be one of fifty who will give one hundred dollars
each to purchase territory to be called Tennessee in Africa.”[69] The
average expense of sending a free negro to Liberia and supporting him for
six months was $50. Shortly after the meeting of 1846, the “Rothschild”
sailed from New Orleans with emigrants from Tennessee for Liberia.
A minister of the Gospel in Tennessee, writing to the Repository in 1847,
advocated colonization for substantially the following reasons:
1. It means ultimately the complete removal of the negro.
2. It benefits the negro by placing him in an environment that
erects no barriers to his development.
3. It affords the Christian an opportunity to give up his
slaves.
4. It lays claim to the noblest feelings of the patriot, and
of the whole-souled philanthropist. Its tendency is good, only
good, and that continually. If it has not accomplished all that
its friends desire, what agency has?
West Tennessee was more interested in colonization than either East or
Middle Tennessee. In fact, colonization was largely anti-free-negro
rather than anti-slavery, especially so in West Tennessee, where it
was regarded as a means of eliminating the free negro from among the
slaves. West Tennessee was not nearly so anti-slavery in sentiment
as East Tennessee. There was organized a separate colonization
society at Memphis, June 12, 1848, largely through the efforts of the
Presbyterian Church. It adopted a constitution of six articles, and
elected a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and twelve
directors who constituted a board of managers. It was an auxiliary of
the American Colonization Society. It was to accomplish its object “by
the contribution of money to the Parent Society by the dissemination of
intelligence concerning the operations, objects, and prosperity of the
colonization enterprise.”[70] A campaign was waged in Memphis for funds
to support the society.[71]
The Tennessee Colonization Society was incorporated on February 8, 1850.
Philip Lindsey, president of the University of Nashville, was made its
president. It now became a corporation and a body politic. It could sue
and be sued, and was permitted to receive gifts of money, goods, and real
estate, provided the total value of such gifts did not exceed $10,000 in
any one year. It used its own seal.[72]
In 1852, Frederick P. Stanton, of Tennessee, in an address before the
American Colonization Society, advocated the removal of the free negroes
to Africa. He believed this step would eliminate sectionalism and largely
solve the problem of the runaway which, he thought, was mainly due to the
influence of the free negro over the slave. He was also apprehensive of
the political influence which the free negroes might come to have.[73] He
maintained that the national government could remove the negroes as well
as the Indians.[74]
Senator John Bell, of Tennessee, in a letter to James R. Doolittle,
October 18, 1859, advocated the acquisition by Congress of some territory
south of the United States to be set aside as an asylum for emancipated
negroes. He believed that such a settlement of the problem would be a
“concordant” between the North and the South.[75]
In 1860, Hon. N. G. Taylor, of Tennessee, in an address before the
American Colonization Society, advocated the colonization of the free
blacks for moral and commercial reasons. He believed that the negro
should be returned to his native home and that Africa colonized by
American negroes would naturally become a great commercial ally of the
United States.[76]
It is seen from the arguments of these distinguished Tennesseans that
colonization of the free blacks was to them a pro-slavery, rather than
an anti-slavery, movement. It was pro-slavery in that it made for the
security of slavery, but it was anti-slavery in that, in Tennessee after
1831, emancipation could take place only on the condition of removal from
the state. The prophecy that the negroes would receive the franchise is
interesting in the light of what actually happened. Undoubtedly, the
removal of the free blacks from the United States would have lessened
friction between the North and the South.
The colonization movement in Tennessee was a failure either as an
abolition or as a colonizing agency. There were only 287 free negroes
sent to Liberia from Tennessee from 1820 to 1866.[77] A few went to
Hayti. Manumission was able to number only 7,300 free negroes in the
state in 1860. Of course, free negroes were constantly leaving the state,
especially after 1831, but not in any considerable number. The greatest
good that came from these movements was the fostering of a humanitarian
spirit toward the negro.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Knoxville Gazette, January 23, 1797.
[2] American Historical Review, V, 599.
[3] Indiana Historical Society Publication, Vol. 12, p. 236.
[4] Publication of Vanderbilt Southern Historical Society, No. 2, p. 11.
[5] “We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, having met for the purpose
of taking into consideration the case of the people of color held in
bondage in an highly favored land, are of opinion that their case calls
aloud for the attention and sympathy of Columbia’s free born sons, and
for their exertions in endeavoring, by means calculated to promote and
preserve the good of government to procure for that oppressed part of the
community that inestimable jewel, _freedom_, the distinguishing glory
of our country; without which all other enjoyments of life must become
insignificant.
“And while we highly esteem the incomparable Constitution of our
country, for maintaining this great truth ‘That freedom is the natural
right of all men, we desire that the feelings of our countrymen may be
awakened, and they stimulated to use every lawful exertion in their
power to advance that glorious day wherein all may enjoy their natural
birthright.’ As we conceive this the way to ensure to our country the
blessings of heaven, we think it expedient to form into a society, to be
known by the name of the “Tennessee Society for Promoting the Manumission
of Slaves” and adopt the following:
CONSTITUTION
Article I
Each member to have an advertisement in the most conspicuous
part of his house, in the following words, viz.: _Freedom_ is
the _natural_ right of _all men_; _I therefore acknowledge
myself a member of the Tennessee Society for Promoting the
Manumission of Slaves_.
Article II
That no member vote for governor, or any legislator, unless we
believe him to be in favor of emancipation.
Article III
That we convene twelve times a year at Lost Creek
meeting-house; the first on the 11th of the 3rd month next;
which meeting shall proceed to appoint a president, clerk and
treasurer, who shall continue in office for twelve months.
Article IV
The requisite qualifications of our members are true republican
principle, patriotic, and in favor of emancipation; and that no
immoral character be admitted into the society as a member.”—P.
of V. S. H. S., No. 2, p. 12.
[6] The Friends were the moving spirit in the organization of these early
societies.
[7] The Genius of Universal Emancipation, IV, 184.
[8] These societies were distributed as follows: 8 in Virginia; 11 in
Maryland; 2 in Delaware; 2 in District of Columbia; 8 in Kentucky;
25 in Tennessee, and 50 in North Carolina. Poole, William Frederick,
Anti-Slavery Opinion before 1800, p. 72.
[9] The Genius, October 13, 1827.
[10] P. of V. S. H. S., No. 2, p. 13.
[11] Article 2, Constitution of the Tennessee Manumission Society.
[12] Temple, O. P., East Tennessee and the Civil War, 109ff.
[13] Annals of Congress, 17th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 642 and 709; the
18th Congress, 1st Session, p. 931.
[14] The Genius, I, 142; Ibid., IV, 66.
[15] Ibid., I, 173-4.
[16] This is one of the most important documents in the history of
slavery in Tennessee. The committee reported, “that they have had that
subject (slavery) under examination, and on the first proposition
contained in said petition, to-wit: allowing masters, convinced of the
impropriety of holding the man of color in slavery, to emancipate such,
on terms not involving masters or their estates, provided such slave
offered for emancipation is in a situation to provide for him or herself,
express it as their opinion that it is consistent with the rights of
freemen, guaranteed by the Constitution, to have, and exercise the power
of yielding obedience to the dictates of conscience and humanity.
“That in all cases where chance or fortune has given the citizen
dominion over any part of the human race, no matter of what hue and
whose reflection has taught him to consider an exercise of that dominion
inhuman, unconstitutional, or against the religion of his country, ought
to be permitted to remove that yoke without the trammels at present
imposed by law.
“Your committee beg leave to state that, while they feel disposed to
amend the law and guarantee the right, they wish it not to be perverted
to the use of the unfeeling and avaricious, who, to rid themselves of the
burden of supporting the aged slave whose life has been devoted to the
service of such a master would seize the opportunity of casting such on
the public for support.
“Your committee beg leave further to state that very few cases have
occurred where slaves freed in the State of Tennessee have become a
county charge.
“Your committee, therefore, recommend an amendment, granting the prayer
of the petition, so far as respects the young healthy slave, not likely
to become a county charge.
“On the second point, your committee are of opinion that it is worthy the
consideration of the legislature, to examine into the policy of providing
for the emancipation of those yet unborn.... Liberty to the slave has
occupied the research of the moral and philosophical statesmen of our own
and other countries; a research into this principle extends wide into the
evil, whose root is perhaps dangerously entwined with the liberty of the
only free governments. On a subject so interesting, it cannot be improper
to inquire; therefore, as a question of policy, it is recommended to the
sober consideration of the General Assembly.
“Your committee also advise a provision by law, if the same be
practicable, to prevent, as far as possible, the separating husband and
wife.”—The Genius, I, 71-2.
[17] The Genius, II, 24.
[18] This memorial was as follows:
“The Manumission Society of Tennessee wish to address you again on the
important subject of slavery. In calling your attention to this subject,
in which we feel a most serious concern, we wish to use that sincerity
and candor which become friends travelling through a world of error and
sin, in which they are to make preparation for eternity. We therefore
beg you to pause a moment, and let us compare the principles of slavery,
as it exists among us, with the holy religion we profess, and the divine
precepts of our common Lord. What is our religion? Our Divine Master has
told us, that the most prominent features were, to love the Lord our God,
with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors
as ourselves. And it is also written in His holy book, as a rule of duty,
to honor all and to abound in love one to another. We are also there
taught to consider the whole human race as one family, descended from
the same original parent; and that God made of one blood all nations who
dwell upon the earth. We are also taught, that as all mankind are equally
free, for one man to deprive another of liberty and to keep him in that
condition, is an enormous crime. And he that stealeth a man and selleth
him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
Exodus, XXI, 16. The man stealer is enrolled by the apostle amongst the
other notorious criminals. Tim., I, 10.
“Now let us ask what slavery is, as it stands between Africa, America,
and the Supreme Judge of Nations. Is it not injustice, cruelty, robbery,
and murder, reduced to a practical system? The dreadful answer is, that
hosts of the disembodied spirits of unoffending Africans have taken their
flight to eternity from the dark holds of American slave ships, and their
last quivering groans have descended on high to call for vengeance on
the murderous deed, that stained the earth and ocean with their blood.
When we ask what slavery is, we are answered by the civil wars existing
in Africa—by the thousands slain by the bands of their brethren—by the
captive’s last look of anguish at his native shore—and by the blood and
groans of the sufferers on the seas—by the sighs of men driven like
herds of cattle to market—by the tears that furrow the woe-worn cheek of
sorrow, as oppression moulders down the African’s system.” The Genius,
IV, 73-4.
[19] The branches were: The Greene Branch, Maryville, Bethesda, Hickory
Valley, Nolachucky, Washington, French Broad, Dumplin Creek, Jefferson
Creek, Holston, Sullivan, Powell Valley, Knoxville, Colter’s Station,
Turkey Creek, Chestoody. The Genius, IV, 204.
[20] The Genius, IV, 185.
[21] Ibid., VI, 160.
[22] Ibid., VII, 194.
[23] The Genius, VIII, 93.
[24] Minutes of American Convention for 1828, p. 27.
[25] The Genius, XI, 3.
[26] The Genius, I, 173.
[27] Tennessee History Magazine, I, 272.
[28] The Genius, IV, 69.
[29] Goodspeed, 802. Cf. The Genius, VI, 177, which gives the following
trustees: George Flower, James Richardson, Frances Wright, Camilla
Wright, and Richardson Whitbey.
[30] Goodspeed, 802. The trustees consisted of General Lafayette, William
McClure, Robert Owen, Camille Wright, Cadwallader, D. Flanary, and James
Richardson, who, together with their successors were to hold these lands
in perpetual trust for the negro race, and were subject to the following
limitations:
(1) A school for colored children was always to be maintained.
(2) All slaves emancipated from the society were to be sent out of the
United States.
(3) The Trustees were never to let their number fall below five, three of
whom should constitute a quorum.
(4) Coadjutors, with unanimous consent of trustees, might be appointed,
if they had lived six months on the lands of Nashoba.
[31] Goodspeed, 803.
[32] The Genius, VI, 177.
[33] The Genius, V, 366.
[34] Goodspeed, 821.
[35] The Genius, IV, 77.
[36] Ibid., 76.
[37] Ibid., 77.
[38] The Genius, IV, 143.
[39] Ibid., 77.
[40] Goodspeed, 670.
[41] The following recommendations were made in substance:
1. That all the manumission societies in the United States proclaim it as
the Christian American Jubilee.
2. That the different societies encourage the keeping of the day, as a
Jubilee, by publishing essays, songs, etc., showing the utility thereof.
3. That those societies celebrate the Fourth of July, next, with
preaching, prayer, and singing as a Christian Jubilee.
4. That those who are sensible of the evil of slavery, form themselves
into Christian Manumission Societies, excluding slaveholders from their
number.
5. That they send forth missionaries to preach the acceptable year of the
Lord to slaveholders.
6. That all these societies establish a correspondence with each other
through the Genius of Universal Emancipation. The Genius, IV, 143.
[42] Minutes of the American Convention for 1826, p. 48.
[43] Tennessee History Magazine, I, 276.
[44] Niles Register, XIV, 321.
[45] “We wish you, therefore, to know, that within our bounds the public
sentiment appears clearly and decidedly in your favor, and that the
more vigorously and perseveringly you combine and extend your exertions
on the plan you have adopted, the more you are likely to be crowned
with the approbation of the people as well as with the higher rewards
of doing good. While, then the heralds of salvation go forth in the
name and strength of their Divine Master, to preach the Gospel to every
creature, we ardently wish that your exertions and the best influence of
all philanthropists may be united, to ameliorate the condition of human
society, and especially of its most degraded classes, till liberty,
religion, and happiness shall be the enjoyment of the whole family of
man.” Tenth Annual Report of American Colonization Society, 67-8.
[46] Fifth Annual Report of American Colonization Society, 119.
[47] Minutes of the American Convention for 1825, p. 18; Eighth Annual
Report of American Society for Colonization of the Free People of Color,
p. 39.
[48] Eighth Annual Report of American Society for Colonization of the
Free People of Color, p. 29.
[49] The Genius, IV, 66.
[50] Ibid., 67.
[51] Tenth Annual Report of American Colonization Society of the Free
People of Color, 1827, 61-2.
[52] Twelfth Annual Meeting of American Colonization Society, 1829, 65.
[53] African Repository, VI, 75.
[54] American Colonization Society Report, VI, 178.
[55] African Repository. VI, 75; Ibid., V, 378.
[56] American Colonization Society Report, VI, 178; Auxiliaries at
Bolivar, Somerville, Memphis, Covington, Jackson, Paris, Clarksville,
Columbia, Shelbyville, Winchester, Murfreesboro, Gallatin, Knoxville,
Marysville, New Market, Jonesboro, and Kingsport.
[57] Tenth Annual Report for American Society for Colonizing the Free
People of Color, 1829, p. 61.
[58] African Repository, VI, 76.
[59] African Repository, V, 378.
[60] Ibid., 379.
[61] Ibid., VI, 276.
[62] Ibid., VII, 145.
[63] Ibid., 313.
[64] Ibid., IX, 282; Niles Register, Vol. 45, p. 182.
[65] Acts of 1833, Ch. 64, Sec. 1.
[66] The Nashville Banner, October 15, 1833.
[67] Petitions to the Legislature, 1832-33. State Archives.
[68] African Repository, XXII, 39.
[69] Ibid., XXV, 28.
[70] Constitution of the Society, Art. 2; African Repository. XXIV, 272.
[71] African Repository, XXIV, 288.
[72] Acts of 1850, Ch. 130, Secs. 5 and 8.
[73] He quoted from “the celebrated Texas letter of Robt. J. Walker
published in 1844,” which estimated “that according to the rate of
increase from 1790 to 1840, there would be in the six states of New York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois alone, no less than
400,000 free blacks in 1853; 800,000 in 1865; and 1,600,000 in 1890. The
number of free blacks in the slave states is even greater than in the
free states.” This great number of free blacks will have a powerful moral
influence for good or evil upon every interest in the country.
“I refrain from pursuing the subject further. I will not look to that
dark but not distant future, when in some of the largest of the free
states, this population shall have grown powerful in numbers, demanding
the elective franchise, and when perhaps political parties, in the frenzy
of their excitement shall bid for their influence and make them a power
in the State. They may hold the balance of power in these larger States,
and through them in the Union. With all their capacity for mischief,
through the mistaken sympathy they are calculated to inspire for the
slave of the South, it is impossible to estimate the amount of discord
and of injury they must inevitably produce among the states.”
[74] Annual Report of American Colonization Society for 1852, 62-65.
[75] American Historical Magazine, IX, 275.
[76] “For, sir,” said he, “the day is not far distant, when, instead of
scores of tons, there will be hundreds and thousands of tons, floating
from the shores of Africa to every country upon the face of the habitable
globe. Your report tells us that the agriculture of Liberia is already
in a flourishing condition, and that manufactures, to some extent, are
springing up in the country.” Annual Report of American Colonization
Society for 1860, 28-9.
[77] Annual Report of the American Colonization Society for 1867, p. 56.