Progress of Abolition in America--An Era of Reforms--Southern Efforts for
Manumission--Various Plans of Emancipation that have been suggested--The
first Abolition journal--New York "Journal of Commerce"--William Lloyd
Garrison, his Early Life and Associations--The Nat. Turner Insurrection in
1832, &c., &c.
Probably no period in the history of the country has been more
characterized by the spirit of reform and innovation than that embraced
between the years 1825 and 1830. It then seemed as if all the social,
moral and religious influences of the community had been gathered in a
focus that was destined to annihilate the wickedness of man. Missionary
enterprises, though in their youth, were full of vigor. Anniversaries were
the occasion of an almost crazy excitement; religion assumed the shape of
fanaticism; the churches were thrilled with the sudden idea that the
millennium was at hand--the "evangelization of the world" never was
blessed with fairer prospects--the "awakenings to grace" were on the most
tremendous scale. Peace societies were formed--temperance societies
flourished more than ever--Free Masonry was attacked, socially and
politically--the Sabbath mail question became one of the absorbing topics
of the day--theatres, lotteries, the treatment of the "poor Indian" by the
general government--all came under the most rigorous religious review--the
Colonization Society, established in 1816, enlarged its operations, and,
in short, the spirit of reform became epidemic, and the period one of
unprecedented moral and political inquiry.
It was a period, too, when in many of the States of the South, and
especially those upon the Northern border, the subject was freely
discussed of a gradual and healthy emancipation of the slaves, and various
plans for this object were presented and entertained. The most valuable
agencies were set at work--not by abolitionists, but by Southerners
themselves, in whose hearts there had sprung up an embryo reformatory
principle simultaneously with the landing upon their shores of the first
slaves of their Northern brethren; which would have gone on increasing and
fructifying had not the bitterest of denunciation been launched against
them and driven the assaulted into an attitude of self-defence, whose
defiant spirit now speaks out to the assailant in a bold justification of
the institution attacked, as natural and necessary, and which it shall be
their purpose to perpetuate forever.
As early as 1816 a manumission society was formed in Tennessee, whose
object was the gradual emancipation of the slaves under a system of
healthy and judicious State legislation. At a later day, Virginia,
Maryland and Kentucky were the theatres of discussion on the same subject,
and in all of them the question was agitated, socially and politically,
with a freedom and liberty that indicated a general desire to effect the
philanthropic object.
Various plans having the same end in view were likewise proposed, some of
them evincing a remarkable ingenuity. One of these, in 1817, was to
encourage, by all proper means, emancipation in the South; then to make
arrangements with the non-slaveholding States to receive the freed
negroes, and compel the latter, by law, if necessary, to reside in those
States. By this means it was thought that a gradual change of "complexion"
could be effected from natural causes, which would not take place unless
the blacks were scattered, and that thus, from simple association and
adventitious mixtures, the sable color would retire by degrees, and after
a few generations a black person would be a rarity in the community.
Another plan proposed in 1819 was to remove the females to the Northern
States, where they should be bound out in respectable families; those
unmarried, of ten years and upwards, to be immediately free, and all the
rest of the stock then existing to become so at ten years of age; the
proceeds of the males sold to be appropriated by the party making the
purchase to the removal and education of these females. In furtherance of
this scheme, it was argued that while negro women would still bear
children, though settled among white persons, they would not do so half so
rapidly, and thus their posterity would in three or four generations lose
the offensive color and have a tint not more disagreeable than the
millions who are called white men in Southern Europe and the West Indies,
and finally be lost in the common mass of humanity. While it is true that
very few people, after fifty or sixty years, could under this rule boast
of their fathers and mothers, the grand object would be attained, and the
world be satisfied.
Another proposition, which emanated from a distinguished gentleman in one
of the Southern States, and filling one of the highest offices in the
government of the United States, was that a grade of color should be fixed
in all the slaveholding States at which a person should be declared free
and entitled to all the rights of a citizen, even if born of a slave. He
contended that this act would separate all such persons from the negro
race, and present a very considerable check to the progress of the black
population, giving them at the same time new interests and feelings. The
children thus emancipated, even if the parents should not be wholly fitted
for it, would come into society with advantages nearly equal to those of
the poorer classes of white people, and might work their way to
independence as well, without any counteracting detriment to the public
good.
In Virginia, in 1821, it was suggested through the columns of the Richmond
Enquirer, that an act should be passed declaring that all involuntary
servitude should cease to exist in that State from and after the year
2000; thus, without reducing for one or two generations the value of slave
property one cent, affording ample time and opportunity to dispose of or
exchange that dead property for a more useful and profitable kind.
In 1825, Hon. Mr. King, of New York, introduced into the Senate of the
United States the annexed resolution:--
"That as soon as the portion of the existing funded debt of the
United States, for the payment of which the public land is pledged,
shall have been paid off, thenceforth the whole of the public lands
of the United States, with the net proceeds of all future sales
thereof, shall constitute and form a fund which is hereby
appropriated to aid the emancipation of such slaves and the removal
of any free persons of color in any of the said States, as by the
laws of the several States respectively may be allowed to be
emancipated, or to be removed to any territory or country without the
limits of the United States of America."
This resolution, however, was not called up by the mover, or otherwise
acted upon.
Still another plan was to raise money by contribution throughout the Union
and elsewhere, and buy all the slaves at $250 each. The value of four
million negroes at $500 each, their average market value, would be
$2,000,000,000. It is unnecessary to say that none of these propositions
were ever adopted in practice. In fact, while abolitionism has pretended
to feel for the supposed sufferings of slaves, it has never felt much in
its pockets to aid them.
At such a period--when the rampant spirit of reform was attacking every
imaginary evil of the times--it is not a matter of wonder that northern
abolitionists, yielding to their fanatical prejudices and to the British
intrigue that was urging them onward, commenced that acrimonious agitation
of the question which has since been its leading characteristic. The negro
was pronounced "a man and a brother," and that was the beginning and end
of the argument. Tracts, speeches, pamphlets and essays were scattered,
"without money and without price." The pulpit vied with the press, and
every imaginable form of argument was used to hold up slavery as the most
horrible of all atrocities, and the "sum of all villanies." Newspapers
began to be an acknowledged element in the land, and, falling in the train
of the young revolution, or rather growing out of it, wielded immense
power among the masses. Among those then devoted to the subject of reform
were the National Philanthropist, commenced in 1826; the Investigator,
published at Providence, R. I., by William Goodell, in 1827; the
Liberator, by William Lloyd Garrison, at Boston, in 1831, and the
Emancipator, in New York.
The first abolition journal ever published in this city was the present
Journal of Commerce, which was commenced September 1, 1827, by a company
of stockholders, the principal of whom was the famous Arthur Tappan. The
following extracts from its prospectus, issued March 24, 1827, will
sufficiently indicate the puritanical character of its authors, and the
general tone of the paper:--
"In proposing to add another daily paper to the number already
published in this city, the projectors deem it proper to state that
the measure has been neither hasty nor unadvisedly undertaken. Men
of wisdom, intelligence and character have been consulted, and with
one voice have recommended its establishment.
"Believing, as we do, that the theatre is an institution which all
experience proves to be inimical to morality, and consequently
tending to the destruction of our republican form of government, it
is a part of our design to exclude from the columns of the journal
all theatrical advertisements.
"The pernicious influence of lotteries being admitted by the majority
of intelligent men, and this opinion coinciding with our own, all
lottery advertisements will also be excluded.
"In order to avoid a violation of the Sabbath, by the setting of
types, collecting of ship news, &c., on that day, the paper on Monday
will be issued at a later hour than usual, but as early as possible
after the arrival of the mails. In this way the Journal will
anticipate by several hours a considerable part of the news contained
in the evening papers of Monday and the morning papers of Tuesday,
and will also give the ship news collected after the publication of
the other morning papers. With these views we ask all who are
friendly to the cause of morality in encouraging our undertaking."
_Extract from the Minutes of a Meeting of Merchants and others at the
American Tract Society's House, March 24, 1827:_
"_Resolved_, That the prospectus of a new daily commercial paper, to
be called the 'New York Journal of Commerce,' having been laid before
this meeting, we approve of the plan upon which it is conducted, and
cordially recommend it to the patronage of all friends to good morals
and to the stability of our republican institutions."
"ARTHUR TAPPAN, Chairman."
"ROE LOCKWOOD, Secretary."
In its issue of October 30, 1828, we find the following:--
"It appears from an article in the Journal of the Times, a newspaper
of some promise just established in Bennington, Vt., that a petition
to Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia
is about to be put in circulation in that State.
"The idea is an excellent one, and we hope it will meet with success.
That Congress has a right to abolish slavery in that District seems
reasonable, though we fear it will meet with some opposition, so very
sensitive are the slaveholding community to every movement relating
to the abolition of slavery. At the same time, it would furnish to
the world a beautiful pledge of their sincerity if they would unite
with the non-slaveholding States, and by a unanimous vote proclaim
freedom to every soul within sight of the capital of this free
government. We could then say, and the world would then admit our
pretence, that the voice of the nation is against slavery, and throw
back upon Great Britain that disgrace which is of right and justice
her exclusive property."
Another of its editorials on November, 15, 1828:--
"We are all equally interested in demolishing the fabric (of slavery)
and we may as well go to work peaceably and reduce it brick by brick
as to make it a matter of warfare, and throw our enterprise and
industry into the opposite scale."
In the course of time changes were made in the ownership of the paper, but
one of its original proprietors is still its senior editor.
About this period William Lloyd Garrison made his appearance upon the
stage, and he has been probably one of the most intensely hated, as well
as one of the most sternly, severely and vociferously enthusiastic men in
the Union. He is a native of Massachusetts, and at a very early age was
placed in a printing office in Newburyport by his mother. Shortly after he
was twenty-one years of age he set up a paper which he called the Free
Press, which was read chiefly by a class of very advanced readers at the
North. After this he removed to Vermont, and edited the Journal of the
Times. This was as early as 1828. In September, 1829, he removed to
Baltimore for the purpose of editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation,
in company with Benjamin Lundy. While performing these duties, a
Newburyport merchant, named Francis Todd, fitted out a small vessel, and
filled it in Baltimore with slaves for the New Orleans market. Mr.
Garrison noticed this fact in his paper, and commented upon it in terms so
severe that Mr. Todd directed a suit to be brought against him for libel.
He was thereupon tried, convicted and thrown in jail for non-payment of
the fine (one hundred dollars and costs.) After an incarceration of fifty
days, he was released on the payment of his fine, by Mr. Arthur Tappan, of
this city, who, and his brother Lewis, before and since that time, have
been chiefly celebrated for their efforts in the cause of abolition. In
1831, he wrote a few paragraphs that bear out the idea we have
advanced--that there was then more real philanthropy in the South than at
the North. He says:--
"I issued proposals for the publication of the "_Liberator_" in
Washington City, during my recent tour, for the purpose of exciting
the minds of the people on the subject of slavery. Every place I
visited gave fresh evidences of the fact that a greater revolution in
public sentiment was to be effected in the free States, and
particularly in New England, than at the South. I found contempt more
bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice
more stubborn and apathy more frozen, than among the slaveowners
themselves. I determined at every hazard to lift up the standard of
emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill,
and in the birthplace of liberty. I am in earnest; I will not
equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch. I
will be heard. The apathy of the people is enough to make every
statue lift from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the
dead."
From this time it may be said that the anti-slavery cause took its place
among the moral enterprises of the day. It assumed a definite shape, and
commenced that system of warfare which has since been unremittingly waged
against the South.
During this year--1830--Mr. Tappan, Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, and others,
projected the establishment of a seminary of learning at New Haven for the
benefit of colored students; but, opposition manifesting itself, it was
abandoned.
The first regularly organized convention of colored men ever assembled in
the United States for a similar purpose also held a meeting this year, and
aided and abetted by the Tappans, Jocelyns and other agitators of the
period, attempted to devise ways and means for bettering their condition
and that of their race. They reasoned that all distinctive differences
made among men on account of their origin was wicked, unrighteous and
cruel, and solemnly protested against every unjust measure and policy in
the country having for its object the proscription of the colored people,
whether state, national, municipal, social, civil or religious. In fact,
white men and black seem to have started in the race together, consorting
like brothers and sisters together in their aims and projects to
accomplish the same end.
About this time publications began to be scattered through the South,
whose direct tendency was to stir up insurrection among the slaves. The
Liberator found its way mysteriously into the hands of the negroes, and
individuals, under the garb of religion, were discovered in private
consultation with the slaves. Suddenly, in August, 1831, the whole Union
was startled by the announcement of an outbreak among the slaves of
Southampton County, Va; and now commences the history of a career of
violence and bloodshed that has marked every footstep of the abolition
movement.
THE NAT TURNER INSURRECTION.
The leader of this outbreak was a slave named Nat Turner, and from him its
name has been derived. Impelled by the belief that he was divinely called
to be the deliverer of his oppressed countrymen, he succeeded in fixing
the impression upon the minds of two or three others, his fellow slaves.
Turner could read and write, and these acquirements gave him an influence
over his associates. He was possessed, however, of little information,
and, is represented to have been cowardly, cruel, and as he afterwards
confessed, "a little credulous." It was a matter of notoriety that "secret
agents of abolition had corrupted and betrayed him." However that may be,
Nat declared that "he was advised" only to read to the slaves, that
"Jesus came not to bring peace, but a sword!" Such a tree produced fitting
fruits.
About midnight on the Sabbath of the 21st of August, 1831, Turner, with
his confederates, burst into his master's house, and murdered every one of
the white inmates. They were armed with knives and axes, and, in order to
strike terror into the whites, most shockingly mangled the bodies of their
victims. Neither helpless infancy nor female loveliness were spared. They
then, by threats of death, compelled all the slaves to join them who would
not do it voluntarily, and, exciting themselves to fury by ardent spirits,
they proceeded to the next plantation. The happy family were reposing in
the sound and quiet slumbers which precede the break of day, as the shouts
of the raving insurgents fell upon their ears. It was the work of a
moment, and they were all weltering in their gore. Not a white individual
was spared to carry the tidings. The blow which dashed the infant left its
brains upon the hearth. The head of the youthful maiden was in one part of
the room and her mangled body was in another. Here again the number of
insurgents was increased by those who voluntarily joined them, and by
others who did it through compulsion. Stimulating their passions still
more by intoxication, and arming themselves with such guns as they could
obtain, some on horseback and others on foot, they rushed along to the
next plantation. The morning now began to dawn, and the shrieks of those
who fell under the sword and the axe of the negro were heard at a
distance, and thus the alarm was soon spread from plantation to
plantation, carrying inconceivable terror to every heart. The whites
supposed it was a plot deeply laid and widely spread, and that the day had
come for indiscriminate massacre. One gentleman who heard the appalling
tidings hurried to a neighboring plantation, and arrived there just in
time to hear the dying shrieks of the family and triumphant shouts of the
negroes. He hastened in terror to his own home, but the negroes were there
before him, and his wife and daughter had already fallen victims to their
fury. Thus the infuriated slaves went on from plantation to plantation,
gathering strength at every step, and leaving not a living white behind.
They passed the day, until late in the afternoon, in this work of carnage,
and numberless were the victims of their rage.
The population in this country is not dense, and, rapidly as the alarm
spread, it was impossible for some time to collect a sufficient number to
make a defence. Every family was entirely at the mercy of its own slaves.
It is impossible to conceive of more distressing circumstances of
apprehension. It is said that most of the insurgent slaves belonged to
kind and indulgent masters, and consequently no one felt secure.
Late in the afternoon, a small party of whites, well armed, collected at a
plantation for defence. The slaves came on in large numbers, and,
emboldened by success, they at first drove back the whites. The slaves
pressed on, thirsting for blood, and shouting with triumphant fury as the
whites slowly retreated, apparently destined to be butchered, with their
wives and children. Just at this awful moment a reinforcement of troops
arrived, which turned the tide of victory and dispersed the slaves.
Exhausted with the horrible labors of the day, the insurgents retired to
the woods and marshes to pass the night.
Early the next morning they commenced their work again. But the first
plantation they attacked--that of Dr. Blount--they were driven from by the
slaves, who rallied around their master, and fearlessly hazarded their
lives in his defence. By this time the whites were collected in sufficient
force to bar their further progress. The fugitives were scattered over the
country in small parties, but every point was defended, and wherever they
appeared they were routed, shot, taken prisoners, and the insurrection
quelled. The leader, Nat Turner, for a few weeks succeeded in concealing
himself in a cave in Southampton county, near the theatre of his bloody
exploits; but was finally taken, and suffered the extreme penalty of the
law.
To describe the state of alarm to which this outbreak gave rise is
impossible. Whole States were agitated; every plantation was the object of
fear and suspicion; free negroes and slaves underwent the most rigid
examination; armed bodies of men were held in constant readiness for any
emergency which might arise; every slave who had participated in the
insurrection was either shot or hung, and for months the entire South
remained in a fever of excitement.
All this time the abolition journals of the North were singing their
hallelujahs over the event. They circulated through the South then much
more freely than at present, and the following extract was read from one
of these by a gentleman to his terrified family, in the presence of the
gentleman from whom the above particulars were derived:--
"The news from the South is glorious. General Nat is a benefactor of
his race. The Southampton massacre is an auspicious era for the
African. The blood of the men, women and children shed by the sword
and the axe in the hand of the negro is a just return for the drops
which have followed the master's lash."
Another extract, of similar rhetoric, from the record of that day, is from
a speech by the "Reverend" Mr. Bayley, then of Sheffield, Mass.:--
"It is time that the ice was broken--time that the blacks considered
they have the same right to regain their liberties, and even the
present property of their owners, as the Hebrews had in despoiling
the heathen round about them. The blacks should also know that it is
their duty to destroy, if no other means offer conveniently, the
monstrous incubuses and tyrants, yclept planters; and I, for one,
would gladly lend a helping hand to lay them in one common grave! The
country would be all the better for ridding the world of such a nest
of vampyres."
Whether the abolitionists of the present time have modified the ideas they
promulgated then, we shall see hereafter from a few among the ten thousand
specimens that might be adduced.
The effect of these tirades upon the South cannot be well conceived.
Public opinion, just then opening to a free discussion of the question,
drew back and shut itself within its castle. The bonds of slavery were
bound tighter, the rivets were more strongly fastened, and a reactionary
movement commenced that has never yet terminated.