sisters, and I have tried to do what I could to help you to freedom. And
now that you have at last received the long-desired blessing, I most
earnestly wish that you should make the best possible use of it. I have
made this book to encourage you to exertion by examples of what colored
people are capable of doing. Such men and women as Toussaint
l'Ouverture, Benjamin Banneker, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass,
and William and Ellen Crafts, prove that the power of _character_ can
overcome all external disadvantages, even that most crushing of all
disadvantages, Slavery. Perhaps few of you will be able to stir the
hearts of large assemblies by such eloquent appeals as those of
Frederick Douglass, or be able to describe what you have seen and heard
so gracefully as Charlotte L. Forten does. Probably none of you will be
called to govern a state as Toussaint l'Ouverture did; for such a
remarkable career as his does not happen once in hundreds of years. But
the Bible says, "He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that
ruleth a kingdom"; and such a ruler every man and woman can become, by
the help and blessing of God. It is not the _greatness_ of the thing a
man does which makes him worthy of respect; it is the doing _well_
whatsoever he hath to do. In many respects, your opportunities for
usefulness are more limited than those of others; but you have one great
opportunity peculiar to yourselves. You can do a vast amount of good to
people in various parts of the world, and through successive
generations, by simply being sober, industrious, and honest. There are
still many slaves in Brazil and in the Spanish possessions. If you are
vicious, lazy, and careless, their masters will excuse themselves for
continuing to hold them in bondage, by saying: "Look at the freedmen of
the United States! What idle vagabonds they are! How dirty their cabins
are! How slovenly their dress! That proves that negroes cannot take care
of themselves, that they are not fit to be free." But if your houses
look neat, and your clothes are clean and whole, and your gardens well
weeded, and your work faithfully done, whether for yourselves or others,
then all the world will cry out, "You see that negroes _can_ take care
of themselves; and it is a sin and a shame to keep such men in Slavery."
Thus, while you are serving your own interests, you will be helping on
the emancipation of poor weary slaves in other parts of the world. It is
a great privilege to have a chance to do extensive good by such simple
means, and your Heavenly Father will hold you responsible for the use
you make of your influence.
Your manners will have a great effect in producing an impression to your
advantage or disadvantage. Be always respectful and polite toward your
associates, and toward those who have been in the habit of considering
you an inferior race. It is one of the best ways to prove that you are
not inferior. Never allow yourselves to say or do anything in the
presence of women of your own color which it would be improper for you
to say or do in the presence of the most refined white ladies. Such a
course will be an education for them as well as for yourselves. When you
appoint committees about your schools and other public affairs, it would
be wise to have both men and women on the committees. The habit of
thinking and talking about serious and important matters makes women
more sensible and discreet. Such consultations together are in fact a
practical school both for you and them; and the more modest and
intelligent women are, the better will children be brought up.
Personal appearance is another important thing. It is not necessary to
be rich in order to dress in a becoming manner. A pretty dress for
festival occasions will last a long while, if well taken care of; and a
few wild-flowers, or bright berries, will ornament young girls more
tastefully than jewels. Working-clothes that are clean and nicely
patched always look respectable; and they make a very favorable
impression, because they indicate that the wearer is neat and
economical. And here let me say, that it is a very great saving to mend
garments well, and before the rents get large. We thrifty Yankees have a
saying that "a stitch in time saves nine"; and you will find by
experience that neglected mending will require more than nine stitches
instead of one, and will not look so well when it is done.
The appearance of your villages will do much to produce a favorable
opinion concerning your characters and capabilities. Whitewash is not
expensive; and it takes but little time to transplant a cherokee rose, a
jessamine, or other wild shrubs and vines, that make the poorest cabin
look beautiful; and, once planted, they will be growing while you are
working or sleeping. It is a public benefit to remove everything dirty
or unsightly, and to surround homes with verdure and flowers; for a
succession of pretty cottages makes the whole road pleasant, and cheers
all passers by; while they are at the same time an advertisement, easily
read by all men, that the people who live there are not lazy, slovenly,
or vulgar. The rich pay a great deal of money for pictures to ornament
their walls, but a whitewashed cabin, with flowering-shrubs and vines
clustering round it, is a pretty picture freely exhibited to all men. It
is a public benefaction.
But even if you are as yet too poor to have a house and garden of your
own, it is still in your power to be a credit and an example to your
race: by working for others as faithfully as you would work for
yourself; by taking as good care of their tools as you would if they
were your own; by always keeping your promises, however inconvenient it
may be; by being strictly honest in all your dealings; by being
temperate in your habits, and never speaking a profane or indecent
word,--by pursuing such a course you will be consoled with an inward
consciousness of doing right in the sight of God, and be a public
benefactor by your example, while at the same time you will secure
respect and prosperity for yourself by establishing a good character. A
man whose conduct inspires confidence is in a fair way to have house and
land of his own, even if he starts in the world without a single cent.
Be careful of your earnings, and as saving in your expenses as is
consistent with health and comfort; but never allow yourselves to be
stingy. Avarice is a mean vice, which eats all the heart out of a man.
Money is a good thing, and you ought to want to earn it, as a means of
improving the condition of yourselves and families. But it will do good
to your character, and increase your happiness, if you impart a portion
of your earnings to others who are in need. Help as much as you
conveniently can in building churches and school-houses for the good of
all, and in providing for the sick and the aged. If your former masters
and mistresses are in trouble, show them every kindness in your power,
whether they have treated you kindly or not. Remember the words of the
blessed Jesus: "Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you and persecute you."
There is one subject on which I wish to guard you against
disappointment. Do not be discouraged if freedom brings you more cares
and fewer advantages than you expected. Such a great change as it is
from Slavery to Freedom cannot be completed all at once. By being
brought up as slaves, you have formed some bad habits, which it will
take time to correct. Those who were formerly your masters have acquired
still worse habits by being brought up as slaveholders; and they cannot
be expected to change all at once. Both of you will gradually improve
under the teaching of new circumstances. For a good while it will
provoke many of them to see those who were once their slaves acting like
freemen. They will doubtless do many things to vex and discourage you,
just as the slaveholders in Jamaica did after emancipation there. They
seemed to want to drive their emancipated bondmen to insurrection, that
they might have a pretext for saying: "You see what a bad effect freedom
has on negroes! We told you it would be so!" But the colored people of
Jamaica behaved better than their former masters wished them to do. They
left the plantations where they were badly treated, or poorly paid, but
they worked diligently elsewhere. Their women and children raised
vegetables and fowls and carried them to market; and, by their united
industry and economy, they soon had comfortable little homes of their
own.
I think it would generally be well for you to work for your former
masters, if they treat you well, and pay you as much as you could earn
elsewhere. But if they show a disposition to oppress you, quit their
service, and work for somebody who will treat you like freemen. If they
use violent language to you, never use impudent language to them. If
they cheat you, scorn to cheat them in return. If they break their
promises, never break yours. If they propose to women such connections
as used to be common under the bad system of Slavery, teach them that
freedwomen not only have the legal power to protect themselves from such
degradation, but also that they have pride of character. If in fits of
passion, they abuse your children as they formerly did, never revenge it
by any injury to them or their property. It is an immense advantage to
any man always to keep the right on his side. If you pursue this course
you will always be superior, however rich or elegant may be the man or
woman who wrongs you.
I do not mean by this that you ought to submit tamely to insult or
oppression. Stand up for your rights, but do it in a manly way. Quit
working for a man who speaks to you contemptuously, or who tries to take
a mean advantage of you, when you are doing your duty faithfully by him.
If it becomes necessary, apply to magistrates to protect you and redress
your wrongs. If you are so unlucky as to live where the men in
authority, whether civil or military, are still disposed to treat the
colored people as slaves, let the most intelligent among you draw up a
statement of your grievances and send it to some of your firm friends in
Congress, such as the Hon. Charles Sumner, the Hon. Henry Wilson, and
the Hon. George W. Julian.
A good government seeks to make laws that will equally protect and
restrain all men. Heretofore you had no reason to respect the laws of
this country, because they punished you for crime, in many cases more
severely than white men were punished, while they did nothing to protect
your rights. But now that good President Lincoln has made you free, you
will be legally protected in your rights and restrained from doing
wrong, just as other men are protected and restrained. It is one of the
noblest privileges of freemen to be able to respect the law, and to rely
upon it always for redress of grievances, instead of revenging one wrong
by another wrong.
You will have much to put up with before the new order of things can
become settled on a permanent foundation. I am grieved to read in the
newspapers how wickedly you are still treated in some places; but I am
not surprised, for I knew that Slavery was a powerful snake, that would
try to do mischief with its tail after its head was crushed. But,
whatever wrongs you may endure, comfort yourselves with two reflections:
first, that there is the beginning of a better state of things, from
which your children will derive much more benefit than you can;
secondly, that a great majority of the American people are sincerely
determined that you shall be protected in your rights as freemen. Year
by year your condition will improve. Year by year, if you respect
yourselves, you will be more and more respected by white men. Wonderful
changes have taken place in your favor during the last thirty years, and
the changes are still going on. The Abolitionists did a great deal for
you, by their continual writing and preaching against Slavery. Then this
war enabled thousands of people to see for themselves what a bad
institution Slavery was; and the uniform kindness with which you treated
the Yankee soldiers raised you up multitudes of friends. There are still
many pro-slavery people in the Northern States, who, from aristocratic
pride or low vulgarity, still call colored people "niggers," and treat
them as such. But the good leaven is now fairly worked into public
sentiment, and these people, let them do what they will, cannot get it
out.
The providence of God has opened for you an upward path. Walk ye in it,
without being discouraged by the brambles and stones at the outset.
Those who come after you will clear them away, and will place in their
stead strong, smooth rails for the steam-car called Progress of the
Colored Race.
DAY OF JUBILEE.
BY A. G. DUNCAN.
Roll on, thou joyful day,
When tyranny's proud sway,
Stern as the grave,
Shall to the ground be hurled,
And Freedom's flag unfurled
Shall wave throughout the world,
O'er every slave!
Trump of glad jubilee,
Echo o'er land and sea,
Freedom for all!
Let the glad tidings fly,
And every tribe reply,
Glory to God on high,
At Slavery's fall!
THE END.
Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been repaired. Spelling
and accented letters, as well as inconsistent chapter headings in the
Contents and the body of the text, have otherwise been retained as
they appear in the original publication.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Freedmen's Book, by Lydia Maria Child