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THREE YEARS IN EUROPE;
Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met
by
W. WELLS BROWN
A Fugitive Slave.
With
A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR
by
WILLIAM FARMER, Esq.
London:
Charles Gilpin, 5, Bishopsgate Street, Without.
Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.
1852
[Illustration: W. Wells Brown.]
CONTENTS.
MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WELLS BROWN, _Page_ ix-xxix
AUTHOR'S PREFACE, xxxi-xxxii
LETTER I.
Departure from Boston--the Passengers--Halifax--the Passage--
First Sight of Land--Liverpool, 1-9
LETTER II.
Trip to Ireland--Dublin--Her Majesty's Visit--Illumination of the
City--the Birth-Place of Thomas Moore--a Reception, 9-21
LETTER III.
Departure from Ireland--London--Trip to Paris--Paris--The Peace
Congress: first day--Church of the Madeleine--Column Vendome--
the French, 21-38
LETTER IV.
Versailles--The Palace--Second Session of the Congress--Mr.
Cobden--Henry Vincent--M. Girardin--Abbe Duguerry--Victor Hugo:
his Speech, 38-49
LETTER V.
M. de Tocqueville's Grand Soiree--Madame de Tocqueville--Visit of
the Peace Delegates to Versailles--The Breakfast--Speechmaking--
The Trianons--Waterworks--St. Cloud--The Fete, 50-59
LETTER VI.
The Tuileries--Place de la Concorde--The Egyptian Obelisk--Palais
Royal--Residence of Robespierre--A Visit to the Room in which
Charlotte Corday killed Marat--Church de Notre Dame--Palais de
Justice--Hotel des Invalids--National Assembly--The Elysee, 59-73
LETTER VII.
The Chateau at Versailles--Private Apartments of Marie
Antoinette--The Secret Door--Paintings of Raphael and David--
Arc de Triomphe--Beranger the Poet, 73-82
LETTER VIII.
Departure from Paris--Boulogne--Folkstone--London--Geo. Thompson,
Esq., M.P.--Hartwell House--Dr. Lee--Cottage of the
Peasant--Windsor Castle--Residence of Wm. Penn--England's First
Welcome--Heath Lodge--The Bank of England, 83-104
LETTER IX.
The British Museum--A Portrait--Night Reading--A Dark Day--A
Fugitive Slave on the Streets of London--A Friend in the time
of need, 104-116
LETTER X.
The Whittington Club--Louis Blanc--Street Amusements--Tower of
London--Westminster Abbey--National Gallery--Dante--Sir Joshua
Reynolds, 117-134
LETTER XI.
York-Minster--The Great Organ--Newcastle-on-Tyne--The Labouring
Classes--The American Slave--Sheffield--James Montgomery, 134-145
LETTER XII.
Kirkstall Abbey--Mary the Maid of the Inn--Newstead Abbey:
Residence of Lord Byron--Parish Church of Hucknall--Burial Place
of Lord Byron--Bristol: "Cook's Folly"--Chepstow Castle and
Abbey--Tintern Abbey--Redcliffe Church, 145-162
LETTER XIII.
Edinburgh--The Royal Institute--Scott's Monument--John Knox's
Pulpit--Temperance Meeting--Glasgow--Great Meeting in the City
Hall, 163-176
LETTER XIV.
Stirling--Dundee--Dr. Dick--Geo. Gilfillan--Dr. Dick at home, 177-184
LETTER XV.
Melrose Abbey--Abbotsford--Dryburgh Abbey--The Grave of Sir
Walter Scott--Hawick--Gretna Green--Visit to the Lakes, 185-196
LETTER XVI.
Miss Martineau--"The Knoll"--"Ridal Mount"--"The Dove's
Nest"--Grave of William Wordsworth, Esq.--The English Peasant, 196-207
LETTER XVII.
A Day in the Crystal Palace, 207-219
LETTER XVIII.
The London Peace Congress--Meeting of Fugitive Slaves--
Temperance Demonstration--The Great Exhibition: Last Visit, 219-226
LETTER XIX.
Oxford--Martyrs' Monument--Cost of the Burning of the Martyrs--
The Colleges--Dr. Pusey--Energy, the Secret of Success, 227-235
LETTER XX.
Fugitive Slaves in England, 236-250
LETTER XXI.
A Chapter on American Slavery, 250-273
LETTER XXII.
A Narrative of American Slavery, 273-305
LETTER XXIII.
Aberdeen--Passage by Steamer--Edinburgh--Visit to the
College--William and Ellen Craft, 305-312
MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WELLS BROWN.
A narrative of the life of the author of the present work has been most
extensively circulated in England and America. The present memoir will,
therefore, simply comprise a brief sketch of the most interesting
portion of Mr. Brown's history while in America, together with a short
account of his subsequent cisatlantic career. The publication of his
adventures as a slave, and as a fugitive from slavery in his native
land, has been most valuable in sustaining a sound anti-slavery spirit
in Great Britain. His honourable reception in Europe may be equally
serviceable in America, as another added to the many practical protests
previously entered from this side of the Atlantic, against the absolute
bondage of three millions and a quarter of the human race, and the
semi-slavery involved in the social and political proscription of
600,000 free coloured people in that country.
William Wells Brown was born at Lexington, in the state of Kentucky, as
nearly as he can tell in the autumn of 1814. In the Southern States of
America, the pedigree and age of a horse or a dog are carefully
preserved, but no record is kept of the birth of a slave. All that Mr.
Brown knows upon the subject is traditionally, that he was born "about
corn-cutting time" of that year. His mother was a slave named Elizabeth,
the property of Dr. Young, a physician. His father was George Higgins, a
relative of his master.
The name given to our author at his birth, was "William"--no second or
surname being permitted to a slave. While William was an infant, Dr.
Young removed to Missouri, where, in addition to his profession as a
physician, he carried on the--to European notions--incongruous
avocations of miller, merchant, and farmer. Here William was employed as
a house servant, while his mother was engaged as a field hand. One of
his first bitter experiences of the cruelties of slavery, was his
witnessing the infliction of ten lashes upon the bare back of his
mother, for being a few minutes behind her time at the field--a
punishment inflicted with one of those peculiar whips in the
construction of which, so as to produce the greatest amount of torture,
those whom Lord Carlisle has designated "the chivalry of the South" find
scope for their ingenuity.
Dr. Young subsequently removed to a farm near St. Louis, in the same
State. Having been elected a Member of the Legislature, he devolved the
management of his farm upon an overseer, having, what to his unhappy
victims must have been the ironical name of "Friend Haskall." The mother
and child were now separated. The boy was levied to a Virginian named
Freeland, who bore the military title of Major, and carried on the
plebeian business of a publican. This man was of an extremely brutal
disposition, and treated his slaves with most refined cruelty. His
favourite punishment, which he facetiously called "Virginian play," was
to flog his slaves severely, and then expose their lacerated flesh to
the smoke of tobacco stems, causing the most exquisite agony. William
complained to his owner of the treatment of Freeland, but, as in almost
all similar instances, the appeal was in vain. At length he was induced
to attempt an escape, not from that love of liberty which subsequently
became with him an unconquerable passion, but simply to avoid the
cruelty to which he was habitually subjected. He took refuge in the
woods, but was hunted and "traced" by the blood-hounds of a Major
O'Fallon, another of "the chivalry of the South," whose gallant
occupation was that of keeping an establishment for the hire of
ferocious dogs with which to hunt fugitive slaves. The young slave
received a severe application of "Virginia play" for his attempt to
escape. Happily the military publican soon afterwards failed in
business, and William found a better master and a more congenial
employment with Captain Cilvers, on board a steam-boat plying between
St. Louis and Galena. At the close of the sailing season he was levied
to an hotel-keeper, a native of a free state, but withal of a class
which exist north as well as south--a most inveterate negro hater. At
this period of William's history, a circumstance occurred, which,
although a common incident in the lives of slaves, is one of the keenest
trials they have to endure--the breaking up of his family circle. Her
master wanted money, and he therefore sold Elizabeth and six of her
children to seven different purchasers. The family relationship is
almost the only solace of slavery. While the mother, brothers, and
sisters are permitted to meet together in the negro hut after the hour
of labour, the slaves are comparatively content with their oppressed
condition; but deprive them of this, the only privilege which they as
human beings are possessed of, and nothing is left but the animal part
of their nature--the living soul is extinguished within them. With them
there is nothing to love--everything to hate. They feel themselves
degraded to the condition not only of mere animals, but of the most
ill-used animals in the creation.
Not needing the services of his young relative, Dr. Young hired him to
the proprietor of the _St. Louis Times_, the best master William ever
had in slavery. Here he gained the scanty amount of education he
acquired at the South. This kind treatment by his editorial master
appears to have engendered in the heart of William a consciousness of
his own manhood, and led him into the commission of an offence similar
to that perpetrated by Frederick Douglass, under similar
circumstances--the assertion of the right of self-defence. He gallantly
defended himself against the attacks of several boys older and bigger
than himself, but in so doing was guilty of the unpardonable sin of
lifting his hand against white lads; and the father of one of them,
therefore, deemed it consistent with his manhood to lay in wait for the
young slave, and beat him over the head with a heavy cane till the
blood gushed from his nose and ears. From the effects of that treatment
the poor lad was confined to his bed for five weeks, at the end of which
time he found that, to his personal sufferings, were superadded the
calamity of the loss of the best master he ever had in slavery.
His next employment was that of waiter on board a steam-boat plying on
the Mississippi. Here his occupation again was pleasant, and his
treatment good; but the freedom of action enjoyed by the passengers in
travelling whithersoever they pleased, contrasted strongly in his mind
with his own deprivation of will as a slave. The natural result of this
comparison was an intense desire for freedom--a feeling which was never
afterwards eradicated from his breast. This love of liberty was,
however, so strongly counteracted by affection for his mother and
sisters, that although urgently entreated by one of the latter to take
advantage of his present favourable opportunity for escape, he would not
bring himself to do so at the expense of a separation for life from his
beloved relatives.
His period of living on board the steamer having expired, he was again
remitted to field labour, under a burning sun. From that labour, from
which he suffered severely, he was soon removed to the lighter and more
agreeable occupation of house-waiter to his master. About this time Dr.
Young, in the conventional phraseology of the locality, "got religion."
The fruit of his alleged spiritual gain, was the loss of many material
comforts to the slaves. Destitute of the resources of education, they
were in the habit of employing their otherwise unoccupied minds on the
Sunday in fishing and other harmless pursuits; these were now all put an
end to. The Sabbath became a season of dread to William: he was required
to drive the family to and from the church, a distance of four miles
either way; and while they attended to the salvation of their souls
within the building, he was compelled to attend to the horses without
it, standing by them during divine service under a burning sun, or
drizzling rain. Although William did not get the religion of his master,
he acquired a family passion which appears to have been strongly
intermixed with the devotional exercises of the household of Dr.
Young--a love of sweet julep. In the evening, the slaves were required
to attend family worship. Before commencing the service, it was the
custom to hand a pitcher of the favourite beverage to every member of
the family, not excepting the nephew, a child of between four and five
years old. William was in the habit of watching his opportunity during
the prayer and helping himself from the pitcher, but one day letting it
fall, his propensity for this intoxicating drink was discovered, and he
was severely punished for its indulgence.
In 1830, being then about sixteen years of age, William was hired to a
slave-dealer named Walker. This change of employment led the youth away
south and frustrated, for a time, his plans for escape. His experience
while in this capacity furnishes some interesting, though painful,
details of the legalized traffic in human beings carried on in the
United States. The desperation to which the slaves are driven at their
forced separation from husband, wife, children, and kindred, he found to
be a frequent cause of suicide. Slave-dealers he discovered were as
great adepts at deception in the sale of their commodity as the most
knowing down-easter, or tricky horse dealer. William's occupation on
board the steamer, as they steamed south, was to prepare the stock for
the market, by shaving off whiskers and blacking the grey hairs with a
colouring composition.
At the expiration of the period of his hiring with Walker, William
returned to his master rejoiced to have escaped an employment so
repugnant to his feelings. But this joy was not of long duration. One of
his sisters who, although sold to another master had been living in the
same city with himself and mother, was again sold to be sent away south,
never in all probability to meet her sorrowing relatives. Dr. Young
also, wanting money, intimated to his young kinsman that he was about to
sell him. This intimation determined William, in conjunction with his
mother, to attempt their escape. For ten nights they travelled
northwards, hiding themselves in the woods by day. The mother and son at
length deemed themselves safe from re-capture, and, although weary and
foot-sore, were laying down sanguine plans for the acquisition of a farm
in Canada, the purchase of the freedom of the six other members of the
family still in slavery, and rejoicing in the anticipated happiness of
their free home in Canada. At that moment three men made up to and
seized them, bound the son and led him, with his desponding mother,
back to slavery. Elizabeth was sold and sent away south, while her son
became the property of a merchant tailor named Willi. Mr. Brown's
description of the final interview between himself and his mother, is
one of the most touching portions of his narrative. The mother, after
expressing her conviction of the speedy escape from slavery by the hand
of death, enjoined her child to persevere in his endeavours to gain his
freedom by flight. Her blessing was interrupted by the kick and curse
bestowed by her dehumanized master upon her beloved son.
After having been hired for a short time to the captain of the
steam-boat _Otto_, William was finally sold to Captain Enoch Price for
650 dollars. That the quickness and intelligence of William rendered him
very valuable as a slave, is favoured by the evidence of Enoch Price
himself, who states that he was offered 2000 dollars for Sanford (as he
was called), in New Orleans. William was strongly urged by his new
mistress to marry. To facilitate this object, she even went so far as to
purchase a girl for whom she fancied he had an affection. He himself,
however, had secretly resolved never to enter into such a connexion
while in slavery, knowing that marriage, in the true and honourable
sense of the term, could not exist among slaves. Notwithstanding the
multitude of petty offences for which a slave is severely punished, it
is singular that one crime--bigamy--is visited upon a white with
severity, while no slave has ever yet been tried for it. In fact, the
man is allowed to form connections with as many women, and the women
with as many men, as they please.
At St. Louis, William was employed as coachman to Mr. Price; but when
that gentleman subsequently took his family up the river to Cincinnati,
Sanford acted as appointed steward. While lying off this city, the
long-looked-for opportunity of escape presented itself; and on the 1st
of January, 1834--he being then almost twenty years of age--succeeded in
getting from the steamer to the wharf, and thence to the woods, where he
lay concealed until the shades of night had set in, when he again
commenced his journey northwards. While with Dr. Young, a nephew of that
gentleman, whose christian name was William, came into the family: the
slave was, therefore, denuded of the name of William, and thenceforth
called Sanford. This deprivation of his original name he had ever
regarded as an indignity, and having now gained his freedom he resumed
his original name; and as there was no one by whom he could be addressed
by it, he exultingly enjoyed the first-fruits of his freedom by calling
himself aloud by his old name "William!" After passing through a variety
of painful vicissitudes, on the eighth day he found himself destitute of
pecuniary means, and unable, from severe illness, to pursue his journey.
In that condition he was discovered by a venerable member of the Society
of Friends, who placed him in a covered waggon and took him to his own
house. There he remained about fifteen days, and by the kind treatment
of his host and hostess, who were what in America are called
"Thompsonians," he was restored to health, and supplied with the means
of pursuing his journey. The name of this, his first kind benefactor,
was "Wells Brown." As William had risen from the degradation of a slave
to the dignity of a man, it was expedient that he should follow the
customs of other men, and adopt a second name. His venerable friend,
therefore, bestowed upon him his own name, which, prefixed by his former
designation, made him "William Wells Brown," a name that will live in
history, while those of the men who claimed him as property would, were
it not for his deeds, have been unknown beyond the town in which they
lived. In nine days from the time he left Wells Brown's house, he
arrived at Cleveland, in the State of Ohio, where he found he could
remain comparatively safe from the pursuit of the man-stealer. Having
obtained employment as a waiter, he remained in that city until the
following spring, when he procured an engagement on board a steam-boat
plying on Lake Erie. In that situation he was enabled, during seven
months, to assist no less than sixty-nine slaves to escape to Canada.
While a slave he had regarded the whites as the natural enemies of his
race. It was, therefore, with no small pleasure that he discovered the
existence of the salt of America, in the despised Abolitionists of the
Northern States. He read with assiduity the writings of Benjamin Lundy,
William Lloyd Garrison, and others; and after his own twenty years'
experience of slavery, it is not surprising that he should have
enthusiastically embraced the principles of "total and immediate
emancipation," and "no union with slaveholders."
In proportion as his mind expanded under the more favourable
circumstances in which he was placed, he became anxious, not merely for
the redemption of his race from personal slavery, but for the moral
elevation of those among them who were free. Finding that habits of
intoxication were too prevalent amongst his coloured brethren, he, in
conjunction with others, commenced a temperance reformation in their
body. Such was the success of their efforts that in three years, in the
city of Buffalo alone, a society of upwards of 500 members was raised
out of a coloured population of 700. Of that society Mr. Brown was
thrice elected President.
The intellectual powers of our author, coupled with his intimate
acquaintance with the workings of the slave system, recommended him to
the Abolitionists as a man eminently qualified to arouse the attention
of the people of the Northern States to the great national sin of
America. In 1843 he was engaged as a lecturer by the Western New-York
Anti-Slavery Society. From 1844 to 1847 he laboured in the anti-slavery
cause in connection with the American Anti-Slavery Society, and from
that period up to the time of his departure for Europe, in 1849, he was
an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. The records of those
societies furnish abundant evidence of the success of his labours. From
the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society he early received the following
testimony:--
"Since Mr. Brown became an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery
Society, he has lectured in very many of the towns of this
Commonwealth, and won for himself general respect and approbation. He
combines true self-respect with true humility, and rare judiciousness
with great moral courage. Himself a fugitive slave, he can
experimentally describe the situation of those in bonds as bound with
them; and he powerfully illustrates the diabolism of that system which
keeps in chains and darkness a host of minds, which, if free and
enlightened, would shine among men like stars in a firmament."
Another member of that Society speaks thus of him:--"I need not attempt
any description of the ability and efficiency which characterized his
speaking throughout the meetings. To you who know him so well, it is
enough to say that his lectures were worthy of himself. He has left an
impression on the minds of the people, that few could have done. Cold,
indeed, must be the heart that could resist the appeals of so noble a
specimen of humanity, in behalf of a crushed and despised race."
Notwithstanding the celebrity Mr. Brown had acquired in the north, as a
man of genius and talent, and the general respect his high character had
gained him, the slave spirit of America denied him the rights of a
citizen. By the constitution of the United States, he was every moment
liable to be seized and sent back to slavery. He was in daily peril of a
gradual legalized murder, under a system one of whose established
economical principles is, that it is more profitable to work up a slave
on a plantation in a short time, by excessive labour and cheap food,
than to obtain a lengthened remuneration by moderate work and humane
treatment. His only protection from such a fate was the anomaly of the
ascendancy of the public opinion over the law of the country. So
uncertain, however, was that tenure of liberty, that even before the
passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, it was deemed expedient to secure the
services of Frederick Douglass to the anti-slavery cause by the purchase
of his freedom. The same course might have been taken to secure the
labours of Mr. Brown, had he not entertained an unconquerable repugnance
to its adoption. On the 10th of January, 1848, Enoch Price wrote to Mr.
Edmund Quincy offering to sell Mr. Brown to himself or friends for 325
dollars. To this communication the fugitive returned the following pithy
and noble reply:--
"I cannot accept of Mr. Price's offer to become a purchaser of my body
and soul. God made me as free as he did Enoch Price, and Mr. Price shall
never receive a dollar from me or my friends with my consent."
There were, however, other reasons besides his personal safety which led
to Mr. Brown's visit to Europe. It was thought desirable always to have
in England some talented man of colour who should be a living lie to the
doctrine of the inferiority of the African race: and it was moreover
felt that none could so powerfully advocate the cause of "those in
bonds" as one who had actually been "bound with them." This had been
proved in the extraordinary effect produced in Great Britain by
Frederick Douglass in 1845 and 1846. The American Committee in
connection with the Peace Congress were also desirous of sending to
Europe coloured representatives of their Society, and Mr. Brown was
selected for that purpose, and duly accredited by them to the Paris
Congress.
On the 18th of July, 1849, a large meeting of the coloured citizens of
Boston was held in Washington Hall to bid him farewell. At that meeting
the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:--
"_Resolved_,--That we bid our brother, William Wells Brown, God speed in
his mission to Europe, and commend him to the hospitality and
encouragement of all true friends of humanity.
"_Resolved_,--That we forward by him our renewed protest against the
American Colonization Society; and invoke for him a candid hearing
before the British public, in reply to the efforts put forth there
by the Rev. Mr. Miller, or any other agent of said Society."
Two days afterwards he sailed for Europe, encountering on his voyage his
last experience of American prejudice against colour.
On the 28th of August he landed at Liverpool, a time and place memorable
in his life as the first upon which he could truly call himself a free
man upon God's earth. In the history of nations, as of individuals,
there is often singular retributive mercy as well as retributive
justice. In the seventeenth century the victims of monarchical tyranny
in Great Britain found social and political freedom when they set foot
upon Plymouth Rock in New England: in the nineteenth century the victims
of the oppressions of the American Republic find freedom and social
equality upon the shores of monarchical England. Liverpool, which
seventy years back was so steeped in the guilt of negro slavery that
Paine expressed his surprise that God did not sweep it from the face of
the earth, is now to the hunted negro the Plymouth Rock of Old England.
From Liverpool he proceeded to Dublin where he was warmly received by
Mr. Haughton, Mr. Webb, and other friends of the slave, and publicly
welcomed at a large meeting presided over by the first named gentleman.
The reception of Mr. Brown at the Peace Congress in Paris was most
flattering. In a company, comprising a large portion of the _elite_ of
Europe, he admirably maintained his reputation as a public speaker. His
brief address, upon that "war spirit of America which holds in bondage
three million of his brethren," produced a profound sensation. At its
conclusion the speaker was warmly greeted by Victor Hugo, the Abbe
Duguerry, Emile de Girardin, the Pastor Coquerel, Richard Cobden, and
every man of note in the Assembly. At the soiree given by M. De
Tocqueville, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the other fetes given
to the Members of the Congress, Mr. Brown was received with marked
attention.
Having finished his Peace mission in France, he commenced an
Anti-slavery tour in England and Scotland. With that independence of
feeling which those who are acquainted with him know to be his chief
characteristic, he rejected the idea of anything like eleemosynary
support. He determined to maintain himself and family by his own
exertions--by his literary labours, and the honourable profession of a
public lecturer. His first metropolitan reception in England was at a
large, influential, and enthusiastic meeting in the Music Hall, Stone
Street. The members of the Whittington Club--an institution numbering
nearly 2000 members, among whom are Lords Brougham, Dudley Coutts
Stuart, and Beaumont; Charles Dickens, Douglass Jerrold, Martin
Thackeray, Charles Lushington, M.P., Monckton Milnes, M.P., and several
other of the most distinguished legislators and literary men and women
in this country--elected Mr. Brown an honorary member of the Club, as a
mark of respect to his character; and, as the following extract from the
Secretary, Mr. Stundwicke, will show, as a protest against the
distinctions made between man and man on account of colour in
America:--"I have much pleasure in conveying to you the best thanks of
the managing committee of this institution for the excellent lecture you
gave here last evening on the subject of 'Slavery in America,' and also
in presenting you in their names with an honorary membership of the
Club. It is hoped that you will often avail yourself of its privileges
by coming amongst us. You will then see, by the cordial welcome of the
members, that they protest against the odious distinctions made between
man and man, and the abominable traffic of which you have been the
victim."
For the last three years Mr. Brown has been engaged in visiting and
holding meetings in nearly all the large towns in the kingdom upon the
question of American Slavery, Temperance, and other subjects. Perhaps no
coloured individual, not excepting that extraordinary man, Frederick
Douglass, has done more good in disseminating anti-slavery principles in
England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In the spring of 1851, two most interesting fugitives, William and Ellen
Craft, arrived in England. They had made their escape from the South,
the wife disguised in male attire, and the husband in the capacity of
her slave. William Craft was doing a thriving business in Boston, but in
1851 was driven with his wife from that city by the operation of the
Fugitive Slave Law. For several months they travelled in company with
Mr. Brown in this country, deepening the disgust created by Mr. Brown's
eloquent denunciation of slavery by their simple but touching narrative.
At length they were enabled to gratify their thirst for education by
gaining admission to Lady Byron's school at Oakham, Surrey. In the month
of May, Mr. Brown and Mr. and Mrs. Craft were taken by a party of
anti-slavery friends to the Great Exhibition. The honourable manner in
which they were received by distinguished persons to whom their history
was known, and the freedom with which they perambulated the American
department, was a salutary rebuke to the numerous Americans present, in
regard to the great sin of their country--slavery; and its great
folly--prejudice of colour. A curious circumstance occurred during the
Exhibition. Among the hosts of American visitors to this country was Mr.
Brown's late master, Enoch Price, who made diligent inquiry after his
lost piece of property--not, of course, with any view to its
reclamation--but, to the mutual regret of both parties, without success.
It is gratifying to state that the master spoke highly of, and expressed
a wish for the future prosperity of, his fugitive slave; a fact which
tends to prove that prejudice of colour is to a very great extent a
thing of locality and association. Had Mr. Price, however, left behind
him letters of manumission for Mr. Brown, enabling him, if he chose, to
return to his native land, he would have given a more practical proof of
respect, and of the sincerity of his desire for the welfare of Mr.
Brown.
It would extend these pages far beyond their proposed length were
anything like a detailed account of Mr. Brown's anti-slavery labours in
this country to be attempted. Suffice it to say that they have
everywhere been attended with benefit and approbation. At Bolton an
admirable address from the ladies was presented to him, and at other
places he has received most honourable testimonials.
Since Mr. Brown left America, the condition of the fugitive slaves in
his own country has, through the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law,
been rendered so perilous as to preclude the possibility of return
without the almost certain loss of liberty. His expatriation has,
however, been a gain to the cause of humanity in this country, where an
intelligent representative of the oppressed coloured Americans is
constantly needed, not only to describe, in language of fervid
eloquence, the wrongs inflicted upon his race in the United States, but
to prevent their bonds being strengthened in this country by holding
fellowship with slave-holding and slave-abetting ministers from America.
In his lectures he has clearly demonstrated the fact, that the sole
support of the slavery of the United States is its churches. This
knowledge of the standing of American ministers in reference to slavery
has, in the case of Dr. Dyer, and in many other instances, been most
serviceable, preventing their reception into communion with British
churches. Last year Mr. Brown succeeded in getting over to this country
his daughters, two interesting girls twelve and sixteen years of age
respectively, who are now receiving an education which will qualify them
hereafter to become teachers in their turn--a description of education
which would have been denied them in their native land. In 1834 Mr.
Brown married a free coloured woman, who died in January of the present
year.
The condition of escaped slaves has engaged much of his attention while
in this country. He found that in England no anti-slavery organization
existed whose object was to aid fugitive slaves in obtaining an
honourable subsistence in the land of their exile. In most cases they
are thrown upon the support of a few warm-hearted anti-slavery advocates
in this country, pre-eminent among whom stands Mr. Brown's earliest
friend, Mr. George Thompson, M.P., whose house is rarely free from one
or more of those who have acquired the designation of his "American
constituents." This want has recently been attempted to be supplied,
partly through Mr. Brown's exertions, and partly by the establishment of
the Anglo-American Anti-Slavery Association.
On the 1st of August, 1851, a meeting of the most novel character was
held at the Hall of Commerce, London, being a soiree given by fugitive
slaves in this country to Mr. George Thompson, on his return from his
American mission on behalf of their race. That meeting was most ably
presided over by Mr. Brown, and the speeches made upon the occasion by
fugitive slaves were of the most interesting and creditable description.
Although a residence in Canada is infinitely preferable to slavery in
America, yet the climate of that country is uncongenial to the
constitutions of the fugitive slaves, and their lack of education is an
almost insuperable barrier to their social progress. The latter evil Mr.
Brown attempted to remedy by the establishment of a Manual Labour School
in Canada.
A public meeting, attended by between 3000 and 4000 persons, was
convened by Mr. Brown, on the 6th of January, 1851, in the City Hall,
Glasgow, presided over by Mr. Hastie, one of the representatives of that
city, at which meeting a resolution was unanimously passed approving of
Mr. Brown's scheme, which scheme, however, never received that amount of
support which would have enabled him to bring it into practice; and the
plan at present only remains as an evidence of its author's ingenuity
and desire for the elevation of his depressed race. Mr. Brown
subsequently made, through the columns of the _Times_ newspaper, a
proposition for the emigration of American fugitive slaves, under fair
and honourable terms, to the West Indies, where there is a great lack of
that tillage labour which they are so capable of undertaking. This
proposition has hitherto met with no better fate than its predecessor.
Mr. Brown's literary abilities may be partly judged of from the
following pages. The amount of knowledge and education he has acquired
under circumstances of no ordinary difficulty, is a striking proof of
what can be done by combined genius and industry. His proficiency as a
linguist, without the aid of a master, is considerable. His present work
is a valuable addition to the stock of English literature. The honour
which has hitherto been paid, and which, so long as he resides upon
British soil, will no doubt continue to be paid to his character and
talents, must have its influence in abating the senseless prejudice of
colour in America, and hastening the time when the object of his
mission, the abolition of the slavery of his native country, shall be
accomplished, and that young Republic renouncing with penitence its
national sin, shall take its proper place amongst the most free,
civilized, and Christian nations of the earth.
W.F.
PREFACE.
While I feel conscious that most of the contents of these Letters will
be interesting chiefly to American readers, yet I may indulge the hope,
that the fact of their being the first production of a Fugitive Slave,
as a history of travels, may carry with them novelty enough to secure
for them, to some extent, the attention of the reading public of Great
Britain. Most of the letters were written for the private perusal of a
few personal friends in America; some were contributed to "Frederick
Douglass's paper," a journal published in the United States. In a
printed circular sent some weeks since to some of my friends, asking
subscriptions to this volume, I stated the reasons for its publication:
these need not be repeated here. To those who so promptly and kindly
responded to that appeal, I tender my most sincere thanks. It is with no
little diffidence that I lay these letters before the public; for I am
not blind to the fact, that they must contain many errors; and to those
who shall find fault with them on that account, it may not be too much
for me to ask them kindly to remember, that the author was a slave in
one of the Southern States of America, until he had attained the age of
twenty years; and that the education he has acquired, was by his own
exertions, he never having had a day's schooling in his life.
W. WELLS BROWN.
22, CECIL STREET, STRAND,
LONDON.
LETTER I.
_Departure from Boston--the Passengers--Halifax--the Passage--First
Sight of Land--Liverpool._
LIVERPOOL, _July 28_.
On the 18th July, 1849, I took passage in the steam-ship _Canada_,
Captain Judkins, bound for Liverpool. The day was a warm one; so much
so, that many persons on board, as well as several on shore, stood with
their umbrellas up, so intense was the heat of the sun. The ringing of
the ship's bell was a signal for us to shake hands with our friends,
which we did, and then stepped on the deck of the noble craft. The
_Canada_ quitted her moorings at half-past twelve, and we were soon in
motion. As we were passing out of Boston Bay, I took my stand on the
quarter-deck, to take a last farewell (at least for a time), of my
native land. A visit to the old world, up to that time had seemed but a
dream. As I looked back upon the receding land, recollections of the
past rushed through my mind in quick succession. From the treatment that
I had received from the Americans as a victim of slavery, and the
knowledge that I was at that time liable to be seized and again reduced
to whips and chains, I had supposed that I would leave the country
without any regret; but in this I was mistaken, for when I saw the last
thread of communication cut off between me and the land, and the dim
shores dying away in the distance, I almost regretted that I was not on
shore.
An anticipated trip to a foreign country appears pleasant when talking
about it, especially when surrounded by friends whom we love; but when
we have left them all behind, it does not seem so pleasant. Whatever may
be the fault of the government under which we live, and no matter how
oppressive her laws may appear, yet we leave our native land (if such
it be) with feelings akin to sorrow. With the steamer's powerful engine
at work, and with a fair wind, we were speedily on the bosom of the
Atlantic, which was as calm and as smooth as our own Hudson in its
calmest aspect. We had on board above one hundred passengers, forty of
whom were the "Viennese children"--a troop of dancers. The passengers
represented several different nations, English, French, Spaniards,
Africans, and Americans. One man who had the longest pair of mustaches
that mortal man was ever doomed to wear, especially attracted my
attention. He appeared to belong to no country in particular, but was
yet the busiest man on board. After viewing for some time the many
strange faces around me, I descended to the cabin to look after my
luggage, which had been put hurriedly on board. I hope that all who take
a trip of so great a distance may be as fortunate as I was, in being
supplied with books to read on the voyage. My friends had furnished me
with literature, from "Macaulay's History of England" to "Jane Eyre," so
that I did not want for books to occupy my time.
A pleasant passage of about thirty hours, brought us to Halifax, at six
o'clock in the evening. In company with my friend the President of the
Oberlin Institute, I took a stroll through the town; and from what
little I saw of the people in the streets, I am sure that the taking of
the Temperance pledge would do them no injury. Our stay at Halifax was
short. Having taken in a few sacks of coals, the mails, and a limited
number of passengers, we were again out, and soon at sea. After a
pleasant run of seven days more, and as I was lying in my bed, I heard
the cry of "Land a-head." Although our passage had been unprecedentedly
short, yet I need not inform you that this news was hailed with joy by
all on board. For my own part, I was soon on deck. Away in the distance,
and on our larboard quarter, were the grey hills of Ireland. Yes! we
were in sight of the land of Emmett and O'Connell. While I rejoiced with
the other passengers at the sight of land, and the near approach to the
end of the voyage, I felt low spirited, because it reminded me of the
great distance I was from home. But the experience of above twenty
years' travelling, had prepared me to undergo what most persons must lay
their account with, in visiting a strange country. This was the last day
but one that we were to be on board; and as if moved by the sight of
land, all seemed to be gathering their different things
together--brushing up their old clothes and putting on their new ones,
as if this would bring them any sooner to the end of their journey.
The last night on board was the most pleasant, apparently, that we had
experienced; probably, because it was the last. The moon was in her
meridian splendour, pouring her broad light over the calm sea; while
near to us, on our starboard side, was a ship with her snow-white sails
spread aloft, and stealing through the water like a thing of life. What
can present a more picturesque view, than two vessels at sea on a
moonlight night, and within a few rods of each other? With a gentle
breeze, and the powerful engine at work, we seemed to be flying to the
embrace of our British neighbours.
The next morning I was up before the sun, and found that we were within
a few miles of Liverpool. The taking of a pilot on board at eleven
o'clock, warned us to prepare to quit our ocean palace and seek other
quarters. At a little past three o'clock, the ship cast anchor, and we
were all tumbled, bag and baggage, into a small steamer, and in a few
moments were at the door of the Custom-House. The passage had only been
nine days and twenty-two hours, the quickest on record at that time, yet
it was long enough. I waited nearly three hours before my name was
called, and when it was, I unlocked my trunks and handed them over to
one of the officers, whose dirty hands made no improvement on the work
of the laundress. First one article was taken out, and then another,
till an _Iron Collar_ that had been worn by a female slave on the banks
of the Mississippi, was hauled out, and this democratic instrument of
torture became the centre of attraction; so much so, that instead of
going on with the examination, all hands stopped to look at the "Negro
Collar."
Several of my countrymen who were standing by, were not a little
displeased at answers which I gave to questions on the subject of
Slavery; but they held their peace. The interest created by the
appearance of the Iron Collar, closed the examination of my luggage. As
if afraid that they would find something more hideous, they put the
Custom-House mark on each piece, and passed them out, and I was soon
comfortably installed at Brown's Temperance Hotel, Clayton Square.
No person of my complexion can visit this country without being struck
with the marked difference between the English and the Americans. The
prejudice which I have experienced on all and every occasion in the
United States, and to some extent on board the _Canada_, vanished as
soon as I set foot on the soil of Britain. In America I had been bought
and sold as a slave, in the Southern States. In the so-called free
States, I had been treated as one born to occupy an inferior
position,--in steamers, compelled to take my fare on the deck; in
hotels, to take my meals in the kitchen; in coaches, to ride on the
outside; in railways, to ride in the "negro car;" and in churches, to
sit in the "negro pew." But no sooner was I on British soil, than I was
recognised as a man, and an equal. The very dogs in the streets
appeared conscious of my manhood. Such is the difference, and such is
the change that is brought about by a trip of nine days in an Atlantic
steamer.
I was not more struck with the treatment of the people, than with the
appearance of the great seaport of the world. The grey appearance of the
stone piers and docks, the dark look of the magnificent warehouses, the
substantial appearance of every thing around, causes one to think
himself in a new world instead of the old. Every thing in Liverpool
looks old, yet nothing is worn out. The beautiful villas on the opposite
side of the river, in the vicinity of Birkenhead, together with the
countless number of vessels in the river, and the great ships to be seen
in the stream, give life and animation to the whole scene.
Every thing in and about Liverpool seems to be built for the future as
well as the present. We had time to examine but few of the public
buildings, the first of which was the Custom-House, an edifice that
would be an ornament to any city in the world.
For the first time in my life, I can say "I am truly free." My old
master may make his appearance here, with the Constitution of the United
States in his pocket, the Fugitive Slave Law in one hand and the chains
in the other, and claim me as his property, but all will avail him
nothing. I can here stand and look the tyrant in the face, and tell him
that I am his equal! England is, indeed, the "land of the free, and the
home of the brave."
LETTER II.
_Trip to Ireland--Dublin--Her Majesty's Visit--Illumination of the
City--the Birth-Place of Thomas Moore--a Reception._
DUBLIN, _August 6_.
After remaining in Liverpool two days, I took passage in the little
steamer _Adelaide_ for this city. The wind being high on the night of
our voyage, the vessel had scarcely got to sea ere we were driven to
our berths; and though the distance from Liverpool to Dublin is short,
yet, strange to say, I witnessed more effects of the sea and rolling of
the steamer upon the passengers, than was to be seen during the whole of
our voyage from America. We reached Kingstown, five miles below Dublin,
after a passage of nearly fifteen hours, and were soon seated on a car,
and on our way to the city. While coming into the bay, one gets a fine
view of Dublin and the surrounding country. Few sheets of water make a
more beautiful appearance than Dublin Bay. We found it as still and
smooth as a mirror, with a soft mist on its surface--a strange contrast
to the boisterous sea that we had left a moment before.
The curious phrases of the Irish sounded harshly upon my ear, probably,
because they were strange to me. I lost no time on reaching the city in
seeking out some to whom I had letters of introduction, one of whom gave
me an invitation to make his house my home during my stay, an invitation
which I did not think fit to decline.