every inch of ground about it seems hallowed by interesting
associations. The University, founded by the good King Alfred, still
throws its shadow upon the side-walk; and the lapse of ten centuries
seems to have made but little impression upon it. Other seats of
learning may be entitled to our admiration, but Oxford claims our
veneration. Although the lateness of the night compelled me, yet I felt
an unwillingness to tear myself from the scene of such surpassing
interest. Few places in any country as noted as Oxford is, but what has
some distinguished person residing within its precincts. And knowing
that the City of Palaces was not an exception to this rule, I resolved
to see some of its lions. Here, of course, is the head quarters of the
Bishop of Oxford, a son of the late William Wilberforce, Africa's noble
champion. I should have been glad to have seen this distinguished pillar
of the Church, but I soon learned that the Bishop's residence was out of
town, and that he seldom visited the city except on business. I then
determined to see one who, although a lesser dignitary in the church, is
nevertheless, scarcely less known than the Bishop of Oxford. This was
the Rev. Dr. Pusey, a divine, whose name is known wherever the religion
of Jesus is known and taught, and the acknowledged head of the
Puseyites. On the second morning of my visit, I proceeded to Christ
Church Chapel, where the rev. gentleman officiates. Fortunately I had an
opportunity of seeing the Dr., and following close in his footsteps to
the church. His personal appearance is anything but that of one who is
the leader of a growing and powerful party in the church. He is rather
under the middle size, and is round shouldered, or rather stoops. His
profile is more striking than his front face, the nose being very large
and prominent. As a matter of course, I expected to see a large nose,
for all great men have them. He has a thoughtful, and somewhat sullen
brow, a firm and somewhat pensive mouth, a cheek pale, thin, and deeply
furrowed. A monk fresh from the cloisters of Tintern Abbey, in its
proudest days, could scarcely have made a more ascetic and solemn
appearance than did Dr. Pusey on this occasion. He is not apparently
above forty-five, or at most fifty years of age, and his whole aspect
renders him an admirable study for an artist. Dr. Pusey's style of
preaching is cold and tame, and one looking at him would scarcely
believe that such an apparently uninteresting man could cause such an
eruption in the Church as he has. I was glad to find that a coloured
young man was among the students at Oxford.
A few months since, I paid a visit to our countryman, Alexander Crummel,
who is still pursuing his studies at Cambridge--a place, though much
inferior to Oxford as far as appearance is concerned, is yet said to be
greatly its superior as a place of learning. In an hour's walk through
the Strand, Regent, or Piccadilly Streets in London, one may meet half a
dozen coloured young men, who are inmates of the various Colleges in the
metropolis. These are all signs of progress in the cause of the sons of
Africa. Then let our people take courage, and with that courage let them
apply themselves to learning. A determination to excel is the sure road
to greatness, and that is as open to the black man as the white. It was
that which has accomplished the mightiest and noblest triumphs in the
intellectual and physical world. It was that which has made such rapid
strides towards civilization, and broken the chains of ignorance and
superstition, which have so long fettered the human intellect. It was
determination which raised so many worthy individuals from the humble
walks of society, and from poverty, and placed them in positions of
trust and renown. It is no slight barrier that can effectually oppose
the determination of the will--success must ultimately crown its
efforts. "The world shall hear of me," was the exclamation of one whose
name has become as familiar as household words. A Toussaint, once
laboured in the sugar field with his spelling-book in his pocket, amid
the combined efforts of a nation to keep him in ignorance. His name is
now recorded among the list of statesmen of the past. A Soulouque was
once a slave, and knew not how to read. He now sits upon the throne of
an Empire.
In our own country, there are men who once held the plough, and that
too without any compensation, who are now presiding at the editor's
table. It was determination that brought out the genius of a Franklin,
and a Fulton, and that has distinguished many of the American Statesmen,
who but for their energy and determination would never have had a name
beyond the precincts of their own homes.
It is not always those who have the best advantages, or the greatest
talents, that eventually succeed in their undertakings; but it is those
who strive with untiring diligence to remove all obstacles to success,
and who, with unconquerable resolution, labour on until the rich reward
of perseverance is within their grasp. Then again let me say to our
young men--Take courage; "There is a good time coming." The darkness of
the night appears greatest just before the dawn of day.
LETTER XX.
_Fugitive Slaves in England._
The love of freedom is one of those natural impulses of the human breast
which cannot be extinguished. Even the brute animals of the creation
feel and show sorrow and affection when deprived of their liberty.
Therefore is a distinguished writer justified in saying, "Man is free,
even were he born in chains." The Americans boast, and justly, too, that
Washington was the hero and model patriot of the American
Revolution--the man whose fame, unequalled in his own day and country,
will descend to the end of time, the pride and honour of humanity. The
American speaks with pride of the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill;
and when standing in Faneuil Hall, he points to the portraits of Otis,
Adams, Hancock, Quincy, Warren, and Franklin, and tells you that their
names will go down to posterity among the world's most devoted and
patriotic friends of human liberty.
It was on the first of August, 1851, that a number of men, fugitives
from that boasted land of freedom, assembled at the Hall of Commerce in
the City of London, for the purpose of laying their wrongs before the
British nation, and at the same time, to give thanks to the God of
Freedom for the liberation of their West India brethren, on the first of
August, 1834. Little notice had been given of the intended meeting, yet
it seemed to be known in all parts of the city. At the hour of half-past
seven, for which the meeting had been called, the spacious hall was well
filled, and the fugitives, followed by some of the most noted English
Abolitionists, entered the hall, amid the most deafening applause, and
took their seats on the platform. The appearance of the great hall at
this juncture was most splendid. Besides the committee of fugitives, on
the platform there were a number of the oldest and most devoted of the
Slave's friends. On the left of the chair sat Geo. Thompson, Esq., M.P.;
near him was the Rev. Jabez Burns, D.D.; and by his side the Rev. John
Stevenson, M.A., Wm. Farmer, Esq., R. Smith, Esq.; while on the other
side were the Rev. Edward Mathews, John Cunliff, Esq., Andrew Paton,
Esq., J.P. Edwards, Esq., and a number of coloured gentlemen from the
West Indies. The body of the hall was not without its distinguished
guests. The Chapmans and Westons of Boston, U.S., were there. The
Estlins and Tribes had come all the way from Bristol to attend the great
meeting. The Patons of Glasgow had delayed their departure, so as to be
present. The Massies had come in from Upper Clapton. Not far from the
platform sat Sir Francis Knowles, Bart., still farther back was Samuel
Bowly, Esq., while near the door were to be seen the greatest critic of
the age, and England's best living poet. Macaulay had laid aside the
pen, entered the hall, and was standing near the central door, while not
far from the historian stood the newly-appointed Poet Laureat. The
author of "In Memoriam" had been swept in by the crowd, and was standing
with his arms folded, and beholding for the first time (and probably the
last) so large a number of coloured men in one room. In different parts
of the hall were men and women from nearly all parts of the kingdom,
besides a large number who, drawn to London by the Exhibition, had come
in to see and hear these oppressed people plead their own cause.
The writer of this sketch was chosen Chairman of the meeting, and
commenced its proceedings by delivering the following address, which we
cut from the columns of the _Morning Advertiser_:--
"The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, remarked that, although the
metropolis had of late been inundated with meetings of various
character, having reference to almost every variety of subject, yet that
the subject they were called upon that evening to discuss differed from
them all. Many of those by whom he was surrounded, like himself, had
been victims to the inhuman institution of Slavery, and were in
consequence exiled from the land of their birth. They were fugitives
from their native land, but not fugitives from justice, and they had not
fled from a monarchical, but from a so-called republican government.
They came from amongst a people who declared, as part of their creed,
that all men were born free, but who, while they did so, made slaves of
every sixth man, woman, and child in the country (hear, hear). He must
not, however, forget that one of the purposes for which they were met
that night was to commemorate the emancipation of their brothers and
sisters in the isles of the sea. That act of the British Parliament, and
he might add in this case with peculiar emphasis, of the British nation,
passed on the 12th day of August, 1833, to take effect on the first day
of August, 1834, and which enfranchised 800,000 West Indian slaves, was
an event sublime in its nature, comprehensive and mighty in its
immediate influences and remote consequences, precious beyond expression
to the cause of freedom, and encouraging beyond the measure of any
government on earth to the hearts of all enlightened and just men. This
act was the commencement of a long course of philanthropic and Christian
efforts on the part of some of the best men that the world ever
produced. It was not his intention to go into a discussion or a
calculation of the rise and fall of property, or whether sugar was worth
more or less by the act of emancipation. But the abolition of Slavery
in the West Indies, was a blow struck in the right direction, at that
most inhuman of all traffics, the slave trade--a trade which would never
cease so long as slavery existed, for where there was a market there
would be merchandise; where there was demand there would be a supply;
where there were carcases there would be vultures; and they might as
well attempt to turn the water, and make it run up the Niagara river, as
to change this law. It was often said by the Americans that England was
responsible for the existence of slavery there, because it was
introduced into that country while the colonies were under the British
Crown. If that were the case, they must come to the conclusion that, as
England abolished Slavery in the West Indies, she would have done the
same for the American States if she had had the power to do it; and if
that was so, they might safely say that the separation of the United
States from the mother country was (to say the least) a great misfortune
to one-sixth of the population of that land. England had set a noble
example to America, and he would to heaven his countrymen would follow
the example. The Americans boasted of their superior knowledge, but they
needed not to boast of their superior guilt, for that was set upon a
hill top, and that too, so high, that it required not the lantern of
Diogenes to find it out. Every breeze from the western world brought
upon its wings the groans and cries of the victims of this guilt. Nearly
all countries had fixed the seal of disapprobation on slavery, and when,
at some future age, this stain on the page of history shall be pointed
at, posterity will blush at the discrepancy between American profession
and American practice. What was to be thought of a people boasting of
their liberty, their humanity, their Christianity, their love of
justice, and at the same time keeping in slavery nearly four millions of
God's children, and shutting out from them the light of the Gospel, by
denying the Bible to the slave! (Hear, hear.) No education, no marriage,
everything done to keep the mind of the slave in darkness. There was a
wish on the part of the people of the northern States to shield
themselves from the charge of slave-holding, but as they shared in the
guilt, he was not satisfied with letting them off without their share in
the odium. And now a word about the Fugitive Slave Bill. That measure
was in every respect an unconstitutional measure. It set aside the right
formerly enjoyed by the fugitive of trial by jury--it afforded to him no
protection, no opportunity of proving his right to be free, and it
placed every free coloured person at the mercy of any unprincipled
individual who might wish to lay claim to him. (Hear.) That law is
opposed to the principles of Christianity--foreign alike to the laws of
God and man, it had converted the whole population of the free States
into a band of slave-catchers, and every rood of territory is but so
much hunting ground, over which they might chase the fugitive. But while
they were speaking of slavery in the United States, they must not omit
to mention that there was a strong feeling in that land, not only
against the Fugitive Slave Law, but also against the existence of
slavery in any form. There was a band of fearless men and women in the
city of Boston, whose labours for the slave had resulted in good beyond
calculation. This noble and heroic class had created an agitation in the
whole country, until their principles have taken root in almost every
association in the land, and which, with God's blessing, will, in due
time, cause the Americans to put into practice what they have so long
professed. (Hear, hear.) He wished it to be continually held up before
the country, that the northern States are as deeply implicated in the
guilt of slavery as the South. The north had a population of 13,553,328
freemen; the south had a population of only 6,393,756 freemen; the north
has 152 representatives in the house, the south only 81; and it would be
seen by this, that the balance of power was with the free States.
Looking, therefore, at the question in all its aspects, he was sure that
there was no one in this country but who would find out, that the
slavery of the United States of America was a system the most abandoned
and the most tyrannical. (Hear, hear.)"
At the close of this address, the Rev. Edward Matthews, last from
Bristol, but who had recently returned from the United States, where he
had been maltreated on account of his fidelity to the cause of freedom,
was introduced, and made a most interesting speech. The next speaker was
George Thompson, Esq., M.P.; and we need only say that his eloquence,
which has seldom or ever been equalled, and never surpassed, exceeded,
on this occasion, the most sanguine expectations of his friends. All who
sat under the thundering anathemas which he hurled against slavery,
seemed instructed, delighted, and animated. No one could scarcely have
remained unmoved by the pensive sympathies that pervaded the entire
assembly. There were many in the meeting who had never seen a fugitive
slave before, and when any of the speakers would refer to those on the
platform, the whole audience seemed moved to tears. No meeting of the
kind held in London for years created a greater sensation than this
gathering of refugees from the "Land of the free, and the home of the
brave." The following appeal, which I had written for the occasion, was
unanimously adopted at the close of the meeting, and thus ended the
great Anti-Slavery demonstration of 1851.
AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WORLD.
We consider it just, both to the people of the United States and to
ourselves, in making an appeal to the inhabitants of other countries,
against the laws which have exiled us from our native land, to state the
ground upon which we make our appeal, and the causes which impel us to
do so. There are in the United States of America, at the present time,
between three and four millions of persons, who are held in a state of
slavery which has no parallel in any other part of the world; and whose
numbers have, within the last fifty years, increased to a fearful
extent. These people are not only deprived of the rights to which the
laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, but every avenue to
knowledge is closed against them. The laws do not recognise the family
relation of a slave, and extend to him protection in the enjoyment of
domestic endearments. Brothers and sisters, parents and children,
husbands and wives, are torn asunder, and permitted to see each other
no more. The shrieks and agonies of the slave are heard in the markets
at the seat of government, and within hearing of the American Congress,
as well as on the cotton, sugar and rice plantations of the far South.
The history of the negroes in America is but a history of repeated
injuries and acts of oppression committed upon them by the whites. It is
not for ourselves that we make this appeal, but for those whom we have
left behind.
In their Declaration of Independence, the Americans declare that "all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness." Yet one-sixth of the inhabitants of the great
Republic are slaves. Thus they give the lie to their own professions. No
one forfeits his or her character or standing in society by being
engaged in holding, buying or selling a slave; the details of which, in
all their horror, can scarcely be told.
Although the holding of slaves is confined to fifteen of the thirty-one
States, yet we hold that the non-slave-holding States are equally guilty
with the slave-holding. If any proof is needed on this point, it will be
found in the passage of the inhuman Fugitive Slave Law, by Congress; a
law which could never have been enacted without the votes of a portion
of the representatives from the free States, and which is now being
enforced, in many of the States, with the utmost alacrity. It was the
passing of this law that exiled us from our native land, and it has
driven thousands of our brothers and sisters from the free States, and
compelled them to seek a refuge in the British possessions in North
America. The Fugitive Slave Law has converted the entire country, North
and South, into one vast hunting-ground. We would respectfully ask you
to expostulate with the Americans, and let them know that you regard
their treatment of the coloured people of that country as a violation of
every principle of human brotherhood, of natural right, of justice, of
humanity, of Christianity, of love to God and love to man.
It is needless that we should remind you that the religious sects of
America, with but few exceptions, are connected with the sin of
slavery--the churches North as well as South. We would have you tell the
professed Christians of that land, that if they would be respected by
you, they must separate themselves from the unholy alliance with men who
are daily committing deeds which, if done in England, would cause the
perpetrator to be sent to a felon's doom; that they must refuse the
right hand of Christian fellowship, whether individually or
collectively, to those implicated, in any way, in the guilt of slavery.
We do not ask for a forcible interference on your part, but only that
you will use all lawful and peaceful means to restore to this much
injured race their God-given rights. The moral and religious sentiment
of mankind must be arrayed against slave-holding, to make it infamous,
ere we can hope to see it abolished. We would ask you to set them the
example, by excluding from your pulpits, and from religious communion,
the slave-holding and pro-slavery ministers who may happen to visit this
country. We would even go further, and ask you to shut your doors
against either ministers or laymen, who are at all guilty of upholding
and sustaining this monster sin. By the cries of the slave, which come
from the fields and swamps of the far South, we ask you to do this! By
that spirit of liberty and equality of which you all admire, we would
ask you to do this. And by that still nobler, higher, and holier spirit
of our beloved Saviour, we would ask you to stamp upon the head of the
slaveholder, with a brand deeper than that which marks the victim of his
wrongs, the infamy of theft, adultery, man-stealing, piracy, and murder,
and, by the force of public opinion, compel him to "unloose the heavy
burden, and let the oppressed go free."
LETTER XXI.
_A Chapter on American Slavery._
The word Englishman is but another name for an American, and the word
American is but another name for an Englishman--England is the father,
America the son. They have a common origin and identity of language;
they hold the same religious and political opinions; they study the same
histories, and have the same literature. Steam and mechanical ingenuity
have brought the two countries within nine days sailing of each other.
The Englishman on landing at New-York finds his new neighbours speaking
the same language which he last heard on leaving Liverpool, and he sees
the American in the same dress that he had been accustomed to look upon
at home, and soon forgets that he is three thousand miles from his
native land, and in another country. The American on landing at
Liverpool, and taking a walk through the great commercial city, finding
no difficulty in understanding the people, supposes himself still in
New-York; and if there seems any doubt in his own mind, growing out of
the fact that the people have a more healthy look, seem more polite, and
that the buildings have a more substantial appearance than those he had
formerly looked upon, he has only to imagine, as did Rip Van Winkle,
that he has been asleep these hundred years.
If the Englishman who has seen a Thompson silenced in Boston, or a
Macready mobbed in New-York, upon the ground that they were foreigners,
should sit in Exeter Hall and hear an American orator until he was
hoarse, and wonder why the American is better treated in England than
the Englishman in America, he has only to attribute it to John Bull's
superior knowledge of good manners, and his being a more law-abiding man
than brother Jonathan. England and America has each its reforms and its
reformers, and they have more or less sympathy with each other. It has
been said that one generation commences a reform in England, and that
another generation finishes it. I would that so much could be said with
regard to the great object of reform in America--the system of slavery!