THE CONDITION OF AMERICAN SLAVES AS COMPARED WITH OTHER PORTIONS OF
THE AFRICAN RACE.
There is nothing but the most _enlarged_ view of a great question,
that can fairly determine its merits; and it cannot be denied, that
slavery is _one_ of the great questions appertaining to the social
state of mankind, and to the political state of the world. It is so
great, in our opinion, that it can neither be disposed of by the logic
of visionary theorists, nor by a _coup du main_ of an ill-considered
and intemperate effort, nor by any legerdemain of political quackery.
Ever since human society was set up, so far as history deposes,
slavery has been a component element in one form or another. We
suppose, there are some good reasons for saying, that there is no
institution--we beg pardon of the Abolitionists for using this
term, and assure them that we mean nothing by it but the fact--none,
that can assert a more ancient date, except that of matrimony, and the
natural relations accruing therefrom; and none that has been more
uninterrupted, since it was first set up. Reason might teach us,
therefore, that a custom thus sanctioned by time and the history of
human society, so deeply rooted, so thoroughly interwoven, and
incorporated with the social fabric of large portions of the human
family, however wrong it may be, so long as there is not a uniform
opinion on the subject among those who have the charge of it, cannot
be eradicated and put out of the way by a single blow.
We are aware, that the Abolitionists have published some very strong
and significant doctrines, intended to be applied to the evils of the
social system. For example in their last Annual Report:--“The very
_vitality_ of human society for these six thousand years, has
consisted in the victories of certain institutions over others--_of
the new over the old_--of the better over the worse--just as the
heart, by successive tides of regenerated blood, chases corruption and
death from the bodily system. Tyranny in all ages, has striven to
carry this moral (political) non-intercourse (non-interference) law
into practice, but never with success. Had it succeeded, where would
have been our Christianity and its successive reformations?” &c. Who
would not say, “Good Lord deliver us” from the operation of a
principle, thus boldly avowed, which asserts the right and necessity
of everlasting revolution! and which plants itself on the platform,
_that might is right_! Christianity itself is not protected from its
invading sweep: “its successive _reformations_!” Where is the man in
history, or living, that can lay claim to have _reformed_, or now to
_reform_, Christianity? The very suggestion is blasphemous. And yet,
it would seem, an ACT of this kind is even now, and among us, proposed
to be enacted, because, forsooth, Christianity, after all “its
reformations” and improvements, is not quite bold enough, is rather
doubtful, and has even thrown out some suggestions a little adverse to
the necessities of present exigencies!
But to return: Abolition simply, and in itself considered, is not the
only question to be discussed, as the whole matter now presents itself
to the mind of the public, and claims consideration. The phasis of the
subject comprehends the broad disk of society. The Abolitionists have
forced their opponents to this wide view, by having set the example.
They have brought up so many questions, and implicated so many
principles, as to have set aside the main question; at least have
thrown it into the back ground, so that the term Abolition no longer
suggests alone the primitive idea of emancipation, nor hardly suggests
it at all; but arrays before the mind a _system_ of principles, social
and political, which are regarded by most people as of a very
revolting character. It is impossible to meet such a foe without
taking into consideration the ground which he occupies, without
reconnoitring and surveying his position. He has already betrayed the
poor slave, vitiated his cause, rivetted his chains, made all his
prospects more hopeless, put far off the day of his emancipation, and
at last run foul of a precipitous, frowning, and immoveable rock, that
is likely to sit long in dignified composure on the base of the
eternal hills, while the assailant exhausts his energies and breaks
his sides by dashing against the rude and projecting points below.
The opponents of Abolition principles, therefore, are treated very
unfairly when they are of course set down as opposed to emancipation.
This latter question cannot now be taken up, till the battle is
concluded in defence of other and more momentous principles, for the
subversion of which a disciplined army of Destructives has rushed into
the field. Nevertheless, so long as the Abolitionists continue to hold
up the slave--whose prospects they have ruined, till he gets better
help--as a shield for the accomplishment of other ends, it still
remains necessary to give reasons why emancipation cannot be brought
about with that precipitate haste which the Abolitionists propose.
We design, however, in this chapter, not to aim directly at the point
above suggested, but to present somewhat of the _comparative
condition_ of the slaves in the United States, principally in relation
to the history of the African race, since, at the time, and previous
to the time, when the slave trade commenced, with the purpose of
coming fairly to the conclusion, whether their condition in this
country is an improvement or deterioration; and consequently, whether,
in the Providence of God, and in their social right, as a distinct and
separate race, they have a fair claim to the instant elevation among
the people of this country, which the Abolitionists demand for them,
if it can be obtained only at the expense of social order, and at the
peril of our institutions.
First, we observe, that the African race, in the Middle, Western, and
more Southern parts of the Continent, have for many centuries, or from
time immemorial, been most barbarous and degraded, and in the practice
of domestic slavery on the largest scale and in the most inhuman
forms, entirely independent of the effects of the slave traffic by
exportation from Africa to America.
“It is evident,” says Mungo Park, “that the system of slavery which
prevails in Africa is of _no modern date_. It probably had its origin
in the remote ages of antiquity, before the Mohammedans explored a
path across the desert. How far it is maintained and supported by the
slave traffic, which for two hundred years the nations of Europe have
carried on with the natives of the Coast, it is neither within my
province, nor in my power to explain. If my sentiments should be
desired concerning the effect of a discontinuance of this commerce on
the manners of the natives, _I should have no hesitation in saying_,
that in the present unenlightened state of their minds, _my opinion
is, the effect would neither be so extensive nor so beneficial as many
wise and worthy persons fondly expect_.”
Park estimates the domestic slavery of Africa, on an average, at
_three fourths_, and Lander at _four fifths_, of the population. Some
travellers have gone much higher, and we have seen it put down at
_nine tenths_.
“In a speech delivered in the British House of Commons, by Mr.
Henniker, in 1789, the speaker asserts, that a letter had been
received by George III. from one of the most powerful of the African
potentates, the Emperor of Dehomey, which exemplifies the notions of
the Africans about the right to kill and enslave prisoners of war. He
(the Emperor) stated: ‘That as he understood King George was the
greatest of white kings, so he thought himself the greatest of black
ones.’ He said, that he could lead 500,000 armed men into the field,
that being the pursuit to which _all_ his subjects were bred, the
women _only_ staying at home to plant and manure the earth. He had
himself fought _two hundred and nine battles_, with great reputation
and success, and had conquered the great king of Ardah. The king’s
head was to this day preserved with the flesh and hair; the heads of
his generals were distinguished by being placed on each side of the
doors of their Fetiches; with the heads of the inferior officers they
paved the space before the doors; and the heads of the common soldiers
formed a sort of fringe or outwork round the walls of the palace.
Since this war he had experienced the greatest good fortune; and he
hoped in good time to be able to complete the outwalls of all his
great houses, _to the number of seven, in the same manner_.
“Mr. Norris, who visited this Empire, testifies to the truth of this
letter. He found the palace of the Emperor an immense assemblage of
cane and mud tents, enclosed by a high wall. The skulls and jaw bones
of enemies slain in battle, formed the favorite ornaments of the
palaces and _temples_. The king’s apartments were paved, and the walls
and roofs stuck over, with these horrid trophies. _And if a farther
supply appeared at any time desirable, he announced to his general_,
THAT HIS HOUSE WANTED THATCH, _when a war for that purpose was
immediately undertaken_.”[10]
[Footnote 10: Professor Dew’s Review &c.]
“All these unfortunate beings,” prisoners of war, says Park, “are
considered as strangers and foreigners, _who have no right to the
protection of the law_, and may be treated with severity, or sold to a
stranger, according to the pleasure of their owners. There are indeed,
regular markets, where slaves of this description are bought and sold;
and the value of a slave in the eye of an African purchaser increases
in proportion to the distance from his native kingdom; for, when
slaves are only a few days journey from the place of their nativity,
they frequently effect their escape; but when one or more kingdoms
intervene, escape being more difficult, they are more readily
reconciled to their situation. On this account the unhappy slave is
often transferred from one dealer to another, until he has lost all
hope of returning to his native kingdom.
“A battle is fought; the vanquished never think of rallying again; the
inhabitants become panic-struck; and the conquerors have only to bind
the slaves, and carry off the victims and their plunder. Such of their
prisoners as through age or infirmity are unable to endure fatigue, or
are found unfit for sale, are considered useless, _and I have no doubt
are put to death. The same fate commonly awaits chiefs, or any other
persons who have taken a distinguished part in the war._”
The Rev. Stephen Kay, Corresponding member of the South African
Institution &c., gives a most heart rending account of the horrid
barbarities of war; of the great extent and atrocities of slavery; of
the extreme degradation and hardships of females, who are always
regarded and treated as slaves, and no longer valued when they become
useless; of modes of torture and killing too shocking to be narrated;
all of which, and many other atrocities of African barbarism, are the
common scenes of those regions of Africa which he visited. Major Laing
is to the same point, and various other travellers that have found
motives to visit Africa, or to penetrate into its interior. There is
no diversity of testimony on the subject, but one common voice going
out upon the world, through a variety of channels, running back for
ages, and from numerous and remote sections of that dark and cruel
Continent, all certifying to their extreme barbarism and brutal
degredation, with scarcely a gleam of intellectual light, or social
comfort, beaming out from their history. Do not the readers of Mungo
Park recollect the story of poor Nealee? Does not the world know the
fate of Park himself, and of Lander? And are not the testimonies
abundant to the barbarous treachery and atrocious cruelty of the race,
independent of the effects of that European traffic in human flesh and
blood, which began, between two and three hundred years ago, to draw
off a fraction of this immense amount of human misery, which could
scarcely be increased by the agonies and suffocations of “THE MIDDLE
PASSAGE”? It was, indeed, this very state of things which presented
temptations and opened the door to that traffic, which transplanted a
portion of the African race to the Islands and Continent of this
Western hemisphere. It is to the Africans themselves, that this trade
owes its origin--to their barbarism, to their everlasting trade in
war, and the glutting of their own marts with the blood and sinews of
their own flesh all to the sore evil of this Continent, and to the
inexpiable scandal of Christian Europe, that the flood gates of
African barbarism were let out upon these Western Isles and shores, to
gratify the lust of gain in those monsters who carried on and profited
by the traffic, and to entail a long protracted curse on the less
guilty, though not innocent, tenants of this new world.
The continuance of this traffic, and the inhuman over-working of this
race in the South American and West Indian Colonies appertaining to
the Governments of Europe, are too notorious to require recitation. We
are more concerned to notice the history and character of that slavery
which is to be found in our own Republic, as the result of that trade
which disgraced Christendom, and imposed on the Nations that tolerated
and patronized it a fearful responsibility.
Now, what we have to say, in reference to the facts and general
allusions appertaining to the history of the African race,
comprehensively stated in this chapter, the truth and fairness of
which we presume will not be drawn in question, is for the simple
purpose of comparison. It is not to apologize for slavery; it is not
to palliate, in any degree, the guilt of those agents who introduced
it to this Continent; it is not to justify the principle of slavery;
it is not to extenuate any of its evils; but simply to determine the
question, so far as it may be obvious in the lights of such
comparison, whether that portion of the African race to be found in
the United States, are actually better off than they would have been
any where else, in all reasonable probability?
We think, then, we are prepared to say, that when all the evils of
slavery in the Southern States of this country are put together,
without abatement in the smallest item; when the domestic slave trade
is posted and summed up in all its worst features and worst
consequences; when all the overworking of the proedul slave is
brought into the account, with its attendant cruelties; when the
driving system, so far as it exists, and all arbitrary severities of
discipline for offences, are considered; and nothing of evil that
belongs to the whole system in the United States be left out, the fair
conclusion will be, that the whole sum is but a small fraction of the
same classes of evils that from time immemorial have belonged and
still belong to the barbarism of the father land of this race--not
reckoning other evils, scarcely to be told for their number, or
estimated for their enormity or magnitude, to be found there, but not
to be found here.
Although the difference is not of the same kind, nor probably so
great, still the comparison of the slavery of the United States with
that which has existed in the West Indies and other parts of America,
presents the former in the light of comparative comfort and happiness.
It may be said, indeed, that in the British West Indies, the quondam
slaves, so cruelly treated and so severely overworked, have at last
come to their freedom; but it is by far too soon to estimate the
result. In St. Domingo, where they have been free, or said to be free,
nearly a half century, they are still under “overseers,” and
“drivers,” still subject to the law of “passports,” still forced to
work a specific number of hours on penalty of fines, imprisonments,
and sundry severe modes of discipline, under “the _Code rural_” and
“the _Code Henri_,” differing in despotic character only, that the
people are slaves to the Government, and not to private owners, and
driven to work by a black man instead of a white man, when universally
they prefer the white, as being more merciful of the two. The three
great staples of Hayti fell off from 1791 under the French, to 1822
under Boyer: Sugar from 163,405,220 lbs. annually to 652,541 lbs.;
Coffee from 68,151,180 lbs. annually to 35,117,834 lbs.; and Cotton
from 6,286,126 lbs. annually to 891,950 lbs.; and have since declined,
till the public revenue has fallen below the expenditures of the
Government.
We see, then, that the _evils_ of American slavery are _blessings_ as
compared with the general fate of the African race in their native
Continent, independent of the effects of the exportation of slaves to
foreign parts; and that they are light in comparison of other foreign
servitude down to this date.
Let us now turn to the scale of comparative comfort and of actual
privilege. In the first place, American slaves are placed in the midst
of a high state of civilization, where their very bondage has rights
secured by law which would be a blessing in Africa, even after
deducting the entire scope of the arbitrary sway of masters. They are
clustered round a refinement of manners, which, though it may have
little influence for the benefit of the proedal slave, acts
powerfully on the great body for their personal improvement and
elevation in the scale of intellectual and moral being, and remotely
has a favorable effect upon all. A great portion of them have been
admitted to no inconsiderable degrees of intellectual and moral
culture; domestic and body servants are often found highly improved
and accomplished, whose principles, morals, and manners would be a
good example to a large part of our white population; the privileges
of the Gospel, and its blessed and eternal hopes, have been brought
within the reach of a greater proportion of the slaves, than of the
white population, who customarily _use_ them, when brought to their
doors, and these privileges were being still farther extended till the
crusade of the Abolitionists caused them to be abridged; the system of
American slavery makes it the interest of the master to be careful of
the physical constitution of the slave, that it should not be
impaired, and in this particular makes it preferable to the more cruel
bondage of British manufactories; American masters are compelled by
law to maintain the sick, the infirm, and the aged; the law itself
enacts penalties for inhuman treatment, and public opinion sustains
it, notwithstanding that in this, as in all states of society, the law
may be better than the practice, still, however, it has its general
influence for the protection of the slave, and demands justice for
him when abused as well as for the abused white man; many of the
slaves of this country have emerged, and are constantly emerging, from
a state of bondage to a state of freedom, till they amount to about
one sixth of the colored population, and are admitted to important
civil, social, and religious privileges, though not to all which the
Abolitionists claim for them, yet important and invaluable as compared
with what they would have been likely to enjoy any where else; the
public opinion of this country, previous to the present Abolition
agitation, not excepting even that of the slave States, had been
constantly growing more favourable to an increased amelioration of
slavery, and to ultimate emancipation.
In a word: If we take into consideration the origin of this race, the
barbarism, the brutal degradation, and the customary inhuman vices of
their ancestry, which remain the same to this day in Africa; if we
look at the different conditions and fate of other portions of the
same race, who, in consequence of such a state of things in the land
of their fathers, have been carried away from their native shores; and
then compare the whole with the general progress of nations and tribes
in human improvement over the face of the earth, we shall, as we
think, be compelled to the conclusion, that no other people can be
found on the globe, civilized or uncivilized, who have, within the
same period of time, risen so much, or been improved so much, as a
body, in their actual condition, social character, privileges,
relations, and prospects, for time and for eternity, as that portion
of the African race now to be found in the United States of North
America.
Let it not be understood or said, that we adduce this _great fact_, as
a bar to any claims that may be fairly asserted by the colored people
of this country, bond or free, or in their behalf, to still farther
improvement; but only, that it is proper--that in present
circumstances, we are bound--to take the most enlarged view of so
great a question; that we are bound to consider, as human nature is,
and in such a world as ours, that all nations and tribes, in their
best estate, necessarily advance in improvement by _degrees_; that one
tribe or nation cannot claim to rise at the expense of another, more
especially when their own vices have put them at the bottom of the
scale; and that all must fall in with the fair, proper, and
unavoidable influence of time, events, and accidental circumstances,
over which society, in a regular and constituted course of action, has
no control. To insist on breaking in upon this general and
conventional movement by violence, on disturbing the established order
of human society, to force forward one race, one nation, one tribe,
and one class, at the expense of another, and in violation of the
recognized principles and actual frame of society, is treason to
society, and to the general rights of mankind. The time of absolute
_perfectionism_, either as to individual character, or as to the
structure of human society, in our opinion, has not yet come. And
while all are anxious for improvement, public and private, and are
striving for it, all must consent to carry it forward on recognized
principles--on principles which will not tear down society, and
subvert and overthrow important advantages and vital interests already
acquired for common good.
We say, then, as much as we sympathize with the colored population of
this country--and we solemnly aver, that we are not wanting in such
sympathy--in all that they are deprived of social advantages and
political privileges enjoyed by the white population, in all that they
fall below the most satisfactory standard and elevation in human
improvement--we say, that we do not see how they can fairly claim to
rise by _one step_ to such a desirable point, contrary to the usual
modes of progress in human society, and contrary to the known laws and
capabilities of human nature, if it must be to the disturbance of the
peace of the community, and to the great peril of our Government and
its institutions. We have seen, that the colored population of this
country, as a body, have not been injured, but benefitted, by the
position which they now occupy, not only in comparison with the
history of the race to which they belong, but also in comparison with
the common history of other tribes and nations. They undoubtedly
occupy at this moment the highest point of actual comfort, of social
condition, and of general privilege, which has yet fallen to the lot
of any portion of the African race.
We have now done with this branch of the subject, and have only to
add, that we shall be treated with great injustice, if these
considerations are received as having been offered for any other
purpose than a shield alike to the social and political fabric of our
country against violence, and to the best interests of the colored
race.