Slavery Illustrated.
THE CHATTEL PRINCIPLE IN PRACTICE.
We will now enter more definitely into an examination of that terrible
institution which practically justifies the African slave-trade by
holding on to its victims and substituting in its stead an inter-state
slave-trade in moral turpitude fully equaling it; which, in a land of
free institutions, holds in galling chains more than three millions of
our dear fellow creatures; annually robs a hundred thousand American
mothers of their babes; and despoils one hundred thousand children
every year of that precious freedom which is their birthright and
reduces them to a level with unreasoning beasts. Our task will be
painful, but let us proceed.
1. _Slaves are denied an education._ I think it is universally admitted
that education and slavery are utterly incompatible, and that total
ignorance of letters and general imbecility of intellect are essential
to its successful continuance, and indeed, its very existence in any
country. Hence in the United States, where millions of dollars are
annually expended for schools and colleges, and where it is almost
universally believed that a sound education is conducive to good
morals, the spread of civilization, the preservation of liberty and the
progress of Christianity, even here nothing is done for the education
of slaves. While millions of free children are annually gathered into
schools and diligently instructed, the children of slaves, although
equally capable, are permitted to grow up without the least attention
to their mental culture. But this, though bad enough, is not the
worst. If slaves were at liberty to follow out their own inclinations,
they might many of them, even without encouragement or help, acquire
a respectable education. But the laws _punish the slave with great
severity who, with any motive or under any circumstances_, may attempt
to learn to read or write, and also any person who may teach him.
Some of the laws and opinions relating to the education of slaves,
(free negroes generally included) will now be cited. "Virginia Revised
Code of 1819. That all meetings or assemblages of slaves or free
negroes, or free negroes and mulattoes mixing and associating with
such slaves at any meeting house or houses &c., in the night; or at
any _school_ or _schools_ for teaching them reading or writing either
_in the day or night_, under _whatsoever pretext_, shall be deemed and
considered an UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY; and any justice of a county wherein
such assemblage shall be, shall issue his warrant, directed to any
sworn officer or officers, authorizing him or them to enter the house
or houses where such unlawful assemblages may be, for the purpose
of apprehending or dispersing such slaves, and to inflict _corporal
punishment_ on the offender or offenders, at the discretion of any
justice of the peace not exceeding twenty lashes." (_Goodell's American
Slave Code._)
No person in Virginia is allowed to open a school for the instruction
of colored persons or to teach them to read and write under a penalty
of $100 and six months imprisonment. It may be thought that these
laws are not now enforced and stand as a dead letter upon the statute
book. But the following cool item of news published in the _Richmond
Examiner_ under date of May 12th, 1853, will satisfy any one that they
are enforced.
"BREAKING UP A NEGRO SCHOOL.--The officers at Norfolk made a descent
on Tuesday upon a negro school, kept in the neighborhood of the
Stone Bridge, by a Mrs. Douglass and her daughter, and the teachers,
together with their sable pupils, were taken before his Honor. They
acknowledged their guilt, but pleaded ignorance of the law, and were
discharged, on a promise to do so no more; a very convenient way of
getting out of the scrape. The law of this State imposes a fine of one
hundred dollars, and imprisonment for six months, for such offenses; is
positive, and allows no discretion in the committing magistrate."
If a free negro in North Carolina attempt to teach a slave to read, or
if he give to a slave a religious tract, a spelling book or the bible,
he may be imprisoned or take _thirty-nine lashes_! If a white person
attempt to teach a slave the laws subject him to a fine of $200 for
each offense.
"In Georgia, if a white teach a free negro or a slave to write he is
fined $500, and imprisoned at the discretion of the Court; if the
offender be a colored man, bond or free, he may be fined or whipped at
the discretion of the Court. This law was enacted in 1829." (_Jay's
Inquiry._)
"In Louisiana the penalty for teaching slaves to read and write is one
year's imprisonment."
"In North Carolina, the patrols were ordered to search every negro
house for books or prints of every kind. Bibles and hymn books were
particularly mentioned." (_Goodell._)
"We have," said Mr. Berry in the Va. House of Delegates, "_as far as
possible closed every avenue by which light may enter their minds. If
we could extinguish the capacity_ to see the light, our work would be
completed; they would then be on a level with the beasts of the field
and we would be safe! I am not certain that we would not do it, if we
could find out the process, _and that on the plea of necessity_."
When Frederick Douglass was a slave and belonged to Mr. Auld, his
mistress, who had been lately married, manifested toward him true
womanly kindness and commenced to teach him the art of reading. "But
when my master heard of it," says Douglass in his Narrative, "he at
once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her among other
things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe to teach a slave to
read. To use his own words further he said, 'If you give a nigger an
inch he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey
his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best
negro in the world. Now, said he, if you teach that nigger (speaking of
myself,) how to read there would be no keeping him. It would forever
unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of
no value to his master. As to himself it would do him no good, but a
great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.'"
Is not that a terrible institution which can only be sustained by
enchaining the immortal mind and withholding entirely the advantages
of education? Think of it. A slave's soul, as is often the case, is
possessed with an unquenchable passion for improvement. He has a mind
in constant unrest--active, elastic, aspiring. A benevolent friend
engages to instruct him at night in the rudiments of learning, but
while engaged in this good work the law seizes them, and hurries the
slave to the whipping-post and the friend to prison. Twenty, thirty
or forty lashes on the bare back are rather poor encouragement to the
student, and a heavy fine and long imprisonment with felons hard pay
for a teacher. But slavery makes it a crime to learn to read even the
bible, and a penitentiary offense to teach a slave the alphabet!
The object of this is plainly declared by Mr. Berry of Va., viz: to
close every avenue of light from the slave's mind--to debase him as
low as possible--and thus put resistance out of his power--that he may
become a docile and profitable _chattel_.
These laws are a bold defiance of the Almighty who constructed the
marvelous powers of the human mind for improvement and activity and who
revealed in written language his word for the comfort and guidance of
all his creatures. They interpose a barrier between the slave and his
Maker and thus hinder his salvation. Even convicts in prison are taught
to read the scriptures, and in this respect slavery is more severe with
its victims than justice is with the worst criminals.
2. _Slavery does not recognize the matrimonial connections of slaves._
As slaves are to be put as nearly as possible upon a level with
"_other_ property" the slave code with singular meanness, but perfect
consistency, refuses to the slave a lawful marriage, subjects him
to conditions which are inconsistent with that sacred relation, and
exposes slave wives to the unbridled lust of masters and overseers!
"With the consent of their masters slaves may marry * * * but whilst in
a state of slavery it cannot produce any _civil effect_, because slaves
are _deprived of all civil rights_." (_Judge Mathews._)
"A slave cannot even contract matrimony, the association which takes
place among slaves and is _called_ marriage, being properly designated
by the word _contubernium_, a relation which has no sanctity, and to
which no civil rights are attached." (_Judge Stroud._)
"A slave has never maintained an action against the violator of his
bed." (_Daniel Dulany, Att'y Gen. Md._)
"Slaves were not entitled to the conditions of matrimony, and
therefore they had no relief in cases of adultery." (_Dr. Taylor._)
"Marriage is a civil ordinance they cannot enjoy. Our laws do not
recognize this relation as existing among them, and of course, do not
enforce by any sanction, the observance of its duties. Indeed, until
slavery waxeth old and tendeth to decay, there cannot be any legal
recognition of the marriage rite, or the enforcement of its consequent
duties. For all the regulations on this subject _would limit the
master's absolute right of property_ in the slaves. In his disposal
of them he could no longer be at liberty to consult merely his own
interests. He could no longer separate the wife and the husband to suit
the convenience or interest of the purchaser." (_Address of the Synod
of Ky._)
The laws intend to make slaves absolute property, and hence no relation
is legalized which would detract from the value of that property. The
interest of the _owner_ alone is consulted. These laws, horrible as
they appear, are entirely consistent with _chattel slavery_. And the
general _practice_ upon these laws comes up fully to their spirit.
Whenever the convenience, interest or passion of a master requires it,
slaves are sold and scattered abroad without the slightest regard to
those dear and sacred connections, which they regard, and which God,
no doubt, regards as marriage. In newspaper advertisements for runaway
slaves it is frequently stated that the fugitive property was bought at
a certain place "where he has a wife," and the probability is that he
is "lurking about that place." An advertisement in a New Orleans paper,
after describing the slave Charles, as "six feet high," "copper color,"
rather "pleasing appearance," adds, in order that the pursuers may have
some clue to his whereabouts, "it is more than probable that he will
make his way to Tennessee, as he has a wife now living there."
Another advertises the runaway "Ned," of "copper color, full forehead."
"Ned," continues the notice, "was purchased in Richmond of Mr. Goodin,
and has a wife in that vicinity."
Another describes a runaway woman, and suggests that she may be lurking
about "in the country where her husband is owned."
These are very natural suggestions. A husband, though a slave, and
bound to his wife by no legal tie, is not unfrequently to the slave
wife all that _husband_ means, and if that wife escape from her
unfeeling oppressors, who have carried her away to a distant State,
it is quite natural that she should bend her steps toward the partner
of her bosom, and subject herself to incredible hardships and dangers
that she might see his face once more, and unburden to him her
sorrow-ladened heart.
And that wife, though a slave, unprotected by the laws, driven by the
shameful lash, insulted, disgraced and neglected, is a _wife_ still.
And when "Ned," as he is called, runs away, it is quite natural that
he should, impelled by a husband's love, seek out the hut where years
before he had been suddenly separated from her. These advertisements
for husbands who are supposed to be "lurking about" in search of their
wives, and of wives hunting for their husbands, tell a sad tale. What
husband or wife can read them without deep sorrow?
The following statement from the pen of an eye witness will illustrate
scenes which are being enacted continually in the prosecution of the
inter-state slave trade.
"As I went on board the steamboat I noticed eight colored men,
handcuffed and chained together in pairs, four women and eight or ten
children of the apparent ages of from four to ten years, all standing
together in the bow of the boat, in charge of a man standing near them.
* * * Coming near them, I perceived they were all greatly agitated;
and, on inquiry I found they were all slaves, who had been born and
raised in North Carolina and had just been sold to a speculator, who
was now taking them to the Charleston market. Upon the shore there
was a number of colored persons, women and children, awaiting the
departure of the boat; and my attention was particularly attracted
by two colored females of uncommonly respectable appearance, neatly
attired, who stood together, a little distance from the crowd, and upon
whose countenance was depicted the keenest sorrow. As the last bell was
tolling, I saw the tears gushing from their eyes, and they raised their
neat cotton aprons and wiped their faces under the cutting anguish of
severed affection. They were the wives of two of the men in chains.
There, too, were mothers and sisters, weeping at the departure of their
sons and brothers; and there, too, were fathers, taking the last look
of their wives and children. My whole attention was directed to those
on shore, as they seemed to stand in solemn and submissive silence,
occasionally giving utterance to the intensity of their feelings by a
sigh or a stifled groan. As the boat was loosed from her moorings, they
cast a distressed, lingering look to those on board, and turned away
in silence. My eye now turned to those in the boat; and although I had
tried to control my feelings amidst my sympathies for those on shore,
I could conceal them no longer, and I found myself literally 'weeping
with those that wept.' I stood near them, and when one of the husbands
saw his wife upon the shore wave her hand for the last time, in token
of her affection, his manly efforts to restrain his feelings gave
way, and fixing his watery eyes upon her, he exclaimed, 'This is the
most distressing thing of all! My dear wife and children, farewell!'
The husband of the other wife stood weeping in silence, and with his
manacled hands raised to his face, as he looked upon her for the last
time. Of the poor women on board; three of them had husbands whom they
left behind. One of them had three children, another had two, and the
third had none. These husbands and fathers were among the throng upon
the shore, witnessing the departure of their wives and children, and
as they took their leave of them, they were sitting together upon
the floor of the boat sobbing in silence, but giving utterance to no
complaint. But the distressing scene was not yet ended. Sailing down
the Cape Fear river twenty-five miles, we touched at the little village
of Smithport, on the south side of the river. It was at this place that
one of these slaves lived, and here was his wife and five children;
and while at work on Monday last, his purchaser took him away from
his family, carried him in chains to Wilmington, where he had since
remained in jail. As we approached the wharf, a flood of tears gushed
from his eyes, and anguish seemed to have pierced his heart. The boat
stopped but a moment, and as she left, he bid farewell to some of his
acquaintances whom he saw upon the shore, exclaiming, 'Boys, I wish
you well; tell Molly (meaning his wife) and the children I wish them
well, and hope God will bless them.' At that moment he espied his
wife on the stoop of a house some rods from the shore, and with one
hand which was not in the handcuffs, he pulled off his old hat, and
waving it toward her, exclaimed, 'Farewell!' As he saw by the waving
of her apron that she recognized him, he leaned back upon the railing,
and with a faltering voice repeated, 'Farewell, forever.' After a
moment's silence, conflicting passions seemed to tear open his heart,
and he exclaimed, 'What have I done that I should suffer this doom?
Oh, my wife and children, I want to live no longer!' and then the big
tear rolled down his cheek, which he wiped away with the palm of his
unchained hand, looked once more upon the mother of his five children,
and the turning of the boat hid her face from him forever."
ANOTHER EXAMPLE.
"I shall never forget the scene which took place in the city of St.
Louis while I was yet in slavery. A man and his wife, both slaves,
were brought from the country to the city for sale. They were taken to
the rooms of Austin & Savage, auctioneers. Several slave speculators,
who are always to be found at auctions where slaves are to be sold,
were present. The man was first put up and sold to the highest bidder.
The wife was next ordered to ascend the platform. I was present. She
slowly obeyed the order. The auctioneer commenced, and soon several
hundred dollars were bid. My eyes were intensely fixed on the face of
the woman, whose cheeks were wet with tears. But a conversation between
the slave and his new master soon arrested my attention. I drew near
them to listen. The slave was begging his new master to purchase his
wife. Said he, 'Master, if you will only buy Fanny I know you will get
the worth of your money. She is a good cook, a good washer, and her
mistress liked her very much. If you will only buy her how happy I will
be!' The new master replied that he did not want her, _but, if she
sold cheap_, he would purchase her. I watched the countenance of the
man while the different persons were bidding on his wife. When his new
master bid you could see the smile on his countenance, and the tears
stop, but as another would, you could see the countenance change, and
the tears start afresh. * * But this suspense did not last long. The
wife was struck off to the highest bidder, who proved to be not the
owner of her husband. As soon as they became aware that they were to
be separated, they both burst into tears; and as she descended from
the auction stand, the husband walking up to her and taking her by the
hand, said, 'Well, Fanny we are to part forever on earth. You have been
a good wife to me. I did all I could to get my new master to buy you
but he did not want you. I hope you will try to meet me in heaven. I
shall try to meet you there.' The wife made no reply but her sobs and
cries told too well her own feelings." (_Narrative of William Brown._)