THE LIBERATOR
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
free and equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness."--Declaration of American Independence.
THE death of the parson was the commencement of a new era in the
history of his slaves. Only a little more than eighteen years of
age, Georgiana could not expect to carry out her own wishes in
regard to the slaves, although she was sole heir to her father's
estate. There were distant relations whose opinions she had at
least to respect. And both law and public opinion in the state
were against any measure of emancipation that she might think of
adopting; unless, perhaps, she might be permitted to send them to
Liberia. Her uncle in Connecticut had already been written to, to
come down and aid in settling up the estate. He was a Northern
man, but she knew him to be a tight-fisted yankee, whose whole
counsel would go against liberating the Negroes. Yet there was
one way in which the thing could be done. She loved Carlton, and
she well knew that he loved her; she read it in his countenance
every time they met, yet the young man did not mention his wishes
to her. There were many reasons why he should not. In the first
place, her father was just deceased, and it seemed only right
that he should wait a reasonable time. Again, Carlton was poor,
and Georgiana was possessed of a large fortune; and his high
spirit would not, for a moment, allow him to place himself in a
position to be regarded as a fortune-hunter. The young girl
hinted, as best she could, at the probable future; but all to no
purpose. He took nothing to himself. True, she had read much of
"woman's rights;" and had even attended a meeting, while at the
North, which had been called to discuss the wrongs of woman; but
she could not nerve herself up to the point of putting the
question to Carlton, although she felt sure that she should not
be rejected. She waited, but in vain. At last, one evening, she
came out of her room rather late, and was walking on the piazza
for fresh air. She passed near Carlton's room, and heard the
voice of Sam. The negro had just come in to get the young man's
boots, and had stopped, as he usually did, to have some talk. "I
wish," said Sam, "dat Marser Carlton an Miss Georgy would get
married; den, speck, we'd have good times." "I don't think your
mistress would have me," replied the young man. "What make tink
dat, Marser Carlton?" "Your mistress would marry no one, Sam,
unless she loved them." "Den I wish she would lub you, cause I tink
we have good times den. All our folks is de same 'pinion like
me," returned the Negro, and then left the room with the boots in
his hands. During the conversation between the Anglo-Saxon and
the African, one word had been dropped by the former that haunted
the young lady the remainder of the night--"Your mistress would
marry no one unless she loved them." That word awoke her in the
morning, and caused her to decide upon this import subject. Love
and duty triumphed over the woman's timid nature, and that day
Georgiana informed Carlton that she was ready to become his wife.
The young man, with grateful tears, accepted and
kissed the hand that was offered to him. The marriage of Carlton
and Miss Peck was hailed with delight by both the servants in the
house and the Negroes on the farm. New rules were immediately
announced for the working and general treatment of the slaves on
the plantation. With this, Huckelby, the overseer, saw his reign
coming to an end; and Snyder, the Dutch preacher, felt that his
services would soon be dispensed with, for nothing was more
repugnant to the feelings of Mrs. Carlton than the sermons
preached by Snyder to the slaves. She regarded them as something
intended to make them better satisfied with their condition, and
more valuable as pieces of property, without preparing them for
the world to come. Mrs. Carlton found in her husband a congenial
spirit, who entered into all her wishes and plans for bettering
the condition of their slaves. Mrs. Carlton's views and
sympathies were all in favour of immediate emancipation; but then
she saw, or thought she saw, a difficulty in that. If the slaves
were liberated, they must be sent out of the state. This, of
course, would incur additional expense; and if they left the
state, where had they better go? "Let's send them to Liberia,"
said Carlton. "Why should they go to Africa, any more than to the
Free States or to Canada?" asked the wife. "They would be in
their native land," he answered. "Is not this their native land?
What right have we, more than the Negro, to the soil here, or to
style ourselves native Americans? Indeed it is as much their home
as ours, and I have sometimes thought it was more theirs. The
Negro has cleared up the lands, built towns, and enriched the
soil with his blood and tears; and in return, he is to be sent to
a country of which he knows nothing. Who fought more bravely for
American independence than the blacks? A negro, by the
name of Attucks, was the first that fell in Boston at the
commencement of the revolutionary war; and throughout the whole
of the struggles for liberty in this country, the Negroes have
contributed their share. In the last war with Great Britain, the
country was mainly indebted to the blacks in New Orleans for the
achievement of the victory at that place; and even General
Jackson, the commander in chief, called the Negroes together at
the close of the war, and addressed them in the following
terms:--
'Soldiers!--When on the banks of the Mobile I called you to take up
arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of your white
fellow citizens, I expected much from you; for I was not ignorant
that you possess qualities most formidable to an invading enemy. I
knew with what fortitude you could endure hunger and thirst, and
all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well how you loved your
native country, and that you, as well as ourselves, had to defend
what man holds most dear--his parents, wife, children, and
property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the
previous qualities I before knew you to possess, I found among
you a noble enthusiasm, which leads to the performance of great
things.
'Soldiers! The President of the United States shall hear how
praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the
representatives of the American people will give you the praise
your exploits entitle you to. Your general anticipates them in
appauding your noble ardour.'
"And what did these noble men receive in return for their
courage, their heroism? Chains and slavery. Their good deeds have
been consecrated only in their own memories. Who rallied with
more alacrity in response to the summons of danger? If in that
hazardous hour, when our homes were menaced with the horrors of
war, we did not disdain to call upon the Negro to assist in
repelling invasion, why should we, now that the danger is past,
deny him a home in his native land?" "I see," said Carlton, "you
are right, but I fear you will have difficulty in persuading
others to adopt your views." "We will set the example," replied
she, "and then hope for the best; for I feel that the people of
the Southern States will one day see their error. Liberty has
always been our watchword, as far as profession is concerned.
Nothing has been held so cheap as our common humanity, on a
national average. If every man had his aliquot proportion of the
injustice done in this land, by law and violence, the present
freemen of the northern section would many of them commit suicide
in self-defence, and would court the liberties awarded by Ali
Pasha of Egypt to his subjects. Long ere this we should have
tested, in behalf of our bleeding and crushed American brothers
of every hue and complexion, every new constitution, custom, or
practice, by which inhumanity was supposed to be upheld, the
injustice and cruelty they contained, emblazoned before the great
tribunal of mankind for condemnation; and the good and available
power they possessed, for the relief, deliverance and elevation
of oppressed men, permitted to shine forth from under the cloud,
for the refreshment of the human race."
Although Mr. and Mrs. Carlton felt that immediate emancipation
was the right of the slave and the duty of the master, they
resolved on a system of gradual emancipation, so as to give them
time to accomplish their wish, and to prepare the Negro for
freedom. Huckelby was one morning told that his services would
no longer be required. The Negroes, ninety-eight in number, were
called together and told that the whip would no longer be used,
and that they would be allowed a certain sum for every bale of
cotton produced. Sam, whose long experience in the cotton-field
before he had been taken into the house, and whose general
intelligence justly gave him the first place amongst the Negroes
on the Poplar Farm, was placed at their head. They were also
given to understand that the money earned by them would be placed
to their credit; and when it amounted to a certain sum, they
should all be free.
The joy with which this news was received by the slaves, showed
their grateful appreciation of the boon their benefactors were
bestowing upon them. The house servants were called and told that
wages would be allowed them, and what they earned set to their
credit, and they too should be free. The next were the
bricklayers. There were eight of these, who had paid their master
two dollars per day, and boarded and clothed themselves. An
arrangement was entered into with them, by which the money they
earned should be placed to their credit; and they too should be
free, when a certain amount should be accumulated; and great was
the change amongst all these people. The bricklayers had been to
work but a short time, before their increased industry was
noticed by many. They were no longer apparently the same people.
A sedateness, a care, an economy, an industry, took possession of
them, to which there seemed to be no bounds but in their physical
strength. They were never tired of labouring, and seemed as
though they could never effect enough. They became temperate,
moral, religious, setting an example of innocent, unoffending
lives to the world around them, which was seen and admired by
all. Mr. Parker, a man who worked nearly forty slaves at the same
business, was attracted by the manner in which these Negroes
laboured. He called on Mr. Carlton, some weeks after they had
been acting on the new system, and offered 2,000 dollars for the
head workman, Jim. The offer was, of course, refused. A few days
after the same gentleman called again, and made an offer of
double the sum that he had on the former occasion. Mr. Parker,
finding that no money would purchase either of the Negroes, said,
"Now, Mr. Carlton, pray tell me what it is that makes your
Negroes work so? What kind of people are they?" "I suppose,"
observed Carlton, "that they are like other people, flesh and
blood." "Why, sir," continued Parker, "I have never seen such
people; building as they are next door to my residence, I see and
have my eye on them from morning till night. You are never there,
for I have never met you, or seen you once at the building. Why,
sir, I am an early riser, getting up before day; and do you think
that I am not awoke every morning in my life by the noise of
their trowels at work, and their singing and noise before day;
and do you suppose, sir, that they stop or leave off work at
sundown? No, sir, but they work as long as they can see to lay a
brick, and then they carry tip brick and mortar for an hour or
two afterward, to be ahead of their work the next morning. And
again, sir, do you think that they walk at their work? No, sir,
they run all day. You see, sir, those immensely long, ladders,
five stories in height; do you suppose they walk up them? No,
sir, they run up and down them like so many monkeys all day long.
I never saw such people as these in my life. I don't know what to
make of them. Were a white man with them and over them with a
whip, then I should see and understand the cause of the running
and incessant labour; but I cannot comprehend it; there is
something in it, sir. Great man, sir, that Jim; great man; I
should like to own him." Carlton here informed Parker that their
liberties depended upon their work; when the latter replied, "If
niggers can work so for the promise of freedom, they ought to be
made to work without it." This last remark was in the true spirit
of the slaveholder, and reminds us of the fact that, some years
since, the overseer of General Wade Hampton offered the
niggers under him a suit of clothes to the one that picked the
most cotton in one day; and after that time that day's work was
given as a task to the slaves on that plantation; and, after a
while, was adopted by other planters.
The Negroes on the farm, under "Marser Sam," were also working in
a manner that attracted the attention of the planters round
about. They no longer feared Huckelby's whip, and no longer slept
under the preaching of Snyder. On the Sabbath, Mr. and Mrs.
Carlton read and explained the Scriptures to them; and the very
great attention paid by the slaves showed plainly that they
appreciated the gospel when given to them in its purity. The death
of Currer, from yellow fever, was a great trial to Mrs. Carlton;
for she had not only become much attached to her, but had heard
with painful interest the story of her wrongs, and would, in all
probability, have restored her to her daughter in New Orleans.