Such stories could not be recounted in vain. Glimpses opened into
the dread regions of Slavery gave a harrowing reality to all that
conjecture or imagination pictured. It was, indeed, true, that our
own white brethren, heirs to freedom newly purchased by precious
blood, partakers in the sovereignty of citizenship, belonging to the
fellowship of the Christian Church, were degraded to do the will of an
arbitrary taskmaster, sold as beasts of the field, galled by manacle
and driven by lash! It was true that they were held at market prices,
and that their only chance of freedom was in the earnest, energetic,
united efforts of their countrymen. It is not easy to comprehend
the exact condition to which they were reduced. There is no reason
to believe that it differed materially from that of other captives
in Algiers. Masters of vessels were lodged together, and indulged
with a table by themselves, though a small iron ring was attached
to one of their legs, to denote that they were slaves. Seamen were
taught and obliged to work at the trade of carpenter, blacksmith,
or stone-mason, from six in the morning till four in the afternoon,
without intermission, except for half an hour at dinner.[101] Doubtless
there is exaggeration in the accounts transmitted to us. It is,
however, sufficient to know that they were slaves; nor is there any
other human condition which, when barely mentioned, even without one
word of description, so strongly awakens the sympathies of every just
and enlightened lover of his race.
[101] History of the War between the United States and Tripoli, p.
52.
To secure their freedom, informal agencies were promptly established
under the direction of our minister at Paris; and the _Society of
Redemption_--whose beneficent exertions, commencing so early in modern
history, were still continued--offered their aid. Our agents were
blandly entertained by that great slave-dealer, the Dey of Algiers, who
informed them that he was familiar with the exploits of Washington,
and, never expecting to see him, expressed a hope, that, through
Congress, he might receive a full-length portrait of this hero of
freedom, to be displayed in his palace at Algiers. The Dey clung to
his American slaves, holding them at prices considered exorbitant,
being, in 1786, $6,000 for the master of a vessel, $4,000 for a mate,
$4,000 for a passenger, and $1,400 for a seaman; while the agents were
authorized to offer only $200 for each.[102] In 1790 the tariff seems
to have fallen. Meanwhile one obtained his freedom through private
means, others escaped, and others still were liberated by the great
liberator, Death. The following list, if not interesting from the names
of the captives, will at least be curious as evidence of prices at that
time in the slave-market.
[102] Lyman's Diplomacy, Vol. II. pp. 353, 354.
_Crew of the Ship Dolphin, of Philadelphia, captured July 30, 1785._
Sequins.
Richard O'Brien, master, price demanded 2,000
Andrew Montgomery, mate 1,500
Jacob Tessanier, French passenger 2,000
William Patterson, seaman (keeps a tavern) 1,500
Philip Sloan, " 725
Peleg Loring, " 725
John Robertson, " 725
James Hall, " 725
_Crew of the Schooner Maria, of Boston, captured July 25, 1785._
Isaac Stevens, master (of Concord, Mass.) 2,000
Alexander Forsythe, mate 1,500
James Cathcart, seaman (keeps a tavern) 900
George Smith, " (in the Dey's house) 725
John Gregory, " 725
James Hermit, " 725
------------
16,475
Duty on the above sum, ten per cent 1,647½
Sundry gratifications to officers of the Dey's
household 240⅓
------------
Sequins 18,362⅚
This sum being equal to $34,792.[103]
[103] History of the War between the United States and Tripoli, pp.
64, 65. Lyman's Diplomacy, Vol. II. pp. 357, 358.
In 1793 no less than one hundred and fifteen of our fellow-citizens
were groaning in Algerine slavery. Their condition excited the
fraternal feeling of the whole people, while it occupied the anxious
attention of Congress and the prayers of the clergy. A petition from
these unhappy persons, dated at Algiers, December 29, 1793, was
addressed to Congress. "Your petitioners," it says, "are at present
captives in this city of bondage, employed daily in the most laborious
work, without any respect to persons. They pray that you will take
their unfortunate situation into consideration, and adopt such measures
as will restore the American captives to their country, their friends,
families, and connections; and your most humble petitioners will ever
pray and be thankful."[104] The action of Congress was sluggish,
compared with the patriot desires throbbing through the country.
[104] Lyman's Diplomacy, Vol. II. pp. 359, 360.
Appeals of a different character were now addressed to the country
at large, and these were efficiently aided by Colonel Humphreys, the
friend and companion of Washington, who was at the time our minister
in Portugal. Taking advantage of the common passion for lotteries,
and particularly of the custom, not then condemned, of employing them
to obtain money for literary or benevolent purposes, he proposed
a grand lottery, sanctioned by the United States, or particular
lotteries sanctioned by individual States, to obtain the freedom of our
countrymen. He then asks, "Is there within the limits of these United
States an individual who will not cheerfully contribute, in proportion
to his means, to carry it into effect? By the peculiar blessings of
freedom which you enjoy, by the disinterested sacrifices you made for
its attainment, by the patriotic blood of those martyrs of liberty who
died to secure your independence, and by all the tender ties of nature,
let me conjure you once more to snatch your unfortunate countrymen from
fetters, dungeons, and death."
This appeal was followed by a petition from American captives in
Algiers, addressed to ministers of every denomination throughout the
United States, praying help. Beginning with an allusion to the day of
national thanksgiving appointed by President Washington, it asks the
clergy to set apart the Sunday preceding that day for sermons, to be
delivered simultaneously throughout the country, pleading for their
brethren in bonds.
"_Reverend and Respected_,--
"On Thursday, the 19th of February, 1795, you are enjoined by the
President of the United States of America to appear in the various
temples of that God who heareth the groaning of the prisoner, and
in mercy remembereth those who are appointed to die.
"Nor are ye to assemble alone; for on this, the high day of
continental thanksgiving, all the religious societies and
denominations throughout the Union, and all persons whomsoever
within the limits of the confederated States, are to enter the
courts of Jehovah, with their several pastors, and gratefully to
render unfeigned thanks to the Ruler of Nations for the manifold
and signal mercies which distinguish your lot as a people: in a
more particular manner, commemorating your exemption from foreign
war; being greatly thankful for the preservation of peace at home
and abroad; and fervently beseeching the kind Author of all these
blessings graciously to prolong them to you, and finally to render
the United States of America more and more an asylum for the
unfortunate of every clime under heaven.
"_Reverend and Respected_,--
"Most fervent are our daily prayers, breathed in the sincerity
of woes unspeakable, most ardent are the embittered aspirations
of our afflicted spirits, that thus it may be in deed and in
truth. Although we are prisoners in a foreign land, although we
are far, very far, from our native homes, although our harps are
hung upon the weeping-willows of Slavery, nevertheless America
is still preferred above our chiefest joy, and the last wish of
our departing souls shall be _her peace, her prosperity, her
liberty forever_. On this day, the day of festivity and gladness,
remember us, your unfortunate brethren, late members of the
family of freedom, now doomed to perpetual confinement. _Pray,
earnestly pray, that our grievous calamities may have a gracious
end. Supplicate the Father of Mercies for the most wretched of his
offspring. Beseech the God of all Consolation to comfort us by the
hope of final restoration. Implore the Jesus whom you worship to
open the house of the prison. Entreat the Christ whom you adore to
let the miserable captives go free._
* * * * *
"_Reverend and Respected_,--
"It is not your prayers alone, although of much avail, which we beg
on the bending knee of sufferance, galled by the corroding fetters
of slavery. We conjure you by the bowels of the mercies of the
Almighty, we ask you in the name of your Father in Heaven, to have
compassion on our miseries, to wipe away the crystallized tears of
despondence, to hush the heartfelt sigh of distress, _and, by every
possible exertion of godlike charity, to restore us to our wives,
to our children, to our friends, to our God and to yours_.
"Is it possible that a stimulus can be wanting? Forbid it, the
example of a dying, bleeding, crucified Saviour! Forbid it, the
precepts of a risen, ascended, glorified Immanuel! _Do unto us
in fetters, in bonds, in dungeons, in danger of the pestilence,
as ye yourselves would wish to be done unto. Lift up your voices
like a trumpet; cry aloud in the cause of humanity, benevolence,
philosophy: eloquence can never be directed to a nobler purpose;
religion never employed in a more glorious cause; charity never
meditate a more exalted flight._ Oh that a live coal from the
burning altar of celestial beneficence might warm the hearts of the
sacred order, and impassion the feelings of the attentive hearer!
"_Gentlemen of the Clergy in New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia_,--
"Your most zealous exertions, your unremitting assiduities,
are pathetically invoked. Those States in which you minister
unto the Church of God gave us birth. We are as aliens from the
commonwealth of America. We are strangers to the temples of our
God. The strong arm of infidelity hath bound us with two chains;
the iron one of slavery and the sword of death are entering our
very souls. _Arise, ye ministers of the Most High, Christians of
every denomination, awake unto charity! Let a brief, setting forth
our hapless situation, be published throughout the continent. Be
it read in every house of worship on Sunday, the 8th of February.
Command a preparatory discourse to be delivered on Sunday, the 15th
of February, in all churches whithersoever this petition or the
brief may come; and on Thursday, the 19th of February, complete
the godlike work._ It is a day which assembles a continent to
thanksgiving; it is a day which calls an empire to praise. God
grant, that this may be the day which emancipates the forlorn
captive, and may the best blessings of those who are ready to
perish be your abiding portion forever! Thus prays a small remnant
who are still alive; thus pray your fellow-citizens, chained to the
galleys of the impostor Mahomet.
"Signed for and in behalf of his fellow-sufferers by
"RICHARD O'BRIEN,
"_In the tenth year of his captivity_."[105]
[105] History of the War between the United States and Tripoli, pp.
69-71.
The cause which inspired this appeal will indispose the candid reader
to any criticism of its exuberant language. Like the drama of Cervantes
setting forth the horrors of the galleys of Algiers, it was "not drawn
from the imagination, but was born far from the regions of fiction, in
the very heart of truth."[106] Its earnest appeals were calculated to
touch the soul, and to make the very name of slavery and slave-dealer
detestable.
[106] Los Baños de Argel.