During the autumn of 1836, a slaveholder by the name of Bacon Tate,
from the State of Tennessee, came to the north in search of fugitives
from slavery. On his arrival at Buffalo he heard of two of the most
valuable of the slaves that he was in pursuit of. They were residing in
St. Catharine’s, in Upper Canada, some twenty-five miles from Buffalo.
After hearing that they were in Canada, one would have supposed that
Tate would have given up all hope of getting them. But not so. Bacon
Tate was a man who had long been engaged in the slave-trade, and
previous to that had been employed as a negro-driver. In these
two situations he had gained the name of being the most complete
“negro-breaker” in that part of Tennessee where he resided. He was as
unfeeling and as devoid of principle as a man could possibly be. This
made him the person, above all others, to be selected to be put on the
track of the fugitive slave. He had not only been commissioned to catch
Stanford and his wife, the two valuable slaves already alluded to, but
he had the names of some twenty others.
Many slaves had made their escape from the vicinity of Nashville, and
the slaveholders were anxious to have some caught, that they might make
an example of them. And Tate, anxious to sustain his high reputation
as a negro-catcher, left no stone unturned to carry out his nefarious
objects.
Stanford and his little family were as happily situated as fugitives
can be, who make their escape to Canada in the cold season of the year.
Tate, on his arrival at Buffalo, took lodgings at the Eagle Tavern, the
best house at that time in the city. And here he began to lay his
plans to catch and carry back into slavery those men and women who had
undergone so much to get their freedom. He soon became acquainted with a
profligate colored woman, who was a servant in the hotel, and who was as
unprincipled as himself! This woman was sent to St. Catharine’s, to spy
out the situation of Stanford’s family. Under the pretence of wishing to
get board in the family, and at the same time offering to pay a week’s
board in advance, she was taken in. After remaining with them three or
four days, the spy returned to Buffalo, and informed Tate how they were
situated. By the liberal use of money, Tate soon found those who were
willing to do his bidding. A carriage was hired, and four men employed
to go with it to St. Catharine’s, and to secure their victims during the
night.
The carriage, with the kidnappers, crossed the Niagara river at Black
Rock, on Saturday evening, about seven o’clock, and went on its way
towards St. Catharine’s; no one suspecting in the least that they were
after fugitive slaves. About twelve o’clock that night they attacked
Stanford’s dwelling by breaking in the door. They found the family
asleep, and of course met with no obstacle whatever in tying, gagging,
and forcing them into the carriage.
The family had one child about six weeks old That was kept at its
mother’s breast, to keep it quiet. The carriage re-crossed the river, at
the same place, the next morning at sunrise, and proceeded to Buffalo,
where it remained a short time, and after changing horses and leaving
some of its company, it proceeded on its journey. The carriage being
closely covered, no one had made the least discovery as to its contents.
But some time during the morning, a man, who was neighbor to Stanford,
and who resided but a short distance from him, came on an errand; and
finding the house deserted, and seeing the most of the family’s clothes
lying on the floor, and seeing here and there stains of blood, soon gave
the alarm, and the neighbors started in every direction, to see if they
could find the kidnappers. One man got on the track of the carriage,
and followed it to the ferry at Black Rock, where he heard that it had
crossed some three hours before. He went on to Buffalo, and gave the
alarm to the colored people of that place. The colored people of Buffalo
are noted for their promptness in giving aid to the fugitive slave.
The alarm was given just as the bells were ringing for church. I was in
company with five or six others, when I heard that a brother slave with
his family had been seized and dragged from his home during the night
previous. We started on a run for the livery-stable, where we found as
many more of our own color trying to hire horses to go in search of the
fugitives. There were two roads which the kidnappers could take, and
we were at some loss to know which to take ourselves. But we soon
determined to be on the right track, and so divided our company,--one
half taking the road to Erie, the other taking the road leading to
Hamburgh. I was among those who took the latter.
We travelled on at a rapid rate, until we came within half a mile of
Hamburgh Corners, when we met a man on the side of the road on foot, who
made signs to us to stop. We halted for a moment, when he informed us
that the carriage that we were in pursuit of was at the public house,
and that he was then in search of some of his neighbors, to assemble
and to demand of the kidnappers the authority by which they were taking
these people into slavery.
We proceeded to the tavern, where we found the carriage standing in
front of the door, with a pair of fresh horses ready to proceed on their
journey. The kidnappers, seeing us coming, took their victims into
a room, and locked the door and fastened down the windows. We all
dismounted, fastened our horses, and entered the house. We found four or
five persons in the bar-room, who seemed to rejoice as we entered.
One of our company demanded the opening of the door, while others went
out and surrounded the house. The kidnappers stationed one of their
number at the door, and another at the window. They refused to let us
enter the room, and the tavern-keeper, who was more favorable to us than
we had anticipated, said to us, “Boys, get into the room in any way
that you can; the house is mine, and I give you the liberty to break in
through the door or window.” This was all that we wanted, and we were
soon making preparations to enter the room at all hazards. Those within
had warned us that if we should attempt to enter they would “shoot the
first one.” One of our company, who had obtained a crow-bar, went to the
window, and succeeded in getting it under the sash, and soon we had
the window up, and the kidnappers, together with their victims, in full
view.
One of the kidnappers, while we were raising the window, kept crying
at the top of his voice, “I’ll shoot, I’ll shoot!” but no one seemed
to mind him. As soon as they saw that we were determined to rescue the
slaves at all hazards, they gave up, one of their number telling us that
we might “come in.”
The door was thrown open, and we entered, and there found Stanford
seated in one corner of the room, with his hands tied behind him, and
his clothing, what little he had on, much stained with blood. Near him
was his wife, with her child, but a few weeks old, in her arms. Neither
of them had anything on except their night-clothes. They had both been
gagged, to keep them from alarming the people, and had been much beaten
and bruised when first attacked by the kidnappers. Their countenances
lighted up the moment we entered the room.
The most of those who made up our company were persons who had made
their escape from slavery, and who knew its horrors from personal
experience, and who had left near and dear relatives behind them. And we
knew how to “feel for those in bonds as bound with them.”
The woman who had betrayed them, and who was in the house at the
time they were taken, had been persuaded by Tate to go on with him to
Tennessee. She had accompanied them from Canada, and we found her in the
same room with Stanford and his wife. As soon as she found that we were
about to enter the room, she ran under the bed.
We knew nothing of her being in the room until Stanford pointed to the
bed and said, “Under there is our betrayer.” She was soon hauled out,
and it was as much as some of us could do to keep the others from
lynching her upon the spot. The curses came thick and fast from a
majority of the company. But nothing attracted my attention at the time
more than the look of Mrs. Stanford at the betrayer, as she sat before
her. She did not say a word to her, but her countenance told the
feelings of her inmost soul, and we could but think, that had she spoken
to her, she would have said, “May the world deny thee a shelter! earth a
home! the dust a grave! the sun his light! and Heaven her God!”
The betrayer begged us to let her go. I was somewhat disposed to comply
with her request, but I found many to oppose me; in fact, I was entirely
alone. My main reason for wishing to let her escape was that I was
afraid that her life would be in danger. I knew that, if she was taken
back to Buffalo or Canada, she would fall into the hands of an excited
people, the most of whom had themselves been slaves. And they, being
comparatively ignorant of the laws, would be likely to take the law into
their own hands.
However, the woman was not allowed to escape, but was put into the
coach, together with Stanford and his wife; and after an hour and a
half’s drive, we found ourselves in the city of Buffalo. The excitement
which the alarm had created in the morning had broken up the meetings of
the colored people for that day; and on our arrival in the city we were
met by some forty or fifty colored persons. The kidnappers had not been
inactive; for, on our arrival in the city, we learned that the man who
had charge of the carriage and fugitives when we caught up with them,
returned to the city immediately after giving the slaves up to us, and
had informed Tate, who had remained behind, of what had occurred. Tate
immediately employed the sheriff and his posse to re-take the slaves.
So, on our arrival in Buffalo, we found that the main battle had yet
to be fought. Stanford and his wife and child were soon provided with
clothing and some refreshment, while we were preparing ourselves with
clubs, pistols, knives, and other weapons of defence. News soon come to
us that the sheriff, with his under officers, together with some sixty
or seventy men who were at work on the canal, were on the road between
Buffalo and Black Rock, and that they intended to re-take the slaves
when we should attempt to take them to the ferry to convey them to
Canada. This news was anything but pleasant to us, but we prepared for
the worst.
We returned to the city about two o’clock in the afternoon, and about
four we started for Black Rock ferry, which is about three miles below
Buffalo. We had in our company some fifty or more able-bodied, resolute
men, who were determined to stand by the slaves, and who had resolved,
before they left the city, that if the sheriff and his men took the
slaves, they should first pass over their dead bodies.
We started, and when about a mile below the city, the sheriff and his
men came upon us, and surrounded us. The slaves were in a carriage, and
the horses were soon stopped, and we found it advisable to take them
out of the carriage, and we did so. The sheriff came forward, and read
something purporting to be a “Riot Act,” and at the same time called
upon all good citizens to aid him in keeping the “peace.” This was a
trick of his, to get possession of the slaves. His men rushed upon us
with their clubs and stones, and a general fight ensued. Our company had
surrounded the slaves, and had succeeded in keeping the sheriff and his
men off. We fought, and at the same time kept pushing on towards the
ferry.
In the midst of the fight, a little white man made his appearance among
us, and proved to be a valuable friend. His name was Pepper; and he
proved himself a _pepper_ to the sheriff and his posse that day. He was
a lawyer; and as the officers would arrest any of our company, he would
step up and ask the officer if he had a warrant to take that man and as
none of them had warrants, and could not answer affirmatively, he would
say to the colored man, “He has no right to take you; knock him down.”
The command was no sooner given than the man would fall. If the one who
had been arrested was not able to knock him down, some who were close
by, and who were armed with a club or other weapon, would come to his
assistance.
After it became generally known in our company that the “little man” was
a lawyer, he had a tremendous influence with them. You could hear them
cry out occasionally, “That’s right, knock him down; the little man told
you to do it, and he is a lawyer; he knows all about the law; that’s
right,--hit him again! he is a white man, and he has done our color
enough.”
Such is but a poor representation of what was said by those who were
engaged in the fight. After a hard-fought battle; of nearly two hours,
we arrived at the ferry, the slaves still in our possession. On arriving
at the ferry, we found that some of the sheriff’s gang had taken
possession of the ferry-boat. Here another battle was to be fought,
before the slaves could reach Canada. The boat was fastened at each end
by a chain, and in the scuffle for the ascendency, one party took charge
of one end of the boat, while the other took the other end. The blacks
were commanding the ferry man to carry them over, while the whites were
commanding him not to. While each party was contending for power, the
slaves were pushed on board, and the boat shoved from the wharf. Many
of the blacks jumped on board of the boat, while the whites jumped on
shore. And the swift current of the Niagara soon carried them off, amid
the shouts of the blacks, and the oaths and imprecations of the
whites. We on shore swung our hats and gave three cheers, just as a
reinforcement came to the whites. Seeing the odds entirely against us
in numbers, and having gained the great victory, we gave up without
resistance, and suffered ourselves to be arrested by the sheriff’s
posse. However, we all remained on the shore until the ferry-boat had
landed on the Canada side. As the boat landed, Stanford leaped on shore,
and rolled over in the sand, and even rubbed it into his hair.
I did not accompany the boat over, but those who did informed us that
Mrs. Stanford, as she stepped on the shore, with her child in her arms,
exclaimed, “I thank God that I am again in Canada!” We returned to the
city, and some forty of our company were lodged in jail, to await their
trial the next morning.
And now I will return to the betrayer. On our return to Buffalo, she
was given over to a committee of women, who put her in a room, and put
a guard over her. Tate, who had been very active from the time that he
heard that we had recaptured the carriage with the slaves, was still
in the city. He was not with the slaves when we caught up with them at
Hamburgh, nor was he to be found in the fight. He sent his hirelings,
while he remained at the hotel drinking champagne. As soon as he found
the slaves were out of his reach, he then made an offer of fifty dollars
to any person who would find the betrayer. He pretended that he wished
to save, her from the indignation of the colored people. But the fact
is, he had promised her that if she would accompany him to the south,
that he would put her in a situation where she would be a lady. Poor
woman! She was foolish enough to believe him; and now that the people
had lost all sympathy for her, on account of her traitorous act, he
still thought that, by pretending to be her friend, he could induce her
to go to the south, that he might sell her. But those who had her in
charge were determined that she should be punished for being engaged in
this villanous transaction.
Several meetings were held to determine what should be done with
her. Some were in favor of hanging her, others for burning her, but a
majority were for taking her to the Niagara river, tying a fifty-six
pound weight to her, and throwing her in. There seemed to be no way in
which she could be reached by the civil law. She was kept in confinement
three days, being removed to different places each night.
So conflicting were the views of those who had her in charge, that
they could not decide upon what should be done with her. However, there
seemed to be such a vast majority in favor of throwing her into the
Niagara river, that some of us, who were opposed to taking life,
succeeded in having her given over to another committee, who, after
reprimanding her, let her go.
Tate, in the mean time, hearing that the colored people had resolved to
take vengeance on him, thought it best to leave the city. On Monday, at
ten o’clock, we were all carried before Justice Grosvenor; and of the
forty who had been committed the evening before, twenty-five were held
to bail to answer to a higher court. When the trials came on, we were
fined more or less, from five to fifty dollars each.
During the fight no one was killed, though there were many broken noses
and black eyes; one young man, who was attached to a theatrical corps,
was so badly injured in the conflict that he died some three months
after.
Thus ended one of the most fearful fights for human freedom that I ever
witnessed. The reader will observe that this conflict took place on the
Sabbath, and that those who were foremost in getting it up were officers
of justice. The plea of the sheriff and his posse was, that we were
breaking the Sabbath by assembling in such large numbers to protect
a brother slave and his wife and child from being dragged back into
slavery which is far worse than death itself.
THE AMERICAN SLAVE-TRADE.
From the Liberty Bell of 1848.
By William Wells Brown.
Of the many features which American slavery presents, the most cruel
is that of the slave-trade. A traffic in the bodies and souls of
native-born Americans is carried on in the slave-holding states to
an extent little dreamed of by the great mass of the people in the
non-slave-holding states. The precise number of slaves carried from the
slave-raising to the slave-consuming states we have no means of knowing.
But it must be very great, as forty thousand were sold and carried out
of the State of Virginia in one single year!
This heart-rending and cruel traffic is not confined to any particular
class of persons. No person forfeits his or her character or standing
in society by being engaged in raising and selling slaves to supply the
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations of the south. Few persons who have
visited the slave states have not, on their return, told of the gangs
of slaves they had seen on their way to the southern market. This trade
presents some of the most revolting and atrocious scenes which can
be imagined. Slave-prisons, slave-auctions, handcuffs, whips, chains,
bloodhounds, and other instruments of cruelty, are part of the furniture
which belongs to the American slave-trade. It is enough to make humanity
bleed at every pore, to see these implements of torture.
Known to God only is the amount of human agony and suffering which sends
its cry from these slave-prisons, unheard or unheeded by man, up to His
ear; mothers weeping for their children--breaking the night-silence
with the shrieks of their breaking hearts. We wish no human being to
experience emotions of needless pain, but we do wish that every man,
woman, and child in New England, could visit a southern slave-prison and
auction-stand.
I shall never forget a scene which took place in the city of St. Louis,
while I was 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 attracted 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 last mistress liked her very much. If you will
only buy her how happy I shall be.” The new master replied that he did
not want her but if she sold cheap he would purchase her. He watched the
countenance of the man while the different persons were bidding on his
wife. When his new master bid on his wife you could see the smile upon
his countenance, and the tears stop; but as soon as another would bid,
you could see the countenance change and the tears start afresh.
From this change of countenance one could see the workings of the inmost
soul. But this suspense did not last long; the wife was struck off to
the highest bidder, who proved not to be 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 that I could to get my new master to buy you; but he did
not want you, and all I have to say is, 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. I saw the
countenances of a number of whites who were present, and whose eyes were
dim with tears at hearing the man bid his wife farewell.
Such are but common occurrences in the slave states. At these
auction-stands, bones, muscles, sinews, blood and nerves, of human
beings, are sold with as much indifference as a farmer in the north
sells a horse or sheep. And this great American nation is, at the
present time, engaged in the slave-trade. I have before me now the
Washington “_Union_,” the organ of the government, in which I find
an advertisement of several slaves to be sold for the benefit of the
government. They will, in all human probability, find homes among the
rice-swamps of Georgia, or the cane-brakes of Mississippi.
With every disposition on the part of those who are engaged in it to
veil the truth, certain facts have, from time to time, transpired,
sufficient to show, if not the full amount of the evil, at least that it
is one of prodigious magnitude. And what is more to be wondered at, is
the fact that the greatest slave-market is to be found at the capital of
the country! The American slave-trader marches by the capitol with his
“coffle-gang,”--the stars and stripes waving over their heads, and the
constitution of the United States in his pocket!
The Alexandria Gazette, speaking of the slave-trade at the capital,
says, “Here you may behold fathers and brothers leaving behind them the
dearest objects of affection, and moving slowly along in the mute agony
of despair; there, the young mother, sobbing over the infant whose
innocent smile seems but to increase her misery. From some you will hear
the burst of bitter lamentation, while from others, the loud hysteric
laugh breaks forth, denoting still deeper agony. Such is but a faint
picture of the American slave-trade which is carried on in the
United States: yet there are those who are willing to fellowship the
slaveholder as a Christian, when they should know that whatever in
its proper tendency and general effect destroys, abridges, or renders
insecure human welfare, is opposed to the spirit and genius of
Christianity, and should be immediately abandoned.