“The American savage of whom you speak does not astonish me;
but he frightens me, for I know beyond doubt that he is of the
horde of other French savages who have sworn immortal hate to
reason.”[61]
In harmony with these is that famous irony of Montesquieu, where,
speaking of the Africans, he says:--
“It is impossible that we should suppose these people men;
because, if we supposed them men, the world would begin to
think that we ourselves were not Christians.”[62]
Other countries might testify; but this is enough.
With such authorities, Personal and Philosophic, American and Foreign,
I need not hesitate in this ungracious task; but Truth, which is
mightier than Mason and Jefferson, than John Locke, Adam Smith, and
Samuel Johnson, than Condorcet, Voltaire, and Montesquieu, marshals
the evidence in unbroken succession.
Proceeding with the argument, broadening as we advance, we shall see
Slave-Masters (1) in the Law of Slavery, (2) in relations with Slaves,
(3) in relations with each other and with Society, and (4) in that
unconsciousness which renders them insensible to their true character.
* * * * *
(1.) As in considering the Character of Slavery, so in considering the
Character of Slave-Masters, we must begin with the _Law of Slavery_,
which, as their work, testifies against them. In the face of this
unutterable abomination, where impiety, cruelty, brutality, and robbery
all strive for mastery, it is vain to assert humanity or refinement
in its authors. Full well I know that the conscience, which speaks
so powerfully to the solitary soul, is often silent in the corporate
body, and that, in all ages and countries, numbers, when gathered in
communities and States, have sanctioned acts from which the individual
revolts. And yet I know no surer way of judging a people than by its
laws, especially where those laws have been long continued and openly
maintained.
Whatever may be the eminence of individual virtue,--and I would not
so far disparage humanity as to suppose that offences so general
where Slavery exists are universal,--it is not reasonable or logical
to infer that the body of Slave-Masters are better than the Law of
Slavery. And since the Law itself degrades the slave to be a chattel,
and submits him to irresponsible control,--with power to bind and to
scourge, to usurp the fruits of another’s labor, to pollute the body,
and to outrage all ties of family, making marriage impossible,--we
must conclude that such enormities are sanctioned by Slave-Masters;
while the refusal of testimony, and the denial of instruction, by
supplementary law, complete the evidence of complicity. And this
conclusion must stand unquestioned, just so long as the Law of Slavery
exists unrepealed. So mild and philosophical a judge as Tocqueville
says, in his authoritative work: “The legislation of the Southern
States with regard to slaves at the present day exhibits such
unparalleled atrocities as suffice to show that the laws of humanity
have been totally perverted, and to betray the desperate position of
the community in which that legislation has been promulgated.”[63]
All of which is too true. Cease, then, to blazon the humanity of
Slave-Masters. Tell me not of the lenity with which this cruel Code is
tempered to its unhappy subjects. Tell me not of the sympathy which
overflows from the mansion of the master to the cabin of the slave. In
vain you assert such “happy accidents.” In vain you show individuals
who do not exert the wickedness of the law. The Barbarism still
endures, solemnly, legislatively, judicially attested in the very SLAVE
CODE, and proclaiming constantly the character of its authors. And this
is the first article in the evidence against Slave-Masters.
* * * * *
(2.) I am next brought to _Slave-Masters in their relations with
Slaves_; and here the argument is founded on facts, and on presumptions
irresistible as facts. Only lately has inquiry burst into that gloomy
world of bondage, and disclosed its secrets. But enough is already
known to arouse the indignant condemnation of mankind. For instance,
here is a simple advertisement--one of thousands--from the _Georgia
Messenger_:--
“RUN AWAY.--My man Fountain; has holes in his ears, a scar on
the right side of his forehead; has been shot in the hind parts
of his legs; is marked on his back with the whip. Apply to
Robert Beasley, Macon, Ga.”
Holes in the ears; scar on the forehead; shot in the legs; and marks
of the lash on the back! Such are tokens by which the Slave-Master
identifies his slave.
Here is another advertisement, revealing Slave-Masters in a different
light. It is from the _National Intelligencer_, published at the
capital; and I confess the pain with which I cite such an indecency
in a journal of much respectability. Of course it appeared without
the knowledge of the editors; but it is none the less an illustrative
example.
“FOR SALE.--An accomplished and handsome lady’s-maid. She is
just sixteen years of age; was raised in a genteel family in
Maryland; and is now proposed to be sold, not for any fault,
but simply because the owner has no further use for her. A
note directed to C. D., Gadsby’s Hotel, will receive prompt
attention.”
A sated libertine, in a land where vice is legalized, could not expose
his victim with apter words.
These two instances illustrate a class.
In the recent work of Mr. Olmsted, a close observer and traveller in
the Slave States, which abounds in pictures of Slavery, drawn with
caution and evident regard to truth, is another, where a Slave-Master
thus frankly confesses his experience:--
“‘I can tell you how you can break a nigger of running away,
certain,’ said the Slave-Master. ‘There was an old fellow I
used to know in Georgia, that always cured his so. If a nigger
ran away, when he caught him, he would bind his knee over a
log, and fasten him so he couldn’t stir; then he’d take a pair
of pincers, and pull one of his toe-nails out by the roots, and
tell him, that, if he ever run away again, he would pull out
two of them, and if he run away again after that, he told him
he’d pull out four of them, and so on, doubling each time. He
never had to do it more than twice; it always cured them.’”[64]
Like this story, from the lips of a Slave-Master, is another, where the
master, angry because his slave sought to regain his God-given liberty,
deliberately cut the tendons of his heel, thus horribly maiming him for
life.
In vain these instances are denied. Their accumulating number,
authenticated in every possible manner, by the press, by a cloud of
witnesses, and by the confession of Slave-Masters, stares us constantly
in the face.
Here we are brought again to the Slave Code, under the shelter of which
these things, and worse, are done with complete impunity. Listen to
the remarkable words of Mr. Justice Ruffin, of North Carolina, who, in
a solemn decision, thus portrays, affirms, and deplores this terrible
latitude. The obedience of the slave, he says,--
“is the consequence only of _uncontrolled authority over the
body.… The power of the master must be absolute, to render
the submission of the slave perfect._ I most freely confess
my sense of the harshness of this proposition. I feel it as
deeply as any man can. And, as a principle of moral right,
every person in his retirement must repudiate it. But in the
actual condition of things it must be so. There is no remedy.
_This discipline belongs to the state of Slavery.…_ It is
inherent in the relation of master and slave.”[65]
This same license is thus expounded in a recent judicial decision of
Virginia:--
“It is the policy of the law in respect to the relation
of master and slave, and for the sake of securing proper
subordination and obedience on the part of the slave, _to
protect the master from prosecution, even if the whipping and
punishment be malicious, cruel, and excessive_.”[66]
Can Barbarism further go? Here is irresponsible power, rendered more
irresponsible still by the seclusion of the plantation, and absolutely
fortified by supplementary law excluding the testimony of slaves. That
under its shelter enormities should occur, stranger than fiction, too
terrible for imagination, and surpassing any attested experience, is
simply according to the course of Nature and the course of history.
Antiquity has illustrations which are most painful. From Ovid we learn
how the porter was chained at his master’s gate;[67] by Plautus we
are introduced to the various instruments of punishment, in fearful
catalogue;[68] and in the pages of the philosopher Seneca we are
saddened by the cruelties of which the slave was victim.[69] A later
writer, the great teacher of medicine, Galen, describes men knocking
out the teeth of slaves with the fist, falling upon them not only with
fist, but with the heels, and gouging the eyes with a pen, if at hand,
as did the Emperor Adrian on one occasion;[70] while Tacitus shows
how four hundred slaves in the house of an assassinated master were
handed over to vindictive death.[71] St. Chrysostom portrays a mistress
dragging a slave-girl by the hair, and herself applying the whip, until
the cries of her bruised victim filled the whole house and penetrated
the street.[72]
All this is ancient Barbarism, according to the evidence; but the
analogies of life show that such things must be, where Slavery
prevails. The visitation of the abbeys in England disclosed vice and
disorder in startling forms, cloaked by the irresponsible privacy of
monastic life. A similar visitation of plantations would disclose more
fearful results, cloaked by the irresponsible privacy of Slavery. Every
Slave-Master on his plantation is a Bashaw, with all the prerogatives
of a Turk. According to Hobbes, he is a “petty king.” This is true;
and every plantation is of itself a petty kingdom, with more than the
immunities of an abbey. Six thousand skulls of infants are reported
to have been taken from a single fish-pond near a nunnery, to the
dismay of Pope Gregory.[73] Under the Law of Slavery, infants, the
offspring of masters “who dream of Freedom in a slave’s embrace,” are
not thrown into a fish-pond, but something worse is done. They are
sold. This is a single glimpse only. Slavery, in its recesses, is
another Bastile, whose horrors will never be known until it shall be
razed to the ground; it is the dismal castle of Giant Despair, which,
when captured by the Pilgrims, excited their wonder, as they saw “the
dead bodies that lay here and there in the castle-yard, and how full
of dead men’s bones the dungeon was.” The recorded horrors of Slavery
are infinite, and each day, by the escape of its victims, they are
still further attested, while the door of the vast prison-house is
left ajar. But, alas! unless examples of history and lessons of
political wisdom are alike delusive, its unrecorded horrors must
assume a form of more fearful dimensions. Baffling all attempts at
description, they sink into that chapter of Sir Thomas Browne entitled
“Of some Relations whose Truth we fear,” and among kindred things
whereof, according to this eloquent philosopher, “there remains no
register but that of Hell.”
* * * * *
If this picture of the relations of Slave-Masters with their slaves
could receive any darker coloring, it would be by introducing
figures of the congenial agents through which the Barbarism is
maintained,--_the Slave-Overseer, the Slave-Breeder, and the
Slave-Hunter_, each without a peer except in the brothers, and the
whole constituting a triumvirate of Slavery, in whom its essential
brutality, vulgarity, and crime are all embodied. There is the
Slave-Overseer, with bloody lash,--fitly described, in his Life of
Patrick Henry, by Mr. Wirt, who, born in a Slave State, knew the class,
as “last and lowest, most abject, degraded, unprincipled,”[74]--and
his hands wield at will the irresponsible power, being proper successor
to “the devil,” described by the English dramatist, who appeared
“_in Virginia_, and commanded
With many stripes; for that’s his cruel custom.”[75]
There is next the Slave-Breeder, who assumes a higher character, even
entering legislative halls, where, in unconscious insensibility, he
shocks civilization by denying, like Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, any
alleged distinction between the “female slave” and the “brood mare,” by
openly asserting the necessary respite from work during the gestation
of the female slave as the ground of property in her offspring, and by
proclaiming that in this “vigintial” crop of human flesh consists much
of the wealth of his State,--while another Virginian, not yet hardened
to this debasing trade, whose annual sacrifice reaches twenty-five
thousand human souls, confesses the indignation and shame with which
he beholds his State “converted into _one grand menagerie_, where men
are reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles.” Verily the
question may be asked, Have we a Guinea among us? And, lastly, there is
the Slave-Hunter, with the bloodhound as his brutal symbol, who pursues
slaves as the hunter pursues game, and does not hesitate in the public
prints to advertise his Barbarism thus:--
“BLOODHOUNDS.--I have TWO of the FINEST DOGS for CATCHING
NEGROES in the Southwest. They can take the trail TWELVE
HOURS after the NEGRO HAS PASSED, and catch him with ease. I
live four miles southwest of Bolivar, on the road leading
from Bolivar to Whitesville. I am ready at all times to catch
runaway negroes.
“DAVID TURNER.
“March 2, 1853.”[76]
The bloodhound was known in early Scottish history; it was once
vindictively put upon the trail of Robert Bruce, and in barbarous
days, by cruel license of war, was directed against the marauders of
the Scottish border. Walter Scott makes one of his heroes “cheer the
dark blood-hound on his way”; but more than a century has passed since
the last survivor of the race was seen in Ettrick Forest.[77] The
bloodhound was employed by Spain against the natives of this continent,
and the eloquence of Chatham never touched a truer chord than when,
gathering force from the condemnation of this brutality, he poured
his thunder upon the kindred brutality of the scalping-knife, adopted
as an instrument of war by a nation professing civilization. Tardily
introduced into this Republic some time after the Missouri Compromise,
when Slavery became a political passion and Slave-Masters began to
throw aside all disguise, the bloodhound has become the representative
of our Barbarism, when engaged in the pursuit of a fellow-man
asserting his inborn title to himself; and this brute becomes typical
of the whole brutal leash of Slave-Hunters, who, whether at home on
Slave Soil, under the name of Slave-Catchers and Kidnappers, or at a
distance, under politer names, insult Human Nature by the enforcement
of this Barbarism.
* * * * *
(3.) From this dreary picture of Slave-Masters with their slaves and
their triumvirate of vulgar instruments, I pass to another more dreary
still, and more completely exposing the influence of Slavery: I mean
the _relations of Slave-Masters with each other_, also _with Society_
and _Government_,--or, in other words, the Character of Slave-Masters,
as displayed in the general relations of life. Here again I need your
indulgence. Not in triumph or in taunt do I approach this branch of the
subject. Yielding only to the irresistible exigency of the discussion,
and in direct reply to the assumptions on this floor, especially by the
Senator from Virginia [Mr. MASON], I proceed. If I touch Slavery to
the quick, and make Slave-Masters see themselves as others see them, I
shall do nothing beyond the strictest line of duty in this debate.
One of the choicest passages of the master Italian poet, Dante, is
where we are permitted to behold a passage of transcendent virtue
sculptured in “visible speech” on the long gallery leading to the
Heavenly Gate. The poet felt the inspiration of the scene, and placed
it on the wayside, where it could charm and encourage. This was
natural. Nobody can look upon virtue and justice, if only in images and
pictures, without feeling a kindred sentiment. Nobody can be surrounded
by vice and wrong, by violence and brutality, if only in images and
pictures, without coming under their degrading influence. Nobody can
live with the one without advantage; nobody can live with the other
without loss. Who could pass life in the secret chamber where are
gathered the impure relics of Pompeii, without becoming indifferent
to loathsome things? But if these loathsome things are not merely
sculptured and painted,--if they exist in living reality,--if they
enact their hideous, open indecencies, as in the criminal pretensions
of Slavery,--while the lash plays and the blood spurts,--while women
are whipped and children are sold,--while marriage is polluted and
annulled,--while the parental tie is rudely torn,--while honest gains
are filched or robbed,--while the soul itself is shut down in all the
darkness of ignorance, and God himself is defied in the pretension
that man can have property in his fellow-man,--if all these things
are “visible,” not merely in images and pictures, but in reality, the
influence on character must be incalculably deplorable.
According to irresistible law men are fashioned by what is about them,
whether climate, scenery, life, or institutions. Like produces like,
and this ancient proverb is verified always. Look at the miner, delving
low down in darkness, and the mountaineer, ranging on airy heights, and
you will see a contrast in character, and even in personal form. The
difference between a coward and a hero may be traced in the atmosphere
which each has breathed,--and how much more in the institutions under
which each is reared! If institutions generous and just ripen souls
also generous and just, then other institutions must exhibit their
influence also. Violence, brutality, injustice, barbarism, must be
reproduced in the lives of all living within their fatal sphere. The
meat eaten by man enters into and becomes part of his body; the madder
eaten by the dog changes his bones to red; and the Slavery on which men
live, in all its fivefold foulness, must become part of themselves,
discoloring the very soul, blotting the character, and breaking
forth in moral leprosy. This language is strong, but the evidence
is even stronger. Some there may be of happy natures--like honorable
Senators--who can thus feed and not be harmed. Mithridates fed on
poison, and lived. It may be that there is a moral Mithridates, who can
swallow without bane the poison of Slavery.
Instead of “ennobling” the master, nothing is clearer than that the
slave drags his master down; and this process, beginning in childhood,
is continued through life. Living much in association with his slave,
the master finds nothing to remind him of his own deficiencies, to
prompt his ambition or excite his shame. He is only a little better
than his predecessor in ancient Germany, as described by Tacitus,
who was distinguishable from his slave by none of the charms of
education, while the two burrowed among the same flocks and in the same
ground.[78] Without provocation to virtue, or elevating example, he
naturally shares the Barbarism of the society he keeps. Thus the very
inferiority which the Slave-Master attributes to the African explains
the melancholy condition of the communities in which his degradation is
declared by law.
A single false principle or vicious thought may debase a character
otherwise blameless; and this is practically true of the Slave-Master.
Accustomed to regard men as property, the sensibilities are blunted
and the moral sense is obscured. He consents to acts from which
Civilization recoils. The early Church sacrificed its property, and
even its sacred vessels, for the redemption of captives. On a memorable
occasion this was done by St. Ambrose,[79] and successive canons
confirmed the example. But in the Slave States all is reversed.
Slaves there are hawked as property of the Church[80]; and an instance
is related of a slave sold in South Carolina to buy plate for the
communion-table. Who can estimate the effect of such an example?
Surrounded by pernicious influences of all kinds, positive and
negative, the first making him do that which he ought not to do,
and the second making him leave undone that which he ought to have
done,--through childhood, youth, and manhood, even unto age,--unable,
while at home, to escape these influences, overshadowed constantly by
the portentous Barbarism about him, the Slave-Master naturally adopts
the bludgeon, the revolver, and the bowie-knife. Through these he
governs his plantation, and secretly armed with these enters the world.
These are his congenial companions. To wear these is his pride; to use
them becomes a passion, almost a necessity. Nothing contributes to
violence so much as wearing the instruments of violence, thus having
them always at hand to obey a lawless instinct. A barbarous standard
is established; the duel is not dishonorable; a contest peculiar to
our Slave-Masters, known as a “street fight,” is not shameful; and
modern imitators of Cain have a mark set upon them, not for reproach
and condemnation, but for compliment and approval. In kindred spirit,
the Count of Eisenburg, presenting to Erasmus a handsome dagger, called
it “the pen with which he used to combat saucy fellows.”[81] How weak
that dagger against the pen of Erasmus! I wish to keep within bounds;
but unanswerable facts, accumulating in fearful quantities, attest that
the social system so much vaunted by honorable Senators, which we are
now asked to sanction and extend, takes its character from this spirit,
and, with professions of Christianity on the lips, becomes Cain-like.
And this is aggravated by the prevailing ignorance in the Slave States,
where one in five of the adult white population of native birth is
unable to read and write.
“The boldest they who least partake the light,
As game-cocks in the dark are trained to fight.”
There are exceptions, which we all gladly recognize; but it is this
spirit which predominates and gives the social law. Again we see the
lordlings of France, as pictured by Camille Desmoulins, “ordinarily
very feeble in arguments, since from the cradle they are accustomed to
use their _will_ as right hand and their _reason_ as left hand.”[82]
Violence ensues. And here mark an important difference. Elsewhere
violence shows itself in _spite_ of law, whether social or statute;
in the Slave States it is _because_ of law, both social and statute.
Elsewhere it is pursued and condemned; in the Slave States it is
adopted and honored. Elsewhere it is hunted as a crime; in the Slave
States it takes its place among the honorable graces of society.
Let not these harsh statements stand on my authority. Listen to the
testimony of two Governors of Slave States in messages to their
respective Legislatures.