submission to the lash of tyrants, we see plainly, my brethren, are
not the natural elements of the blacks, as the Americans try to make
us believe; but these are misfortunes which God has suffered our
fathers to be enveloped in for many ages, no doubt in consequence of
their disobedience to their Maker, and which do, indeed, reign at this
time among us, almost to the destruction of all other principles: for
I must truly say, that ignorance, the mother of treachery and deceit,
gnaws into our very vitals. Ignorance, as it now exists among us,
produces a state of things, Oh my Lord! too horrible to present to the
world. Any man who is curious to see the full force of ignorance
developed among the colored people of the United States of America,
has only to go into the southern and western states of this
confederacy, where, if he is not a tyrant, but has the feelings of a
human being, who can feel for a fellow creature, he may see enough to
make his very heart bleed! He may see there, a son take his mother,
who bore almost the pains of death to give him birth, and by the
command of a tyrant, strip her as naked as she came into the world,
and apply the cow-hide to her, until she falls a victim to death in
the road! He may see a husband take his dear wife, not unfrequently in
a pregnant state, and perhaps far advanced, and beat her for an
unmerciful wretch, until his infant falls a lifeless lump at her feet!
Can the Americans escape God Almighty? If they do, can he be to us a
God of Justice? God is just, and I know it--for he has convinced me to
my satisfaction--I cannot doubt him. My observer may see fathers
beating their sons, mothers their daughters, and children their
parents, all to pacify the passions of unrelenting tyrants. He may
also, see them telling news and lies, making mischief one upon
another. These are some of the productions of ignorance, which he will
see practised among my dear brethren, who are held in unjust slavery
and wretchedness, by avaricious and unfeeling tyrants, to whom, and
their hellish deeds, I would suffer my life to be taken before I would
submit. And when my curious observer comes to take notice of those
who are said to be free (which assertion I deny) and who are making
some frivolous pretensions to common sense, he will see that branch of
ignorance among the slaves assuming a more cunning and deceitful
course of procedure. He may see some of my brethren in league with
tyrants, selling their own brethren into _hell upon earth_, not
dissimilar to the exhibitions in Africa but in a more secret, servile
and abject manner. Oh Heaven! I am full!!! I can hardly move my pen!!!
As I expect some one will try to put me to death, to strike terror
into others, and to obliterate from their minds the notion of freedom,
so as to keep my brethren the more secured in wretchedness where they
will be permitted to stay but a short time (whether tyrants believe it
or not,) I shall give the world a development of facts which are
already witnessed in the courts of heaven. My observer may see some of
those ignorant and treacherous creatures (colored people) sneaking
about in the large cities, endeavoring to find out all strange colored
people, where they work and where they reside, asking them questions
and trying to ascertain whether they are runaways or not, telling
them, at the same time, that they always have been, are, and always
will be, friends to their brethren; and perhaps, that they themselves
are absconders, and a thousand such treacherous lies to get the better
information of the more ignorant!! There have been and are at this day
in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, coloured men, who
are in league with tyrants, and receive a great portion of their daily
bread, of the moneys which they acquire from the blood and tears of
their more miserable brethren whom they scandalously delivered into
the hands of our _natural enemies!!!!_
To show the force of degraded ignorance and deceit among us some
further, I will give here an extract from a paragraph, which may be
found in the Columbian Centinel of this city, for September 9, 1829,
on the first page of which the curious may find an article, headed
"AFFRAY AND MURDER."
_Portsmouth, (Ohio) Aug. 22, 1829._
"A most shocking outrage was committed in Kentucky, about
eight miles from this place, on the 14th inst. A negro
driver, by the name of Gordon, who had purchased in Maryland
about sixty negroes, was taking them, assisted by an
associate named Allen and the wagoner who conveyed the
baggage, to the Mississippi. The men were hand-cuffed and
chained together, in the usual manner for driving these poor
wretches, while the women and children were suffered to
proceed without incumbrance. It appears that, by means of a
file the negroes unobserved had succeeded in separating the
irons which bound their hands, in such a way as to be able
to throw them off at any moment. About 8 o'clock in the
morning, while proceeding on the state road leading from
Greenup to Vanceburg, two of them dropped their shackles and
commenced a fight, when the wagoner (Petit) rushed in with
his whip to compel them to desist. At this moment, every
negro was found to be perfectly at liberty; and one of them
seizing a club, gave Petit a violent blow on the head and
laid him dead at his feet; and Allen, who came to his
assistance, met a similar fate from the contents of a pistol
fired by another of the gang. Gordon was then attacked,
seized and held by one of the negroes, whilst another fired
twice at him with a pistol, the ball of which each time
grazed his head, but not proving effectual, he was beaten
with clubs, and left for dead They then commenced pillaging
the wagon and with an axe split open the trunk of Gordon and
rifled it of the money, about $2,490. Sixteen of the negroes
then took to the woods; Gordon, in the mean time, not being
materially injured was enabled, by the assistance of one of
the women, to mount his horse and flee; pursued, however, by
one of the gang on another horse, with a drawn pistol;
fortunately he escaped with his life, barely arriving at a
plantation, as the negro came in sight; who then turned
about and retreated.
"The neighborhood was immediately rallied, and a hot pursuit
given--which, we understand, has resulted in the capture of
the whole gang and the recovery of the greatest part of the
money.--Seven of the negro men and one woman, it is said
were engaged in the murder, and will be brought to trial at
the next court in Greenupsburg."
Here my brethren, I want you to notice particularly in the above
article, the ignorant and _deceitful actions_ of this colored woman. I
beg you to view it carefully, as for ETERNITY!!! Here a _notorious
wretch_, with two other confederates had SIXTY of them in a gang,
driving them like _brutes_--the men all in chains and hand-cuffs, and
by the help of God they got their chains and hand-cuffs thrown off and
caught two of the wretches and put them to death, and beat the other
until they thought he was dead, and left him for dead; however he
deceived them, and rising from the ground, this _servile woman_ helped
him upon his horse and he made his escape. Brethren what do you think
of this? Was it the natural _fine feelings_ of this woman, to save
such a wretch alive? I know that the blacks, take them half
enlightened and ignorant, are more humane and merciful than the most
enlightened and refined Europeans that can be found in all the earth.
Let no one say that I assert this because I am prejudiced on the side
of my color, and against the whites or Europeans. For what I write, I
do it candidly, for my God and the good of both parties: Natural
observations have taught me these things; there is a solemn awe in the
hearts of the blacks, as it respects _murdering_ men:[10] whereas the
whites (though they are great cowards) where they have the advantage,
or think that there are any prospects of getting it, they murder all
before them, in order to subject men to wretchedness and degradation
under them. This is the natural result of pride and avarice.--But I
declare, the actions of this black woman are really insupportable. For
my own part, I cannot think it was any thing but servile deceit,
combined with the most gross ignorance: for we must remember that
_humanity_, _kindness_ and the _fear of the Lord_, does not consist in
protecting _devils_. Here is a set of wretches, who had SIXTY of them
in a gang, driving them around the country like _brutes_, to dig up
gold and silver for them, (which they will get enough of yet.) Should
the lives of such creatures be spared? Is GOD and Mammon in league?
What has the Lord to do with a gang of desperate wretches, who go
_sneaking about the country like robbers_--light upon his people
wherever they can get a chance, binding them with chains and
hand-cuffs, beat and murder them as they would _rattle-snakes_? Are
they not the Lord's enemies? Ought they not to be destroyed? Any
person who will save such wretches from destruction, is fighting
against the Lord, and will receive his just recompense. The black men
acted like _blockheads_. Why did they not make sure of the wretch? He
would have made sure of them if he could. It is just the way with
black men--eight white men can frighten fifty of them; whereas, if you
can only get courage into the blacks, I do declare it, that one good
black man can put to death six white men; and I give it as a fact, let
twelve black men get well armed for battle, and they will kill and put
to flight fifty whites. The reason is, the blacks, once you get them
started, they glory in death. The whites have had us under them for
more than three centuries, murdering, and treating us like brutes;
and, as Mr. Jefferson wisely said, they have never _found us
out_--they do not know, indeed, that there is an unconquerable
disposition in the breasts of the blacks, which when it is fully
awakened and put in motion, will be subdued, only with the destruction
of the animal existence. Get the blacks started, and if you do not
have a gang of lions and tigers to deal with, I am a deceiver of the
blacks and the whites. How sixty of them could let that wretch escape
unkilled, I cannot conceive--they will have to suffer as much for the
two whom they secured, as if they had put one hundred to death: if you
commence, make sure work--do not trifle, for they will not trifle with
you--they want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us
in order to subject us to that wretched condition--therefore, if there
is an _attempt_ made by us, kill or be killed. Now, I ask you had you
not rather be killed than to be a slave to a tyrant, who takes the
life of your mother, wife, and dear little children? Look upon your
mother, wife and children, and answer God Almighty; and believe this,
that it is no more harm for you to kill a man, who is trying to kill
you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty; in
fact, the man who will stand still and let another murder him, is
worse than an infidel, and if he has common sense, ought not to be
pitied.--The actions of this deceitful and ignorant coloured woman, in
saving the life of a desperate man, whose avaricious and cruel object
was to drive her and her companions in miseries, through the country
like cattle, to make his fortune on their carcasses, are but too much
like that of thousands of our brethren in these states: if any thing
is whispered by one, which has any allusion to the melioration of
their dreadful condition, they run and tell tyrants, that they may be
enabled to keep them the longer in wretchedness and miseries. Oh!
coloured people of these United States, I ask you, in the name of that
God who made us, have we, in consequence of oppression, nearly lost
the spirit of man, and, in no very trifling degree, adopted that of
brutes? Do you answer, No?--I ask you, then, what set of men can you
point me to, in all the world, who are so abjectly employed by their
oppressors as we are by our _natural enemies_? How can, Oh! how can
those enemies but say that we and our children are not of the HUMAN
FAMILY, but were made by our creator to be an inheritance to them and
theirs forever? How can the slave-holders but say that they can bribe
the best coloured person in the country, to sell his brethren for a
trifling sum of money, and take that atrocity to confirm them in their
avaricious opinion, that we were made to be slaves to them and their
children? How could Mr. Jefferson but say,[11]
"I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the
blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct
by time and circumstances, are _inferior_ to the whites in
the endowments both of body and mind?" "It," says he, "is
not against experience to suppose, that different species of
the same genus, or varieties of the same species, may
possess different qualifications."
[Here, my brethren listen to him.]
[Hand->] "Will not a lover of natural history then, one who
views the gradations in all the races of _animals_ with the
eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep those in the
department of MAN as _distinct_ as nature has formed them?"
I hope you will try to find out the meaning of this verse--its widest
sense and all its bearings: whether you do or not, remember the whites
do. This very verse, brethren, having emanated from Mr. Jefferson, a
much greater philosopher the world never afforded, has in truth
injured us more, and has been as great a barrier to our emancipation
as any thing that has ever been advanced against us. I hope you will
not let it pass unnoticed. He goes on further, and says:
"This _unfortunate_ difference of colour, and _perhaps_ of
_faculty_, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of
these people. Many of their advocates, while they wish to
vindicate the liberty of human nature are anxious also to
preserve its _dignity_ and _beauty_. Some of these,
embarrassed by the question, 'What further is to be done
with them? join themselves in opposition with those who are
actuated by sordid avarice only."
Now I ask you candidly, my suffering brethren in time, who are
candidates for the eternal worlds, how could Mr. Jefferson but have
given the world these remarks respecting us, when we are so submissive
to them, and so much servile deceit prevails among ourselves--when we
so _meanly_ submit to their murderous lashes, to which neither the
Indians or any other people under heaven would submit? No, they could
die to a man, before they would suffer such things from men who are no
better than themselves, and _perhaps not so good_. Yes, how can our
friends but be embarrassed, as Mr. Jefferson says, by the question,
"What further is to be done with these people?" for while they are
working for our emancipation, we are, by our treachery, wickedness and
deceit, working against ourselves and our children--helping ours, and
the enemies of God, to keep us and our dear little children, in their
infernal chains of slavery!! Indeed, our friends cannot but relapse
and join themselves with those who are actuated by _sordid avarice_
only!!!!' For my part, I am glad Mr. Jefferson has advanced his
position for your sake; for you will either have to contradict or
confirm him by your own actions and not by what our friends have said
or done for us; for those things are other men's labors and do not
satisfy the Americans who are waiting for us to prove to them
ourselves that we are MEN before they will be willing to admit the
fact; for I pledge you my sacred word of honor that Mr. Jefferson's
remarks respecting us have sunk deep into the hearts of millions of
the whites and never will be removed this side of eternity. For how
can they, when we are confirming him every day by our _groveling
submissions_ and _treachery_?
I aver that when I look upon these United States and see the ignorant
deceptions and consequent wretchedness of my brethren, I am brought
oft-times solemnly to a stand, and in the midst of my reflections I
exclaim to my God, 'Lord didst thou make us to be slaves to our
brethren, the whites?' But when I reflect that God is just, and that
millions of my wretched brethren would meet death with glory--yea,
more, would plunge into the very mouths of cannons and be torn into
particles as minute as the atoms which compose the elements of the
earth, in preference to a mean submission to the lash of tyrants, I am
with streaming eyes, compelled to shrink back into nothingness before
my Maker, and exclaim again, thy will be done, O Lord God Almighty.
Men of colour, who are also of sense, for you particularly is my
appeal designed. Our more ignorant brethren are not able to penetrate
its value. I call upon you therefore to cast your eyes upon the
wretchedness of your brethren and to do your utmost to enlighten
them--_go to work and enlighten your brethren!_--let the Lord see you
doing what you can to rescue them and yourselves from degradation. Do
any of you say that you and your family are free and happy and what
have you to do with wretched slaves and other people? So can I say,
for I enjoy as much freedom as any of you, if I am not quite as well
off as the best of you. Look into our freedom and happiness and see of
what kind they are composed!! They are of the very lowest kind--they
are the very _dregs!_--they are the most servile and abject kind, that
ever a people was in possession of! If any of you wish to know how
FREE you are, let one of you start and go thro' the southern and
western States of this country, and unless you travel as a slave to a
white man (a servant is a _slave_ to the man whom he serves,) or have
your free papers (which if you are not careful they will get from you)
if they do not take you up and put you in jail, and if you cannot
give evidence of your freedom, sell you into eternal slavery, I am not
a living man; or any man of color, immaterial who he is or where he
came from, if he is not the 4th from the "_Negro race_," (as we are
called,) the white christians of America will serve him the same, they
will sink him into wretchedness & degradation forever while he lives.
And yet some of you have the hardihood to say that you are free &
happy! May God have mercy on your freedom and happiness! I met a
colored man in the street a short time since, with a string of boots
on his shoulder; we fell into conversation, and in course of which I
said to him, what a miserable set of people we are! He asked
why?--Said I, we are so subjected under the whites, that we cannot
obtain the comforts of life, but by cleaning their boots and shoes,
old clothes, waiting on them, shaving them, etc. Said he, (with the
boots on his shoulders,) "I am completely happy!!! I never want to
live any better or happier than when I can get a plenty of boots and
shoes to clean!!!" Oh! how can those who are actuated by avarice only,
but think that our creator made us to be an inheritance to them
forever, when they see that our greatest glory is centered in such
mean and low objects? Understand me, brethren, I do not mean to speak
against the occupations by which we acquire enough and sometimes
scarcely that, to render ourselves and families comfortable through
life. I am subjected to the same inconvenience, as you all. My
objections are, to our _glorying_ and being _happy_ in such low
employments; for if we are men, we ought to be thankful to the Lord
for the past, and for the future. Be looking forward with thankful
hearts to higher attainments than _wielding the razor_ and _cleaning
boots and shoes_. The man whose aspirations are not _above_, and even
_below_ these, is indeed, ignorant and wretched enough. I advance it
therefore to you, not as a _problematical_, but as an unshaken and
forever immoveable _fact_, that your full glory and happiness, as well
as all other colored people under heaven, shall never be fully
consummated, but with the _entire emancipation of your enslaved
brethren all over the world_. You may therefore, go to work and do
what you can to rescue, or join in with tyrants to oppress them and
yourselves, until the Lord shall come upon you all like a thief in the
night. For I believe it is the will of the Lord that our greatest
happiness shall consist in working for the salvation of our whole
body. When this is accomplished a burst of glory will shine upon you,
which will indeed astonish you and the world. Do any of you say this
will never be done? I assure you that God will accomplish it--if
nothing else will answer, he will hurl tyrants and devils into _atoms_
and make way for his people. But O my brethren! I say unto you again,
you must go to work and _prepare the way_ of the Lord.
There is a great work for you to do, as trifling as some of you may
think of it. You have to prove to the Americans and the world, that we
are MEN, and not _brutes_ as we have been represented, and by millions
treated. Remember, to let the aim of your labours among your brethren,
and particularly the youths, be the dissemination of education and
religion. It is lamentable, that many of our children go to school,
from four until they are eight or ten, and sometimes fifteen years of
age, and leave school knowing but a little more about the grammar of
their language than a horse does about handling a musket--and not a
few of them are really so ignorant, that they are unable to answer a
person correctly, general questions in geography, and to hear them
read would only be to disgust a man who has a taste for reading;
which, to do well, as trifling as it may appear to some, (to the
ignorant in particular) is a great part of learning. Some few of them,
may make out to scribble tolerably well, over a half sheet of paper,
which I believe has hitherto been a powerful obstacle in our way, to
keep us from acquiring knowledge. An ignorant father, who knows no
more than what nature has taught him, together with what little he
acquires by the senses of hearing and seeing, finding his son able to
write a neat hand, sets it down for granted that he has as good
learning as any body; the young, ignorant gump, hearing his father or
mother, who perhaps may be ten times more ignorant, in point of
literature, than himself, extolling his learning, struts about in the
full assurance, that his attainments in literature are sufficient to
take him through the world, when, in fact, he has scarcely any
learning at all!!!!