gentlemanly honor and dignity which he has left, prevents him from
exercising the full bent of his inclinations, and inflicting upon me
the full penalty of the violated law. It is a pity he remembered that
I was of the weaker sex, and I feel that I have no thanks to offer him
for his proposed lenity, for, under the circumstances of the case, an
imprisonment for six months would have been no severer than the one
for thirty days. He admits that the jury had the power to regulate
the amount of the fine, but claims that it was his prerogative to
name the term of my imprisonment. The jury, it will be seen, made the
fine merely nominal, thus attesting in the most emphatic manner their
appreciation of the merits of the case. There was not a man on that
jury who was not fully as capable of judging of right and wrong, as was
he who occupied the bench. And yet he, this one man, had the hardihood
to set his judgment over theirs, and virtually insult the whole twelve,
by inflicting a punishment so severe that it was no charity to me not
to have exercised his power to the fullest extent. He admits that I
was of fair and respectable standing in the community, and knew from
the evidence, as well as from his own knowledge, that I had abundant
precedents for what I had done, and that, knowing the law, I had no
intention of again violating it; also, that the feeling of the entire
community was in my favor, and yet he wantonly, needlessly, and
inhumanly exercised the authority with which he was clothed, in order
to make an example of me, when I, by my forbearance, had refused to
place scores of respectable ladies and gentlemen of Norfolk, and some
of them members of his own family, in the unpleasant position which I
then occupied. He even twitted me because I had not deemed it proper to
employ counsel to defend me, intimating that my case would have been
presented in a more favorable light to the Court and jury thereby.
This shows the very blackness of his malice, for the jury did all they
could, and I do not entertain the least feeling of anger towards one of
them. They could not do otherwise than find me guilty of a violation
of the law, as it stood, but they did all in their power to render its
penalty nominal, by imposing upon me the lowest fine it recognized. It
was the Judge himself who insulted the jury by virtually telling them
their judgment was erroneous, and then he turns to me and says my case
might have been more favorably presented if I had employed counsel!
The conclusion is obvious, that he was actuated, not by a desire
to uphold the law and administer justice, but by some motive alike
discreditable to him as a Judge and a man. With this conclusion, I
leave him to settle with his own conscience. I have no disposition to
call him hard names. He has done me all the injury he could, and though
I may forgive him, I am satisfied that he never can forgive himself, or
escape from the doom to which he has already been sentenced by every
sensible and right thinking person in the community. Honorable Richard
H. Baker, Judge of the Circuit Court of the City of Norfolk, I bid you
an affectionate farewell.
I will here give to my readers a verbatim copy of the law under which
I was prosecuted and convicted. It is copied from the code of Virginia,
passed by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the
month of August, 1849, and will be found on page 747, chapter 198. It
reads as follows:--
“Section 31. Every assemblage of negroes for the purpose of religious
worship, when such worship is conducted by a negro, and every
assemblage of negroes for the purpose of instruction in reading or
writing, or in the night-time for any purpose, shall be an unlawful
assembly: any Justice may issue his warrant to any officer, or other
person, requiring him to enter any place where such assemblage may be,
and seize any negro therein; and he, or any other Justice, may order
such negro to be punished with stripes.
“Sec. 32. If a white person assemble with negroes for the purpose of
instructing them to read or write, or if _he_ associate with them in
an unlawful assembly, _he_ shall be confined in jail not exceeding six
months, and fined not exceeding one hundred dollars; and any Justice
may require _him_ to enter into a recognizance, with sufficient
security, to appear before the Circuit, County, or Corporation Court,
where the offence was committed, at its next term, to answer therefor;
and in the meantime, to keep the peace and be of good behavior.”
It will be seen from this, that in the enlightened State of Virginia,
it is a crime for one portion of human beings to worship their Maker!
Comment is unnecessary. Those men, whose moral sense was so blunted,
so destroyed, that they could pass such a law as that, could not be
expected to find much difficulty in enacting one subjecting to fine and
imprisonment any one who taught negro children their letters. The old
law, for which this is a substitute, was exceedingly explicit in this
respect, but had become a dead letter. The new one is very loose in its
language. It will be seen that the expressions “he” and “him” are used,
allowing the Judge and jury the opportunity of a strict construction
of the law, in case a lady should be concerned. Since my trial and
conviction, I have been advised by one of the most eminent counsel in
Virginia, that the Norfolk Court exceeded its powers, and violated the
law by not construing the act literally in my case. It is possible that
I may yet hold all the parties concerned responsible for their unlawful
course. At any rate, it utterly demolishes the nice theory of Judge
Baker, that he was bound to sustain the law, and leaves him without an
excuse for his unnecessary severity towards me.
I now approach a subject vitally connected with the interests of the
South and the welfare of humanity. In doing so, I have no rancor or
malice to serve, but boldly speak my mind, and tell my Southern sisters
a truth which, however they may have learned it by sad experience, has
probably never been thus presented to them before. _In this truth is
to be found the grand secret of the opposition to the instruction of
the colored race._ It therefore becomes important in connection with my
narrative. In this truth also lies the grand secret of the discontent
and rebellion among the slaves. Knowing this, it is easy to perceive
why such strenuous efforts are made to keep the colored population in
darkness and ignorance. As it is, nature herself often rebels against
what instinct teaches even the most degraded negro to be inhuman and
devilish, and if to this were added the light of intelligence afforded
by even the commonest instruction, wo to the darling system of this
offspring of the institution of slavery. This subject demands the
attention, not only of the religious population, but of statesmen and
law-makers. It is the one great evil hanging over the Southern slave
States, destroying domestic happiness and the peace of thousands. It
is summed up in the single word--_amalgamation_. This, and this only,
causes the vast extent of ignorance, degradation, and crime that lies
like a black cloud over the whole South. And the practice is more
general than even Southerners are willing to allow. While even the
Northern libertine usually revolts from the intimate society of those
in whose veins courses a drop of black blood, the Southern _gentleman_
takes them to his very bosom and revels in their fancied charms, until
satiety disgusts him, when he deliberately sells them into lower
degradation as he would a disabled horse.
It is impossible to deny that this unnatural custom prevails to a
fearful extent throughout the South. The testimony is of too positive
and personal a character to be overcome. Neither is it to be found only
in the lower order of the white population. It pervades the entire
society. Its followers are to be found among all ranks, occupations,
and professions. The white mothers and daughters of the South have
suffered under it for years--have seen their dearest affections
trampled upon--their hopes of domestic happiness destroyed, and their
future lives embittered even to agony, by those who should be all in
all to them as husband, sons and brothers. I cannot use too strong
language in reference to this subject, for I know that it will meet
with a heartfelt response from every Southern woman. I would deal
delicately with them if I could, but they know the fact, and their
hearts bleed under its knowledge, however they may have attempted to
conceal their discoveries. Southern wives know that their husbands come
to them reeking with pollution from the arms of their tawny mistresses.
Father and son seek the same sources of excitement, and alike gratify
their inhuman propensities, scarcely blushing when detected, and
recklessly defying every command of God and every tie of morality and
human affection. They have not even the paltry excuse that ordinary
liberties sometimes make, that their love is real, though illicit--the
whole practice is plainly, unequivocally, shamelessly _beastly_. Is
there any wonder then that people addicted to these habits are rapidly
returning to a state of semi-barbarism?
Is it to be supposed that the ordinary teachings of nature do not tell
the sable sons and daughters of the South that this custom is inhuman
and ungodly? Is not chastity a natural instinct, even among the worst
savage nations of the earth? Will not the natural impulses rebel
against what becomes with them a matter of force? The female slave,
however fair she may have become, by the various comminglings of her
progenitors, or whatever her mental and moral acquirements, knows that
she is a slave, and as such, powerless beneath the whims or fancies of
her master. If he casts upon her a desiring eye, she knows that she
_must_ submit. There is no way of escape, and her only thought is, that
the more gracefully she yields the stronger and longer hold she may,
perchance, retain upon the brutal appetite of her master. Still, she
_feels_ her degradation, and so do others with whom she is connected.
She has parents, brothers and sisters, a lover perhaps, all of whom
suffer through and with her, and in whose hearts spring up roots of
bitterness which are destined to grow into trees whose branches will
sooner or later overshadow the whole land.
How important, then, for these Southern sultans, that the objects
of their criminal passions should be kept in utter ignorance and
degradation. They must not read the Bible because that teaches them of
the sin of their masters. They must not worship God, for the effect
thereof would be to imbue them with a deeper horror of this great
wickedness. They must not learn to read and write, for every mental and
moral improvement only tends to bring out and improve those feelings
and emotions that already repel this gross system of sensuality
and licentiousness. Were the negroes instructed in their duties to
themselves and to each other, their obligations to their masters and
their God, and were these instructions exemplified by the consistent
lives of their masters, with the natural religious tendencies of the
negro race, the South would become the very garden of the Lord. Instead
of becoming discontented and rebellious, the very reverse would be
the case. There would be no fear of insurrections, for there would
be no inducement. But when a man, black though he be, knows that, at
any moment, he is compelled to hand over his wife, his sister, or his
daughter, to the loathsome embraces of the man whose chains he wears,
how can it be expected that he will submit without the feelings of
hatred and revenge taking possession of his heart?
I have no desire to pursue this subject farther, at present. I give
it, as the _cause_ of the discontent and rebellion among the Southern
slaves, and also as the _cause_ of the creation of that disgraceful
law, which now stands like a great black blot on the code of Virginia,
and under whose unjust application I have been made to suffer. The
subject is one that will not be suffered to rest, for I know my
Southern sisters well enough to believe that they will not much longer
rest tamely under the influences of this damning curse. I have told
them plainly of the _evil_--the _remedy_ is in their own hands.
Transcriber’s Notes
Page 6: “and, and, as she grew older,” changed to “and, as she grew
older,”
Page 8: “and that that they were” changed to “and that they were”
Page 11: “promtly visited them” changed to “promptly visited them”
Page 45: “in our commmunity” changed to “in our community”
Page 47: “both by precept an example” changed to “both by precept and
example”
Page 62: “the act literaly” changed to “the act literally”