_A fruitless effort for education.--The Sabbath among
Slaves.--Degrading amusements.--Why religion is rejected.--Condition
of poor white people.--Superstition among slaves.--Education
forbidden_.
In 1833, I had some very serious religious impressions, and there was
quite a number of slaves in that neighborhood, who felt very desirous
to be taught to read the Bible. There was a Miss Davis, a poor white
girl, who offered to teach a Sabbath School for the slaves,
notwithstanding public opinion and the law was opposed to it. Books
were furnished and she commenced the school; but the news soon got to
our owners that she was teaching us to read. This caused quite an
excitement in the neighborhood. Patrols[1] were appointed to go and
break it up the next Sabbath. They were determined that we should not
have a Sabbath School in operation. For slaves this was called an
incendiary movement.
The Sabbath is not regarded by a large number of the slaves as a day
of rest. They have no schools to go to; no moral nor religious
instruction at all in many localities where there are hundreds of
slaves. Hence they resort to some kind of amusement. Those who make no
profession of religion, resort to the woods in large numbers on that
day to gamble, fight, get drunk, and break the Sabbath. This is often
encouraged by slaveholders. When they wish to have a little sport of
that kind, they go among the slaves and give them whiskey, to see them
dance, "pat juber," sing and play on the banjo. Then get them to
wrestling, fighting, jumping, running foot races, and butting each
other like sheep. This is urged on by giving them whiskey; making bets
on them; laying chips on one slave's head, and daring another to tip
it off with his hand; and if he tipped it off, it would be called an
insult, and cause a fight. Before fighting, the parties choose their
seconds to stand by them while fighting; a ring or a circle is formed
to fight in, and no one is allowed to enter the ring while they are
fighting, but their seconds, and the white gentlemen. They are not
allowed to fight a duel, nor to use weapons of any kind. The blows are
made by kicking, knocking, and butting with their heads; they grab
each other by their ears, and jam their heads together like sheep. If
they are likely to hurt each other very bad, their masters would rap
them with their walking canes, and make them stop. After fighting,
they make friends, shake hands, and take a dram together, and there is
no more of it.
But this is all principally for want of moral instruction. This is
where they have no Sabbath Schools; no one to read the Bible to them;
no one to preach the gospel who is competent to expound the
Scriptures, except slaveholders. And the slaves, with but few
exceptions, have no confidence at all in their preaching, because they
preach a pro-slavery doctrine. They say, "Servants be obedient to your
masters;--and he that knoweth his master's will and doeth it not,
shall be beaten with many stripes;--" means that God will send them to
hell, if they disobey their masters. This kind of preaching has driven
thousands into infidelity. They view themselves as suffering unjustly
under the lash, without friends, without protection of law or gospel,
and the green eyed monster tyranny staring them in the face. They know
that they are destined to die in that wretched condition, unless they
are delivered by the arm of Omnipotence. And they cannot believe or
trust in such a religion, as above named.
The poor and loafering class of whites, are about on a par in point of
morals with the slaves at the South. They are generally ignorant,
intemperate, licentious, and profane. They associate much with the
slaves; are often found gambling together on the Sabbath; encouraging
slaves to steal from their owners, and sell to them, corn, wheat,
sheep, chickens, or any thing of the kind which they can well conceal.
For such offences there is no law to reach a slave but lynch law. But
if both parties are caught in the act by a white person, the slave is
punished with the lash, while the white man is often punished with
both lynch and common law. But there is another class of poor white
people in the South, who, I think would be glad to see slavery
abolished in self defence; they despise the institution because it is
impoverishing and degrading to them and their children.
The slave holders are generally rich, aristocratic, overbearing; and
they look with utter contempt upon a poor laboring man, who earns his
bread by the "sweat of his brow," whether he be moral or immoral,
honest or dishonest. No matter whether he is white or black; if he
performs manual labor for a livelihood, he is looked upon as being
inferior to a slaveholder, and but little better off than the slave,
who toils without wages under the lash. It is true, that the
slaveholder, and non-slaveholder, are living under the same laws in
the same State. But the one is rich, the other is poor; one is
educated, the other is uneducated; one has houses, land and influence,
the other has none. This being the case, that class of the
non-slaveholders would be glad to see slavery abolished, but they dare
not speak it aloud.
There is much superstition among the slaves. Many of them believe in
what they call "conjuration," tricking, and witchcraft; and some of
them pretend to understand the art, and say that by it they can
prevent their masters from exercising their will over their slaves.
Such are often applied to by others, to give them power to prevent
their masters from flogging them. The remedy is most generally some
kind of bitter root; they are directed to chew it and spit towards
their masters when they are angry with their slaves. At other times
they prepare certain kinds of powders, to sprinkle about their masters
dwellings. This is all done for the purpose of defending themselves in
some peaceable manner, although I am satisfied that there is no virtue
at all in it. I have tried it to perfection when I was a slave at the
South. I was then a young man, full of life and vigor, and was very
fond of visiting our neighbors slaves, but had no time to visit only
Sundays, when I could get a permit to go, or after night, when I could
slip off without being seen. If it was found out, the next morning I
was called up to give an account of myself for going off without
permission; and would very often get a flogging for it.
I got myself into a scrape at a certain time, by going off in this
way, and I expected to be severely punished for it. I had a strong
notion of running off, to escape being flogged, but was advised by a
friend to go to one of those conjurers, who could prevent me from
being flogged. I went and informed him of the difficulty. He said if I
would pay him a small sum, he would prevent my being flogged. After I
had paid him, he mixed up some alum, salt and other stuff into a
powder, and said I must sprinkle it about my master, if he should
offer to strike me; this would prevent him. He also gave me some kind
of bitter root to chew, and spit towards him, which would certainly
prevent my being flogged. According to order I used his remedy, and
for some cause I was let pass without being flogged that time.
I had then great faith in conjuration and witchcraft. I was led to
believe that I could do almost as I pleased, without being flogged. So
on the next Sabbath my conjuration was fully tested by my going off,
and staying away until Monday morning, without permission. When I
returned home, my master declared that he would punish me for going
off; but I did not believe that he could do it while I had this root
and dust; and as he approached me, I commenced talking saucy to him.
But he soon convinced me that there was no virtue in them. He became
so enraged at me for saucing him, that he grasped a handful of
switches and punished me severely, in spite of all my roots and
powders.
But there was another old slave in that neighborhood, who professed to
understand all about conjuration, and I thought I would try his skill.
He told me that the first one was only a quack, and if I would only
pay him a certain amount in cash, that he would tell me how to prevent
any person from striking me. After I had paid him his charge, he told
me to go to the cow-pen after night, and get some fresh cow manure,
and mix it with red pepper and white people's hair, all to be put into
a pot over the fire, and scorched until it could be ground into snuff.
I was then to sprinkle it about my master's bed-room, in his hat and
boots, and it would prevent him from ever abusing me in any way. After
I got it all ready prepared, the smallest pinch of it scattered over a
room, was enough to make a horse sneeze from the strength of it; but
it did no good. I tried it to my satisfaction. It was my business to
make fires in my master's chamber, night and morning. Whenever I could
get a chance, I sprinkled a little of this dust about the linen of the
bed, where they would breathe it on retiring. This was to act upon
them as what is called a kind of love powder, to change their
sentiments of anger, to those of love, towards me, but this all
proved to be vain imagination. The old man had my money, and I was
treated no better for it.
One night when I went in to make a fire, I availed myself of the
opportunity of sprinkling a very heavy charge of this powder about my
master's bed. Soon after their going to bed, they began to cough and
sneeze. Being close around the house, watching and listening, to know
what the effect would be, I heard them ask each other what in the
world it could be, that made them cough and sneeze so. All the while,
I was trembling with fear, expecting every moment I should be called
and asked if I knew any thing about it. After this, for fear they
might find me out in my dangerous experiments upon them, I had to give
them up, for the time being. I was then convinced that running away
was the most effectual way by which a slave could escape cruel
punishment.
As all the instrumentalities which I as a slave, could bring to bear
upon the system, had utterly failed to palliate my sufferings, all
hope and consolation fled. I must be a slave for life, and suffer
under the lash or die. The influence which this had only tended to
make me more unhappy. I resolved that I would be free if running away
could make me so. I had heard that Canada was a land of liberty,
somewhere in the North; and every wave of trouble that rolled across
my breast, caused me to think more and more about Canada, and liberty.
But more especially after having been flogged, I have fled to the
highest hills of the forest, pressing my way to the North for refuge;
but the river Ohio was my limit. To me it was an impassable gulf. I
had no rod wherewith to smite the stream, and thereby divide the
waters. I had no Moses to go before me and lead the way from bondage
to a promised land. Yet I was in a far worse state than Egyptian
bondage; for they had houses and land; I had none; they had oxen and
sheep; I had none; they had a wise counsel, to tell them what to do,
and where to go, and even to go with them; I had none. I was
surrounded by opposition on every hand. My friends were few and far
between. I have often felt when running away as if I had scarcely a
friend on earth.
Sometimes standing on the Ohio River bluff, looking over on a free
State, and as far north as my eyes could see, I have eagerly gazed
upon the blue sky of the free North, which at times constrained me to
cry out from the depths of my soul, Oh! Canada, sweet land of
rest--Oh! when shall I get there! Oh, that I had the wings of a dove,
that I might soar away to where there is no slavery; no clanking of
chains, no captives, no lacerating of backs, no parting of husbands
and wives; and where man ceases to be the property of his fellow man.
These thoughts have revolved in my mind a thousand times. I have stood
upon the lofty banks of the river Ohio, gazing upon the splendid
steamboats, wafted with all their magnificence up and down the river,
and I thought of the fishes of the water, the fowls of the air, the
wild beasts of the forest, all appeared to be free, to go just where
they pleased, and I was an unhappy slave!
But my attention was gradually turned in a measure from this subject,
by being introduced into the society of young women. This for the time
being took my attention from running away, as waiting on the girls
appeared to be perfectly congenial to my nature. I wanted to be well
thought of by them, and would go to great lengths to gain their
affection. I had been taught by the old superstitious slaves, to
believe in conjuration, and it was hard for me to give up the notion,
for all I had been deceived by them. One of these conjurers, for a
small sum agreed to teach me to make any girl love me that I wished.
After I had paid him, he told me to get a bull frog, and take a
certain bone out of the frog, dry it, and when I got a chance I must
step up to any girl whom I wished to make love me, and scratch her
somewhere on her naked skin with this bone, and she would be certain
to love me, and would follow me in spite of herself; no matter who she
might be engaged to, nor who she might be walking with.
So I got me a bone for a certain girl, whom I knew to be under the
influence of another young man. I happened to meet her in the company
of her lover, one Sunday evening, walking out; so when I got a chance,
I fetched her a tremendous rasp across her neck with this bone, which
made her jump. But in place of making her love me, it only made her
angry with me. She felt more like running after me to retaliate on me
for thus abusing her, than she felt like loving me. After I found
there was no virtue in the bone of a frog, I thought I would try some
other way to carry out my object. I then sought another counsellor
among the old superstitious influential slaves; one who professed to
be a great friend of mine, told me to get a lock of hair from the head
of any girl, and wear it in my shoes: this would cause her to love me
above all other persons. As there was another girl whose affections I
was anxious to gain, but could not succeed, I thought, without trying
the experiment of this hair. I slipped off one night to see the girl,
and asked her for a lock of her hair; but she refused to give it.
Believing that my success depended greatly upon this bunch of hair, I
was bent on having a lock before I left that night let it cost what it
might. As it was time for me to start home in order to get any sleep
that night, I grasped hold of a lock of her hair, which caused her to
screech, but I never let go until I had pulled it out. This of course
made the girl mad with me, and I accomplished nothing but gained her
displeasure.
Such are the superstitious notions of the great masses of southern
slaves. It is given to them by tradition, and can never be erased,
while the doors of education are bolted and barred against them. But
there is a prohibition by law, of mental and religious instruction.
The state of Georgia, by an act of 1770, declared "that it shall not
be lawful for any number of free negroes, molattoes or mestinos, or
even slaves in company with white persons, to meet together for the
purpose of mental instruction, either before the rising of the sun or
after the going down of the same." 2d Brevard's Digest, 254-5. Similar
laws exist in most of the slave States, and patrols are sent out after
night and on the Sabbath day to enforce them. They go through their
respective towns to prevent slaves from meeting for religious worship
or mental instruction.
This is the regulation and law of American Slavery, as sanctioned by
the Government of the United States, and without which it could not
exist. And almost the whole moral, political, and religious power of
the nation are in favor of slavery and aggression, and against liberty
and justice. I only judge by their actions, which speak louder than
words. Slaveholders are put into the highest offices in the gift of
the people in both Church and State, thereby making slaveholding
popular and reputable.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Police peculiar to the South.