_Comments on S. Gatewood's letter about slaves stealing.--Their
conduct vindicated.--Comments on W. Gatewood's letter._
But it seems that I am not now beyond the reach of the foul slander of
slaveholders. They are not satisfied with selling and banishing me
from my native State. As soon as they got news of my being in the free
North, exposing their peculiar Institution, a libelous letter was
written by Silas Gatewood of Kentucky, a son of one of my former
owners, to a Northern Committee, for publication, which he thought
would destroy my influence and character. This letter will be found in
the introduction.
He has charged me with the awful crime of taking from my keeper and
oppressor, some of the fruits of my own labor for the benefit of
myself and family.
But while writing this letter he seems to have overlooked the
disgraceful fact that he was guilty himself of what would here be
regarded highway robbery, in his conduct to me as narrated on page 60
of this narrative.
A word in reply to Silas Gatewood's letter. I am willing to admit all
that is true, but shall deny that which is so basely false. In the
first place, he puts words in my mouth that I never used. He says that
I represented that "my mother belonged to James Bibb." I deny ever
having said so in private or public. He says that I stated that Bibb's
daughter married a Sibley. I deny it. He also says that the first time
that I left Kentucky for my liberty, I was gone about two years,
before I went back to rescue my family. I deny it. I was gone from
Dec. 25th, 1837, to May, or June, 1838. He says that I went back the
second time for the purpose of taking off my family, and eight or ten
more slaves to Canada. This I will not pretend to deny. He says I was
guilty of disposing of articles from the farm for my own use, and
pocketing the money, and that his father caught me stealing a sack
full of wheat. I admit the fact. I acknowledge the wheat.
And who had a better right to eat of the fruits of my own hard
earnings than myself? Many a long summer's day have I toiled with my
wife and other slaves, cultivating his father's fields, and gathering
in his harvest, under the scorching rays of the sun, without half
enough to eat, or clothes to wear, and at the same time his meat-house
was filled with bacon and bread stuff; his dairy with butter and
cheese; his barn with grain, husbanded by the unrequited toil of the
slaves. And yet if a slave presumed to take a little from the
abundance which he had made by his own sweat and toil, to supply the
demands of nature, to quiet the craving appetite which is sometimes
almost irresistible, it is called stealing by slaveholders.
But I did not regard it as stealing then, I do not regard it as such
now. I hold that a slave has a moral right to eat drink and wear all
that he needs, and that it would be a sin on his part to suffer and
starve in a country where there is a plenty to eat and wear within his
reach. I consider that I had a just right to what I took, because it
was the labor of my own hands. Should I take from a neighbor as a
freeman, in a free country, I should consider myself guilty of doing
wrong before God and man. But was I the slave of Wm. Gatewood to-day,
or any other slaveholder, working without wages, and suffering with
hunger or for clothing, I should not stop to inquire whether my master
would approve of my helping myself to what I needed to eat or wear.
For while the slave is regarded as property, how can he steal from his
master? It is contrary to the very nature of the relation existing
between master and slave, from the fact that there is no law to punish
a slave for theft, but lynch law; and the way they avoid that is to
hide well. For illustration, a slave from the State of Virginia, for
cruel treatment left the State between daylight and dark, being borne
off by one of his master's finest horses, and finally landed in
Canada, where the British laws recognise no such thing as property in
a human being. He was pursued by his owners, who expected to take
advantage of the British law by claiming him as a fugitive from
justice, and as such he was arrested and brought before the court of
Queen's Bench. They swore that he was, at a certain time, the slave of
Mr. A., and that he ran away at such a time and stole and brought off
a horse. They enquired who the horse belonged to, and it was
ascertained that the slave and horse both belonged to the same
person. The court therefore decided that the horse and the man were
both recognised, in the State of Virginia, alike, as articles of
property, belonging to the same person--therefore, if there was theft
committed on either side, the former must have stolen off the
latter--the horse brought away the man, and not the man the horse. So
the man was discharged and pronounced free according to the laws of
Canada. There are several other letters published in this work upon
the same subject, from slaveholders, which it is hardly necessary for
me to notice. However, I feel thankful to the writers for the
endorsement and confirmation which they have given to my story. No
matter what their motives were, they have done me and the anti-slavery
cause good service in writing those letters--but more especially the
Gatewood's. Silas Gatewood has done more for me than all the rest. He
has labored so hard in his long communication in trying to expose me,
that he has proved every thing that I could have asked of him; and for
which I intend to reward him by forwarding him one of my books, hoping
that it may be the means of converting him from a slaveholder to an
honest man, and an advocate of liberty for all mankind.
The reader will see in the introduction that Wm. Gatewood writes a
more cautious letter upon the subject than his son Silas. "It is not a
very easy matter to catch old birds with chaff," and I presume if
Silas had the writing of his letter over again, he would not be so
free in telling all he knew, and even more, for the sake of making out
a strong case. The object of his writing such a letter will doubtless
be understood by the reader. It was to destroy public confidence in
the victims of slavery, that the system might not be exposed--it was
to gag a poor fugitive who had undertaken to plead his own cause and
that of his enslaved brethren. It was a feeble attempt to suppress the
voice of universal freedom which is now thundering on every gale. But
thank God it is too late in the day.
Go stop the mighty thunder's roar,
Go hush the ocean's sound,
Or upward like the eagle soar
To skies' remotest bound.
And when thou hast the thunder stopped,
And hushed the ocean's waves,
Then, freedom's spirit bind in chains,
And ever hold us slaves.
And when the eagle's boldest fest,
Thou canst perform with skill,
Then, think to stop proud freedom's march,
And hold the bondman still.