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AN
APPEAL
IN FAVOR OF THAT CLASS
OF
AMERICANS CALLED AFRICANS.
BY MRS. CHILD,
AUTHOR OF THE MOTHER'S BOOK, THE GIRL'S OWN BOOK,
THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE, ETC.
"We have offended, Oh! my countrymen!
We have offended very grievously,
And been most tyrannous. From east to west
A groan of accusation pierces Heaven!
The wretched plead against us; multitudes,
Countless and vehement, the sons of God,
Our brethren!"
COLERIDGE.
NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY JOHN S. TAYLOR.
1836.
PREFACE.
Reader, I beseech you not to throw down this volume as soon as you have
glanced at the title. Read it, if your prejudices will allow, for the
very truth's sake:--If I have the most trifling claims upon your good
will, for an hour's amusement to yourself, or benefit to your children,
read it for _my_ sake:--Read it, if it be merely to find fresh occasion
to sneer at the vulgarity of the cause:--Read it, from sheer curiosity
to see what a woman (who had much better attend to her household
concerns) will say upon such a subject:--Read it, on any terms, and my
purpose will be gained.
The subject I have chosen admits of no encomiums on my country; but
as I generally make it an object to supply what is most needed, this
circumstance is unimportant; the market is so glutted with flattery,
that a little truth may be acceptable, were it only for its rarity.
I am fully aware of the unpopularity of the task I have undertaken; but
though I _expect_ ridicule and censure, it is not in my nature to _fear_
them.
A few years hence, the opinion of the world will be a matter in which I
have not even the most transient interest; but this book will be abroad
on its mission of humanity, long after the hand that wrote it is
mingling with the dust.
Should it be the means of advancing, even one single hour, the
inevitable progress of truth and justice, I would not exchange the
consciousness for all Rothchild's wealth, or Sir Walter's fame.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
BRIEF HISTORY OF NEGRO SLAVERY.--ITS INEVITABLE EFFECT
UPON ALL CONCERNED IN IT. 7
CHAPTER II.
COMPARATIVE VIEW OF SLAVERY, IN DIFFERENT AGES AND
NATIONS. 38
CHAPTER III.
FREE LABOR AND SLAVE LABOR.--POSSIBILITY OF SAFE
EMANCIPATION. 76
CHAPTER IV.
INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON THE POLITICS OF THE UNITED
STATES. 105
CHAPTER V.
COLONIZATION SOCIETY, AND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 123
CHAPTER VI.
INTELLECT OF NEGROES. 148
CHAPTER VII.
MORAL CHARACTER OF NEGROES. 177
CHAPTER VIII.
PREJUDICES AGAINST PEOPLE OF COLOR, AND OUR DUTIES IN
RELATION TO THIS SUBJECT. 195
AN APPEAL, &c.
CHAPTER I.
BRIEF HISTORY OF NEGRO SLAVERY.--ITS INEVITABLE EFFECT UPON ALL
CONCERNED IN IT.
The lot is wretched, the condition sad,
Whether a pining discontent survive,
And thirst for change; or habit hath subdued
The soul depressed; dejected--even to love
Of her dull tasks and close captivity.
WORDSWORTH.
My ear is pained,
My soul is sick with every day's report
Of wrong and outrage, with which this earth is filled.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man.
COWPER.
While the Portuguese were exploring Africa, in 1442, Prince Henry
ordered Anthony Gonsalez to carry back certain Moorish prisoners, whom
he had seized two years before near Cape Bajador: this order was obeyed,
and Gonsalez received from the Moors, in exchange for the captives, ten
negroes, and a quantity of gold dust. Unluckily, this wicked speculation
proved profitable, and other Portuguese were induced to embark in it.
In 1492, the West India islands were discovered by Columbus. The
Spaniards, dazzled with the acquisition of a new world and eager to come
into possession of their wealth, compelled the natives of Hispaniola
to dig in the mines. The native Indians died rapidly, in consequence of
hard work and cruel treatment; and thus a new market was opened for
the negro slaves captured by the Portuguese. They were accordingly
introduced as early as 1503. Those who bought and those who sold were
alike prepared to trample on the rights of their fellow-beings, by that
most demoralizing of all influences, the accursed love of gold.
Cardinal Ximenes, while he administered the government, before the
accession of Charles the Fifth, was petitioned to allow a regular
commerce in African negroes. But he rejected the proposal with
promptitude and firmness, alike honorable to his head and heart. This
earliest friend of the Africans, living in a comparatively unenlightened
age, has peculiar claims upon our gratitude and reverence. In 1517,
Charles the Fifth granted a patent for an annual supply of four thousand
negroes to the Spanish islands. He probably soon became aware of the
horrible and ever-increasing evils, attendant upon this traffic; for
twenty-five years after he emancipated every negro in his dominions.
But when he resigned his crown and retired to a monastery, the colonists
resumed their shameless tyranny.
Captain Hawkins, afterward Sir John Hawkins, was the first Englishman,
who disgraced himself and his country by this abominable trade. Assisted
by some rich people in London, he fitted out three ships, and sailed to
the African coast, where he burned and plundered the towns, and carried
off three hundred of the defenceless inhabitants to Hispaniola.
Elizabeth afterwards authorized a similar adventure with one of her own
vessels. "She expressed her concern lest any of the Africans should be
carried off without their free consent; declaring that such a thing
would be detestable, and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the
undertakers." For this reason, it has been supposed that the queen was
deceived--that she imagined the negroes were transported to the Spanish
colonies as voluntary laborers. But history gives us slight reasons to
judge Elizabeth so favorably. It was her system always to preserve
an _appearance_ of justice and virtue. She was a shrewd, far-sighted
politician; and had in perfection the clear head and cold heart
calculated to form that character. Whatever she might believe of the
trade at its beginning, she was too deeply read in human nature, not
to foresee the inevitable consequence of placing power in the hands of
avarice.
A Roman priest persuaded Louis the Thirteenth to sanction slavery for
the sake of converting the negroes to Christianity; and thus this
bloody iniquity, disguised with gown, hood, and rosary, entered the
fair dominions of France. To be violently wrested from his home, and
condemned to toil without hope, by Christians, to whom he had done no
wrong, was, methinks, a very odd beginning to the poor negro's course
of religious instruction!
When this evil had once begun, it, of course, gathered strength rapidly;
for all the bad passions of human nature were eagerly enlisted in its
cause. The British formed settlements in North America, and in the West
Indies; and these were stocked with slaves. From 1680 to 1786, _two
million, one hundred and thirty thousand_ negroes were imported into the
British colonies!
In almost all great evils there is some redeeming feature--_some_ good
results, even where it is not intended: pride and vanity, utterly
selfish and wrong in themselves, often throw money into the hands of the
poor, and thus tend to excite industry and ingenuity, while they produce
comfort. But slavery is _all_ evil--within and without--root and
branch,--bud, blossom and fruit!
In order to show how dark it is in every aspect--how invariably
injurious both to nations and individuals,--I will select a few facts
from the mass of evidence now before me.
In the first place, its effects upon _Africa_ have been most disastrous.
All along the coast, intercourse with Europeans has deprived the
inhabitants of their primitive simplicity, without substituting in
its place the order, refinement, and correctness of principle,
attendant upon true civilization. The soil of Africa is rich in native
productions, and honorable commerce might have been a blessing to
her, to Europe, and to America; but instead of that, a trade has been
substituted, which operates like a withering curse, upon all concerned
in it.
There are green and sheltered valleys in Africa,--broad and beautiful
rivers,--and vegetation in its loveliest and most magnificent
forms.--But no comfortable houses, no thriving farms, no cultivated
gardens;--for it is not safe to possess permanent property, where each
little state is surrounded by warlike neighbors, continually sending out
their armed bands in search of slaves. The white man offers his most
tempting articles of merchandise to the negro, as a price for the flesh
and blood of his enemy; and if we, with all our boasted knowledge and
religion, are seduced by money to do such grievous wrong to those who
have never offended us, what can we expect of men just emerging from the
limited wants of savage life, too uncivilized to have formed any habits
of steady industry, yet earnestly coveting the productions they know not
how to earn! The inevitable consequence is, that war is made throughout
that unhappy continent, not only upon the slightest pretences, but
often without any pretext at all. Villages are set on fire, and those
who fly from the flames, rush upon the spears of the enemy. Private
kidnapping is likewise carried on to a great extent, for he who can
catch a neighbor's child is sure to find a ready purchaser; and it
sometimes happens that the captor and his living merchandise are both
seized by the white slave-trader. Houses are broken open in the night,
and defenceless women and children carried away into captivity. If boys,
in the unsuspecting innocence of youth, come near the white man's ships,
to sell vegetables or fruit, they are ruthlessly seized and carried to
slavery in a distant land. Even the laws are perverted to this shameful
purpose. If a chief wants European commodities, he accuses a parent of
witchcraft; the victim is tried by the ordeal of poisoned water;[A] and
if he sicken at the draught, the king claims a right to punish him by
selling his whole family. In African legislation, almost all crimes are
punished with slavery; and thanks to the white man's rapacity, there is
always a very powerful motive for finding the culprit guilty. He must
be a very good king indeed, that judges his subjects impartially, when
he is sure of making money by doing otherwise!
[Footnote A: Judicial trials by the ordeal of personal combat, in which
the vanquished were always pronounced guilty, occurred as late as the
sixteenth century, both in France and England.]
The king of Dahomy, and other despotic princes, do not scruple to seize
their own people and sell them, without provocation, whenever they
happen to want anything, which slave-ships can furnish. If a chief has
conscience enough to object to such proceedings, he is excited by
presents of gunpowder and brandy. One of these men, who could not resist
the persuasions of the slave-traders while he was intoxicated, was
conscience-stricken when he recovered his senses, and bitterly
reproached his _Christian_ seducers. One negro king, debarred by his
religion from the use of spirituous liquors, and therefore less
dangerously tempted than others, abolished the slave-trade throughout
his dominions and exerted himself to encourage honest industry; but
his people must have been as sheep among wolves.
Relentless bigotry brings its aid to darken the horrors of the scene.
The Mohammedans deem it right to subject the heathen tribes to perpetual
bondage. The Moors and Arabs think Alla and the prophet have given them
an undisputed right to the poor Caffre, his wife, his children, and his
goods. But mark how the slave-trade deepens even the fearful gloom of
bigotry! These Mohammedans are by no means zealous to enlighten their
Pagan neighbors--they do not wish them to come to a knowledge of what
they consider the true religion--lest they should forfeit the only
ground, on which they can even pretend to the right of driving them by
thousands to the markets of Kano and Tripoli.
This is precisely like our own conduct. We say the negroes are so
ignorant that they must be slaves; and we insist upon keeping them
ignorant, lest we spoil them for slaves. The same spirit that
dictates this logic to the Arab, teaches it to the European and the
American:--Call it what you please--it is certainly neither of heaven
nor of earth.
When the slave-ships are lying on the coast of Africa, canoes well armed
are sent into the inland country, and after a few weeks they return with
hundreds of negroes, tied fast with ropes. Sometimes the white men lurk
among the bushes, and seize the wretched beings who incautiously venture
from their homes; sometimes they paint their skins as black as their
hearts, and by this deception suddenly surprise the unsuspecting
natives; at other times the victims are decoyed on board the vessel,
under some kind pretence or other, and then lashed to the mast, or
chained in the hold. Is it not very natural for the Africans to say
"devilish white?"
All along the shores of this devoted country, terror and distrust
prevail. The natives never venture out without arms, when a vessel is in
sight, and skulk through their own fields, as if watched by a panther.
All their worst passions are called into full exercise, and all their
kindlier feelings smothered. Treachery, fraud and violence desolate the
country, rend asunder the dearest relations, and pollute the very
fountains of justice. The history of the negro, whether national or
domestic, is written in blood. Had half the skill and strength employed
in the slave-trade been engaged in honorable commerce, the native
princes would long ago have directed their energies towards clearing
the country, destroying wild beasts, and introducing the arts and
refinements of civilized life. Under such influences, Africa might
become an earthly paradise;--the white man's avarice has made it a den
of wolves.
Having thus glanced at the miserable effects of this system on the
condition of Africa, we will now follow the poor _slave_ through his
wretched wanderings, in order to give some idea of his physical
suffering, his mental and moral degradation.
Husbands are torn from their wives, children from their parents, while
the air is filled with the shrieks and lamentations of the bereaved.
Sometimes they are brought from a remote country; obliged to wander over
mountains and through deserts; chained together in herds; driven by the
whip; scorched by a tropical sun; compelled to carry heavy bales of
merchandise; suffering with hunger and thirst; worn down with fatigue;
and often leaving their bones to whiten in the desert. A large troop of
slaves, taken by the Sultan of Fezzan, died in the desert for want of
food. In some places, travellers meet with fifty or sixty skeletons in
a day, of which the largest proportion were no doubt slaves, on their
way to European markets. Sometimes the poor creatures refuse to go a
step further, and even the lacerating whip cannot goad them on; in such
cases, they become the prey of wild beasts, more merciful than white men.
Those who arrive at the seacoast, are in a state of desperation and
despair. Their purchasers are so well aware of this, and so fearful
of the consequences, that they set sail in the night, lest the negroes
should know when they depart from their native shores.
And here the scene becomes almost too harrowing to dwell upon. But we
must not allow our nerves to be more tender than our consciences. The
poor wretches are stowed by hundreds, like bales of goods, between the
low decks, where filth and putrid air produce disease, madness and
suicide. Unless they die in _great_ numbers, the slave-captain does not
even concern himself enough to fret; his live stock cost nothing, and he
is sure of such a high price for what remains at the end of the voyage,
that he can afford to lose a good many.
The following account is given by Dr. Walsh, who accompanied Viscount
Strangford, as chaplain, on his embassy to Brazil. The vessel in which
he sailed chased a slave-ship; for to the honor of England be it said,
she has asked and obtained permission from other governments, to treat
as pirates such of their subjects as are discovered carrying on this
guilty trade north of the equator. Doctor Walsh was an eyewitness of
the scene he describes; and the evidence given, at various times, before
the British House of Commons, proves that the frightful picture is by
no means exaggerated.
"The vessel had taken in, on the coast of Africa, three hundred and
thirty-six males, and two hundred and twenty-six females, making in all
five hundred and sixty-two; she had been out seventeen days, during
which she had thrown overboard fifty-five. They were all inclosed under
grated hatchways, between decks. The space was so low, and they were
stowed so close together, that there was no possibility of lying down,
or changing their position, night or day. The greater part of them were
shut out from light and air; and this when the thermometer, exposed to
the open sky, was standing, in the shade on our deck, at eighty-nine
degrees.
"The space between decks was divided into two compartments, three feet
three inches high. Two hundred and twenty-six women and girls were
thrust into one space two hundred and eighty-eight feet square; and
three hundred and thirty-six men and boys were crammed into another
space eight hundred feet square; giving the whole an average of
twenty-three inches; and to each of the women not more than thirteen
inches; though several of them were in a state of health, which
peculiarly demanded pity.--As they were shipped on account of different
individuals, they were branded like sheep, with the owner's marks
of different forms; which, as the mate informed me with perfect
indifference, had been burnt in with red-hot iron. Over the hatchway
stood a ferocious looking fellow, the slave-driver of the ship, with
a scourge of many-twisted thongs in his hand; whenever he heard the
slightest noise from below, he shook it over them, and seemed eager
to exercise it.
"As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at them, their
melancholy visages brightened up. They perceived something of sympathy
and kindness in our looks, to which they had not been accustomed; and
feeling instinctively that we were friends, they immediately began to
shout and clap their hands. The women were particularly excited. They
all held up their arms, and when we bent down and shook hands with them,
they could not contain their delight; they endeavored to scramble upon
their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands, and we understood they
knew we had come to liberate them. Some, however, hung down their heads
in apparently hopeless dejection: some were greatly emaciated; and
some, particularly children, seemed dying. The heat of these horrid
places was so great, and the odor so offensive, that it was quite
impossible to enter them, even had there been room.
"The officers insisted that the poor, suffering creatures, should be
admitted on deck to get air and water. This was opposed by the mate of
the slaver, who (from a feeling that they deserved it,) declared they
should be all murdered. The officers, however, persisted, and the poor
beings were all turned out together. It is impossible to conceive the
effect of this eruption--five hundred and seventeen fellow-creatures, of
all ages and sexes, some children, some adults, some old men and women,
all entirely destitute of clothing, scrambling out together to taste the
luxury of a little fresh air and water. They came swarming up, like bees
from a hive, till the whole deck was crowded to suffocation from stem
to stern; so that it was impossible to imagine where they could all have
come from, or how they could have been stowed away. On looking into the
places where they had been crammed, there were found some children next
the sides of the ship, in the places most remote from light and air;
they were lying nearly in a torpid state, after the rest had turned out.
The little creatures seemed indifferent as to life or death; and when
they were carried on deck, many of them could not stand. After enjoying
for a short time the unusual luxury of air, some water was brought; it
was then that the extent of their sufferings was exposed in a fearful
manner. They all rushed like maniacs towards it. No entreaties, or
threats, or blows, could restrain them; they shrieked, and struggled,
and fought with one another, for a drop of this precious liquid, as if
they grew rabid at the sight of it. There is nothing from which slaves
in the mid-passage suffer so much as want of water. It is sometimes
usual to take out casks filled with sea-water as ballast, and when the
slaves are received on board, to start the casks, and re-fill them with
fresh. On one occasion, a ship from Bahia neglected to change the
contents of their casks, and on the mid-passage found to their horror,
that they were filled with nothing but salt water. All the slaves on
board perished! We could judge of the extent of their sufferings from
the afflicting sight we now saw. When the poor creatures were ordered
down again, several of them came, and pressed their heads against our
knees, with looks of the greatest anguish, with the prospect of
returning to the horrid place of suffering below."
Alas! the slave-captain proved by his papers that he confined his
traffic strictly to the south of the Line, where it was yet lawful;
perhaps his papers were forged; but the English officers were afraid to
violate an article of the treaty, which their government had made with
Brazil. Thus does cunning wickedness defeat benevolence and justice in
this world! Dr. Walsh continues: "With infinite regret, therefore, we
were obliged to restore his papers to the captain, and permit him to
proceed, after nine hours' detention and close investigation. It was
dark when we separated, and the last parting sounds we heard from the
unhallowed ship, were the cries and shrieks of the slaves, suffering
under some bodily infliction."
I suppose the English officers acted politically right; but not for the
world's wealth, would I have acted politically right, under such
circumstances![B]
[Footnote B: Dr. Walsh's book on Brazil was published in 1831. He says;
"Notwithstanding the benevolent and persevering exertions of England,
this horrid traffic in human flesh is nearly as extensively carried on
as ever, and under circumstances perhaps of a more revolting character.
The very shifts at evasion, the necessity for concealment, and the
desperate hazard, cause inconvenience and sufferings to the poor
creatures in a very aggravated degree."]
Arrived at the place of destination, the condition of the slave is
scarcely less deplorable. They are advertised with cattle; chained in
droves, and driven to market with a whip; and sold at auction, with the
beasts of the field. They are treated like brutes, and all the
influences around them conspire to make them brutes.
"Some are employed as domestic slaves, when and how the owner pleases;
by day or by night, on Sunday or other days, in any measure or degree,
with any remuneration or with none, with what kind or quantity of food
the owner of the human beast may choose. Male or female, young or old,
weak or strong, may be punished with or without reason, as caprice or
passion may prompt. When the drudge does not suit, he may be sold for
some inferior purpose, like a horse that has seen his best days, till
like a worn-out beast he dies, unpitied and forgotten! Kept in ignorance
of the holy precepts and divine consolations of Christianity, he remains
a Pagan in a Christian land, without even an object of idolatrous
worship--'having no hope, and without God in the world.'"
From the moment the slave is kidnapped, to the last hour he draws
his miserable breath, the white man's influence directly cherishes
ignorance, fraud, treachery, theft, licentiousness, revenge, hatred and
murder. It cannot be denied that human nature thus operated upon, _must_
necessarily yield, more or less, to all these evils.--And thus do we
dare to treat beings, who, like ourselves, are heirs of immortality!
And now let us briefly inquire into the influence of slavery on the
_white man's_ character; for in this evil there is a mighty re-action.
"Such is the constitution of things, that we cannot inflict an injury
without suffering from it ourselves: he who blesses another, benefits
himself; but he who sins against his fellow-creature, does his own
soul a grievous wrong." The effect produced upon _slave-captains_ is
absolutely frightful. Those who wish to realize it in all its awful
extent, may find abundant information in Clarkson's History of Slavery:
the authenticity of the facts there given cannot be doubted; for setting
aside the perfect honesty of Clarkson's character, these facts were
principally accepted as evidence before the British Parliament, where
there was a very strong party of slave-owners desirous to prove them
false.
Indeed when we reflect upon the subject, it cannot excite surprise that
slave-captains become as hard-hearted and fierce as tigers. The very
first step in their business is a deliberate invasion of the rights of
others; its pursuit combines every form of violence, bloodshed, tyranny
and anguish; they are accustomed to consider their victims as cattle, or
blocks of wood;[C] and they are invested with perfectly despotic powers.
[Footnote C: I have read letters from slave-captains to their employers,
in which they declare that they shipped such a number of _billets of
wood_, or _pieces of ebony_, on the coast of Africa.
Near the office of the Richmond Inquirer in Virginia, an auction
flag was hoisted one day this last winter, with the following curious
advertisement: "On Monday the 11th inst., will be sold in front of the
High Constable's office, one bright mulatto woman, about twenty-six
years of age; also, _some empty barrels, and sundry old candle-boxes_."]
There is a great waste of life among white seamen employed in this
traffic, in consequence of the severe punishment they receive, and
diseases originating in the unwholesome atmosphere on board. Clarkson,
after a long and patient investigation, came to the conclusion that two
slave voyages to Africa, would destroy more seamen than eighty-three to
Newfoundland; and there is this difference to be observed, that the loss
in one trade is generally occasioned by weather or accident, in the
other by cruelty or disease. The instances are exceedingly numerous
of sailors on board slave-ships, that have died under the lash, or in
consequence of it. Some of the particulars are so painful that it has
made me sicken to read them; and I therefore forbear to repeat them. Of
the Alexander's crew, in 1785, no less than eleven deserted at Bonny, on
the African coast, because life had become insupportable. They chose all
that could be endured from a most inhospitable climate, and the violence
of the natives, rather than remain in their own ship. Nine others died
on the voyage, and the rest were exceedingly abused. This state of
things was so universal that seamen were notoriously averse to enter
the hateful business. In order to obtain them it became necessary
to resort to force or deception. (Behold how many branches there are
to the tree of crime!) Decoyed to houses where night after night was
spent in dancing, rioting and drunkenness, the thoughtless fellows
gave themselves up to the merriment of the scene, and in a moment of
intoxication the fatal bargain was sealed. Encouraged to spend more
than they owned, a jail or the slave-ship became the only alternatives.
The superiority of wages was likewise a strong inducement; but this
was a cheat. The wages of the sailors were half paid in the currency
of the country where the vessel carried her slaves; and thus they
were actually lower than in other trades, while they were nominally
higher.
In such an employment the morals of the seamen of course became corrupt,
like their masters; and every species of fraud was thought allowable
to deceive the ignorant Africans, by means of false weights, false
measures, adulterated commodities, and the like.
Of the cruelties on board slave-ships, I will mention but a few
instances; though a large volume might be filled with such detestable
anecdotes perfectly well authenticated.
"A child on board a slave-ship, of about ten months old, took sulk
and would not eat; the captain flogged it with a cat-o'-nine-tails;
swearing that he would make it eat, or kill it. From this, and other
ill-treatment, the limbs swelled. He then ordered some water to be made
hot to abate the swelling. But even his tender mercies were cruel. The
cook, on putting his hand into the water, said it was too hot. Upon this
the captain swore at him, and ordered the feet to be put in. This was
done. The nails and skin came off. Oiled cloths were then put around
them. The child was at length tied to a heavy log. Two or three days
afterwards, the captain caught it up again, and repeated that he would
make it eat, or kill it. He immediately flogged it again, and in a
quarter of an hour it died. And after the babe was dead, whom should the
barbarian select to throw it overboard, but the wretched mother! In vain
she tried to avoid the office. He beat her, till he made her take up the
child and carry it to the side of the vessel. She then dropped it into
the sea, turning her head the other way, that she might not see it."[D]
[Footnote D: Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.]
"In 1780, a slave-trader, detained by contrary winds on the American
coast, and in distress, selected one hundred and thirty-two of his sick
slaves, and threw them into the sea, tied together in pairs, that they
might not escape by swimming. He hoped the Insurance Company would
indemnify him for his loss; and in the law-suit, to which this gave
birth, he observed that 'negroes cannot be considered in any other light
than as beasts of burden; and to lighten a vessel it is permitted to
throw overboard its least valuable effects.'
"Some of the unhappy slaves escaped from those who attempted to tie
them, and jumped into the sea. One of them was saved by means of a cord
thrown by the sailors of another vessel; and the monster who murdered
his innocent companions had the audacity to claim him as his property.
The Judges, either from shame, or a sense of justice, refused his
demand."[E]
[Footnote E: The Abbé Grégoire's Inquiry into the Intellect and Morals
of Negroes.]
Some people speculate in what are called refuse slaves; i. e. the poor
diseased ones. Many of them die in the piazzas of the auctioneers; and
sometimes, in the agonies of death, they are sold as low as a dollar.
Even this is better than to be unprotected on the wide ocean, in the
power of such wild beasts as I have described. It may seem incredible
to some that human nature is capable of so much depravity. But the
confessions of pirates show how habitual scenes of blood and violence
harden the heart of man; and history abundantly proves that despotic
power produces a fearful species of moral insanity. The wanton cruelties
of Nero, Caligula, Domitian, and many of the officers of the
Inquisition, seem like the frantic acts of madmen.
The public has, however, a sense of justice, which can never be entirely
perverted. Since the time when Clarkson, Wilberforce and Fox made
the horrors of the slave-trade understood, the slave-captain, or
slave-jockey, is spontaneously and almost universally regarded with
dislike and horror. Even in the slaveholding states it is deemed
disreputable to associate with a professed slave-trader, though few
perhaps would think it any harm to bargain with him. This public feeling
makes itself felt so strongly, that men engaged in what is called the
African traffic, kept it a secret, if they could, even before the laws
made it hazardous.
No man of the least principle could for a moment think of engaging in
such enterprises; and if he have any feeling, it is soon destroyed by
familiarity with scenes of guilt and anguish. The result is, that the
slave-trade is a monopoly in the hands of the very wicked; and this is
one reason why it has always been profitable.
Yet even the slave-_trade_ has had it champions--of course among those
who had money invested in it. Politicians have boldly said that it was
a profitable branch of commerce, and ought not to be discontinued on
account of the idle dreams of benevolent enthusiasts. They have argued
before the House of Commons, that others would enslave the negroes, if
the English gave it up--as if it were allowable for one man to commit
a crime because another was likely to do it! They tell how merciful it
is to bring the Africans away from the despotism and wars, which
desolate their own continent; but they do not add that the white man
is himself the cause of those wars, nor do they prove our right to
judge for another man where he will be the happiest. If the Turks, or
the Algerines saw fit to exercise this right, they might carry away
captive all the occupants of our prisons and penitentiaries.
Some of the advocates of this traffic maintained that the voyage
from Africa to the slave-market, called the Middle Passage, was an
exceedingly comfortable portion of existence. One went so far as to
declare it "the happiest part of a negro's life." They aver that the
Africans, on their way to slavery, are so merry, that they dance and
sing. But upon a careful examination of witnesses, it was found that
their singing consisted of dirge-like lamentations for their native
land. One of the captains threatened to flog a woman, because the
mournfulness of her song was too painful to him. After meals they
jumped up in their irons for exercise. This was considered so necessary
for their health, that they were whipped, if they refused to do it.
And this was their dancing! "I," said one of the witnesses, "was
employed to dance the men, while another person danced the women."
These pretences, ridiculous as they appear, are worth about as much as
any of the arguments that can be brought forward in defence of any part
of the slave system.
The engraving on the next page will help to give a vivid idea of the
Elysium enjoyed by negroes, during the Middle Passage. Fig. A represents
the iron hand-cuffs, which fasten the slaves together by means of a
little bolt with a padlock.
[Illustration: Iron Hand-Cuffs]
[Illustration: Iron Shackles]
[Illustration: Thumb-Screw and Speculum Oris]
B represents the iron shackles by which the ancle of one is made fast
to the ancle of his next companion. Yet even thus secured, they do often
jump into the sea, and wave their hands in triumph at the approach of
death. E is a thumb-screw. The thumbs are put into two rounds holes at
the top; by turning a key a bar rises from C to D by means of a screw;
and the pressure becomes very painful. By turning it further, the blood
is made to start; and by taking away the key, as at E, the tortured
person is left in agony, without the means of helping himself, or
being helped by others. This is applied in case of obstinacy, at the
discretion of the captain. I, F, is a speculum oris. The dotted lines
represent it when shut; the black lines when open. It opens at G, H,
by a screw below with a knob at the end of it. This instrument was used
by surgeons to wrench open the mouth in case of lock-jaw. It is used in
slave-ships to compel the negroes to take food; because a loss to the
owners would follow their persevering attempts to die. K represents the
manner of stowing in a slave-ship.
[Illustration: Stowing Slaves]
According to Clarkson's estimate, about two and a half out of a
hundred of human beings die annually, in the ordinary course of nature,
including infants and the aged; but in an African voyage, where few
babes and no old people are admitted, so that those shipped are at
the firmest period of life, the annual mortality is forty-three in a
hundred. In vessels that sail from Bonny, Benin, and the Calabars,
whence a large proportion of slaves are brought, this mortality is so
much increased by various causes, that eighty-six in a hundred die
yearly. He adds, "It is a destruction, which if general but for ten
years, would depopulate the world, and extinguish the human race."
We next come to the influence of this diabolical system on the
_slave-owner_; and here I shall be cautioned that I am treading on
delicate ground, because our own countrymen are slaveholders. But I am
yet to learn that wickedness is any the better for being our own. Let
the truth be spoken--and let those abide its presence who can.
The following is the testimony of Jefferson, who had good opportunities
for observation, and who certainly had no New-England prejudices: "There
must, doubtless, be an unhappy influence on the manners of the people,
produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce
between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous
passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading
submission on the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate it;
for man is an imitative animal. The parent storms; the child looks on,
catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in a circle of
smaller slaves, gives loose to the worst of passions; and thus nursed,
educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it
with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy, who can retain
his morals and manners undepraved in such circumstances."
In a community where all the labor is done by one class there must of
course be another class who live in indolence; and we all know how much
people that have nothing to do are tempted by what the world calls
pleasures; the result is, that slaveholding states and colonies are
proverbial for dissipation. Hence, too, the contempt for industry,
which prevails in such a state of society.--Where none work but slaves,
usefulness becomes degradation. The wife of a respectable mechanic,
who accompanied her husband from Massachusetts to the South, gave great
offence to her new neighbors by performing her usual household
avocations; they begged her to desist from it, (offering the services
of their own blacks,) because the sight of a white person engaged in
any labor was extremely injurious to the slaves; they deemed it very
important that the negroes should be taught, both by precept and
example, that they alone were made to work!
Whether the undue importance attached to merely external gentility, and
the increasing tendency to indolence and extravagance throughout this
country, ought to be attributed, in any degree, to the same source, I
am unable to say; if _any_ influence comes to us from the example and
ridicule of the slaveholding states, it certainly must be of this nature.
There is another view of this system, which I cannot unveil so
completely as it ought to be. I shall be called bold for saying so
much; but the facts are so important, that it is a matter of conscience
not to be fastidious.
The negro woman is unprotected either by law or public opinion. She is
the property of her master, and her daughters are his property. They
are allowed to have no conscientious scruples, no sense of shame, no
regard for the feelings of husband, or parent; they must be entirely
subservient to the will of their owner, on pain of being whipped as near
unto death as will comport with his interest, or quite to death, if it
suit his pleasure.
Those who know human nature would be able to conjecture the unavoidable
result, even if it were not betrayed by the amount of mixed population.
Think for a moment, what a degrading effect must be produced on the
morals of both blacks and whites by customs like these!
Considering we live in the nineteenth century, it is indeed a strange
state of society where the father sells his child, and the brother puts
his sister up at auction! Yet these things are often practised in our
republic.
Doctor Walsh, in his account of Brazil, tells an anecdote of one of
these fathers, who love their offspring at market price. "For many
years," says he, "this man kept his son in slavery, and maintained the
right to dispose of him, as he would of his mule. Being ill, however,
and near to die, he made his will, left his child his freedom, and
apprised him of it. Some time after he recovered, and having a dispute
with the young man, he threatened to sell him with the rest of his
stock. The son, determined to prevent this, assassinated his father in
a wood, got possession of the will, demanded his freedom, and obtained
it. This circumstance was perfectly well known in the neighborhood,
but no process was instituted against him. He was not chargeable, as
I could hear, with any other delinquency than the horrible one of
murdering his father to obtain his freedom." This forms a fine picture
of the effects of slavery upon human relations![F]
[Footnote F: A short time ago a reverend and very benevolent
gentleman suggested as the subject of a book, _The Beauty of Human
Relations_.--What a bitter jest it would be, to send him this volume,
with the information that I had complied with his request!]
I have more than once heard people, who had just returned from the
South, speak of seeing a number of mulattoes in attendance where they
visited, whose resemblance to the head of the family was too striking
not to be immediately observed. What sort of feeling must be excited in
the minds of those slaves by being constantly exposed to the tyranny or
caprice of their own brothers and sisters, and by the knowledge that
these near relations, will on a division of the estate, have power to
sell them off with the cattle?
But the vices of white men eventually provide a scourge for themselves.
They increase the negro race, but the negro can never increase theirs;
and this is one great reason why the proportion of colored population is
always so large in slaveholding countries. As the ratio increases more
and more every year, the colored people must eventually be the stronger
party; and when this result happens, slavery must either be abolished,
or government must furnish troops, of whose wages the free states must
pay their proportion.
As a proof of the effects of slavery on the temper, I will relate but
very few anecdotes.
The first happened in the Bahamas. It is extracted from a despatch of
Mr. Huskisson to the governor of those islands: "Henry and Helen Moss
have been found guilty of a _misdemeanor_, for their cruelty to their
slave Kate; and those facts of the case, which seem beyond dispute,
appear to be as follows:
"Kate was a domestic slave, and is stated to have been guilty of theft:
she is also accused of disobedience, in refusing to mend her clothes and
do her work; and this was the more immediate cause of her punishment.
On the twenty-second of July, eighteen hundred and twenty-six, she was
confined in the stocks, and she was not released till the eighth of
August following, being a period of seventeen days. The stocks were so
constructed that she could not sit up or lie down at pleasure, and she
remained in them night and day. During this period she was flogged
repeatedly, one of the overseers thinks about six times; and red pepper
was rubbed upon her eyes to prevent her sleeping. Tasks were given her,
which, in the opinion of the same overseer, she was incapable of
performing; sometimes because they were beyond her powers, at other
times because she could not see to do them, on account of the pepper
having been rubbed on her eyes; and she was flogged for failing to
accomplish these tasks. A violent distemper had prevailed on the
plantation during the summer. It is in evidence, that on one of the days
of Kate's confinement, she complained of fever; and that one of the
floggings she received was the day after she made the complaint. When
she was taken out of the stocks, she appeared to be cramped, and was
then again flogged. The very day of her release, she was sent to field
labor, (though heretofore a house-servant;) and on the evening of the
third day ensuing was brought before her owners, as being ill, and
refusing to work; and she then again complained of having fever. They
were of opinion that she had none then, but gave directions to the
driver, if she should be ill, to bring her to them for medicines in the
morning. The driver took her to the negro-house, and again flogged her;
though at this time apparently without orders from her owners to do so.
In the morning at seven o'clock she was taken to work in the field,
where she died at noon.
"The facts of the case are thus far incontrovertibly established; and
I deeply lament, that, heinous as the offences are which this narrative
exhibits, I can discover no material palliation of them amongst the
other circumstances detailed in the evidence."
A bill of indictment for murder was preferred against Mr. and Mrs. Moss:
the grand jury threw it out. Upon two other bills, for misdemeanors, a
verdict of guilty was returned. Five months' imprisonment, and a fine
of three hundred pounds, was the only punishment for this deliberate
and shocking cruelty!
In the next chapter, it will be seen that similar _misdemeanors_ are
committed with equal impunity in this country.
I do not know how much odium Mr. and Mrs. Moss generally incurred in
consequence of this transaction; but many of "the most respectable
people in the island petitioned for a mitigation of their punishment,
visited them in prison, did every thing to identify themselves with
them, and on their liberation from jail, gave them a public dinner as
a matter of triumph!" The witnesses in their favor even went so far
as to insist that their character stood high for humanity among the
neighboring planters.
I believe there never was a class of people on earth so determined to
uphold each other, at all events, as slave-owners.
The following account was originally written by the Rev. William Dickey,
of Bloomingsburgh, to the Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio. It was
published in 1826, in a little volume of letters, on the subject of
slavery, by the Rev. Mr. Rankin, who assures us that Mr. Dickey was well
acquainted with the circumstances he describes.
"In the county of Livingston, Kentucky, near the mouth of Cumberland
river, lived Lilburn Lewis, the son of Jefferson's sister. He was the
wealthy owner of a considerable number of slaves, whom he drove
constantly, fed sparingly, and lashed severely. The consequence was,
they would run away. Among the rest was an ill-grown boy, about
seventeen, who, having just returned from a skulking spell, was sent
to the spring for water, and, in returning, let fall an elegant pitcher,
which dashed to shivers on the rocks. It was night, and the slaves
were all at home. The master had them collected into the most roomy
negro-house, and a rousing fire made." (Reader, what follows is very
shocking; but I have already said we must not allow our nerves to be
more sensitive than our consciences. If such things are done in our
country, it is important that we should know of them, and seriously
reflect upon them.) "The door was fastened, that none of the negroes,
either through fear or sympathy, should attempt to escape; he then told
them that the design of this meeting was to teach them to remain at home
and obey his orders. All things being now in train, George was called
up, and by the assistance of his younger brother, laid on a broad bench
or block. The master then cut off his ancles with a broad axe. In
vain the unhappy victim screamed. Not a hand among so many dared to
interfere. Having cast the feet into the fire, he lectured the negroes
at some length. He then proceeded to cut off his limbs below the knees.
The sufferer besought him to begin with his head. It was in vain--the
master went on thus, until trunk, arms, and head, were all in the fire.
Still protracting the intervals with lectures, and threatenings of like
punishment, in case any of them were disobedient, or ran away, or
disclosed the tragedy they were compelled to witness. In order to
consume the bones, the fire was briskly stirred until midnight: when,
as if heaven and earth combined to show their detestation of the deed,
a sudden shock of earthquake threw down the heavy wall, composed of rock
and clay, extinguished the fire, and covered the remains of George. The
negroes were allowed to disperse, with charges to keep the secret, under
the penalty of like punishment. When his wife asked the cause of the
dreadful screams she had heard, he said that he had never enjoyed
himself so well at a ball as he had enjoyed himself that evening.
Next morning, he ordered the wall to be rebuilt, and he himself
superintended, picking up the remains of the boy, and placing them
within the new wall, thus hoping to conceal the matter. But some of the
negroes whispered the horrid deed; the neighbors tore down the wall,
and finding the remains, they testified against him. He was bound over
to await the sitting of the court; but before that period arrived, he
committed suicide."
"N. B. This happened in 1811; if I be correct, it was on the 16th of
December. It was on the Sabbath."
Mr. Rankin adds, there was little probability that Mr. Lewis would have
fallen under the sentence of the law. Notwithstanding the peculiar
enormity of his offence, there were individuals who combined to let him
out of prison, in order to screen him from justice.
Another instance of summary punishment inflicted on a runaway slave,
is told by a respectable gentleman from South Carolina, with whom I am
acquainted. He was young, when the circumstance occurred, in the
neighborhood of his home; and it filled him with horror. A slave being
missing, several planters united in a negro hunt, as it is called. They
set out with dogs, guns, and horses, as they would to chase a tiger.
The poor fellow, being discovered, took refuge in a tree; where he was
deliberately shot by his pursuers.
In some of the West Indies, blood-hounds are employed to hunt negroes;
and this fact is the foundation of one of the most painfully interesting
scenes in Miss Martineau's Demerara. A writer by the name of Dallas
has the hardihood to assert that it is mere sophistry to censure the
practice of training dogs to devour men. He asks, "Did not the Asiatics
employ elephants in war? If a man were bitten by a mad dog, would he
hesitate to cut off the wounded part in order to save his life?"
It is said that when the first pack of blood-hounds arrived in St.
Domingo, the white planters delivered to them the first negro they
found, merely by way of experiment: and when they saw him immediately
torn in pieces, they were highly delighted to find the dogs so well
trained to their business.
Some authentic records of female cruelty would seem perfectly
incredible, were it not an established law of our nature that tyranny
becomes a habit, and scenes of suffering, often repeated, render the
heart callous.
A young friend of mine, remarkable for the kindness of his disposition
and the courtesy of his manners, told me that he was really alarmed at
the change produced in his character by a few months' residence in the
West Indies. The family who owned the plantation were absent, and he saw
nothing around him but slaves; the consequence was that he insensibly
acquired a dictatorial manner, and habitual disregard to the convenience
of his inferiors. The candid admonition of a friend made him aware of
this, and his natural amiability was restored.
The ladies who remove from the free States into the slaveholding
ones almost invariably write that the sight of slavery was at first
exceedingly painful; but that they soon become habituated to it; and,
after awhile, they are very apt to vindicate the system, upon the
ground that it is extremely convenient to have such submissive servants.
This reason was actually given by a lady of my acquaintance, who is
considered an unusually fervent Christian. Yet Christianity expressly
teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This shows how dangerous
it is, for even the best of us, to become _accustomed_ to what is wrong.
A judicious and benevolent friend lately told me the story of one of her
relatives, who married a slave-owner, and removed to his plantation.
The lady in question was considered very amiable, and had a serene,
affectionate expression of countenance. After several years' residence
among her slaves, she visited New-England. "Her history was written in
her face," said my friend; "its expression had changed into that of a
fiend. She brought but few slaves with her; and those few were of course
compelled to perform additional labor. One faithful negro-woman nursed
the twins of her mistress, and did all the washing, ironing, and
scouring. If, after a sleepless night with the restless babes, (driven
from the bosom of their own mother,) she performed her toilsome
avocations with diminished activity, her mistress, with her own
lady-like hands, applied the cowskin, and the neighborhood resounded
with the cries of her victim. The instrument of punishment was actually
kept hanging in the entry, to the no small disgust of her New-England
visiters. For my part," continued my friend, "I did not try to be polite
to her; for I was not hypocrite enough to conceal my indignation."
The following occurred near Natchez, and was told to me by a highly
intelligent man, who, being a diplomatist and a courtier, was very
likely to make the best of national evils: A planter had occasion to
send a female slave some distance on an errand. She did not return so
soon as he expected, and he grew angry. At last he gave orders that she
should be severely whipped when she came back. When the poor creature
arrived, she pleaded for mercy, saying she had been so very ill, that
she was obliged to rest in the fields; but she was ordered to receive
another dozen lashes, for having had the impudence to speak. She died at
the whipping-post; nor did she perish alone--a new-born baby died with
her. The gentleman who told me this fact, witnessed the poor creature's
funeral. It is true, the master was universally blamed and shunned for
the cruel deed; but the laws were powerless.
I shall be told that such examples as these are of rare occurrence; and
I have no doubt that instances of excessive severity are far from being
common. I believe that a large proportion of masters are as kind to
their slaves as they can be, consistently with keeping them in bondage;
but it must be allowed that this, to make the best of it, is very
stinted kindness. And let it never be forgotten that the negro's fate
depends entirely on the character of his master; and it is a mere matter
of chance whether he fall into merciful or unmerciful hands; his
happiness, nay, his very life, depends on chance.
The slave-owners are always telling us, that the accounts of slave
misery are abominably exaggerated; and their plea is supported by many
individuals, who seem to think that charity was made to _cover_ sins,
not to _cure_ them. But without listening to the zealous opposers of
slavery, we shall find in the judicial reports of the Southern States,
and in the ordinary details of their newspapers, more than enough to
startle us; besides, we must not forget that where one instance of
cruelty comes to our knowledge, hundreds are kept secret; and the more
public attention is awakened to the subject, the more caution will be
used in this respect.
Why should we be deceived by the sophistry of those whose interest it is
to gloss over iniquity, and who from long habit have learned to believe
that it is no iniquity? It is a very simple process to judge rightly in
this matter. Just ask yourself the question where you could find a set
of men, in whose power you would be willing to place yourself, if the
laws allowed them to sin against you with impunity?
But it is urged that it is the interest of planters to treat their
slaves well. This argument no doubt has some force; and it is the poor
negro's only security. But it is likewise the interest of men to
treat their cattle kindly; yet we see that passion and short-sighted
avarice do overcome the strongest motives of interest. Cattle are
beat unmercifully, sometimes unto death; they are ruined by being
over-worked; weakened by want of sufficient food; and so forth. Besides,
it is sometimes directly _for_ the interest of the planter to work his
slaves beyond their strength. When there is a sudden rise in the
prices of sugar, a certain amount of labor in a given time is of more
consequence to the owner of a plantation than the price of several
slaves; he can well _afford_ to waste a few lives. This is no idle
hypothesis--such calculations are gravely and openly made by planters.
Hence, it is the slave's prayer that sugars may be cheap. When the negro
is old, or feeble from incurable disease, is it his master's _interest_
to feed him well, and clothe him comfortably? Certainly not: it then
becomes desirable to get rid of the human brute as soon as convenient.
It is a common remark, that it is not quite safe, in most cases, for
even parents to be entirely dependant on the generosity of their
children; and if human nature be such, what has the slave to expect,
when he becomes a mere bill of expense?
It is a common retort to say that New-Englanders who go to the South,
soon learn to patronize the system they have considered so abominable,
and often become proverbial for their severity. I have not the least
doubt of the fact; for slavery contaminates all that comes within its
influence. It would be very absurd to imagine that the inhabitants
of one State are worse than the inhabitants of another, unless some
peculiar circumstances, of universal influence, tend to make them so.
Human nature is every where the same; but developed differently, by
different incitements and temptations. It is the business of wise
legislation to discover what influences are most productive of good, and
the least conducive to evil. If we were educated at the South, we should
no doubt vindicate slavery, and inherit as a birthright all the evils it
engrafts upon the character. If they lived on our rocky soil, and under
our inclement skies, their shrewdness would sometimes border upon
knavery, and their frugality sometimes degenerate into parsimony. We
both have our virtues and our faults, induced by the influences under
which we live, and, of course, totally different in their character.
_Our_ defects are bad enough; but they cannot, like slavery, affect
the destiny and rights of millions.
All this mutual recrimination about horse-jockeys, gamblers,
tin-pedlers, and venders of wooden-nutmegs, is quite unworthy of a great
nation. Instead of calmly examining this important subject on the plain
grounds of justice and humanity, we allow it to degenerate into a mere
question of _sectional_ pride and vanity. [Pardon the Americanism, would
we had less _use_ for the word!] It is the _system_, not the _men_, on
which we ought to bestow the full measure of abhorrence. If we were
willing to forget ourselves, and could like true republicans, prefer the
common good to all other considerations, there would not be a slave in
the United States, at the end of half a century.
The arguments in support of slavery are all hollow and deceptive, though
frequently very specious. No one thinks of finding a foundation for the
system in the principles of truth and justice; and the unavoidable
result is, that even in _policy_ it is unsound. The monstrous fabric
rests on the mere _appearance_ of present expediency; while, in fact,
all its tendencies, individual and national, present and remote, are
highly injurious to the true interests of the country. The slave-owner
will not believe this. The stronger the evidence against his favorite
theories, the more strenuously he defends them. It has been wisely said,
"Honesty _is_ the best policy; but policy without honesty never finds
that out."
I hope none will be so literal as to suppose I intend to say that no
planter can be honest, in the common acceptation of that term. I simply
mean that all who ground their arguments in policy, and not in duty and
plain truth, are really blind to the highest and best interests of man.
Among other apologies for slavery, it has been asserted that the Bible
does not forbid it. Neither does it forbid the counterfeiting of a
bank-bill. It is the _spirit_ of the Holy Word, not its particular
_expressions_, which must be a rule for our conduct. How can slavery
be reconciled with the maxim, "Do unto others, as ye would that others
should do unto you?" Does not the command, "Thou shalt not _steal_,"
prohibit _kidnapping_? And how does whipping men to death agree with the
injunction, "Thou shalt do no _murder_?" Are we not told "to loose the
bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go
free, and to break every yoke?" It was a Jewish law that he who stole a
man, or sold him, or he in whose hands the stolen man was found, should
suffer death; and he in whose house a fugitive slave sought an asylum
was forbidden to give him up to his master. Modern slavery is so unlike
Hebrew servitude, and its regulations are so diametrically opposed to
the rules of the Gospel, which came to bring deliverance to the captive,
that it is idle to dwell upon this point. The advocates of this system
seek for arguments in the history of every age and nation; but the fact
is, negro-slavery is totally different from any other form of bondage
that ever existed; and if it were not so, are we to copy the evils of
bad governments and benighted ages?
The difficulty of subduing slavery, on account of the great number of
interests which become united in it, and the prodigious strength of
the selfish passions enlisted in its support, is by no means its least
alarming feature. This Hydra has ten thousand heads, every one of which
will bite or growl, when the broad daylight of truth lays open the
secrets of its hideous den.
I shall perhaps be asked why I have said so much about the
slave-_trade_, since it was long ago abolished in this country? There
are several good reasons for it. In the first place, it is a part of the
system; for if there were no slaves, there could be no slave-trade; and
while there are slaves, the slave-trade _will_ continue. In the next
place, the trade is still briskly carried on in Africa, and slaves are
smuggled into these States through the Spanish colonies. In the third
place, a very extensive internal slave-trade is carried on in this
country. The breeding of negro-cattle for the foreign markets, (of
Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Missouri,) is a very
lucrative branch of business. Whole coffles of them, chained and
manacled, are driven through our Capital on their way to auction.
Foreigners, particularly those who come here with enthusiastic ideas
of American freedom, are amazed and disgusted at the sight.[G] A troop
of slaves once passed through Washington on the fourth of July, while
drums were beating, and standards flying. One of the captive negroes
raised his hand, loaded with irons, and waving it toward the starry
flag, sung with a smile of bitter irony, "Hail Columbia! _happy_ land!"
[Footnote G: See the second volume of Stuart's "Three years in North
America." Instead of being angry at such truths, it would be wise to
profit by them.]
In the summer of 1822, a coffle of slaves, driven through Kentucky,
was met by the Rev. James H. Dickey, just before it entered Paris. He
describes it thus: "About forty black men were chained together; each of
them was hand-cuffed, and they were arranged rank and file. A chain,
perhaps forty feet long, was stretched between the two ranks, to which
short chains were joined, connected with the hand-cuffs. Behind them
were about thirty women, tied hand to hand. Every countenance wore a
solemn sadness; and the dismal silence of despair was only broken by the
sound of two violins. Yes--as if to add insult to injury, the foremost
couple were furnished with a violin a-piece; the second couple were
ornamented with cockades; while near the centre our national standard
was carried by hands literally in chains. I may have mistaken some of
the punctilios of the arrangement, for my very soul was sick. My
landlady was sister to the man who owned the drove; and from her I
learned that he had, a few days previous, bought a negro-woman, who
refused to go with him. A blow on the side of her head with the butt of
his whip, soon brought her to the ground; he then tied her, and carried
her off. Besides those I saw, about thirty negroes, destined for the
New-Orleans market, were shut up in the Paris jail, for safe-keeping."
But Washington is the great emporium of the internal slave-trade! The
United States jail is a perfect storehouse for slave merchants; and
some of the taverns may be seen so crowded with negro captives that
they have scarcely room to stretch themselves on the floor to sleep.
Judge Morrel, in his charge to the grand jury at Washington, in 1816,
earnestly called their attention to this subject. He said, "the
frequency with which the streets of the city had been crowded with
manacled captives, sometimes even on the Sabbath, could not fail to
shock the feelings of all humane persons; that it was repugnant to the
spirit of our political institutions, and the rights of man; and he
believed it was calculated to impair the public morals, by familiarizing
scenes of cruelty to the minds of youth."
A free man of color is in constant danger of being seized and carried
off by these slave-dealers. Mr. Cooper, a Representative in Congress
from Delaware, told Dr. Torrey, of Philadelphia, that he was often
afraid to send his servants out in the evening, lest they should be
encountered by kidnappers. Wherever these notorious slave-jockeys appear
in our Southern States, the free people of color hide themselves, as
they are obliged to do on the coast of Africa.
The following is the testimony of Dr. Torrey, of Philadelphia, published
in 1817:
"To enumerate all the horrid and aggravating instances of man-stealing,
which are known to have occurred in the State of Delaware, within the
recollection of many of the citizens of that State, would require a
volume. In many cases, whole families of free colored people have been
attacked in the night, beaten _nearly_ to death with clubs, gagged and
bound, and dragged into distant and hopeless captivity, leaving no
traces behind, except the blood from their wounds.
"During the last winter, the house of a free black family was broken
open, and its defenceless inhabitants treated in the manner just
mentioned, except, that the mother escaped from their merciless grasp,
while on their way to the State of Maryland. The plunderers, of whom
there were nearly half a dozen, conveyed their prey upon horses;
and the woman being placed on one of the horses, behind, improved an
opportunity, as they were passing a house, and sprang off. Not daring
to pursue her, they proceeded on, leaving her youngest child a little
farther along, by the side of the road, in expectation, it is supposed,
that its cries would attract the mother; but she prudently waited until
morning, and recovered it again in safety.
"I consider myself more fully warranted in particularizing this fact,
from the circumstances of having been at Newcastle, at the time that
the woman was brought with her child, before the grand jury, for
examination; and of having seen several of the persons against whom
bills of indictment were found, on the charge of being engaged in the
perpetration of the outrage; and also that one or two of them were the
same who were accused of assisting in seizing and carrying off another
woman and child whom I discovered at Washington. A monster in human
shape, was detected in the city of Philadelphia, pursuing the occupation
of courting and marrying mulatto women, and selling them as slaves. In
his last attempt of this kind, the fact having come to the knowledge of
the African population of this city, a mob was immediately collected,
and he was only saved from being torn in atoms, by being deposited in
the city prison. They have lately invented a method of attaining their
object, through the instrumentality of the laws:--Having selected a
suitable free colored person, to make a _pitch_ upon, the kidnapper
employs a confederate, to ascertain the distinguishing marks of his
body; he then claims and obtains him as a slave, before a magistrate,
by describing those marks, and proving the truth of his assertions,
by his well-instructed accomplice.
"From the best information that I have had opportunities to collect,
in travelling by various routes through the States of Delaware and
Maryland, I am fully convinced that there are, at this time, within the
jurisdiction of the United States, several thousands of legally free
people of color, toiling under the yoke of involuntary servitude, and
transmitting the same fate to their posterity! If the probability of
this fact could be authenticated to the recognition of the Congress of
the United States, it is presumed that its members, as agents of the
constitution, and guardians of the public liberty, would, without
hesitation, devise means for the restoration of those unhappy victims
of violence and avarice, to their freedom and constitutional personal
rights. The work, both from its nature and magnitude, is impracticable
to individuals, or benevolent societies; besides, it is perfectly a
national business, and claims national interference, equally with the
captivity of our sailors in Algiers."
It may indeed be said, in palliation of the internal slave-trade, that
the horrors of the _middle passage_ are avoided. But still the amount
of misery is very great. Husbands and wives, parents and children,
are rudely torn from each other;--there can be no doubt of this fact:
advertisements are very common, in which a mother and her children are
offered either in a lot, or separately, as may suit the purchaser. In
one of these advertisements, I observed it stated that the youngest
child was about a year old.[H]
[Footnote H: In Niles's Register, vol. xxxv, page 4, I find the following:
"Dealing in slaves has become a large business. Establishments are made
at several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like
cattle. These places are strongly built, and well supplied with
thumbscrews, gags, cowskins and other whips, oftentimes bloody. But
the laws permit the traffic, and it is suffered."]
The captives are driven by the whip, through toilsome journeys, under
a burning sun; their limbs fettered; with nothing before them but the
prospect of toil more severe than that to which they have been
accustomed.[I]
[Footnote I: In the sugar-growing States the condition of the negro is
much more pitiable than where cotton is the staple commodity.]
The disgrace of such scenes in the capital of our republic cannot be
otherwise than painful to every patriotic mind; while they furnish
materials for the most pungent satire to other nations. A United
States senator declared that the sight of a drove of slaves was
so insupportable that he always avoided it when he could; and an
intelligent Scotchman said, when he first entered Chesapeake Bay,
and cast his eye along our coast, the sight of the slaves brought
his heart into his throat. How can we help feeling a sense of shame,
when we read Moore's contemptuous couplet,
"The fustian flag that proudly waves,
In splendid mockery, o'er a land of slaves?"
The lines would be harmless enough, if they were false; the sting lies
in their truth.
Finally, I have described some of the horrors of the slave-trade,
because when our constitution was formed, the government pledged itself
not to abolish this traffic until 1808. We began our career of freedom
by granting a twenty years' lease of iniquity--twenty years of allowed
invasion of other men's rights--twenty years of bloodshed, violence, and
fraud! And this will be told in our annals--this will be heard of to the
end of time!
While the slave-trade was allowed, the South could use it to advance
their views in various ways. In their representation to Congress, five
slaves counted the same as three freemen; of course, every fresh cargo
was not only an increase of property, but an increase of _political
power_. Ample time was allowed to lay in a stock of slaves to supply
the new slave states and territories that might grow up; and when this
was effected, the prohibition of foreign commerce in human flesh,
operated as a complete _tariff_, to protect the domestic supply.
Every man who buys a slave promotes this traffic, by raising the value
of the article; every man who owns a slave, indirectly countenances
it; every man who allows that slavery is a lamentable _necessity_,
contributes his share to support it; and he who votes for admitting
a slave-holding State into the Union, fearfully augments the amount of
this crime.